Until recently, sub-ohm vaping was a somewhat obscure topic, largely relegated to experts within the vaping community and those who had taken up “competition vaping.” Most e-smokers were happy to leave sub-ohm vaping to others and content themselves with replacing cartomizers or filling tanks each day. However, the playing field has begun to change.

Today, you can buy sub-ohm tanks with coils already wired for the resistance of your choice, and rebuildable atomizers cost less than half of what they once did. To try sub-ohm vaping, you no longer need to go out of your way to buy wires from an electronics store and wicks from a craft store — companies such as VaporFi, Halo and Volcano have reinvented themselves as one-stop shops for all things sub-ohm, making it easier than ever to get started.

Sub-Ohm Vaping Ultimate Guide: Table of Contents

Click an item to navigate directly to that chapter.

1. What Is Sub-Ohm Vaping?
2. Is Sub-Ohm Vaping Dangerous?
   1. Higher Amounts of Flavoring Chemicals
   2. Metal Particles and Chemical Reactions
   3. Battery Safety Concerns
3. What Do I Need for Sub-Ohm Vaping?
   1. Sub-Ohm Mod
      1. Temperature Control?
      2. Mechanical Mod?
   2. Sub-Ohm Attachment
   3. Batteries and Charger
   4. Coil Building Supplies
4. Attachments for Sub-Ohm Vaping
   1. Sub-Ohm Tank System
   2. Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer
   3. Rebuildable Tank Atomizer
5. Types of Wires for Sub-Ohm Vaping
   1. Kanthal A1
   2. Clapton
   3. Flat Kanthal
   4. Twisted and Braided Kanthal
   5. Nichrome
   6. Pure Nickel (Ni200)
   7. Titanium
   8. Stainless Steel 316L
6. Types of Wicks for Sub-Ohm Vaping
   1. Comparison Chart
   2. Japanese Organic Cotton
   3. Cotton Bacon
   4. Rayon/Cellulose
   5. Ekowool/Silica
   6. Stainless Steel
   7. Hemp
   8. Bamboo
   9. Ceramic
   10. Wickless Coil
7. Building Your First Coil

What Is Sub-Ohm Vaping?

The resistance of a heating coil — defined in ohms — expresses the amount of current that the coil restricts. If the voltage of the battery is the same, lowering the resistance of the coil increases the amount of wattage generated, making the coil hotter and allowing it to generate more vapor. For comparison’s sake, we consider a coil with a resistance of about 2.5 ohms to be “standard,” while a coil with a resistance of 3.0 ohms and higher is “high-resistance.” A coil of about 1.5 ohms is “low-resistance,” and anything under 1.0 ohms is “sub-ohm.”

In simple terms, sub-ohm vaping allows an e-cigarette to generate a higher wattage without increasing the voltage of the battery. Using Ohm’s Law as a guide, we find that pairing a 3.7 volt battery with a 2.5 ohm coil results in 5.48 watts of power. Lower the resistance to 1.5 ohms, and the power increases to 9.13 watts. The further you lower the resistance of the coil, though, the more dramatic things become. With a 0.5 ohm coil and a 3.7 volt battery, an e-cigarette generates 27.38 watts of power — roughly triple the vapor production. So, if you have ever wished that your e-cigarette could generate more vapor than it does, sub-ohm vaping is the fastest way to accomplish that.

Is Sub-Ohm Vaping Dangerous?

For an extremely detailed and informative overview on the safety of sub-ohm vaping, we recommend reading this post on the e-cigarette forum. The consensus among experts seems to be that sub-ohm vaping is not categorically dangerous, but it does pose certain risks that are less likely to be factors with standard e-cigarettes.

Higher Amounts of Flavoring Chemicals

People who switch to sub-ohm coils immediately begin to consume significantly more e-liquid with each puff. Eventually, this often causes people to lower the nicotine strength of their e-liquid but consume drastically more of it. This means that if the e-liquid you enjoy contains flavoring elements that are dangerous when inhaled — something that we don’t know about most flavoring agents — you’ll be inhaling even more of those flavors.

Therefore, with sub-ohm vaping, it is extremely important that you buy your e-liquids from vendors willing to provide detailed lab analysis reports.

