Augvape Intake RTA - best coil build for a beginner

[Saul Annett]

Hi there, I'm a newbie to the world of RBAs and I've just bought the augvape intake rta having unsuccessfully tried with the Berserker MTL RDA. My hope was that a DL setup would be much more successful.

I vape 100%vg juice (for allergy reasons) and having experimented extensively with MTL setup on the Berserker, I've concluded with the help of people here that the only way to get flavour from 100%vg was to revert to a direct to lung setup.

However I'm still struggling with the Augvape Intake, and wondering if it's to do with the bog standard kanthal A1 wire I'm using. Have tried my first build following Mike Vapes suggested approach on his video, but with the wire I have which is 28 awg roughly 5 wraps at 3.0ml. comes out at approximately 0.43 ohm.

Unfortunately I'm getting muted flavour still, so I'm wondering what I've done wrong.

I'd ideally like to be able to get good flavour ideally avoiding super high wattages as I can't afford to fly threw tons of juice and I don't like the idea of putting my lungs threw it either.

Any ideas on what I should do next? Do I need to buy some different wire? Any ideas on an appropriate build would be appreciated. I have looked at all the videos I can find but I find the different coil measurements and types very confusing.

Thanks guys

 

[jalfraag]

Hi there, I'm a newbie to the world of RBAs and I've just bought the augvape intake rta having unsuccessfully tried with the Berserker MTL RDA. My hope was that a DL setup would be much more successful.

I vape 100%vg juice (for allergy reasons) and having experimented extensively with MTL setup on the Berserker, I've concluded with the help of people here that the only way to get flavour from 100%vg was to revert to a direct to lung setup.

However I'm still struggling with the Augvape Intake, and wondering if it's to do with the bog standard kanthal A1 wire I'm using. Have tried my first build following Mike Vapes suggested approach on his video, but with the wire I have which is 28 awg roughly 5 wraps at 3.0ml. comes out at approximately 0.43 ohm.

Unfortunately I'm getting muted flavour still, so I'm wondering what I've done wrong.

I'd ideally like to be able to get good flavour ideally avoiding super high wattages as I can't afford to fly threw tons of juice and I don't like the idea of putting my lungs threw it either.

Any ideas on what I should do next? Do I need to buy some different wire? Any ideas on an appropriate build would be appreciated. I have looked at all the videos I can find but I find the different coil measurements and types very confusing.

Thanks guys

That resistance doesn't sound right. Are you sure it's Kanthal? I use fused claptons with mine and the flavour is good.

 

[Saul Annett]

That resistance doesn't sound right. Are you sure it's Kanthal? I use fused claptons with mine and the flavour is good.

Thanks for your reply. Definitely Kanthal. But sorry I got the size wrong. I went with 24awg. Does this sound better?

Can you share what your wire is please and if you think I will need Clapton to make it work? Although I'm reluctant to pour more money into my as yet very unsuccessful attempts I'll do what's necessary if A1 Kanthal ain't up to the job. Did look but the Clapton wore specs confused the hell out of me and I was completely overwhelmed!

 

[jalfraag]

Thanks for your reply. Definitely Kanthal. But sorry I got the size wrong. I went with 24awg. Does this sound better?

Can you share what your wire is please and if you think I will need Clapton to make it work? Although I'm reluctant to pour more money into my as yet very unsuccessful attempts I'll do what's necessary if A1 Kanthal ain't up to the job. Did look but the Clapton wore specs confused the hell out of me and I was completely overwhelmed!

I'd try a few more wraps first. Nothing wrong with going up to a higher resistance.
Something like this works fine in mine
https://m.fasttech.com/p/9640286
5 or 6 wraps usually 2.5mm.

 

[Mr Ripple]

Thanks for your reply. Definitely Kanthal. But sorry I got the size wrong. I went with 24awg. Does this sound better?

Can you share what your wire is please and if you think I will need Clapton to make it work? Although I'm reluctant to pour more money into my as yet very unsuccessful attempts I'll do what's necessary if A1 Kanthal ain't up to the job. Did look but the Clapton wore specs confused the hell out of me and I was completely overwhelmed!

TBH vaping 100% VG and getting it to wick well is going to be hard whatever devise youre using.
Lets see if there are any screamingly obvious issues before you venture any further so can you post a picture of your current build?

