Mech tube shopping!

[Lufty]

With everything being so uncertain with the future of vaping, I feel its wise for me to invest in a solid, reliable mech tube for myself in case sh** ever hits the fan, so to speak.

Which leads me here, I have been shopping around for some time and have my eye on several different tubes. But I hold your guys opinions and experience very high. If you gentlemen could recommend me some tubes I would greatly appreciate it.

If you could also explain the difference in the different buttons the ups and downs of those buttons and your experiences with them I would greatly appreciate it. Such as the kind of buttons that have the four metal discs on the bottom or spring or a magnet button if possible thanks!

 

[bombastinator]

I haven’t been in the market for a mech for some time but I have some general knowledge.
There are many types of buttons. The three factors affecting button type are safety, reliability, and conductivity. Many clones(but not all of them) May achieve the first two but fail at the third. Some people are wary of hybrid mech mods (which have nothing but a threaded hole in the top. Imho as long as the atty you use has sufficient protrusion to prevent a short this is a non issue. Some may disagree though. Switches which use magnetic repulsion have the advantage that they have no spring to wear out. Additionally spring based buttons often use the spring as a conductor and must therefore have a quite robust conductive spring. Conductivity is an issue because if the switch has more resistance than the coil the button is what will heat up. I’ve actually had them melt on cheap mods.
Buying by weight isn’t the worst idea. A long lasting mod will likely be a heavy one.

 

[Lufty]

I haven’t been in the market for a mech for some time but I have some general knowledge.
There are many types of buttons. The three factors affecting button type are safety, reliability, and conductivity. Many clones(but not all of them) May achieve the first two but fail at the third. Some people are wary of hybrid mech mods (which have nothing but a threaded hole in the top. Imho as long as the atty you use has sufficient protrusion to prevent a short this is a non issue. Some may disagree though. Switches which use magnetic repulsion have the advantage that they have no spring to wear out. Additionally spring based buttons often use the spring as a conductor and must therefore have a quite robust conductive spring. Conductivity is an issue because if the switch has more resistance than the coil the button is what will heat up. I’ve actually had them melt on cheap mods.
Buying by weight isn’t the worst idea. A long lasting mod will likely be a heavy one.

Interesting! Thanks for the info! Ive been considering The Dreamer, Broadside admiral, Knucklehead Vape clone, SOI Sub Zero X/Shorty CM. Any experience with these devices? I think id get a spring button as most mrchs seem to favor them. Magnets can break and be difficult to replace and I hear most people dont enjoy them.

 

[bombastinator]

Interesting! Thanks for the info! Ive been considering The Dreamer, Broadside admiral, Knucklehead Vape clone, SOI Sub Zero X/Shorty CM. Any experience with these devices? I think id get a spring button as most mrchs seem to favor them. Magnets can break and be difficult to replace and I hear most people dont enjoy them.

None I’m afraid. I did watch videos for a few of them. With mechs it’s all about the switch. Is it protected from accidental fire? (They all were). Does it have a good electrical connection (they all did). How well will it wear? That one is hard. The ones I watched all relied a lot on silver plating which I am not a massive fan of for reasons described. Copper is almost as good a conductor as silver, and a good amount of aluminum will work as well too. Even brass isn’t that bad. Springs wear out and need to be replaceable. Silver plated springs are hard to find. I personally am more of a fan of large masses of decently conductive metal over plating. One of them used silver plated copper which doesn’t bother me much because even if the playing wears away the plating is still good. Silver and copper cannot be used as springs though brass can. A silver plated brass spring if it was reasonably thick might be ok. Steel though is not a great conductor. It tends to heat up. Kanthal for example is pretty close to iron. All of the button systems I saw were quite complicated. The one I personally suspected would be the most durable is the dreamer, because there was a lot of copper involved, and what aluminum there was was quite thick. Also the silver plated spring was totally captive and wouldn’t move much during use. As to whether that is worth anything though is a wholly other matter. All of them seem quite complex imho.

 

[Lufty]

None I’m afraid. I did watch videos for a few of them. With mechs it’s all about the switch. Is it protected from accidental fire? (They all were). Does it have a good electrical connection (they all did). How well will it wear? That one is hard. The ones I watched all relied a lot on silver plating which I am not a massive fan of for reasons described. Copper is almost as good a conductor as silver, and a good amount of aluminum will work as well too. Even brass isn’t that bad. Springs wear out and need to be replaceable. Silver plated springs are hard to find. I personally am more of a fan of large masses of decently conductive metal over plating. One of them used silver plated copper which doesn’t bother me much because even if the playing wears away the plating is still good. Silver and copper cannot be used as springs though brass can. A silver plated brass spring if it was reasonably thick might be ok. Steel though is not a great conductor. It tends to heat up. Kanthal for example is pretty close to iron. All of the button systems I saw were quite complicated. The one I personally suspected would be the most durable is the dreamer, because there was a lot of copper involved, and what aluminum there was was quite thick. Also the silver plated spring was totally captive and wouldn’t move much during use. As to whether that is worth anything though is a wholly other matter. All of them seem quite complex imho.

Interesting. Does clearcoating copper/brass effect the conductivity of it as well? er would it? I know some people do and its something ive been thinking of doing when i get mine

 

[bombastinator]

Interesting. Does clearcoating copper/brass effect the conductivity of it as well? er would it? I know some people do and its something ive been thinking of doing when i get mine

Shouldn’t afaik