Where should I set my VV/VW mod?

[Michael]

I figured this placeholder post had been here long enough, so now I'm finally coming back to the topic. 

Picking the power settings for your mod relies on so many variables that it's impossible to tell you exactly what will work best for you. Some of it's just personal preference, and there are also many other factors including the resistance of your coils, the PG/VG ratio of your juice, and even the temperature/humidity of the area where you live. No joke, even the weather can affect what power setting will be the best for you. But I can at least give you an idea of where to start. 

Here's a handy tip: in general, it's usually best to have your mod set somewhere in the range of 3.7V to 4.2V. There are outliers of course, especially when you're building your own coils, and there are even some series mech mods that use 8.4V or more. But in general, for most coils you build yourself and nearly all pre-made coil heads the voltage should be around 3.7V to 4.2V, and most coils will have a sweet spot near 3.8V. 

Here's some examples:

Let's say you're using a Nautilus MTL tank with a 1.5Ω coil. Using Ohm's Law:
Watts=Volts²/Ohms
W=3.7V²/1.5Ω
W=13.69V/1.5Ω
W=9.2 (approx)

So with a 1.5 Ω coil, start around 9.2W and work your way up from there until you find your sweet spot.

The upper limit for most coils is around 4.2V, so for a 1.5Ω coil, 4.2V=11.8W so the sweet spot should be between 9.2W and 11.8W.

I'll spare you from all the math to figure out the other examples, but here are a few more:

1.0 Ω coil: 3.7V=13.7W, 4.2V=17.6W
0.5 Ω coil: 3.7V=27.4W, 4.2V=35.3W
0.2 Ω coil: 3.7V=68.5W, 4.2V=88.2W

Hopefully this will get you started with finding the right power settings for you. Of course there are coils that might work better at higher or lower wattage than these recommended ranges, but this should at least get you close.

[Don]

There can only be one answer to this.

It depends on too many factors to give an answer.

It depends on the coil

the wicks

the resistance

the atomiser

the juice

the time of day...

[Michael]

Yeah as far as specific answers go, yes that's true. But for a complete noob to VV/VW mods, it's helpful to have a guide to help you find the right spot. I've seen charts that show suggested wattages and voltages to set your mod at with a particular resistance of atty, and those helped me out a lot. To someone who has no idea what settings to use, it's completely unhelpful to say "there are too many variables" because they would have no idea where to start. So I'm going to give a general guide for how to find a good range to be in, and let people figure it out from there. And if someone is asking this question, then things like the time of day and the juice being used aren't going to make enough difference to matter. It might be noticeable to more experienced vapers, but for someone who has no idea what they're doing, just finding a general area to be in for a particular resistance would most likely be good enough for starters.

[Michael]

Finally coming back to this post after forgetting about it for over a month. Here's the chart I mentioned: 



This chart outlines the good, the bad and the ugly of variable voltage and resistance. To use this chart, find your coil's resistance on the left-hand column, then go along the voltage columns until you find the point where it intersects with a green square. This is the optimal voltage for your coil. Anywhere in the green will be strong enough to produce vapor without burning up your coils, so just play around in the green area until you find a setting that feels right to you. For example, when I was using a Kanger T3S I used 1.8ohm coils. For those coils, I needed to set the voltage to about 3.75 V to produce as much vapor as possible without burning the coils. Of course you can play around with it, and I usually used more like 4.1V with mine, which caused the coils to wear out more quickly, but this is a good starting point from which you can experiment to find your perfect vape. As mentioned before, there are a lot of factors that go into the settings on your device, so don't be afraid to try new things and mess up every now and then. There is no perfect formula for a perfect vape that will work for everyone, since I might like different things than you. Just be safe and have fun

[jerryz]

Michael, as you may be aware, I have the Istick 30 watt. I have it set at about 24 watts and get good vapor and flavor. BUT! that is strictly by chance. It is not based on any data. I have seen some VW devices that are 50-80-100-150 watts. What is the advantage of these higher watts? 

[Almost Jaded]

They will fire bigger and badder coils and make more vapor, period.  20-30 watts can make more than most people will ever need.  Some of us aren't "most people", lol.

[jerryz]

It's kinda like the president of my RC flying club. When i buy a plane, I use factory suggested battery, electronic speed controller and motor. Not him..He bumps the motor up, bigger batteries, more pitch in the prop. I guess an humans we want bigger, faster, more expensive, louder. So far my little 30 watt Istick goes with me where ever i go. Love it.

[Robjenko]

Vaper Data ?????!!!!!

[jerryz]

Well poor choice of words. I meant..I had no idea where to set the thing. Just picked a setting at random, and Micheal had a fancy chart with "data" about where to set it.

[Cman]

(02-05-2015 11:48 PM)Almost Jaded Wrote:  They will fire bigger and badder coils and make more vapor, period.  20-30 watts can make more than most people will ever need.  Some of us aren't "most people", lol.

I very very rarely even reach 20 watts , i tried all the higher power stuff with just about every type of build you can do but i keep coming back to the same things .

I get outstanding flavor with my current setups  , it produces plenty of clouds , more than i want actually .  If i could eliminate all signs of a cloud i would do it instantly ,  a huge reason why e cigs are attacked so much and people think negatively upon them is because they seem to emit smoke .

The impact of seeing what appears to be smoke to the anti's hurts e cigs a lot. 

We all know it's not smoke but that doesn't matter, the problem is it looks like it's smoke to many others.  if there was no vapor to see and all you got was great flavor i would be thrilled , they would be accepted in so many more places .