Please don’t laugh, but I use some Kanger Evod tanks for MTL vaping. Replacing the coils in these is a pain, but with practice I’ve got good at it. The originals are 1.8 ohm cotton coils that really test around 2.0 to 2.2. I use at 7 to 8 watts.
I get 5 to 6 mils of my 50/50 juices through one of these before the taste degrades below my threshold. I can simply re-wick the “factory” coils 3 to 5 times. Then I re-coil and re-wick using “Master of Clouds” 30g Kanthal. The originals are 1.5 mil diameter. I re-build at 2.0 mils, about 6 wraps.
My rebuilds work great the first time. But when I try re-wick them, the coils burn out. To re-wick, I rinse the coil under water and then set aside to dry. Usually 2+ days. Then I dry burn for about 5 seconds to burn the old cotton. Otherwise the old cotton is hard to remove. After a quick burn it comes out easily. Then I blow hard to remove any flakes and dry burn again. That’s when the coil dies. I get maybe 2 seconds of red glow and then it goes dark. On close inspection I’ll see that it has broken somewhere. Sometimes it curls up all distorted.
So, what gives. How come I can re-wick the factory originals several times, but not my re-builds? I assume the factory originals are Kanthal, but maybe not?
Anyone that laughs at any device you use to keep you from smoking isn’t worth bothering with. Do your thing with whatever works.
On to your question…what wattage are you using to dry burn your coils? 30g is pretty thin. Also, could you be damaging your wire when you remove the cotton? Thin thin wire and hard core watts to dry burn might be the issue.
You’re putting way too much work into something that’s pretty much antiquated. Do yourself a favor and spring for a MTL (if that’s your preference) rebuildable atomizer and some quality wicking material. You already have some coil building experience…use it on something that’s more dependable. I bet you’ll taste a world of difference.
I do the dry burns on an Evod (pen) battery, set to 3.8 volts, which would be around 7 watts. Same power on factory originals as on my re-builds. Same power with old cotton in and out. I don’t know what guage the factory original coils are, but I’d guess at 30 given the number of wraps and basic math. Again, I can only guess they are Kanthal. Kanger never says what they are.
I guess my question is probably, are there differences in Kanthal? Could my “Master of Clouds” Kanthal be different that what Kanger uses? I torque and torch my Kanthal to straighten before coiling. Could that be making it more prone to dry burn failure? Strangely, I can dry burn my homemade coils several times when they are new with no problem. It’s only when they have been gunked with juice that they burn out.
TorturedZen - Appreciate the advice, and I’ve been there, expecting the antiquated Evod stuff to become unavailable someday. I’ve bought 8 different RTA tanks to try. Kanger, Aspire, Kfun Clone, SXK, etc. None provide significantly better flavor under my conditions, which are standard ohm, low wattage, 40% to 50% PG, 12-18mg NIC, for MTL use. Some are just too hot for me. Some leak too much, and all are just too big for my pockets (on the smallest mods I can find). The only tank that has given me slightly better flavor is the VandyVape Berserker. And it takes lots of wicking attempts (and frequent re-wicking) to control the leaking on that one.
I burnt my coils too before, that’s why i bought a lot of pre made simple clapton coils. I makes them myself now.
I realize i burnt them because i fire too long. Now i dry burn differently. I fire for 1-2 seconds and stop. Another 2 seconds and i fire again for 1-2 seconds, and so on. I normally use 26 ga ss316 wire. Maybe this’ll work for you?
There has been some good points here. I have never worked with this gear and not sure how the coil is set up but my thoughts are probably get a different mod as suggested or try 32g or 34g with more wraps to increase your ohms thin wire such as this will colaps easy even at low wattage as @delltrapp said pulse the coils till they glow hopefully you can fix the issue good luck
He’s using 30, 32 and 34 are even thinner and would break even faster and it is also not correct that he would have to do more wraps with that wire. On the contrary, he would have to do less.
Perhaps, when we heat and rapidly cool metal like this we also make it more brittle, and I would imagine torquing it would also contribute to this. If I were you I would try to be a bit more careful when torching and don’t let the wire get too hot, or perhaps skip the torching altogether.
Never had the same problem myself though, so what do I know
Wasting my 2 cents here. Are you using the same gauge wire as the original? Your original annealing would make the wire more brittle and inclined to break. The last thing that immediately come to mind is that you are heating it at too high a temp when you dry burn and they are melting (thin wire and all). I guess that was 3 cents.
I run my RDA’s with approx. your same specs. My 32ga. spaced coil (single) last me 6 months or more(assuming I’m not too rough during the rewicking process).
I dry burn at 10-12 watts no more than a half second. I just want to see the orange (never white glow) glow and I quickly douse the coil while orange in a small shallow water container. This thermal shock removes the e-liquid scale. I then re heat the coil via the button (slightly just starting to see the water steaming off) to dry excess water and then re wick. I think you might be over heating your K A1 coil.
K A1 wire is govern by the Kanthal company specs and is made uniformly per company standards.
IMO, you have to look at the issue here. Your own build is different from the original one. Try using the same ID and the same gauge of wire from the original as well as the same amount of wraps.
Then report back if you’re still burning through your own re-coiled coils.
If you’re using a different gauge, different ID and different amount of wraps, it’s quite normal that it won’t take the same power the original coil does.
If for some reason it’s impossible for you to do the exact same build, you’ll have to adjust your power accordingly. You can still scorch your cotton to get it out, but your coil doesn’t need to be glowing white to the point of breaking to do that. A light orange glow should be enough.
Also, I would stop torching your wire to straighten it. Just spin it in a drill for a few seconds (and again, don’t overdo it here either). Straightening your wire, whether you use a torch or a drill, can make your wire brittle. Lower gauge wires can most times be straightened (enough) by just pulling at the ends using pliers or whatever tools you have available.
