Why would anyone use a series mod?

[PBody19]

Hey everybody.

I just want to apologize upfront. I am sure this has been talked about, and I searched and read a lot of threads about series mods, but I couldn't find the answer I was looking for, so I started this thread.

Ok, to my question/point: I don't understand what purpose a series mod serves. Here is my thinking.

Let's say I wanted to vape at the SMOK TFV12 tank. Obviously I want some clouds. The coils for the tank that are rated in the 120-200w range are .12ohm coils. The coils state that they can be vaped as high as 350 watts. Cool.

So, let's say I threw that on a single or parallel unregulated mod, with freshly charged batteries. I would be vaping at 147w (from ohm's law V = iR and P=Vi, 4.2v/.12ohms = 35 amps, x 4.2V = 147w). Not bad, this is probably very satisfying. If I threw that on a dual battery series mod, however, I would be vaping at 588w!!! (same math as before, but with 8.4v) Obviously, I do not want to vape a tank rated for 350w max at 588w. I might not even want to vape it at 350 once I try it lol.

So let'ts try to go by the power level I am vaping at then. Say I want to replicate the 147w I would be vaping at on a freshly charged series mod. 147w/8.4v = 17.5 amps. At first glance, this seems like it would be better for my batteries and lead to longer battery life for the same power vape, since I am drawing less amps. The thing is, I would need a .48ohm coil to achieve this.

My question is, why the hell would I want to vape a .48ohm coil at the same power level as .12 ohm coil? Wouldn't that burn the crap out my coil and make it taste nasty?

And that is basically what I am getting at. On a series mod, you need to use a much higher resistance build to vape at the same power levels, which I cannot understand why I would want to do that. For example, if that tank had .48 ohm coils available, I imagine they would be rated for something like 20 - 50w.

Are these wattage ratings based on the voltage an amperage contributing to the power level? Is a watt not always a watt? I also feel like the .48ohm coil would be much smaller than the .12 ohm coil anyway, so it would have less surface are and therefore vape less juice at any one particular moment.

What am I missing here? Are you supposed to take much shorter drags on a series mod, so that the vape doesn't taste like burnt coil? Wouldn't this still result in less vaper? I have played around with raising the watts and taking shorter drags on my regulated mods (which I believe provides the same experience as vaping single/parallel vs. series, that is, only if a watt = a watt regardless of the voltage and amperage), and I find that using the typical power level for a coil and taking longer drags provides better clouds and taste. Is that just it, that it's all subjective whether you prefer shorter or longer drags?

Am I understanding this right? I see how vaping at the same power levels would essentially make the battery life equal when considering puffs taken, but I am just not understanding why you would ever want to vape higher resistance coils at the same wattage levels as lower resistance ones. Can someone please help me understand? Thank you!

 

[sonicbomb]

I would not use a tank that uses premade coils on any unregulated device, let alone a series mod. The QC on premade coil heads is not something I would want to put my trust in to protect me from a burnt face.

I think where you are going wrong is taking any notice of the manufacturers 'recommended power levels'. A coil of a given resistance can built any number of ways (different guage of wire, different number of wraps, coil material etc.). One would need to choose one that was appropriate for the power you were planning on applying to it.
In answer to your last question, you would want to use a higher resistance coil because potentially it could have a greater surface area and lower mass than a lower resistance coil. This could mean more vapor and a faster ramp up time.

Have a read of this
Understanding the relationship between power and coil resistance | E-Cigarette Forum

 

[abn75]

My first question would be why the heck are you putting a tank with prebuilt coils on anything unregulated? To me that's asking for trouble, as you don't really know how that coil is built.
As to the why vape a .48 coil that high, well i can say in my experience, your using lots of metal so thst wattage doesn't seem as high as you think. Get a decent rda and build using larger gauge and that .48 coil needs a ton to heat up
Finally, people use those mods for the same reason people use other mods, cause they want to.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Bunnykiller]

.48 coil will be larger than a .12.... you need more wire to get more ohms considering the wire is the same diameter and material.

 

[Verb]

You are missing the variable of coil mass.

A .5 ohm coil can be built with a larger or smaller mass. Thin kanthal wire will get to .5ohm with a smaller diameter or fewer wraps. Changing to nichrome or SS wire will require more wraps or a larger diameter to reach .5ohm; therefore, the coil will have more mass. Similarly, thicker wire has less resistance, so more wraps/diameter again and more mass. Clapton and twisting increase the mass per unit length too.

Builds with the same resistance can perform very different from one another.

