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How often do you change the coils in your RDA?

TrackDay

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Hey guys,

I've been rocking 23g single wrap kanthal in a parallel build for the past 2 weeks and they're doing great. I spoke to a guy in a vape shop and he said he replaces his coils once a month. How often should I be changing my coils and how often do you guys change your coils?

Cheers.
 

BKTOAD

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Depends.

Should last well past a month. I usually change them out every month or 2 just to experiment with different builds.

Clean and rewick every 2 to 5 days. The wire lasts a long time. As long as resistance stays constant and they are vaping good, no need to change. Unless they get rusty.
 

Markw4mms

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Depends.

Should last well past a month. I usually change them out every month or 2 just to experiment with different builds.

Clean and rewick every 2 to 5 days. The wire lasts a long time. As long as resistance stays constant and they are vaping good, no need to change. Unless they get rusty.
^^^^ This! ^^^^
 

TrackDay

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Depends.

Should last well past a month. I usually change them out every month or 2 just to experiment with different builds.

Clean and rewick every 2 to 5 days. The wire lasts a long time. As long as resistance stays constant and they are vaping good, no need to change. Unless they get rusty.

Ah awesome! I'm glad I got into RDA's. It's so much damn cheaper than buy premade coils for tanks. I always monitor my resistance as well just to make sure the coils are still in good shape or if they need some tightening down.
 

r055co

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Depends, if I let them go usually and don't swap out due to being bored 2-3 months. A lot depends on quality of the wire. Cheap wire will last maybe a month, quality wire will last much longer.

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BKTOAD

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Ah awesome! I'm glad I got into RDA's. It's so much damn cheaper than buy premade coils for tanks. I always monitor my resistance as well just to make sure the coils are still in good shape or if they need some tightening down.

Yeah I rock RDA's almost exclusively.

Foolproof once you are proficient at building. Simple to wick. No glass to break. Not limited by wicking channels/holes. Super easy access to build deck.
 

TrackDay

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Depends, if I let them go usually and don't swap out due to being bored 2-3 months. A lot depends on quality of the wire. Cheap wire will last maybe a month, quality wire will last much longer.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

I'm using CCI prebuilt 23g single wrap kanthal coils that I get my from my local shop and they only sell the highest quality products so hopefully my coils will last me a long time. I just put in a new order for them actually. I'm hoarding them just in case they run out of stock.
 

BKTOAD

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Would buy wire and wrap your own. Especially if you only use plain/normal coils. Super easy. $5 worth of wire would last you several years.

I but temco wire. Made in usa and free shipping.
 

TrackDay

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Would buy wire and wrap your own. Especially if you only use plain/normal coils. Super easy. $5 worth of wire would last you several years.

I but temco wire. Made in usa and free shipping.

Good idea. I've got some 24g kanthal laying around that I got with my coil master kit along with their coil building tool so I might give it a whirl soon.
 

r055co

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Would buy wire and wrap your own. Especially if you only use plain/normal coils. Super easy. $5 worth of wire would last you several years.

I but temco wire. Made in usa and free shipping.
Temco has good Kanthal, they source it from what I hear from Sanvick. My recommendation for wire is

Kidney Puncher
Atomizer Wick
Pure Atomist
Temco

Was recommending KBee until I ordered their Kanthal, every spool has been filthy, won't buy anything else from them.

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AndriaD

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My rule of thumb is, how long before gunking and juice darkening after a dry-burn; after a coil is about a month old or so, that time gets pretty short, I start getting the gunk and dark juice within just a day or two after a dry burn, so at that point, I'll replace the coil.

Alternately... when the flavor falls off and even dry-burning/re-wicking doesn't fix it, it's time for a new coil. Or, when you taste "scorched metal"... time for a new coil. Also... I once had a major problem with popping, every hit I took, the damn thing popped hot juice at me -- re-wicking didn't fix it, so I finally replaced the coil.... no more popping.

But no way in HELL would I pay for coils, when kanthal is like $4 for 50ft.

Andria
 

r055co

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My rule of thumb is, how long before gunking and juice darkening after a dry-burn; after a coil is about a month old or so, that time gets pretty short, I start getting the gunk and dark juice within just a day or two after a dry burn, so at that point, I'll replace the coil.

Alternately... when the flavor falls off and even dry-burning/re-wicking doesn't fix it, it's time for a new coil. Or, when you taste "scorched metal"... time for a new coil. Also... I once had a major problem with popping, every hit I took, the damn thing popped hot juice at me -- re-wicking didn't fix it, so I finally replaced the coil.... no more popping.

