What's the (continuing) attraction of mechanical mods?

[TheBloke]

Hey guys,

I'm quite new to vaping, 6 weeks in. I started vaping shortly after the big explosion of new products that I understand happened around Christmas/New Year 2014/2015 - launch of all the sub ohm tanks, plus loads of mods: the DNA 40s, new iSticks and iTastes, Kanger 40W, etc. And I gather the rest of 2014 saw a lot of mod releases as well.

So it's clear that vapers are now incredibly well catered for with products, and it's getting better all the time; it's also clear, even to a newbie like me, that that wasn't the case even just a year ago.

My point is that I can totally understand why mechanical mods used to be a big thing - basically any time before 2014, I would assume that mech mods were the majority of what was available. And even the name 'mod' comes from those early periods, doesn't it? The idea of people "modding" their own kit together, and maybe selling it in small quantities.

What I can't really understand is why anyone would still want to use mech mods in 2015? Well, I can see one reason - they usually look really cool! Much more stylish than most VV/VW mods.

But apart from that, it seems like it's all downsides? They're much less safe. A short could ruin your battery and maybe the whole mod. You can only vape at whatever voltage your battery currently delivers, and that varies throughout your vaping time unless you have endless supplies of freshly charged ones. You have to buy and maintain batteries separately (OK that's true of many VW mods too, but also many not, especially the newer ones.) And so on.

Please note I'm really not intending to start any kind of argument here between mech and VWs! I'm just genuinely interested to understand what reasons someone might have for still using mech mods, when probably everyone who owns a mech also has one or several VW mods?

Am I missing some big upside? Or is it mostly the style aspect? Or is it mostly the fact that you guys have many of them from your earlier years of vaping and they work fine, so why not use them sometimes?

Or, to put it a slightly different way - would any of you recommend that I consider adding a mech mod or two to my collection of VW/VV mods? I will shortly have three VW mods - iStick 50W (my first), Smok XPro M80 (coming tomorrow), and eventually a Vapor Flask DNA40 clone (coming from 3FVape in China so will be a couple of weeks.)

I was ordering some new RBA/RTAs yesterday, and saw a bunch of mech mods and was quite tempted for a few minutes! Especially for a hybrid mod that could screw in directly and neatly to the new Aqua v2 RBA/RTA I was ordering. But I really couldn't answer for myself the question of "why bother?" ! Sure they look really nice, but apart from that it seems like it's all hassle and downside compared to any VW.

Thanks!

 

[sUPERIORITE]

I can say I have been asking myself the same question. I will agree some of them look very nice however at my local shop I have seen quite a few people switching over to VV/VW mods now.

 

[this is my name]

I was pondering all the same things a couple weeks ago, then I put a little money down for my first mech. Mostly I was just curious but I found one that looks really cool with my plume veil clone. I enjoyed working on a twisted build that took some time to perfect. It was a dual coil that ended up right at .2 ohm. It was taking too long to ramp up on my DNA 40 at 40 watts. I didn't really have enough money to pick up another regulated mod that pushed 100 watts so I got a cheap mech. Now that build heats up pretty quickly on my mech down to about 3.8 volts.
To sum up my answer, I liked the look of it and also being able to make use of beefier coils more effectively.

 

[roxynoodle]

The attraction for me is largely the durability. They really can't break, and if something gets worn out, you can often fix it. I'm also buying ones with a good supply of replacement parts: Stingray clones, MMV Poldiac, Gus Mods, GP.

They also take up a lot less room than my boxes.

If the FDA trys to ban advanced e cigs, I have enough mechs to get by when the regulateds die off.

Do I think everyone should have one or two? Probably, but we each need to be educated on safety first. I know too many vapers playing with mechs who don't know Ohm's Law or battery safety, and refuse to learn it

 

[RandyF]

The biggest reason you would want to have one now is simply to have a mod that will always work, as long as you have batteries. Beyond that, everything you said above is pretty on point. They will never go away, but hopefully they will fade into the background as current VV/VW mods can do everything they can and more, in a much safer manner.....generally.

 

[juicynoos]

Hi and Welcome to ECF.

You're quite understandably misconstruing by comparing apples and oranges. VV/VW regulated mods are great because they require nothing but 'plug and play', hence their popularity and the emergence of a wide array of tanks.

