I've started dripping.........................and i like it, BUT

[Dreadz]

Stick with me, there's questions coming after my initial ramble!

I treated myself to an AGI and after faffing around with ss mesh for days trying to get a decent vape , gave up and set it up as a dripper.

I've fiddled a bit with its setup over the last few days and have finally hit on what really works for me - dual coil .16 kanthal, 8 coils wrapped around 4 two inch doubled strands of silica to give a total res of 2.6 ohms. I tried setting it up with lower res at first but just couldn't get it right for my taste without having to crank power up to 13 or 14 watts and overheating my mods.
With this setup now (2.6ohms) I'm getting awesome flavour, loads of vapour and good throat hit at around 9.5 - 10 ohms but my AGI does get hot.
Is this normal? I know its inevitably going to heat up but if i sit and vape for 10 mins or so on and off like i regularly do with i30's, it gets hot and eventually my sid or zmax start to heat up too and i dont want anything going boom!
Is there something I was doing wrong previously to necessitate vaping at 14 watts? Tried a few setups at around 1.6 - 2 ohms but with my only options being .16 or awg 32 kanthal just couldnt get a setup that worked for me.
Am I missing the point of low res setups or just not doing it right?

 

[whipitup]

Perhaps not really related, but if I "go for it" with my Spheroid (1.6 Ohms) it get bloody warm. I guess it's normal, heat from the coil = warm atty?

 

[thedarthVap3r]

it could also be the pure face that its metal and so its storing the heat. the goes for the dripper and the mesh its self weras with an i30 or clearos in general evey bit of space is taken up by juice so it sort of absorbs that heat build up.


say for instance you use stainless steal rope. it hold onto heat in huge quantities , you vape it for a few second , and even after that short time , its gonna burn you if you touch the wick directly. but silica doesnt as it doesnt hold the heat. different materials will disperse heat better than others.


plus with dual coils , whether its high ohm set up or not , thats twice the coil area creating heat.

with low ohms setups there is less resistance so it takes less power to heat the coil up. so its going to get hotter , easier and quicker .

its nearly 2am , ive had about 5hrs sleep since friday so im adding this disclaimer now just incase im talking complete bollocks.

 

[itssme]

With this setup now (2.6ohms) I'm getting awesome flavour, loads of vapour and good throat hit at around 9.5 - 10 ohms but my AGI does get hot.
Is this normal? I know its inevitably going to heat up but if i sit and vape for 10 mins or so on and off like i regularly do with i30's, it gets hot and eventually my sid or zmax start to heat up too and i dont want anything going boom!
Is there something I was doing wrong previously to necessitate vaping at 14 watts? Tried a few setups at around 1.6 - 2 ohms but with my only options being .16 or awg 32 kanthal just couldnt get a setup that worked for me.
Am I missing the point of low res setups or just not doing it right?

I guess you made a typo....are you saying "2.6Ohms @ 9.5-10Watts?......1.6 Kanthal is high very high res, just one inch will give you some where about 2.2Ohms. 14Watts with a 2.6 coil will want to draw 6.03volts @ 2.32Amps, that is one hell of a draw on a battery. An ideal starting point for a 2.6Ohm coil would be between 5-6Watts, that will pull 1.42Amps from a 3.7Vlt battery....much better!

 

[Dan Dan the vaping man]

I'm so glad I went to dripping as the flavor is wow but had the heat up issue as well but its part of it I think as there is not much space between your dripper and mod unlike tanks that have a thicker bass unit and the coil sitting high, so its a case of letting it all cool down for a while

I manage to get a 2.2 ohm coil on doubled up 2.5 silica using 20 awg niobium alloy wire with 5-6 wraps

Just check that your ohms are not jumping about as that might mean you have a short/loose connection

It gets easier with practice and I've found that a dream Atty gives me around the same results taste wise if you wanna try that

 

[Dan Dan the vaping man]

Darth got there as I was typing lol

 

[Dreadz]

Thanks all. Have been fiddling again and this time total res has come out at a steady 2.1ohms and now vapes nicely at around 8 watts. Guess practice really does make perfect (although i've got some way to go before i reach that!!) think part of the problem may have been that the coils were touching the base (doh!!!!) and now that they're not and they're much neater its working more as it should.
once again thanks all

 

[thedarthVap3r]

Thanks all. Have been fiddling again and this time total res has come out at a steady 2.1ohms and now vapes nicely at around 8 watts. Guess practice really does make perfect (although i've got some way to go before i reach that!!) think part of the problem may have been that the coils were touching the base (doh!!!!) and now that they're not and they're much neater its working more as it should.
once again thanks all

glad your all sorted. just dont do what i do all the sodding time.

im still getting my head around rebuilding about 2months on and everytime i make a really nice set up im all "oo this is great! " then take it apart again and redo it thinking ive cracked it and can do better , only for the next 10 setups to be shite.


if it works it dont need fixing lol.

 

[Dreadz]

just waiting now for some supplies of kanthal and silica and eyeing up some more drippers. the heat problem seems to have been resolved, bizarrely enough, by increasing the power. Battery drain on 18350 or 18650 was insane so started stacking 18350's and the increased power fires up the coils so much better i'm not having to chain vape to get a decent hit and so theres less heat build up in the dripper and mod, plus taste and throat hit have improved. win win

 

[robteifi]

Also increasing the power will let the coil heat up more quickly, rather than gradually building up over a longer period and heating up the silica and the device itself.