Triton Coil Complete Rebuild

[Joe13]

This is difficult. It will take practice. The work is delicate and the parts are tiny. I've been working with RDA's, RBA's, and rebuilding Aerotank coils for a couple of months now. If you've never built a coil before, this is probably not a good place to begin doing so. However, if the Triton is all you have, and you can get your hands on a few materials and tools, why not give it a shot?

Triton coil with sleeve and tip removed. A 1/16" drill bit was inserted into the old coil to pull it out. It's probably easier to remove the bottom pin first, but this is how I did my first one.



Old coil removed. Gunk buildup. Looks like 5 wraps (counting loops on the top of the coil) of 32 gauge, so that's what I'll replace her with.



End pin and grommet removed, showing how they fit together. You can pull the end pin out with a decent pair of tweezers. The grommet comes out with needle nose pliers.



Five loops of 32 gauge kanthal on a 1/16" bit. Push the coils close together on the drill bit. I just use my finger nails.



Torched using a butane lighter, then compressed using needle nose pliers.



On to part 2...

 

[Joe13]

Put the coil back on the drill bit, and thread the wires through the coil housing. Notice I trimmed one leg shorter than the other.



One wire goes through the grommet, the other stays outside.



Spread the wires apart, then push the grommet down. Prepare for a fight. I used a blunt tip syringe needle.



Replace the bottom pin. Make sure you hold the drill bit tightly - you don't want the coil to move from its position.



Snip off the excess wire. I used plier-style toenail clippers, shown in the background.

 

[Joe13]

Looking sideways thru the coil housing, you should be able to see straight thru the coil. Looking down (not shown), the coil should be centered, not touching the sides of the housing.



On my Provari with an adapter, I get 1.8 ohms with 5 wraps. I did another with 6 wraps and got 2.0 ohms. Extrapolating that, 7 wraps = 2.2 ohms, 8 wraps = 2.4 ohms, etc.



At this point, you could thread some cotton through the coil and top with a silica flavor/feeder wick. Or you can use the teflon tape trick to rebuild as a stock Triton coil. I've got a 2mm silica wick wrapped with teflon tape, with a needle point for threading thru the coil. Note - not all silica is the same size. If it seems too fat to thread, remove 2 or 3 strands.



Turn it while pushing thru, in order to compress the strands together. Remove teflon tape after threading.



Add flavor wick, tip, and sleeve.

 

[Aviationrich]

I have a few coil heads that the coil was torn out of. Just need some wire to rebuild them.

Sent from behind the tree in your yard using instant pestering

 

[DaveOno]

Nice job, pics and write up.

It doesn't look like it's for everyone, but it's nice to see that it can be done. Maybe one day I'll attempt it.

Just wondering if your first attempt at the triton worked and how many have you done?

And again, nice post!

 

[always9988]

They're pretty difficult and simple at the same time to rebuild. Its a much tighter work space than your typical rebuild able, but can save a few dollars. My first couple I didn't clip close enough so they shorted, but got the hang of it pretty quickly. Thanks for the tutorial, awesome details!

 

[Joe13]

Just wondering if your first attempt at the triton worked and how many have you done?

And again, nice post!

Thanks Dave! This afternoon, I did three coils with five wraps, and another with six.

This is emphatically not for everyone. It's tiny work in a tight area. And the first few will take a while, so it's hard to justify the time vs. money saved. But when those zombies rise up and the mail stops... I'll be ready.

 

[DaveOno]

It does look tight. Not like that mondo coil in your avatar.

And I'll bet you can now re-coil a normal one blindfolded.

 

[jwbnyc]

I am definitely not there yet. Greatly appreciate the tutorial.

 

[JohnnyDill]

This looks like a first class rebuild to me. -Question: Are the stock Triton coils 32 guage wire? -Just wondering!

Edit: I took a Halo atty apart and confirmed that Triton wire is smaller than 30 guage so it must be 32.

I did this re-coiling with 7 turns around a 1/16th bit and if you do this with AWG30, it comes out to just 1.6 ohms, which may be too low; if you like a warm vape, this is the mod for you. WOW is it warm! Plenty of vapor along with it. I will experiment with enlarging the central air hole and the two side ports. More vapor means we need more air. Can you tell I like to tinker?

