This is the end of the story of my previous post about Box Mods. I hope you like them
For about a year I follow with great interest this project by Original Moddog. So much time it took before he found its realization, but I must say that the result has fully repaid the wait.
And a big box is born. From all points of view. Big in size, performance, design, innovative solutions offering.
The shape is unique, original, without magnetized doors or holes for Squonk. There are no corners, but only beautiful curves, expertly carved on the footprint of the palm of a large hand. Yeah, it takes a big hand to wrap it, tame it, make it a wonderful object that can produce clouds of electronic steam. While the thumb rests on the little ignition button, the little finger is already perfectly positioned on the bottle in the most natural position for Squonk.
The classic access hole to the bottle is here replaced by a "cave" carved in the wood block where the bottle is enclosed and protected. Apparently a cornerstone of the whole structure.
Immobilized on the bottom of his steel cap that does not allow any play or movement during Squonk. The bottle is inserted vertically through this cap and engages the feeding cup automatically through a rigid connector, designed in aluminum, which wraps around the silicone tubing. The set is entirely liquid-proof, no loss, perfectly firm and solid, so as to allow the flow of liquid toward the atomizer with a minimum pressure of the little finger.
The other round cap at the bottom of the box, larger in diameter, perfectly laser engraved with the logo of Original Moddog, gives access to the battery compartment.
Here we have a solution completely innovative and extremely practical and functional. A battery compartment completely isolated, in itself, capable of accepting batteries from 18350 to 26650 thanks to a spring mechanism for the change of length and to a plastic adapter for the change in diameter.
It was defined system "Sherpa", and is intended to bring the heaviest 26650 as well as the small 18650-18500-18350. In the most simple and rational way. Of course, it adds weight to the whole system, being made of steel, but the solution is ingenious and practical at the same time.
The body of the box is studied in detail. Commenting on the debut of Michele as a Box modder, I was really surprized about his ability to convert harmoniously the piece of wood to object for Electronic Steam, respecting shape and veins, not, vice versa, forcing, cutting and squaring the block towards more regular and contained shapes.
Now, logically, this trend has also infected him in his more commercial models, but these top of the range Boxes are masterpieces of naturalness against any forcing.
Nevertheless, the size of the box is, in my opinion, very contained. If we consider the comparison with the best known electronic boxes and we keep in mind that the Leviathan can mount batteries 26650, the comparison holds, and how well.
Electronic heart of the system is the DNA40 of Evolv, new generation, with larger display than the traditional. No comment from me, the choice seems to me correct, although I wish my next box with a SX350J. The increase in surface area of the OLED is however an advantage, both as aesthetics, but above all as legibility. As it regards the reliability of the circuit .... To each their own experiences and their own conclusions.
The circuit is housed in a vertical groove, covered by a sheet of wood of different essence, embedded in a perfect manner, without solution of continuity. The three small buttons for firing and adjustment are placed on that layer, barely visible, extremely small, but adequately tactile. It is not important that you see the small buttons, it is important that you feel them. I believe that the perfect button is not born yet. That's why I prefer the SX with gravity control (at least the button is only one). This solution is however congruous with the design of the box.
The last feature concerns the construction of the feeding cup "All Seasons", which Michele and Alberto had already proposed in project more than a year ago. They have "slept" a bit on the realization of this idea, leaving overcome in time to market by other manufacturers. The idea was right, that what is important.
The central block onto which we can screw the cups from 14, 16, 22 mm, depending on the needs, allows the Leviathan to transform in a few moments from a box BF to a Battery Box overperforming. The only two variables remain the atomizer and the cup diameter.
Comfort / eclectic truly remarkable: we start in the morning with a full Kayfun tank in battery box, we spend the afternoon in Bottom Feeder system only substituting Kayfun with the Chalice in our pocket ... .. damn, forgotten at home the Chalice, no problem, we fill in Kayfun with the liquid of the bottle below and continue in battery box. Not bad.
Compromise or permanent solution?
