Temperature Control - Everything you need to know.

Electronic cigarettes and their technology have developed very rapidly over the last few years and it does not look as if this progress will slow down in the near future.

The first e-cigarettes were either mechanical or supplied a constant, regulated voltage to the clearomizer. Obviously, this was not enough for discerning consumers and therefore, more and more modifications were made that allowed the user to adjust the voltage even as desired.

The next step in technology development makes the wattage of the e-cigarette into a variable. Basically, in these mods the same as with variable voltage but in a more practical way. Mods were now able to detect the resistance of the coil head so that they could automatically adjust the voltage even when the head was changed so that you could still get the desired power.

And the very latest on the list? Of course, temperature control. Temperature control has quickly become a must-have for modern mods. The first temperature control chip, the Evolv DNA40, was introduced to the market only last year, but there are already a large number of competing products on the market.

The concept behind temperature control is actually quite simple. You do not select the voltage or the wattage that the device should supply, but instead the temperature at which your clearomizer is to work. When you press the fire button, your mod monitors the temperature and adjusts the power level automatically so that the coil head reaches the desired temperature as quickly as possible and then stays with it.

The development of a temperature control for e-cigarettes was the next logical step. The temperature of the coil head has a great influence on how you experience the taste of your steam. If it is too hot to experience burnt flavor, the temperature is too low, the e-liquid can not evaporate. At the same time, the ability of the unit to keep the temperature constant has an influence on how much steam it produces.

If your high-quality wick delivers more e-liquid than the coil head, the temperature will drop. If, on the other hand, the coil head can not keep up, the temperature will rise so fast that you get a dry hit - and nobody really wants that. So it is quite obvious that the possibility of adjusting the temperature and keeping it constant, makes it much easier to produce exactly the steam that you want to have on each train.

Work with limitations

Of course the temperature project comes with technical challenges. The biggest of these is that mods in themselves have no way of measuring how hot the coil is in the coil head.

It would be possible to build an clearomizer with a built-in temperature probe, which would then send information to the chip in the mod but with a standard 510er connection this is impossible. It simply has too few contact points. A 510 contact has only the positive center pin and the negative screw and these are already busy passing the current to the coik head. Temperature control would be far less attractive if you had to give up all your favorite clearomizer.

Fortunately, Evolv has found a way around this problem. The same solution is now applied in all temperature ranges on the market. The principle is based on the characteristics of metals that have been known to anyone who works with electronics - such as Evolv - for a long time. The resistance in a piece of metal, such as the winding in your clearomizer, is not a constant value. In certain circumstances it may vary and one of these circumstances is the change in temperature.


Attention Science!

Metal is a good conductor of electricity, because the electrons of each atom are not attached to it. If there is a difference in voltage between the ends of the metal, the electrons are attracted by the positive positive pole and move in this direction. This allows the battery to feed more electrons through the negative negative pole. The electrons, however, can not move completely freely, they must move through a mass of slightly vibrating atoms.

As the temperature increases, there is more energy in the metal and the atoms vibrate more energetically. This makes it difficult for the electrons to move forward. In simple steamer terminology this means that the resistance increases.

Your mod with temperature control does not actually measure the temperature of the coil head, it measures the resistance - as any modern Mods can anyway - and then follows its change. If you have not frozen your mod to the temperature of liquid nitrogen (which we can not recommend), the relationship between temperature and resistance is well predictable. So if the resistance increases, the mod can easily find out to what extent the temperature increases.

Purity is a virtue

The ability of the chip to figure out what is going on in the coil head has of course its limits. With a few exceptions, for example, he can not precisely identify what the winding is.

This is a problem because various metals and especially alloys, e.g. Kanthal change your resistance as quickly as you can. For the temperature control to work, the winding must be made from a pure metal, not from an alloy and not even all the pure metals are suitable.

The first coil heads suitable for temperature control were made of Ni200, a high-purity form of heat-treated nickel wire. Ni200 is still the most popular material for these coil heads, but titanium is also becoming more and more popular. These two materials are heat resistant and have very good conductivity. They are thus ideal for the manufacture of windings that meet the challenges of high-capacity steam applications.

At the moment, it is not possible to produce a chip that can analyze the winding and find out which wire was used. However, it is possible to manufacture one which can recognize one or two specific types by their electrical characteristics. The iStick 40W, for example, can detect a nickel coil head, and when this happens, the temperature control mode becomes accessible. Otherwise the iStick will automatically select the VW mode. Many other devices may e.g. Also recognize Titanium and choose a TC mode, which is especially suitable for this.

Are nickel coil heads safe?

Many were worried that nickel coil heads might not be safe for application. It seems as if there are two main considerations. First, one is worried that nickel could leach out when it is heated or exposed to e-liquid. Second, one wonders whether nickel could trigger an allergic reaction.

According to the scientist Tom Pruen of ECITA, nickel is already a major component of e-cigarette coil heads and the amounts of nickel detected in steam are extremely low. It therefore appears that the use of a winding made entirely of nickel would not significantly increase the risk. He also says that the use of pure nickel coils with temperature-controlled mods should even reduce the risk. The temperature in the winding is probably related to the emission of metals and with TC coil heads it is less likely to reach extreme temperatures. Of course, these assumptions need to be reviewed as soon as data are available, but the above reasons are more a source of confidence than a concern.