Metal Particles and Chemical Reactions

Some studies suggest that hazardous substances can be created during vaping, such as very fine particles of metal or carcinogenic compounds generated either by high heat or a reaction between the e-liquid and the metal of the heating coil. Because there are so many possible combinations of coil type, heating temperature, wick material and e-liquid composition, it isn’t yet known exactly which combinations might be more dangerous than others. It is safe to say that if your preferred vaping setup results in the inhalation of any dangerous compounds, you’ll inhale more of those compounds with sub-ohm vaping.

Battery Safety Concerns

There are quite a few types of batteries used in mods today, manufactured by a variety of companies including Sony, Sanyo, Panasonic, Samsung and LG. Assuming that these batteries have no faults and and aren’t counterfeit, virtually all of them should be entirely safe for use with standard-resistance atomizer coils. However, problems can start to creep in when you use some cells for sub-ohm vaping. Some configurations cause the amperage requirements placed upon the battery exceed its safe discharge rate. Some batteries have safe discharge rates under 7 amps, while others are safe at 30 amps and higher. Supposing that you run your sub-ohm coils at an average power level of 40 watts, let’s examine what the amperage requirements would be with sub-ohm coils at different resistance levels:

A resistance of just 0.8 ohms is sufficient to exceed the operating limits of a battery that only supports a 7 amp continuous load. A resistance of 0.1 ohms is unsafe with all but the best batteries. In addition, you can see that the demands placed upon a battery begin to increase exponentially as the resistance of the coil approaches zero. As such, when you enter into the world of sub-ohm vaping, it is extremely important that you understand the capabilities and limitations of your device’s battery.

To maximize the safety of your sub-ohm vaping setup, we recommend selecting a battery with the highest possible safe discharge limit and using the highest possible coil resistance that still satisfies your needs for vapor production. Use a mod with plenty of vents. If your device becomes anything more than slightly warm during use, you are probably over-stressing the battery and need to change something about what you’re doing.

What Do I Need for Sub-Ohm Vaping?

Sub-Ohm Mod

In vaping, the term “mod” refers to any e-cigarette that doesn’t look like a real cigarette. In this article, we use the terms “mod” and “e-cigarette” interchangeably because no cigarette-shaped e-cigarette or “cigalike” will work for sub-ohm vaping. So, the first thing that you need for sub-ohm vaping is a mod that supports sub-ohm coils. At minimum, we suggest buying an e-cigarette that supports 0.5 ohm coils — although many mods can go well lower than that. The mod should also have a variable-wattage function that allows you to adjust the power the e-cigarette supplies to the atomizer coil.

Temperature Control Mods

Should you buy a temperature control mod? We do suggest buying a mod with temperature control features if possible. Having a temperature control mod allows you to use virtually any tank — or any coil building material — on the market.

The more important reason to own a temperature control mod, though, is that temperature control helps to prevent burned cotton and “dry hits.” If your wick isn’t drawing e-liquid to the coil efficiently — or you forget to fill your tank — your coil could overheat very quickly and burn the wick. A temperature control mod detects the overheating coil and immediately reduces power to avoid burning the wick.

Mechanical Mods

Should you buy a mechanical mod? A lot of e-cigarette users love mechanical mods. They’re very small, stylish, inexpensive and durable. Since a mechanical mod is essentially just a tube and a button, it can theoretically last almost forever. A mechanical mod uses no electricity to power a microprocessor and other components, so all of its power goes directly to the atomizer coil. If everything else is equal, a mechanical mod may cause a coil to heat faster and generate more vapor.

So what’s wrong with mechanical mods? The fact is that all of those microprocessors and fuses in a regulated mod aren’t there for show — they help to keep you safe. Our research suggests that among e-cigarettes that have exploded during use, all of them were mechanical mods. We believe it’s better to spend a little extra money on a mod that won’t attempt to fire the atomizer under unsafe conditions. As a result, we don’t recommend buying a mechanical mod.

Sub-Ohm Attachment

The attachment is the part of your e-cigarette that generates vapor. It might be a rebuildable atomizer or a tank system, for example. Some people refer to e-cigarette attachments as “toppers.” We’ll discuss all of your options for e-cigarette attachments later. For now, know that in order for a sub-ohm attachment to work for sub-ohm vaping, it must have a coil resistance of under 1.0 ohms.

