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Josh’s Definitive Guide to Temperature Control with Titanium Wire

By Josh Krane With 48 Comments On 20 Jul | '2015

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Hey, CRAFT VAPERS! It seems that many of you have decided to follow my advice and get yourself a “Temperature Sensing” or “Temperature Control” device. Good for you! This means you are likely starting to accept that temperature control is the future of vaping, and to borrow from RipTrippers, that future is now. If you don’t have a temperature sensing device, then move along vaper, this article isn’t for you. If you do have a TS/TC device, read on to learn how I get the best results out of mine.

When temperature-sensing technology came out, it was based largely on nickel wire (known as Ni200) because the resistance of nickel increases in-line with increases in temperature. As temperature rises, resistance increases by a predictable amount, allowing chip makers to predict the temperature increase based on changes in the resistance of the atomizer. All you need to know is that someone smart out there discovered how to estimate temperature based on changing resistance, and it’s pretty damn accurate.

The dirty secret is that Ni200 is really tough to work with. It’s very soft and springy; so soft that often just re-wicking a coil will cause it to bend and twist, effectively ruining the coil. You have to wrap a spaced coil because contact coils screw up the resistance, but many vapers report difficulty in doing so, and you certainly can’t do a spaced coil on one of those fancy coil jogs many of you use. The resistance of Ni200 is incredibly low, which means many wraps are needed to get to the target resistance for temperature sensing. It’s so low, in fact, that wrapping a dual coil that actually fits in your RDA is nearly impossible. To make matters even worse, nickel is not very healthy for you if it off-gasses, and there is a lot of debate about whether using Ni200 is safe for vaping at all. In short, Ni200 is frustrating to use and might not be very safe, so why use it at all?

I have discovered that the solution to my frustrations with Ni200 is just to not use it at all. Instead, I prefer using pure titanium (cue David Guetta’s song by the same name). Pure Ti wire (100% pure, grade 1 titanium) is cleaner, medically pure, much stiffer, has a higher resistance, and is overall much easier to work with than Ni200. The resistance is about double that of Ni200, which means fewer wraps to reach your target resistance (not to mention a much easier dual coil build), and it’s medically pure with no off-gassing (at least in the temperature ranges we are talking about with temperature controlled devices). In other words, it’s the answer to my temperature control prayers. Better than Ni200 and arguably better and cleaner tasting than Kanthal or Nichrome, if used correctly, it will deliver one of the best vapes you have ever tried.

Before we get started, lets get the safety concerns out of the way. Ti wire has two big concerns that you should know about, but both are easily avoidable. The first concern is that Ti can ignite into flames… a flame no fire extinguisher can put out. Scared? Don’t be, because the combustion temperature of Ti wire is far higher than you will ever reach on one of these devices if you use them correctly. The second concern is the formation of Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) which can be harmful to your health if ingested, especially when inhaled. TiO2 is easy to detect; it forms above ~1200 degrees F (600C) and appears as a whitish / grey powder on the coils. 1200F may seem like a lot, but keep in mind a brightly glowing orange coil can easily get to 1300F or above. The easy solution: just don’t glow your Ti coils and you’ll never form TiO2. If you do accidentally glow your coils and see any white powder forming, you can easily clean it

off with alcohol. Those are the risks associated with Ti wire and as you can see, both are relatively easy to avoid.

Fig 1. Everything you need for Ti build

With the safety concerns out of the way, lets move on to actually building a coil.

For starters, you need some wire. CRAFT does not currently sell Ti wire, so we get ours from jewelry suppliers. Our favorite so far is Unkamen Supplies. We strongly prefer 24-gauge for single coils and 26-gauge for dual coils. You can pick up 30-35 feet of either gauge for around $10 USD. Regardless of where you get it from, you want 100% PURE GRADE 1 TITANIUM. Yes I’m yelling, because this is serious. Go ahead and stop reading now and order some Ti wire. Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you get back.

