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Oct 20 2020 0 Comments

A Guide to Single Coil vs Dual Coil Vape: Which One Should You Use?

single coil vs dual coil vape

“Single coils or dual coils?” is an age-old dilemma that tends to create division among vapers. Honestly speaking, among the two, there is neither a winner nor a loser; in many cases, it only depends on one’s preference.

But, when deciding which one you should take home, there are some factors that you must consider:

  • Power consumption
  • Heat production
  • Consumption of e-liquid
  • Production of vapor
  • Flavor delivery
  • The process of building coil, et al.

The “single coil versus dual coil” is a subject that triggers endless debates in the world of vaping. The majority of vapers are captivated by obvious device characteristics such as type of tank, number of batteries like single battery mod, the type of flavor.

In short, the discussions aren’t as thrilling as debating the latest mods, different coil build setups, or modest sophisticated features in modern vapes. Being able to differentiate between single and dual coil setup is critical because heating coils significantly dictate your experience with vapes.

Typically, a mod does one job: supply of power. It’s the heating coil that does the rest. The configuration of your coil determines the size of the cloud, flavor delivery, battery life, vape temperature, and amount of e-juice consumed, among others.

What’s a Single Coil and Dual Coil?

“Smoking” e-cigarettes are fashionably referred to as vaping. Vaping is a million-dollar term that has been declared impressionable across the globe. Besides, it involves the use of fashionable devices referred to as vapes.

Vapes are electronic gadgets in that they use electrical systems/mechanisms to operate. The basic electrical system is the coil. The coils heat the e-liquid to generate vapor. you can buy stock ones or make your own vape juice. The source of power is a battery which sends current through the coil to produce heat.

A single coil comes with one coil while a dual coil comes with two coils. We can infer that a single coil set up vaporizes the e-liquid slowly consuming less power while a dual coil vaporizes quickly, producing more vapor, and consuming a lot of power.

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Basics of Coil Configuration

basics of coil configuration

An atomizer, clearomizer, or even cartomizer contains a heating element referred to as a coil. The majority of vapes come with one (single coil vapes/RDAs/RTAs) or two (dual coil vapes/RDAs/RTAs) coils whereas others come with three or even four coils.

The principle of the functionality of the coils build is similar to that of a typical battery in a car: one terminal of the coil is fed to the positive end of the battery while the other terminal is connected to the negative end of the battery. When the vape is fired, current from the battery passes through the coil, generating heat that heats the vape juice to generate vapor. Whew, that is the physics behind the coil.

So, what do the two (dual coil vapes/RDAs/RTAs) coils give you that a single (single coil vapes/RDAs/RTAs) coil doesn’t? The answer is simple. A double/dual/two coil configuration evenly divides the heat between the coils.

In other words, the additional coils double both the heat and vapor generation in the vape. Ultimately, stronger, stronger, and even more delicious clouds of vapor are produced in a bit less time compared to single coil vapes.

Nevertheless, there are things/factors that we must consider when adopting dual coil technology. For example, dual coil vapes/RDAs/RTAs burn e-liquids very fast. They also drain the battery very fast meaning the battery life is short.

Your vaping experience is significantly affected by the number of coils carried in your vape. Newbies will often wonder about the number of coils they should set up in their vaping devices as both single and dual coil configurations are almost becoming common.

This question is further reduced “which of the two set up is better?” Well, this is a worthwhile question, but there is no exact answer to it: it will depend on one’s preferences and vaping habits.

A single coil configuration is ideal for vapers who:

  • Want to save: for instance, when consuming e-juice with a single coil RDA build, your device battery will last about 15% to 30% more as low wattage settings are recommended for this device. The same thing happens to the e-liquid. Since only one coil is used to heat the e-juice, its consumption is less in the long run.
  • Newbie vapers: single coil vapes are much easy to build and rebuild after cleaning. They have a simple design and changing the coil is pretty simple.
  • Loves to stealth vaping: this kind of configuration gives you the much-needed effect of stealth vaping. Reason: they generate a much less dense vapor.

On the other hand, dual coil configuration is ideal for:

  • Cloud chasers: with the large surface area of contact between the coil and the e-juice, these devices heat at a faster rate to generate dense vapor clouds. This is a huge priority for cloud chasing.
  • Switching from smoking to vaping: multi-coil configuration assists in getting that strong hit on your throat as it delivers heat to the e-juice at a faster rate. Often, smokers are yearning for that punch that they receive from the cigarettes and they are looking for an alternative hit from vapes.

Single Coil vs Dual Coil Builds

single coil vs dual coil

Which difference(s) do the two configurations have? Which one is superior to the other? Now, anyone who is confused about which configuration they should buy should be told, it depends on their preference, and what they want.

