Clapton Coils: What Are They, and What Are Their Benefits?

What are Clapton coils, and why should you consider using one? We’ll start this article by answering the first question that’s probably on your mind. Yes; Clapton coils are named after the famous guitarist, Eric Clapton. Reading this page, you’re going to learn why. More importantly, you’re going to learn about the benefits and drawbacks of Clapton coils. Although there are many vapers who continue to use Clapton coils – they’re particularly popular among RDA owners – they’re not the most popular types of vape coils overall anymore because newer technologies have risen up to take their place. Let’s learn more.

What Is a Clapton Coil?

Imagine a vape coil constructed from two different wires. One wire is straight, and the other is twisted around the first in a spiral pattern. The result would look like a guitar string. That’s a Clapton wire, and the wound design is precisely why Clapton wire has its name. Someone in the vaping community – whose identity is now lost to time – named Clapton wire and Clapton coils after Eric Clapton.

What Are the Different Types of Clapton Coils?

A standard Clapton coil is made from two round wires, with one twisted around the other – but that’s only the most basic type of Clapton coil. Vaping hobbyists and manufacturers of pre-built RDA coils have experimented with that basic technique to create a number of Clapton coil variations that all have slightly different characteristics from one another. These are some of the most popular types of Clapton coils. If you’re an RDA user and buy an assortment of pre-wound RDA coils, you’ll likely find many of these types in the assortment.

• Tiger Clapton coil: This type uses a ribbon wire wrapped around a round inner wire. The resulting coil looks like a little like a flat-wound guitar string with extra nooks and crannies between the wraps.
• Fused Clapton coil: This type uses a single thin wire wrapped around two inner wires. The resulting coil has a somewhat flat profile.
• Alien Clapton coil: This type begins with a fused Clapton coil. From there, though, the wire’s inner core is removed, and the outer wires are re-wrapped around a new multi-wire core.
• Staple Clapton coil: This type uses a round wire wrapped around a flat inner wire. The resulting coil looks like it’s made from a long, twisted strand of staples.
• Hive Clapton coil: This type isn’t technically a Clapton wire because it has no inner core. Instead, it’s made from two individual wires twisted together and then re-twisted in the opposite direction.

What Are the Benefits of Clapton Coils?

The point of any Clapton coil is to create a vape coil that has the greatest possible surface area for the size. The twists and turns of the wire create a coil with plenty of nooks and crannies, and those nooks and crannies give the coil much greater heating power than you could ever get with a coil made from a single wire. A Clapton coil also typically has a low electrical resistance, which means that it’ll operate at higher wattages compared to a single-wire coil. The end result is that you’ll enjoy thick, dense vapor clouds and bold, well-defined flavors.

What Are the Drawbacks of Clapton Coils?

The nooks and crannies of a Clapton coil are great for increasing the coil’s surface area, but they do have a drawback in that Clapton coils are more likely than other types of coils to spit hot e-liquid and to pop loudly during use. That’s because e-liquid tends to form tiny pools inside the areas of low relief. Imagine a pool of e-liquid with a heating wire at the bottom. The e-liquid heats unevenly, with the liquid closest to the heating wire reaching the boiling point before the e-liquid at the top of the pool. The vapor bursts through the pool, and that’s why the coil pops and spits when you use it.

You’ll have to decide based on personal experience whether the tendency of Clapton coils to pop and spit during use makes you not want to use those coils. Some people simply put up with those issues because they enjoy the flavor and vapor production of Clapton coils. Others install screens in their RDAs or tanks to block the spitback.

More recently, though, most owners of sub-ohm tanks – and many RDA owners as well – have ditched Clapton coils in favor of mesh coils. A mesh coil replaces the traditional wound wire with a thin strip of metal mesh. The mesh strip offers very high surface area like a Clapton coil, but because it doesn’t give the e-liquid an opportunity to pool, popping and spitting are basically nonexistent.

The final drawback of Clapton coils is that they’re hard to build from scratch if you’re an RDA user. High-end coils like alien coils can really offer great performance in an RDA, but you might have trouble making the wire yourself. You’ll probably have to resort to buying pre-wound RDA coils because any imperfection will increase spitback and may cause hot spots.

How to Clean a Clapton Coil the Easy Way

If you own a vape tank that uses Clapton coils – or you enjoy buying pre-wrapped Clapton coils for your RDA – there’s a good chance that you’ve encountered an additional problem with Clapton wire: All of those nooks and crannies make the wire extremely difficult to clean. No matter what vape coil cleaning method you use, you’ll almost always end up with a small amount of residue stuck to the wire no matter how vigorously you clean it – and you’ll never get that true “new coil” flavor unless you remove every trace of gunk.

That’s why we created ROBO2020, the world’s first automatic vape coil cleaner and dryer. Requiring nothing but water, ROBO2020 uses heat and gentle agitation to power through the tightest nooks and crannies in any twisted or braided coil, removing all of the residue in about 15 minutes. When the cleaning cycle is complete, you’ll pour the water out and start the drying cycle. After another 15 minutes, the coil is dry and ready to use.