Once you have your Ti wire in hand, the next thing you want to do is prep it. Don’t worry, it’s not hard. We suggest taking a little rubbing alcohol and wiping down the wire a little bit. Why? Because many times there is machine oil left on the wire and it can ruin the taste of the juice that you are vaping. Go ahead and give that wire a few rubs with some alcohol on a cotton ball, or if you have some, use one of those alcohol prep pads.

Fig 2. Clean Ti wire with an alcohol pad to remove any machine oil or grime

Ok, so now we have clean, ready to wrap Ti wire, so let’s wrap some coils! Steam Engine should be your best friend here, but I’ll share my personal recipe for success:

Single Coil:I really prefer 24-gauge wire for single coils. I also prefer to wrap coils with a 3mm inner diameter. They are easier to build that way, and give lots of space for wicking and a bit of extra surface area. For the best compatibility across devices, I tend to prefer a target resistance

of .15ohms – .25ohms. If you are working with a DNA40 device, you want to keep that target resistance lower than .3ohms. The SX350J devices can go higher in resistance, but I would still keep it under ~ 0.4ohms at a maximum.

Fig 3. Wrap a normal contact coil, as tight as you can get it

My ideal single coil is a 9-wrap with 24-gauge wire and a 3mm inner diameter. Go ahead and wrap your coils the same way you would Kanthal. You want the coils tight together (contact coils), not spaced like you would have to for Ni200. Don’t worry if you don’t get it perfect, you will be able to tune the coil once it’s wrapped (we’ll discuss that next). Don’t torch or fire the coils just yet; we’ll cover how to do that after we discuss dual coils.

Dual Coils:I prefer 26-gauge wire for dual coils. It has a higher resistance per inch than 24-gauge, and it’s easier to hit the target resistance across the two coils. You are shooting for the same target

resistances that you are with a single coil: 0.15 – 0.25ohms, and again keep it under .4ohms at a maximum.

My ideal dual coil Ti set-up is a 10-wrap with 26-gauge wire and a 3mm inner diameter. Just like the single coils, you want to wrap them nice and tight, not spaced. Again, do not fire or torch the coils at all. We’re going to cover how to tune them next.

Fig 4. Untuned 9 wrap 24g Ti coil. Don’t worry, mine isn’t pretty before it’s tuned either :)

Tuning your coils:Once you have your coils wrapped, go ahead and mount them just like you would any other coil. Unlike Ni200, you don’t have to worry too much about getting the wire squarely under the screws in your posts as the resistance jumps are not as dramatic with Ti wire. Just make sure they are in there nice and snug, and if you are using dual coils, make sure they are the same

distance away from the posts or the coils will fire unevenly. Once your coils are mounted, DO NOT FIRE THE MOD.

Now we can start to tune the coils. Typically with Kanthal you would fire the coils until they are glowing hit and then give them a squeeze to make sure they are glowing inside out. The problem is that when you fire Ti that hot, you form Ti02, which we covered earlier and mentioned it was nasty stuff. SO let us avoid that at all costs by not firing the mod.

Here is the method for tuning Ti coils safely. For starters, adjust your mod so it’s firing at 6-7W. You can go a little higher; I wouldn’t suggest going any higher than 10W, but I strongly recommend you keep it in the 6-7W range. Start to pulse fire the mod (holding the button for 2-3 seconds, releasing, and repeating the process over and over). Once you have a little heat in the coil, stop firing the mod and give the coil a little squeeze with tweezers (ceramic is preferred; metal will work but DON’T use metal tweezers while firing the mod or it will short!!!!!). With some heat in the coil you should be able to squeeze the coils pretty tight to clean up any gaps you had in wrapping it. Continue the heating and squeezing process until you are happy with the coil. Fire it with longer pulses to ensure it’s heating from inside out.

Fig 5. Heat in Power mode at 6-10W maximum to get heat into the coil. DO NOT let the coil get to glowing orange hot.

Ti will discolor under heat pretty quickly, turning blue as it heats up. Make sure the center of the coil turns blue first. If it doesn’t, go back to the heat and squeeze until it does. One trick that works really well is to do the pulse firing with the lights off. You should see a dull, deep red glow from the coils, which is fine; you just want to avoid the bright orange glow you get at higher temperatures. Once you are happy with the coil, you are ready to vape.

