why sub ohm?

[brassyhorn]

there are plenty 'intro to sub ohm' vids on Youtube that all talk about the safety and methods of sub ohm builds, yet none that i could find that discuss the pros and cons of sub ohm vaping to non sub ohm vaping. My brother prefers his 1.8 ohm coil and says he vapes at no more than 10 watts and feels its just as good as the dripper he retired. I'm still very much a noob but when i raved about my new Atlantis to him he just shrugged and said he doesn't get the point and bother of sub ohm vaping. Please, can someone enlighten me?

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[vaperature]

I think what you're asking is why someone who likes diving off a board into a swimming pool should jump out of an airplane with a parachute or off a bridge with a bungee cord.

 

[4biddenArtist]

1.21 giggawatts!!!

 

[Slicknic]

Before the variable wattage mods got up where they are today, sub ohming rda's on mechanicals was a way to get
an intense vapor experience unavailable elsewhere.

IMO, sub ohm or not is more about lung hit or mouth hit. Smooth max vg or thoat hit pg.

There is no wrong way to vape. Try out different styles and vape the way you want to. If you're
not smoking nasty cigarettes, you are doing it correctly.

 

[OB61887]

I prefer sub ohm because I like the warmer vape and less wraps on my coils. Honestly, that is the only benefit I can see in it.

 

[nightshard]

With a mech, the only way to get high wattage is to sub ohm.
With a high wattage regulated device there is no benefit in sub ohm.

 

[anendeloflorien]

If you're
not smoking nasty cigarettes, you are doing it correctly.

^^^ This!

Throwing my own 2 cents in here - I am a pretty new vaper as well but I go back and forth between sub-ohm and non-subohm. Quite literally, I have different toppers that I will change out pretty much every few hours, I've got some serious vaping ADHD lol. Find what works for you. Best advice I ever got when I first started vaping was to get a decent regulated device, something that can handle sub-ohm coils but which can also do lower wattages. If you've already got the Atlantis you probably want at least 50W output. Play around! Get a cheap dripper like an IGO-L, an ohm meter and a variety pack of kanthal from ebay and try some different coils out!

 

[zaroba]

Asking 'why do people sub-home' is like asking 'why do people drive (insert color) car'. As long as you like what you are doing and know how to do it without blowing your battery, then there is no real reason to do it or not to do it. Really the only thing I can say is to try it and see if you like it.

I sub-ohm. But it really isn't because I chose to, it's more that my coils end up being 0.15 to 0.7 ohms when I build them. It's a matter of making coils that fit in to your RDA and using a wire that you have and like working with.

 

[brassyhorn]

ok, thanks for all the responses. I get that your style of vapimg is as unique and subjective as you car color, food preferences (insert any analogy here), etc. What I was hoping for was both objective and subjective responses.. For instance, can you get vapor density and flavor comparable to sub ohm on higher resistances, and lower watts, and how is battery drain and coil life affected? I could go out and buy different equipment and experiment with various builds but i was hoping to get a bit more objective information before draining my bank account.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[OB61887]

I do find the flavor differs depending on temperature. I love savory baked flavors at higher temps. With that said, I tried 20 gauge once and it got so hot all the flavor was muted. It was bad.

 

[zaroba]

High resistance and with less watts might work just as well as high watts and low resistance. It is something I have often wondered. But, it isn't an equal scale terms of power vs resistance.

Thinking from previous experiences
1.5 ohm Nautilus @ 10 watts didn't produce nearly as much vapor, flavor, or as warm a vape as 0.15 ohm dual coils (22 gauge) did @ 75 watts

0.15 ohms @ 60 watts / 20 amps is not the same as 1.5 ohms @ 6 watts and 2 amps. 10 times the resistance doesn't mean 1/10th the power.
At 10 times the resistance, you need more then 1/10th the power to achieve the same vape. But the thinner wire might not handle the higher heat.

Easiest way to produce more clouds or flavor is to increase the vapor production. The nautilus has 1.5 ohm resistance with a single coil. Build an RDA with *two* 1.5 ohm coils and you now have more vapor and thus more flavor and more clouds. You have also entered into sub-ohming with an RDA that has a 0.75 ohm resistance. You also need double the power for it due to having two coils, hence higher wattage mods.

