Wire, Resistance.......CONFUSED

[JIMEYE]

OK. I have been re-wicking Vivi.novas, Evod, pro tanks etc for a good while and have been building coils for various drippers and more recently my Kayfun - which I love BUT.....

I Am probably being a bit thick but please explain why Pbusardo can build an 8 wrap 1.4 ohm coil with 28 gauge kanthal and when I do it it comes out at no where near?
I have 28, 34, and 36 gauge kanthal. I think and has been my experience to an extent that the 36 gauge will produce a lower ohm coil than the 28 as it is thinner? With that in mind i built a 8 wrap 36 gauge coil and was shocked and annoyed that it came out at about 6.5 ohms! I reduced it to 5 wraps and it is still 4.5 ohms?
I only have my mod ( anyvape CVI AND smok SID) to measure the resistance although they appear to show the correct ohms of bought heads. I'm sure the answer is somewhere on this immense forum but can someone please point me the right direction or explain once and for all. I would like max wraps for the least resistance (1.5 - 2.2 ohms is fine).

Many thanks in advance,

Jim.

 

[State O' Flux]

You have it backwards Jim. Thicker wire (smaller gauge number) = less resistance. Coil diameter will have a substantial effect on resistance as well... smaller ID = less resistance as well, for a given wire gauge.

 

[mackman]

What is the diameter of your coil? Hint hint. Larger diameter more wire more resistance.

 

[BulletStopper]

The larger the wire (smaller number gauge) the lower the resistance, given the same length.

It isn't the number of wraps that determine the resistance, but the total length of the wire, but more wraps=longer wire=higher resistance.

Kanthal A-1 has the following resistance per foot.

Gage AWG Ohms / Foot
22 1.3620
23 1.7175
24 2.1657
25 2.7309
26 3.4436
27 4.3423
28 5.4756
29 6.9046
30 8.7065
31 10.9787
32 13.8439
33 17.4569
34 22.0128
36 35.0017

 

[JmanEspresso]

yeah you just got it backwards there.

I personally dont use anything higher that 32 gauge, and even then, I rarely use that. Mostly I use 28, and 30. 34 and 36 for me, are too much and I dont even use them. I personally think that if you're bbuilding on mechs, you should have 26, 28 and 30, and if you're building on VV devices, then 28-30-32 is what you want. And as for silica, I PERSONALLY like 3mm above all else.

Building evods/protanks, what kind of resistance you shootin' for? Id say you should play around the 2ohm area to start. But it doesn't need to be exact, just tweak the voltage up or down to get the vape you want.

Now, you could use the 28gauge, but you'd need a bunch of wraps on the wick, and that will cause two problems. 1-it'll be trickier to get it into the tiny kanger atomizer head, and 2-it'll take longer to fully heat up. For a 2ohm coil on a kanger head, Ideally Id use 32gauge, but 34 might work alright as well.

Take the 34gauge kanthal and do 4 wraps on the wick. 4 wraps of 32guage kanthal on the common 2 to 3mm silica thats been folded over itself will yield somewhere in the area of 1.8ohms. Obviously this will vary from person to person, as everybody will space their coils slightly differently, and the thickness of the wick will be slightly different, but you get the idea. So if 4 wraps of 32guage equals somewhere around 1.8ohms, then the 34gauge with the same amount of wraps, will get at or above 2ohms, mostlikely.

And then wherever you actually end up, be 1.9, 2.0, 2.2, 2.4.. doesnt truly matter, just adjust the voltage accordingly. Coils in this range on a VV device, ID probably start out at 3.8-4.0volts, and work up from there, likely ending up at 4.4-4.5volts. But adjust to taste. Once you taste burning(and the wick hasnt dried up), back off .1v or .2v, and there you have it.


Building your own coils is really so easy once you get over the initial entry learning curve, which is slight.

 

[weare138]

im vaping at 1.5 ohms on 3.2volts and starting to get a burned taste... bleh!

 

[Scarey]

Like everyone has stated, the thinner your wire, the higher the resistance. Think of it like a water pipe. The thinner the pipe, the lesser the amount of water that can flow through it with the same given amount of force behind it. In this case the wire is the pipe and electrons are the water. The same concept applies.

 

[K_Tech]

im vaping at 1.5 ohms on 3.2volts and starting to get a burned taste... bleh!

That's a wicking problem, I think. 1.5 ohms at 3.2 volts is just under 7 watts, that's right around the "sweet spot". Unless your wick isn't being properly fed, you shouldn't have a burned taste, IMO.

 

[JIMEYE]

Thanks for the quick response, I might even go a bit adventurous and try to build a 28 gauge dual coil for my Kayfun tonight! Appreciate I would have to go 'micro-ish' the only issue is what to use for wick? I foresee an evening of experimenting

 

[emmieswords]

You can Buy an Ohm resistance Tester from Fasttech.com they are cheap like 10,99 dollars, How do you make a dollar sign on a mac book pro?! :S

 

[K_Tech]

Thanks for the quick response, I might even go a bit adventurous and try to build a 28 gauge dual coil for my Kayfun tonight! Appreciate I would have to go 'micro-ish' the only issue is what to use for wick? I foresee an evening of experimenting ��

It really boils down to what works for you. I just watched a YouTube video on a micro coil/cotton setup on a Kayfun that looks interesting...

Russian/Kayfun Microcoil and cotton wick setup - YouTube

 

[stealthmayhem]

How do you make a dollar sign on a mac book pro?! :S

You can't. You already gave away all your dollars to Apple.

 

[JIMEYE]

I have 1mm, 2mm silica and 2mm ecowool ( which comes up slightly bigger than the silica) I'm looking for maximum wraps so that I have more surface area in contact with the wick - does this make any real difference?

 

[K_Tech]

I have 1mm, 2mm silica and 2mm ecowool ( which comes up slightly bigger than the silica) I'm looking for maximum wraps so that I have more surface area in contact with the wick - does this make any real difference?

One of the reasons micro and nano coils are popular is because of the amount of surface area of the coil in contact with the wick, yes.

 

[JIMEYE]

I have tried making a 10 and 8 wrap coil with 28 gauge around the 1mm and 2mm with a strand of silica removed and and they come out over 3 ohms :-s. I don't really want to go much more under 1mm of wick for fear of wicking problems. Is it just a case of experimenting? I hope not - someone must have done it??? I'm thinking of maybe 25 and lower to get the amount of wraps / surface area around a bigger juice soaked wick. What d'ya think?

 

[armoworrior]

What are you wrapping you coil around? It sounds like you are building it too big. Also thats a lot of wraps for 28 awg. Fewer wraps smaller inside diameter is the key. I do 28 awg coils regularly and with anywhere from 4 to 7 wraps it turns out to be right where I need it.

 

[JIMEYE]

Also am I right in thinking that putting a dual coil in will reduce the resistance given that there is more wire for the electrons to pass through?

 

[K_Tech]

Also am I right in thinking that putting a dual coil in will reduce the resistance given that there is more wire for the electrons to pass through?

Yup, exactly. Just likes having two pipes side by side, they'll pass more flow.