Mechs are very simple devices and require some safety type knowledge to use but ultimately require the user to build to the battery's limitations and so you have to hone your building skills and be into rebuilding via rba's rather than tanks,

Hope that helps.

 

[CynikalMindset]

Mechs for "pocketability", stealth little 18350 LPG mod and kayfun belltop basically the size of a 15ml juice bottle!

I love my mechs and my vv/vw boxes...use both daily all day

 

[EBates]

Welcome aboard
I'm with you bud, I don't git it. Own a couple of mech mods but never got comfortable using them.
Now with 'megawatt' vw mods they are becoming obsolete.
But on the other hand most vw's can't handle a .0001 ohm coil either.
Mechs and coils with micro-ohm resistance, I don't git it.

 

[Thrasher]

Well,

I don't need high power very rarely do I even top 30 watts
With a properly tuned build you don't notice drop off as bad as people think.
Zero electronics to worry about, I can drop my mod in the lake, then slam it against the wall and it still wouldn't stop working
Durability
Reliability
My screens never going to break or my button stop working.


Many of the false hoods about vape quality dropping off are from people who either power vape, meaning they run a crazy build using high power that dies off quickly and then doesn't run correctly.

Or
No offense to anyone - unskilled rebuilders who don't know how to properly tune their setups. I can show you videos of people fogging out the room with an ego. It takes more then a couple YouTube videos to become a true skilled rebuilder.

For example
I run a kayfun on one mod @.9 I run my genesis at .8 With my build I get 7-10 hours before you even notice a drop off in vapor.

So really its zero fuss I fill the tank, I pop in a battery and I'm done. I don't have to play with settings and worry about what a screen says every 3-4 weeks I change my wicks

And of course looks, I personally can't stand these boring boxes that all look the same

When my battery gets low if I can't change it right away it doesn't just turn off and leave me stranded.

 

[AndriaD]

I buy mechs as part of my vapocalypse prep -- they're mechanical, so even if they somehow "break," good chance that I or my husband could repair it.

I also buy Kicks to put in my mechs, so I can "regulate" the power level to my preference, and it stays at that level until it's time to charge the battery, none of the running-down in vape quality as the battery runs down. Kicks cost around $12, and mechs often cost a lot less than vv/vw devices, so it's very economical to use a mech+kick; if the chip(s) on the Kick dies, I can just buy another Kick for a lot less than it would cost to replace a vv/vw. And eventually, even if the Kicks die and I can't get more, I'll still have a functional vape device. The Kick also acts as a small amount of protection; they won't fire a coil lower than 1.3Ω, and if there was a short, they wouldn't fire at all.

Obviously only those who vape at lower wattages would find a Kick useful; the cheap ones I buy only go to 12w; the eVolve ones (not cheap!), I think, go to 15w.

Andria

 

[vapero]

mechs are simple, small and powerful devices. they don't have the extra features on a regulated but if you know how you like your vape that shouldn't be a limiting factor. I have no desire to ever get another VW device, my mechs just work and are sturdy, hassle free and small enough for me

 

[okozmonoto]

I have a sig100, a rDNA40 and a few mechs. I'm not sure why, but my 26650 mech is my current go-to.

It's gone in phases though, the 100w box was my go to for a while. Then the temp settings with the rDNA. I'm sure I'll switch back again, just for some reason right now with my rda builds, the mech is the most satisfying.

 

[Thrasher]

I found with a real kick in a brass or copper mod I get phenomenal battery life I pull them out when it stops they get to 3.2v

I also forgot to add
Clean pure DC power. It really does seem to affect the vape quality.

 

[TheBloke]

Wow! Thanks everyone.

I came back to see if maybe I had a response.. was absolutely not expecting it to be on page two already

Lots of interesting responses, thanks very much. I certainly get the durability aspect. And I've already realised that I do tend to stick around the same levels already. My mod can do 5-50W, but frankly it's very rare that it's at anything other than 25-30W.

So right now, with VW/VV, I build whatever coil sounds good and then I adjust the wattage to match. I guess with mechs, it's the other way around? I look at what voltage I'm going to get - which I guess is pretty constant as long as the battery is fairly fully charged - and then always build coils that I know vape well (for my preference) at that voltage?

Simple as that?

