Commercial coils vs RTA

Zebelial

Noobsaibot
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Hi Guys.

I am thinking about getting a Griffin 25 plus for the big building deck and the ability to make my own coils. I am currently on a Melo 2 with the Eleaf commercial coils and having some priming issues. Where with the Griffin I can replace the wick and try again and not waste R50 on a bloody coil. Going Griffin because I am not a fan of dripping.

Any arguments for either would be appreciated

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Better flavour, better clouds, muuuuuuuuuuch longer life, cheaper cost, choice of wire for the coil, choice of coil type (Clapton, parallel, simple, etc), control over the coil resistance, choice of single or dual coil.
 
Strangely enough, after battling to get my RBA section of the Cloud Beast working, I found that the commercial coils have better flavor than the RBA after 3 different builds. What a bummer. All that jazz to get the RBA working and now I like the flavor from the commercials more :confused:
 
I moved from the Melo 3 with commercial coils about two months ago when I got a rebuildable ECR head for the cost saving factor. Learnt a lot while building on the ECR head but it's finicky as hell to wick right at anything under 0.9 ohms (which was too high for me). I also tried the cCell coils which had great flavour but sacrificed airflow.

In the past month I've purchased two second hand RTAs. The Mutation X RTA which is dual coil with massive airflow but not great flavour and a Serpent Mini 22mm which has great flavour and good airflow.

The RTA's are superior overall. Each have their particular nuances and differences which makes learning how to build and wick them a learning curve (the Mutation X needed LOADS of cotton but was relatively easy to build and wick and I learnt quickly, the Serpent was a ***** to get wicked perfectly).

However as you and @RichJB mentioned it's cheap. I can rewick three times a day at very little cost. If I vape an intense flavour and it stays in the tank I can just wash it out at a relatively low cost. Also playing around with different types and gauge of wire, number of wraps, IDs, number of wraps and wicking techniques allows you to get a vape that's tailored to your particular taste.
 
I moved from the Melo 3 with commercial coils about two months ago when I got a rebuildable ECR head for the cost saving factor. Learnt a lot while building on the ECR head but it's finicky as hell to wick right at anything under 0.9 ohms (which was too high for me). I also tried the cCell coils which had great flavour but sacrificed airflow.

In the past month I've purchased two second hand RTAs. The Mutation X RTA which is dual coil with massive airflow but not great flavour and a Serpent Mini 22mm which has great flavour and good airflow.

The RTA's are superior overall. Each have their particular nuances and differences which makes learning how to build and wick them a learning curve (the Mutation X needed LOADS of cotton but was relatively easy to build and wick and I learnt quickly, the Serpent was a ***** to get wicked perfectly).

However as you and @RichJB mentioned it's cheap. I can rewick three times a day at very little cost. If I vape an intense flavour and it stays in the tank I can just wash it out at a relatively low cost. Also playing around with different types and gauge of wire, number of wraps, IDs, number of wraps and wicking techniques allows you to get a vape that's tailored to your particular taste.
Customizable everything is sounding good to me. I Also have the ECR head but running on 0.15 or 0.19 was not to my liking at all.

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Using rebuildables are the cheapest method by far, as you can easily rip out the wicks and rebuild if taste or performance deteriorates. Kanthal can be re-used many times over by dry-burning and 'steam-cleaning' under running water, but I find that stainless steel is not that conducive to re-use, especially in temp control mode. Nickel is also a no-no for re-use, as you cannot really dry-burn it. I'm not sure about Nichrome, as I've only done one build so far on my Mage, but at 80 - 100 bucks for 9 or 10 meters, it should not really break the bank if you re-coil it fresh every time either.

Mileage on commercial coils will vary with the juice type and viscosity that you run through it. Clear fruity and menthol juices has less tendency to clog up coils than tobaccos and sweeter juices. Higher VG juices affects wicking and could cause some dry hits and reduce coil life, as constant underwicked hits quickly escalates to that 'vaping on an old sock' taste. My iJust 2 supports my menthol fix with commercial coils only, as iJust can't be bothered to try and get the Triton RTA deck working properly on it.

Having a tank that supports commercial coils and an RBA section may sound like the best of both worlds, but chances are good that you'll either stick to the RBA and never have any coils to use in an emergency, or that the RBA section is just too finicky and you are stuck with using commercial coils anyway. I have only used the 2 coils that came with my Subtank Mini, and stuck to the v1 RBA after that.

If your mind is set on it, just go for the Griffin. I'm sure you won't regret it.

P.S. Your bank manager and joose supplier will also love you for that ;)
 
Using rebuildables are the cheapest method by far, as you can easily rip out the wicks and rebuild if taste or performance deteriorates. Kanthal can be re-used many times over by dry-burning and 'steam-cleaning' under running water, but I find that stainless steel is not that conducive to re-use, especially in temp control mode. Nickel is also a no-no for re-use, as you cannot really dry-burn it. I'm not sure about Nichrome, as I've only done one build so far on my Mage, but at 80 - 100 bucks for 9 or 10 meters, it should not really break the bank if you re-coil it fresh every time either.

Mileage on commercial coils will vary with the juice type and viscosity that you run through it. Clear fruity and menthol juices has less tendency to clog up coils than tobaccos and sweeter juices. Higher VG juices affects wicking and could cause some dry hits and reduce coil life, as constant underwicked hits quickly escalates to that 'vaping on an old sock' taste. My iJust 2 supports my menthol fix with commercial coils only, as iJust can't be bothered to try and get the Triton RTA deck working properly on it.

Having a tank that supports commercial coils and an RBA section may sound like the best of both worlds, but chances are good that you'll either stick to the RBA and never have any coils to use in an emergency, or that the RBA section is just too finicky and you are stuck with using commercial coils anyway. I have only used the 2 coils that came with my Subtank Mini, and stuck to the v1 RBA after that.

If your mind is set on it, just go for the Griffin. I'm sure you won't regret it.

P.S. Your bank manager and joose supplier will also love you for that ;)
Great news. Will get that Griffin as soon as payday comes around again. Good thing I'm already on DIY juicing. If I go Griffin then it will be fully DIY... Sounds good.

Thanks for the feed back and opinions guys

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I think the smok TFV8 is the one tank that built coils cant beat the commercial ones. I tried the RBA deck with 2 huge dual fused claptons. Great vape. However those stock quad coils are unmatchable
 
I think the smok TFV8 is the one tank that built coils cant beat the commercial ones. I tried the RBA deck with 2 huge dual fused claptons. Great vape. However those stock quad coils are unmatchable
Thanks. It's good to know for if and when I want to get my hands on that smok tank. I see those smok coils can hurt the pocket though

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At the moment I have only ever built the ECR coil in an iJust2 tank.
After many different builds the one that stuck was 2x 4 wraps with 3mm ID. Fitted together.
This matches the flavor and and clouds of the commercial 3ohm coil, but lasts a hell of a time longer.
Finicky as he'll though
Have a TFV8 as well, but still stuck on the quad coil, Damon that coil is brilliant but thirsty AF.
 
At the moment I have only ever built the ECR coil in an iJust2 tank.
After many different builds the one that stuck was 2x 4 wraps with 3mm ID. Fitted together.
This matches the flavor and and clouds of the commercial 3ohm coil, but lasts a hell of a time longer.
Finicky as he'll though
Have a TFV8 as well, but still stuck on the quad coil, Damon that coil is brilliant but thirsty AF.
Will give this one a go while I wait for payday to arrive. Thanks for the info @AhVape

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