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Dispelling the TC & TC Coil myths...

Tubbyengineer

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So there are many myths about TC and TC coils, so I thought I'd set a few thrings straight...

Vaping Regular coils in TC Mode is bad...
Nope, not true - well not really... If you vape a "Regular" coil in TC mode then as you fire it the mod won't pick up any change in resistance, on a DNA mod this will result in three little dashes where the Temp should be and the mod will just fire at the selected wattage. Other mods bahave slightly differently but essentially all will do the same thing - deliver the set wattage continuosly. At most you'll get a dry hit, this is why it's important to select the lowest usable wattage for TC - just like anything else.

Vaping TC coils in Power mode is dangerous...
Well only sort of... As with any coil if you vape it too hot then you get a dry hit, and dry hits are unpleasant. To become meaningfully dangerous a TC coil would need to be actually glowing red hot, and even then it's only the Titanium ones that are truly bad - not because of any nasties but because Titanium is flammable at high temperatures. That said if you try get Titanium hot enough to burn while you were trying to vape it you'd stop pretty quick - the air you'd be inhaling would be over 600 celsius, far hotter than anyone can stand without injury.
So why do people say it's dangerous? That dates back to the early days of TC Vaping - and to fears about Nickel as a TC wire. Those fears are pretty much unfounded, the only real trouble would be if someone tried to use a TC coil on a mech mod or an unregulated stick type mod. In that instance the very low resistance of the TC wire would cause a dangerous overload condition on the battery risking it venting. So to recap, a TC coil run in power mode with a properly setup wick with plenty of juice will just give a normal vape, even with a nearly dry wick you just get a regular dry hit.

TC Mode means I should set my wattage as high as possible to get the best from my coil...
No It doesn't, set your wattage just as you would for any other coil, the Wattage you set is what is used to get you up to temperature - If you like a slow ramp up set it low, if you like a quick ramp up set it higher. Either way to get the right setting you need set enough watts to get you to the set temperature and no more - in fact setting wattage too high can on some of the cheaper TC devices cause you to overshoot the set point when you fire the coil, then it has to cool down and you can get a "cycle" effect where the mod overshots and cools repeatedly...

There are mods that can TC Kanthal...
No there aren't. There are some that claim to do "Taste Control" or some other such wording but they don't really do any temperature control, they just modulate the power output in various ways. True temperature control uses either a seperate temperature sensor (haven't actually seen a mod that does that yet) or measures the resistance of your coil - the material of which reacts in specific ways to changes in temperature. By knowing the resistance of your coil at room temperature (DNA's assume this to be 20'c) then changes in the resistance of the coil can be mapped directly to specific temperatures. Once the temperature of the coil is known then the power can be minutely varied to maintain that temperature. There are various algorithms for controlling it and different sampling speeds as well as different output methods - these are what lead to the difference between the various TC mods.

I'm sure there are various other Burning questions people have about TC, if anyone else would like to ask or answer please do...
 
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So there are many myths about TC and TC coils, so I thought I'd set a few thrings straight...

Vaping Regular coils in TC Mode is bad...
Nope, not true - well not really... If you vape a "Regular" coil in TC mode then as you fire it the mod won't pick up any change in resistance, on a DNA mod this will result in three little dashes where the Temp should be and the mod will just fire at the selected wattage. Other mods bahave slightly differently but essentially all will do the same thing - deliver the set wattage continuosly. At most you'll get a dry hit, this is why it's important to select the lowest usable wattage for TC - just like anything else.

Vaping TC coils in Power mode is dangerous...
Well only sort of... As with any coil if you vape it too hot then you get a dry hit, and dry hits are unpleasant. To become meaningfully dangerous a TC coil would need to be actually glowing red hot, and even then it's only the Titanium ones that are truly bad - not because of any nasties but because Titanium is flammable at high temperatures. That said if you try get Titanium hot enough to burn while you were trying to vape it you'd stop pretty quick - the air you'd be inhaling would be over 600 celsius, far hotter than anyone can stand without injury.
So why do people say it's dangerous? That dates back to the early days of TC Vaping - and to fears about Nickel as a TC wire. Those fears are pretty much unfounded, the only real trouble would be if someone tried to use a TC coil on a mech mod or an unregulated stick type mod. In that instance the very low resistance of the TC wire would cause a dangerous overload condition on the battery risking it venting. So to recap, a TC coil run in power mode with a properly setup wick with plenty of juice will just give a normal vape, even with a nearly dry wick you just get a regular dry hit.