Fig 6. Squeeze hot coils to tune and compress them for a tighter build and better results

Calibrating your device:Before you start vaping on your new Ti coils, you need to calibrate your device. Let your coil cool back down to room temperature. Five to ten minutes should be plenty of time to let them cool. Screw in your RDA and lock in the atomizer resistance (older DNA40 devices do not have an atomizer lock feature. If you have one of these devices, make sure it’s at room temperature before you start vaping on it). Once your atomizer resistance is locked in, you can wick your coils to your liking.

Fig 7. Lock in atomizer resistance when the coil is at ROOM TEMPERATURE

To set the temperature limit for Ti coils, you need to be aware that Ti and Ni200 heat at different rates. If you are using a device with a Ti coil mode (IPV3 LI, SX Mini M class or EVIC-VT), simply set the target temperature where you want it to be and you are good to go. On a device that does not have a specific Ti wire mode (DNA40, IPV4 Snowwolf, M80, etc…), you have to make some adjustments. For these devices, you want to set a target temperature ~100F LOWER than you would for a Ni200 coil. So if you wanted a target temp of 400F on a DNA40 device, you would set your temp on the device to 300F. This will help to give you some padding to account for the fact that Ti heats up more quickly than Ni200.

Fig 8. Make sure to set your temperature appropriately based on either the Ni200 or Ti01 settings on your device

Once you have set up and calibrated the device, juice up those wicks and get to vaping!

How do I know if it’s working?Testing your Ti build is pretty easy. Wrap your coils, tune them, wick them (but leave them dry), and calibrate your device. Go ahead and dry fire it for 10 seconds. If you move the wick after firing them, you should be able to see if your wick was singed or not. If you see any brown discoloration, your temperature is too high. Go down in temperature and repeat the process. I like to keep working my way up until I see a little bit of singed cotton, and then set my temperature about 10 degrees F lower than that level.

Once your cotton is broken in (usually about the second time you need to re-drip), you should be experiencing what I am with Ti coils: the cleanest tasting vape you have ever tasted. I get nice,

warm, dense vapor production from my Ti coils, and the flavor is amazing. Truly the best tasting vape I have ever tried. The other bonus is that Ti coils last a LOT longer than Kanthal coils. I literally have 2-month-old Ti coils in my Kennedy that work just as well as the day I wrapped them. Your cotton will also last longer, because you aren’t heating it to the point where the cotton starts to break down. Trust me, if you did it right, that 30’ spool of Ti is going to last you a really long time.

Fig 9. Happy vaping! Ti delivers the best tasting vape you have ever used

Have questions or need help with your build? Leave us a comment below and we’ll help however we can!

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William Warren

July 22, 2015 at 3:09 pm | Reply

So far the best real world answers to ti wire questions.

Nass Rigas


Excellent advice. Thank you. I tried Ti on a TS/TC device and didn’t work. Maybe the Ti I have is not the medical grade, maybe I fluffed up the coiling, maybe… . Then I gave it up when forum advice sided against use of Ti in TC mods. Now I am considerig a mod that can accomodate Ti (Dicodes) and will order some Ti from the US. Then I will run your method again and ensure this time it works. Ni is indeed a pain to work with, and although I do manage to produce working coils the failure rate is high and taxing my patience.

o Derick

July 27, 2015 at 11:22 am | Reply

Thanks for this! I think the dangers of nickel haven’t been properly addressed by the community especially the fact that ten to twenty percent of the population is allergic to it and it’s toxicity and leaching concerns and we are just going full force into this tc mode without any real science or testing. Titanium does seem to be much safer so maybe I’ll give it a go. I stopped using nickel after noticing strange effects on my heart rate and blood pressure and muscle cramps after using it.