Batteries and Charger

You can buy a sub-ohm mod with a fixed battery or removable batteries. A fixed battery is very convenient, since it’s included with the mod. Mods with fixed batteries are sometimes a little smaller — and often cost less — than those with removable batteries. A fixed battery also makes USB charging a possibility, although many removable battery mods have USB ports as well. On the other hand, most companies won’t repair a fixed battery mod that no longer holds a charge unless it fails during the warranty period.

If a mod has a removable battery, then replacing a battery that no longer holds a charge is as simple as buying a new battery. Also, having a mod with a removable battery gives you the ability to select batteries and a charger based on their specifications rather than settling for what the manufacturer gives you. You might pay more, but you may also get better batteries and a more reliable charger.

Coil Building Supplies

Do you want to buy a rebuildable atomizer and start building your own coils? Although the long-term cost of building atomizers is very low, you’ll need some supplies to get started. At the minimum, you’ll need a resistance tester, some wire and some wick material. We suggest getting a coil building kit, though, rather than buying components individually.

Attachments for Sub-Ohm Vaping

In sub-ohm vaping — or any other type of vaping, for that matter — the attachment is the device that actually produces the vapor. You attach it to your e-cigarette, and it holds and vaporizes your e-liquid. Sub-ohm vaping attachments fall into three different categories: rebuildable atomizers, rebuildable tank atomizers and sub-ohm tanks. Because people drip e-liquid into rebuildable atomizers before puffing, most people in the vaping community call them rebuildable dripping atomizers or RDAs.

We’ll describe the benefits and drawbacks of these three sub-ohm vaping attachments in greater detail in the three sections below. For now, though, here is a summary:

Sub-Ohm Tank System

The Best Sub-Ohm Tanks:

• Good for Beginners
  • VaporFi Volt Hybrid Tank ($49.99)
    • Excellent sub-ohm tank with few quirks. Based on the popular Kanger Subtank Mini — and accepts Subtank Mini coils — but has two VaporFi-exclusive improvements: wider wick holes on the rebuildable deck and better insulators. You can buy the SubTank Mini for less and have a very simlar experience, but you won’t get VaporFi’s customizations. Use it as a sub-ohm tank with drop-in coils, or install the rebuildable deck and build your own coils.
  • Horizon Arctic Tank ($19.95)
    • Excellent tank for beginners. Few quirks, nicely machined, coils available almost everywhere. Doesn’t require ultra high wattage to achieve very good vapor production. Resists leaking. Note that you can receive this tank as part of a bundle with a 2,300 mAh e-cigarette, two coil heads, two mouthpieces, a wall charger and a USB charger by purchasing the Halo Tracer e-cigarette for $50.00. Use the coupon code VAPE4LESS to save an additional 5 percent.
• Good for Experts
  • SMOK TFV8 Cloud Beast ($29.99)
    • Not for beginners. Has a wide assortment of drop-in coils available. One coil has 8 (!) individual heating wires and works at up to 180 watts. Another coil includes a Clapton wire twisted around 8 (!) core wires. Perhaps the most possible vapor production currently available with a sub-ohm tank, but requires a device with a very reliable battery. Has a rebuildable deck, so you can build your own coils. Replacement coils are a bit expensive.
  • Horizon Krixus Tank ($34.95)
    • Not for beginners. Very unique design uses a sintered ceramic coil with an embedded tungsten heating element. Usable in wattage mode or in temperature control mode on a device with upgradeable firmware or the ability to adjust temperature coefficient manually. Easy coil cleaning — simply remove the cotton and dry fire the coil until the ceramic glows. Replace the cotton and continue vaping. Horizon claims that one coil lasts up to six months.

How Sub-Ohm Tanks Work

A sub-ohm tank gives you vastly improved vapor production compared to the attachments that an e-cigarette for beginners typically uses — without sacrificing convenience. To fill it, you simply unscrew the top or bottom and add e-liquid directly to the tank. Eventually, the tank’s flavor quality will decrease. To fix that, unscrew the coil and screw in a new one. A sub-ohm tank is the easiest possible way to get more vapor out of your e-cigarette — as long as you have a battery or device that supports sub-ohm vaping. If you already own the e-cigarette that you want to use and aren’t sure if can handle a sub-ohm coil, ask the seller for help.