 

[fasteddy]

Thanks for your reply. Definitely Kanthal. But sorry I got the size wrong. I went with 24awg. Does this sound better?

Can you share what your wire is please and if you think I will need Clapton to make it work? Although I'm reluctant to pour more money into my as yet very unsuccessful attempts I'll do what's necessary if A1 Kanthal ain't up to the job. Did look but the Clapton wore specs confused the hell out of me and I was completely overwhelmed!

It's possible to get excellent flavour with simple kanthal builds, if you're getting muted flavour, it's more likely a wicking issue, try using less cotton.
Also, post a pic of your build, that would help people sort the problem.

 

[Saul Annett]

Hi all, thanks so much for your help. I've included some pics here as suggested. Excuse the gunk! Would it be easier for me to clean this up and start afresh? I wanted to show you where I started but as you can see the wick is saturated (a good sign?) so it's a little difficult to decipher.

Hopefully the pics will give you an idea of the rather poor coil build, height relative to the airflow etc. Please note when I removed the tank to expose the build so I could take these pics I wiped around the bottom and it all got a bit messy!

If you want me to clean up and show you with new wick I could do that if helpful. [emoji4]

Looking forward to your thoughts.

 

[Mr Ripple]

Hi all, thanks so much for your help. I've included some pics here as suggested. Excuse the gunk! Would it be easier for me to clean this up and start afresh? I wanted to show you where I started but as you can see the wick is saturated (a good sign?) so it's a little difficult to decipher.

Hopefully the pics will give you an idea of the rather poor coil build, height relative to the airflow etc. Please note when I removed the tank to expose the build so I could take these pics I wiped around the bottom and it all got a bit messy!

If you want me to clean up and show you with new wick I could do that if helpful. [emoji4]

Looking forward to your thoughts. View attachment 177139View attachment 177140View attachment 177141View attachment 177142View attachment 177145

Your cotton looks loose enough to me for thick juice.
I would increase the wraps to 6 and keep them spaced but it does look like it's a smidge too low so make a note of where it is and set a little higher.

 

[Lung Redemption]

Don't completely fill up your tank with each build either(partially fill enough to have a good few puffs), it's easier to get straight back in there and try again(rebuild/rewick/tweak) when you don't have a tank full of juice to work your way through and a total pain if the build isn't working but the tank is completely full(you can drain it and reuse, but inconvenient to say the least), i always test my fresh builds with 1-2ml, i like to know the build is working how i want before i lob in a pile of juice.

What wattage are you vaping at and how open(airflow control) are you vaping this?

At 100% VG, i'd be surprised if that wick doesn't need refereshing quite often(my wicks tend to suffer with high VG liquids, 70+), even if the coil(26ga kanthal here) is still good.

 

[Saul Annett]

Don't completely fill up your tank with each build either(partially fill enough to have a good few puffs), it's easier to get straight back in there and try again(rebuild/rewick/tweak) when you don't have a tank full of juice to work your way through and a total pain if the build isn't working but the tank is completely full(you can drain it and reuse, but inconvenient to say the least), i always test my fresh builds with 1-2ml, i like to know the build is working how i want before i lob in a pile of juice.

What wattage are you vaping at and how open(airflow control) are you vaping this?

At 100% VG, i'd be surprised if that wick doesn't need refereshing quite often(my wicks tend to suffer with high VG liquids, 70+), even if the coil(26ga kanthal here) is still good.

Thanks for your tips. Love em, absolutely makes sense so I'll follow that advice if only for the first few builds until I feel a little more confident.

Quite prepared to change the wick often. I was expecting it. Main thing is I can start to get the full spectrum of flavours from these really expensive liquids which are wasted on my current tank.

I've tried a variety of wattages from 15 right the way up to 40ish. At the higher end it was getting warm though. And I'd really prefer to vape at the lowest wattages possible without messing too much work flavour. Not into big clouds.

Airflow again I've tried all different ways. No particular joy.

Since the last post I've spoken to a friend who suggested some better coils so I've ordered some pre made coils of a few variations so I can play with those and see if they help. I've ordered different size fused Clapton and some alien Clapton. He seemed to think that makes all the difference particularly for higher VG. We'll see!

I was thinking I'd try those, raise the height of the coil a tad. And I'll take your tips on less juice while I try them out. Sound sensible?