THUNDERHEAD CLAPTON NICHROME NI80

[Nikhforos]

Hello there. I've just getting started with building my own coils and I'm clearly very confused with all those TC and regular wattage vaping wires. There's this product in a website I'm thinking about buying -
''THUNDERHEAD CLAPTON NICHROME NI80''

My question is : Is it safe to vape that on wattage mode? How many watts? I usually vape at 30-35. How many times should I twist that? Does it taste like burn metal? Cause other wires do.. Thanks!

 

[Topwater Elvis]

NiCr 80 is for use with watt/power mode.
How many wraps depends on your target resistance & inside diameter of the coil.
How many watts depends on several variables & mostly personal preferences.
I don't care for NiCr, you might like it, no telling.
If your vape tastes like burnt metal probably user error.
Settings, airflow, too much power, improper wicking to name a few.

 

[Baditude]

An easy guide for learning the basics of vape wires

 

[suprtrkr]

Hi and welcome. I am not a fan of NiCr, but some people like it. The cleanest tasting wire I know of is stainless steel.

 

[dom qp]

I use almost NI80 exclusively.

It's basically like kanthal but with lower resistance. It's ideal for making bigger builds closer to the 100 watt mark (in dual coil) as it's lower resistance means it heats up faster. If you want to use it in 30-35 watts I would suggest using Kanthal. Both of them are wattage mode only: nichrome even though it contains nickel, is NOT for TC.

That being said, NI80 has no iron, which may be what you are tasting in Kanthal. And it's perfectly suitable for single coil builds.

My nichrome builds in dual coil need to be pretty significant to get it to 0.2-0.3 ohms. I did this one today. It's 3.5 inner diametre and comes out to 0.22 ohms. 2x36GA core with a 35GA wrap. In single core you can get to 0.4-0.5 pretty easily

There are so many factors in determining the coil resistance that we can't just tell you how many watts and wraps. That's like asking us if you have enough food in your fridge for the next week without knowing how many people we're feeding, how much you eat, and what you have in said fridge.

My experience with building my own coils has been that the taste is so strong I can't pick up any hints (through taste) of whether or not it's kanthal/ni80.

 

[Nikhforos]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond and help me through. What a great community! Glad to be part of it

 

[Nikhforos]

I use almost NI80 exclusively.

It's basically like kanthal but with lower resistance. It's ideal for making bigger builds closer to the 100 watt mark (in dual coil) as it's lower resistance means it heats up faster. If you want to use it in 30-35 watts I would suggest using Kanthal. Both of them are wattage mode only: nichrome even though it contains nickel, is NOT for TC.

That being said, NI80 has no iron, which may be what you are tasting in Kanthal. And it's perfectly suitable for single coil builds.

My nichrome builds in dual coil need to be pretty significant to get it to 0.2-0.3 ohms. I did this one today. It's 3.5 inner diametre and comes out to 0.22 ohms. 2x36GA core with a 35GA wrap. In single core you can get to 0.4-0.5 pretty easily

View attachment 716215

There are so many factors in determining the coil resistance that we can't just tell you how many watts and wraps. That's like asking us if you have enough food in your fridge for the next week without knowing how many people we're feeding, how much you eat, and what you have in said fridge.

My experience with building my own coils has been that the taste is so strong I can't pick up any hints (through taste) of whether or not it's kanthal/ni80.

Thanks! I did a kanthal single coil yesterday, and while most coils I've used from kanger ( clapton i suppose?) hit up nicely and quick at 30w , this one I made(kanthal) takes like 10 seconds to even get a little red at 30w, only works a bit faster at 50+ watt, where it gives me a big iron taste. So I'm a little afraid to use kanthal again. Any thought of why that would happen?

 

[Nikhforos]

Thanks! I did a kanthal single coil yesterday, and while most coils I've used from kanger ( clapton i suppose?) hit up nicely and quick at 30w , this one I made(kanthal) takes like 10 seconds to even get a little red at 30w, only works a bit faster at 50+ watt, where it gives me a big iron taste. So I'm a little afraid to use kanthal again. Any thought of why that would happen?

