As I see lots of people ask about it, and most answers are "this is how I set mine" or long winded semi-explanations, I think this should help.
First, a simple explanation:
Temperature control works due to two things.
1) the metal used will change resistance (ohms) as it gets hotter.
2) how much this resistance changes is used to calculate how hot that coil is getting.
This is called a TCR (Temperature Coefficient of Resistance). The metals used in TC are metals that this change is enough to be measured. (these metals are NI, TI, and SS)
Basically: TC is a setting, a cut-off for the mod to switch from full stable power output to pulsing the power to keep the output at what you set it to be.
So, now the math: (examples only for explanation purposes only)
So if your coil is cold (room temp of 70F) and is read at 0.5 ohm, then your mod takes this as the "start" value.
The TCR values being (from TCR):
Temperature °F SS 316L / Elite
-100 0.447901
0 0.479957
70 0.500556
200 0.536667
400 0.585778
600 0.629107
800 0.668483
So that means that when the resistance of your coil has changed to 0.536667ohm, then it figures that it must be 200F.
That said:
TC is about a SETTING, it is NOT an absolute. This does NOT mean that the vapor will be at this temperature.
There's a LOT of things to consider, such as airflow, the wicking, the build, the original ohm reading, etc. that will effect your results.
So you could have one coil in one tank/deck that could feel nice and warm at a certain setting for example:
0.5ohm, at 50W, and set at 380F and it would be perfect for you, the vapor would be nice and warm and the flavour coming through nicely.
You could have another build/coil at 0.2ohm, at 45W, and set at 290F and would be the exact same experience.
So what now, as that still doesn't make sense to me:
Simply that as I stated, TC is about being a setting.
This setting is a "cut off" for the mod to stop pushing the full power (wattage) and start pulsing it so to keep the coil at this setting that you gave it.
So let's say that you like the vapor's heat at 400F (at 45W) with a 0.5 ohm coil.
So every time that the coil's resistance hits (for example) 0.585778 ohm, it follows your settings and stops the power and then starts pulsing to keep the resistance at 0.585778 (or as close to it).
So does that mean I might be vaping lava hot steam?
No, it means that you have set your mod to respond to this change in ohm/resistance.
You will know right away if you've set it too high as:
And again, this does NOT mean that your vapor is at the temperature that you've set, it means that the coil's resistance value has changed to the extent that you've set it at. If the vapor was that hot, everyone would be burning off their mouths... normally, the vapor is estimated at around 150-250C as it's heading up the chimney but cooled off very fast due to the airflow but since inhaling very hot steam would result in damage and pain, we can estimate that by the time it hits our mouth, it's much cooler, from what I can find, the hottest that most people could tolerate is around approximately 60 C /140F (and that might be quite high/hot).
Let me put it this way... at 150C (302F) and higher, you're off to the hospital for serious burns and damage (Smoke Inhalation Lung Injury: An Update)
What about the whole wattage thing?
Well, the wattage is the power output.
Some mods will not let you set it, you'll have a "soft / normal / hard / max" setting, which means that the mod will calculate (according to how it's been programmed) how much wattage to push to reach that TC setting that you give it.
Other mods lets you set a maximum wattage, (and some have pre-heat settings to kick extra wattage to heat the coil's initial firing). This setting of the wattage is on a curve, where it's going to push up to this wattage UNLESS it reaches the TC setting first.
So basically, the wattage is "how fast it heats up to that TC value". That said, it's not always a good idea to try and kick a mod to go at 200W for a TC of 300F, it might be too fast and the wicking might not be able to flow that instantly... Better to have a balanced approach to it.
Many large screen mods will actually show you what's going on.. you'll be able to see the wattage going up at the same time that the Temp goes up. You might see that even if you set your mod at 70W, it might never even go over 30W.
So what now? How do I set my mod?
Well, it's simple, regardless of your resistance or build:
Even factory coils cannot be trusted, and I would recommend to always stay under 10 to 20W at least from the "maximum" rating of any of these coil (especially the larger sub-ohms ones in particular).
One last thing, what about DNA chip or Chinese mod?
Basically, they do the same thing.
My personal experience with a DNA chip wasn't the greatest, I've fiddled with the settings for many days to get it working properly as out of the box, it was terrible. I know that there's lots of fans of the DNA chips that will state how better it is, for me, it just wasn't the case. The best thing about it is the EScribe software that lets you monitor your vaping/mod "live" and that you really can mess with just about everything. Thanks to the headaches, the odds of me ever buying another DNA mod are slim.
The Chinese mods (Eleaf, SMOK, Joytech, Innokin) that I have, have all worked just fine right out of the box. The only issues I've had is having to learn that wire mass can affect the mod's capacity to read the TCR (of SS)...more about that is covered in another post in my blog.
Let me know if I missed something, and please go read and enjoy all my other entries as I'm building my blog, I'm trying to cover every aspect of vaping that I know about. I'll keep adding items as I think of them and have the time to write them.
First, a simple explanation:
Temperature control works due to two things.
1) the metal used will change resistance (ohms) as it gets hotter.
2) how much this resistance changes is used to calculate how hot that coil is getting.
