Suggestion: Try a 100W mod set at 88.2W and tell us if it hits just like your most awesome of mech mods with a fully charged high drain battery in it. If the 100W device is functioning properly and actually outputting every single bit of those 88.2W, then it should seem to you a far different experience.....and don't believe folks when they tell you this is entirely the fault of your mech and its "voltage drop". When transitioning from a mech to a regulated device we often gloss over a key piece of information which is:
The 4.2v of fully charged batt in a mechanical mod
does not equal the 4.2v as set on a correctly functioning APV. And this is because every single battery experiences a significant voltage drop when "loaded"(pressing the fire button) and thus in a mech, this yields a lower than calculated output of current to the atomizer.
For example, check the battery tests
here. You'll see that even a VTC4 will drop down to ~3.7v on the very first pulse of 0.2ohm load. Which means that even in the sweetest all copper mech, the first toot of your 0.2ohm coil will actually fire at ~68W and from there, decline steadily as the battery discharges. AND that is the best case scenario using a fresh VTC4, which is a top notch performer in the world of APV batteries because it has a relatively low voltage drop under load. NOTE: I'm talking here about a mech using a single 18650 battery. A parallel 18650 mech will distribute its amp draw across both batteries yielding a lower overall vDrop and thus a higher output voltage than a single 18650 battery mod.
And so that's where a decent regulated device really shines. It can compensate for that battery sag and "boost" the output voltage accordingly. Of course, this usually means pulling more amps from the battery to do it, so you've really got to choose your APV batteries carefully -- not necessarily for safety as much as for adequate discharge capability.