Certainly much more of a compromise between a Box BF and Battery Box. The term "compromise" always contains a negative value. And here I see very little negative: the weight, the size, but really are negative characteristics? In my opinion the use of batteries 26650 with high performance discharge and long life will be important in the future of electronic steam, plus the ability (in this case) to use many different types of batteries. Practically those that at that time each has in his pocket.
Permanent solution?
It could be, at least for those who want in a single box all the best features of a Box BF and a Battery Box. There is not, in my opinion a more eclectic Box, if not turning somersaults using Flatter, beauty rings, adapters that distort the construction and aesthetics of the Box.
I like the Vapor Flask, with its harmonic lines: the added Squonk hole has sacrified one of the two 18650 to accommodate the bottle. Less autonomy, no wood, a true compromise. Here we are on another planet.
But it is not the ultimate solution. Although personally I could very well please.
It is only the Leviathan V1.
Michele and Alberto state that is already discontinued. There will soon be a Leviathan V2 system with brass Sherpa tube and cap to increase conductivity and a Leviathan Mini with battery 18XXX to significantly reduce the size, just for smaller hands of my polar bear hands.
Not only that: the cup "All Seasons" will be lightened and with a modified pin for attachment to the bottle, therefore compatible with the standard silicone tubing.
New Leviathan, following the trend of the moment, will be built with stabilized wood or hybrid.
The trend of the moment must be followed, no objection, right to try it, but I am sure that the natural grain of the wood will soon return to being the most popular and loved.
Maybe the focus will shift towards vintage woods, antiqued or worm-eaten, but the wood yellow, green or red have the months counted. For colors there is plastic. Personal opinion and refutable.
Another trend followed, unfortunately in the negative, is the "leviathation" of price. 500 euro for a box certainly are not for everyone, but the cost is not exaggerated for a unique object, that cannot be cloned, which incorporates original solutions, manual processes superfine and exclusive features.
Finally a plause to Original Moddog for transparency in the management of the sales of their products. Their website acts as a showroom and shop. No lists, no more or less hidden invitations to go on Facebook or private channels. I hope they continue this way.
Leviathan was a biblical monster. Yes, this is really a box "monstrous".
So i'm not familiar with every single atomizer on the market. They're all different in their design. One potential problem i do believe to be universal in all these devices though is an "Airlock".
Regardless of how much cotton wool has been crammed into the wells of an RTA, or whether you primed your drop in coil enough, an airlock will prevent the e liquid from getting to the wick everytime. Time and time again you either re-wick or swap out the drop in coil. Then you think "there is definitely something wrong with the atomizer".
How many times have you built a new coil, or simply re-fiiled on an existing wick, and then found all you get is dry hits and you can't figure out why ?. Maybe you eventually decide "this atomizer is no good".
The simple solution is to add more e liquid than you think you should when "priming" the coil/wick. It's not a process which takes just a minute or two. The whole idea is to let the e liquid soak right through the cotton wool, through the channels until it starts to seep out the other end of those channels, where ever that might be !. To go from a tank to a coil/wick the e liquid has to travel through the channels.
If cotton wool soaked in e liquid is at one end of the channels then that is what is causing the "airlock".
Simply put "it's "trapping" the air in the channels and causing an airlock".
You get rid of all the air in the channels by "bleeding" the system. This should be the most important part of "priming". Allowing the e liquid you've added as a primer to expel all the air from the system. Without doing this you are running the risk of successive dry hits and confusion.
So you add e liquid as a primer, let it soak into the cotton wool then add a few drops more. Then, wait a few minutes to see how far the e liquid has got. Wait for it to come out the other end because that what you should be looking for. Once you see it coming out the other end of the channels you know the system has been fully bled. And then you can reassemble your device and fill the tank.
I hope I am posting this in the correct place.
Up til this year I have run mainly utilitarian stuff and it’s served me well, I have to say. I have however been looking at some of the rather beautiful stabwood mods folk on here have, and am considering one, especially now I have found a custom maker up by Loch Fyne near to my other house in the West of Scotland.
I have a few questions which I hope members can help with.
Do you use them when you are out and about as daily drivers, or do they need special care so you only use them at home?