John Ryan


Thanks for the informative article. For the record, the IPV4 now has a setting for both Ni200 and Ti coils in Joule (TC) mode. The recent firmware upgrade adds that feature to the IPV4. The newer IPV4s comes with it installed.

todd

July 28, 2015 at 5:08 am | Reply

I did a dual ti01 build on my zephyrus for my sx mini m class. I have the 2.23 update. The ti01 didn’t work right with my build. I set the temp to 350 @35j and when I fire it the temp immediately hours to 350. I can tell it’s not getting to that temp the vaper is weak and the heat isn’t there at all. I feel like I’m breathing in air. I set it to nickel mode the temp week not go about 300. I did the same dual build you did. My resistance is set at .218 lockedIn

o werz

August 9, 2015 at 10:37 am | Reply

As I understood you use the ti01 mode. Use your normal temperature value as you do with ni200 and everything will work fine. The recommendations of lower temp setting are only necessary when you use ti in an ni only mod like dna40.

@the writer of this article.You use unproven statements against ni200. There is no healthconcern known or documented. People who have problems with ni have contactallergies and this is different. What do you think the ni in nichrome wire means?It is a shame when vapers argue in the style of ANTZ – just stating things without any scientific argument – I call this scaremongering.:-)

Josh

August 10, 2015 at 9:48 pm | Reply

@Werz: The reason I called Ni into question (and I have called Nichrome into question for the same reason) is that heavy metals including nickel have been found in most vaping inhalation studies. We know it’s not coming from the juice, so the assumption is that it’s coming from the coil itself. Wether that’s leaching or off-gassing, it’s a definite concern for me personally and I think it should be for all vapers long term. One thing is for sure, it’s not coming from the juice so it has to be coming from somewhere.

Geoff

July 29, 2015 at 5:58 am | Reply

Thank you for the guide! I’ve been wrapping Ti in spaced coils and avoiding dry burning the coils at any wattage, but I followed this guide and have had much better results.

Noah


So if I’m using a Vapor Shark rDNA 40 with Ti wire, is dry firing going to have a chance at still producing TiO2, even if I have my TC set lower than the temperature that should occur at?

o Josh Krane


As long as you are in TC mode, that will prevent you from any dry hits. If you are in power mode, as long as your coils are not glowing orange, you are not producing any TiO2. Glowing coils is the first sign that you may be at risk for producing TiO2, so as long as you are (1) in TC mode or (2) in power mode and not hot enough to glow your coils, you will be alright!

Lance


Josh,Thanks for the great titanium tutorial. Ordered the wire you suggested, followed the instructions. My first build came in a little high, .34. Using an ipv 4 with the update. Locked in set at 420 degrees. WOW what a great vape compared to nickel!! Really enjoying it!!

Lance


P.S. Forgot to add vaping at 34Joules

Paulo Lamelas


I have an IPV4 with the update for Ti01 i tryed your method using Sthaelth Vape Medical Grade 1 Titanium 26 Gauge 9 wraps on a 3 mm on an Subtank mini with 30/40J with the

Temp set to Ti01 200C and it give’s me a burned taste after 4 secounds tryed less wraps and same result. when its not burned its a metallic taste so i am not sure if its safe but not enjoyeble.

o Rick


Paulo,

The only thing I can think of based on what you have described is that maybe you forgot to lock in your baseline resistance before firing the device the first time. The coil should be at room temperature when you do this. I’m working with a coil that came out a little high (0.47), which is 10 wraps of “Spider Silk” titanium wire (spaced, as I wrapped the coil before reading this article), and am firing it at 400F. It’s a great vape imo. Your temp is very close at 392F, so the problem isn’t that your temperature is set too high I don’t think. Make sure your wire is Titanium Grade 1, and DEFINITELY clean that wire with alcohol and then rinse with water before wrapping a coil. You wouldn’t believe the amount of machine oil that came off my wire. Anyway, I hope something I said helps. Best of luck to you!

n8br88


I have a Sigelei 150 watt tc. I have no problem building Ni200 coils and them working correctly. I just do not trust nickel at all. So, I purchased 40 feet of titanium 28 guage. I have tried several coils and no matter what, it reads .09 ohms and every time I go to fire it, it reads, “dry coil, no liquid”. Does anyone have any suggestions, or any idea what is going on? Thank you.

o Josh


@n8br88 Try a 26 or 24g Ti wire, 9 wraps should get to about .2 – .25ohms. I think your Sigelei is balking at anything under .1

