Zirconium Wire Anyone?

[Intuthu Kagesi]

I guess I could wire up an atty with like half a meter of my titanium wire and use a mod on low wattage to heat the wire slowly. hmmm....

That may well do the trick

and if you really want accuracy ... here's a relatively inexpensive thermometer;
https://www.builders.co.za/Tools-an...rsal-Surface-Thermometer/p/000000000000755961

EDIT -> Oops ... scrap that comment ... it only goes to 500 degrees C

 

[TonySC]

That may well do the trick

and if you really want accuracy ... here's a relatively inexpensive thermometer;
https://www.builders.co.za/Tools-an...rsal-Surface-Thermometer/p/000000000000755961

EDIT -> Oops ... scrap that comment ... it only goes to 500 degrees C

*falls over dead......R1.2k cheap????!!! Are we in hyperinflation already??
I suppose you're used to lab grade ones costing 10x.
My no name brand one that goes up to 400 degrees C is pretty cheap. Only R250.

 

[Intuthu Kagesi]

*falls over dead......R1.2k cheap????!!! Are we in hyperinflation already??
I suppose you're used to lab grade ones costing 10x.
My no name brand one that goes up to 400 degrees C is pretty cheap. Only R250.

Yeah ... erm ... sowwie ... I am comparing it to "Lab Grade", and someone else footing the bill ... O well ... back to the old school method of check the colour

 

[Timwis]

No, my SS430 is from geekvape.

Aaaaarh, don't shoot the messenger, before getting more seriously into TC I have been friendly with the moderator on the evolv forum as he is also a member on other forums I go on who started vaping in TC rather than power mode so have been lucky to get great advice and one no no he told me straight away is never buy TC wires manufactured in China.

 

[Timwis]

I guess I could wire up an atty with like half a meter of my titanium wire and use a mod on low wattage to heat the wire slowly. hmmm....

When you have done a spaced coil do you get hotspots when bumping temp up to 600 degrees on your mod and giving it some pulses (although it only powers for a fraction because it cuts out at 600 you can still see if there are any hotspots, this is a safer method of dry burning titanium as well) maybe your springy wire might just be because it's thinner wire, compared to thicker gauges it does come across as sort of springier with all wires the thinner it gets or have you had 28ga before that you can compare it to?

 

[Intuthu Kagesi]

Stainless steel's Brinell hardness is typically in the range of 180 to 400, whilst Titanium's is half that, in the range of 100 to 200, so theoretically Titanium in a hardened state is almost the same as Stainless in a softened state, which leads back to your post about not buying wire from China
My experience with Chinese steels is that they tend to have a higher Carbon and Silica content than most others, (Carbon and Sand is after all cheaper than Steel), which could account for the hardness, (translated springiness for purposes of this post), that @TonySC is experiencing.

 

[Old_Goat]

If any of you guys are interested in bringing in some of this wire, I think we should all band together and order it in one big bulk shipment. That way we can all get it at a reasonable price and split the shipping cost.

I'm keen if any of you guys want to join in.

 

[Timwis]

If any of you guys are interested in bringing in some of this wire, I think we should all band together and order it in one big bulk shipment. That way we can all get it at a reasonable price and split the shipping cost.

I'm keen if any of you guys want to join in.

There seams to be a short supply of wire in general so maybe have a thread organising a group buy for all wire not just Zirconium, Zivipf in Germany have a great range of wires! Not being in SA I would have no idea who the best person to organise it would be or if anyone would even want the responsibility.

 

[Old_Goat]

There seams to be a short supply of wire in general so maybe have a thread organising a group buy for all wire not just Zirconium, Zivipf in Germany have a great range of wires! Not being in SA I would have no idea who the best person to organise it would be or if anyone would even want the responsibility.

Maybe one of the vendors would like to step in. @BLCK, I'm looking at you.

 

[TonySC]

When you have done a spaced coil do you get hotspots when bumping temp up to 600 degrees on your mod and giving it some pulses (although it only powers for a fraction because it cuts out at 600 you can still see if there are any hotspots, this is a safer method of dry burning titanium as well) maybe your springy wire might just be because it's thinner wire, compared to thicker gauges it does come across as sort of springier with all wires the thinner it gets or have you had 28ga before that you can compare it ?

Enjoying my dual titanium twisted coils in my manta rta. The annealing made a huge difference. Without that it's impossible.

 

[TonySC]

Stainless steel's Brinell hardness is typically in the range of 180 to 400, whilst Titanium's is half that, in the range of 100 to 200, so theoretically Titanium in a hardened state is almost the same as Stainless in a softened state, which leads back to your post about not buying wire from China
My experience with Chinese steels is that they tend to have a higher Carbon and Silica content than most others, (Carbon and Sand is after all cheaper than Steel), which could account for the hardness, (translated springiness for purposes of this post), that @TonySC is experiencing.

Beggars can't be choosers. I have no access to local manufacturers of SS wire so Chinese vaping wire is all I got.

