Wanting to venture into mech mods, but unsure about vents

[datawog]

I've been using an evod battery since I started, but it's not all that satisfactory and I've been wanting to upgrade for a while. I have done a fair amount of reading on the subject, but still have some questions and would like some recommendations/advice. I do already have an ohmmeter, and am planning on getting a multimeter so I can charge my batteries at the correct level and check my mech/atties for shorts. Safety first and all that. I'll also most likely get a Nitecore Intellicharger for my batteries, as it seems to have a pretty great reputation.

When it comes to the actual mod, I'm really unsure what I should get. I've heard some horror stories of what can go wrong with a mod, and want to take all precautions I can to prevent myself becoming one of them. One of the things I'm concerned about is venting. From all I've read, in the event of a short, having proper vents can make all the difference between having a hot venting battery and a face grenade. And nobody likes a face grenade.

When I'm looking at mod descriptions, they rarely seem to list vents but do list 'air holes', often with an 'air control ring', from which I'm assuming these are for supplying air to the atomizer and has nothing to do with venting whatsoever. In something like the Nemesis, you can see in certain pictures that they have a set of holes farther down, but then have a ring that screws on over them. If those are the vent holes, shouldn't they be left open and uncovered? How much venting does a battery need when it goes bad? Is there a mech mod out there that is considered 'safer' than the others?

Any advice would be great and much appreciated.

 

[hiram13pm]

Let's see....

Air vents are extremely important... thus virtually all mods nowadays have them. Just in case, make friends with someone who owns or has access to a drill press

Many RBA/RDA's have air holes that are woefully small. Again, friend with a drill press

You don't have to start pricey, but I'd start with something sized for 18650 batteries. When buying those batteries, check the specs. Make sure that Li-Ion batts have protection circuits, since your mechanical won't. IMR batteries don't need them. I'd also check for a sustained output of 20 amps or better; they'll cost a bit more, but if later on you want to move into super-low resistance stuff, they won't be in danger of venting or being damaged by the high drain. Plus they'll hit hard for longer Addendum: If you're building your own coils, keep the resistance of the atomizer at 1.5 ohms or higher until you've done your research. Lower resistances with a low amp battery can cause the battery to vent. Hence the mention of 20A or higher for later use in low-resistance coils, once you have some experience.

Do NOT stack batteries. The only cases of "explosions" I've ever heard of were stacked batteries in a mechanical mod with no vents. Even with vents, stacked batteries are far more likely to 'vent', and that's no fun. If you want to stack, do it in a mod with a built-in protection circuit. I've been using nothing but mechanical mods for 4 years, and I've never had a battery vent on me... and I never stack.

Start with a simple mechanical & whatever atty rig you're using now. Move up to a simple RBA. You can get a 3-post model & just build one coil on it at first, until you get your coil-turning down pat. For building dual-coils, you'll want an ohm meter or a multimeter... the two need to be exactly the same resistance to fire & wear properly. (for a single, you can get a pretty good estimate by the resistance per foot of the wire and how much wire you used). Watch a lot of YouTube videos about it.

My main rig is still a telescoping Galileo I picked up for like $40 a year and a half ago. I love it. The only drawback is conductivity issues, what with all the threaded connections (4 sets of threading the current has to pass through), but a routine cleaning + a tiny dab of conductive grease or silver paste on each threading clears that up. On the plus side, I can put almost any size 18xxx or 16xxx battery in it & it'll fire right up.

Honestly, mechanical mods are no big deal. Like, on purpose. There's nothing to them. I've found that I really like magnetic switches over springs, but that's just a personal preference. You don't have to spend a lot of money, and really the major differences are style (which doesn't really affect performance), composition, and design. All stainless will be sturdy & conductive... I've dropped this Galileo more times than I can count & it's still fine. I think if ran it over with a semi or a tank I might break it. Copper will still be pretty sturdy, and plenty conductive. Keep your contacts and threads clean & conductivity shouldn't be an issue. As far as design goes, it's mostly about what kind of connector & juice well you want, and what kind of switch you like... and those are simply your preferences.

i get all my hardware at Madvapes, and they have a great selection in a lot of price ranges (no, I'm not getting a kickback, lol). Get something inexpensive to learn on, and move up.

Have fun with it & good luck!

 

[juggler86]

Hiram what are you talking about? Protected batteries, seriously there is no good protected batteries for Mechs unless youre vaping at 1ohm +. Yes you dont need IMRs but they are the safest for mechs, INR batts like the blue Samsungs are also a good high amp battery.

Come on man. Im not 1 of the safety nuts around here, but that paragraph needs to get deleted before somebody who knows no better gets a protected trust fore and fires it at .3ohms.

 

[Wolfenstark]

You want vents -holes- in the mod. Airflow of the atty won't cool down batteries in the mod.
Best to get good batteries with a high enough discharge rate for your builds but still be safe and don't build on the limit of the batteries. Give yourself some safety space.
So you want and far as i know nearly all mech have vent holes but you want to use batteries and have builds in your atty that shouldn't require your battery to need them.
Your car has an airbag but you still want to avoid having the need for it to go off.

 

[hiram13pm]

Hiram what are you talking about? Protected batteries, seriously there is no good protected batteries for Mechs unless youre vaping at 1ohm +. Yes you dont need IMRs but they are the safest for mechs, INR batts like the blue Samsungs are also a good high amp battery.

Come on man. Im not 1 of the safety nuts around here, but that paragraph needs to get deleted before somebody who knows no better gets a protected trust fore and fires it at .3ohms.

If you're firing it at .3 ohms the day you get your first mechanical, you've got no business using a mechanical in the first place. Let me amend my previous statement by saying that before you go building sub-ohm atomizers, you should learn how they work. Did you start off with .3 ohm atomizers?

I added a note to my previous post, but I highly doubt anyone is going to go building sub-ohm coils out of the gate.

 

[datawog]

Your car has an airbag but you still want to avoid having the need for it to go off.

I'm kinda looking at this more like 'just because you're driving safe doesn't mean you should take the airbag out'. I certainly don't plan on pushing my batteries to the limit, and it'll probably be a while before I get into sub-ohms, but I like having a safety net just in case.

 

[Wolfenstark]

Remember to not get complacent.
Get yourself a routine and follow it each time and allow for changes , thats why you give yourself some space.
If you do a build one day doesn't always mean that the next time you do the same build it will be the same resistance , always check don't assume.