I really don't want to make a
pissing contest out of this thread but I think the Mercedes/Ford etc metaphor is a bit misleading.
Regardless of my own issues with Ti builds, my opinion is that Ti is superior to any single materials I have tried on the business end i.e. the quality of the vapor you get. ATM I can't tell if it beats my hybrids or not, time will tell but as a single material/simple coil material unbeatable.
But it is a high maintenance thing and definitely not as user-friendly as NiFe which is a pretty good all-around material.
Obviously, it is personal what floats one's boat.
ATM use quite a lot of different materials for different purposes
And can hardly wait for the NiFe52 to add to the collection.
Probably I should assign different materials to different days e.g.: Monday is a no-brainer NiFe52, Tuesday Ti, Wednesday sounds good for a Clapton.. etc
I regret the Mercedes/Ford/whatever comparison
I certainly don't want a pissing contest either.
The main point of my comparison was the one to Ni200. I was going for the idea that Ni200 -> Titanium was an enormous leap, and then Titanium -> NiFe was a question of a few % points of improvement (if one can judge such things in % points!)
Another analogy (which I'll caveat as being my own personal experience only): When one needs to commute to work, the difference between a push-bike and a car is a huge difference. This is Ni200 to Titanium. Then the difference of a basic car to a luxury car is, relatively, a much smaller difference. I might prefer to drive to work in a luxurious BMW than a basic Ford (or Skoda or VW or whatever), but the extra difference this brings to the commute is tiny compared to the enormous difference from cycling to work on a push bike versus getting there in the comfort of any car!
But I see the whole car comparison thing is fraught with problems so let's forget those
There's probably a much better analogy out there.
Anyway, I say this is my experience. I have not noticed improvements in vapour/flavour/etc from Titanium. Maybe I'm missing something? I don't know. I'd be interested for you to elaborate on that.
What I find is that the handling characteristics and the dry burnability of NiFe - and Stainless Steel - gives me those few % extra of usability than Titanium.
I'm someone who doesn't get a kick out of building coils, because I most suck at it. I get broken wires. I get wires that won't stay under screw heads. I get builds I make too big and short/have to be adjusted. I have all these little problems, and I can get them with all wires, but I feel I get slightly more of them with Titanium.
So the wire that gives me the least of those problems, and gives me the most tools to fix them, gets a strong vote for me, other things being equal. And for me, they are equal. I haven't noticed significant vapour differences between different wires, at least assuming the same build.
i have 12 builds on my desk right now. Most are Titanium, two are SS, two are twisted NiFe. if I pick them up and vape, I can't tell the difference. If you can, I'd love to learn more about why/in what way?
So the fact that Titanium is springy and expands, that I can't dry burn it to clean or check a build carefully, these are the small % differences that, while I can certainly live with them, i'd rather live without.
I have heard one person, I forget who, say he got better flavour from Titanium than Resistherm. I don't know if he was comparing like-for-like - Resistherm is only available in 29G, so did he compare 29G to 26G? Did he twist the Resistherm? I don't know. I do find it hard to see why a particular wire could give different flavour, assuming identical builds - that is assuming none of the wires can change the flavour, as people say Ni200 can.
P.S.: I have to admit that there was no huge wow when I have first tried Ti. However, the difference was more prominent when I did the change backward. I had enough of the issues of one of my Ti build so I have thrown in a quick NiFe and there was a bit of a ...
No biggie but noticeable
Ti won't be my all-rounder but good to have
That sounds like what I am saying. It's not a vast difference, but it's a sort of "great, that was a bit easier" feeling. Which incidentally sounds exactly what
@yo han and
@jazzvaper have just experienced going to SS for the first time.
But then you say that you think Titanium is giving better vapour in some way? Can you elaborate? And is that definitely a like-for-like comparison?
completely straight (and strong like a sword
). Quick wash and a slow and steady coiling on a Revolver with a third to half overturn for the kick back and a result was a super strong super tight micro-coil. With some effort I carefully pulled the coil as if it was an extension spring until it decided not to close up again. And this is it
Beautifully spaced super strong coils w/o any diameter change
Than install and vape
Looks good - but also looks like the sort of careful tweaking that I find hard
The main thing for me with Titanium is that, unless I carefully (and laboriously) pre-torch it, it will always expand about 10%. Coil it on my Kuro 3.0mm rod, and it will be 3.25 - 3.3mm in the end. I can't do anything to fix that, unless I'm able to attach it to the atomizer in a tensioned state. But that's hard and fiddly for me to do.
I'm quite used to this springiness of Titanium and I know that those builds fit in my atomizers. But I would rather it be that I coil around a 3mm rod and get 3mm, especially as this would fit fractionally better in my atomizers (in many cases on my decks, 3.3 just fits, 3.0 fits without worries)
Anyway, I certainly am not interested in wire pissing contents
People should vape with whatever they are happy with. I won't give any more car analogies.
I do believe, based on my own experience and corroborating experience of others, that the NiFes - and SS as well to some extent, now we know it's not nearly as inaccurate as previously thought - have specific, quantifiable benefits over Titanium. Maybe Titanium has benefits back, it's just so far they've not been quantifiable, and you're the first person I've heard to state that Titanium might have benefits to resulting vapour.
NiFe will be out in a big way soon, and more and more people are trying SS. So in the next weeks we'll have a lot more data, people going from Titanium to NiFe or SS, and giving their opinions. We'll look at all that and maybe a picture will form.
