Higher wattages (50+ watts) useless on Voopoo Drag X Plus?

[jersey_emt]

I've been using only twin-18650 mods for some time, and before the shipping ban came into effect, I bought a backup of my most-used mod (a Geekvape Aegis X), but since the 100W single 21700 / 18650 Voopoo Drag X Plus was only $35, I also picked up one of them as another backup.

I vape exclusively on rda's, typically with a 3mm dual coil twisted build with 24 or 26 gauge Kanthal or nichrome-80. 5 or 6 wraps with 24 gauge, 6-8 wraps with 26 gauge. I typically vape these between 90 and 110 watts.

I did not expect to get a 'true' 90-100 watts out of the Drag X, so I set a target of around 60 watts. I mounted a 3mm dual coil twisted 28 gauge build with 6 wraps, which on my Aegis X vapes great at 60 watts, and very good at 50 watts. It measures at 0.45 ohms.

But on the Drag at 60 watts, it only vapes at what feels like 30 watts on my Aegis. Setting it higher makes no difference either, it seems to 'top out' at ~30 watts regardless of the setting. 60 watts @ 0.45 ohms is only around 11 amps, so I doubt I'm hitting an amperage limit.

I am using 18650 batteries (VTC5A), and it is about time to replace them, as I am only getting around 70% the battery life as I did when new. I will be picking up some 21700 batteries at the same time, which hopefully help with things on the Voopoo.

Does anybody have any good experiences with ~60 watt builds on a Drag X Plus?

 

[MLEJ]

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

But on the Drag at 60 watts, it only vapes at what feels like 30 watts on my Aegis. Setting it higher makes no difference either, it seems to 'top out' at ~30 watts regardless of the setting. 60 watts @ 0.45 ohms is only around 11 amps, so I doubt I'm hitting an amperage limit.

Because the Drag X and Drag X Plus, like many Voopoo mods, do not have boost. That means they cannot "boost" voltage output above the voltage of the battery at any given time. They have a maximum output voltage limit of whatever your battery's voltage is at any given time.

Therefore, the advertised 100 watts on the Drag X Plus can only be achieved with a coil with about a 0.18 ohm resistance on a full battery. As your battery depletes, you will not even get 100W. In fact, with battery sag and voltage drop taken into account, you won't even likely get a 4.2 volt output on a fully charged battery, more like 3.8-4.0 volts. So to get a full 100W on a fully charged batt on the Drag X Plus, you may have to build more like a 0.14 to 0.16 ohm coil.

Unfortunately releasing mods with no boost is becoming very common these days, especially with Voopoo. So next time you buy a mod, make sure you look at the specs. If the output voltage range does not exceed 4.2 volts (or 8.4 volts with dual battery mods), or if it does not tell you what the output voltage range is, then you should assume it has no boost capability unless you can verify otherwise.

Specs on Drag X.

Specs on Drag X Plus. As you can see, they are trying to deceive you by listing as "Input voltage". That's OK because it shows no output voltage for a reason...no boost! (Anyone who thinks that was just a mistake, PM me, I have a bridge to sell you.)