TC Mode means I should set my wattage as high as possible to get the best from my coil...
No It doesn't, set your wattage just as you would for any other coil, the Wattage you set is what is used to get you up to temperature - If you like a slow ramp up set it low, if you like a quick ramp up set it higher. Either way to get the right setting you need set enough watts to get you to the set temperature and no more - in fact setting wattage too high can on some of the cheaper TC devices cause you to overshoot the set point when you fire the coil, then it has to cool down and you can get a "cycle" effect where the mod overshots and cools repeatedly...

There are mods that can TC Kanthal...
No there aren't. There are some that claim to do "Taste Control" or some other such wording but they don't really do any temperature control, they just modulate the power output in various ways. True temperature control uses either a seperate temperature sensor (haven't actually seen a mod that does that yet) or measures the resistance of your coil - the material of which reacts in specific ways to changes in temperature. By knowing the resistance of your coil at room temperature (DNA's assume this to be 20'c) then changes in the resistance of the coil can be mapped directly to specific temperatures. Once the temperature of the coil is known then the power can be minutely varied to maintain that temperature. There are various algorithms for contolling it and different sampling speeds as well as different output methods - these are what lead to the difference between the various TC mods.

I'm sure there are various other Burning questions people have about TC, if anyone else would like to ask or answer please do...
Bravo! I see too much rubbish spoken about TC, and this sets a load of it straight.
 
My coils and wicks will stay clean and I won't get any black crud on them...
Mostly this is true, Black crud usually comes from burnt sugars, keeping your temperatures down will help prevent it. Some Juices seem to crud up coils to a certain degree no matter what you do - you'll just have to accept it. The one exception to this is when you get a "stripe" of black crud one or two wraps wide on your coil. This indicates that those wraps are overheating - They're "Hot Wraps". Remember TC works by measuring the resistance of the WHOLE coil, so if you have one or two wraps that are shorting out you'll see them get much hotter than the rest but the overall resistance of the coil wil remain in range and TC will still work but those one or two wraps will get hotter and juice will burn on them leaving the tell tale black crud. The solution is to "Strum" the coil with the tip of a screwdriver breaking the short between the wraps or to build spaced coils...
 
So there are many myths about TC and TC coils, so I thought I'd set a few thrings straight...

Vaping Regular coils in TC Mode is bad...
Nope, not true - well not really... If you vape a "Regular" coil in TC mode then as you fire it the mod won't pick up any change in resistance, on a DNA mod this will result in three little dashes where the Temp should be and the mod will just fire at the selected wattage. Other mods bahave slightly differently but essentially all will do the same thing - deliver the set wattage continuosly. At most you'll get a dry hit, this is why it's important to select the lowest usable wattage for TC - just like anything else.

As expected a very competent and informative article from Steve... Thank you Sah.... BTW any good with microwaves? At 800 watt last night in TC my Biriyani was torched...
 
As expected a very competent and informative article from Steve... Thank you Sah.... BTW any good with microwaves? At 800 watt last night in TC my Biriyani was torched...
Gah, Biryani.. Try a nice Chicken Chat, followed by Lamb Methi. Oh and set the microwave for 2 minutes not 2 hours which is the kind of thing that happens after 14 pints of "Wilsons Old Sock Rotter"...:P
 
Gah, Biryani.. Try a nice Chicken Chat, followed by Lamb Methi. Oh and set the microwave for 2 minutes not 2 hours which is the kind of thing that happens after 14 pints of "Wilsons Old Sock Rotter"...:P
I always thought you were weird !!! Chatting to Chickens ?!!!:hmm:
 
I've been called some things on here but never a Sheep Shagger !!! If Ewe know what I mean !!!:2thumbsup:
 
As expected a very competent and informative article from Steve... Thank you Sah.... BTW any good with microwaves? At 800 watt last night in TC my Biriyani was torched...
You can't use Biriyani in tc. You will cause noxious gases.
 
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