Dry-burning metal coils: is it a good thing?

I've been thinking hard on this subject since someone brought it up last week to me. In order for Kanthol to be brought to the form in which we buy it, it has been so hot it was molten and processed no doubt while it was bright red hot. By dry dry firing to red hot and rinsing in water it is less safe than it was when dirty..... OK I can understand that but it should equally bad or good as a new coil in which was brought to very high heat and forged etc eventually ending up on my spool. It is not as if it goes through some special cleaning to become vapesafe. It is simply heating wire. Where might I going wrong with my line of thinking?

**Updated**

Ok, I just finished the second half of the thread now and see where things have come back to less fear about dry firing. I can handle keeping it to Red and I'll just make sure to fire and slow cool them a few times after I've cleaned them for a nice layer of oxidization. You just can't beat the ability of that blast of water to shine them right up to brand new again. As far as spalling ending up in my cotton or in the gunk in my attys... well I don't leave the cotton in while cleaning the coils and my atty aren't filled with gunk. That spalling ought to rinse away and if it's too dense somehow to rinse away, I imagine it's too dense to inhale. Back to normal for me.

 

Possibly that the finished state after production results different in properties and heating temperatures in production vs dry burning are different and affect the wire reaction quite differently. I'm not sure. Based on all I read the general consensus seems to be that it's probably not a big problem dry burning kanthal, even to bright yellow levels for moderate durations. Everyone can make their own judgements on risk levels. I don't mind rebuilding so have no need to glow coils white-hot anyway when setting them up and if it's super gunked usually just opt to rebuild anyway. Just my personl preference and not advocating since I'm no expert and havent seen anything scientifically definitive on the subject.

 

'Scuse me, but why in the world would anyone inhale the smoke coming off a dry burning coil? That's residual gunk from the manufacturing process, usually in the form of petroleum-based lubricants. I did a bunch of TIG welding a while back for work. Steel from the yard comes "pickled" which means it's coated in oil to prevent oxidation during transport and storage. I can think of a lot of other things I'd rather inhale than oil-based protectants. Just sayin'... Even when I pulse a new coil to in preparation to squeeze it, it emits smoke, which means that *something* impure is burning off. I hold my mod away from my face when I pulse fire and there's usually a fan running close by to insure the junk doesn't get on my skin, and particularly facial skin, which is far more porous and susceptible to the potential absorption of airborne toxins. Once the little smoke trails subside, I'll bring the mod in closer to do the squeezing and final adjustments/alignment before wicking.

These articles are fascinating, btw. Lots of cool info... Thanks all! I think I'll try using alcohol to clean the wire first before coiling, fitting, pulsing, etc. and see if it mellows out the initial off gassing of contaminants.

 

I just try to minimise dry firing, and leave it at that. Life is too short to spend ages trying to avoid half of almost nothing.

A walk near a busy road is probably hundreds of times more harmful.

 

I've been mostly off the kanthal builds but on the rare occasion I have one, I also minimize the dry burning but at the same time not so paranoid about it either. Life is too short ya!

Beats the heck out of me why anyone would want to do it! You never know with people though huh? Some real wackos out there.

I do this regularly especially since I do not dry burn with TC builds. In the same spool of wire I sometimes see a fair little bit of residuals left on the alcohol soaked cotton and other times almost nothing. Especially with the Titanium wire.

 

LMFAO... And maybe, just maybe, that's why NYC is home to more cancer hospitals than anywhere else on the planet; ya think?

 

Sorry - I should have mentioned that I only use Kanthal (A1) - I don't do temp. control at all.

One day, maybe.

 

Just a gentle suggestion: The IPV D2 does TC along with the regular wattage mode for Kanthal. It's not a credit card killer by any means and has a YiHi chipset, which, IMHO is stellar. It's got the same sweet usability characteristics of its pricier big brother and is an absolute joy to hold. My only gripe with the D2 is the silicone sleeve: You have to remove it completely to swap batteries, and it rips 'bout as easily as wet toilet paper.

I use my D2 as my "travel rig", especially on buses and trains, while keeping the VT40 and SX Mini M packed away in my trolley case if there's even a hint of possible confiscation (like when I came back into Thailand through Phuket HKT). I wouldn't have nearly the hissy-fits if customs took it away as opposed to either of the other two, but thankfully, they didn't even bat an eyelash over any of it, including my twenty-something bottles of juice in my checked trolley case...

**Updated**

Scratchy; I haven't tried Ti yet. What do you like/dislike about it? Is it on your recommend list of things to build with?

 

Generally speaking, it's easier to work with (tempered Ni200 28 ga isn't bad) as it doesn't deform as easily and you would be working with 26 ga and 24 ga wire. It can be somewhat springy but it's not bad. It also requires less wraps despite the higher gauges so can make building on space-limited setups little bit easier. I'm still not completely sure about the better flavor aspect but my thoughts are that it is, as others have reported, slightly cleaner tasting. That being said, I have some Ni200 builds that are superb in the flavor department and only realize they are Ni200 builds after checking my "Vape Log" and seeing the build type info.

Overall, I do prefer the Ti-1 over Ni200, mostly because of the work-ability and requiring less wraps to hit target resistances.