What wattage should I vape at?

Hello all you lovely people

I know I know, I could google it and I have googled it. I know it's a subjective thing, but I have a burning question.

I just installed a 0.45 clapton in my rda, and it's tasting pretty good at 45-50 watts. Being a new vaper, how do I know it won't get even better tasting the more I ramp it up? What puzzles me is when I used premade coils, my 0.15 pnp coil was rated best at 60-80, so does this mean I should be nowhere near those numbers on a 0.45?

Also, call me crazy but having a device that does 220 watts, I cannot ever see a possiblilty of using that wattage.

I know people will say just go up slowly till you find your sweet spot, but I was wondering if there's a mathematical formula on the relationship between ohms and watts and calulating the max wattage you should go for.

Thanks in advance

MeirTaitz said:

Hello all you lovely people

I know I know, I could google it and I have googled it. I know it's a subjective thing, but I have a burning question.

I just installed a 0.45 clapton in my rda, and it's tasting pretty good at 45-50 watts. Being a new vaper, how do I know it won't get even better tasting the more I ramp it up? What puzzles me is when I used premade coils, my 0.15 pnp coil was rated best at 60-80, so does this mean I should be nowhere near those numbers on a 0.45?

Also, call me crazy but having a device that does 220 watts, I cannot ever see a possiblilty of using that wattage.

I know people will say just go up slowly till you find your sweet spot, but I was wondering if there's a mathematical formula on the relationship between ohms and watts and calulating the max wattage you should go for.

Thanks in advance

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Stock coils tend to rate their coils higher than you should actually use them, with the exception of a very few. Some believe it's so you burn through your coils faster, therefore purchase more frequently.

Flavour isn't necessarily dependent on wattage applied. Most of the time's some flavours will be better pronounced with cooler temperatures and others higher temperatures. So there no set answer on wattage. As wattage determines your amount of heat or temperature the coil gets.

220w is over kill. I personally never vape more than 60w ever. Usually around 40-50w.

No Mathematical formula.

Starting low and going up gradually is the way.

The thing is wattage adds heat. But air flowing over the coil when you take a hit cools the coil. So that in relation to wattage is where the factor comes in. So if you have an extremely tight draw or very little air flow. Then you can use lower wattage as the coil won't have its heat removed as easily. With wide open airy RDAs, if you take big hits. Lots of airflow is gonna flow over your coil and cool it down in contradiction to the wattage heating it. Therefore you may need more wattage. So that a balance can be achieved.

Some people like warm to hot vapes and other prefer colder. So that also determines your wattage setting.

The same coil in an tight draw atomizer vs a atomizer with massive amounts of airflow will vary drastically.

You can test this by trying a wattage with your profile wide open airflow. Then cut it down so tight that barely any air is getting through at the same wattage. You gonna know real quick how much hotter it seems. In that case you would most likely drop the wattage. If you preferred the tighter draw.

It's all relative and subjective to the user itself.

Your wattage sounds about right for the coil you have now.

Here's the thing, only you will know if it tastes better at a higher wattage or not. You have the materials now. So go higher and see if it tastes better to you. Worst case you burn through your cotton, no problem, just rewick it and start again, then not go as high. Which is why people have suggested rebuildables to you. That's why all the guys on here want you to experiment. Because that's how you will learn what you like. We can't tell you what you will like. It is impossible as only you know yourself so well.

With stock coils it's an issue. Cause then its stuffed and you need a brand new stock coil, which will become costly. That's also why they give the so called recommended wattages.

Well said @Spink !

Other than being subjective, you'll also quickly learn at what power vs ohms you burn through cotton quicker and need to rewick/coil. If you have to rewick in 2 days, you will have to drop your watts and close your airflow to extend your cotton life and retain close to the initial higher watts' flavor.

But yes, building up the power and them dialing it down again to find your own personal sweetspot is the only formula to use, what works on paper will not necessarily work in practice for you.

Welcome to the second part of the Rabbit Hole called flavor chasing!

Man I love you guys, I owe you some guitar / piano lessons

I put in a coil last night and it started burning form underneath. I assumed the leads were too long. I hope I got the coil placement right (the top airflow row is completely useless with the mesh on this rda, so with both rows opened on this coil it actually tastes decent but too airy of course) I'ts quite tricky also to cut the leads super flush I noticed even with really thin wire cutters. I will get the Coilmaster kit tomorrow hopefully.

This is how I wicked it, I hope it looks somewhat decent. Thank you as always for being so patient and helpful with newbies. I hope soon I won't need to keep asking so many questions

MeirTaitz said:

Man I love you guys, I owe you some guitar / piano lessons

I put in a coil last night and it started burning form underneath. I assumed the leads were too long. I hope I got the coil placement right (the top airflow row is completely useless with the mesh on this rda, so with both rows opened on this coil it actually tastes decent but too airy of course) I'ts quite tricky also to cut the leads super flush I noticed even with really thin wire cutters. I will get the Coilmaster kit tomorrow hopefully.