Many sub-ohm tanks have multiple coils available because no single configuration suits every e-cigarette user. Coils may come in different resistance levels and with different types of heating coils or different coil layouts. Some of the coil types that may be available for a sub-ohm tank include:

• Single-coil
• Multiple coils, from dual-coil ranging up to octuplet coil
• Twisted coil designs, such as Clapton coils
• Alternative wick materials, such as ceramic fiber
• Alternative coil materials, such as nickel, titanium or stainless steel

In general, unless you’re certain that your e-cigarette supports temperature control mode, you’ll want to buy Kanthal coils. If the coil material isn’t stated on the package, you can assume it’s Kanthal. If you don’t know the maximum supported amperage of your device, try starting with a coil resistance of 0.5 ohms after confirming that your device supports sub-ohm vaping. Virtually every device that supports sub-ohm coils at all will have no trouble with a 0.5 ohm coil.

Pros of Sub-Ohm Tanks

Sub-ohm tanks are extremely convenient to use. Although an e-cigarette with a sub-ohm tank probably shouldn’t be the first e-cigarette that you buy, it could be. It takes minutes for anyone to learn how to fill a tank and replace a machine-made coil. Since the manufacturers test the coils before they ship out, there’s virtually no chance of danger unless you use a sub-ohm tank with a device that doesn’t support sub-ohm vaping. If you’re not currently using an e-cigarette with a sub-ohm attachment, upgrading to a sub-ohm tank will vastly improve your vapor production with almost no fuss.

Cons of Sub-Ohm Tanks

If a sub-ohm tank is simple enough for a beginner to use, it’s not going to produce as much vapor as a rebuildable atomizer. If your first e-cigarette is a 1 and a properly configured rebuildable atomizer is a 10, a sub-ohm tank might be a 7. It’s a great improvement, but it isn’t the absolute best experience possible. Still for a great many e-cigarette users, a sub-ohm tank is good enough because you get almost all of the vapor of a rebuildable atomizer with almost none of the convenience issues and safety concerns.

The long-term cost of ownership is an additional downside of sub-ohm tanks. Although building a coil for a rebuildable atomizer requires just a few cents of materials, a typical coil for a sub-ohm tank costs around $2.00. If you’re the type who burns your wicks easily, you’ll need to replace your coil every few days to keep the flavor quality high. If you don’t burn your wick, though, you can expect a sub-ohm tank coil to last quite a while. Still, the cost of consumable materials is definitley higher with a sub-ohm tank system than with a rebuildable atomizer.

How to Buy a Sub-Ohm Tank

Before you buy any sub-ohm tank, examine the quality of the threading. A sub-ohm tank has at least one threaded joint to allow you to replace coils and refill the tank. You’ll most likely open your tank several times each day for refilling, so the threads need to be easy to turn and able to withstand repeated use.

The most common complaint about sub-ohm tanks is that they leak. Look for a tank that includes plenty of o-rings to keep the e-liquid where it’s supposed to be. Today, you can find sub-ohm tanks with a lot of extra gimmicks such as extra top-mounted airflow collars and ports for top filling. Every time you add an additional hole to a tank, though, you’re creating an additional avenue for potential leaking. If you don’t want e-liquid seeping from your tank — and you want a tank with extra air or e-liquid holes — make sure that the manufacturer has addressed potential leaking.

Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer (RDA)

The Best RDAs:

• VaporFi Venom ($44.99)
  • Velocity build deck. Very deep drip well. Color-changing enclosure activates with heat.
• Volcano Caldera ($59.99)
  • Three-post RDA. Vortex design at the top reduces waste from condensation. Made in Hawaii.
• Volcano Cauldron ($19.99)
  • Three-post RDA with interchangeable colored sleeves. Excellent budget RDA.
• Wotofo Lush ($29.99)
  • Angled airflow creates a cyclone for superior cooling. Silver plated center pin for better conductivity.
• Digiflavor Pharaoh ($39.95)
  • Uses clamps instead of posts to make building easier. Drip tip minimizes coil spitting.
• Mutation X V5 ($26.95)
  • Extra airflow keeps vapor cool. Accommodates both single-coil and dual-coil designs.
• Wismec Neutron ($27.95)
  • Interchangeable posts allow for many different coil layouts. Stylish design.
• 528 Custom Goon ($55.95)
  • Uses clamps instead of posts to make building easier. Very deep drip well minimizes leaking.