 

[CorallineAlgae]

This is a great tutorial. First rate. Thanks for sharing it with us Joe13.

 

[FallenRawToast]

This thread turned me from a 2 month ECF lurker, to signing up here.

Great info, cause I know I will want to try this sooner or later too.

 

[chesty]

great write up.
my memory is fading, but you can buy 50 or 100 wires from fasttech for a buck or two, they have 2 ohms of resistive wire for the coil welded on to non resistive wire for the legs, the theory being the legs won't get hot and melt the grommet, only the coil will get hot, although copper is a great conductor of heat too, so i imagine the legs will get hot. maybe not as hot.

 

[Joe13]

great write up.
my memory is fading, but you can buy 50 or 100 wires from fasttech for a buck or two, they have 2 ohms of resistive wire for the coil welded on to non resistive wire for the legs, the theory being the legs won't get hot and melt the grommet, only the coil will get hot, although copper is a great conductor of heat too, so i imagine the legs will get hot. maybe not as hot.

Thanks!

I don't think there's a *need* for no-resistance (NR) wire legs here. New Triton coils (purchased from Halo) are solid kanthal. That said, building these coils using NR legs would probably help the performance somewhat.

We have a DC current passing through a piece of resistance wire. If the wire was straight and flawless, we'd expect the entire length of the wire to heat up perfectly even. If there's even a slight nick in the wire, or the diameter is slightly smaller somewhere, the resistance in that place will be slightly higher. That area will heat up faster, raising the impedence in that place even more. It's something like a feedback loop. Raising the temp of a material raises its impedence. In contrast, superconductors are cooled with liquid gases to lower their impedence.

If we look at a typical five-loop coil, the center loop (loop #3) has two loops on each side of it, contributing heat. None of the other loops have as much heat available to them, so we'd exepct loop #3 to heat up the quickest. Soon enough, it heats up its neighbors, loop #2 and loop #4. Then loop #1 and loop #5 get in on the fun.

This is, IMHO, why we see micro-coils begin glowing from the inside-out. Once they're red-hot, the impedence of the glowing coil is much higher than the straight (relatively cool) legs - it's effectively a load due to the geometry of the coil.

Kanthal is a lousy conductor of heat, but the coil legs will eventually get hot enough to burn the grommet. But with a nicely-built symmetric micro-coil, your lungs will be filled with vapor well before that happens.

 

[chesty]

cool, makes sense and I always wondered why the coils heated inside out.
also with the legs, most of the length of the legs are touching either the case or the centre pin, so circuit of the coil would start after it stops touching them.

 

[Joe13]

This looks like a first class rebuild to me. -Question: Are the stock Triton coils 32 guage wire? -Just wondering!

Edit: I took a Halo atty apart and confirmed that Triton wire is smaller than 30 guage so it must be 32.

I did this re-coiling with 7 turns around a 1/16th bit and if you do this with AWG30, it comes out to just 1.6 ohms, which may be too low; if you like a warm vape, this is the mod for you. WOW is it warm! Plenty of vapor along with it. I will experiment with enlarging the central air hole and the two side ports. More vapor means we need more air. Can you tell I like to tinker?

Awesome! Thanks! I've been using 30 gauge for PT rebuilds. The original wire feels like 32 to me. My micrometer is on the other side of town, in my old garage, until I get it all moved to the new house this month. I'll try to remember to grab it next time I'm there.

Obviously a fatter wire will require more loops than a thinner wire to get the same resistance. Have you noticed any lag? That is, do get a good hit of vapor from a short puff, or does it take slightly more time to get going? There's more material to heat up in your build, but 1.6 ohms is lower than what's available commercially for the Triton tanks. Might actually balance out nicely.

Tinkering... Hells yeah! That's the thing about rebuilding that gets me excited - the complete control you have over the experience. I'm very glad this worked for you! Please report your results of drilling out the side ports!