This is how I wicked it, I hope it looks somewhat decent. Thank you as always for being so patient and helpful with newbies. I hope soon I won't need to keep asking so many questions

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The guys above have pretty much covered the question about wattage. All I can add (when using a regulated mod) is not to pay too much attention to the resistance only. You need to look at the total wire mass when deciding on your wattage. This is advice that was given to me by a few of the forum members here, back when I was asking exactly the same questions you are. A quick example: my wife often runs little Hellvape tri-core fused claptons that come out at 0.22 and they work best in her setup at around 36w. In contrast, Jai Haze often builds those monster claptons of his to come out at around 0.6 and he vapes them at around 60w. So if you look only at the resistance here, things would look completely backwards, but the claptons are very big coils in comparison with the Hellvape ones. In the big coils you have a lot more metal that needs heating and thus requires a lot more power.

Now, getting yo your build pictures it looks like you are getting on quite well. All I can offer is if you look at the coil in image one, it is slanted to the side. Take your coiling rod, or a screw driver and just pul it level. This will give you consistent pressure/contact on the cotton and wont cause certain spots to discolour and burn quicker than others.

CJB85 said:

The guys above have pretty much covered the question about wattage. All I can add (when using a regulated mod) is not to pay too much attention to the resistance only. You need to look at the total wire mass when deciding on your wattage. This is advice that was given to me by a few of the forum members here, back when I was asking exactly the same questions you are. A quick example: my wife often runs little Hellvape tri-core fused claptons that come out at 0.22 and they work best in her setup at around 36w. In contrast, Jai Haze often builds those monster claptons of his to come out at around 0.6 and he vapes them at around 60w. So if you look only at the resistance here, things would look completely backwards, but the claptons are very big coils in comparison with the Hellvape ones. In the big coils you have a lot more metal that needs heating and thus requires a lot more power.

Now, getting yo your build pictures it looks like you are getting on quite well. All I can offer is if you look at the coil in image one, it is slanted to the side. Take your coiling rod, or a screw driver and just pul it level. This will give you consistent pressure/contact on the cotton and wont cause certain spots to discolour and burn quicker than others.

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@CJB85 explained wire mass perfectly. The more actual wire the more wattage needed to heat it. Also it holds heat for longer. So for example if you haven't vaped it for a few hours and its completely cold. It will feel like it takes longer to get going. But if you chain vaping, since it's holding heat. Will feel just right. Think of a blistering hot pan on the stove. 1 drop of water will vapourize instantly, where as pouring in 1l of water into that same pan will take ages to start boiling. Total mass of a coil will make a huge difference in wattage.

I concur on the the slanted coil. Straighten it out.

One thing to note. Is that I don't think it's burning from underneath. What it looks like is that there is a lot of residual heat you have from your coil which transfers in the RDA base and top cap itself. And because there is no direct airflow that low on the profile RDA. It is darkening the juice in the cotton. Heat does that to e-liquid. If you leave a bottle of e-juice in you car for example on a hot summers day. it would start out clear but be a darker brown by the evening. That is of course if you are referring to the cotton tails.

One these will help in keeping coil legs the same length. Since the profile technically has a postless style type of coil mounting system. Lots of different styles available locally. Not particularly necessary, however with me using postless style rdas, I find it invaluable.

Spink said:

One these will help in keeping coil legs the same length. Since the profile technically has a postless style type of coil mounting system. Lots of different styles available locally. Not particularly necessary, however with me using postless style rdas, I find it invaluable.


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Plus one on these, they are such an awesome convenience tool. Word to the wise, get one that has half-mm increments.

@MeirTaitz I just remembered that you have a Gen mod. Have a look through your menu, there is a Smart VW mode. This function pulses the coil for a split second and then the chip sets it to a recommended wattage for that coil. This is not an exact science (I stopped using it, because it kept putting the wattage way higher than I like), so take it with a pinch of salt. Maybe you can use this to determine what the higher ranges on a coil can be and work around that to find what you like?

It's called Heat Flux

Just goes to show how much advance in the science behind vaping there has been. When you build for a mech, that is what determines the W and amps. Now we have

Variable wattage
Variable voltage
CCW
TC
Bypass

and a whole lot of other features we don't understand

MeirTaitz said:

I know people will say just go up slowly till you find your sweet spot

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You can still try the other way round: start from 220W and go down till you get to the said sweet spot

P.S it may take a little longer and a few more coils though!

CJB85 said:

@MeirTaitz I just remembered that you have a Gen mod. Have a look through your menu, there is a Smart VW mode. This function pulses the coil for a split second and then the chip sets it to a recommended wattage for that coil. This is not an exact science (I stopped using it, because it kept putting the wattage way higher than I like), so take it with a pinch of salt. Maybe you can use this to determine what the higher ranges on a coil can be and work around that to find what you like?

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I have been running it in pulse mode exclusively, and the wattage suggestion seems to be very flat most of the time (for me anyway). I feel at least 10 - 15 higher is better.

Speaking of this mod, today I got the Ni80 coilology set thinking they would work in TC (or smart TC) but sadly not
Tomorrow I shall hunt for stainless steel (or steal as Vaporesso spells it)
If you put it in TC mode (and select Ni) even at the lowest temp, it gives an immediate burnt taste. That was with the Ni80 coil.

Spink said:

One these will help in keeping coil legs the same length. Since the profile technically has a postless style type of coil mounting system. Lots of different styles available locally. Not particularly necessary, however with me using postless style rdas, I find it invaluable.


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Thanks bud, I bought a full kit today and I found it a breeze to snip the leads flush with the provided wire cutters, but I will search for these tools too