An RDA is the attachment that you want to use for sub-ohm vaping if superior vapor production is the primary thing that you want from your vaping experience. When you open an RDA, you’ll see some posts with holes and screws — and not much else. It’ll be up to you to provide the wire, wrap a working coil, add a wick to the coil and attach it to the posts. In other words, an RDA gives you electrical connectivity to your e-cigarette. You’ll need to do the rest — including making sure that your coils are actually safe to use.

Building an atomizer coil for the first time is a bit of an intimidating experience. At the end of this article, you’ll find text instructions and a link to a photo series that’ll make things simpler for you. RDAs really aren’t for beginners, though. If you’re new to e-cigarettes and someone at a vape shop attempts to sell you an RDA — especially one that comes with a mechanical mod — you should run far, far away.

How Rebuildable Atomizers Work

A rebuildable atomizer has a positive post and a negative post — and sometimes more than one of each. Most current RDAs are designed to accept two coils. So, to set up an RDA, you’ll take two resistance wires and twist them around a drill bit or coil jig to make two coils. You’ll attach the leads of those coils to the posts of the RDA and insert a wick into each coil. You’ll check the resistance of your atomizer to confirm that your e-cigarette supports it, and then you’ll trim the coil leads, close the RBA and attach it to your e-cigarette.

You’ll add e-liquid to the RDA by dripping e-liquid into the mouthpiece from a bottle or dropper. An RDA usually has a well below each atomizer coil, allowing the RDA to hold enough e-liquid for a few puffs at a time. The wicks draw e-liquid from the wells to the coils.

Eventually, your RDA will no longer give you quite the same experience that it did when your first built the coil. You may need to remove the wicks, “dry burn” the coils to clear out the gunk and thread new wicks through — or you may need to build entirely new coils.

Pros of Rebuildable Atomizers

A rebuildable atomizer gives you the most vapor per puff currently possible with an e-cigarette. That’s because an RDA has a very large deck, which enables you to build large coils — and a coil with more surface area can produce more vapor. Also, once you’ve purchased the RDA and a few required accessories, the cost of ownership is extremely low. People who use sub-ohm tanks often spend around $2.00 to replace each atomizer coil. With an RDA, the cost of a complete coil rebuild is just a few cents — all that you really need are a few inches of wire and some cotton.

Cons of Rebuildable Atomizers

Building new coils for an RDA is a lot of work. Even if you get to the point where you can wrap two coils, add wicks and test resistance in 20 minutes, that’s still about 19 more minutes than you’d need to change a coil in a sub-ohm tank. Also, with an RDA there is some potential for danger — especially if you’re using a mechanical mod, which doesn’t have the ability to tell you when you’ve done something incorrectly. If you make a mistake building a coil, you could end up with a short — or a coil that’s too low-resistance for your e-cigarette to handle. In either case, an RDA can potentially become dangerous.

How to Buy a Rebuildable Atomizer

When shopping for an RDA, the first thing you’ll want to consider is the quality of the workmanship. The parts should fit together smoothly. The screws that attach the coils to the posts should feel solid. Remember, if you build a new coil every day or two, the screws and posts are going to take a lot of abuse. Make sure they can stand up to it.

You’ll also want to examine the build deck. RDA coils are very small, so you’ll need to have sufficient room to manipulate the coils and get them in position. The RDA should also give the coils plenty of clearance so there’s little risk of them touching other metal objects within the RDA and causing shorts.

Most RDAs have either two or three posts. You’ll need to choose the RDA with an appropriate layout for the coils that you want to build. If you aren’t sure, our writers like the “Velocity” style of build deck. A Velocity build deck has two posts with two holes each. When you wrap a coil with both leads facing the same direction, you’ll find the one lead is higher than the other when you hold the coil horizontally. This works well with the Velocity deck. One lead goes in the higher hole, and the other lead goes in the lower hole. On the other side of the build deck, you’ll do the opposite. With the Velocity deck, you don’t have to play around with the leads to make the two coils in the RDA symmetrical — and you want the two coils to be symmetrical so they fire simultaneously.

