If you occasionally forget to drip or fill your e-cigarette tank, you know what it’s like to experience a dry hit. When the dry, foul tasting hot air enters your throat and lungs, the sensation is incredibly harsh. Until recently, the only thing that you could do to combat dry hits was to not neglect the importance of keeping your atomizer wet. Temperature control vaping is a technology that promises to end dry hits by detecting when your device’s atomizer coil is too hot and rapidly cutting power to protect the coil and prevent a dry hit from occurring. Temperature control vaping does have drawbacks, so it isn’t for everyone. If you frequently experience dry hits when vaping, though, the potential benefits of temperature control are enormous.
Is temperature control vaping right for you? What are the benefits and drawbacks?
Can you try temperature control vaping with the Aspire device and tank that you already own?
We’re about to answer your questions.
How Does Temperature Control Vaping Work?
A standard e-cigarette atomizer coil is made from kanthal, an alloy of iron, chromium and aluminum. One of the reasons why kanthal works so well for vaping is because its electrical resistance remains stable when its temperature changes. There are other coil materials, though – such as nickel and titanium – that do change in resistance as they become hotter.
The resistance of every metal changes in a predictable way as the metal heats up. This rate of change is called the Temperature Coefficient of Resistance, or the TCR for short. If we know the TCR of a metal – and we know its resistance at room temperature – we can predict what the temperature of the metal must be when the resistance changes. That’s how temperature control vaping works. When you configure your device, you tell it the coil material you’re using or define the TCR manually. As you vape, your device monitors the resistance of the coil to estimate the coil’s temperature. If the coil reaches the maximum temperature that you define, the device cuts power to the coil.
What Does Temperature Control Vaping Require?
You need two things for temperature control vaping.
A device that supports temperature control
A tank or atomizer with a temperature control coil
The most common materials for temperature control coils are nickel, titanium and stainless steel. Most vaping devices that support temperature control can estimate the temperature of a nickel or titanium coil accurately because the TCR of those materials is very high. The TCR of stainless steel is somewhat lower, so some devices are a bit inaccurate when estimating the temperature of stainless steel. The good news is that stainless steel coils are also safe to use in standard wattage vaping mode. Nickel and titanium coils are not safe in wattage mode; their resistance is too low. It is also unsafe to allow nickel and titanium coils to overheat.
What Is Temperature Control Vaping Like?
Temperature Control Creates a Cooler Vape
The maximum temperature that any temperature control device supports is 600° F – and if you enjoy warmer vapor, it might surprise you to learn that you’re already vaping above that temperature. If you find the vapor from your e-cigarette irritatingly hot, you’ll probably like the switch to temperature control vaping. If you wouldn’t enjoy vaping at a cooler temperature than you already are, though, switching to temperature control might be a difficult adjustment.
Temperature Control Prevents Dry Hits
The most important way in which temperature control changes the vaping experience is that it prevents dry hits. When an atomizer coil is dry, it becomes very hot in a fraction of a second. A temperature control device detects the rapid increase in temperature and immediately dials down the power to prevent damage to the coil or wick. With temperature control vaping, you won’t experience dry hits – at least not without plenty of warning. If the atomizer coil is dry or nearly dry, you’ll notice that your device’s vapor production drops significantly. When the coil is almost completely dry, your device will stop producing vapor. At that point, you’ll know that you need to drip or refill your tank. You’ll take care of the problem before a true dry hit
Temperature Control Coils Are Hard to Find
One of the problems you’ll encounter with temperature control vaping is that it isn’t as popular as standard wattage vaping. Some people dislike the cooler vapor temperature. Others find that nickel and titanium coils alter the flavor in subtle ways and that they can’t get used to the change. Many people simply like their vaping experience as it is and don’t want to try temperature control. Since temperature control adoption is far from universal, many manufacturers haven’t bothered to make nickel or titanium coils for their latest tanks. At the time of writing, there are no nickel, titanium or stainless steel coils available for the Aspire Athos or Revvo tanks.
Temperature Control Coils Are Challenging to Build
If you build your own atomizer coils, you’ll find that temperature control has a bit of a learning curve. You can’t dry fire nickel or titanium coils, for example, so you may encounter hot spots unless you build spaced coils. Some people also find it difficult to work with nickel and titanium because the two metals don’t retain a coil shape easily. If you find kanthal coils challenging to build, you probably won’t enjoy working with nickel or titanium.
What Aspire Tanks Support Temperature Control?
Virtually every current Aspire box mod supports temperature control with nickel, titanium and stainless steel coils. Most mods also allow you to define a custom TCR. Not every Aspire tank, however, has temperature control coils available. This is a list of the Aspire tanks that support temperature control at the time of writing. Note that new tanks and coils appear constantly, so you shouldn’t consider this list exhaustive.