Clapton Coils. What Do We Know About Them?

What do you know about clapton coils? If you feel your background leaves much to be desired, here are 5 interesting facts we bet you’ll be interested in. 

Fact #1: The clapton coils were invented by a seasoned vaper watching his friend playing the guitar.  

One day an Electronic Cigarette Forum veteran mrdee3 looked at his friend playing guitar, and a bright idea sparked his imagination. He noticed that the strings of a guitar are made of a wire coiled around another wire. This way, the surface of a strand has a bigger area of contact with the air. In the case of vaping coils, it means more space to vaporize e-liquid.

Fact #2 As a tribute to the music that inspired the invention, the author named it in honor of guitarist Eric Clapton. 

Fact #3 Now clapton is an umbrella term for a whole class of coils, including alien coils, fused claptons, tiger, framed staple coils, etc.

Fact #4 The first clapton coil was created with the help of an electric drill, and it’s still the preferred method of the DIY community. It’s worth mentioning; you can buy the readymade ones almost everywhere. 

Fact #5 Although the surface of claptons is bigger than that of usual coils (meaning more wire is used), the resistance is low! That’s thanks to the wonderful build, and we’ll explain to you why.

What are the clapton coils?

A clapton coil is one wire coiled over the other one. A bigger gauge wire makes a core of the clapton coil. Then a smaller gauge wire is tightly wrapped over it to increase the heating surface. The structure is right as the one of a guitar string.

Why is a clapton coil considered an improvement?  

Clapton wires have caused a real craze in the vaping industry and not without reason. They strike with better results in cloud production, vapor quality, and flavor. But why?

The thing is about resistance. The bigger gauge wire that is the core of the coil has lower resistance because of its build (it’s shorter and wider). When you run the current through it, it heats up fast.

But then, it should also heat the outer shell or the smaller gauge wire. The latter could have a bigger resistance because it’s thin and long, but it never contacts the current; it just takes up the heat of the core.  

As a result, with the low resistance level, you get fast heating and more juice on your coil surface, and that is fewer dry hits and a lot of vapor in a moment! 

Are clapton coils for sub-ohm vaping only?

According to common opinion, the clapton wires are associated with sub-ohming. Yet, modern models come in a wide range of resistances running up to more than one ohm. 

They are entirely appropriate both for direct-lung and mouth-to-lung vaping. All the makers have to do is change the gauge of the core coil, i.e., make it thinner.  

Those who need more functionality will love claptons available in power mode (in Kanthal, nichrome, or stainless steel. There are ones supporting temperature control functions, mostly made of stainless steel.

The majority of diameters, materials, and, therefore, resistances make these coils fit perfect to different build decks and rebuildables. 

Clapton Coils Types

Since the first clapton coil saw the light of the day and proved it’s a worthy thing, the experiments flourished. As a result, we have a ton of variations, each offering its unique benefits.  

Fused clapton coils – the build is as follows: two thicker gauge clapton wires get wrapped with a thinner one. That also explains the name. The benefit of a fused clapton is a faster heating time (because of two wires in a core), and better flavor (because of the increased heating surface). 

Few more facts: 

• Author: a dedicated builder known as Squidoode;

Vaping method: direct lung and mouth-to-lung vaping;

• Resistances: variable; 
• Benefits compared to usual claptons: faster ramp-up time 

Staggered fused clapton – to make it, two bigger gauge wires are wrapped with a thinner one. Then, one of the core wires is removed, but the additional surface is increased. The clapton wire is then cut in half and fused with thinner wire. Since this sort of clapton is thick, large post holes are required. 

Few more facts: 

• Author: Squidoode; 
• Vaping method: direct lung;
• Resistances: low; 
• Benefits compared to usual claptons: more vapor

Alien clapton coil: to make it, one should wrap a thinner strand around a core and then remove the core. The next step is wrapping it once again around the multi-strand base of the same diameter as the original core was. The ramp-up time of alien coils is a bit slower, but the quality is excellent.

Few more facts: 

• Author: Blueeyedgoon83; 
• Vaping method: sub-ohm vaping;
• Resistances: low; 
• Benefits compared to usual claptons: more vapor

Staple coil: looking like a row of staples, this coil is made in the following way: a thin wire gets wrapped around a stack of 8-10 ribbon wires. This coil is more aesthetic and works for the better e-juice trapping. 

Few more facts: 

• Author: Squidoode; 
• Vaping method: direct-lung vaping;
• Resistances: low; 
• Benefits compared to usual claptons: better flavor;

Framed stable coil: to create this sort of a clapton coil, you should take a stacked ribbon wire. Frame it with round wire and fuse together with a thin round wire. All is done to create spaces between wires for better flavor.

Few more facts: 

• Author: Squidoode; 
• Vaping method: direct-lung vaping;
• Resistances: low; 
• Benefits compared to usual claptons: quicker ramp-up time, better flavor;

Tiger coil: it is a twisted coil, consisting of single round wire and a flat ribbon wire. Two clapton wires of different shapes form more grooves for e-liquid that cater to a better quality of vapor and flavor. They are larger and more exotic, compared to usual claptons and are comparatively simple to make. 

Few more facts: 

• Author: Leon Shin; 
• Vaping method: direct-lung, mouth-to-lung vaping;
• Resistances: low; 
• Benefits compared to usual clapton coils: easy to make, better flavor;

Hive coil: it consists of two twisted clapton wires, each of which also consists of two twisted wires. So actually, it has four strands of metal. In fact, it’s not a real twisted coil since it doesn’t have a bigger gauge core, and all the strands are of the same size. Yet, compared to a plain round wire, it has a bigger surface for heating your e-liquid.  

Few more facts: 

• Author: Twisted Messes; 
• Vaping method: mouth-to-lung vaping;
• Resistances: low; 
• Benefits: easy to make, better flavor compared to single-strand coils. 

Summing up…

Perfections should never end, so should the coil experiments intended to provide for better flavor and vapor quality. Whether you will try to make a coil yourself or buy a premade one, with any of the Clapton variations, you’ll never be disappointed.