I just found it funny that of all of the hokey things people have been set aflame by, dry-burning wasn't one of them. The general consensus is typically that it's okay to dry burn for weeks.
That really wasn't my main point, though. I brought him up because I remembered a comment he made on his research back when he first started looking closely at the composition of the aerosol. Based on what he had thus far (granted this was a ways back,) he asserted that while the levels of general nasties from dry-burning were likely to be inconsequential, it was best to avoid dry-burning, as they weren't nonexistent.
I didn't know he went far enough to warrant a debate (I can see him losing that one, heh.) To me, there's no real argument to be had. It was more the common-sense logic behind it that stuck for me. He was pretty clear about what he was implying, and it wasn't that people absolutely shouldn't dry-burn. It really all boiled down to the simple idea that it wasn't ideal.
Ahh, found the
article.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. It makes sense that you would want to avoid stressing the coils to the point where they break down. Quickly getting them really hot and then bringing them back to room temperature several times is bound to weaken them. That there isn't likely any significant risk under typical conditions doesn't take away from the fact that you are unnecessarily introducing unfavorable elements into the equation, as well as losing performance.
I mean, there is the question of how much use/dry-burning it takes before we're looking at some real potential for harm. It's a given that this threshold exists. It's not "if" but rather "when." But I suppose that's meaningless without any facts to discuss. It's neither here nor there. We don't have any reason to think that it's bad for us, but we do know that it's bad for the coils.
To me, it's less a case of "OMG everyone must stop this... ...NOW!" and more "There has to be a better way." You could argue that it's an overly cautious way of looking at things, but if it can be avoided easily, then why not? It's not like you have to go to extreme measures, here.
What if there were better ways to clean a coil than dry-burning and they were about as easy? Wouldn't it make sense to do that instead?
If you plan to use the same set for a long time, then the highly destructive dry-burn method wouldn't be the best way to go. You can probably get better performance and a longer lifespan using less destructive and potentially more effective techniques. Might as well do what you can to make the most of em.
Personally, it's not that I think it is unsafe, but rather that simply replacing the coils yields a significantly better result for not a whole lot more time/effort.