I purchased, quite by accident, some clapton wire that was SS core and Kantal wrap. I’ve been using it in TC mode on my RX200. Could that cause a problem?
Not sure what “angle of concern” you’re coming from, but offhand, I can’t see an issue. (stays tuned to watch further replies)
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nah, fine that, it’s just a hybrid coil, maybe start on a lower temp and work up to see what works for you, I can’t see anything worth worrying about.
I’m not that experianced and don’t know why but people don’t normally recomend Kanthol for tc mode.
Sure I will watch this thread waiting for an expert to pop in.
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It has to do with the resistance of the type of wire.
In this case with @danwbrews his mod is reading the resistance of the SS core, and allows it to function in temp mode.
If it was a kanthal A1 core wrapped with SS the mod would probably kick itself into wattage mode .
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Does the SS heat the kanthal??
Probably, just not as much would be my guess, due to the impedance usually being higher on Kanthal. But this may be offset by the Guage of the Kanthal being so small (by comparison). Electricity always takes the path of least resistance, but will still take alternative paths if provided.
Edit: it’s not that the SS is heating the Kanthal, so much as the current passing through it (in case that wasn’t clear) 
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I would imagine the ramp up on the core will ever so slightly quicker so should be a nice staged heat from the inside out
really not sure what that means to be honest
I’m just waffling on with myself…
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Thanks for the replies everyone! I have really only had a slight issue but that was, I think, a loose connection after just getting everything broken in. My mod kept switching back to V/W. Thank goodness I didn’t know at that time I had purchased the K1/SS blended coils. That would have really had me going crazy. After posting I did go to Wire Wizard and punched in the numbers. They were so close that I think that @Sprkslfly and @ozo are right.
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Yes - in a Clapton, the core is the only thing that generates any significant heat. The wrapping wire absorbs heat from the core and acts like a kind of heat spreader over a larger surface area. The wrapping also acts like a mesh wick to some degree, improving wicking.
The reason only the core generates heat is because the resistance of the long and thin wrapper wire is very high, like on the order of 5-10Ω or more, compared to the very low resistance of the core wire, typically 0.1-0.5Ω. So even though the wrapper and core are technically in parallel, very little current will run through the high resistance wrapper wire to generate any kind of significant heat.
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Interesting theory. Especially when an entire coil of Kanthal is typically less than 1.8 ohms, and frequently 0.4-0.8 ohms when it comes to claptoned Kanthal wire. 
The wrapper of of a Clapton is normally multiple feet of wire. A 1.8Ω coil is typically about 3-6 inches of total wire.
A couple of things here
- I’ve never claptoned wire, so I can’t speak from experience.
- I’m very open to learning and understanding the science behind it, which is why I question anything that appears “iffy”. I reside in a world of largely concrete definitions (being an electronics technician); ie a 1 is “on” and a “0” is “off” in digital circuits.
The reason I quoted the 5-10 ohms is because we’re (or I am at least) talking about a small section of the wire in this example. So that figure cited as an example, could be misleading, and I’d estimate very inaccurate with regard to the small 3-4" section I’m talking about to someone who isn’t thinking that you’re referring to the whole length of a homemade clapton. I can easily see “multiple feet” of 30ga (or smaller ga.) going into a 2ft run of single wire clapton).
I just can’t picture more than maybe a foot, or foot and a half, going into a three inch (4 tops) section of core wire, that’s used to make a single coil. Assuming (yikes, I know) that much is actually used, then you still have to factor in that any resistance you do have from the Kanthal, is going to be divided thanks to being in parallel with the core wire. So even if it was 5 ohms to a foot, the device would never see it as such. It would be substantially less due to being in parallel. (edit flawed example out lol)
I’m not disagreeing with the aspect or idea that the the core carries the larger section of the load, more that I’m curious to what degrees, and hence further understanding the methodology (or rather the indisputable science behind some builds) so that when it does come time for me to wrap my own claptoned coils, I’ll already have the best possible understanding and be able to bypass “aesthetic builds” and go straight into maximum function/performance-based builds, that have the science to back then up. =)
Definitely appreciate the discussion, and looking forward to the input!
OK, concrete examples might help you. A single coil build of 26g Kanthal core 5 wraps on 2.5mm, Clapton’d with 32g Kanthal wrapping wire. The 26g core will be about 2.2 inches of wire and about 0.6Ω. The 32g wrapper wire will be approximately 3 feet of wire will will be about 41Ω. The core wire and the wrapping wire are effectively in parallel, so the total resistance of the coil will be approximately 0.59Ω [for parallel wires, Rtotal = R1×R2/(R1+R2)]. Notice how the final resistance is very close to just the resistance of the core wire. Apply 4V to that Clapton coil, and 6.7A will run through the 0.6Ω core and and generate about 27W, whereas only about 0.1A will run through the 41Ω wrapper wire and produce about 0.4W.
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Agreed. But isn’t that usually a single strand?
For example: the “clapton” wire(s) that I pulled out of my Cleito are 0.4ohms, and they’re marketed as “Kanthal” but they are actually a hybrid in reality. As the primary leads are only single wires, and only when you get closer to the actual “clapton area” the wire becomes some combo of unknown “resistance wire” with a Kanthal wrap heat welded onto the limited area. I know this is a bit off topic as an example, but this is why specifics are more important to me.
There’s not enough likes available for that post! Lol
Thank you!!!
So what’s your particular direction to leaning when building? Flavor? Clouds? A mix of both? Experienced recommendations for a flavor nut?
The wrapper wire in your Cleito coil is probably Kanthal as well. The wrapper’s total length is obviously many times longer than the length of the core wire. That’s the whole point - the wrapper wire is much longer than the core wire, and it is always thinner than the core wire, so it will always be much more resistance than the core, therefore it will produce much less power for a given applied voltage. The coil is welded to non-resistance wire just for the final leads so that they don’t heat up, and they are very small pieces, probably less than 1/2" total.
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I used to do more ‘cloudy’ builds, but I’m more into flavor these days. Everyone has their own ‘best flavor’ preferences. Every build has a different profile - a combination of flavor qualities, vapor quantities, heat, airflow etc. Different builds work better/worse in different atomizers and with different power ranges. I don’t have a Cleito, so I don’t know what kinds of builds work best in it. You need to experiment to find your sweet spot. I would start with a simple 26/32g Clapton. I’m not sure if the Cleito can handle something like a 26g Fused Clapton, but that is one of my favorite Claptons for bigger drippers that can handle them. I also like dual strand twisted 26g coils, and dual and triple strand 28g coils, depending on the atty. I’ve never done one, but I’ve heard that Staple coils have excellent flavor, but are quite hard to build.
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