 

[TonySC]

Aaaaarh, don't shoot the messenger, before getting more seriously into TC I have been friendly with the moderator on the evolv forum as he is also a member on other forums I go on who started vaping in TC rather than power mode so have been lucky to get great advice and one no no he told me straight away is never buy TC wires manufactured in China.

They not bad to that degree. I manage very stable TC with Chinese wires. Even on quite a few non DNA/yihi mods.

 

[TonySC]

When you have done a spaced coil do you get hotspots when bumping temp up to 600 degrees on your mod and giving it some pulses (although it only powers for a fraction because it cuts out at 600 you can still see if there are any hotspots, this is a safer method of dry burning titanium as well) maybe your springy wire might just be because it's thinner wire, compared to thicker gauges it does come across as sort of springier with all wires the thinner it gets or have you had 28ga before that you can compare it to?

Why are we trying to deal with hot spots? When vaping in TC so 200 to 250° c, in my experience whatever effects hotspots have are pretty negligible if not I'm detectable

 

[Intuthu Kagesi]

Beggars can't be choosers. I have no access to local manufacturers of SS wire so Chinese vaping wire is all I got.

I'm with you there ... Ironically South Africa exports some of the best steel in the world, and then imports lower grades ????? go figure ... be that as it may; Small amounts of impurities shouldn't detract from it's ability to function perfectly whether it be TC or otherwise .

 

[Timwis]

Why are we trying to deal with hot spots? When vaping in TC so 200 to 250° c, in my experience whatever effects hotspots have are pretty negligible if not I'm detectable

I don't get hotspots but thought you might if your wire wasn't annealed!

They not bad to that degree. I manage very stable TC with Chinese wires. Even on quite a few non DNA/yihi mods.

Jeeez, you were the one who complained about your springy wire! I was just trying to help from what I have been told, I wouldn't know I don't buy Chinese manufactured wire but it seams the only ones who don't say it's rubbish are those that don't have a choice!

 

[Timwis]

Beggars can't be choosers

A couple of people included on this thread has mentioned a group buy from Europe!

 

[TonySC]

I don't get hotspots but thought you might if your wire wasn't annealed!

Jeeez, you were the one who complained about your springy wire! I was just trying to help from what I have been told, I wouldn't know I don't buy Chinese manufactured wire but it seams the only ones who don't say it's rubbish are those that don't have a choice!

Oh no, don't get the wrong idea. Very much appreciate your input. And what you've been told is not all that off the mark. As wire, the Chinese vaping wire we get here are absolutely rubbish. They are just not so rubbish that they throw off TC by an intolerable margin in temperature. And in the cases where they do cause large inaccuracies, one can just adjust mod settings to compensate.

 

[Timwis]

Three weeks is here so as promised it's re-wick time. Because I had no issues wrapping, installing and wicking the coil originally and thanks to @Intuthu Kagesi I had prior warning about the wire's malleability I was confident re-wicking should be straight forward with a bit of care!


Because the Zirconium has been stable in temp control there was no weakening of the cotton in the centre and it was a 3.0ID shoelace used with a 3.0ID coil so needed quite some tugging to pull out, thankfully the worry that the malleability of the wire would cause deforming of the coil turned out to be inaccurate as the wraps moved while pulling the cotton out but no more than with any other MTL coil I have re-wicked and I tend to use 26ga the Zirconium is 27ga, the wraps then just reshaped to their original shape, zero issues.



I then warmed the coil while in TC, removed from the mod and cleaned under running hot water with a toothbrush, from how the coil behaved when removing the cotton I now knew I didn't need to be careful at all so gave it a good scrub although the coil was still in very good condition.



Re-wicking was as straightforward as the original wicking with again because I was using a 3mm shoelace it was a quite tight fit so yes the wraps moved as the cotton was pulled through (but then went back to original position) but no more than with any other MTL coil and the coil maintained it's form, no problem, in fact a total success!!!!



Back to some quality vaping!

 

[TonySC]

Three weeks is here so as promised it's re-wick time. Because I had no issues wrapping, installing and wicking the coil originally and thanks to @Intuthu Kagesi I had prior warning about the wire's malleability I was confident re-wicking should be straight forward with a bit of care!
View attachment 278056

Because the Zirconium has been stable in temp control there was no weakening of the cotton in the centre and it was a 3.0ID shoelace used with a 3.0ID coil so needed quite some tugging to pull out, thankfully the worry that the malleability of the wire would cause deforming of the coil turned out to be inaccurate as the wraps moved while pulling the cotton out but no more than with any other MTL coil I have re-wicked and I tend to use 26ga the Zirconium is 27ga, the wraps then just reshaped to their original shape, zero issues.

View attachment 278058View attachment 278059

I then warmed the coil while in TC, removed from the mod and cleaned under running hot water with a toothbrush, from how the coil behaved when removing the cotton I now knew I didn't need to be careful at all so gave it a good scrub although the coil was still in very good condition.

