If it looks like a mech mod, acts like a mech mod, isnt it a mech mod?
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I have a friend who tightened down his K100 with the CGR18650CH, positive end up, and the unwrapped bottom edge contacted the outer edge of the switch assembly, causing a short. This lead to flipping it upside down as well. I don't recommend the CGR18650CH in mechanical mods for that reason unless one is using a fuse.
There's a minor difference between mechs with regard to voltage drop - but it's not necessarily true that the expensive ones perform better than the cheaper ones in this regard. PBusardo did voltage drop tests on a few mechs, the chart is on his site. On that chart, the $50 Smoktech telescope had the least voltage drop, the $170 Adam had the most.
I personally don't think voltage drop is that big of a deal. I have 3 different mechs - a Smoktech telescop, Smoktech Magneto and a Sentinel Clone. I have not measured the voltage drop on them but they all perform about the same as far as I can tell from just vaping them. I use rebuildables, so even if I did notice a drop, I could just lower my resistance a tad to make up for it.
What really matters to me is how it feels in my hand, what the button feels like, does it fire everytime?, how does it look?, is it vented? does it have an adjustable pin?, reverse threaded lockout?, etc, etc.
Maybe it's kind of like choosing a pair of sneakers. Do some perform better than others? sure . .is that the main criteria for most people when choosing? no - except for the bottom end, most sneakers peform acceptably well for most people and it's more about looks, price, etc.
I personally don't think voltage drop is that big of a deal. I have 3 different mechs - a Smoktech telescop, Smoktech Magneto and a Sentinel Clone. I have not measured the voltage drop on them but they all perform about the same as far as I can tell from just vaping them. I use rebuildables, so even if I did notice a drop, I could just lower my resistance a tad to make up for it.
What really matters to me is how it feels in my hand, what the button feels like, does it fire everytime?, how does it look?, is it vented? does it have an adjustable pin?, reverse threaded lockout?, etc, etc.
Maybe it's kind of like choosing a pair of sneakers. Do some perform better than others? sure . .is that the main criteria for most people when choosing? no - except for the bottom end, most sneakers peform acceptably well for most people and it's more about looks, price, etc.
Thank you ubergeek. My K100 battery is now in upside down. It's becoming a very informative weekend on ECF
This. Price and performance are typically have *some* sort of correlation, but does a $400 mech work 4 times better than a $100 mech? Does it work *8* times better than a $50? Absolutely not.
As these are mech mods without any other circuitry, might you explain this statement? Are you stating that mods with a price tag under $100-$500 will have a voltage drop of .5v, and those over don't have any? This sounds like a touch of BS to me.
What he's SAYING (at least I'd like to *think* he's saying) is that some of the more inexpensive mechs are not made with the highest quality material, which can result in a mod that performs more poorly than it could.
What he's IMPLYING is that spending $400 on a mod gets you a much "better" piece than what you could have gotten for $100, which is a blanket statement and holds no water.
Like I said, this sounds like more then a touch of BS to me. You want to spend over $100 on a mechanical mod be my guest, but your payin for status, not substance. Remember, you're paying for a tube, some wire & a button, nothing else.
Correct. The most important variables in voltage drop are your atty and the internal resistance of the battery. I've tested this several times using various mechs being careful to always use the same atty and same battery on each device. The difference in voltage drop between my high end mechs and my budget mechs were miniscule.
Anyone able to shed some knowledge on why Mech mod A has less voltage drop than Mech mod B? I'd love to learn the science behind what causes voltage drop.
There are mods out there that perform really well and have very low voltage drop, but in order to really appreciate them you have to vape them at sub ohms. The best performing mod and a cheap mod won't have any difference in performance if your running a 2.0ohm atty on top. But when your running a 0.5-0.8ohm set up you better believe a cheap mechanical mod with chromed contacts is not going to perform as well a higher end mod with copper or silver contact points. The lower ohms you vape at the more significant the voltage drop you will experience. Just as an example....The natural with its chromed contact points had a 0.7v drop with a 1ohm coil. When I sanded down all the contact points so the brass appeared....the volatge drop was 0.3v. So it went from a 12watt vape to a 15watt vape on the one ohm coil...that is a huge difference. If your running a 26g wire setup that is 0.7ohms you will definitely want a good performing mod or else it will take forever for the coils to heat up and the vape will be relatively anemic.
It's all about the materials used in the mod, and how well the mod is put together, that's it, nothing else, quality wiring, connectors and construction has less resistance
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There are very real, verifiable differences in performance between mech mods. This comes down simply to the materials used, and the design of the device. Using less conductive materials means more voltage loss, and a loss in performance. A design which incorporates a lot of connections and contacts introduces more voltage loss, and loss in performance. If someone is saying their mech "hits like a train" or whatever else, that means it has very low voltage loss, at least compared to whatever other mechs they have used.