Joseph Kahl


So I will be getting the IPV4S and also a roll of Titanium wire. My question is, when you build your coils they have to be under a certain ohms to properly work?

o Josh


It’s all subjective, but I tend to like mine between .15 and .25ohms

Yusrizal Nizam


I want to know…When u tuning ur coil @ 6-7watt…It’s TS/tc mode is on or what….It’s ti glow when tuning is done at excellent center firing.N last….My coil turn to blue just like ur PIC,it right way I done….Using dna40.

o Josh


in this scenario TC mode would be off and you are tuning the coils in power mode, not joules mode.

Vincent


Hi,I just got a question that i dont really understand while using Ti wire. I set my resistance at 0.25 for VTi40 mods and firing at 390F with 20W. So when i vape it, it gave me a cutting throat feeling. The sound of the firing should be at the perfect range. Anyone have the same feeling?

P/S: i did not clean the coil with alcohol at all. Is that the reason im getting throat cut feeling??

o Josh


You should definitely clean with alcohol, but that shouldn’t be creating the throat thing you describe. I would try doing a cotton burn test to make sure the temp isn’t set too high. I have run as low as 270F with Ti on a device in Ni200 mode.

Henrik


Thanks for that tutorial , the best info i have found on Ti coil build

o Josh Krane


Thank you Henrik!

Thomas


Did everything as you instructed. My 10 wrap dual coil build came in at .14 using .5mm Ti around a 2.5mm drill bit. This build barley fits the Cthulla…leaves a tad bit less than 1mm between the coil and chimney with the coils centered over the air holes. Not sure how I’m going to get any more resistance without going to a single coil build. I’ve never tried a single coil…maybe I will on my next build. The only step that did not work for me was the one to figure out at what temp the dry cotton would start to color. My IPV4s immediately shut down with the dry quick message. I ended up just setting the temp at 300F and vaping at 30j. The flavor is slightly muted, but to be fair I’ve literally only taken about 7 hits and an still getting that new cotton taste. My very first experience with TC vaping. Thanks for getting me started off on the right foot. I think I’m going to like this.

Anne


Thank you for this very very instructive guide

I have an IPV4S and a Snow wolf, I just got a Ti wire and will definitely try this

Anne


I also have an invader 50W can I use ti coil on this?

o Josh Krane

September 2, 2015 at 12:36 am | Reply

Yes you can, just make sure to drop the temp on the device ~100F for Ti wire.

Ronald


Just ordered 26g 35ft. off the website you provided! Last night I had spent $4 on 2ft of Spider Silk, 26g (only to ruin the builds, I stopped reading your guide before getting to the “tune your coils” section, only to finish the article later) at my local brick and mortar shop. Thank you for the website!

Q: When you say to tune the coils and get them glowing right at 6-7W, should I still have my iPV3 Li in Power mode to tune the coils? or are you talking about a conversion of Joules to Watts, because I’m not sure how that conversion works (e.g. 30 J = 6w)?

o Josh Krane


Yes, power mode not joule mode to pulse the coils for tuning. Sorry if that wasn’t more clear.

Mario Martinez


Great instructional. I can’t wait to try this. Curious what RDA is that???

o Josh Krane


That’a the Nectar Micro RDA

Iwanx


hi.. i learn a lot.. thanks… just wanna ask.. im using ipv d2… sometime my firing not so good using Ti.. because its say “No Liquid” i need to change the wick.. im new in this vaping …can u help me? my setting is 20J 420F…0.4 ohm

geejun


Thank you so much for the very informative guide. What happens when it’s gunked? How do I clean it and reuse the coil? Also I only have 28g Ti. Should I twist them to increase the Gauge?

