What Are The Best Vape Mods? Mechanical vs Box

What Are The Best Vape Mods?

Mechanical vs Box

Vapes have come a long way since their inception, and now both beginners and experienced vapers alike can enjoy a wide variety of funky and unique vape mods. Whether you’re a true cloud-chasing vape enthusiast or a beginner who is moving to vapes from smoking, there really is something to fit any vaping profile.

 

Over time, vapes have been categorized into different mods. Two of the broadest categories of vape mods are mechanical and box mods. But which one is the best vape mod? It’s a difficult question to answer as it obviously depends on your unique preferences, so let's look into the positives and negatives of each.

 

Box mods are what most of us are used to seeing amongst vapers. Firstly, they’re obviously housed in a box and secondly, they have LED displays which display voltage information.

 

Mechanical mods, on the other hand, have been around since the start but have been somewhat displaced by more sophisticated box mods. What box mods lose in electronic sophistication, they gain in durability, modability and power.

Mechanical Mods

Mechanical mods lack any form of electronic circuitry. They aren’t regulated by electronic sensors and controllers. When people refer to a mechanical mod as ‘unregulated’ they mean that there is no ECU - it’s nothing to do with manufacturing regulations.

 

Mechanical mods use their battery to directly heat the coil to then vape the liquid. You can’t increase or decrease the voltage with any internal settings - you’d have to replace the batteries and coil.

 

Mech mods are simple vapes for those who know what they’re doing - simply hook up the battery and hit the fire button for hits. Mech mods offer flexibility as you can easily strip the vape down and build it with different components. Mech mods use simple parts making them easy to maintain if you know your way round a vape.

 

You can couple any resistance atomizer with any strength battery so if you’re careful, you can really optimize your vape for maximum power. The flipside of this is that if you’re not careful, mechanical mods can become very dangerous. You can’t just throw in the lowest resistance coil with the most powerful battery and hope for massive clouds - you’ll get an explosion instead.

 

Mechanical mods have received bad press when placed in the hands of those who don’t know what they’re doing with them. Stories of vapes blowing up in people’s face have often precipitated from one of two types of vape: very low quality vapes or mechanical mods.

 

When a mech mod hard shorts out, which usually occurs when the battery is discharging past its discharge rate through a very low resistance coil, the tubular design becomes the perfect housing for a rocket which could either go off in your pocket or your face depending on how unlucky you are.

 

The Anatomy of a Mech Mod

 

1. Housing: Mech mods are usually tubular but you can get box shaped mech mods too. Mech mods usually feature more custom aesthetic designs to range from coffins to wooden boxes.
2. Battery: Some mech mods contain spaces for tons of batteries but mostly, they only have space for one of two.
3. Atomizer: Mech mods will always have atomizers of the rebuildable type. They can be powered by any battery and since there is no intermediary circuit, there’s nothing coming between your battery and your coil.

 

Our Top Three Mechanical/Unregulated Mods:

1. Timesvape Dreamer mechanical mod  - Premium tubular mech mod
2.  VGOD Pro Mech 2 - A world leading mech mod
3.  Asmodus Luna  - Stunning squonk mech mod

 

Box Mods

Box mods have in-built electronic circuits. These offer protection and variability to the user. Box mods came after mech mods and they’re far more sophisticated. Back in the early days of vaping, box mods were limited in their power vs mech mods but now they’re often capable of far greater power than your average safe mech mod.

 

In fact, it’s difficult to insinuate that mech mods are more powerful at all - they’re just simpler and more durable. Box mods come in so many different forms and mostly have single batteries, double batteries or triple batteries. You can get bigger boxes, but these are expensive and are often reserved for enthusiast vapers.

 

Box mods come in two different forms. One is an adjustable power device which allows you to increase or decrease your wattage. The other is a fixed voltage type which is non-variable. Both are regulated for overheating and short protection by their internal chipsets.

