mechanical mods?????

[yaypudding]

Well... not all devices perform the same way. I recently picked up a mech (K100) and a RBA (smok RSST) and I am running a .9 ohm coil using 28 gauge wire... which is significantly thicker than the wire you would find in a 2.5ohm Evod or Protank coil and can handle a lot more current. It has a rolled stainless steel mesh wick... that is, what, about 1 1/2 inches long that extends from the coil down into the 3ml tank below. It can wick juice fast enough to keep feeding the coil... so it won't (usually) run dry and go south on you. On a fresh battery, that's nearly 20w.... which is more than twice the power that I've ever been able to put through a any clearo (evod, Vivi) or a cartomizer. And it vapes awesome... rich, warm, flavor packed vapor....

View attachment 248383

On the other hand, if I put 20w through a tiny evod coil, it'd probably implode into a black hole. It would probably pop the instant I fired it... But at 8 or 8.5w, my evods work just fine.

lolz, that is the exact same setup i'm using my rsst at now, silver k100, .9 ohms, 28g kanthal, 400 ss mesh, plume room creamy chai, panny 18650pd's.

I do love it, very good flavor and vapor. What you have to worry about with mech's is over stressing the battery. There is no protection for the user, so knowledge is your friend. Your battery is the most important part of your mech, the right batt will give you alot of wiggle room in terms of your desired resistance or ohm's. So make sure you know your battery's limitations and how to use ohm's law. but if your using stock protank's or vivi nova's or other clearo's you should be fine as those are usually 1.5 ohms or greater and won't over load the batt.

I like to stay in the .9 to 1.5 ohm range, always 4/5 wraps, just change your kanthal gauge. I have had very good results with twisted 32 & 34 gauge kanthal, usually arnd 1.2 ohms 4/5 wraps. this ensures i'm always between 4.8 and 3 amps discharge on my batt. Also, remember that a fresh batt will discharge at around 4.2 v and then go down from there.

 

[LeoRex]

It's my understanding that it collapses when hot, thus breaking the connection and disabling the mod. Or maybe that's another type of spring. But I thought it to be a safety feature.

Or..It may be just the opposite? I'm sure someone will clarify. I'm also interested in learning. I've got an interest in mech mods, but I'm a bit intimidated by them at this point.

Lot's o' readin' to do.

Yep. The spring gets hot, fatigues and collapses. But That only works if you don't have a bottom button. My K100 has a bottom button, but it also has a reusable safety fuse between the button and the negative on my battery (thanks Discount Vapors). Provided the fuse works It'll trip if I get a short of if I go below .6 ohms. What it won't do, though, is cut off if it's been fired for a long period of time... hence why the locking ring on the firing button is a nice feature.

But yeah, read up. Read threads related to mechs, go browse the Rebuildable forums... a lot of people using mechs run rebuildable devices on them and they have a wealth of knowledge. You can pick up a lot just reading through those threads.

Finally, I guess a good rule of thumb is if you are intimidated by a mech, don't get one yet. But the intimidation factor comes from not knowing how everything works... and that is an easy thing to address.

 

[NancyR]

I use mechs all the time, they are great for RBA's if you know what you are doing. In answer to the question on the wire getting burnt, it will if you do not have your wick set up to keep up with you.

Something I haven't seen mentioned in this yet, with a mech no you don't have anything on the mod you adjust, but that doesn't mean you are stuck at one place with them. When you use an RBA on a mech, you adjust your ohms instead of your voltage, this in turn still adjusts your over all wattage.

If you get into sub ohm vaping, please make sure you know about battery safety. I also do not suggest trying to learn to build a coil sub ohm, learn to build one around 1.5, then once you have that down and understand the finer points if you want to try lower work your way down. A hot spot or a short with a 0.5 ohm coil can stress your batteries.


Edited to add: Now that the kick 2 is out, it is worth a look for those not doing extreme crazy low ohms. It has a 6 amp limit if I remember correctly, as well as goes up to 15 watts and allows for some sub ohm coils (thinking it allows up to 0.5 tho don't remember for sure). It is also small enough to fit inside mods like the empire.

 

[Codz]

Cheers for the help guys. If/when i get myself a mech I'll be going for as safe a battery as possible (sounds like IMR) and learning as much as i can about mesh and wick/wire first.

Another quick question.... Can i use my evic to test the ohm level reliably or would you recommend a multimeter?

 

[NancyR]

You should always have a multimeter, it can do so much more than test ohms, such as check your batteries

 

[Myk]

I disagree with mechs for using RBA's, making the coils yes but using them I'd much rather have regulated power so the vape is the same throughout the battery. RBA's have tanks so they're for a long run, some batteries drop so fast you'd need at least one battery change to get through a tank, especially if you're going high amp.

