Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT against Clapton coils at all. I have been building for a little over a year now. I started building with a single coil 26 awg core 32 awg on the outside Clapton. in a subtank mini. that worked for a while then I just recently discovered the Griffin 25 and I love it. So I didn’t have much luck with drippers until now. I havnt even tried my Clapton in it because it was late when I got it and I just wanted to use it right away. So I build a dual coil spaced build with 24 gaug kanthal 6 or 7 wraps and it is the best dripper expierence I have ever had. (WOTOFO Troll v2). I have a couple other RDA’s that I just havnt had any luck with but I only tried the Clapton coil in those… just looking for other opinions 
thanks
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I’m thinking the same, a simple 7 wrap kanthal round wire works fine for me, claptons take longer to ramp up and seem to get crusty quicker…
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This might be one of the only major downsides of Claptons, but if you think about it they are wicking more juice and providing more vapor .so
I really prefer my GeekVape pre-coiled spool of Stainless Steel fused Clapton wire and I use minimum wraps (4 1/2 spaced) in TC mode which helps with the ramp up (+pre-heat feature is awesome on many mods now!)
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@BoDarc I’m cheap I wrap My own Claptons lol. I haven’t got the fused clapton down yet but I’m enjoying standard coils at the moment… Giving me time to perfect My wicking lol
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I just built my velocity with dual 26/32 fused Kanthal Claptons and I’m in Bespin (Star Wars reference for the non-nerd). I gave up on Kanthal almost a year ago and have now returned to it happier than a pig in sh-- well, you know. If you’re worried about the crusties, just dry burn it and dip then brush it with an old toothbrush. Do it every 3 days or so and you’re good to go!
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I was a Clapton convert once, and the flavour can be quite different, more intense, other nuances - assuming certain atomizers, airflow and juice. On a side note, I didn’t find any difference between just good ol normal Claptons and all those fancier builds, Juggernaut and what-not.
What it boils down to in the end is, Claptons give you more surface / more vapour and a little more juice capacity in the coil itself, but you’ll need a lot more watts to run them. So bottom line, it really depends on matching the volume of your vapourisation chamber and airflow to the coil you’re building.
For instance, I hear the Goon is the stuff with Claptons (don’t have one myself) but meh with regular coils. Second example, try to put a 5 wrap around 2.5mm ID 28g/32g Kanthal Clapton in a KF5 (like I did…) and you’ll find it’s like a fancy fruity cake composition that’s been whacked with a sledgehammer. Still yum, but munchy.
Personally, I’d attribute all the fuzz about Claptons to the trend to increase volume ever more, which in turn certainly is part of the evil machinations of juice companies wanting to sell moar jooze! 
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Not wanting to hijack just a quick question. If I wanted to make my own SS Clapton. What gauge do you recommend for a beginner or if that doesn’t matter. I’m not a super low ohm guy but like SS experience so far. What’s thinnest gauge doable for a noob home made
26/30 or 26/32 works for me. I believe I’ve seen it as high as 36g but I haven’t used any so I can’t speak for it. If you’ve never made them before might I suggest trying with kanthal first? SS wire is very springy and can be a little difficult the first time around. It was for me anyway, Kanthal is good to practice on. Also, make sure your mod can handle high wattage or a preheat function with the SS to avoid a large amount of ramp up time. Some people don’t mind it, I don’t care for it.
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IMHO, to practice making your first claptons, kanthal 26 core and 30 wrap will be ideal - if i vape that coil, it would just be too much heat for me for my liking.
i did try many builds, including the fancy ones, and settled on single core SS316L 28 core and SS316L 34 or 35 (i have both) wrapping. this build has fast ramp up and most important for me, gives me all flavor notes in a juice, without being over-hot. i vape it at 20 to 25 watts if in wattage mode so not too much demand on batteries. if i just move a notch to a 26 core, it goes back to “too hot” zone so i know my sweet spot now. i also tried 2-strand and 3-strand twisted (28 or 30 AWG), but single clapton is the best balance in “flavor intensity” vs heat
here’s the most important thing, you need to spend sometime finding your own “sweet spot” in terms of coil material, core AWG, outer wrapping, # wraps, and ID - it affects flavor so much - and each of us is different. one trick that helped me a lot is, is to be aware of the balance between the shape of the coil (length of coil should be around 2-3 times max its ID for it to wick at the right speed) and the space you have inside the chamber. if you hit that balance, you get the best (flavor/vapor) results of any atty
- example, the subtank rba has a relatively small coiling space - if you take up that room with a larger coil, it’ll block the airflow inside the RBA, and you get over-burnt juice no matter what temp you use. so max you go is maybe 2.3mm ID and 28 wire, 5-6 wraps - it needs a smaller coil to function properly - while the TFV4 RBA (single) can take a larger coil and still has enough airflow room to “produce” balanced vapor
good luck …
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This video from Grimm helped me on my fused claptons.
I use a little different set up so I can stand my drill upright to give more tension to the wire when I pull back on it.
$2 a pack for swivels, got the wood from an old deck project and a few wood screws to attach the wood and a a wood screw to attach the swivels.
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I started out on 26/32 and quickly moved on to 28/32 and 28/36 (all Kanthal). I will say I had to re-learn my wrap tension moving to the 36g wrap wire - the first one I made easily slid right off the core wire (not tight enough). So, 26/32 was easier to get the hang of, it’s just not well suited for my single-battery mod. The tricky parts that you’ll need to get the hang of are: (1) correct amount of tension on the wrap wire; and (2) keeping your spool of wrap wire from getting unspooled, tangled, pinched, etc. Those things are trickier the thinner your wires are.
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