420ish degrees is pretty much the limit for cotton burning, right? If I put dry cotton in and fire it, it starts to brown at around 420 degrees. Does that sound about right to you guys?
I have noticed that it really depends on the build. Some builds that would vape warm at a relatively low wattage will not vape warm at all on a TC mod. This has nothing to do with a particular TC mod and more to do with the way TC works. What I have noticed is that at 425 or so I will run my mod for a few seconds before taking a drag.
It will be nice when we finally get some real info on suggested lower risk vaping temp ranges...so far I am on the fence about TC as a whole...fairly anemic vapor production and cool vapor have been my experience so far. I greatly prefer the regular kanthal variable wattage experience, and I am not a extreme wattage, low ohm build guy...rarely get dry/burnt hits. That said, I do have a VF clone and iPV4 inbound...
I've been using a TC MOD for about two months now. It's the Vapor Flask V3 40watt by Kangxin. It's been a fairly decent MOD other that I had to do some "shade tree" engineering to correct the very loose adjustable 510 center pin and that the Power/Fire button's silver finish has worn off and the brass substrate is showing now.
(But then I'll admit my skin chemistry is very tough on certain metals. That's why only an all stainless steel watch or titanium watch are the only ones I can wear without destroying them.)
The coil building process has been the biggest learning curve. At first I was wrapping coils around 0.20 ohms on a 3.5mm mandrel with my Universal Coil Tool by Kuro. I thought that making a tight coil like I did with Kanthal was the way to go but it gave me issues and the vape was substandard. Then I read about spaced coils and reducing the resistance to anywhere from 0.08 to 0.11 ohms. Once I started doing this my vape quality improved quite a bit. I still use either the 3.5mm mandrel, sometimes the 3.0mm mandrel. Using a large ID mandrel allows the vaper to supply more juice to the coil and produce a good voluminous vape with lots of flavor. I use mostly 100% VG or 90VG/10PG based juices so the larger ID improves juice flow.
I also use mostly the Japanese organic cotton pads. I was a fan of rayon, but in TC mode it just doesn't provide enough juice flow for me personally. The Japanese cotton seems to do a much better job of wicking the juice to the coil. Since the cotton pads have the outer sides a little more condensed or pad-like than the interior I position the wick to where those sides are set to be in a vertical configuration within the coil itself - |--|. Also I cut the strip of cotton just wide enough... about 4mm wide to be just slightly snug within the coil without deforming the soft nickel wire. This configuration does a very good job of providing enough juice to the coil when it's heated.
Regarding temperatures, I find I get a slightly cooler vape compared to Kanthal and I finally realized after reading several reviews and such that it basically the nature of the beast. I've noticed that the charge of the battery has a lot to do with the warmth and quality of the vape too. Once the battery (or batteries in my case) reach a level of about 25% charge life left, according to the battery status indicator is when the vape quality starts to decrease. However, with the lower resistance coils the vape temperature is definitely warmer than the higher ohm coils such as 0.20 to 0.30. I set my temperature around 420-440F, depending on the juice I'm vaping. For grins I've even vaped an empty tank to where the wick went dry to see how it reacted and yes... the vape decreases along with flavor but NO burnt taste or throat irritation.
I've also noticed when that using the same juice in both the Taifun GT T2 (latest version) and the Kayfun V4, that the vape production and flavor is more pronounced with the Kayfun V4 while the Taifun give a slightly warmer yet less flavorful vape. BTW, both of these are "replicas" not genuine units. I refuse to pay $180 for a device when I can get a replica for so much less and works just exactly as the same. With that caveat though, regarding the Kayfun V4 replica, the Tobeco brand works flawlessly! The others I tried such brands as HCigar, Infinite and others had constant issues of resistance instability (those I sold on Ebay as used units).
The Tobeco is always consistent, no fuss no muss and rock solid. I do have on order though a genuine Eleaf LEMO 2 RTA because I've read so much about the quality and flavor of the vape. I'm looking forward to receiving it and testing it out.
Lastly, one thing I aways do once I receive a new RTS, regardless of which vendor or manufacturer I get it from is that I give them a nice 30 minute ultrasonic cleaning bath in about a quart of very warm water with 5-6 drops of DAWN dishwashing liquid added and the ultrasonic cleaner's heater turned on to ensure that all traces of machining oil, goo, and minute traces of machining debris are removed. I completely disassemble the RTA so that all parts are cleaned as thoroughly as possible. Then I take the basket out and run the hottest tap water possible over the parts for about 30 seconds to so. Let them air dry and then proceed to coil building and wicking.
I originally bought the ultrasonic cleaning device to "speed steep" my juices, which it really does improve the liquids flavor and depth. A nice side bonus is that I can now clean items such as jewelry, watches, and other items. (I got it on Ebay about 15 months ago for about $65 w/free shipping.)
We're still in the learning curve for these TC devices and coils so I recommend we all be patient and help each other out if issues arise.
L8R - Nibiru2012
P.S.
For those who are having issues with their coils, please read this tutorial from Evolv.
It addresses that most definitely larger coils do a better job and such. Now remember they're pushing their product the DNA-40 chipset. However, the article is applicable to all brands of temperature controlled MODS.
Technical: DNA-40D & temperature protection