Update: Idk if all kanthal wires are like that, but mine was also twisted, to make it clear cause im not sure how to say that, it was not completely straight, it was more like a wire twisted on another wire

 

[Topwater Elvis]

What is the resistance?
Twisted is exactly that 2 strands twisted together tightly, Clapton is like a guitar string a larger center wire wrapped with thinner wire.
Did you pulse, strum & adjust the coil prior to wicking to burn off contaminants and to ensure it glows evenly from inside out?
Hot legs, hot spots, lose trap screws & arcing can cause metallic tastes.

 

[gpjoe]

An easy guide for learning the basics of vape wires

You linked my article

 

[NealBJr]

Hello there. I've just getting started with building my own coils and I'm clearly very confused with all those TC and regular wattage vaping wires. There's this product in a website I'm thinking about buying -
''THUNDERHEAD CLAPTON NICHROME NI80''

My question is : Is it safe to vape that on wattage mode? How many watts? I usually vape at 30-35. How many times should I twist that? Does it taste like burn metal? Cause other wires do.. Thanks!

As a quick reference, Nichrome is also called NiCr(Nickel and Chromium) is an alloy metal consisting of both nickel and chromium. Kanthal is also called FeCrAl (Iron, Chromium, Aluminium) and is also an alloy. Both of these are considered resistance wire, and the resistance is converted into heat. one main reason they are wattage only wires, is because they're a mix of metals. The mod cannot tell what mix is in the metals and doesn't know how it heats up, since it has no idea what percentage mix you have in the wire. The other main reason, is the resistance doesn't change as much, so the mods can not accurately tell the temperature of the wire.

Pure Nickel and Titanium are base metals and don't have as much resistance as many other metals. Since the heat properties are very predictable, it can handle those in temperature mode. The only alloy that is used in temperature mode, is Stainless steel, which is also an alloy, but heats in a very predictable manner. Most people vape 316. If they do vape a different version of Stainless Steel, it still has a similar heat profile. Just make sure you get good vaping Stainless Steel, since there are many variants out there.

Now, to answer your questions, Yes, Ni80 should ONLY be vaped at wattage mode. However, I cannot tell you how many wrap because there are too many unknowns. Wire thickness is a big unknown, since clapton wires have two wires, you'd have to know the thickness of both (which is measured in gauge). The second unknown is what you're wrapping it around. The bigger the rod you're wrapping it around, the more wire there will be. The other unknown, is how many coils do you have in your atomizer. If you use a two coil design, you have to build a higher resistance build, since when you create a second identical wire, the overall resistance will be cut in half. (two 1.4 ohm coils will equal one .7 ohm build)

I doubt, however, that your wire will be good for a 30-35 watt build for two reasons. 1) Most claptons are made for higher wattage builds and more for cloud chasing. 2), is the fact it's made of Nichrome, which is a lower resistance wire in and of itself. Since I don't know the wire gauges, I cannot give a blind guess as to how many wraps. I can almost guarantee that if it is possible for your wattage, it would be a single coil setup.

My own preference: I use a Rebuildable atomizer, and it is a dual coil design. I vape it at 30-35 watts and my target ohm is .6 or .7 ohms. I use 26 gauge kanthal, wrapping 7-8 times around a 2.5mm post. with my current build, I used 7 wraps each, and it came out to be a .63 ohm build. I am currently vaping it at 31 watts.

 

[dom qp]

Thanks! I did a kanthal single coil yesterday, and while most coils I've used from kanger ( clapton i suppose?) hit up nicely and quick at 30w , this one I made(kanthal) takes like 10 seconds to even get a little red at 30w, only works a bit faster at 50+ watt, where it gives me a big iron taste. So I'm a little afraid to use kanthal again. Any thought of why that would happen?

Adjust your wattage until the voltage is roughly 4.2

Then go up and down according to taste. Nearly all my 'sweet spots' for all my coils fall between 3.7 and 4.7 volts, with 4.2 being the most common.

That should give you a good start.

Alternatively if you give us the resistance we can try to give you a recommended wattage. But it would only be a starting point: you'd need to adjust to taste.

 

[BrotherBob]

Hello there. I've just getting started with building my own coils and I'm clearly very confused with all those TC and regular wattage vaping wires.

