Not sure what happened where I no longer have to wait weeks before anything can be done but today got an email from Thomas to say he is despatching my order again tomorrow!
Zirconium Wire Anyone?
- Thread starter Timwis
- Start date
I'm certainly looking forward to seeing your results, as said, I think the challenges of it softening when heated may outweigh the benefits of it's resistance to oxidation, however shock treating it to restore it's hardness aka dunking glowing coils in water may well resolve the issue?
Interesting factoid on the element; South Africa produces a little more than 40% of the worlds Zircon.
Yet I bet if you want a roll of Zirconium wire for vaping you would have to import it, crazy world!
Indeed! ... It gets worse ... We export our grade one steel, and import crap / full of impurities steel from China
.......*please help me pick up my jaw off the floor...Indeed! ... It gets worse ... We export our grade one steel, and import crap / full of impurities steel from China
First impressions are excellent, baring in mind I am using the 2nd thinnest Zirconium wire Zivipf sells and it does come in 24ga which is much thicker working with it was easy. Slightly springy but that actually aided in doing the spaced coil I wanted and pretty similar to Titanium. I did do a 3.0ID coil so I could test the 3mm shoelace after @Intuthu Kagesi pointed out it's malleability but it pulled through despite the friction between wire and cotton with ease, so a relief there was no problem at all.
It set-up in TC with zero issues and early days (or couple of hours to be precise) but the flavour seams a match for Titanium which in recent times has become my wire of choice. It will need an extensive period trying different atomisers and flavours to really give a verdict but on first impressions it's going to be either slightly down, slightly up or to close to call compared to Titanium!
It set-up in TC with zero issues and early days (or couple of hours to be precise) but the flavour seams a match for Titanium which in recent times has become my wire of choice. It will need an extensive period trying different atomisers and flavours to really give a verdict but on first impressions it's going to be either slightly down, slightly up or to close to call compared to Titanium!
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Update:
Had absolutely zero issues now after 5 days, so stable in temp control it's as simple as using power mode and I am not even using the more user friendly Replay feature. It has such a clean flavour, if you vape using Kanthal or Nichrome and then switched to Titanium or Zirconium you would find out that those wires give quite a taste with most not realising I am also in the group of people who although I find SS316l a cleaner flavour than Kanthal or Nichrome I detect a slight metallic taste which depending on the juice can be annoying. Zirconium however is giving nothing in the way of taste so is just increasing the flavour quality of my juice.
Don't know what else at the moment I can report apart from the condition of my wick and coil is top notch as if the build is fresh which as my Titanium builds are still going strong doesn't surprise me, remind me again, what's a re-wick?
Had absolutely zero issues now after 5 days, so stable in temp control it's as simple as using power mode and I am not even using the more user friendly Replay feature. It has such a clean flavour, if you vape using Kanthal or Nichrome and then switched to Titanium or Zirconium you would find out that those wires give quite a taste with most not realising I am also in the group of people who although I find SS316l a cleaner flavour than Kanthal or Nichrome I detect a slight metallic taste which depending on the juice can be annoying. Zirconium however is giving nothing in the way of taste so is just increasing the flavour quality of my juice.
Don't know what else at the moment I can report apart from the condition of my wick and coil is top notch as if the build is fresh which as my Titanium builds are still going strong doesn't surprise me, remind me again, what's a re-wick?
Sounds great
... I expected similar results to Titanium, (and Ceramics for that matter), my only concern is it's malleability, particularly after repeated heat cycles, as it's very similar to copper and I fear it may be a tad challenging rewicking, to which I'd suggest glowing your coil and then quenching it in water to reharden it before attempting a rewick 
As to Stainless Steel ... there's another can of worms ... there are literally 100's of grades of it, and even the most common used in vaping 304, and 316 have a few 100 "subgrades" as can be seen below in the % range of Nickel and Chrome, to which the upper end of 316 would most certainly have a nickel "taste"
Still got the nickel free SS540 to try, I thought they all had their fair share of nickel before Wayneo sent me a sample of this, bought a spool before even trying it but then I thought nickel free, no brainer!
From what I am reading of course these wires are initially annealed but then both Titanium and Zirconium shouldn't be dry burned like the more commonly used wires because they are not to be heated to high temperatures. Most formal reading just says dry burning is a no no while some TC users I have spoken to say you can pulse to aid with cleaning (not like they get in the sort of state as coils using power mode) but only using a mod with TC set-up so you keep within temperature limits.
As I said before nobody I speak to are having issues with re-wicking (it just isn't even brought up as an issue) and to be honest mate if there does turn out to be an issue like you suspect the wick and coil stays in such good nick and the cost of the wire is so cheap considering how many coils I can get out of one spool needing to do a whole new build wouldn't be the end of the world. I am eager to see how re-wicking goes but might be some wait yet.
What's SA-540? The SS430 might have a very small amount but negligible compared to the commonly used SS for vaping.
I see a typo it's SS430, that's me typing when it's getting dark because I can't be arsed to get up and switch the light on I won't edit else the following posts won't make any sense!
I have no sight of their process or product, so I I have to assume you're correct, and that you received it annealed?
Annealing however is a heat treatment just like hardening and tempering , where metal is allowed to cool slowly after heating to a dull red hot. This relieves internal stresses and concurrently softens metals ... Ideally you'd want your coil hardened and or tempered, which you can do yourself by heating your coil just barely cherry red ... and then quenching it in cold water.
Have no fear, it won't form any toxic oxides, besides which, the manufacturer would have had to have heated the wire to a dull cherry red to anneal it before you received it.
Thank goodness for that clarification
.... O and SA = Stainless AlloySA-430 features the following chemical composition:
Iron = Balance out %'s of total
Carbon < 0.12%
Chromium = 16-18%
Nickel < 0.75%
Manganese < 1.0%
Silicon < 1.0%
Phosphorus < 0.040%
Sulfur < 0.30%
It just is supposed to be done under temp control not pulsing under wattage, sure you could using wattage just pulse using very low power like 6-8 watts to make sure you keep the temp under control, with thin wires used for MTL it is so very easy to bypass "Cherry Red" as the wire heats so quickly. When dry burning using wattage the coil can get much hotter than it does tamed by your juice and for example Titanium set's a light at 620 degree C (just off memory so could be slightly out but it's there bout's) it supposedly is almost impossible to put out and leaves a white powdery toxic deposit. No doubt there are some TC vapers who risk dry burning their coils as any other coils pulsing with wattage but to cover their arses they keep it to themselves rather than recommending it and when having the option of controlling the temp using TC It seems unnecessary to take risks.
They will have very controlled heating methods, hardly a mad Tim in his lounge with a blow torch
Yes mate, all wire that is sold as vaping wire (trusted source, not Cyril's Dodgy Wires) has been annealed ready for use, the old videos of vapers blow torching their wire was when most wire was bought from non vaping wire companies. A quick warm is still wise to get rid of any machine residue but as for hotspots I only ever get one if I made a complete mess of winding the coil, good quality wire should be good to go.
O come on ... live dangerously
Titanium's melting point is as close as dammit to 1724 degrees C and Zirconium at 1850 degrees C ... compared to 316 Stainless at 1375 degrees C
Actually I would have gone the other way ... A LOT of wire sold as "premium vaping wire" is grade R, as in rejected for industrial purposes
Still vaping wire is annealed which comes from Temco who supply certain brands like Wireoptim, they told me this so I asked if they knew about other suppliers and they were adamant all wire sold for vaping were annealed so could be used straight off the spool!
I don't give a sh6t what it's melting point is if its on fire!O come on ... live dangerously
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