But the very real truth is that expensive does NOT equal better performance. Buying expensive high-end stuff does not guarantee you top performance. There are super cheap china mods that will out perform a large number of the high-end models, and there are high-end models that have incredibly low voltage loss that few other mechs can touch.
I had a GS Matrix Telescope- it was absolutely dreadful out of the box. With coils in the high sub-ohm range, the bottom button would heat up quickly and performance was anemic even compared to a smoktech Bolt. I had to totally rework the switch, and the 510 connection, in order to get good performance from it. My Edz Modz Avenger V3, as well as my EHPro caravela clone both hit excellent out of the box. The mods stay stone cold, and performance is very strong. My old sigelei was awful out of the box, but better than the GS matrix.
It really all comes down to the individual model. If all you care about is performance, and you don't mind a bit of tinkering, there is absolutely no reason to spend more than 50 bucks or so on a mech. You can put something together that performs as good as any other mech on the planet.
But, like many other people, I appreciate having a hand crafted device. I like having an individual serial number, I like supporting small independent modders, there is a bit of refinement and overall quality you get with high-end stuff that you don't get with most of the cheaper devices out there. In general the expensive stuff is nicer overall, and it's more likely you'll get good performance straight out of the box, but there is no astronomical difference in materials quality or performance between high-end and low-end stuff.
On the subject of the backwards battery placement, it's really not a good idea. As was mentioned by someone else, the body of the battery is negative. With the battery in place positive side up, the body of the mod is the negative as well. If there is any sort of tear in the battery's wrapping, and it touches the wall of the mod, it won't be a big deal. It will simply complete the circuit (bypassing the switch) and power the coil just like you are pressing the button.
If you have the battery reversed, the body of the PV becomes positive, but the body of the battery is still negative. If there is a tear in the wrapping, and it touches the wall of the mod, you will have a hard short. It will connect the negative body of the battery, to the positive body of the PV. This will be far worse than the previous scenario.
Before a tear just resulted in bypassing the switch, this time a tear results in hard shorting the battery. Because the short is directly between the wall of the mod, and the body of the battery, there is nothing else to stop or break the circuit. Unless you catch this almost instantly you'll overheat and vent your battery.
We're all adults here and I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, but it's a really bad idea to put the battery in backwards.
But the very real truth is that expensive does NOT equal better performance. Buying expensive high-end stuff does not guarantee you top performance. There are super cheap china mods that will out perform a large number of the high-end models, and there are high-end models that have incredibly low voltage loss that few other mechs can touch.
I had a GS Matrix Telescope- it was absolutely dreadful out of the box. With coils in the high sub-ohm range, the bottom button would heat up quickly and performance was anemic even compared to a smoktech Bolt. I had to totally rework the switch, and the 510 connection, in order to get good performance from it. My Edz Modz Avenger V3, as well as my EHPro caravela clone both hit excellent out of the box. The mods stay stone cold, and performance is very strong. My old sigelei was awful out of the box, but better than the GS matrix.
It really all comes down to the individual model. If all you care about is performance, and you don't mind a bit of tinkering, there is absolutely no reason to spend more than 50 bucks or so on a mech. You can put something together that performs as good as any other mech on the planet.
But, like many other people, I appreciate having a hand crafted device. I like having an individual serial number, I like supporting small independent modders, there is a bit of refinement and overall quality you get with high-end stuff that you don't get with most of the cheaper devices out there. In general the expensive stuff is nicer overall, and it's more likely you'll get good performance straight out of the box, but there is no astronomical difference in materials quality or performance between high-end and low-end stuff.
On the subject of the backwards battery placement, it's really not a good idea. As was mentioned by someone else, the body of the battery is negative. With the battery in place positive side up, the body of the mod is the negative as well. If there is any sort of tear in the battery's wrapping, and it touches the wall of the mod, it won't be a big deal. It will simply complete the circuit (bypassing the switch) and power the coil just like you are pressing the button.
If you have the battery reversed, the body of the PV becomes positive, but the body of the battery is still negative. If there is a tear in the wrapping, and it touches the wall of the mod, you will have a hard short. It will connect the negative body of the battery, to the positive body of the PV. This will be far worse than the previous scenario.
Before a tear just resulted in bypassing the switch, this time a tear results in hard shorting the battery. Because the short is directly between the wall of the mod, and the body of the battery, there is nothing else to stop or break the circuit. Unless you catch this almost instantly you'll overheat and vent your battery.
We're all adults here and I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, but it's a really bad idea to put the battery in backwards.
This kinda sounds like a touch of bs to me , you have a mech with wire?
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I wasn't even stating that higher priced devices perform better, although they often do.
I was simply pointing out that the idea that all mechs perform pretty much the same is completely incorrect.
