# Coil life



## Jakey

read on another thread that some of you manage to get an increadible life cycle out if a single coil, HOW?? Is it purely the wire being used? The UD and geekvape wire i use last a staggering 2 - 3 days . After a dry burn they gunk up faster than than it took me to clean them


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## Lord Vetinari

Jakey said:


> read on another thread that some of you manage to get an increadible life cycle out if a single coil, HOW?? Is it purely the wire being used? The UD and geekvape wire i use last a staggering 2 - 3 days . After a dry burn they gunk up faster than than it took me to clean them


Also want to know the answer to this one. I can run a 20g Nichrome build for two wicks maximum but anything else I change the wick, I change the whole build.


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## boxerulez

I buils a ud ssteel 24ga in my first sm25 almost 2 months ago.


Still vaping that same coil. 2nd wick. Same juice.

Sent from my Serpent Minikin

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Clouds4Days

My Findings is SS gunk up really fast.
For me using either 26g kanthal for my single coil rta work well and on bigger build decks ive been using 24 nichrome. I rewick once a week and coils last me 2 months+

I dry burn every time i rewick the old fashion way not using water and just blow the gunk with pure lung power.

Rewicking offten (once a week and dry burning properly is key)

Remember we working with metal and metal rusts with time so dry burning is really important to make sure all moisture is removed from the coil.


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## KZOR

Stainless steel coils last the longest. I prefer the flavour produced from them the best as well.

Here is a very interesting summary to read regarding a lot of the aspects surrounding sub-ohm vaping.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Clouds4Days

KZOR said:


> Stainless steel coils last the longest. I prefer the flavour produced from them the best as well.
> 
> Here is a very interesting summary to read regarding a lot of the aspects surrounding sub-ohm vaping.



Agree 100%
Stailess do last the longest cause they dont rust. Only issue i had with stailess i had to rewick 3 times a wick because of coil gunking up super fast.


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## RichJB

I have had the same experience as @boxerulez. Simple contact coils in SS or Ni80 last me months, with occasional rewicking every month or so. I don't get any flavour improvement from re-coiling or re-wicking. Quite the contrary, it takes several hours for the new coil and wick to reach the same flavour intensity as the old.

Reactions: Agree 5


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## Jakey

Wow i really need to sit with somebody then, i have an ss coil in my rda atm, two days in and the coil has gone tk sh@! If i dry burn and rewick itl be back to this condition within a day, doesnt matter the juice i use


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## Jakey

This is a two day old stainless steel build


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## RichJB

Looks perfect to me, @Jakey. Are you losing flavour from it?


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## Lord Vetinari

Jakey said:


> View attachment 78315
> This is a two day old stainless steel build


Ooof... OK... mine not ever like that. 5 days 20g Nichrome and I been vaping it quite a bit. What juice you running?


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## Jakey

RichJB said:


> Looks perfect to me, @Jakey. Are you losing flavour from it?


Its completely mute, and burnt


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## RichJB

Might wattage be a factor? My coils start out like Mustrum's but must at some point look like yours. I drip through the drip tip so I don't inspect coils regularly. But I only rewick once a month and my coils look much like yours when I rewick. However, the flavour isn't killed for me. As I said, it takes a few hours on the new wick (and/or new coils) to get the flavour up to where it was prior to rewicking.

I vape at around 40W (dual Ni80 coils at 0.4Ω) and have never had a burnt taste, even with coils that are totally gunked up. My cotton is also never burnt even though I don't use TC ever. It gets discoloured from the colouring in the juice but never burnt. I also tend to avoid Sweetener in my DIY juices, which might help with coil gunking/burnt taste.


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## Jakey

RichJB said:


> Might wattage be a factor? My coils start out like Mustrum's but must at some point look like yours. I drip through the drip tip so I don't inspect coils regularly. But I only rewick once a month and my coils look much like yours when I rewick. However, the flavour isn't killed for me. As I said, it takes a few hours on the new wick (and/or new coils) to get the flavour up to where it was prior to rewicking.
> 
> I vape at around 40W (dual Ni80 coils at 0.4Ω) and have never had a burnt taste, even with coils that are totally gunked up. My cotton is also never burnt even though I don't use TC ever. It gets discoloured from the colouring in the juice but never burnt. I also tend to avoid Sweetener in my DIY juices, which might help with coil gunking/burnt taste.