This is called a TCR (Temperature Coefficient of Resistance). The metals used in TC are metals that this change is enough to be measured. (these metals are NI, TI, and SS)
Side note: I am going to emphasize SS as the go-to choice, as NI and TI are hazardous if overheated, so that while I did use them, NI mostly, once I switched to SS, I've never looked back and haven't used TI or NI since as SS is so much better and safer.
Basically: TC is a setting, a cut-off for the mod to switch from full stable power output to pulsing the power to keep the output at what you set it to be.
So, now the math: (examples only for explanation purposes only)
So if your coil is cold (room temp of 70F) and is read at 0.5 ohm, then your mod takes this as the "start" value.
The TCR values being (from TCR):
Temperature °F SS 316L / Elite
-100 0.447901
0 0.479957
70 0.500556
200 0.536667
400 0.585778
600 0.629107
800 0.668483
So that means that when the resistance of your coil has changed to 0.536667ohm, then it figures that it must be 200F.
That said:
TC is about a SETTING, it is NOT an absolute. This does NOT mean that the vapor will be at this temperature.
There's a LOT of things to consider, such as airflow, the wicking, the build, the original ohm reading, etc. that will effect your results.
So you could have one coil in one tank/deck that could feel nice and warm at a certain setting for example:
0.5ohm, at 50W, and set at 380F and it would be perfect for you, the vapor would be nice and warm and the flavour coming through nicely.
You could have another build/coil at 0.2ohm, at 45W, and set at 290F and would be the exact same experience.
So what now, as that still doesn't make sense to me:
Simply that as I stated, TC is about being a setting.
This setting is a "cut off" for the mod to stop pushing the full power (wattage) and start pulsing it so to keep the coil at this setting that you gave it.
So let's say that you like the vapor's heat at 400F (at 45W) with a 0.5 ohm coil.
So every time that the coil's resistance hits (for example) 0.585778 ohm, it follows your settings and stops the power and then starts pulsing to keep the resistance at 0.585778 (or as close to it).
So does that mean I might be vaping lava hot steam?
No, it means that you have set your mod to respond to this change in ohm/resistance.
You will know right away if you've set it too high as:
- it'll be too hot, you won't enjoy it at all.
- the liquid can only get so hot before it's vaporized into an aerosol, so that extra heat is going to heat up the air too, making it quite hot.
- the wicking may not be able to keep up, so the coil dries out, becomes very hot very fast, BUT the mod will see this and cut the power off right away.
And again, this does NOT mean that your vapor is at the temperature that you've set, it means that the coil's resistance value has changed to the extent that you've set it at. If the vapor was that hot, everyone would be burning off their mouths... normally, the vapor is estimated at around 150-250C as it's heading up the chimney but cooled off very fast due to the airflow but since inhaling very hot steam would result in damage and pain, we can estimate that by the time it hits our mouth, it's much cooler, from what I can find, the hottest that most people could tolerate is around approximately 60 C /140F (and that might be quite high/hot).
Let me put it this way... at 150C (302F) and higher, you're off to the hospital for serious burns and damage (Smoke Inhalation Lung Injury: An Update)
What about the whole wattage thing?
Well, the wattage is the power output.
Some mods will not let you set it, you'll have a "soft / normal / hard / max" setting, which means that the mod will calculate (according to how it's been programmed) how much wattage to push to reach that TC setting that you give it.
Other mods lets you set a maximum wattage, (and some have pre-heat settings to kick extra wattage to heat the coil's initial firing). This setting of the wattage is on a curve, where it's going to push up to this wattage UNLESS it reaches the TC setting first.
So basically, the wattage is "how fast it heats up to that TC value". That said, it's not always a good idea to try and kick a mod to go at 200W for a TC of 300F, it might be too fast and the wicking might not be able to flow that instantly... Better to have a balanced approach to it.
Many large screen mods will actually show you what's going on.. you'll be able to see the wattage going up at the same time that the Temp goes up. You might see that even if you set your mod at 70W, it might never even go over 30W.
So what now? How do I set my mod?
Well, it's simple, regardless of your resistance or build:
- Start low (both in wattage and TC)
- Increase the TC first until you find the setting that you like.
- If you're having trouble with reaching a nice warmth level, start increasing your wattage
- Go with increments of 5 to 10 Watts /degrees (either F or C)
Even factory coils cannot be trusted, and I would recommend to always stay under 10 to 20W at least from the "maximum" rating of any of these coil (especially the larger sub-ohms ones in particular).
One last thing, what about DNA chip or Chinese mod?
Basically, they do the same thing.
My personal experience with a DNA chip wasn't the greatest, I've fiddled with the settings for many days to get it working properly as out of the box, it was terrible. I know that there's lots of fans of the DNA chips that will state how better it is, for me, it just wasn't the case. The best thing about it is the EScribe software that lets you monitor your vaping/mod "live" and that you really can mess with just about everything. Thanks to the headaches, the odds of me ever buying another DNA mod are slim.
The Chinese mods (Eleaf, SMOK, Joytech, Innokin) that I have, have all worked just fine right out of the box. The only issues I've had is having to learn that wire mass can affect the mod's capacity to read the TCR (of SS)...more about that is covered in another post in my blog.
Let me know if I missed something, and please go read and enjoy all my other entries as I'm building my blog, I'm trying to cover every aspect of vaping that I know about. I'll keep adding items as I think of them and have the time to write them.