People don't seem to be telling the downsides of mechs. You start vaping at 4.2v and depending on the battery that quickly or slowly drops until you can't stand it any more (you should test the battery and pick a cut off voltage, but odds are you won't like it when it gets low). Your vape on a mech is not consistent.
If you want to be really happy with a mech you need to rebuild or have a an atty that has a wide range of resistance options. With a VV/VW you can pretty much stick anything in it and find a sweet spot. Your only means of adjustment in a mech is to wire size and resistance. With VW I can stick anything on and it's pretty much the same as any other resistance. With a mech a different resistance is going to produce a different vape because wattage changes. And different liquids want different wattages.

So why would anyone use a mech? They want to push the limits that VV/VW won't allow, sub-ohm, oxidizing stainless wick (which is why I bought a mech). Instant firing, most VV/VW have a pause (outside of breaking in shorting coils I use mine for a dual coil RDA because it takes a while to warm up on a VV/VW, instant snap crackle pop on a mech). Old reliable.

I haven't tried sub-ohm yet. I may love it, I may hate it. I couldn't find out without a mech.

 

[NancyR]

I disagree with mechs for using RBA's, making the coils yes but using them I'd much rather have regulated power so the vape is the same throughout the battery. RBA's have tanks so they're for a long run, some batteries drop so fast you'd need at least one battery change to get through a tank, especially if you're going high amp.

People don't seem to be telling the downsides of mechs. You start vaping at 4.2v and depending on the battery that quickly or slowly drops until you can't stand it any more (you should test the battery and pick a cut off voltage, but odds are you won't like it when it gets low). Your vape on a mech is not consistent.
If you want to be really happy with a mech you need to rebuild or have a an atty that has a wide range of resistance options. With a VV/VW you can pretty much stick anything in it and find a sweet spot. Your only means of adjustment in a mech is to wire size and resistance. With VW I can stick anything on and it's pretty much the same as any other resistance. With a mech a different resistance is going to produce a different vape because wattage changes. And different liquids want different wattages.

So why would anyone use a mech? They want to push the limits that VV/VW won't allow, sub-ohm, oxidizing stainless wick (which is why I bought a mech). Instant firing, most VV/VW have a pause (outside of breaking in shorting coils I use mine for a dual coil RDA because it takes a while to warm up on a VV/VW, instant snap crackle pop on a mech). Old reliable.

I haven't tried sub-ohm yet. I may love it, I may hate it. I couldn't find out without a mech.

While it is true the battery voltage will drop as the battery is used so it doesn't give a consistent vape, not all of us think of that as a downside. I have tried sub ohms and I don't care for it, my normal coils are around 1.4 ohms. Even on my Empire I run a 1.5 ohm 901 atty, and I find I prefer it over my Provari.

 

[Myk]

While it is true the battery voltage will drop as the battery is used so it doesn't give a consistent vape, not all of us think of that as a downside. I have tried sub ohms and I don't care for it, my normal coils are around 1.4 ohms. Even on my Empire I run a 1.5 ohm 901 atty, and I find I prefer it over my Provari.

I allow room for anyone to like anything. But why do you like an inconsistent vape?

I liked my eGo-C Upgrade batteries because when the atty was a little clogged I could turn off regulation and power through it. But as far as constant use in unregulated mode I hated them.
Same but worse with my mech. It's too powerful when it starts and too weak when it ends, and the too weak comes before it's time to charge so I have to live with the underpowered vape for about a volt. If the "too weak" was where it was all the time I could get used to it or build to compensate but with it going from too strong to too weak it's not something I could work around with a tank and wick that is relatively consistent. An RDA is a little different since you add more liquid when it's too powerful and less when it's weak.

So what do you do when you want a strong hit and your battery is at the low end?

 

[E_DeCastro]

my vape stays the same on my mech as my VW and when it hit 3.1v it drops out. well not any noticeable difference, anyway.

edit: On my mechanicals, I only go as low as 1.1ohm.

 

[E_DeCastro]

So what do you do when you want a strong hit and your battery is at the low end?

change batteries.

 

[NancyR]

I allow room for anyone to like anything. But why do you like an inconsistent vape?

.........
So what do you do when you want a strong hit and your battery is at the low end?

I have adjusted to how the battery life runs, I know when to change the battery by the vape and can just about do it by the clock as I also know how I vape. Even on my Provari I don't set and forget, there are times I want it hotter and times I want it cooler.

Keep in mind while I haven't been vaping as long as many here I have been vaping for almost 2 years now, when I started the twist wasn't even out, so unless you had the money to spend on a provari or darwin or went with a buzzpro, you where limited to either regulated vapes like ego's which at the time was 3.3 volts or unregulated vapes. So unregulated was what I got use to.

 

[tj99959]

I allow room for anyone to like anything. But why do you like an inconsistent vape?

