I’m talking about the non-rebuildable type of replaceable coil head, as I’m not into rebuilding (so please don’t say the answer to my question is to get a RDA 
). How many ml of e-liquid would you say you’d go through before chucking the coil head in the trash and replacing it with a fresh one, on average? My temptation is to replace them more often rather than less often, since a fresh coil and wick gives the purest flavor, and they’re not that expensive. Even if I haven’t been using a particular coil head for very long, if I look and see that it has turned brown, I just go ahead and get rid of it.
I was always too broke to constantly keep buying coils. Depending on the tank, and how hard you are running it, it could last a couple days or a week. My .6 ohm in my AIO lasted about 4 days before I get a noticeable change in quality of vape. It’s hard to say how many ml, because that is more dependant on what flavors you are vaping. Some are known to clog or burn up on coils quicker than others. Basically, there are too many unknown factors to give an accurate answer. So, if you feel its time to swap coils, it probably is. This is the reason I am starting to just build my own, now. They last longer as you can just change the wicking out and clean the coils off, and overall they are just far far cheaper to make than buy premades. Pack of coils (5pk) usually lasted me about two weeks if I was stingy with it. Now I can just get a roll of wire that’d last me months if I don’t waste it experimenting and having fun building. And wicking is pretty cheap also, you can easily find months and months worth for ~<$20… And its easier than it looks once you know how. You don’t have to necessarily get an rda, but there are RBA coils you can buy for many of the popular tanks, tho they are much smaller and so a bit trickier to wick properly…
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I agree with Mikelej14 , too many variables.It’s time to swap when flavor goes down.If you post what brand you are using perhaps someone could give a time frame when they swap.I have had some factory coils not last a day.When I started I vaped menthol’s and the coils would last a week but when I started on custards I would change about every three or four days.
I bought more coils than I care to admit , I always thought making coils was a pain and they wouldn’t last as long as the factory offerings.I was wrong! Making coils isn’t for everyone but with today’s tanks,wires,wicks,and tools it is very easy.
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So far I am loving it. Gotta thank you again for that!
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This is my opinion only depends a lot on juice and power if I stay below 4 volts it makes a huge difference and then the juice will play in to that as well and draw time I can normally get about 70 mils of juice on a atomizer I tried a ceramic atomizer in my Atlantis the other day was working OK at lower power 19 watts about 3.9 volts the head says 35 so bummed it up burned it out .trying another one same results seemed to need all most 5 volts to get what I was looking for I do not use pre built coils very offen so it would also be safe to say depends on what you are looking for my go to RTA mutation for Clapton double coils kanthal Goliath v2 and kangar sub tank when I use titanium
Back when I used them, it was whenever they started to taste bad. Depending on the juice, anywhere from 3 to 10 mills. You know you can clean them? Not to beat a dead horse, but there are some nice easy to rebuild RTA’s out there. You go from a buck and a half a coil to about 5 cents. A coil will last you a long time, rewick as needed.
you’re joking right?
I’d say more like 3-10 tanks, but different strokes for different folks…
It also really depends on how bad your juice gunks the coil.
My coils last almost a month. i just re wick it 2 times a week
I have a Kangertech topbox. Sitting around the house I use a Tobeco Velocity dripper, but driving to and from work I use my Kanger topbox tank. Dripping and driving really makes it hard to post Facebook statuses. There are two ways your coils fail. As others said it mostly matter what you’re vaping, but with Kanger’s vertical SSOCC coils the top of the cotton will burn if you vape your juice all the way down. Once your cotton gets black …there’s no going back …just sayin’. Don’t let the juice go below the top of the coil head and you can avoid that altogether.
Some juices gunk your coils and some (like BRONUTS) gunk your wick. I have been re-using my Kanger SSOCC coils because I have an ultrasonic. Just 5 minutes in hot (plain) water ultrasonic restores the cotton to about 80%! I have a 1 liter high powered unit made for cleaning dental tools that Goodwill thought was half of an icecream maker, so it was only $5 [cough] Then I take a pipe cleaner or a spikey vapertowel point and clean down the center.
You can look down the top hole and see if the cotton is toast (ash!). Once burnt there’s no fix. I thought it was reasonable to vape till the liquid was down to the intake holes on the side, but the top always got blackened. A new coil every week add$ up. Since I’m a DIY’er taste is important to me, so trust me this works …I hate burnt vape
By basically washing my Kanger SSOC coils, and never letting the fluid get below the top of the coil I am able to re-use them several times. You have to give them time to dry of course, and an ultrasonic cleaner may be the only way to do this …I don’t think just running them under the tap would work. However, “several times” is several weeks (!) on one Kanger SSOCC …might make buying that ultrasonic you’ve been dreaming of ju$tifiable.
Bo
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That’s true… but if you’re going through 3 to 5 coils for one 30ml bottle like that one dude said, you might have had an actual stroke.
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@BoDarc Excellent explanation. Thank you! I understand about not letting the juice go below the top of the coil head to prevent burning - that makes perfect sense now. I guess if you want to change flavors, you just dump out whatever liquid remains below the top of the coil head? You certainly wouldn’t want to put it back in the bottle. I had been vaping all the way down to get as much use out of my juice as possible, but since doing that means an unpleasant, burnt vape, then I guess a mil or two of DIY liquid down the drain isn’t nearly as expensive as a new coil head. (I use a 5 ml tank, so I can vape for a while between refills.)
nope, but I go back to protanks using max VG. Didn’t take long to switch to RBA’s
I use 2 different kinds of coils. I use all sub ohm Aspire Cleito’s .4 (or .5) and Aspire Triton/Atlantis Claptons at.4.
I run two tanks at about 30-32 Watts. I am a heavy vaper because I work with media and live on the computer all day,
I change coils in both tanks once a week. I usually use new ones (because there is no residual flavor ) but I don’t throw the old ones away, I clean them in water and vodka in an ultrasonic for 2-3 cycles and let them dry in a west facing window for two days. I usually get another week out of them easily after that.
The trick for me to save them to be re-used is to take them to about 75% of when they start tasting like I’m losing good flavor. I don’t know if that helps, but it’s what I do.
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@BoDarc - actually, come to think of it, I wonder why letting the juice in the tank get below the level of the top of the coil, instead of vaping down to the intake holes, would burn the top, since the top of the coil head is seated up against an o-ring, so there’s no direct contact of the top of the coil with the liquid in the tank anyway. All of it comes through the intake holes at the bottom. I would seem logical to me that as long as there’s always liquid in contact with the intake holes, the wicking should be uniformly saturated no matter how much or how little liquid is left in the tank? Such a mystery to me.
Tanks are a gravity fed vapor-lock concept. My Topbox Nano tank fills from the top. Instructions say to add juice quickly and close the air vents at the bottom because left open juice will drain down and flood the vaporizer base. Same happens on an airplane where the pressure drops and rises, it’ll pump the juice out of your tank. If you’re hitting it hard (chain vaping) you can use up the juice in the wick (dry hit) and the top is the first place to go dry (gravity?) …even if there’s juice at the middle/bottom.
Coils can be disassembled. Take an old coil apart and see how they tick. You’ll find the cotton wick is actually kinda thick. You can also see the coil wire itself is probably fine …if not a little crusty.
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