One thing that should be noted is that the difference between sub ohming and not sub ohming is as simple as adding an additional coil to double vapor production and there are a lot of RDAs that are built for more then 1 coil, even some designed for 4 or more

 

[OB61887]

Yes and no. The lack of vapor on the Nautilus is due to the build and airflow, not the resistance. With higher resistance coils on higher gauge wire, you can produce more vapor than sub ohm tanks. Some of the best vapor I had was a dual coil 1.2 resistance on 28 gauge on a CLT V2. With that said, it is simpler to get big clouds when sub ohming. 4 wraps of 24 gauge as a dual coil on a 3mm diameter and you get clouds.

 

[Slicknic]

For me, becoming a sub-ohm vaper went hand in hand with becoming a mech and rda user.
The focus wasn't so much sub-ohming as it was rebuilding and getting a better more consistent
vaping experience. I was using an MVP2 and liked it a lot. It was the protank2 that was a problem
for me. Coil heads had unpredictable lifespans and replacements often leaked or taste bad out of
the box.

I got a chi you, an ohm meter, wire, batteries and charger, an IgoW and AGA t2 Genesis. I continued
to use the MVP and protanks while I was figuring out the rebuildables. I never did get good at building
on the AGA, but that IgoW changed my vaping life. I felt like I had actually found vaping contentment.
I realized I could sit with a mech and a dripper and watch everything else evolve without my buying into
all the new iterations. For the last year, thats pretty much exactly what I did. I buy a new mech now and
then or a new rda, but I don't buy regulated devices, tanks, rtas etc....for now. I'm still watching them
evolve.

Everyone has their own vaping journey I suppose, this one is mine, and I hope all of you are enjoying yours.

 

[dogepackvaping]

I got into sub-ohming because I like the tinkering that comes with it. I've always loved tinkering with things, so being able to rebuild my coils at will and fine tune my vaping experience was a really big draw for me.

 

[BigNasty]

I had an idea about a coil that failed hard..
So I tweaked that idea and worked ok.. it fucked with me all night until I rewound some wires.. 26 core with .08 ribbon wrapped.
Now running a center post .35 build that rivals my dual parallels at a much lower ohm.
So ya enjoy the tinkering... some days spot on fantastic other days could not get a decent vape if I was sucking on a professional fog machine.

 

[madmonkey]

I think sub ohm'ing started as a way to push the limits and get more out of a atty than you could back then. You have to keep in mind that "low resistance" was considered to be 1.5 ohms not that long ago and the trends change faster in the vapeworld than I can change my underwear in a week. there's always someone who wants more than what there is and sub ohm'ing was one of those things. When the rebuilding craze really started to take off back in 2013 the community as a whole were using much thinner wire. Back then 28 gauge was really pushing the envelope and 20 gauge was just plain insane. Dripper's had much smaller post holes and airflow and people would drill them out to get more vapor production and in turn jam as thick of wire as they could into them and some even drilled out their post holes as well...this led to different and better RDA designs and started a frenzy of who could put the best atty out that week. If you didn't want or have the money for a DNA device the only way you were going to get more than 15 watts was to buy a mech and build your own coils...but even so, back then building down to .5 was nutso as we were just starting to find and get ahold of better IMR batteries. I still have one old mech that only runs on protected ICR batteries because anything else in it is too short to make contact. I have rebuildables like my Divers as well that are made for small, thin wire and can't handle thick wire sub ohm builds by design.

It comes down to preference and what you like at the end of the day...like I always say. I run a 1.3-1.4 ohm coil made out of 28 gauge wire on a 2.4 ID drill bit for my Kayfun at 12 watts for my ADV and when I get home I have a desk full of different drippers and mechs ranging from .24-.9 that some are build for straight up cloud chasing and some are built purely for flavor depending on my mood. A year ago though if you'd asked me what my build was I wouldn't have said below .75 because that would have been way too hot for my taste. But like a lobster slowly boils I slowly got used to it and built lower as time went on. Although I think 70-80 watts is my limit as I prefer a cooler vape and without the proper airflow .2 is more than enough to cook you lungs if you're not used to it. And we haven't always had the high wattage box mods that we have now that allow us to get high wattage output off a higher resistance coil. I wish we had them a year before we did...the building trend as a whole would be completely different.