Welcome and glad you joined.
Might like to read:
Temperature Control: What It Can Mean for You
https://spinfuel.com/all-about-temperature-control/
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/threads/temp-controlled-vaping-rocks.758695/

 

[Nikhforos]

What is the resistance?
Twisted is exactly that 2 strands twisted together tightly, Clapton is like a guitar string a larger center wire wrapped with thinner wire.
Did you pulse, strum & adjust the coil prior to wicking to burn off contaminants and to ensure it glows evenly from inside out?
Hot legs, hot spots, lose trap screws & arcing can cause metallic tastes.

That is the wire I used and the coil I made. I think this is kanthal. I did try it before wicking and it hardly became red at 30w. When I went up to 50w it started giving me smoke and smelt like burn metal. All of those before wicking. What wire would you recommend for a single coil build, vapable at 30-45w with the standard beginner build of 4-5 wraps around that kanger screwdriver?

 

[dom qp]

That is the wire I used and the coil I made. I think this is kanthal. I did try it before wicking and it hardly became red at 30w. When I went up to 50w it started giving me smoke and smelt like burn metal. All of those before wicking. What wire would you recommend for a single coil build, vapable at 30-45w with the standard beginner build of 4-5 wraps around that kanger screwdriver?
View attachment 716309

We need to know what resistance this coil was reading when you put it into your mod. Not how many watts it took to turn red.

Your standard beginner build would not have claptons in it. We can't accurately propose a build without knowing what wires you're using.

Using a regular round wire makes it a lot easier.

Each of these coils was roughly 0.4 ohms. You can see they are very different. Why? Because a different wire was being used.

We can't guess the gauges of your wires, type of metal, or what you're using as a core.

 

[Topwater Elvis]

You need a way to accurately measure resistance.
The whole point in owning a variable output power device is so you can adjust up/down to find your personal sweet spot using a wide variety of variables.
The I want to vape at 30w - 45w is attempting to base everything off of only one of the dozens of variables. IMO, the least important variable.
Most important is - is the resistance safe, is the wire type suitable for only power/watt mode or is it a type to be used only in a temp control mode or is it suitable for both.
You need to know what the resistance is, what wire type it is, we can't guess from a picture.

IMO, a standard beginner build would be kanthal single wire single coil 26, 28, or 30 ga, using enough wraps to be 1.0Ω.
When you can do that every time almost with your eyes closed and get a satisfactory vape from it then you move on to different resistances, wicking methods & material, wire types, fancy coils, dual coils etc...

 

[NealBJr]

That is the wire I used and the coil I made. I think this is kanthal. I did try it before wicking and it hardly became red at 30w. When I went up to 50w it started giving me smoke and smelt like burn metal. All of those before wicking. What wire would you recommend for a single coil build, vapable at 30-45w with the standard beginner build of 4-5 wraps around that kanger screwdriver?
View attachment 716309

The only reference I have, is the famous blue screwdriver... those are small. I don't know which atomizer you have, but I do know that the blue screwdriver is too small of a diameter to wrap coils on. Too small of an inner diameter means you just won't have enough cotton in there to allow the juice to flow. If you have drill bits, those were commonly used to wrap wires around.

Since you've already stated you were using NI80 wire, your build is going to be on the low side of ohms.... Looks like you'll have to put some spacing between the coil wraps and not so close together like a standard micro coil. knowing the resistance of the coil is very important. Usually, you can tell on your device, or using an ohm reader if you have one. It might help to tell us what mod you're using it on. You mentioned it was a Kanger screwdriver, so I can only assume you're putting it in a Kanger tank. If it is a subtank type, then I know that build deck is small. Sometimes build decks just aren't big enough to support claptons. If I had to make a recommendation, I'd say start off coil building with 26 for dual coil, but 28 gauge for single coil for a good 30w (ish) vape.

 

[gpjoe]

That is the wire I used and the coil I made. I think this is kanthal. I did try it before wicking and it hardly became red at 30w. When I went up to 50w it started giving me smoke and smelt like burn metal. All of those before wicking. What wire would you recommend for a single coil build, vapable at 30-45w with the standard beginner build of 4-5 wraps around that kanger screwdriver?
View attachment 716309

I used to build my Kanger Subtank Mini RBA with 5-6 wraps of 26ga kanthal at 3mm, and it came out around a half ohm (0.50) as I recall. It's a simple, single-wire coil that vaped pretty well.

