Although in this post I will get to the subject right away, please feel free to pose any questions you may have (not only about coils, but also about electronic cigarrettes, e-liquid, batteries, and anything related to vaping). I will try to answer as many as I can.
If you can't reach me this way, contact me through facebook: my name is Mironescu Olivier.
The disclaimer for this post and for this blogg in general can be found in my first bost. Please read it thouroughly and abide by it, as it explicits some common practices good to be known.
The object that vaporizes the e-liquid in an e-cig is always a almost always coil made of metal, but what are these metals and coils actually made of ?
Although you may vape almost any metal you may find in a store or online (silver, gold tungsten or any other), the only wires that vapers usually use are (in no particular order now): kanthal ( an iron, chromium and aluminium alloy - FeCrAl ), stainless steel ( a complex range of alloys made mostly of iron, but also containing chromium and nickel, among other substances - you can find them abreviated as ss316, ss316l, ss317, ss317l etc., all beying slightly different alloys - ), nickel ( a wire, with very low resistance, about which concept we will talk later ) and titanium ( an almost pure titanium wire with low resistance, but double of that of nickel ).
Before getting into a little more depth about each one and their safety profiles, we eill talk about two concepts in vapinf and physics: temperature control and resistance ( related to Ohm's law )
1. Temperature control is a feature in most mods ( more rarely found in tube-like or cigarette-like e-cigs ), which allows the e-cig to heat uo the coil and the e-liquid at a specific temperature. When you run energy through a coil in an e-cig or any other device with coils ( fans, modern stove tops etc. ) they tend to heat as high as they can, reaching a temeperature where the heat given by a coil is equal to the amount of heat received by the air or e-liquid touching it. As such they tend to reach a very high temerature, usually attaining 1000°C ( aprox. 1850°F ) or even more. In an e-cig, these temperatures are never achieved, because the user constantly draws more liquid and helps the coil stay at a more reasonable temperature. Nevertheless, some of the e-liquid or cotton can still burn ( although very little usually ).
When a mod is set in temperature contol, the coil can heat up only to the specified temerature, and after the mod starts to regulate it's energy output to the coil, ajusting it very fast and often. To coil can only reach temperatures between 100 to 315°C, only allowing the liquid to vaporize, without burning it. And without incinerating the cotton inside a vaporizer. TC is one of the most revolutionary tehnologies related to temerature. my advice is to allways use it.
2. Resistance is a measure of how well a metal or a substance can transfer heat or electricity. This is hand-in-hand with ohm's law in metals and vaping. The usual e-cigs have resistivities of 1.5 ohms and above, but sub-ohm coils, or coils that have a lower resistivity are more and more common. The lower the resistivity, the higher the ammount of current can flow through a coil, and the more eliquid can be heated and vaporized, although it usually reaches a slighlty warmer and warmer temperature. Sub-ohm coils are almost only used with TC, so this is not usually a problem.
Now, back to the coils:
Evry metal has problems and there are many disputes about the safest one, although my oppinion is that stainless steel are the safest. We'll see why.
Please take note that cigarettes are still st least 10-20 times more dangerous and always contain 10-100 of times more metal atoms, even other heavy ones, like cadmium for example.
Kanthal is a very safe wire, because it can (and it is designed ) to be heated at high temeperatures without decomposing or releasing notable amounts of metals. Most coils with resistances of over 1 ohm are made of kanthal, because it has the most resistance. The problem is it is almost impossible for a mod to know the temperature of a coil when powered so, you can't use TC when having kanthal coils. This issue has put it lower in terms of it's health profile.
Alhough nickel is used in vaping, it is very dangerous, and not only that I don't advice anyone to use it, but in fact I advice they wouldn't because of it's two main issues, one of which is a big problem. The first one is that it is so low of a resistance that it can relatively easily short circuit an e-cig, making it dangerous for it's user. It is also very hard to wrap into a coil, as it breaks easily. The biggedt problem alyhough is that it dehidrogenates sunstances like propilene glycol or glicerin into very toxic substances like acrolein ( although in little ammounts). Chemists use it for exactly this reason. To resume, nickel should al.ost always be avoided.
Titanium coils are relatively safe, because tgey have higher resistances, rhey can be used in TC mode, and they they are durable. The main issue is that at high enough temperaures ( above 500-600°C) it could release titanium oxides (although in trace ammounts) which are dangerous and could be carcinogenic, although this fact is disputed and not demonstrated in humans. ). Also, if pierced, it can cath fire, and the fire can not be extinghuised even with water. Because this may be very unlikely, it is relatively safe to use, and is widely used in pre-made coils.
Stainless steel is the best material for coils, because it has a reasonable resistance ( a little below 1 ohm usually ), it can be used in most mods in TC mod, it has been heavily studied and used under high temperatures safely ( a lot of your cooking pots are made of stainless steel). At high enough temeratures, it can releas hexavalent chromium which is highly toxic, bu only in the thousands of degrees celsius, totally unreacheable when vaping. This is the most safe substance to be used in coil making, although it should always me used in TC mode, whithout exception.
The safest materials in descending order are:
Stainless steel > Titanium > Khantal > Nickel ( or nichrome).
Please always use Temprerature control mode, read the discaimer and always try to inform yourself before doing anything vaping related. Rember that vaping can save your life, as it is at least 95% safer than cigarettes (as stated by scientists). Thank you.
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