I had a hand made wooden squonk mod a few years ago and the wood didn’t stand up well to leaks or coming into contact with e liquid which eventually jammed up the fire button. As stab wood is made using a resin - is it impervious to this?
Is stabwood prone to cracking over time?
And finally with reference to the Pumper squonk mod - the bottle and pump system is proprietary so is it long lasting and does it have any common faults?
Many thanks in advance for any information you can offer.
Or maybe even a heretic, or a blasphemer?
I like mini tanks and small batteries. My favorite setups are mini protank version 1 clones with 650mah basic ego style batteries. Stainless steel finish, no funky colors or designs. Single bottom coil on the tanks, no air flow controls. Standard voltage batteries, no twisty things on the bottom, no usb passthrough, no digital displays, just a battery. I like the ego style because the protruding button is easier to find and helps keep them from rolling around. The lack of features I don't need means the batteries are small. I like small, sleek, simple.
I have a nice big fancy Smok vv/vw battery. If I cut my juice in half with VG I can blow some massive clouds without knocking myself out. I found this to be mildly amusing for a short period of time. I also found out that with my regular mix when I dialed around for the "sweet spot" I ended up at 3.7 volts...
The mini tanks don't hold a day's worth of juice, and the 650mah batteries don't last all day. So what? Tank gets low, twist it off and pop another on. Battery light flashes, same thing. I've got a battered old EGO case from my first starter kit, it holds four tanks and batteries and a bottle of juice with room to spare.
I got my first mini pro tank from a vape shop. I just assumed it was a Kanger, but there was no mention of Kangertech anywhere on the packaging or tank. Whatever, I really liked it. I figured the real deal would be even better so I ordered one online. Kanger had discontinued the version 1, so I bought the "new, improved" version 2. It was good, but I liked the clone version 1 better. The clone tanks are polycarbonate rather than pyrex, but I don't vape plastic eating flavors, so that's a non-issue.
Now I'm not knocking all the cloud chasing, coil winding, wick trimming gear heads that seem to dominate these forums, but if there's anybody else out there who enjoys vaping with a nice, simple, inexpensive setup, I'd like to hear from you.
Over the last 24 month or so, mods became bigger and bigger due to increasing sizes of batteries and comically large tank attys. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that I only need to change the battery and fill the tank once per day, that's awesome, however, some of those devices got to a point where they became not very portable anymore... Gone is the time in which the mod can be put in the pockets of your pants.
So, as far as I'm concerned, I got realy tired of those huge mods and went back to one of my first mods, no VV no VW no temperature control.... Its the REO mini..... Super small and tough as nails.
After a while I kept looking for something comparable but a non squonker mod. I found the Ministick with the 18650 extension.
I have it now for a few weeks and I'm sooooo happy with it.
It's just a tad larger than the REO mini but it carries the 18650 battery and the Kayfun V4. This mod would be quite a bit smaller than the REO mini if I take the battery extension off, which is very impressive.
I will very likely never buy another regular tube or box mod just due to its size.
I see only pros for side by sides, they are the perfect combination between small size and good battery/tank capacity, so I'm naturally wondering why they are so little loved?
What is your point of view?
So i was thinking of starting a thread which might list every mod past and present which would be compiled by you from one day to the next. At first i thought it wouldn't be practical because no one would know if a mod had been added unless they read through the entire thread.
Then i thought if a list from A though Z were compiled systematically by members by copying and pasting the most recent list in this thread, and then contributing to it, ensuring your entries are inserted alphabetically (Even if it's only one or two mods), then eventually this thread could contain pretty much every mod that exists, and would be updated regularly, by you !. No pictures please !. Only brief descriptions such as "company name / name of mod / type of mod".
What better place for such a list than ECF, "The world's largest e-cigarette website.
Here's my contribution to start it off :
____________________________________________
Pioneer4you IPV 3 150 watt box mod (2 18650 batteries)
Pioneer4you IPV 4 100 watt box mod (2 18650 batteries)
Provape Provari V2.5 "Polished stainless steel" tube mod (1 18650 battery)
SIGELEI 100 watt Plus box mod (2 18650 batteries)
Smoant Charon TS 218 box mod (2 18650 batteries)
Tesla advanced vapourizer 6 volt -15 watt VV/VW Tube mod (single 18650 battery).
