It's all the rage in the vaping world... But what are temperature control mods? Why do we want/need them?

Temperature control mods do pretty much exactly what they say. They control and limit the temperature of the coils in your atomizer so that they never go above a certain temperature. 

Sounds nifty, but why?

Recently there have been studies showing that there is
  .
As overblown by the media as it may be, it is a legitimate health concern for vapers.

But where does this formaldehyde come from? Formaldehyde along with acetaldehyde are actually natural byproducts of the decomposition of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin, more commonly referred to as PG and VG. When the PG and/or VG bases in e-Liquid are heated to a high temperature, they break down on a molecular level and release formaldehyde molecules. These molecules are harmless when they are bound to other compounds in the PG and VG, but on their own once they separate, can be a health hazard. Similar to how there are cyanide molecules in apricot seeds (bet you didn't know that one) that are harmless when you eat an apricot or even the seed. The cyanide never gets a chance to break free in your digestive tract. 

Ok cool, what does this have to do with temperature control mods?

When you are dry firing your coils you'll notice they get red hot but this does not happen when you have a wick soaked with e-Liquid. The liquid keeps the coils much cooler. But when you're vaping too much and your wick starts drying out, the temperature of your coils will increase and start to burn your wick, giving us that horrible nasty taste we're probably all familiar with. Not only is it unpleasant to taste, these higher temperatures can heat the PG and VG to higher enough point where the formaldehyde molecules can be released into our lungs. That's bad.

A temperature control mod solves this problem by never allowing the coils to heat beyond the temperature you set the mod to. Keep in mind, this still does not make vapes 100% safe, it further reduces the already much lower risk level of vaping compared to smoking. 

In order for a temperature control mod to work properly, you have to be using nickel wire. Why? Because when heated, the resistance of nickel increases at a fixed rate in proportion to it's temperature. If you're familiar with variable voltage devices, you've probably noticed that it's a bad idea to use a high resistance coil with high voltage because it burns the hell out of your wick. that's because the voltage stays the same. With a temperature controlled device, the voltage decreases proportionally as the resistance of the nickel coil increases, thus keeping your temperature set at or below where you set it. 

Now what we do know is that cotton burns around 400° but this does not mean it can't start to singe at lower temperatures. So if you want to prevent your cotton from burning, that's where you want to set your temperature control. What we don't know however, is at what temperatures formaldehyde is released when vaping. Fortunately, further research is being done to find out this exact issue which will eventually lead to vaping being even safer. More product development is also being down on temperature control devices to accommodate other types of wire such as titanium. 

Sound good? Temperature control devices are a big game changer in the vaping world and we're looking forward to seeing further developments.

Does anyone have any of these devices? How do they work for you? Sound off in the comments below!