So this is after two days @37watts on a 0.35 stainless stell build, dry burning it never gets the coils to be all shiny again, they have a tusted look after just three days


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## Jakey

Mustrum Ridcully said:


> Ooof... OK... mine not ever like that. 5 days 20g Nichrome and I been vaping it quite a bit. What juice you running?
> View attachment 78316


Yoh my nichrome builds gunk up just as quick, which wire do u use


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## Jakey

Mustrum Ridcully said:


> Ooof... OK... mine not ever like that. 5 days 20g Nichrome and I been vaping it quite a bit. What juice you running?
> View attachment 78316


Nice atty man

Reactions: Like 1


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## RichJB

OK, if that's at 37W then I'm stumped. The lack of shine is not major imo, even just pulsing my coils to ensure even glow after installation takes the shine off them. But the burnt taste is a mystery and just wrong. I've used both Geekvape and UD wire and prefer the Geekvape. But it's not a chalk and cheese thing, it's not like the UD gives me massive problems that the Geekvape solves. I just think the Geekvape holds better over time.


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## blujeenz

Jakey said:


> View attachment 78315
> This is a two day old stainless steel build



The difference between your coils and @Mustrum Ridcully is his are spaced and yours are compressed.
Much hotter core temps result from compressed coils caramelising the juice which gives the burnt flavour and soon leads to a caramel scale buildup that isolates the juice from the coil.

Reactions: Like 4


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## Lord Vetinari

blujeenz said:


> The difference between your coils and @Mustrum Ridcully is his are spaced and yours are compressed.
> Much hotter core temps result from compressed coils caramelising the juice which gives the burnt flavour and soon leads to a caramel scale buildup that isolates the juice from the coil.


Been battling like crazy to keep these 20g coils compressed properly. Will wrap fine but every second build or so they space out after pulsing. I do not always like this, they space out just enough to cause some serious spitback, so more of a fail at compressed coils than intentional spacing. Advice on how to prevent this would be killer, I like very quick 1 second or less high power hits so compressed is better, no spitback. Spaced coils suddenly getting all of 150w up the yahoo tend to complain about it on occasion.


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## PSySpin

I found that having spaced coils dont gunk up so fast as the contact coils that i some times build and i also vape high vg juices that has this bad habbed of realy gunking a coil fast.


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## Jakey

So i get why some coils would gunk up quick, but im stilled baffled by the difference in mine lasting 2-3 days as opposed to some people sitting at 3 months......


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## Silver

Jakey said:


> So i get why some coils would gunk up quick, but im stilled baffled by the difference in mine lasting 2-3 days as opposed to some people sitting at 3 months......



That doesnt sound right @Jakey 
Maybe there is something wrong with the wire you are using

My coils are mainly Kanthal or NI80 

I vape on about 5 or 6 devices at one time and most of my coils usually last about a month or two.
I find the thicker gauge coils 26g and 24g last longer than the thinner ones

The flavour on a 1 month old coil is still very good - but when I do recoil i can taste it fires better and the flavour is slightly better

Reactions: Thanks 1


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## Jakey

Silver said:


> That doesnt sound right @Jakey
> Maybe there is something wrong with the wire you are using
> 
> My coils are mainly Kanthal or NI80
> 
> I vape on about 5 or 6 devices at one time and most of my coils usually last about a month or two.
> I find the thicker gauge coils 26g and 24g last longer than the thinner ones
> 
> The flavour on a 1 month old coil is still very good - but when I do recoil i can taste it fires better and the flavour is slightly better


Im thinking its the wire too, but then Again theres guys here using the same wire and getting much better results, perhaps its the coil builder himself that has the problem.

Being a noob means i have a long way to go compared to some of the experienced guys out there


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## Silver

Jakey said:


> Im thinking its the wire too, but then Again theres guys here using the same wire and getting much better results, perhaps its the coil builder himself that has the problem.
> 
> Being a noob means i have a long way to go compared to some of the experienced guys out there



Still sounds strange
I mean if you attaching the coils properly and firing at the correct wattage - the wire should last longer than 2 or 3 days
Unless you vaping some really wicked coil demolishing juice! But even that shouldnt demolish wire in 2 days


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## Jakey

Silver said:


> Still sounds strange
> I mean if you attaching the coils properly and firing at the correct wattage - the wire should last longer than 2 or 3 days
> Unless you vaping some really wicked coil demolishing juice! But even that shouldnt demolish wire in 2 days


Lol im also stumped, honestly in the 3 years ive been vaping i dont remember having this dilemma, cant pin-point which variable has changed, so cant fix the bug.


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## PSySpin

Could be that the airflo is not hitting the coil correctly, i had this problem when i still was a noob at coil building


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## Lord Vetinari

Jakey said:


> Lol im also stumped, honestly in the 3 years ive been vaping i dont remember having this dilemma, cant pin-point which variable has changed, so cant fix the bug.


The Goon is also sensitive to WHERE you drip it. Are you painting the coils? I found this gave me some hassle unlike the Phenotype. Try dripping on the posts so it hits the well and sucks up from there. Most of the fellas who's coils last so long are either using tanks or BFA's like Reos


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## Lord Vetinari

PSySpin said:


> Could be that the airflo is not hitting the coil correctly, i had this problem when i still was a noob at coil building


3 years vaping... doubt he is a noob builder


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## PSySpin

Mustrum Ridcully said:


> 3 years vaping... doubt he is a noob builder


If you read my post correctly you will see that i said that is what happened to to me as a newbe. 