Fires in temperature mode

A mod with temperature control has in normal case a menu in which one can change from VW to TC. For example, in the iStick, you can do this by holding down a small button between the up and down keys. You can adjust the temperature in the same way as you would otherwise set the volts or watts.

You will see that a large temperature range is available to you. With the iStick TC 40W, for example, you can set everything between 100 ° C and 315 ° C. A lower temperature will give you a cooler, less dense vapor. A higher temperature means warmer, denser steam. As with VV (variable volts) and VW (variable wattage), it is best to start low and then slowly work up until you reach the perfect steam feeling.

If you are in the TC mode, the display of your mod will adapt to show you the relevant information. As long as you are not firing, the iStick will tell you which temperature you have set. When you fire, this changes and shows you the actual temperature in the coil head and this value increases impressively fast until it reaches the desired temperature. In TC mode, the display also shows you how much watts is needed to reach the temperature - always good to know.

Is it all worth it?

It is not easy to vaping in TC mode. It is not enough to buy a new mod and adjust this to the perfect temperature. You must also change your coil heads and possibly your clearomizer. Nowadays, a mass of clearomizers is available for which there are Ni200 i th Ti coil heads, but this is largely confined to the Sub Ohm world.

Is this new technology worth your price and the acquisition of the necessary knowledge? In short, yes! And that has two reasons. First of all, temperature control gives you a constant steamer experience. If you have experimented for a while and have exactly found the setting you like, the temperature control spells out a lot of the variation that might otherwise have disturbed the steam. If you want a device that fires exactly the same time, then the temperature control will allow you this and will deliver this experience to the last drop of E-Liquid in the tank.

The other reason is perhaps not the most important, but it will be classified by advocates of public health because it is about safety. It has become very clear that the reason that some scientists have found high amounts of formaldehyde in steam is that their experiments have triggered Dry Hits. Of course no one would evaporate under such circumstances, so the actual risk here is very low, but the skeptics do not see it.

The application of temperature control solves this problem. Dry hits are created when the ability of the coil head to e-liquid to vaporize the ability of the wick to deliver this. If there is not enough liquid around the winding, the temperature increases rapidly and the rest of the liquid and sometimes a part of the wick burns. As all smokers know, the combustion releases most of the carcinogens. We should avoid this. With the temperature control, this becomes possible since the mod as soon as it detects a sudden increase in the temperature the voltage decreases to compensate. The coil head remains at the correct temperature, the wick is safe and the last drops are properly evaporated and not burnt. Dry hits and thus the increased risk of the release of formaldehyde are therefore a thing of the past with a TC Mod.

What are your options?

When it started with the temperature control you could get only the DNA40 chip and this meant either the purchase of an expensive Box Mod or you had to order the chip and the old DNA30 device an upgrade. This has changed fundamentally.

Every good steamer trade nowadays has equipment with temperature control in stock and, of course, there are still expensive equipment to suit the steamers with really high demands, but there are today also much more favorable possibilities. An iStick TC 40W can be purchased at a very good price and even many new temperature devices come to the market at reasonable prices.

Then you must decide for an clearomizer. Sub Ohm tanks are best suited for temperature vaporization, and this is where most of the development takes place. Ni200 or Titanium coil heads are available for a large mass of newer clearomizers from Kangertech, Aspire or Eleaf. Nowadays there are also stainless steel coil heads suitable for temperature control. Only for older tanks it can be difficult.

You could of course try to make your own windings for older tanks, but this is not recommended. Nickel and titanium are extremely conductive and any winding with these materials that fit into an Evod clearomizer would be in the Sub Ohm range. Older clearomizers are not suitable for high-capacity steam, so do not try this.

With rebuildable clearomizers suitable for self winding, no matter whether it is a tröpfler or tank model, this is another story. Technically versed steamers have been using these devices for a long time in the Sub Ohm range and with a little Ni200 or Titanium wire you can create a TC-compatible winding. These types of wire have some peculiarities.

If you would otherwise make contact windings where the snares are touching, you should stop. With TC windings this is not a good idea. The mod reads an average temperature of the whole winding. If two or more snares touch, the short circuit will occur. The chip then assumes that the winding is cooler than it is in reality and will give more power to compensate.

You will probably work with a thinner wire than you are accustomed to, as otherwise the resistance becomes too low and nickel can be very difficult to handle. Nickel is very elastic and can easily distort when you exert too much pressure. The distortion reduces the diameter of the wire and increases the resistance. This allows you to create hot spots in the finished coil. This means that with TC windings you will only have fun when you are a real hobbyist and have a lot of experience with winding. For all other steamer is an clearomizer for the it finished TC heads are probably the best choice.

It's hot

The temperature control has come to stay. Compared to older models, there are many advantages, not least the absence of dry hits. The difference the TC steam makes for both the safety and the joy of steaming is obvious and together with the love for novelties of the average steamers, he makes sure that the technology develops furiously fast.

At the end of 2014 temperature-controlled devices were still extremely specialized, today they are freely available and one can expect that mods without temperature control will make the minority on the shelves. Of course, not all of this technology will be used, but with the improvement of technology, the number of clearomizers available for TC is increasing. Just like VV and VW, TC is also a step forward and gives you even more possibilities to personalize your steamboat experience