I think I probably will try one sometime! I don't have an ohms reader yet, but both of the new mods I ordered recently can give ohms to two decimal places (though I'll probably end up getting a standalone ohms reader too, at some point.)

Thanks all!

 

[Noflers]

I love my mech for the pocket factor, and it's just a pretty little beast. I love being able to pull exactly what I want out of my battery depending on the build I use in my atty, plus that .......er is practically indestructible. I hadn't had the option to buy a VV/VW box until I ordered a Sigelei 150 last night for $79.99 with a Youde Goblin to go along with it for $29.99 (fingers crossed). That's a large amount of money to throw down in my eyes and it's hard to make the decision to do so when you aren't even sure if you'll like the thing. I still think a mech will rip harder than any VV/VW device...

 

[jaxgator]

So right now, with VW/VV, I build whatever coil sounds good and then I adjust the wattage to match. I guess with mechs, it's the other way around? I look at what voltage I'm going to get - which I guess is pretty constant as long as the battery is fairly fully charged - and then always build coils that I know vape well (for my preference) at that voltage?

Simple as that?

As roxynoodle has already mentioned, with a mech one needs to understand ohms law and battery safety. Each battery has a C rating. Within this C rating the Maximum Continuous Discharge rate can be determined in amperes. One must not exceed the MCD rate of the battery being used and preferably stay 15-20% below it.

So, let's take, for instance, a Sony VTC5. This battery has a MCD rate of 30 amps. Personally, I wouldn't build anything lower that 0.16Ω as this is pulling 26.25 amps. I currently like my Hobo built at 0.24Ω. That is pulling 17.5A. Similar to pushing 73.5w on a regulated device.

If this doesn't make any sense to you, then you have studying to do before purchasing a mechanical mod.

 

[k702]

I love my mech for the pocket factor, and it's just a pretty little beast. I love being able to pull exactly what I want out of my battery depending on the build I use in my atty, plus that .......er is practically indestructible. I hadn't had the option to buy a VV/VW box until I ordered a Sigelei 150 last night for $79.99 with a Youde Goblin to go along with it for $29.99 (fingers crossed). That's a large amount of money to throw down in my eyes and it's hard to make the decision to do so when you aren't even sure if you'll like the thing. I still think a mech will rip harder than any VV/VW device...

Price will probably be a big factor here too. You can get a mech mod clone for 10 or 15 dollars right now. The originals are highly overpriced (my opinion) but clones can be picked up in pairs or by the half dozen for the same price as a 30 watt regulated mod. That's just really hard to beat.

People can say whatever they want about mech clones but as has already been said in this thread a mech mod is bought because breaking them is as near to impossible as you can get. You have to screw up threading to a point where it becomes unusable or deform the tube in some way. Lost parts are normally replacable and in the end its really just a tube of metal or some other material with 2 contacts and a connection for an atomizer.

You put those two things together with a great number of people switching to vaping to save money and you get a market that has a pretty good lifespan ahead of it.

 

[gph61]

Portability.

My ADV is a Kato Square with a kick. 18650 and 18500. I also have some nice little 18350s and the Ignition base. All of which are more portable than current boxes with the exception of the Egrip.

Of course none of them can compete in watts with most boxes but if you don't need the power you may as well have something that disappears in a shirt pocket.

 

[roxynoodle]

And its not true that mechs aren't good for tanks . I run mostly tanks. Usually between 0.5-1.2 ohms and I only own one that I run at 0.5 ohm.

 

[AndriaD]

And its not true that mechs aren't good for tanks . I run mostly tanks. Usually between 0.5-1.2 ohms and I only own one that I run at 0.5 ohm.

I've used my Galileo with a Kayfun. I was afraid with the Galileo's rounded-off top it would look stupid, but it really doesn't. And I think the Provape beauty ring will work on that Galileo, if I really felt I *needed* a flat top, but honestly it looks fine the way it is.

Since I use a Kick with my mechs, and I basically know what power setting I like and simply set the Kick there and leave it alone, about the only real downside I've found with using a mech rather than a regulated is being unable to check the battery level without removing the battery and sticking it in the charger. I've timed myself on all my batteries, so I know *about* how long they'll usefully last, but it's only a rough estimation; heavy vaping could shorten it drastically. Or feces could occur, as it so often does.

Andria