Here is my take on the status:
1) Dan first presented in his OP a renewed interest in a configuration that was explored a while back. You can research "Wizard Stick" here on ECF to get an idea.
2) Dan's initial results were reported as good and vapable
3) Many people ordered tubes; first Pyrex, then Fused Quartz
4) A few people of the many that order product actually reported their results
5) Based upon posts; mixed results were reported. Some reported ~60% vapor production compared to standard genny; others reported back equal vapor production (me
); other could not get any vapor production
6) People explored different air-flow configurations/atty designs to optimize as well as other tweaks
7) A few people spun-off efforts in different directions such as using sealed coils inside fused quartz tube, etc. that are working well.
8) Either people moved-on with this threads idea, or could not get this to work at all or perhaps some are still testing and will report more results
My take
I could great vapor production. This issue for me was not vapor production, it was the quality of the vapor being produced. I found that the vapor was more smooth sizzle than coil-on-mesh fireworks. Based upon how the evaporation-condensation cycle occurs in our currently configured atomizers, the vapor is different. I describe it as being smooth, very tasty, pure and even. Coil-on-mesh produces a robust fullness that pops and give you the wow factor. Vaporization on the inside of a glass surface does not. Probably due to
juice hitting a larger hot surface area rather than a focused "red-hot" coil (for lack of a better descriptor..) and a number of other factors. SS Pyrex is not bad, but I prefer the wow factor of coil-on-mesh. If you can consistently get a coil-on-mesh genny set up properly, you may not see any benefit to SS inside a glass tube. IMO
I am sure others can add more insight as well.
EDIT: Big Screen D and others are making good progress in his thread mention in the post before this.