Rebuildable Tank Atomizer (RTA)

The Best RTAs

• Sigelei Moonshot ($41.95)
  • Two-post build deck, 2 ml e-liquid capacity. Unscrew the top cap to fill. Made from stainless steel and food safe plastic. Works at up to 200 watts.
• iJOY Tornado Nano ($30.90)
  • Velocity build deck, 4 ml e-liquid capacity. Has pre-built coils available in packs of five — or you can build your own. Pre-built coils are much larger and generate far more vapor than typical sub-ohm tank coils. They’re easy to dry burn and re-wick. Unscrew the top cap to fill. Finicky threading but excellent vapor production.
• Wismec Theorem ($26.95)
  • Three-post build deck with “T” center post. Juice well below the build deck rather than above. Although having the build deck above the juice well improves airflow and vapor production, it can be difficult to get the wick exactly right.

How Rebuildable Tank Atomizers Work

A rebuildable tank atomizer gives you the rebuildable deck that you’d expect to find on an RDA and the e-liquid storage of a tank. In theory, an RTA gives you the best of both worlds. Not only can you build the cloud chasing coil of your dreams, but with the tank you can actually go a while without refilling instead of dripping every two or three puffs.

An RTA can have two basic designs. Depending upon the design, the build deck will either be above or below the tank portion of the RTA. If the build deck is below the tank, then the RTA will look much like a sub-ohm tank from the side — only with a much larger atomizer. It’ll work much the same, too — the atomizer will be enclosed with a chimney leading up toward the mouthpiece. E-liquid enters the atomizer through holes, and a wick closes the holes partially so the e-liquid can’t flood the atomizer.

If the build deck is above the tank, there’s no need to enclose the atomizer. In this configuration, the build deck will have at least one hole leading from the deck to the tank below. You’ll run a wick from the atomizer coil to the bottom of the tank, and the wick will draw e-liquid to the coil via capillary action. Having the build deck above the tank means that the coil will receive more air when you puff. It also means that you can access the coil for adjustments without emptying the e-liquid in the tank. However, it also means that e-liquid will have to fight gravity to get to the coil. You’ll need to wick the coil carefully to avoid dry hits.

Pros of Rebuildable Tank Atomizers

Rebuildable atomizers are fun, but one can easily lose patience with the ritual of dripping, puffing and hoping that you don’t get a dry hit or flood the atomizer. With an RTA, you get the ability to vape for a while between refills — and you can clearly see how much e-liquid you have left. Though the build deck of an RTA typically isn’t as large as an RDA build deck, it’s often pretty close. If you configure an RTA correctly, you can expect much better vapor production than you’d get from a sub-ohm tank — and much more vaping time between refills than you’d get from an RDA.

Cons of Rebuildable Tank Atomizers

RTAs can be very, very finicky. Do you own a sub-ohm tank? Do occasional leaks frustrate you? Well, the problem is far worse with an RTA. Imagine the tedium of building an atomizer coil and trying to get the wick just right. Now, suppose you build an RTA coil and find that you made a mistake when wicking the coil. There’s a portion of the coil that doesn’t touch the wick, so the coil has a hot spot. You’re burning your throat with every puff. The coil is unusable until you fix the problem. What will you do? Will you try to pour the tank’s contents into a bottle? Will you turn the tank upside down to access the coil and risk spilling e-liquid everywhere?

How to Buy a Rebuildable Tank Atomizer

The top complaint about rebuildable tank atomizers is that they leak. They leak because you have to wick them just so, or they don’t work properly. They leak because you risk dumping the contents of the tank to make a coil adjustment. They also leak because of finicky threading. So, the first thing that you should look at when buying an RTA is the quality of the machining. A typical RTA has as many as three threaded joints — one at the bottom, one to connect the rebuildable deck to the chimney and one to remove the mouthpiece for filling the tank from the top. You could easily open the bottom of a poorly machined RTA and dump its contents when what you actually meant to do was remove the top cap for refilling.

The next most common complaint about RTA is that they fail to wick properly, leading to dry hits. You’ll need to have some patience when building RTA coils. Most of the build decks have wick holes. You’ll need to use enough cotton to cover the wick holes and prevent e-liquid from flowing in, flooding the atomizer and eventually leaking on your hand. However, you shouldn’t use so much cotton that e-liquid can’t flow quickly to the coils. Every RTA will be a new learning experience for you. Buy one that looks like it won’t cause you to lose patience.