Vamo V7 40 watt tube mod (Single 18650 battery)
Voopoo Too 180 watt tc box mod (2 18650 batteries)
________________________________________
it's a list of all the mods i own at this present time.
If you're going to add to the list then you can add any mods you can think off as long as you place those mods into the existing alphabetical order ( description should start with the company name). Batteries such as, say, vision twist aren't mods so lets not get into those. Tube mods and box mods (Includes internal/built in battery mods) only please (Squonkers included)
And lets not forget Mechanicals.
If you think a previous desciption is incorrect then correct it.
Ensuring company names come first in your description will enable a logical, consistant "alphabetical" understanding of the list by anyone who views it.
If you don't know the name of the company who made the mod just insert the name of the mod etc.
A few days ago I noticed a new co-worker of mine was a vaper. He had some kind of old, ratty looking mech with some kind of tank I'm unfamiliar with on top. This guy doesn't strike me as the type of person who would be responsible with a mechanical, but trying not to be judgmental, I kept quiet. So yesterday a friend of mine says "look at that guy, what's he doing?" I look over and see this guy dancing around, frantically pulling everything out of his pocket. Out comes an 18650 battery, with a key WELDED to the end of it, still throwing arcs! By this time, his pants were actually SMOKING!!! We go over there to investigate, and he had put a fully charged battery without any kind of case or covering in his pocket with a bunch of change and his keys. The old ratty battery no longer even had the plastic shrink wrap sleeve on it, just a silver cylinder. When it was cool enough to touch, we examined it, and the positive terminal had completely burned away, and it had burned a hole in his pocket about the size of a half-dollar. After lecturing him about using a battery case, we asked to see the battery in his mod. He pulled it out and it was in worse shape than the one that shorted out in his pocked. No insulated wrap, big gouges in the side, burnt spots on the positive end. All we could do was warn him to get new batteries and go about our business. I have a feeling our warnings fell on deaf ears. I even showed him my little $0.99 battery case. I can understand someone not being completely knowledgeable about all the technical stuff, but isn't this just common sense? Sigh.
So this has just been one of those days that I want to go back to bed and get a re-do on. the bright part of the day was I got my brand new FUhattan clone and a new Omega dripper for it. loaded it up with a purple Efest and was really enjoying it. The wife has been harping on me for a few weeks to move the woodpile that was at the end of the driveway to the back of the shed where we store wood for the winter. No problem. I slipped my new mod in my back pocket and went out to work. about 2 hours later I was done with the small pieces and had a number of large pieces I needed to split. grabbed my 20lb Splitting maul and a wedge and took after the splitting. And thats when the Universe said "NOPE!"
As I was swinging the maul for all I was worth my foot slipped o a piece of wood underfoot. Swing went off and the maul glanced off the edge of the wedge. I managed to yank my leg outta the way but saw my new FUhattan on the ground... A split second before my Maul made contact.... Huge dent and hole in the side of it right near the middle. I heard a hissing and crackling and knew the battery was doing bad things. Kicked the mod into the center of the gravel driveway and watched as it lit on fire. Not as spectacular as I would have liked to see, but the mod and dripper are totally trashed.
And to top it off my neighbor was watching and said "Yea, those things are never safe. Only idiots use them." I asked him to get me any of his "Safe" battery powered devices and to let me smash it with batteries in it and we would see just how safe HIS things were. His wife threw a can of soda at him and told him to shut his mouth and get inside then asked me if I was ok. I told her just my pride was hurt...
So yea, this is just one of the things from today... Can I please have a do-over?
I've been debating on writing about this topic for a while now, but figured it was time since I've seen quite a bit of posting lately and frankly what I feel is a lot of confusion about the subject.
Let me start off by saying this. This is my opinion and ONLY my opinion. I am basing this on both my own experience as well as my own knowledge given my electrical engineering and information technology background. I'm also a bit of a physics (particle physics as well as general) buff and all around fairly knowledgeable guy. Does that make me an expert on e-cigs? Absolutely not... So again, it's my opinion. It will hopefully seed some food for thought at the very least, and if you downright disagree, then that's your right to have your own opinion as well.
