So, guys... Real discussion.

Some might want to trash the idea outright, and that's fine - it is, at
face value, a very silly idea. But, following the recent example of the great and venerable Dr.
Plooms, sometimes crazy ideas are worth trying.
Concept: 12v semi-portable car battery vape station.
Okay, stop laughing. I'm serious.
The rationale is as follows: Car batteries appear to me a too-oft dismissed power source for the
serious vaping enthusiast. The reasoning seems, well, reasonable, at least on its face: 12v is
simply too high for the kinds of coils people tend to run - the impedances are just too low.
Running 12v into even 0.5 ohm will result in a power output of 288w - or, as most would refer to
it, a fireball of molten VG and cotton. It just seems completely unreasonable to most - you would
either need to construct your coil out of very thin wire to achieve a high enough impedance
(which would make for a volcanically hot vape) or build a massively long coil (which won't fit
on an RDA). Neither option seems good. The alternative is to build a complex step-down circuit
to drop it to a more reasonable 3.7v, which will be expensive and have limited power handling,
which somewhat defeats the purpose of having such a large battery.
So, I propose an alternative. Re-engineer the RDA itself. An RDA is basically just a pair of
terminals on a steel deck - shouldn't be to difficult to fab out of something found at the local
surplus store. Unpainted stainless steel water bottles come to mind, although any small,
unpainted, food-grade cylindrical stainless steel container could do just fine.
The idea is that you construct a larger RDA that can accommodate a large enough coil setup to
reach, say, 1 ohm, while still using a reasonably large gauge of wire. One possible configuration
could be a dual-coil setup of 1.5mm i.d. 22 gauge kanthal coils, which would require 43 wraps
and measure .98" long each - hence the need for a big RDA deck. Such a setup would dissipate
144 watts at 12v.
"So," You're thinking, "What's so special about that? I run a super-sub ohm on my normal RDA
that dissipates almost 100 watts and it CHUX." Well, I'll tell you. The main point of these
massive coils run at 12v would be to achieve exceedingly low heat dissipation per unit of surface
area. That means, throughout the coil, it is maintaining a relatively low temperature while still
dissipating a high amount of power. This means two things:
1: The temperature of the vapor is much cooler through the duration of the hit, meaning you can
take colossal, diaphragm-expanding hits and blow gigantic clouds without undue discomfort or
coughing.
2. The potential for a dry hit or ignition of wick material during a long hit is greatly reduced.
Sounds good in theory, but let's make it live with hard numbers. According to Steam Engine, a
0.15 ohm dual-coil of 22 gauge kanthal would dissipate 91.2w @ 3.7v - not bad. However, the
dissipation per unit of surface area is atrociously high: 2015 mW/mm. That's gonna be a very
hot, harsh, dry vape. By comparison, the 1 ohm dual coil setup I described above, dissipating
144w, scores a perfectly reasonable 159 mW/mm, nearly 1/20th the dissipation per unit of
surface area as the super sub-ohm. That would mean a much cooler, smoother vape while still
dissipating 1.5x the power, in turn providing long, comfortable pulls and great big clouds minus
the burned-out throat.
Further, if you wanted to push more power and have a warmer vape, you could build it that way.
A .5 ohm 24 gauge quad coil configuration would pull 288w at 12v and still only result in 318
mW/mm unit heat dissipation - warm, yes, but still quite comfortable. And think of the volume
of vapor 288w could produce! You'd be the star of every cloud comp for sure.
The main point here is that, if you have the lungs for it, the battery will provide the headroom.
And yes, this does mean that kilowatt vaping is indeed possible.
Further advantages include:
Safety: you're never going to under-ohm a car battery and damage it. Your average car battery
can pulse ~600 amps, no problem. Car batteries have been used in a pinch for spot welding
without being damaged. They are exceedingly stable, robust, durable, and reliable.
Battery life: Yeah, voltage drop isn't going to be a problem. Your average car battery generally
has 60-100 Ah capacity, or, for fans of the metric system, 60,000 - 100,000 mAh. Or, to put it
another way, equivalent in capacity to 23 - 38 Sony VTC5's run in parallel.
Portability: Kidding. But compared to other 12v projects that require a plugged-in AC power
supply, this actually is quite portable. You could take it with you to an outdoor gathering, on a
camping trip, etc, and have nearly-endless vape without a power cord.
Jump-starting your car: Winter is coming. Having an extra car battery on hand might just get you
to work on that -30 morning.
Cost: Used, but still quite functional, car batteries are actually very easy to find. Take the
opportunity to upgrade your own car battery for this winter and use the old one for this project.
Or put a wanted ad on Craig's List. Either way, so long as it shows no signs of leakage or
corrosion and charges to ~14.4v, you're good to go.
So, that's basically it. I think this idea has real promise, and might be an excellent option for
those who miss the huge, cool clouds of a hookah, but want nothing to do with tobacco. Only
detail I need to work out is a means of charging it without using a car or an expensive plug-in
battery tender. But I'm sure I'll think of something. Not like it'll need charged very often anyway.
Other concerns would include the more mundane things, like a case for the battery, connections,
etc. I would build a plywood box for the battery with a terminal panel on top for the atomizer
cable connection, the charger connection, and an emergency kill switch. The handheld atomizer
unit would probably be some kind of metal tube with the RDA attached at one end and a cable
running through the center, probably something like 12 gauge electrical cable. Would probably
use something very rugged and secure for the connections to the battery, possibly a locking
Speakon connector. Would of course use an inline fuse on the battery connection for safety.
Could consider installing a voltmeter display on the battery box to monitor battery life. Really
not a terribly complex project for someone with a small shop. I think anyone with the DIY bug
and some time to kill should consider giving it a go. Could be fun!
(One last note: I do realize that car batteries run at ~14.4v fully charged. 12v is a nominal value.
I'm not re-doing my calculations for 14.4v because I'm tired now. Good night)