Understand How Temperature Control Works in Latest Atomizers 

Today all self-respecting regulated devices such as Yihi Chip Mod are manufactured with the temperature control function, but the lack of information can often cause confusion and in some cases even pose a certain risk as some types of wire should only be used in this mode and if misuse can produce harmful compounds.

So let’s get the ideas together because the goal of temperature control is to allow a different experience while ensuring greater safety in steam consumption, precisely preventing materials from reaching very high temperatures and thus producing potentially health-damaging compounds.

There is no temperature control

That’s right. The industry created a system and named it wrong, but it got it and I can’t criticize it because it’s commercially more attractive, but the truth is that we have a temperature limiter defined by coil resistance i.e. we have a resistance control and not a temperature control.

One of the characteristics of every metal is its electrical resistance. Some are very resistive, some less, others are practically not resistive. This means the ease (or difficulty) of passing an electric current on this material. It can be anything from brass to gold. This is clear for titanium, nickel, steel or kanthal which are the most commonly used metals in coils.

In addition to the electrical resistance capability, the materials also have another feature that is the change of this resistance according to its temperature, the so-called TCR which means Temperature Coefficient of Resistance. Despite the complicated name, this is nothing more than the property of increasing your electrical resistance as your temperature rises, with TCR being a defining factor in the relationship between these two things.

Let’s use an example for better understanding: Let’s say any X wire has 0.10 ohms at room temperature. If I apply an electric current to this wire it will heat up and when it reaches 100o C it will get 0.15 ohms, when it reaches 200o C it goes to 0.20 ohms and so on. That’s what temperature control does, it checks the wire resistance all the time and tells you what temperature it thinks the wire is, according to the TCR of the wire you set. Since there is an unchanging relationship between temperature and resistance, it is easy for the mod to “guess” the temperature as long as it knows what type of wire it is working on and also what the initial resistance was.

In Kanthal A1, the resistance changes just by 0.04% when it goes from 20 C (room temperature) to 200 C (when the mod is triggered). It is more than 100% change in nickel when you go through the same process. This is why Kanthal is not possible to use in temperature control mode, the mod simply cannot identify such small changes in resistance as to estimate wire temperature, so it is necessary to use at least stainless steel which has a much larger variation.

Benefits

Most of the potential hazards that can be produced in an electronic cigarette come from the excess heat produced in the coil. One of the harmful compounds are formaldehydes produced through the term “dry-hit”  used when we turn on the machine with dry cotton and taste burnt cotton. This is not the case with temperature control because the appliance identifies a sudden variation in resistance, a sign that the cotton is dry and does not work.

Another major concern is acrolein, a toxin produced by the breakdown of vegetable glycerin (known as VG – Vegetable Glycerin) as it passes 280 Celsius. Remember that the boiling point of VG is 290o Celsius, which is why it is not recommended to use liquids that are 100% VG. Adding a little Propylene Glycol reduces the vaporization temperature below the point where acrolein could be produced. In studies of normal cigarette smoke, acrolein was a major contributor to non-carcinogenic health problems.

In addition, cinnamaldehyde, better known as cinnamon flavor in vaporizing liquids, is a chemical very close to acrolein, and excess heat can catalyze it for acrolein, which may be why some recent studies in tissue of rat lungs showed that cinnamon vapor had a higher toxicity than unflavored liquids.

Aside from the health benefit issues; there are several improvements to the vaporizing experience itself that temperature control can offer. Many report an increase in taste due to the constant temperature of the coil and there is a significant increase in the life of the cotton or silica used in the atomizer, without risk of burning because they are dry.

How to use in practice

Although there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of different models of devices available at Vapeciga.com that have temperature control, the system is always the same. In addition to the device with technology, you must use an atomizer that has a coil installed that is made of compatible metal. As we have seen it is possible to be pure nickel, titanium or preferably stainless steel.

We suggest that you always use a coil system as simple as possible. On the market there are all sorts of coils, some extremely complex, with mixtures of yarns, twisted braiding techniques and other features that enhance the taste and make them great for POWER mode, but technically only disrupt temperature control. If you want to understand more about coils read this article.

It all comes down to the ability of the chip to interpret the variation of resistance and thus determine by relationship what the temperature of the wire is. Adding complexity to this is making it difficult for the chip to work, resulting in incorrect readings and even malfunction. As a rule, the ideal is to use only one coil and that is made of simple wire, avoiding any type of braided coil.

However, it is also understood that a more complex coil or using more than one coil, in a dual coil system for example, increases taste perception by the larger amount of vaporized liquid, so it may be interesting to test until you find the best one combination for you. The goal is to strike a balance between simplifying chip work and thus ensuring a good reading interpretation without losing the chance to get a better taste.