I've been DIY'ing my own juice and using only my juice for about 6 months now. I've gotten used to my claptons looking brand new, even after 3-4 weeks. I've been super busy at work and decided to treat myself to my old ADV, from a local b&m. After a week, my coils are gunked and the cotton looks disgusting. A week! The juice isn't even a dessert-type or something else crazy sweet, just having sweetener in it. For a year, I used that juice and never thought anything of it. After a week, I'm ready to go back to my DIY juice and having the coils and cotton last for more than a week. Just something for a budget vapers and new DIY-ers to be conscious of.
My current Clapton is 2 months old, I only single coil. I burn it till it catches on fire maybe once a week. Even subohm cart tanks last weeks on a wick with Homebrew!
Even with sweetener laden juice I could make coils in an rda last three months, but that's cleaning and rewicking every three days or so. Now, I just pulse my coils, not even red hot, and wipe them off with a paper towel dabbed with vg. Still averaging around three months. Most of the time I change a build because I wanna build/see a new build when I take the cap off more than gunk and what not.
> till it catches on fire
what wat. clapton coils regularly catch on fire???
It takes about 9 seconds, and after it has a flame, I blow through the coil. It glows orange really bright, until all the gunk ashes off, then it dulls. That's how I clean. I'm probably doing it wrong (as this sub is quick to point out) haha.
No metal doesn't catch on fire lol. What's happening is the remaining cotton fibers are getting hot enough to catch fire. And tbh this honestly isn't a good thing because they singe and melt to the coil. u/dvrzero
Pretty much this. Usage will always be the factor on coils.
My aunt has an Ego AIO that I rewick maybe once a week and she only vapes my DIY stuff, mostly just an apple/cream recipe. She goes through 3ml/day and it lasts about 8-10 days per cleaning. The coils themselves last 1-3 months usually. I vape a ton of different recipes including coffees which murder coils and I rewick twice a week minimum, and my coils last 2-4 weeks.
I have had a ton more success with kanthal, over SS for cleaning, SS never looks right even if it tastes fine.
I've DIY'd fruity juices for about 4 months and vape with an Aspire Nautilus 2.
I find taste degrading badly after about 7-10 days though the coils happily last 1-2 months.
I've tried cleaning coils with boiling water and have decided it's not worth the hassle - never quite as good as a new coil and then only for an extra 3 or 4 days.
I'm toying with getting a re-buildable it would have to be an RTA
I change coils by usage not time. About 60ml and the cotton needs to be changed so I just toss everything clean my atty and start a new. Usually keep 3 RTAs around so I only have to build once a week but yeah im doing 120-180ml per week
Depending on the type of coil. Ie my regular as Claptons I clean once a week. But flat ss wrapped with ss 30-32g clean once every 3 weeks. Cleaning means changing cotton also.
No sweeteners just flavoring nic and 70-80vg single coil.
But if I use any retail brand I have to change cotton and clean every 2-3 days.
To clean I pull cotton pulse to dry then glow coil rinse then pulse to dry then glow and rinse. Then I blow it off and pulse and rewick.
I used to diy my coils but I was not a great success with them, so I switched to a cleito tank with premade coils. With store juice they were funky 4 days later and I would tolerate them an extra day or two- now I change them every two weeks when I feel like it. With the savings I make from diy juice I don't even begrudge the expense of the coil, which is a huge quality of life upgrade for me.
You guys gotta go to the local hardware store and get some Dremel (or equivalent) wire brush attachments and brush them off after a nice burn. I have DIY fused Claptons in the 36-40 gauge outer wrap range and they last forever. I basically dry burn, wire brush, ultrasonically clean, pulse to dry and re-wick. I use to do everything sans the ultrasonic clean until one day I tried it. Once the coil was in and I turned it on there was a cloud of brown in the water puffing out of the coil. Do it religiously now lol. They'll still look dull and oxidized but that's just the nature of the beast.
I use sweetener in my diy juices so they only last about 4 days before it needs to be changed. My recipes that have no sweetener easily last 3-4 times longer. Store bought juices get gunked even faster than my diy sweetened juices though, I think they use a lot. that's just the cotton though, usually just reuse my coils for a really long time.