Bottom line is that it comes down to whatever keeps you happy. You don't need to blow the biggest clouds to stay off ciggies. I have one coworker who started vaping right after I did and he still uses the same eGo twist style batteries and a Protank 2 just fine. He takes a drag off my Kayfun every now and then but doesn't have the patience to get into it as deep as I have. But if you are going to subohm you've got to do it with the right batteries and if you're not using one of the many big regualted box mods we have now be sure to know you're ohms law and your batteries limits to stay safe.

 

[VaporRush]

nicely said, madmonkey

 

[brassyhorn]

thanks madmonkey for the reply. Exactly what I was looking for.

 

[VapeS1000r]

With a mech, the only way to get high wattage is to sub ohm.
With a high wattage regulated device there is no benefit in sub ohm.

Could one benefit be heat, or lack of?
If I'm not mistaken, there was more heat when my resistance (dual coil on rx200s) was 0.5 compared to what it is now 0.18.

I don't feel the coils are blazing at 0.18 like they were at 0.5.

 

[VapeS1000r]

I think sub ohm'ing started as a way to push the limits and get more out of a atty than you could back then. You have to keep in mind that "low resistance" was considered to be 1.5 ohms not that long ago and the trends change faster in the vapeworld than I can change my underwear in a week. there's always someone who wants more than what there is and sub ohm'ing was one of those things. When the rebuilding craze really started to take off back in 2013 the community as a whole were using much thinner wire. Back then 28 gauge was really pushing the envelope and 20 gauge was just plain insane. Dripper's had much smaller post holes and airflow and people would drill them out to get more vapor production and in turn jam as thick of wire as they could into them and some even drilled out their post holes as well...this led to different and better RDA designs and started a frenzy of who could put the best atty out that week. If you didn't want or have the money for a DNA device the only way you were going to get more than 15 watts was to buy a mech and build your own coils...but even so, back then building down to .5 was nutso as we were just starting to find and get ahold of better IMR batteries. I still have one old mech that only runs on protected ICR batteries because anything else in it is too short to make contact. I have rebuildables like my Divers as well that are made for small, thin wire and can't handle thick wire sub ohm builds by design.

It comes down to preference and what you like at the end of the day...like I always say. I run a 1.3-1.4 ohm coil made out of 28 gauge wire on a 2.4 ID drill bit for my Kayfun at 12 watts for my ADV and when I get home I have a desk full of different drippers and mechs ranging from .24-.9 that some are build for straight up cloud chasing and some are built purely for flavor depending on my mood. A year ago though if you'd asked me what my build was I wouldn't have said below .75 because that would have been way too hot for my taste. But like a lobster slowly boils I slowly got used to it and built lower as time went on. Although I think 70-80 watts is my limit as I prefer a cooler vape and without the proper airflow .2 is more than enough to cook you lungs if you're not used to it. And we haven't always had the high wattage box mods that we have now that allow us to get high wattage output off a higher resistance coil. I wish we had them a year before we did...the building trend as a whole would be completely different.

Bottom line is that it comes down to whatever keeps you happy. You don't need to blow the biggest clouds to stay off ciggies. I have one coworker who started vaping right after I did and he still uses the same eGo twist style batteries and a Protank 2 just fine. He takes a drag off my Kayfun every now and then but doesn't have the patience to get into it as deep as I have. But if you are going to subohm you've got to do it with the right batteries and if you're not using one of the many big regualted box mods we have now be sure to know you're ohms law and your batteries limits to stay safe.

Your explanation of chronological events ready explains things. Especially because sometimes I'll be reading threads from before 2014 and it seems like they (ppl) were in another world. It's almost like I'm reading about another topic. I'm referring to opinions on low ohms and high wattage.

Your post explains their scenario.