With all that said, let's get started.
Back in the end of August I received my Cloupor T5. This isn't a debate about that device, so let's not go there. I like mine, with the new firmware upgrade. It works wonderfully for what it was designed for. It wasn't the first high power VV/VW mod I owned, but it is the one I generally gravitate towards right now, at least until I make my final decision on which 100W-150W device to buy.
Anyway, I walked into the local B&M one day and one of the guys there was checking it out. He loved the form factor, and was really talking it up seriously considering getting one until he asked how low of a build you could put on it and I mentioned that it goes down to .2 ohm, but it has a 10 amp limit. WHOA!!!!!! Immediately he started trashing it saying he couldn't believe they would "false advertise" something and say it could do 50 (at the time, 75 now) watts when really it couldn't...
No... You don't understand... You don't NEED a .2 ohm build to push high wattage... That's the whole point... The thing can output up to 9.3 volts.... At 9.3 volts that thing can push 75 watts into a 1.1 ohm coil and only push 8 1/2 amps...
"That's crap man... You can't get thick vapor on anything that's not sub-ohm dude..."
I continued to throw "clouds" that dwarfed his... Despite the fact I was running a 1.4 ohm build at 50 watts and he was running a .3 build on his mech which was pushing around the same wattage depending on his battery voltage and voltage drop.
I decided at this point it wasn't worth trying to explain... It seems to me that so many people are wrapped up in this idea that the "clouds" are all completely tied and related to the resistance of their coil(s). Like they are so dependent on one another that there is no other way to see things.
I'm not a "cloud chaser" by any means... But I do love vapor and flavor... I'm more of a flavor chaser than anything.... But in that quest it does mean producing pretty thick and large (that's what she said) clouds.
Again, this is my opinion only, but you guys and gals have GOT to get this idea out of your head that "clouds" or vapor are tied to the resistance. It's just not true.
First of all, there are a LOT of variables that DIRECTLY affect the amount of vapor that's produced, and unfortunately (or rather fortunately) resistance is NOT one of them. Indirectly yes, but not directly.
Vapor, or the production thereof, is a result of the amount of juice that can be vaporized in a given amount of time. It really is that simple. But there's a lot that goes into that.
To vaporize e-juice you must heat it to the point where it vaporizes. In our case, a heating element wrapped into a coil is used to achieve this. The surface of the coil in in contact with the juice and the energy released from the wire in the form of heat in turn heats up the e-juice and vaporizes it.
The surface of the coil? That's right... The key here is surface area... Imagine we had a way to flash heat a metal surface from room temperature to 700 degrees almost instantly. Now if we place a small drop of juice, say 2mm in diameter in the center of this surface and turn it on. That small drop is going to get vaporized almost instantly. The result will be a small puff of vapor. As you would imagine, it won't be a tremendous amount of vapor. Now imagine we rigged up a gravity fed system that would feed juice as fast as it's vaporized... Still though the surface area being used to vaporize is only 1mm in diameter. We turn it on again... What happens? Now we get a stream of vapor... But it's still a very small stream. Sure it keeps going, and overall you're going to end up getting more vapor, but you still aren't going to fill your house with it. BUT... Suppose now we instead place a drop of e-juice that's 20cm in diameter. We've just went from a surface area of 12.57mm2 to 125664mm2! That's a huge difference in surface area... Now what happens when we turn it on? We'll get a GIANT puff of smoke... That's a LOT of juice vaporizing all at one... Now imagine taking it a step further and going back to our gravity fed system, but this time it can supply enough to keep that entire 20cm circle saturated.... We turn it on again... Now we get a giant plume of vapor that's going to fill the house in seconds!
It's surface area that makes the most difference in vaporization... The more surface we have turning juice to vapor the more vapor we can produce.
But, there's still a lot more to it than that when it comes to our e-cigs. First of all, as stated above, you have to keep that juice supplied to the heat source, in this case the surface of our coil. That's where wicking comes in. If your wick isn't good enough to carry a fresh supply of juice as fast as your heat source can vaporize it, then you'll get a nasty burnt dry hit instead of a nice flavorful cloud.