Types of Wires for Sub-Ohm Vaping

The wire is one of the most crucial components of a good sub-ohm vaping setup. The wire largely determines the vapor production of the coil. In part, it also determines the flavor of the vapor. Some types of wires support temperature control vaping with the correct type of mod, while standard Kanthal does not.

The five most popular wires for sub-ohm vaping are Kanthal, nichrome, nickel, titanium and stainless steel. That’s only the beginning, though. Will you choose a round wire or a flat one? Will you use a single wire or multiple wires braided or twisted together?

If your mod supports every type of coil, your best bet is probably to try them all and see what you think. Almost everyone starts with Kanthal, though. Kanthal is easy to work with, and its relatively high resistance means that you won’t be likely to build a coil that’ll over-stress your mod and battery. To learn more, read our list of the different types of RBA wires for sub-ohm vaping below.

Types of Wicks for Sub-Ohm Vaping

In any sub-ohm vaping setup, the wick is just as crucial to the overall experience as the coil. Just like the coil material, the wick can slightly alter the flavor of an e-liquid. What’s more important, though, is the wick’s ability to quickly bring e-liquid from the atomizer’s well or tank to the coil. If the coil doesn’t remain saturated with e-liquid long enough for you to complete a long puff, you’ll taste foul flavors and feel a harsh burning sensation in the back of the throat.

There’s more to sub-ohm vaping than simply selecting a wick that delivers e-liquid to the coil reliably, though. Do you want a wick that resists burning? How about a wick that doesn’t become dry even during chain vaping? Are you looking for a competition wick that’ll help you get the biggest clouds possible, or do you want a wick that delivers accurate flavor? Read our comparison of vaping wicks to learn more.

Vaping Wicks: Comparison Chart

	Cotton	Rayon	Silica	Stainless Steel	Hemp	Ceramic	Wickless
Easy to use?	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Durable?	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Best flavor?	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Dry burn?	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Fast wicking?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	N/A
Possible danger?	?	?	?	Yes	?	?	Yes

Vaping Wicks: Details

Sub-Ohm Vaping With an RBA: Building Your First Coil

1. Begin by screwing the RBA base into your build platform. Cut about eight inches of wire from the spool and divide the wire into two halves. Cut a length of cotton from a pad. Assemble the coil jig according to the included instructions. Loosen the three atomizer posts with a screwdriver.
2. Thread a length of wire through the eye of the coiler, wrapping it tightly around the post to begin the first turn. Leave the end of the wire facing up.
3. Place the other half of the coiler over the post so that the wire rests under the small head of the coiler.
4. Using the head to guide the wire around the post, turn the coiler several times to make a coil with about 6-8 wraps.
5. Remove the finished coil from the coiler and repeat the process with the second wire. In the future, you can adjust the resistance and surface area of your coils by changing the size of the coil jig post or adjusting the number of turns. Remember, though, that an atomizer build should use two identical coils. Otherwise, they won’t heat evenly.
6. Thread the ends of the coils through the holes of the RBA. The coils should be installed on opposite sides of the RBA, with one end of each coil sharing the middle post if you’re using a three-post RBA.
7. Adjust the coils before tightening the three RBA posts. Use this time to make sure that excess wire is eliminated and that the coils are as identical in length as possible. The coils should not touch any metal part of the RBA except the posts. Trim the excess leads with scissors or wire cutters.
8. Use the build platform to check the resistance of the atomizer. If you’ve met your target resistance and the tester doesn’t show a short, you are ready to continue.
9. Remove the atomizer from the build platform and connect it to your mod. Fire the mod until the atomizer coils glow. “Dry firing” the atomizer causes it to form a protective layer of oxidation. This process also helps you make sure that the coils don’t have hot spots and that both sides fire simultaneously. If one coil takes longer to glow, the lengths of the wires are uneven. Correct this problem by trimming a small amount of wire from the coil that heats up more slowly. Remember, the coils are hot.
10. Adjust the coils with the ceramic tweezers, pushing gently to compress the coils together.
11. Take a small amount of cotton and roll one side between your finger and thumb. Thread the cotton through an atomizer coil, fray both ends and use the tweezers to stuff the excess cotton under the coil. As you use the atomizer, the cotton will draw e-liquid from the bottom of the atomizer — also known as the “well” — to the coil. Repeat this process with the second coil. Your first RBA build is complete.
12. Saturate the coils and wicks with plenty of e-liquid before using the atomizer.