Are Nickel coils SAFE (for temp control Mods)

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shaily

Full Member
Nov 15, 2014
14
3
india
Hi all,
Been vaping for about eight months now but this my first post. Have been using Kanthal A1 on VW devices and mech mods till now. I wanted to switch to a Temprature control device and while reading up on these , I came across a you tube video by Ron Kaufman

().

He has brought two negative aspects of using pure Nickel wires which I think are relevant. One Nickle tends to leech at high temps and second that it tends to produce Nickel carbonyl which is a carcenogenic substance. I read a few things about Nickel carbonyl and found that at 30ppm it was certainly fatal, and even a significantly lower dose of 3ppm caused death in 50 per cent of a group of test animals. Further, when you breathe it in, it decomposes, giving you a dose of carbon monoxide and depositing some nickel on your lungs. If you survive the first few hours, the nickel causes a form of pneumonia, coughing, breathlessness, extreme fatigue. This lasts for several days, often resulting in cardiovascular or renal failure and death. This surprising molecule is not very human friendly in others ways too: its vapours can autoignite and there have been studies as to whether small quantities of nickel carbonyl, inhaled over time, can cause lung cancer.

So now the Questions:
(a) Is Nickle safe? The Ron Kaufman's video and my research tends to say otherwise.
(b) Has any of the companies producing Temp Mods, prior to insisting on using only Ni200 type wires, undertaken any study on what happens to nickle when heated?
(c) Any other wire which can be used in TC Mods safely?

Ps. I do find a change in flavour if I use Nickel Chromium wires and pure Nickle Wires in my VW mods.

Thanks in advance
 

Alien Traveler

Vaping Master
ECF Veteran
Jul 3, 2014
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United States
There are even worse things in vaping. Do you know that Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is present in some juices?
It is highly corrosive chemical, its inhaling can be deadly, it has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients, it is used as industrial solvent and coolant, it used in the production of styrofoam, it is used as a fire ......ant, it is widely used by military. More information here:
Dihydrogen Monoxide - The Truth

And back to nickel:
Nickel Exposure - A Deadly Hazard
 

RandyF

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Apr 1, 2013
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Interesting video, he does raise some good points. Evolv went with Nickel for TC and everyone else just jumped on board with out any questions...maybe Titanium is the way of the TC future.
There were plenty of questions. Evolve stated on different occasions nickel was chosen for it's predictable behavior when heated as well as it's well researched safety profile. Nickel can be dangerous at high temps, which is why we use it in devices that limit temperature.

If it was a Chinese company that came up with temp control, I may be a little wary of their claims regarding nickel. Evolv however, has a history of innovation for the better of the community (with safety being a priority), so I am willing to trust them when they say, if used correctly, nickel is no more dangerous than anything else we use.
 
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shaily

Full Member
Nov 15, 2014
14
3
india
Hi
First my appologies for late late reply ... but was out on a hectic work tour did not get time to see ECF. Scondly thanks to AlienTraveler, Romano Cheese and RandyF. Alien Traveler am reading up more on DHMO and its effects will come back if I find something new. With regards titanium at best I could come up with this
'
There is no known biological role for titanium. There is a detectable amount of titanium in the human body and it has been hestimated that we take in about 0.8 mg/day, but most passes through us without being adsorbed. It is not a poison metal and the human body can tolerate titanium in large dosis.

Effects of overexposure to titanium powder: Dust inhalation may cause tightness and pain in chest, coughing, and difficulty in breathing. Contact with skin or eyes may cause irritation. Routes of entry: Inhalation, skin contact, eye contact.

Carcinogenicity: The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has listed titanium dioxide within Group 3 (The agent is not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans.)