But no way in HELL would I pay for coils, when kanthal is like $4 for 50ft.

Andria
Quality wire is cheap and it's so damn easy to build. Once in a blue moon I will pop in a factory coil, yuck. That will last maybe a day at most. The flavor just really isn't there with factory coils, not in a long shot.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

BKTOAD

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My rule of thumb is, how long before gunking and juice darkening after a dry-burn; after a coil is about a month old or so, that time gets pretty short, I start getting the gunk and dark juice within just a day or two after a dry burn, so at that point, I'll replace the coil.

Alternately... when the flavor falls off and even dry-burning/re-wicking doesn't fix it, it's time for a new coil. Or, when you taste "scorched metal"... time for a new coil. Also... I once had a major problem with popping, every hit I took, the damn thing popped hot juice at me -- re-wicking didn't fix it, so I finally replaced the coil.... no more popping.

But no way in HELL would I pay for coils, when kanthal is like $4 for 50ft.

Andria

^^^^ best answer to your question
 

TrackDay

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My rule of thumb is, how long before gunking and juice darkening after a dry-burn; after a coil is about a month old or so, that time gets pretty short, I start getting the gunk and dark juice within just a day or two after a dry burn, so at that point, I'll replace the coil.

Alternately... when the flavor falls off and even dry-burning/re-wicking doesn't fix it, it's time for a new coil. Or, when you taste "scorched metal"... time for a new coil. Also... I once had a major problem with popping, every hit I took, the damn thing popped hot juice at me -- re-wicking didn't fix it, so I finally replaced the coil.... no more popping.

But no way in HELL would I pay for coils, when kanthal is like $4 for 50ft.

Andria

Yeah, the last time I had a dry hit I had to replace my coils because I couldn't get the burned taste of it out of them even with rewicking. I also had popping issues the first time I started using prebuilt coils. After painting over them with liquid they would spit like crazy and burn the shit out of my lips and mouth. Even the slightest paint over them caused spitting. Now I only drip on the wick which gets absorbed through the part of the wick going through the coil. I know a lot of people paint their coils with juice before vaping but that didn't work for me.
 

BKTOAD

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I have wider bore rda's so i just drip down the driptip. Only ever paint the coils when I rewick.

I dryburn then rinse coils to clean. Should take away and burnt taste.
 

AndriaD

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I think the only time I ever drip directly on the coil is when I first get a new wick in, during the "priming" of the fresh wick. The way my Achilles RDAs are made, if you drip directly on the coil, it would go down into the inner airhole, causing leaking/gurgling/juice in mouth (ick!). :D I just take the cap off and put fresh juice directly on the tails of the wick, which are long in Achilles -- it flushes the gunk down into the well, and when it gets dark enough, I dump it and put in a fresh supply (my RDA holds 2.5ml).

The thing about the popping though; it's just one of those weird-ass things that sometimes can go wrong; no real explanation I can find; sometimes a brand new coil will taste like metal (bleah), or pop a lot (OW!), or just not work really well. The more coils you make, the less those weird-ass things happen; like anything else, "practice makes... better." :) And shorter, too -- when I started building coils, it was this big production... now it's like 5 minutes. :giggle:

Andria
 

BreSha6869

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I change the wick every week or so and if the coil's resistance stays constant, I might go 2-3 months without changing the coil. As soon as it starts dry burning unevenly, the coil is rusty or very gunky or the resistance jumps around, I swap it out. I use mainly mechs, so I am pretty careful.

I rarely use factory coils anymore. The odd time when I pull out a Kabuki/Provari to vape some higher nic juice...
 

skt239

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If it's one of my own coils, usually something simple with pre-claptoned wire, I'll change them every couple weeks. The coils I primarily use in my RDA's are made by raymo and those are usually bigger, much more fancy aliens and such, those will last me months. I rewick, clean and dry burn every two days and that definitely helps make them last.
 

kross8

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I rewick and recoil on Sunday's out of habit not need,, I use simple kanthal a1 and rayon,, I vape 30mls a day (mls vaped should be part of your formula imho).

(for me) I dont like my coils getting gunked up,, I think it takes away from the power and flavor and wire is so cheap. granted I dont mess with the fancy coils so I cant speak for them.
 

HondaDavidson

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Member For 4 Years
New atty or juice or mod.. daily or more. Dialed in gear? I have one tank with a 1 year old build on it.... but generally I rebuild every week or so. Not because of need.. just because I can.

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