Titanium coils, is it safe ?

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ScottP

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The fundamental truth is we aren't sure. You can be "safer" by not dry burning your titanium coils. Is it safer than SS? My "guess" is probably not. Lots of people use it though, but as to long term effects, we just don't know yet. As mentioned dry burning titanium is for sure bad, for that reason I wouldn't recommend it for dripping, since you may be more prone to running dry, and if you do you should probably change the coil immediately afterwards.
 

Coastal Cowboy

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The fundamental truth is we aren't sure. You can be "safer" by not dry burning your titanium coils. Is it safer than SS? My "guess" is probably not. Lots of people use it though, but as to long term effects, we just don't know yet. As mentioned dry burning titanium is for sure bad, for that reason I wouldn't recommend it for dripping, since you may be more prone to running dry, and if you do you should probably change the coil immediately afterwards.
Addition to your comments:

The only reason to use Ti is for temp control, and TC is especially useful for drippers. RDA wicking is much more forgiving of lazy wicking jobs because you don't have to worry about leaking. That means a higher propensity towards dry hits, which TC helps prevent.

That said, I'd still coil with SS316L.
 

stols001

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It is said to be safe if you don't dry burn coils, but yeah, with a dripper and an accidental dry hit? That might give off enough "byproduct" to not be so safe, generally. Since SS wire is generally considered safer in TC vaping and can withstand higher heat without causing problems, well, I'd probably start with that unless you are dead set to try and use it for flavor or something.

With that said, it's kind of been noted on another thread, that for overall safety, dry burning SS is less safe than cleaning it with a toothbrush or other scrubby item, then generally pulsing it at low wattage just to make sure everything is glowing evenly and etc. I think the consensus generally is that overheating ANY metal is worse than NOT overheating it. SS does offer several advantages though, it can be run in wattage or temp mode safely, and it's fairly easy to use. I use it in all my coilbuilds.

Is there a reason you want to try titanium in particular? All safety is relative, but it's generally considered that titanium and nickel are the least safe wires to use in TC, although I think if you do your due diligence and whatnot, you should be able to determine what wire is best for YOU. With that said, a lot of the research (not the dry burning research, that seems to be a bit more solid as far as "don't do it" some of it is still in the rather speculative stage. I mean, many things give off undesirable byproducts (think, some plastic) but yet plastic is used all the time, by many people, and they aren't dropping dead over it.

I wouldn't definitively try to say what is safest to any one person since I just feel I don't know enough about it (including research) but unless you HATE ss wire, that's generally considered safer.

Anna
 

dom qp

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The fundamental truth is we aren't sure. You can be "safer" by not dry burning your titanium coils. Is it safer than SS? My "guess" is probably not. Lots of people use it though, but as to long term effects, we just don't know yet. As mentioned dry burning titanium is for sure bad, for that reason I wouldn't recommend it for dripping, since you may be more prone to running dry, and if you do you should probably change the coil immediately afterwards.

My understanding was that titanium oxides are not soluble and that the body has issues getting rid of those types of particles. It leads to the lung being overburdeneded and possible physical damage.

This study here exposed rats to aerosols containing ultrafine titanium oxide particles. It lead to lung inflammation, among other serious long term issues: Pulmonary Responses of Mice, Rats, and Hamsters to Subchronic Inhalation of Ultrafine Titanium Dioxide Particles | Toxicological Sciences | Oxford Academic

Sounds similar to the issues people had with ceramic wicking.

I'm by no means an expert, but I would think that vaping Titanium/Nickel are only safe if you don't let the coils oxidize (i.e. no drying burning, keeping it under certain temps).

SS doesn't have that issue. Functionally, I would assume any type of TC would lead to the same vape regardless of the coils being made of SS/Nickel/Titanium. With the actual taste of the metal being the only difference between the three. Meaning my defacto choice for TC coils would be SS. But I do not vape TC so I wouldn't know whether those assumptions are true.
 

ChelsB

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ScottP

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My understanding was that titanium oxides are not soluble and that the body has issues getting rid of those types of particles. It leads to the lung being overburdeneded and possible physical damage.

This study here exposed rats to aerosols containing ultrafine titanium oxide particles. It lead to lung inflammation, among other serious long term issues: Pulmonary Responses of Mice, Rats, and Hamsters to Subchronic Inhalation of Ultrafine Titanium Dioxide Particles | Toxicological Sciences | Oxford Academic

Sounds similar to the issues people had with ceramic wicking.

I'm by no means an expert, but I would think that vaping Titanium/Nickel are only safe if you don't let the coils oxidize (i.e. no drying burning, keeping it under certain temps).

SS doesn't have that issue. Functionally, I would assume any type of TC would lead to the same vape regardless of the coils being made of SS/Nickel/Titanium. With the actual taste of the metal being the only difference between the three. Meaning my defacto choice for TC coils would be SS. But I do not vape TC so I wouldn't know whether those assumptions are true.

I agree that all TC coils should provide roughly the same vape (assuming the basic parameters of the coils are the same such as resistance) . I went with SS as a "known" safety choice. I have been cooking my food in stainless cookware at similar temps for decades. Meaning anything I could be exposed to vaping SS @435F I have already been exposed to anyway. With no apparent long term adverse affects. The same cannot be said of any other type of vape wire.
 

tedigram

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At this point in the game my philosophy is why risk it. Every metal has been experimented and played with, the industry is advanced enough that we're not casting about just trying to figure out what works, period. We know by now.

I never even bothered with Nickel and such because what's the point? You don't get far along in the transition process before you're training your vape taste as much as discovering it, so train yourself to find your sweet spot with metals that aren't highly likely to start fuming poison at you if you heat them a bit too much, I say.

Kanthal and SS are the safest/stablest options we have, with nichrome a not-too-distant second, so there's a sweet spot in there for nearly everyone.
 
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