After reading a lot about Nickel I think Nickel coils are out.... So TC is on hold.
Thanks a lot guys for the help


Read more: Titanium (Ti) - Chemical properties, Health and Environmental effects
 

SVrider

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Sep 17, 2014
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77
Vermont, USA
First i know this is an old thread. I ordered a TC mod yesterday and had done some research on it but never seen any info that nickel wire might not be safe until just now when i seen the youtube vid that the OP has linked and now i have some serious doubts about using it. I did a search and like the post above most people are saying they are using this wire for a reason and evolve must have done some research so it must be safe to use and they dont worry about it but i am more skeptical.

Is there some more recent info on this subject that im not seeing, maybe some real facts? Is it really safe to use? I know chinese metal quality isnt always good so the combination of these things has me reconsidering my choice to use the KangerTech OCC coils i ordered. The mod i ordered is the SMY 60 TC mini so i dont have to use the TC and i can just stick with kanthal if i want.
 

Completely Average

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Jan 21, 2014
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Since you posted that, I'll go ahead and address the two issues.

One Nickle tends to leech at high temps and second that it tends to produce Nickel carbonyl which is a carcenogenic substance.

First, the amount of leaching that takes place with nickel is in such tiny amounts that it shouldn't be a consideration. The worries come from a study of nickel leaching into foods from stainless steel frying pans.

Stainless steel leaches nickel and chromium into foods during cooking. - PubMed - NCBI

In a stainless steel frying pan (stainless steel is made by adding nickel) with tomato sauce (tomatoes are very acidic) being brought to a boil, left boiling for 30 minutes, cooled back down to room temperature, and repeated for 10 cycles nickel was detected at 88ug per 126g of tomato sauce. This study is where the vast majority of leaching claims comes from. However, the three aspects that should be noted is the acidity of the tomato sauce which interacts with nickel, the total surface area of the pan, and the repeated heating and cooling cycles of the acidic tomato sauce. It should also be noted that 88ug was only 34 times higher than the same sauce cooked in iron which contained no nickel, which means 2.6ug of nickel is present in the sauce to begin with.

That's from a frying pan. Your little coil in your ecig doesn't have anywhere near the surface area to leach from, nor is your juice likely to be anywhere near as acidic as raw tomato sauce. The amount of nickel that would leach from your ecig would be barely over your natural exposure, and less than 1/100th of the safe limits set by government health agencies. (Nickel can be toxic, but it takes a HIGH dose to be considered toxic. I gram of nickel powder per 1 cubic meter of air is considered a safe limit in places that manufacture using nickel)



Now, in regards to Nickel Carbonyl, that is only produced at high temperatures and all TC mods have a maximum temperature below the threshold of Nickel Carbonyl creation. In short, it's a non-issue. The mods are designed to prevent it.
 

VCross

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Jun 6, 2015
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There are even worse things in vaping. Do you know that Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is present in some juices?
It is highly corrosive chemical, its inhaling can be deadly, it has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients, it is used as industrial solvent and coolant, it used in the production of styrofoam, it is used as a fire ......ant, it is widely used by military. More information here:
Dihydrogen Monoxide - The Truth

And back to nickel:
Nickel Exposure - A Deadly Hazard

Scondly thanks to AlienTraveler, Romano Cheese and RandyF. Alien Traveler am reading up more on DHMO and its effects will come back if I find something new.

For those of you who don't get it: Dihydrogen monoxide hoax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the TL: DR readers: It's water.....

Just thought I'd post that because some people don't understand satire and might get scared reading about "dangerous" chemicals in e-juice.
 
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shaily

Full Member
Nov 15, 2014
14
3
india
Hi
Back again. Just been going through the thread and few things pop up;-
(a) For Completely Average (with due respects:nun:):- Nickel carbonyl (Ni(CO)4) is formed by the reaction of nickel metal (Ni) and carbon monoxide (CO) at low to moderate temperatures between 30°C and 150°C (that's 82°F to 350°F). Most of TC mods are from 100°F to 600°F. So all TC mods have a maximum temperature above the threshold of Nickel Carbonyl creation. Thus it should, to my mind still be an issue. Further, Nickel carbonyl is extremely toxic and extreme care must be taken whenever conditions exist that may produce it are encountered. It is carcinogenic and may prove fatal to humans at very low levels. The short term toxic limit for exposure to nickel carbonyl is 0.04 vppm. OSHA has defined the permissible exposure limit (PEL) of nickel carbonyl to be 1 ppb (part per billion) averaged over an eight-hour work shift. This is 1000 times lower than the odour threshold. Therefore it is imperative that precautions are taken whenever conditions that may produce nickel carbonyl are suspected. I think, that companies have not really addressed this issue otherwise it would have been in BOLD letters on the covers of the merchandise as an achievement.

