I am using a 22 gauge 316L wire, and tcr at 088 is perfect.
SS seems to have more variance between different manufacturers of the same "grade" then any other wire so far
YES !
From a metallurgical properties standpoint all alloy wires (those which depend on a mixture of atomic species to achieve their properties) are always going to have a TCR which is variable depending on the chemistry of the specific "batch" of alloy used to make the wire. That's one of the reasons that Grade 1 titanium ("pure titanium")is preferred by so many for vaping. It is a "single element" material and its TCR is highly uniform and predictable and can generally be relied on to give similar vaping performance no matter the source or batch.
There are some suppliers such Sweet Vapes that are producing lower quality titanium wire and claiming that they have proprietary annealing processes to remove excess oxygen from grade 2 titanium which makes it superior. It is thermodynamically impossible to remove oxygen from solid titanium by an annealing process so their claims are considered to be hype which is intended to "justify" a higher price than pure Grade 1 titanium. Fortunately they do provide a TCR value for their hyped wire which allows it to work but still they are in effect reaching into the pocket of folks with no metallurgical background to relieve them of hard earned cash.
If an alloy wire is chosen it's always good to do some detailed confirmation testing of the TCR value of the specific batch of wire to achieve reasonable results.
I personally think it's unfortunate that many mod makers are including a TCR value for "Stainless Steel"
without even designating the general type of the alloy. There are literally hundreds of stainless steel alloys in common use and unsuspecting vapers have little chance to know what the proper TCR setting is for the specific wire or batch they are trying to build with without doing detailed testing of their own.
Duane