Thanks again

adib

September 5, 2015 at 3:32 pm | Reply

hi..thanks for the great info..just wanna ask what kind other liquid form can be use ( other than alchohol ) to clean the Ti wire before use it?

keep vaping

o Josh Krane


You could also use water, but we suggest just using rubbing alcohol

FG


Problem I’ve had with all temp builds is very little Vapor production before temp control kicks in. With the ti coils I’m getting the same type of results’ am using a rdna40 Vapor flask and. 5mm ti wire, 3mm 9 wrap dual, . 15ohm running at 350f and 25w. I sure I doing something wrong but can’t figure out what. Any assistance would be much appreciated

o Josh Krane


Should be able to bring the watts up considerably. Also, you might want to just do a cotton burn test on that DNA40 and find the temp that actually burns the cotton and set your temp to 10F below that level. Hope that helps!

FG


Thanks Josh, I’ll give it a shot.

Tom


Really, trully life saving article, thanks alot my friend. I just intended to buy my first tc mod,, any way I planned to get sigelei 150 tc considering the mod design, price range n’ comfy aspect. As fas as I concerned that sucker do not support ti wire, now I know that we can build a ti coil in non ti tc mod. Few days ago I borrow one of my relatives tc mod to grasp the feel of tc n’ coil building it selves, n’ yes working with nickel200 is really pain in the ass, 14 wraps to hit the target, it so soft so I often snap it when screw it down in my RDA, n’ it does bends everytime I replace my cotton. Now I have a better understanding of ti wire after I read this article n’ most of all a “how to” guide of it. Really appreciate vapers who keen to write good stuff to help others. Thx its really helpful

Tom Baker


Thank you for the instruction!

I followed your advice and placed my build on my Snow Wolf. Set the temp to 275 and at 80w, it was perfect! This was my first titanium build……

Very clean indeed!

o Josh Krane


Amazing! So glad you tried it and very happy to hear your results. Thank you for sharing them with us.

Henry


This is amazing, through heavy reading, and trial and error (someone told me to do the spaced coil as you would with Ni200) and everything is spot on. You shined some light on a few things i was hoping i was doing right. Im probably going to rebuild my Petri with your tutorial. I usually run my IPV D2 at 45 J and 475 F 10 wrap single coil with .29 Ohms. I was wondering if that sounds a little excessive? I believe the vapor production is outstanding, my juices (even the ones that didn’t taste so good) taste AMAZING, but when i build my first single coil i ended up getting a hot spot and rebuilt it altogether. I have a small question, does locking the ohms with cotton in make the mod read inaccurately? Also i had just recently replace my coils from only 1 day of use (getting gunky, tasting weird) i’ve also read that they can last from 3 weeks up to 3-4 months, am i doing something wrong (by the information given) or do i just need to clean them? Once again the tutorial is amazing thank you.

o Josh Krane


Henry, the numbers don’t really mater as much as the all important question: did it burn your cotton. I like to do a cotton burn test, and then set my temp to 10F lower than where it singed the cotton. Some builds thats 400F, some builds that 490F…depends on the build and the mod. The actual numbers on the screen are all less accurate than if you burnt the cotton or not.

I always lock in my ohms with cotton, not sure if that makes it any more or less accurate. In theory, dry cotton is non-conductive, so it shouldn’t matter.

As for cleaning, gunky coils is more about the juice you are using. Some juices gunk up coils much more than others. I’d just clean them. If you are vaping and

not burning your cotton, you are doing everything right

piergarrettinni


Very informative article. Many of the vendors of titanium wire I’m finding indicate that it has been acid washed. Could you recommend a quality vendor of TAG1?

o Josh Krane


The ones I like the best are the ones I mentioned in the article. Neither are vape suppliers, but their Ti Grade 1 product is awesome. Unkamen Supply on Etsy and Riogrande.com

Oliver


Excellent article! Tried it out and worked flawlessly! What are your thoughts on doing a titanium build on an RBA for a tank?

kanthal v nickel v titanium v SS - Page 2


[…] I was in the same boat as you BB, so confused by all the TC wires, how to build and are they safe to use. I don't have all the answers, if you don't feel comfortable using something then don't. I found this guy has a lot of info regarding Ti wire and I have followed his build suggestions and I'm loving it. The taste is much cleaner than Kanthal plus the builds last ages, easier to work with than Ni200. Anyways here is the link. BBG How to wrap Ti coils for vaping […]

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