(b) With regards Nickle leaching, in the US, the minimal risk level of nickel and its compounds is set to 0.2 µg/m3 for inhalation over a period of 15 to 364 days. Nickel coils are pure Nickle, so to think that while vaping, 0.2 µg/m3 over 364 days period is not possible to be inhaled, is difficult to digest, specially considering properties of Nickel. If my memory serves me right, I think the leaching rate for Nickel is maximum at 85°C (185°F). That is also the temperature at which the Nickel is extracted from the ore due to leaching. So the required temperature exist and only very small quantity is required to create problems for you = avoid nickle coils.

(c) For SVrider:- My two bit since you have bought a TC --- try titanium coils. I have yet to come up with something negative. But to be honest I have not spent time on it. Choice is yours.

thanks

Ps: worth reading chemicalengineering: Catalysts – Nickel Carbonyl Formation
 
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edyle

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Oct 23, 2013
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I wouldn't spend money on nickel coils just because the resistance is too low.
Using low voltage and low ohms with high current has it's practical problems with maintenance.

I'll wait for the second generation of tc mods.

there's already the asolo ijoy.

and then there's possible development of nickel-iron-other alloys for better implementations of tc.
 

LuNar

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
May 10, 2014
237
89
Hays KS
Hi
Back again. Just been going through the thread and few things pop up;-
(a) For Completely Average (with due respects:nun:):- Nickel carbonyl (Ni(CO)4) is formed by the reaction of nickel metal (Ni) and carbon monoxide (CO) at low to moderate temperatures between 30°C and 150°C (that's 82°F to 350°F). Most of TC mods are from 100°F to 600°F. So all TC mods have a maximum temperature above the threshold of Nickel Carbonyl creation. Thus it should, to my mind still be an issue. Further, Nickel carbonyl is extremely toxic and extreme care must be taken whenever conditions exist that may produce it are encountered. It is carcinogenic and may prove fatal to humans at very low levels. The short term toxic limit for exposure to nickel carbonyl is 0.04 vppm. OSHA has defined the permissible exposure limit (PEL) of nickel carbonyl to be 1 ppb (part per billion) averaged over an eight-hour work shift. This is 1000 times lower than the odour threshold. Therefore it is imperative that precautions are taken whenever conditions that may produce nickel carbonyl are suspected. I think, that companies have not really addressed this issue otherwise it would have been in BOLD letters on the covers of the merchandise as an achievement.

(b) With regards Nickle leaching, in the US, the minimal risk level of nickel and its compounds is set to 0.2 µg/m3 for inhalation over a period of 15 to 364 days. Nickel coils are pure Nickle, so to think that while vaping, 0.2 µg/m3 over 364 days period is not possible to be inhaled, is difficult to digest, specially considering properties of Nickel. If my memory serves me right, I think the leaching rate for Nickel is maximum at 85°C (185°F). That is also the temperature at which the Nickel is extracted from the ore due to leaching. So the required temperature exist and only very small quantity is required to create problems for you = avoid nickle coils.

(c) For SVrider:- My two bit since you have bought a TC --- try titanium coils. I have yet to come up with something negative. But to be honest I have not spent time on it. Choice is yours.

thanks

Ps: worth reading chemicalengineering: Catalysts – Nickel Carbonyl Formation

Well... this is interesting... I may just stop using these nickel coils I have. I don't think my sigelei 75w tc can do titanium so I'll probably just go back to kanthal. Thanks for the info Shaily.
 
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