Coil is an indispensable part of every vape device, and is also an important factor in creating vape experiences with great flavor. And among them, Clapton Coil or Clap coil is the most popular type of coil that any builder knows.
Vapers are very creative people, and when it comes to coils… you know, the choices are almost limitless. That’s right, since the early days when vaping was widely introduced to the world, vapers have come up with all kinds of coils to suit their needs. From simple things like basic kanthal 24ga, parallel, twisted to extremely complex coils that require hours of manual work, which people often call “Coil-porn”. Among them, there is a type of coil that is more popular than all, almost everyone who plays vape has heard the phrase “clapton coil” or “coil clap” at least once. This is also the first type of coil I practiced when I started to become a builder. So what is a clapton coil? What makes them superior to other types of coils? Let’s find out with me.
What exactly is a Clapton coil?
Clapton coil is called...well, clapton coil because it has the same shape and structure as a guitar string. A basic clapton coil consists of a large wire as the core and is wrapped around an extremely thin wire. This is exactly the process of making a guitar string, except that with vapers we use specialized materials for coils (Ni80, Kanthal, SS316L,...).
This clapton wire will then be cut into small pieces and wound into the finished coil. The appearance of the clapton coil may not be very special, but the flavor it brings is definitely superior to the basic one.
In addition to the basic clapton coil (1 core), other variations of this type of coil include the fused clapton coil (2 cores) and the most special type: alien coil, this is a clap coil with 3 cores and the outer wire is shaped like a wavy wire to maximize the contact surface and...very beautiful, very very beautiful.
Why use clapton coil?
If you watch foreign coil channels, you may have heard the phrase “heat pocket” somewhere a few times. Heat pocket actually refers to the contact surface of the coil with the juice when burning. The larger the surface, the higher the efficiency and vice versa. The outer wire has a diameter less than a hair, so it significantly increases the contact area of the coil with the juice without changing the resistance too much. This means that your smoke will be more moist, sweet and smooth because the juice has been completely vaporized. Therefore, clapton is the right choice for those who want to balance both smoke and flavor, in both aspects, this type of coil does very well.
Normally, to increase the contact area we will use more wire, but this will reduce the resistance of the coil, causing the machine to need to discharge more energy to heat the coil. With clapton, because most of the resistance of this wire is in the core, the machine will still receive the ohm number of the main wire inside. When you press the button, the core wire will heat up first and quickly transfer heat to the outer covering to vaporize the vape juice. Do you remember the experiment of wrapping a hair around a nail and heating it? The nail was red hot but the hair did not break, in this case it is similar.
Disadvantages of clapton coil
The most obvious disadvantage of this type of coil is the heat up time, precisely the time it takes for the coil to go from a cold state to the vaporization temperature of the juice. Due to its design, this is inevitable. However, this "slow" vaporization only appears if you use it on a mech mod, but with most box mods that can change the power, just increase the wattage a little and this disadvantage is completely resolved.
The second drawback of clapton coil is its low lifespan, especially if you use juice bottles with high sweetness, causing the coil surface to become clogged. To overcome this, my advice is to clean it regularly every 3 days and proactively replace the coil when you feel the flavor is reduced compared to the beginning.
But I know, not everyone has time to take their car to the vape shop every few days, and the cost of a coil replacement usually doesn’t come from the materials but from the effort of the builder who made it. And that’s why right now I’m going to show you the basic steps to make a clapton coil at home.
Steps to make clapton coil at home
To make your own coil at home, you first need materials and tools. These include a 26 or 28ga core wire, a 36 or 38ga uncoated wire, a hand drill, a table clamp and an anti-twist key. This is extremely important because without a good key lock, even the most experienced builder will damage the coil.
Step 1: Prepare a piece of kanthal or ni80 26ga core wire and straighten the wire as much as possible. The simplest way to do this is to clamp one end of the wire to the drill, use pliers to clamp the other end tightly and turn the drill on the slowest speed until the wire is straight.
Step 2: Stretch the core wire and tie the other end to the locking ring, then secure the wire wrap to one end of the core.
Step 3: Turn on the drill slowly the first few turns to wrap the outer wire loops as tightly as possible, when you are confident and start to feel it you can speed up the drill faster.
The key to a successful coil is that the core wire must be tight and straight, and the wrap wire must be perpendicular to the core and have the right amount of tension at all times. If you don’t keep the wrap wire perpendicular, the wraps will move apart. If you pull the wrap too tight when running the wire, it will break, and if it is too loose, the wrap will become loose and fall off.
Although this is the simplest coil to start with, trust me, no one gets it right the first time. Keep making mistakes, and start over. Once you get the hang of running claptons, running any other coil is a piece of cake.
If you find making your own wire too difficult or simply don't have the time or patience, don't worry because The Vape Club always has all kinds of coils available made by skilled builders. You just need to ask the builder to design a coil, buy it and install it in the atomizer, the price of such pre-wound coils is usually half the price of the installation at the shop. Of course, you also need to have the skills to install the coil and heat up.
Hope you have got some interesting information after this article. If you have any questions or interesting information, please do not hesitate to share it with us. Wish you a good evening vapers.
Stay safe, vape on!
Gia Bao