View attachment 278060View attachment 278061

Re-wicking was as straightforward as the original wicking with again because I was using a 3mm shoelace it was a quite tight fit so yes the wraps moved as the cotton was pulled through (but then went back to original position) but no more than with any other MTL coil and the coil maintained it's form, no problem, in fact a total success!!!!

View attachment 278062

Back to some quality vaping!

Good. Now that you have finished testing, time to send me the wires to 'verify' your results.

 

[Timwis]

I have been spending the last 2 weeks vaping similar Zirconium (the one in this thread) and Titanium (the build originally done before my Zirconium build with about the same vape time and also re-wicked) builds to compare side by side!

One thing for sure is for the foreseeable future Titanium and Zirconium will be my go to wires, I also tried SS430 but much prefer the previous wires mentioned.

Both are perfectly easy to work with in regard wrapping a coil and tonight re-wicked both for a second time with zero issues despite me using 28ga titanium and 27ga Zirconium which are quite thin wires.

Both have been 100% stable in TC for the entire duration and the resistance of the wires and behaviour are so very similar, when it comes to the quality of vape and flavour I really can’t separate them although over a longer period of time when the different wires are tried in different atomizers then maybe one will slightly distinguish itself, time will tell!

As it stands I have the two neck and neck with Titanium having the advantage of being more available and therefore also much more advice given on blogs, forum threads etc while Zirconium in theory has the advantage of being the healthier option although as both wires are used by controlling temperature then really it makes little if no difference!

 

[Intuthu Kagesi]

Now all we need is one of the South African Vape Stores to start bringing it into South Africa #subtlehint #andtellusonthisthread

 

[Timwis]

I have been spending the last 2 weeks vaping similar Zirconium (the one in this thread) and Titanium (the build originally done before my Zirconium build with about the same vape time and also re-wicked) builds to compare side by side!

One thing for sure is for the foreseeable future Titanium and Zirconium will be my go to wires, I also tried SS430 but much prefer the previous wires mentioned.

Both are perfectly easy to work with in regard wrapping a coil and tonight re-wicked both for a second time with zero issues despite me using 28ga titanium and 27ga Zirconium which are quite thin wires.

Both have been 100% stable in TC for the entire duration and the resistance of the wires and behaviour are so very similar, when it comes to the quality of vape and flavour I really can’t separate them although over a longer period of time when the different wires are tried in different atomizers then maybe one will slightly distinguish itself, time will tell!

As it stands I have the two neck and neck with Titanium having the advantage of being more available and therefore also much more advice given on blogs, forum threads etc while Zirconium in theory has the advantage of being the healthier option although as both wires are used by controlling temperature then really it makes little if no difference!

Just to point out although mine wasn’t some Titanium so I expect some Zirconium can be springy, I suppose it will be down to the annealing process and quality of the wire. My Zirconium was from Zivipf and my Titanium from Zivipf although I haven’t yet used it is also not springy the samples of Titanium sent by @Wayneo which I have used I believe are manufactured by Temco and very easy to work with!

 

[Intuthu Kagesi]

Just to point out although mine wasn’t some Titanium so I expect some Zirconium can be springy, I suppose it will be down to the annealing process and quality of the wire. My Zirconium was from Zivipf and my Titanium from Zivipf although I haven’t yet used it is also not springy the samples of Titanium sent by @Wayneo which I have used I believe are manufactured by Temco and very easy to work with!

There will always be some discrepancies in mass produced wires, and I expect vapers will come up with methods not unlike the early days of vaping, where 30G NiChrome wires were heated over a Bic Lighter before forming them over glass fiber wicks in the tiniest of coils.
I did want to ask whether you had conducted your testing with a "control", aka two, (or more), identical atties for concurrent testing too?

 

[Timwis]

There will always be some discrepancies in mass produced wires, and I expect vapers will come up with methods not unlike the early days of vaping, where 30G NiChrome wires were heated over a Bic Lighter before forming them over glass fiber wicks in the tiniest of coils.
I did want to ask whether you had conducted your testing with a "control", aka two, (or more), identical atties for concurrent testing too?

yeah I did say that more thorough testing including that will take a much longer period, from my experience using Zirconium so far I do understand why Golden Geek swear by it. One thing I find strange is why other wires tend to be more available in even guages while everywhere I have seen Zirconium sold as vaping wire they are always in odds such as 27 or 29ga etc, no big deal just find it a bit weird!

 

[Intuthu Kagesi]

yeah I did say that more thorough testing including that will take a much longer period, from my experience using Zirconium so far I do understand why Golden Geek swear by it. One thing I find strange is why other wires tend to be more available in even guages while everywhere I have seen Zirconium sold as vaping wire they are always in odds such as 27 or 29ga etc, no big deal just find it a bit weird!

Fair comment ... You have embarked on a fairly long term test, however it seems to be showing promise.
As to the odd gauge sizes ... Your guess is as good as mine ... I have noticed some wire suppliers quoting rounded decimal too