What’s the Point of Mechanical Mods for Vaping?
Regulated mods are great, no question – put a coil in the tank, screw the tank onto the mod and, even if you know next to nothing about voltage and resistance, the electronics take care of it for you.
With mechanical mods, things are very different. A mechanical mod delivers the battery’s full output straight to the coil. And that gets to the heart of why some experienced vapers choose mech mods – the build determines the vaping experience. The entire performance of the tank or dripper, including the flavour, depends solely on matching the right build to the mod.
A typical 18650 battery sits at 4.2 volts when fully charged and drops down to 3 volts. The battery voltage, together with the coil resistance in ohms, determines the wattage, in other words the electrical power produced. The higher the voltage and the lower the coil resistance – the more power is delivered to the coil!
So, in simple terms: volts and ohms determine watts. As you vape, the wattage steadily decreases because the battery voltage drops.
As you continue vaping, the flavour of the vapour will inevitably change because the wattage slowly drops instead of staying constant as it does with regulated devices. There are two reasons why some vapers like this – some enjoy that changing flavour, while others see building for this kind of setup as the real challenge. The build decides everything; with these mods, wire surface area and resistance are where the skill lies. Mechanical mods are generally more robust, too. After all, there are no electronics in the mod that could fail.
But these mods require a great deal of experience with coil builds and, most importantly, mechanical mods have no protection whatsoever. With regulated mods, the battery output is controlled; with mechanical models, full power is delivered, with all the consequences that can have for you as the vaper.
In short – if you don’t have much experience with coil builds, and especially if you’re a beginner, it’s best to stay well away from mechanical mods.