The Halo batteries are protected, in that they'll refuse to fire if they see a short, so I think this is all pretty safe. Of course, if you have a meter or a regulated mod that can check resistance before firing, all the better, but not strictly required as with mech mods.

 

[JohnnyDill]

Awesome! Thanks! I've been using 30 gauge for PT rebuilds. The original wire feels like 32 to me. My micrometer is on the other side of town, in my old garage, until I get it all moved to the new house this month. I'll try to remember to grab it next time I'm there.

Obviously a fatter wire will require more loops than a thinner wire to get the same resistance. Have you noticed any lag? That is, do get a good hit of vapor from a short puff, or does it take slightly more time to get going? There's more material to heat up in your build, but 1.6 ohms is lower than what's available commercially for the Triton tanks. Might actually balance out nicely.

Tinkering... Hells yeah! That's the thing about rebuilding that gets me excited - the complete control you have over the experience. I'm very glad this worked for you! Please report your results of drilling out the side ports!

The Halo batteries are protected, in that they'll refuse to fire if they see a short, so I think this is all pretty safe. Of course, if you have a meter or a regulated mod that can check resistance before firing, all the better, but not strictly required as with mech mods.

I am vaping the 1.6 ohm Triton right now. -The "lag" is not really any different than with a stock 2.2 ohm coil. I always hit the button about a second before inhaling anyways. It's about the same- you hear it crackle about the same, there is just more heat for sure.

I verified the size of the wire with a dial caliper.

Initially, I also drilled out the hole thru the grommet pin from the stock .062" hole to about .082 to get more air, but doing this alone does not help, as we must enlarge the entire thru-hole in the tank, as well as the two side ports. I have a lathe, which is a must-have for enlarging such a long hole. These three areas- the bottom pin, the center tank hole and the side ports, are the air path.

I learned from RBA's that more heat requires more air. So if I can make these little Halo Tritons produce more vapor, it is a win in my book. These Tritons are indispensable as far as a compact device that fits in your shirt pocket. That will never happen with my larger devices. That is why Tritons are SO awesome.

 

[Hostil]

Good info here guys! I ordered some 2mm silica wick off ebay....they included a few feet of kanthal wire in the package for free, pretty cool!
I used the teflon tape method to rewick all 10 of my atomizers. Took about a half hour maybe. Now that Joe13 posted this thread think I'll give the coils a try as well.
Thanks guys!

 

[JohnnyDill]

Awesome! Thanks! I've been using 30 gauge for PT rebuilds. The original wire feels like 32 to me. My micrometer is on the other side of town, in my old garage, until I get it all moved to the new house this month. I'll try to remember to grab it next time I'm there.

Obviously a fatter wire will require more loops than a thinner wire to get the same resistance. Have you noticed any lag? That is, do get a good hit of vapor from a short puff, or does it take slightly more time to get going? There's more material to heat up in your build, but 1.6 ohms is lower than what's available commercially for the Triton tanks. Might actually balance out nicely.

Tinkering... Hells yeah! That's the thing about rebuilding that gets me excited - the complete control you have over the experience. I'm very glad this worked for you! Please report your results of drilling out the side ports!

The Halo batteries are protected, in that they'll refuse to fire if they see a short, so I think this is all pretty safe. Of course, if you have a meter or a regulated mod that can check resistance before firing, all the better, but not strictly required as with mech mods.

Okay! Here are my findings...... The stock Triton side air ports are .041" so I went up to .062" and chamfered the inlets. This creates a noticeably lighter draw, meaning more air flow. Very nice!

I tried to take this a step further by enlarging the air tube going through the tank, with disastrous results. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS. You will ruin your tank as I did. LOL. The tube in there is so small that you cannot go any larger. It snapped this tube. Also, this tube is insulated with rubber grommets. It will spin when you attempt to drill anyways, ruining the grommets. So I will buy another tank and chalk this up as experience. -I attempted this with a lathe, not a hand drill!

So I recommend enlarging the side holes for those who desire more air, but do not go further than that.

 

[DaveOno]

This is an excellent thread, and deserves to be bumped.

Nice work, Joe!!!