Since vaping became a popular pastime for many people, there have been various creative ideas that have helped to improve user experience. Whether it is improving flavors, achieving a stronger hit or creating bigger clouds, vapers are always happy to take it up a notch. One of the better-known innovations recently is Clapton coils. Read further to learn what Clapton coils are and how they benefit vapers and why they are becoming more popular by the day.
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What Are Clapton Coils
If you’re a sub-ohm tank vaper, chances are you have seen Clapton coil ads. Mrdee3, a vaping veteran, created the first Clapton coil after watching his friend play guitar. In Clapton coils, two coil wires are tightly coiled together. The thinner high-gauge wire wraps around a thicker but low-gauge wire which represents the core in a way that it looks like guitar strings when viewed. Current flows through the core wire from your vaping device and in the process, it heats up the outer high-gauge wire around it. The result of this mechanism offers your e-liquid with a larger surface area to vaporize without any need for the coil’s resistance being lowered. Before now, the few available Clapton coils were hand-made by vapers. Recently, there has been an upsurge of coil manufacturers who are building more coils in the factory and making them available for vapers. The reason people were not so interested in them at first is likely due to the difficulty in building coils. With the effort required to wrap the high-gauge outer wire around the low-gauge core tightly, people were not so patient to learn such an intricate task. With already built Clapton coils now readily available on the market, more vapers are now taking the opportunity to boost their vaping experience.
Pros
- Better Wicking: There are more crevices and holes in Clapton coils than normal coils. These holes store e-liquids around the coil area.
- Bigger Clouds: The wrapped gauge wires create a large surface area which helps to hold more e-juice. With tons of e-juice available, the vapor density is thicker which helps to create large, thick clouds.
- More Flavors: The larger surface area promotes a steady heat distribution which allows you to simultaneously enjoy kinds of flavor.
Cons
- It drains your batteries quickly because it requires more power
- It vaporizers e-liquids faster.
How to Build Clapton Coils
As earlier mentioned, building Clapton’s coils requires commitment, patience, and dedication. To be clear, it is not an easy task. It is also not impossible, and once you grasp the idea, you can make them quickly and without much stress.
The first step in building Clapton coils is to buy two kanthal wire. One for the core and another for the outer wrapping. You may choose any kind of wire you prefer, although, pairing a 32 gauge for the outer wrapping and a 24 gauge for the core comes highly recommended.
- Step 1: Cut out a part of the coil wire and make your best effort to straighten it out. If you’re having trouble straightening out your coil wire, try to attach an end to your drill’s chuck while pulling the other end with pliers. Release the drill so it can slowly turn the wire while the other end is still firmly held with your pliers. Keep the drill turning till the wire is straight.
- Step 2: With the wire straightened out, get a part of the wire wrapping. You may decide to cut out a lengthy part or keep the wire on a spool. If you’re not a fan of wasting materials, you may want to cut out the lengthy part instead of keeping the wire on a spool. kanthal is relatively cheap which means many people are not really bothered about the waste caused by placing the wire on a spool.
- Step 3: The third step involves wrapping the coil wire. Place the core piece in the drill chuck and put the end of the wrapping wire in the drill chuck’s side in between its teeth. Grip the wire into your drill chuck by placing a loop at its end. If you followed all instructions until this point, the thick core wire should stick out from the drill chuck and another from the side.
- Step 4: Place the wrapping wire on the core wire in a way that the endpoints are downwards ready to encircle the core. Fire the drill slowly and then rapidly with the wrapping wire still against the core.
- Step 5: Fasten tightly into your drill with the other end of your Kanthal wire. Spin the drill using one hand while the other hand winds the outer gauge wire. As you keep this up, the smaller wire wraps around the bigger sized wire and when the process is complete, the outer wire should have wrapped around the core wire efficiently. Try to keep the wrapping process as steady as possible to avoid wraps crossing over.
Why Clapton Coil Builders use Thinner Wires for Outer Coil
Normally, resistance increase as the number of wire increases. In Clapton’s coils, the thick core wire with low resistance carries more current and keeps the build’s resistance low. The outer wire takes up less current but will heat up quickly because it is directly in contact with the core wire which is already hot. Thinner wires thrive in the outer coil because they take less time to heat up.
Conclusion
Like every other piece of art, building Clapton coils takes time and there is every possibility you won’t get it right the first time. Take it slow and increase the pace as you feel more comfortable. With time and practice, you can build good Clapton coils. More experienced builders are able to build even better variations of Clapton coils. A gold example is the fused Clapton coil which features a similar mechanism and building process as the normal Clapton coil and offers even more benefits to vapers. The better you become, the better coils you will be able to make. Whatever efforts you put into building your Clapton coil will certainly be worth it in the end. From thicker clouds to more varieties of flavor to enjoy, Clapton coils take vaping experience to a new level.