Update On Sintered Coil Safety

We finally have some new information on the safety of the Vaporesso Target coil, and it's good news!  More and more companies are adopting sintered ceramic coils in their coil head lineups this year and I am happy that the independent testing was done, even though I don't necessarily agree with the way it was done.  Watch this video for more detailed information.  

The Sintered Ceramic Coil

The use of ceramic in coil heads used in vaping is not a exactly a new concept.  About a year and a half ago Aspire released a bottom vertical coil (BVC) made with bioceramic wicking material for the Atlantis tank.  This material was a ceramic paper with organic cotton wrapped around it, which some vapers were afraid could crumble and result in small particles being released into their juice, even though there was a screen that covered the top of this coil to prevent any such occurrence.  Aspire responded with a statement to ease their worries, but they ended up abandoning their efforts in favor of less dubious organic cotton coil vapers were used to.

Enter the Vaporesso cCell, a brand new coil technology made for the Vaporesso Target tank.  The cCell uses a ceramic wicking material that is fused to the wire in a process called sintering, a process which bakes ceramic powder around the wire coil at 1200 degrees Celsius, which fuses to the wire, thereby encasing the wire and eliminating the need for a cotton wick.  You can watch a short video of this process here.

Why Is This Big News? 

A sintered ceramic coil eliminates the need for cotton wicking material, providing a much cleaner, more flavorful vape.  This coil heats more evenly and virtually eliminates the crackling and spitting that happens with a well-saturated cotton coil.  These coils last longer than their cotton-based counterparts and vapor production is outstanding.  As of this writing, the cCell comes in both a kanthal head at 0.9 ohms and a temperature-control nickel head at 0.2 ohms and it is my hope that we will be seeing this sintered coil technology in a wider variety of coil resistances and wire types in the near future. 

No Dry Burning

Although dripping is known to provide an excellent flavor and vapor experiencing, I never liked the fact that I had to dry burn the coil to clean it.  I am a lazy vaper and the process of building coils, cleaning them, wicking them, and then dry burning them and re-wicking them is just not something I am interested in doing all the time.  The sintered ceramic coil eliminates the need to dry burn the coil and, in fact, Vaporesso advises against dry burning their coil in the user manual that comes with the Target.

Recent News

Recently, an e-cigarette reviewer released a video in which he stated that an unnamed e-cigarette vendor performed an independent test on some sintered coils and found concerns surrounding the safety of these coils, though nothing specific was named.  In this video at around the 1:01 mark, you can watch what Grimm has to say about these concerns.  This video was posted to YouTube on January 7, 2016, and as of this writing no further information has been released to either confirm or deny these safety claims.  Vaporesso has responded by releasing a statement of safety along with the MSDS data sheet and verification report for the Target mod and tank and the links to this information can be seen here.  I am awaiting further information from Vaporesso regarding their real-use-application testing of these coils and I will post that information as soon as I have it in my hot little hand.  I will also post the results from the independent testing should that become available. 

Personally, though, I am not overly concerned with the safety of this coil, and I will continue to use it until the reports come in. 

My Experience

I received a Vaporesso Target Kit as a contest win on the E-Cigarette forum (ECF), which is how I found out about the sintered ceramic coil.  It was love at first vape for me.  I have been hoping for something new and exciting in coil technology for a couple of years now and I was not disappointed.  This coil provides the best vaping experience I have ever had, hands down.  I was mostly running 0.5 ohm OCC heads anywhere between 19 and 25 watts, depending on the mod I was using and the 0.9 ohm sintered nickel coil blows all of them out of the water in terms of flavor and vapor production.  I no longer have to worry that my juice will get too hot and spit back onto my tongue, and I can taste nuances in my juices I never knew existed.  I can go weeks between coil changes and I never have to worry about getting a dry hit.  It just doesn’t happen, ever. 

I believe that this new coil is a game changer, and I am looking forward to seeing where sintered coil technology leads us.  I would love to have the option of a 0.5 ohm sintered coil for all of my tanks.