Airflow must be considered. Ever come inside from working in the yard on a hot summers day, covered in sweat and then stood in front of a blowing fan? Best feeling in the world isn't it? That fan is evaporating sweat off your body and carrying away heat with it. Leaving you feeling nice and cool. In the case of our coils, much the same process is taking place. As the juice is vaporized heat is being carried off your coil. However, vapor that's carrying the heat needs to now be carried away... If it's not, then the heat will simply build up. It can't go anywhere and when that happens the amount of heat in a given area (known as the heat flux) increases which results again in a dry nasty burnt hit. Let's back up for a second. Imagine coming in from that yard work and standing in front of the fan, except this time you wrapped up in 5 giant wool blankets first. Not exactly that same wonderful experience is it? You're not getting air flow over your body any more, so the heat is retained. The same happens with our coils.
Now let's talk about heat flux for a moment. Heat flux is the amount of heat being released in a given area. Previously I gave this example. If you take a 5000 watt portable cube heater and place it in the middle of a giant 100' x 100' pole building in the middle of winter, what effect is it going to have? Very very little. It won't warm that building as more heat is escaping than being generated over time and there's such a giant area inside that building that the very small output is going to do nothing. On the other hand, take that same 5000 watt heater and place it inside a 4' x 4' shipping crate and sit inside there with it. Quite a difference huh? It's going to burn you up in no time. You're running the exact same wattage so what gives? That's where heat flux comes in... In your pole building the heat flux was VERY VERY small... On the other hand, in that shipping crate the heat flux was extreme!!!
Our coils and atomizers have heat flux to worry about too. Because the juice vaporizes at a given temperature. Somewhere around 400-500 degrees if I recall. Anything less than that and it won't vaporize... But... There's an important consideration to think about...
How hot is a pot of boiling water? 212 degrees right? But wait... I set my stove on Hi, and the specifications clearly state that should be 500 degrees.... So no, my pot of water is 500 degrees... Um no... Your pot of boiling water is 212 degrees no matter what. Why? Because of what we talking about earlier... As the water boils, the steam carries away heat. It will NEVER reach a temperature above 212 degrees... The more heat you APPLY via the burner, the faster it will boil... The more steam (and therefore heat) is released....
Juice on a coil works exactly the same way. The more heat flux you have, the faster the juice is vaporized and the more that heat is carried away. However there is a big difference between our coils and a pot of water. The water has a large supply. Our coil doesn't. It relies on it being fed via our wick. This is where heat flux and wick come into play. The hotter the heat flux, the more efficient our wick needs to be, otherwise it can't supply enough juice to keep the surface wet. In that cause the heat builds even more and soon you have burning wick, coil, etc.
Airflow is important because without it our heat flux rises, which means our wick has to be even more efficient. No matter how good your wick material is, it can only wick so fast.
Whew......
Got all that so far? Hopefully you have a better understanding of the processes that go on in these remarkable little devices. Let's move on shall we? Let's get to the core of this post, and why you've had to be inundated with all that information.
In the beginning there were mods. Mods were flashlights or just about anything else you can imagine that could be used to power an atomizer. The existing batteries at the time had very small capacities. So with these other devices being utilized it was quickly realized that much larger batteries with higher capacities could be used. Thus "mods" were born.
A mod is really just that... What we these days refer to as a "mechanical mod". A battery and some sort of switch mechanism. This means a FIXED voltage. Now the thing is, with a fixed voltage if I want to produce more watts, and therefore heat, I only have one other variable I can adjust... Resistance.
Soon it was realized that the lower the resistance of the coil, the more wattage was produced, and therefore more heat was released... Meaning a higher heat flux and more juice getting vaporized.
Sub-ohm was born.... As batteries improved and could handle higher and higher currents, lower and lower resistances could be utilized.
This all culminated into the idea that seems to be ingrained in so many's heads to this very day... The lower the resistance, the more vapor I produce. And in the case of a mechanical mod, that's exactly correct.