 

[PBody19]

My first question would be why the heck are you putting a tank with prebuilt coils on anything unregulated? To me that's asking for trouble, as you don't really know how that coil is built.
As to the why vape a .48 coil that high, well i can say in my experience, your using lots of metal so thst wattage doesn't seem as high as you think. Get a decent rda and build using larger gauge and that .48 coil needs a ton to heat up
Finally, people use those mods for the same reason people use other mods, cause they want to.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Before I even read the rest of the responses, I just want to say that I haven't done this! I don't own a mech mod lol I was just thinking about this. Of course, that's why I am asking before I try anything. I know I am confused! lol

And I get that they want to use it lmao I'm asking why. But I am starting to see what I missed already. I thought about higher resistance and immediately my mind went to smaller higher gauges. If I used the same gauge to reach a .4 resistance that I used for a .1 resistance, of course I would be building a much larger coil! Duh! Can't believe I missed this lol Thank you!

 

[PBody19]

.48 coil will be larger than a .12.... you need more wire to get more ohms considering the wire is the same diameter and material.

Exactly what I was missing. My mind instantly went to higher gauge wire when I thought of higher resistance. Thanks!

 

[PBody19]

You are missing the variable of coil mass.

A .5 ohm coil can be built with a larger or smaller mass. Thin kanthal wire will get to .5ohm with a smaller diameter or fewer wraps. Changing to nichrome or SS wire will require more wraps or a larger diameter to reach .5ohm; therefore, the coil will have more mass. Similarly, thicker wire has less resistance, so more wraps/diameter again and more mass. Clapton and twisting increase the mass per unit length too.

Builds with the same resistance can perform very different from one another.

Yes, you are exactly right. I am a novice builder and didn't even consider using the same guage I typically use to build a hire res coil. Thanks!

 

[Zakillah]

Resistance does not dictate how much power a coil can handle even though many people still believe that.
I could easily do a 2 Ohm build that could handle 100W. The only problem with that is that there are no devices that give me the 14 Volts I´d need. (Why aren't there, btw?)

 

[PBody19]

I would not use a tank that uses premade coils on any unregulated device, let alone a series mod. The QC on premade coil heads is not something I would want to put my trust in to protect me from a burnt face.

I think where you are going wrong is taking any notice of the manufacturers 'recommended power levels'. A coil of a given resistance can built any number of ways (different guage of wire, different number of wraps, coil material etc.). One would need to choose one that was appropriate for the power you were planning on applying to it.
In answer to your last question, you would want to use a higher resistance coil because potentially it could have a greater surface area and lower mass than a lower resistance coil. This could mean more vapor and a faster ramp up time.

Have a read of this
Understanding the relationship between power and coil resistance | E-Cigarette Forum

Yes, what i totally missed was that I could keep the wire diameter the same and build a much larger coil for a higher resistance, which would need a greater ramp up time. Thank you!

 

[PBody19]

Resistance does not dictate how much power a coil can handle even though many people still believe that.
I could easily do a 2 Ohm build that could handle 100W. The only problem with that is that there are no devices that give me the 14 Volts I´d need. (Why aren't there, btw?)

It would be a very very large 2 ohm coil, right?

 

[Zakillah]

For 100W you need a large coil, obviously.

 

[sonicbomb]

An additional benefit of series mechanicals over parallel is avoiding super low resistances and the accompanying high current requirements. As the current increases so does battery sag and the voltage drop of the mod, exponentially.

 

[vapdivrr]

With a mech it's kind of opposite to a regulated, with a regulated you adjust the wattage to a resistance, with a mech you adjust the resistance to a set voltage, so it's more to do with building your own coils. It's just a bit more old school, as there never use to be premade coils.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[daviedog]

Yes, what i totally missed was that I could keep the wire diameter the same and build a much larger coil for a higher resistance, which would need a greater ramp up time. Thank you!

You may want to visit Steam Engine,, heat flux..

 

[MMW]

 

[sonicbomb]

Tfv4 octuple coils

 

[MMW]

Tfv4 octuple coils

I didn't even know we had a cloud chasers subforum. Ha!

 

[mcclintock]

An additional benefit of series mechanicals over parallel is avoiding super low resistances and the accompanying high current requirements. As the current increases so does battery sag and the voltage drop of the mod, exponentially.

Yeah, electrically it's poor practice to expect to drive .1 ohm or whatever. It only takes a few hundredths extra in there to totally mess things up. And if I take a regular ohmmeter that costs hundreds of dollars and measure the coil, the probe contact resistances can easily swamp the result (up to .3Ω).

The discussion above talks of mass. Surface area is the primary determiner of power capability, given adequate wicking and air it says how much juice it can be in contact with and therefore the long-term power handling. Mass merely slows it getting there. The advantage of using more voltage is a coil with LESS mass tends to result. A wire twice as thick has twice the surface area and *four times* the mass, so even if only half as long has twice the mass, twice the heatup time. Now, there are times the heatup time could increase when using a longer piece of thinner wire, but if so either the power has been decreased due to resistance, and/or it's actually a bigger coil but for some other reason the power can't actually be increased because the coil wasn't the limit.

 

[beckdg]

Stolen!

[emoji23]

Tapatyped