Coil Life Expectancy

Length of the wire. Ohms is a measure of resistance, Kanthal and Nichrome are the two common types of resistance wires we use in vaping (there are also some new specialty wires produced). As you know, there are different gauges of wire, higher gauge meaning a thinner wire and higher resistance, lower gauge meaning a thicker wire and lower resistance. There are all kinds of calculators out there to figure out what resistance your coil will be based on length of wire or wraps or whatnot, but to be honest, the best method is to just wrap your coils consistently and check your resistance on an ohm meter. The way I coil my Kayfuns, 10 wraps of 28AWG on a 2mm drill bit gives me 1.6 ohms. 9 wraps of 30AWG on a 2mm drill bit gives me 2.3 ohms. If memory serves, that is. Easiest way to do it, put a few extra wraps on your coil, measure, and unwrap a coil at a time until you get where you want to be. Also, your resistance will usually go up a bit after you've used the coil for a bit. This is normal.

 

Sounds like a lot of trial and error when starting with something new.

 

Lots of trial, not really any error. Especially if you are using a regulated mod. A 2.3 ohm coil will vape almost the same as a 1.6 ohm coil on a regulated device if you set the wattage to be the same. If you are using something unregulated, like a plain eGo battery, figure out what ohm coils you like on your replaceable coil atomizers and shoot for that. Like I said, put a few extra wraps on, check the resistance, remove wraps until you get where you want to be. Remember how many wraps that is, and just do that many the next time.

 

Ive been using kayfuns for 6 months and a dripper for about 5 months, my kayfuns are all on there first coil builds. I have experimented a little with my dripper but alway go back to the first set of coils. I vape up to about 25watts and a selection of liquid, mainly high vg. So for me coils last. I always use 28g which is why the coils laqst.

 

I don't understand what a regulated device is. Are you talking about something like the Innokin iTaste VV V3.0 or iTaste MVP?

 

Yes, a regulated device has circuitry to regulate the voltage output. An unregulated device just puts out whatever voltage the battery has. Your iTaste is a regulated device.

 

So am I understanding correctly that with a regulated device the ohms can vary a bit, because the device can deal with the variance?

 

Yes. Think of it like this, regardless of how you get there, ultimately it boils down to how many watts you are applying to your coil. 8 watts on one coil should give you a similar vape to 8 watts on another coil. With an unregulated device, like a mech mod, the only thing you can change is the resistance of your coil to increase or decrease your wattage. On top of that, the voltage will drop when the battery discharges, so while you may have started at 8 watts, you'll end up at 6 by the time you have to recharge. On a variable voltage mod, you have to calculate how many volts to apply to get your 8 watts based on the resistance of the coil, (voltage squared divided by resistance equals wattage). On a variable wattage mod, the chip does that calculation for you, so you just set it to your desired wattage and vape until the battery dies.

 

So is it correct to assume that the reason people want a coil at 1.5 - 1.6 ohms is they are using a regulated device and want to save on battery drain?

 

1.6 is right were I like my Kayfun on a mech mod, 9.5ish watts. It also works fine on my regulated devices.

 

Also, there is no real "savings" by changing around your coil resistance, other than the fact that a coil with more mass will take longer to heat up. There is a minimal conversion loss, but you'll never notice it, and all the different chipsets will have different loss patterns. Basically, if you want 10 watts to your coil, you're going to draw the same amount of power from your battery any way you do it.

 

Yes, but is that driven by battery life or something else?

 

It's just driven by how much vapor I like, nothing else.