Although each setup comes with its advantages and disadvantages, it cascades to how people vape. A single coil configuration operates the same way a dual coil configuration does, the only difference is that the latter has two coils while the former has one coil. Comparing the two requires an analysis of various factors/phenomena as discussed below:

1. Power Consumption

A simple rule of thumb: increase the number of loads and you will increase the power consumption. Similarly, double the number of coils and the power consumption will as well double. More relevant, the bigger the size/amount/number of the build, the more the amount of power consumed.

This implies that if you’re looking for a vape that saves your battery charge, then you may be required to consider a single coil build. Switching from a single to a dual coil will reduce your battery life by half, while the opposite will double your battery life.

2. Heat/Temperature

As discussed, a single coil configuration does consume/require less power. True, consumption of less power translates to the production of less heat. With a single coil configuration, the vape and the vapor generated must be much cooler.

Also, a single coil configuration adopts a simple set up making them an ideal technology for newbie vapers. The rebuilding process requires the vaper to just produce/buy a single coil rather than two.

Now, on the other hand, more metal is used to set up the dual coil configuration, which means the surface area of the metal is increased; more power is required hence more heat is generated. It’s certainly hotter than the single coil set up implying that the vape requires a much more open airflow.

Vapers using these types of vapes are advised to keep off from metallic drip tips as they can get the heat and burn them. The rebuilding process is a bit complex and hectic one, suitable only for expert vapers.

3. Vapor Production

The bigger the surface area of the coil the more the amount of vapor produced. The surface area of contact between the e-juice and a single coil configuration is less compared to that of a dual coil configuration. Single coil vapes/RDAs/RTAs are ideal vaping devices for people going for stealth as the vapor produced by these type of set up has less density.

On the other hand, dual coil vapes/RDAs are ideal devices for cloud chasers as they generate huge, and much denser clouds of vapor. Due to their sensational production of vapor, dual coil vapes are very phenomenal in delivering strong throat hits. This is one benefit of dual coil configuration: chucking out large clouds.

In fact, they produce two-time the amount vapor a single-coil set up would produce. They are ideal for smokers wanting to transition to vaping and vapers searching for a huge nicotine punch with a low level of nicotine in vape juice.

4. Flavor Production

For sure, it’s very hard to quantify flavor, and sometimes people debate about it. But the majority of vapers would tell you that a single coil vape delivers a better flavor compared to a dual coil vape.

True, here numbers are nullified: a single coil configuration generates a better and even more palpable flavor compared to setups with several coils. The reason being that flavor is apparently easier to taste/sense/feel when using low power and single coil setups consume less wattage and generate less heat.

Although some flavors can easily come out at a high temperature, the majority perfectly taste when the e-liquids are consumed in cool vapes. When multiple coils are configured, more airflow should be created to allow easy vaporization.

The chamber of the vape should be large enough to allow easy diffusion. These two factors, a wide airflow, and a big build deck chamber adversely affect flavor delivery in vapes and this makes dual coil configuration inferior to single coil setups in matters of flavor production.

5. Battery Life

The fact that a dual coil configuration has a larger surface area and consumes more wattage that a single coil set up is a valid reason that more power is drained from the battery.

If you are planning to vape on a dual coil mod, then you must prepare to buy a box mod that has a pair of batteries or more.

If you try running on a single battery, most probably it won’t last the whole day. A single coil configuration is indeed a battery saving mode. It has a small surface area on its single coil implying less power is required to heat the e-juice to vaporize.

6. Consumption of e-Juice

The amount of e-juice consumed is proportional to the number of coils. In other words, the bigger the surface area of the coil in contact with e-juice, the more the amount of juice consumed, even if you choose any e-juice flavors

Literally, a dual coil configuration will vaporize twice as much e-liquid as a typical single coil configuration. With a dual coil vape, you are certainly sucking your e-juice two times as fast as when using a single coil RTA or RDA.

7. Ease of Coil Build

Lastly, we must compare which configuration is easy to build. It obvious a simple single coil build would be much easier to do some work on than a dual coil build. Now, when working on a dual coil build, the two coils must be gotten identical, to enable harmonious performance.

If by any chance one coil comes out differently, you will discover that after installing them, they will heat up at different rates implying that they will wick the e-liquid differently. Over time, one wicking material will get darker leaving the other one “intact” and will caramelize faster than the other.

Which One Should You Choose?

Indeed, this is a billion-dollar question. While making a choice from a wide selection of vapes, only a small number of vapers consider which the best coil build is. Most people buy for the sake of buying. The ability to know and differentiate between the various coil builds shows one prowess in vaping matters.

Luckily, if you didn’t know, by now you should have a sound idea of what exactly you are searching for when purchasing your RDA, RBA, or RTA. If you are looking for huge vapor clouds, now you know which coil configuration you need to buy. If you want to build your own coil to deliver a strong flavor, you vividly know which coil configuration you should go for.

As you can see, none is superior to the other, only depends on what you are looking for in the vape and personal preference. Arguably, both are fabulous options.

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