 

Some box mods feature advanced features which can optimize their use in certain weather conditions. They come in a wide variety of aesthetic designs and you can obviously switch up your tanks pretty easily. Box mods never used to be the best vape mods for customisation, but this has changed over the years - they’re now pretty flexible, especially when in the hands of an experienced vaper.

 

Box mods were pretty hit and miss a few years ago and their electronics would often fail without warning. Box mods certainly haven’t always been safe but now, the risks of a box mod failing with any harmful results is incredibly low.

 

The Anatomy of a Box Mod

1. Housing: Box mods are nearly always boxes.
2. Battery: Most box mods now have two batteries but compact models have just one and high powered models have three or more.
3. Atomizer: Box mods can’t accept every atomizer - you’ll have to check your product manual.
4. LED Display: Box mods have an LED display with a heat meter, wattage information and a battery indicator.
5. Electronic Circuit: Box mods are protected against short circuits, overheating and other mechanical or electrical issues.

 

     Top Three Box Mods:

1. Double Barrel v2.1 by Squid industries  - Ultra durable high-wattage box mod
   
2. Draco 200w By Modefined - Extremely powerful box mod with detailed LED display
3. Asmodus Lustro - Awesomely powerful touchscreen box mod

 

Benefits of Mechanical/Unregulated Mods

1. There is nothing between the battery and coil which will restrict the resistance. This means that anyone with decent knowledge of battery safety and Ohm’s Law can tailor their battery and coil to suit.     
2. Mech mods feature no electronics and that makes them really durable. Sure, the electronics of a box mod provide protective benefits but they can fail and this often means a full replacement.
3. Mech mods are made from cheap parts and are easy to rebuild. They’re the best vape mods for customizability.
4. The power of a mech mod is virtually unlimited depending on the atomizer and quantity and power of batteries.

 

Benefits of Box Mods

1. Box mods feature electronic circuits which monitor the heat of a device alongside other metrics which can protect the user should anything untoward happen. They’re the best vape mods for protecting the user and their sophisticated electronics offer flexibility in vaping power.
2. There is no need to calculate battery power vs resistance with a box mod - the electronics do that for you.
3. Box mods work well out of the box and therefore, they’re the best vape mods for beginners. They’re also capable of huge power though so they’re certainly no slack for any level of vaper.
4. There are tons of options available - box mods are the most popular form of vape by a long way.

 

Drawbacks of Mechanical/Unregulated Mods

1. Mech mods aren’t guaranteed to be safe at all. It’s easily possible to match dangerous coils and batteries together.
2. Mech mods provide no warning if they’re failing. The atomizer will always accept power even if the battery is in its red zone
3. As the battery power decreases, the mech mod has no way of regulating the power and thus, the vape will get weaker.
4. Overall, mech mods aren’t for beginner vapers.

 

Drawbacks of Box Mods

1. The safety measures that come with a box mod aren’t guaranteed and can fail.
2. Box mods have restrictions on what parts (e.g. coils) are compatible.
3. Some feature many confusing settings that bloat the device.
4. Box mods aren’t easily repaired.

 

Which is the Best Vape Mod?

If you’re a beginner then there’s no doubt that the best vape mod is a box mod is the better choice for a wide variety of reasons. They’re safer, easier to use and can provide everything you need in a vape with minimal fuss or hassle. They offer a decent degree of flexibility, too. The only real downside of a box mod is that the electronics can fail and this often means replacing the whole device.

 

Mech mods don’t possess this same downside - they’ll remain faithful to vapers who are a dabhand with maintaining their vape, building coils, etc. One of the key reasons why people like to rock mech mods is because of their power. The thing is, new box mods are easily as powerful as mech mods and are far, far safer at the highest power ranges than mech mods. There is no real difference in the power between the two device types.

 

What mech mods do have on their side is durability. They are cheaper to maintain and won’t just randomly break out of the blue like is often the case with box mods. If you’re confident that you know what you’re doing or you don’t really intend to push your mech mod then it offers a cheap, durable and long lasting method of vaping.

 

Overall, though box mods have skyrocketed the top of the vape chain for a whole host of reasons and they must therefore rate as the best vape mods on the market today.