Early VV and VW devices couldn't handle very much current and/or wattage. So this still held true. If you wanted large clouds of creamy tasty vapor, you needed a mechanical mod with a sub-ohm build.
But more recently there has been a slew of high power regulated mods coming out.
I've recently seen some posts referring to some of the newer regulated devices. Talk of how "stupid" people are going to feel when they get their hands on these things and realize they can't go down to a ridiculously low voltage, or the amp limitations prevent them from running coils of .1 or .2 ohm at full power. Every time I see one of these posts, one half of me laughs and the other half just shakes his head. These people who make such comments just truly don't understand what these devices are all about.
These devices aren't about trying to run a ridiculously low resistance build... They have voltage to spare... They can pump out way more than the 4.2 volts a mech mod is capable of. What does that mean? Well.... Let's remember the above...
It's all about heat flux and surface area... But we know we can "exceed" a certain point where our wicking material just can't keep up with our heat flux. In that case at best we aren't generating vapor as fast as we could, and worst case we get a nasty dry burnt hit full of our burnt wicking material.
Why does that relate? Because in general the lower resistance our build, the less surface area we have. Now, we can work around that, by using a thicker gauge wire. A 24awg build is going to have a lot more coils than a 30awg build given the same resistance..... BUT... what we also have is a lot more metal... Meaning it takes longer to heat up, and also longer to cool down.
Mention a "2 ohm build" to a "cloud chaser" and he'll laugh at you... Because in his mind he imagines this clearomizer type build running a few watts producing almost no vapor at all... That's because in his mind when you talk about a 2 ohm build he's thinking about supplying it with a maximum of 4.2 volts... Which means almost 9 watts...
But suppose you took that same 2 ohm build and ran 9 volts into it? All of a sudden you're kicking out 40 watts of power. And spreading that 40 watts out over a large surface area...
Starting to get the picture?
Let's say we build a .4 ohm build with dual 24awg coils... That's 11 wraps on each coil with a 2mm inner diameter... That's 44 watts on a freshly charged battery with a drop to 27 watts by the time the battery reaches 3.3 volts. (This is NOT accounting for voltage drop in the mod itself) But at 44 watts that's a heat flux of 243mW/mm2.
There are two problems with this build... First, it's going to take a VERY long time to heat up... From the time the switch is thrown till it's ready to vape is going to be a while. That's a lot of metal for 4.2 volts to handle... Likewise, once the switch is thrown back off, it's going to continue to cook juice for a while... It's going to take a good bit for it to cool back down... Which means a lot of excess wasted juice and longer run times meaning lowering of battery life. Second, it's not consistent. Every hit drains the battery and results in a lower voltage. The more hits, the lower the voltage. That means not only is it taking even LONGER to heat up, which means even more battery drain, but not as many watts are going into the coil, so less vapor is being produced with each hit.
Too many times people who build for mech mods try to build the same way for regulated mods. They are different animals. They aren't designed to run the same sorts of builds. It's my belief this is where so much confusion comes in.
But let's say instead we build for a regulated mod. Like the T5 for instance. Now in this case let's say we build a 1.8 ohm build with dual 29awg coils... That's a whooping 19 wraps on each coil at 2mm inner diameter... Now we can run this setup at 8.9 volts to get the same 44 watts we were kicking on a fully charged battery with our mech's .4 build. But what's the difference?
Well... LOTS of difference.... First, since we're using a regulated device that voltage is going to stay at 8.9 volts for the entire ride... From first hit to last it's going to perform exactly the same way... As the battery voltage drops, the boost circuit in the DC to DC will simply draw more current from the battery and "Trade" it for the voltage it needs...
Second, we have less than HALF the heat capacity in the wire... In other words, the lag time from when it's fired to when it's fully heated, and vice versa, when it's stopped and cools down is WAY less than the 24awg build... Because we have less mass to heat and cool.
Third, we have MUCHO surface area... Remember how we learned how important surface area is to vapor production? Well now we've got tons of it... almost 40 wraps worth!
