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Mechanical mods are exactly what they sound like...mechanical. No electronics (regulators, boosters, wired switches etc)...just a metal tube with usually some brass posts and a few springs. vaping straight from the battery so to speak.
A kick changes all that of course since it will regulate the power and add safety/monitoring.
A kick changes all that of course since it will regulate the power and add safety/monitoring.
So no real performance difference? So far through what little digging around I've done here on ECF is that they are more resilient (Heard of someone dropping a mechanical mod in a river and had it still work) and easier to fix if something does go south in them.
Mechanical mods are preferred for low resistance setups (usually below 1.0 ohm) that would not normally work on an electronic mod like the ZMax. And yes they are more resiliant since there are no electronic parts to short out or break.
No electronics in it to break or fry. The fundamental difference is that it is just delivering the power from the battery, so that becomes your limiting factor.
Electronic mods are limited by either battery, board or a simple regulator.
I just picked up a mechanical because of their simplicity. They can be repaired/rebuilt/improved pretty easily if you're so inclined. I'm using a kick and 18500 batteries in mine. Remember, the kick adds length, so you have to take that into consideration. For instance, the setup I'm using right now is for an 18650 battery. An 18500 with a kick is about the same length as an 18650 by itself.
Thinking about moving to a mechanical myself. Mainly, as others have pointed out, for the ability to run low resistance coils on Rebuild-able atomizers without the regulated mods complaining about it and also for a good failsafe device to use if my other mods crap out. Some still choose to use devices such as the "Kick" or other variants to adjust wattage/voltage on unregulated devices.
So I am taking it this isn't really a direction I want to go for using a Kick or Kick-like device as I like my delivery systems at about 2.4-2.6ohms.
Thanks for the insight.
Thanks for the insight.
The Kick would be used in combination with mechanical mod to provide variable voltage where it otherwise wouldn't have that ability. Although, the normal voltage from the battery may be sufficient for your preferences at those resistances as tartanraven pointed out. Just all about what you like, I guess.
No one has pointed out the safety issues here yet. The electrical mods utilize a processing chip (similar to the Kick processor chip) which have built in safety features in case a battery develops a short. The processor chip will shut itself off to prevent the battery from going into thermal runaway, which you don't want to experience.
Mechanical mods have some very basic safety feature, not quite as good as the electrical mods. The "hot spring" in the battery endcap is designed to collapse, most mods have vent holes or have fire switches which will allow a battery to vent its gases so your mod doesn't become a pipe bomb. Some mechanical mods have an amp limiter in the fire switch to add some additional safety. Most mechanical mods use "protected" Li Ion batteries, which have fuse-like circuits built in the battery. The electrical mods have all of these features, too, so in my opinion the electrical mods are overall safer concerning battery use than the pure mechanicals.
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Baditude, I'd say 99% mechanical mod users(at least us doing sub 1 ohm) are not using "protected" batteries, we're all pretty much using "safe chemistry" batteries like AW IMR, Efest IMR, MNKE and some "hybrid" Panasonics.
all i use is mechanical mods and sub 1 ohm coils with a nice IMR battery, there's nothing like it IMO
Thanks for pointing that out, the thought escaped me. In addition to that, some choose to use IMR LiMN batteries which some believe to be a safer chemistry composition (although no PCB protection) and a fuse - like the Vape Safe. Electronic | Cigarettes | Mods | Battery | Safety | Fuse | TheVapeSafe.com Be sure to check your battery tube sizes or use a telescoping mod if you decide to go with a mechanical mod and use the kick and/or fuse... and always use extra precaution when using/charging your batteries.
I presently use IMR safe chemistry batteries in all of my mechanical mods, too. But many manufacturers and vendors alike explicitly tell customers on their websites to use only protected batteries in the mods that they sell. I know for a fact that Altsmoke does this. This can create confusion to new vapors who might not know the difference between batteries.
The original poster didn't really say what his intent was for a mechanical mod; seemed to me to be pretty "green" to be asking the question in the first place. I kinda doubt he was going to be making sub-1 ohm coils soon, at least I hope not.
