​Clapton Coil 101 - Everything You Need To Know

If you're new to the world of vaping, you may have seen or heard the term around and found yourself wondering, what is a clapton coil?

If you've an an experienced vaper on the other hand, you may already know how to make your own clapton coils, or are simply looking for the best premade clapton coil to buy outright.

Well, you've come to the right place.

Clapton Coil Overview

A clapton coil is a vape wire which consists of a core of wire, which is wrapped tightly by a thinner gauge wire.

In this article, we’ll look at the various types of Clapton coils, how to build one, and which one is best suited for your vaping needs.

If you prefer vaping using sub-ohm tanks, you've probably come across coil heads which are marketed as Clapton coils. You may also find Clapton coils which are sold pre-wrapped, which are intended to be used in either RTAs or RDAs.

These coils are also very popular on social media, so you may have seen them being shown off on Instagram shots or vaping Youtube channels.

There are currently many different brands of Clapton coils on the market, so it can be tough to choose which one is best. Fortunately as a result of the influx of brands and competition, many specialize in carefully designed and built coils. For example, those beautiful macro shots of the coils you'll find on Instagram.

Why Use Clapton Coils

Clapton coils are very popular for several different reasons. First off, they enhance the flavor of your vape liquids. They also typically last longer than traditional coils, while looking more elegant, producing larger vape clouds, and just being fun to design and build.

One main benefit of using a Clapton wire with an RDA or RTA build, is it increases the coil's surface area as opposed to when using a regular wire. Having a larger surface area means your e-juice will vaporize even faster the moment you press the fire button. This helps to preserve the lifespan of your coil, while giving you a fresh tasting puff every time.

Remember that resistances increases if you use a long wire, and the thicker, lower-resistance wires help to keep the resistance in the device low and carries most of the current. Using a thinner outer wire will take less current, but will still heat up quickly since it's closer to the hot inner core. This is one of the main benefits of using a clapton wire, since you get the advantages of the thin wire with a thicker core, allowing your vape to heat quickly and give you fresh hits with big clouds.

If you notice the flavor of your e-juice changing, you may need to adjust your power a bit. Since the Clapton coil's inner core gets hot more quickly than the outer wire, the taste can vary widely depending on a high or low power. This is because the speed of which the heat changes has an impact on the flavor notes that are released - so you'll need to experiment with what power works best with your vape juice and setup. The inside of the coil is basically acting as a heatsink for the rest of the coil.

Some Clapton coil designs also act as a wick, storing the vape juice within the cavaties. This helps to disperse the vape juice for even and tasty hits as it saturates.

Overall, this higher surface area and wicking potential decreases the potential for dry vape hits, and getting more overall vapor in each hit.

Clapton Coil Cons

There are a few downsides to using a clapton coil. One of the most common complaints is the ramp up time to heating up. This will vary depending on the clapton coil design and materials, but some vapers find that it takes too long to heat up - while others disagree and find their setup heats up nearly instantly. If you find your coil takes too long to heat it up, try increasingy our power and experiment to find a better setting.

Another common complain is that is you'll tend to use more e-liquid with clapton coils due to the larger surface area. However, if what you want is more vapor, this downside is inevitable, as you can't get bigger clouds without using more juice.

How to Make A Clapton Coil

First you'll need to cut a long section of a core wire and proceed to straighten is as much as much as possible. One way to do this is to put the end of the wire into the end of a drill. Then grab the other end of the wire tightly with a pair of wires. Once everything is secure, carefully turn the drill on a bit to turn the wire slowly, while holding the other end of the wire tightly using pliers. Continue doing so until the wire is straightened.

Second, get a length of your choice of wrapping wire. You can choose to cut a long section off, or just keep it on the spool - whatever is easier for you you to work with. Keeping the wire on the spool will reduce wasting any extra wire, so I usually do it this way. On the other hand, kanthal wire is very budget friendly, so it's not a huge loss if you do decide to cut it.

Third, it's time to start wrappign your wire. Place your core piece into the end of your drill in the chuck nice and ceneterd with the end of the core wire sticking out of the drill chuck's front.

Wrapping the Clapton coil wire is all you have to do now. Hold your wrapping wire against the core at a 45 degree angle. The end should point downwards to ensure it’s ready for wrapping around the core piece. If the wire is on the spool, you should poke something into the center of the spool center so you can hold the spool securely but still allow it to turn with the drill. When you're ready, carefully and slowly turn the drill on so that the wire begins to wrap around the core.

The core will start to spin, which will pull your wrapping wire around it. You’ll need to be careful and ensure it stays steady, monitoring the wrapping to make sure nothing gets crossed or stacked up as it coils around. If it's your first try, don't worry if your first wraps don't come out perfect.

Once you get used to the wrapping process and get some practice, you'll be able to speed up the process and do it pretty quickly. And keep in mind that if you have any messy ends, you'll be able to just cut them off once you're finished.

Buying Pre-Made Clapton Coils

Like I mentioned before, there are many varying designs of Clapton wire and coils available due to their recent popularity. When trying to pick the best clapton wire, remember that larger coils will heat more quickly and provide you lower resistance due to the increased surface area. In the case of Fused Clapton coils, remember that these have multiple cores, which further reduce the resistance. You'll probably end up experimenting with many kinds of Clapton coils until you find your favorite.

Which clapton coil is your favorite? Or do you prefer to make your own? Let us know in the comments below.