I believe the need for high surface area to achieve true convection is a myth. The Imp and Impcognito are proof of that: they just use two tiny e-cig-style clapton coils in parallel in a small confined space with careful intake airflow control. I built dozens of equivalent 510 custom attys, all convection, it's not rocket science. And if you say oven conduction heaters are like the wheel, then convection heaters are just mere hair driers...
Log vapes of old times (as well as some present ones) used simple ceramic cartridge heaters similar to soldering irons and were already convection. You could argue that there might be some radiation heating involved, but if
@OF was still around he would surely tell its contribution is negligible at best.
Now we can debate about regulation schemes and dynamics under heavy loads, where there's a real topic. But to put it simply: the Zion then Milaana were amongst the first high surface area heater vapes on the market, but their beefy heaters had a lot of inertia and slow reaction times. This was perfect to cope with their unregulated nature, making them much more forgiving. But Ryan shrank their size in the Splinter, which was more likely to be used regulated on a proper mod and it still worked like a charm.
I would not dare using the Impcognito in power mode, as it would be a nightmare to regulate by hand and prevent scorching, but having a very small yet super reactive heating element works like wonder in temperature control mode. It adapts near instantly to your draw speed and you can watch the amps draw climb and dip in real-time, as there's close to no lag.
That being said, if the intent is to pair the vape with a large water piece and the user is more into lung-busting elephant rips, then yes having a larger mass acting as a heat reservoir is interesting (cf. the ball vapes trend), as smaller heaters can be overwhelmed in that case, despite the regulation. But I'm personally more interested in stealth and easy to carry when it comes to my portable vapes. And at home, where your glass pieces usually reside... well you can always use a plug-in "desktop" vape, instead of messing around with batteries and constant charging / swapping...
will get a discount for sure mate!