If the air flow hits more below the the coil it tends to gunk up faster at the top, but yes this all depends on what you are building on


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## NaZa05

I have the same problem @Jakey my coils don't go longer than 2-3 days. I dry burnt one this morning re-wicked and then left for work. At 9:00am all I could taste was burn so had to rebuild and rewick again.

Yesterday I met a guy vaping on a coil he said has been going since the 9th of September  all he has done is dry burn and rewick. I am also not sure what I am doing wrong


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## Silver

NaZa05 said:


> I have the same problem @Jakey my coils don't go longer than 2-3 days. I dry burnt one this morning re-wicked and then left for work. At 9:00am all I could taste was burn so had to rebuild and rewick again.
> 
> Yesterday I met a guy vaping on a coil he said has been going since the 9th of September  all he has done is dry burn and rewick. I am also not sure what I am doing wrong



What brand of wire are you guys using @NaZa05 and @Jakey?
Apologies if you have posted it above and I missed it


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## Kalashnikov

I find my SS coils gunk up quickly also it does depend on the juice. My kanthal coils on the other hand seem to last way longer and need less time between for wicking

Reactions: Informative 1


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## NaZa05

Silver said:


> What brand of wire are you guys using @NaZa05 and @Jakey?
> Apologies if you have posted it above and I missed it



I'm using UD 24g Ni80 @Silver

Reactions: Like 1


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## Chukin'Vape

Jakey said:


> Yoh my nichrome builds gunk up just as quick, which wire do u use


Based on what you said above - I think the constant here is the juice, trust me I have moaned endlessly on this forum from gunk'ed up coils. Its way worse when you have Fused Clapton's, Alien or Staggertons etc. 

Do you DIY or are you running Retail Juice? if you DIY show us the recipe that you are vaping, if not show us the juice that you are vaping... The struggle is real bro, I hear you!!!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Ashley A

@Jakey, that junk doesn't mean the coil is fried. I think it's the juice you're using that junks up fast. I found some juices, mostly clear fruit types will show a clear coils 2 weeks in with the same wick but the flavour will start to drop around this time. The darker juicy, especially desert and nutty types could look like that in 2 days.

What I found is the initial install is quite important. I used to rebuild that Nuppin I got from you every week initially and rewick at least once a day to keep the fresh flavour. I also used to realign the coils and tension them daily.Then I started spending more time getting the length, position, tension, and spacing right when I fitted a new coil.

Then the maintenance bit. I make every effort to not move the coils when wicking. When cleaning/changing wick, I rinse the coil while on a mod. Then dry burn for a while to let the muck really come off. Blow off the muck and rinse under the tap again. Turn it around and repeat. I do this at least 3 times usually but can do 4 to 5 times if it ends up like your coils.

The wattage you dry burn at is important,I found around half what I usually vape at is about right for most coils but higher for really thick wire builds. You need to play around to find a sweet. I start low on a knew build but have them preset as a saved setting on my mods that I have figured out. Too low won't get all the junk out and too high will shorten the coil lifespan very fast and most likely result in it breaking at the post soon.

Reactions: Like 3 | Informative 1


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## kev mac

PSySpin said:


> I found that having spaced coils dont gunk up so fast as the contact coils that i some times build and i also vape high vg juices that has this bad habbed of realy gunking a coil fast.


I recently started vapeing on some 80-20,70-30 high vg juices as opposed to my longtime 50/50 mix and the difference in coil longevity especially with Clapton type builds is quite evident. I have to rinse them and rewick almost after each tank full.And I start getting that harsh burnt taste quicker thus having to recoil more often.Am I in the ballpark with others using higher vg juices on this? I think I know now why I hear the term"coil killer"in some juice reviews.

Reactions: Like 1


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## clinton.spaceship

kev mac said:


> I recently started vapeing on some 80-20,70-30 high vg juices as opposed to my longtime 50/50 mix and the difference in coil longevity especially with Clapton type builds is quite evident. I have to rinse them and rewick almost after each tank full.And I start getting that harsh burnt taste quicker thus having to recoil more often.Am I in the ballpark with others using higher vg juices on this? I think I know now why I hear the term"coil killer"in some juice reviews.


Yeah High VG is a coil killer
I use no less than 80-20 all day on a RDTA. I replace cotton like once or twice a week and a simple SS spaced coil I replace once a week. Any longer and it tastes weird, I just wrap another coil, no washing or dry burning.

Sent from my GT-I9195I using Tapatalk


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## clinton.spaceship

I use fruity flavours mostly, but with heavy sweet flavours like desserts, I've had to change coil twice a week.

Sent from my GT-I9195I using Tapatalk


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