This just in: The mesh coil is the hottest thing in sub-ohm vaping since the invention of sub-ohm vaping. Tanks like the Freemax M Pro 3 and the SMOK T-Air are burning up the sales charts, and if you haven’t picked up a tank with a mesh coil yet, well – that’s only because you don’t know what you’re missing, because once you try a mesh coil, you will never want to use anything else.
Reading this article, you’re going to learn what mesh coils are and why pretty much every person in the world who uses a sub-ohm tank needs to start using a mesh coil right now. So, what are the benefits of mesh coils? Before we dig in, let’s learn more about what mesh coils actually are.
What Are Mesh Coils?
To understand what mesh coils are, you must first have an understanding of traditional vape coils. A traditional vape coil is a length of wire twisted into a spiral shape – hence the term “coil.” A mesh coil, on the other hand, is a strip of metal mesh that looks a bit like a tiny cheese grater or a window screen. The strip is usually bent into a cylindrical shape and mounted vertically in the coil head.
What’s Wrong With Traditional Vaping Coils?
Mesh coils are important because they represent a major step forward in the world of sub-ohm vaping. The problem with traditional vaping coils is that you can’t get a significant amount of vapor out of just one wire. Vaping product manufacturers have solved that problem by creating coils with multiple heating wires. Some coils use two or more wires twisted into a single spiral, and some use multiple wires twisted into multiple spirals. Some tanks use as many as 12 total wires.
When you use a cloud chasing coil with up to 12 heating wires, you can enjoy some incredible vapor production – but you’re also likely to experience some problems.
A traditional cloud chasing coil has:
- A high wattage requirement
- A long heat-up time
- A long cool-down time
- A tendency to pop and spit during use
- Poor longevity
Mesh coils solve all of those problems, delivering the absolute best vaping experience that’s currently available – and those benefits all come down to the shape of the coil.
Let’s learn more about the benefits of mesh coils.
Greater Surface Area and Less Mass
The reason why vaping manufacturers have been cramming more and more heating wires into their coils is because the total surface area of a vape coil is what determines its vapor production. The more heating wires a coil has, though, the greater its mass becomes. Getting all of that metal hot enough to vaporize e-liquid requires significant power; some traditional cloud chasing coils need upwards of 200 watts to operate at maximum efficiency.
A mesh coil, on the other hand, can have the same surface area as a traditional coil while using far less metal. How, specifically, does that benefit your vaping experience?
Benefits of Mesh Coils:
- Much lower wattage requirement. Even a single-battery mod can now produce outrageous clouds.
- Instant heat-up time. Mesh coils don’t have the lengthy ramp-up times that you experience with traditional cloud chasing coils.
- Quick cool-down time. A traditional cloud chasing coil remains hot for a while after use. That leads to hot mods and burned wicks. Mesh coils down immediately after use.
- Great flavor. Mesh coils are simply the ideal way to experience the flavor profile of any e-liquid. A mesh coil gives you the same amount of vapor as a traditional coil, but the vapor tends to be cooler and smoother.
- Incredible vapor production. Mesh coils are capable of producing the absolute biggest clouds that a vaping device can currently generate.
- Even heating. While a traditional coil heats from the middle out, the entire surface of a mesh coil heats up all at once. The lack of hot spots leads to better flavor and improved coil life.
Just like with traditional wound coils, it’s possible to create mesh coil heads with multiple mesh coils. The Freemax M Pro 3 has a coil head available with five individual mesh coils. You’d better believe that thing produces some insane clouds – and it requires a mod with a minimum power delivery of just 80 watts. So, mesh coils serve casual sub-ohm vapers and extreme cloud chasers equally well.
Flatter Surface for Better Wick Contact
A heating wire is round. When you twist a round wire into a spiral shape, you get a coil with many small curves on the outside. E-liquid can pool inside the curves of a traditional coil. That’s what leads to popping and spitting. It also leads to vapor with a “wet” quality that makes you sometimes feel like you’re drinking your e-liquid – it’s because traditional coils create vapor with an uneven droplet size.
A mesh coil, on the other hand, has a surface that’s almost perfectly flat. The flat surface means that a mesh coil has excellent wick-to wire contact and no areas where e-liquid can pool.
The flat surface of a mesh coil means that you’ll enjoy:
- Consistent droplet size in the vapor. One of the reasons why mesh coils are so great for flavor chasing is because the vapor has a “dry” character. With a mesh coil, you won’t feel like you’re drinking your e-liquid.
- Much quieter operation. A mesh coil makes a quiet “whoosh” sound during vaping; mesh coils don’t pop, gurgle or spit.
- Better longevity. Mesh coils don’t tend to burn their wicks as traditional coils sometimes can. That means you’ll need to change your coils less often, and you’ll also spend less money on replacement coils. With an unsweetened e-liquid, a mesh coil can potentially last multiple weeks.
- Better wicking performance. Between the excellent wick-to-wire contact and the very large wick openings that most mesh coils feature, you won’t need to wait for the wick to re-saturate between puffs. It’s almost instantaneous.
Do Mesh Coils Have Any Drawbacks?
Mesh coils have virtually no drawbacks. We can only come up with two, and even these two drawbacks are really reaching. The fact is that if you use a sub-ohm tank, you want to use a mesh coil. However, you may want to keep these two things in mind.
- If you switch from a high-end multi-wire cloud chasing coil to a mesh coil with just one mesh strip, you’ll experience a decrease in vapor production. If you want to chase clouds, you need a mesh coil with multiple mesh strips. Most mesh coil tanks offer multi-coil atomizers.
- Most mesh coil tanks aren’t designed for mouth-to-lung inhaling, although there are a few mesh coil pod systems designed for that purpose. The SMOK Nord 5 is a pod system with a mesh coil. You can use it for mouth-to-lung inhaling, although it’ll give you a slightly airy draw.
How to Prime a Mesh Coil
Mesh coils are often quite large, and they are stuffed with an enormous amount of wicking material to help ensure that they won’t dry out. Priming a mesh coil, in other words, is something that you really don’t want to rush. After screwing the coil into the base of your tank, take a bottle of e-liquid and wet all of the wick openings on the side of the coil. Next, wet any exposed wicks that you can see through the top of the coil. When you see no more dry cotton, you can reassemble the fill the tank. Wait several minutes before vaping.
What’s the Best Wattage for a Mesh Coil?
Most mesh coils have recommended power ranges of around 80-120 watts. When you test a mesh coil for the first time, though, you’ll want to set your device below the low end of the coil’s recommended wattage range and dial it up slowly. Try a starting power of around 60 watts while you’re still breaking in the coil. Once you’re sure that you’re getting good vapor production and no burned flavors, you can start to ramp the wattage up.
What Other Types of Vapes Have Mesh Coils?
You don't have to own a vape mod to enjoy the great experience of using a mesh coil because the main benefits of mesh coils -- instant vapor production, bigger clouds and lower power draw -- apply to smaller devices just as well as they apply to larger ones. Some of the most popular mesh coil vapes, in fact, are disposable vapes and pod systems. No matter what type of vape you're considering buying, you will definitely enjoy the best flavor and cloud production if you choose one with a mesh coil.