Help me understand how power affects the vape experience

[mcclintock]

No; the .5Ω coil will be hotter; with sufficient airflow, that will mean bigger clouds; with insufficient airflow, that will mean dry, burnt hits.

Andria

This better be backwards, with the same power, because the .5 ohm is supposed to be the high power coil, with more airflow so the vapor and coil are the same temperature at higher power.

This whole thing of variable power instead of variable voltage causes extra confusion. Some say that makes you get the same result of any atty -- but if the attys are different, why would you want, or get, the same result?

Almost every coil, unless specifically stated otherwise, is going to be designed to work (at least "OK") at the SAME voltage, the battery range of 3.7-4.2 volts, because that's what regular mechs and unregulateds put out, and a range all VV/VW mods can do.
.5 ohm at 4 volts: 32 watts
1.2 ohm at 4 volts: 13.33 watts
I'm not saying this is the ideal voltage or power for them, but it's how much you're going to get in many situations, so if it's not pretty good then these devices are going to be junk for many people. It's not that high power coils are necessarily low resistance, but if you want high power to be drawn from a battery, it better be low resistance, and in turn if it's going to draw high power from a normal battery, it better be able to work with that.

 

[SontavaMe]

Power or 'watts' does work; the work of heating the element. Production of heat is proportional to the amount of power (watts) applied. The element characteristics also determine the vaping experience.

 

[Completely Average]

This better be backwards, with the same power, because the .5 ohm is supposed to be the high power coil, with more airflow so the vapor and coil are the same temperature at higher power.

This whole thing of variable power instead of variable voltage causes extra confusion. Some say that makes you get the same result of any atty -- but if the attys are different, why would you want, or get, the same result?

Almost every coil, unless specifically stated otherwise, is going to be designed to work (at least "OK") at the SAME voltage, the battery range of 3.7-4.2 volts, because that's what regular mechs and unregulateds put out, and a range all VV/VW mods can do.
.5 ohm at 4 volts: 32 watts
1.2 ohm at 4 volts: 13.33 watts
I'm not saying this is the ideal voltage or power for them, but it's how much you're going to get in many situations, so if it's not pretty good then these devices are going to be junk for many people. It's not that high power coils are necessarily low resistance, but if you want high power to be drawn from a battery, it better be low resistance, and in turn if it's going to draw high power from a normal battery, it better be able to work with that.

Only when dealing with store bought coils, and even then it's not always true. It also ignores the fact that coil resistance changes over time. The more you use it the higher the resistance will be. Variable wattage will automatically adjust for the change in resistance, variable voltage will not.

And of course there are always exceptions to the rule as well. A great example is the Aspire Nautilus BVC heads. They really like high power and often work best in the 15-20W range. Running them in the 3.7-4.2 volt range usually results in leaking, gurgling, spitting juice up the drip tip, and coils wearing out really quick. I'm currently running a Nautilus 1.8ohm coil at 5.85V.

And then there is the whole rebuildable world, where you can throw everything you said out the window. I know a lot of people who are getting into the "large metal" builds where it requires a ton of wattage to heat the coil because of the amount of metal in it.

Try to run that at 3.7V and you could be holding the fire button down all day waiting for it to heat up.