Kanthal clapton and other multi-strand wire is going to heat much slower and will also eat battery life much more quickly, especially when you up the wattage to get a warmer vape and faster ramp.

 

[Nikhforos]

We need to know what resistance this coil was reading when you put it into your mod. Not how many watts it took to turn red.

Your standard beginner build would not have claptons in it. We can't accurately propose a build without knowing what wires you're using.

Using a regular round wire makes it a lot easier.

Each of these coils was roughly 0.4 ohms. You can see they are very different. Why? Because a different wire was being used.

View attachment 716315

We can't guess the gauges of your wires, type of metal, or what you're using as a core.

That is what I see while I have the coil in the picture I posted.

I used to build my Kanger Subtank Mini RBA with 5-6 wraps of 26ga kanthal at 3mm, and it came out around a half ohm (0.50) as I recall. It's a simple, single-wire coil that vaped pretty well.

Kanthal clapton and other multi-strand wire is going to heat much slower and will also eat battery life much more quickly, especially when you up the wattage to get a warmer vape and faster ramp.

I used to build my Kanger Subtank Mini RBA with 5-6 wraps of 26ga kanthal at 3mm, and it came out around a half ohm (0.50) as I recall. It's a simple, single-wire coil that vaped pretty well.

Kanthal clapton and other multi-strand wire is going to heat much slower and will also eat battery life much more quickly, especially when you up the wattage to get a warmer vape and faster ramp.

View attachment 716327

We need to know what resistance this coil was reading when you put it into your mod. Not how many watts it took to turn red.

Your standard beginner build would not have claptons in it. We can't accurately propose a build without knowing what wires you're using.

Using a regular round wire makes it a lot easier.

Each of these coils was roughly 0.4 ohms. You can see they are very different. Why? Because a different wire was being used.

View attachment 716315

We can't guess the gauges of your wires, type of metal, or what you're using as a core.

Thanks for the time you're taking to answer mate. Really helps a lot. I don't know if you're familiar with kanger/subtanks and stuff like that but, do you remember/know what is the wire they use in those little coils they send along with the RBA base? That's what I'm looking for, and I can't seem to remember/know what wire this is.

You need a way to accurately measure resistance.
The whole point in owning a variable output power device is so you can adjust up/down to find your personal sweet spot using a wide variety of variables.
The I want to vape at 30w - 45w is attempting to base everything off of only one of the dozens of variables. IMO, the least important variable.
Most important is - is the resistance safe, is the wire type suitable for only power/watt mode or is it a type to be used only in a temp control mode or is it suitable for both.
You need to know what the resistance is, what wire type it is, we can't guess from a picture.

IMO, a standard beginner build would be kanthal single wire single coil 26, 28, or 30 ga, using enough wraps to be 1.0Ω.
When you can do that every time almost with your eyes closed and get a satisfactory vape from it then you move on to different resistances, wicking methods & material, wire types, fancy coils, dual coils etc...

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for your time mate.

 

[Nikhforos]

The only reference I have, is the famous blue screwdriver... those are small. I don't know which atomizer you have, but I do know that the blue screwdriver is too small of a diameter to wrap coils on. Too small of an inner diameter means you just won't have enough cotton in there to allow the juice to flow. If you have drill bits, those were commonly used to wrap wires around.

Since you've already stated you were using NI80 wire, your build is going to be on the low side of ohms.... Looks like you'll have to put some spacing between the coil wraps and not so close together like a standard micro coil. knowing the resistance of the coil is very important. Usually, you can tell on your device, or using an ohm reader if you have one. It might help to tell us what mod you're using it on. You mentioned it was a Kanger screwdriver, so I can only assume you're putting it in a Kanger tank. If it is a subtank type, then I know that build deck is small. Sometimes build decks just aren't big enough to support claptons. If I had to make a recommendation, I'd say start off coil building with 26 for dual coil, but 28 gauge for single coil for a good 30w (ish) vape.

Yup. Using a subtank mini and a toptank mini. Will do, thank you so much.