Twisting 30awg Kanthal

[speedfreek67]

Hi folks!

I was just experimenting on my dripper with a single coil plus ohm MTL build, and wanted to increase the surface area for more flavour, but without doing a dual coil which would require opening up the airflow.

So I thought I would twist some 30awg Kanthal to make a larger single coil instead.

I couldn't find anything on Steam engine to help me calculate how it would turn out, but it came out at 1.5 ohms.

It's 7/8 wraps, 3mm inner diameter.

I assumed it would work a bit like a dual 30awg coil, and would require somewhere around 30 watts, but it seems to be doing okay and giving a very decent vape at 15 watts or so.

What exactly have I done here?

I got it glowing from the inside out before I wicked it, but I'm just surprised it works at such a low wattage.

 

[Tubbyengineer]

No, 15 watts sounds about right for a 1.5 ohm coil....

 

[speedfreek67]

No, 15 watts sounds about right for a 1.5 ohm coil....

But doesn't the fact that it is two strands of 30 gauge, each with 8 wraps, mean it should be like a dual coil setup, where each strand has twice the resistance but the resistance is halved when they are twisted together?

In another RDA I have two 30awg coils with the same ID and no of wraps, and the build comes out at 1.5 ohms but needs 30 watts, because each coil is actually nearer 3 ohms but the final ohmage is halved. At least 30W is what steam engine recommends for that setup, and it hardly fires at 15 watts.

Is this twisted coil like a parallel coil?

 

[wraith]

Yes. Twisted is parallel.

 

[Tubbyengineer]

But doesn't the fact that it is two strands of 30 gauge, each with 8 wraps, mean it should be like a dual coil setup, where each strand has twice the resistance but the resistance is halved when they are twisted together?

In another RDA I have two 30awg coils with the same ID and no of wraps, and the build comes out at 1.5 ohms but needs 30 watts, because each coil is actually nearer 3 ohms but the final ohmage is halved. At least 30W is what steam engine recommends for that setup, and it hardly fires at 15 watts.

Is this twisted coil like a parallel coil?

It's more likely to be a case of airflow / dripper size changing the required watts rather than some weird occurence with the wire, you do say that you were going for an MTL Build. The other thing to remember is that coils will glow under much lower powers than they will vape, but either way round if the coil works, it works, resistance is reading correctly, so theres no danger - just enjoy it it...