And as for heat flux? We actually have an even higher heat flux on this build at 307mW/mm2... So that larger surface area is being delivered more heat within it than our mech build. As long as our airflow and wick can keep up, we're going to be producing large amounts of vapor...
Starting to see the light? Look, I'm not trashing mech mods here... I have some and use them myself... They are simplistic and small and can give a darn good vape with the right setup... Instead what I'm saying is, the newer regulated devices are being "compared" to these mech's by mech users, and often times being trashed because they can't do .0000001 ohm builds... (some exaggeration inserted.) But these folks just don't realize that that is NOT what they are intended to do. Many of them I don't think even realize WHY they build the sub-ohm builds the run... They don't understand that it's to overcome the limitations their mech mod presents them, and instead think that somehow there's this magical formula that says the lower resistance you can build the better the vape... and that's just bull...
With higher voltages you can build higher resistance builds with much more surface area and good heat flux to produce massive amounts of vapor with absolute consistency. And that my friends is exactly where these high voltage regulated mods shine.
I'll climb off my soap box now....
TL/DR: The delayed choice quantum eraser experiment is super cool!!!
Don't really know why im sharing this, guess im just wondering if anyone else has had this experience or not. The other day I was at the local B&M and a minivan pulls into the parking lot, im friends with the shop owner so I hangout with him regularly and noticed the minivan as soon as it pulls up, the guy sits there for about 10 minutes just sitting there and writing things down, our conversation goes "Are you expecting a delivery or something?" "no why" "This dudes been sitting here for about 10 minutes just writing away" "Maybe its my first audit or something" the dude finally gets out of the van and comes in "How long have you guys been operating here?" Jon the owner says "about 7 months now, what can i help you with?" "My name is Chris with the National Tobacco (i forget exactly what he said) and I cover everywhere from statesville to asheville, im from asheville but was across the street getting some food and seen your shop, i'd never noticed it before." We live about 2 hours from asheville, I dont actually think he just stumbled upon the shop but who knows. Then he says "We're trying to get into the electronic cigarette market and have started making a brand called V2, ever heard of them?" I said, "I've seen them in gas stations a couple times, but other then that I've had no experience with them" He then says "what about the zig zag kits? Ever tried them?" "never tried one, but i've seen them once or twice" "Well that was one of our lines, the v2 is our next level model to kind of keep up with the new stuff thats coming out, I have a box of them out in my van that i can bring in to give you an idea" the dude then walks out to his van, we just kind of wait on him until he gets back then he returns with this big v2 display box "We're selling these retail for 450.00 but we can sell you three for 150 each, thats around 900 dollars of profit if you buy today" Jon says" Well i've never heard of the brand so i'd have to look into it more first" "Alright thats fine but..." then he gave this super long sales pitch about how it will be better then anything else on the market and ahead of its time with the magnetic tanks and blah blah blah, then Jon went behind the counter and pulled out this huge box and says "This takes three batteries and goes up to 240 watts, starter kits are great and all, but they will never really be ahead of the times unless you can build a sub ohm starter kit and thats not cheap" the sales rep dude then says "Alright, well im just going to leave my card, just give me a call if you decide you need any of our products" And he left, I guess the best thing that comes out of this is i can ask, has anyone ever dealt with any v2 products? How are they with reliability, battery life ect. I'd like to get back to Jon with some reviews, maybe they could be better then the regular egos and this is a good deal for the local shop.
Okay, so i'm a dripper...... I only tried one RTA and it was an orchid. I don't like using it a lot because it is a "pressurized" tank, so if I take the top off to fill the tank and tighten it down, it pushes the juice out of the airflow holes. I HATE FILLING IT FROM THE BOTTOM HOLE!!!!!!! It takes 2 freaking years to fill it up and ain't nobody in my line of work got time for that!
Does anyone have a recommendation for an RTA that I can fill from the top easily, that IS an RTA. I will never buy a coil at a store, I prefer to make my own. Yes I test, Yes I sub-ohm, Yes I know all about battery safety, I just know absolutely nothing about RTA's.
Needs:
"Airy" airflow option. Can be adjustable but not necessary.
Top Fill
Single OR Dual option
AAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDD......... GO.