I liked my eGo-C Upgrade batteries because when the atty was a little clogged I could turn off regulation and power through it. But as far as constant use in unregulated mode I hated them.
Same but worse with my mech. It's too powerful when it starts and too weak when it ends, and the too weak comes before it's time to charge so I have to live with the underpowered vape for about a volt. If the "too weak" was where it was all the time I could get used to it or build to compensate but with it going from too strong to too weak it's not something I could work around with a tank and wick that is relatively consistent. An RDA is a little different since you add more liquid when it's too powerful and less when it's weak.

So what do you do when you want a strong hit and your battery is at the low end?

With larger IMR batteries you will find that they have a fairly flat drop off curve, and you will not notice an appreciable drop off in performance until it's time to swap out batteries anyway. At that point your VV/VW shuts off, and the performance of a mechanical falls off a cliff.

 

[Myk]

With larger IMR batteries you will find that they have a fairly flat drop off curve, and you will not notice an appreciable drop off in performance until it's time to swap out batteries anyway. At that point your VV/VW shuts off, and the performance of a mechanical falls off a cliff.

My VV/VWs shut down at 3.2v. It's not much before that when I notice their performance falls.
I'm not liking my mech after 3.7v (but only because I got used to it from 4.2v-3.7v, if it started at 3.6 and stayed there I'd like 3.6v, it's the inconsistency that gets me). Although the NCR18650A does hang out above 3.7v for a long time so it's tolerable with that battery.

 

[LeoRex]

I haven't tried sub-ohm yet. I may love it, I may hate it. I couldn't find out without a mech.

My coil right now is around .9 (I think it might be in the mid high 8's). I don't really consider it sub-ohm I guess (I'd say that starts at .7 and below) but it is at the lowest I'll go. Next time I wrap, I might add a coil to put it around 1 instead. I am max'ing 20/21w and around 5amps and that's as high as I'd want to be. Unlike the difference between, say 2.4 and 2.6 ohms... a tick or two is a HUGE jump when you get down there.

Makes for one hell of a vape though. I'm not trying to impress anyone by blowing thunder clouds or anything, but the flavor and feel of the vape is awesome. Granted, it changes as the battery voltage drops a bit, but I still like the vape at 3.6 as I do when its 4.1...

 

[Myk]

My coil right now is around .9 (I think it might be in the mid high 8's). I don't really consider it sub-ohm I guess (I'd say that starts at .7 and below) but it is at the lowest I'll go. Next time I wrap, I might add a coil to put it around 1 instead. I am max'ing 20/21w and around 5amps and that's as high as I'd want to be. Unlike the difference between, say 2.4 and 2.6 ohms... a tick or two is a HUGE jump when you get down there.

Makes for one hell of a vape though. I'm not trying to impress anyone by blowing thunder clouds or anything, but the flavor and feel of the vape is awesome. Granted, it changes as the battery voltage drops a bit, but I still like the vape at 3.6 as I do when its 4.1...

My main reason for wanting to try sub-ohm (or even 1 ohm) is for dual coil. I like 2 ohm coils, above and below not so much. I haven't been that impressed with dual coil and I think it's the 3 ohm coils in it. Maybe if I get my favored coils in it that will change.

I don't really understand the cloud thing. Maybe it's because I use as much VG as possible, but I don't really notice a difference. I even took a video and compared everything I have and can't see much difference from an eGo-C to a dual coil at as many watts as a single battery Vamo or mech can do. Unless something isn't working right I always get clouds comparable to what other people's videos bragging on the clouds.
I'm all about flavor.

 

[LeoRex]

Unless something isn't working right I always get clouds comparable to what other people's videos bragging on the clouds.
I'm all about flavor.

Yep. The main reason I went to an RBA in the first place was to increase flavor over my Evods... I was in the middle of a frustrating month long bout of vapors tongue. I was really discouraged until I tried dripping, which begat a little RDA, and then the RSST that I have now. I snatched up a K100 mech with it because the RSST would handle the high powered stuff and I figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out that I really like the vape... yeah... the vapor output jumped considerably, but all I cared about was that I got good flavor... which I most certainly did get.

I am going to probably pick up another RSST, so I can run it with a higher resistance on my Vamo as well (maybe try dual coils, who knows). Might not be AS good a vape, but it'll still vape pretty good.

 

[JohnnyVsGirl]

Because of this thread I decided to go sub ohm on my Zen Atty that I wasn't all that satisfied on my Provari. I put it on my new K100 and am filling up the room with clouds of Precious Pecan Pie from Virgin Vapor. Oh holy sweet baby Jesus now I know what I was missing. I put the K100's drip tip atop the Zen Atty that's cranking right along and it looks awesome. Thanks guys. Now I'm a sub ohm fan girl.