I had a so-called protected battery go into thermal runaway in one of my mods. I was new to mods and batteries and battery safety. It was user error, but I assumed incorrectly that a protected battery would not have issues. Below is that battery.
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Thanks for all the information guys. Kind of my big thing was thinking about getting a Kick first most and thought perhaps a mechanical mod would be neat, I've not fully sided one way or the other it just seems that I might be happier taking a different route. Mostly the mechanical bit popped into my mind because it was different and worth gathering some information about, which I got now.
I dunno, I keep bumping my head against why I need VW. I like running my 2.5ohm devices at 4.3-4.8 volts, which I can do with 90% of my staple mods. I'm convinced I want VW but every time I feel like I've decided something on, I've almost gotten then Vamo a few times, I got my head into the Kick after seeing Pbusardo do a review on the Crown, and I've been half keeping my eye on the Innokin SVD. But again, I keep coming back to "do I need this?" and "why?"
Sorry if anyone feels like their time has been wasted but this has all been good information it's been digested so to speak. I'm just being a wishy washy buyer.
I dunno, I keep bumping my head against why I need VW. I like running my 2.5ohm devices at 4.3-4.8 volts, which I can do with 90% of my staple mods. I'm convinced I want VW but every time I feel like I've decided something on, I've almost gotten then Vamo a few times, I got my head into the Kick after seeing Pbusardo do a review on the Crown, and I've been half keeping my eye on the Innokin SVD. But again, I keep coming back to "do I need this?" and "why?"
Sorry if anyone feels like their time has been wasted but this has all been good information it's been digested so to speak. I'm just being a wishy washy buyer.
I would suggest buying a SmokTech Natural and some 1.7 Ikenvape single coil cartos or LR attys and trying it. If you don't like it you can get most of your money back selling it in the classies. I am running an AC9 on a Natural right now and it is phenomenal. I am also running a 1.7 single coil carto in a Fluid Flask on another mechanical and it is great as well. I also have 3 kicks, a ProVari and a VV Saber Touch, the mechanicals give as good a vaping experience as any of them when set up properly.
It might also help to point out that the newer batteries such as the, AW IMR, Panasonic, and Efest, are made of a safer chemistry, (which is protection), and is the reason they don't need the protection circuit. A battery like a protected Trustfire can essentially be a pipe bomb in your hand if the protection circuit fails, whereas the safer chemistry batteries will not.... They are designed to vent only....
It might also help to point out that most manufacturers, (not all), design their products with the AW IMR batteries in mind and also state that these are the batteries you should use, but most often users don't spend the extra $1 or $2 per battery and go with the Trustfires and such and then wonder why either the battery doesn't fit in their APV or they get less vape time from said battery.... With all the information we have available here on ECF alone, I still find it ironic everytime someone asks what battery they should use in their APV......
The biggest difference I see between mech and regulated mods is primarily direct current. No rattlesnake (pulse width mod), if I want to vary my wattage I do it on the atomizer, negating the need for vv or VW. In the end I've owned a whole lot of vv mods that are said to be the best out there (Darwin, provari, etc...), and the best experience I've had was with a mech and a good rebuildable atty.
As musichead said... protected battery failure = pipe bomb in the event that the circuit fails. Imr 18650 are designed to have a super high amp output and vent but not fail thermally a la pipe bomb. All of the BS about batteries keeps people away from some if the best devices out there. Although in the end its up to us to do our research about what's safe, and understand how to use it.
As musichead said... protected battery failure = pipe bomb in the event that the circuit fails. Imr 18650 are designed to have a super high amp output and vent but not fail thermally a la pipe bomb. All of the BS about batteries keeps people away from some if the best devices out there. Although in the end its up to us to do our research about what's safe, and understand how to use it.
It may be a placebo effect, but it feels like the mechanical with a kick give a more consistent vape than my ego twist. The difference may be that the kick is variable wattage, so it's able to compensate for variations in resistance that might come from build up on the coil and such.
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