And yeah, you may want to avoid trying to act authoritative in a thread about mechs while referring to wires.
I was simply pointing out that the idea that all mechs perform pretty much the same is completely incorrect.
And yeah, you may want to avoid trying to act authoritative in a thread about mechs while referring to wires.
I think it's safe to say that most high end mechs have been designed and engineered for performance, with aesthetics coming second. With a clone, the aesthetics come first, and performance comes second, as the primary focus of a clone is to "look like it", not "act like it". When something is cloned perfectly (such as the Terminator), you get nearly equal performance. But if something in the cloned design is a bit different, it's going to act a little different (whether for the better or for the worse). But because the cloner is interested in cloning the look alone (again, not all cases, but many - such as all the Fasttech dripper clones), I'd be confident in assuming that a clone would not perform as well as the real thing.
Just an observation but most people posting that every mod is the same as the next whether you spend $300 or $30 , they do not , nor ever plan on owning a mod that costs $300. It doesn't matter what the reasoning behind it is but you just can't comment that a sigelei #20 is the same as a Roller unless you own them both. There are some great mechs out there for under $100 but if you owned both the Eh Pro Caravela clone and a real Cara ,there is just no comparison. If you have a K100 in one hand and a Poldiac in the other , you can't compare the 2 on any level (performance , looks , material) As long as the end result keeps you from smoking cigarettes , I think they are all great. As long as you are satisfied with what you have , then there is no need to compare high end to low end or the people that use either.
One good example of the clone performing better than the original is the EH Pro EA Clone. I have it, works great, finish is nice, but even though it has been deemed a good performer it hits the same as my K100 and my brass sentinel M16 clone. I refuse to pay over $60 for a mech mod, I just don't see the value on an engineering level. Aesthetics, finish, warranty, exclusivity aka bragging rights, supporting american made, supporting small shops are all reasons why you would spend money on the higher end. If the tube material has good conductivity, and the threads have been machined correctly, and the pins are brass or better silver or gold plated, and the switch mechanism is designed well then your mod should function as well as the high end mods.
My brass m16 has good threads, solid brass construction, brass firing pin, brass 510 connection, telescoping. The only thing I would really change is the lock ring, it's standard thread and reverse thread would have been great. I think I can live with that gripe for $17, maybe there are other mods out there that have less voltage drop, but I don't see the value in spending 10 times as much to get that TEENY TINY bit of performance. If it was that important then I would build a lower resistance coil to adjust for the resistance in the body.
Everyone wants something different in their mod, but for me I pretty much drip exclusively. I have a dual coil setup that sits usually between 1.2-1.6 ohms in parallel. My air holes are drilled out to 1/16 inch and I don't enjoy sub-ohm vaping. Sooooo as long as my mods fire every time, doesn't short, and my switch doesn't fall apart during use, then I'm a happy camper.
My brass m16 has good threads, solid brass construction, brass firing pin, brass 510 connection, telescoping. The only thing I would really change is the lock ring, it's standard thread and reverse thread would have been great. I think I can live with that gripe for $17, maybe there are other mods out there that have less voltage drop, but I don't see the value in spending 10 times as much to get that TEENY TINY bit of performance. If it was that important then I would build a lower resistance coil to adjust for the resistance in the body.
Everyone wants something different in their mod, but for me I pretty much drip exclusively. I have a dual coil setup that sits usually between 1.2-1.6 ohms in parallel. My air holes are drilled out to 1/16 inch and I don't enjoy sub-ohm vaping. Sooooo as long as my mods fire every time, doesn't short, and my switch doesn't fall apart during use, then I'm a happy camper.
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I'm going to have to take issue with this. The EH Pro Caravela clone has very little voltage drop, and voltage drop is the ONLY thing that matters when it comes to performance on a mechanical. While I'm open to the possibility that the authentic Caravela would have slightly less voltage drop compared to the EH Pro clone, there is nowhere near significant enough a difference to say "there is just no comparison" The two are close in performance. Build quality, just by nature of the simplicity of these devices, is relatively close. Materials are stainless steel and brass, if there is any proof of significant difference in the quality of these materials I'd love to see it.
And a K100 and a Poldiac aren't even a similar device. The K100 is an Empire knock off, so it would be more appropriate to compare those two devices. The K100 is aluminum just like the Empire, so materials are very similar. And if one wants to compare materials between a Poldiac and a K100, aluminum is actually more conductive than stainless steel.
I would totally agree that high end devices are "nicer" They are generally more refined, designed better, have less issues, and overall are much more pleasing devices. But if someone is performance minded, and can find a cheap mod they think looks cool, they don't have to spend much money to get high performance. I don't think it is at all fair to say there is no comparison between high end and cheap mods, especially when it comes to performance.
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