This thread is like deja vu for me. This one, however, has progressed a lot farther than the last one of vaporizer-reviews posts I came across. Thanks for letting people know about this unit, btw. Keep fighting the good fight. On the forum I linked to in my other thread, one of the users there did a survey of everyone who owned a SV. Many people responded and not a single person had the larger heating element with all the holes. Honestly, I am starting to wonder if that thing ever existed. Looking at it, it doesn't even have a ceramic texture to it. It looks more like plastic. All speculation, of course.
Another interesting tidbit I came across is that, according to the founder of high-temp industries (a large electric heater manufacturer), there are only three companies in the world that make a hollow cartridge heater like the one found in the SV. The only reason I bring it up is that it would suggest someone put some serious work into making this device. It's sad to see that they stopped short of making a good product. He also mentioned that, given the specs I told him, he thought the heating element should be around 600 watts (off the top of his head). Although not overwhelming support, it gives a little bit of credence to the fact that the heater is too small.
Oh, almost forgot. Before I even knew there was such a thing as a hollow cartridge heater (I just gave up trying to figure out what was in the SV), I started the conversation with that heater engineer by asking if I could use a cartridge heater in this type of application. He, and many other engineers I have talked to, said that cartridge heaters like that hate being out in the open. The original intent of that design is to heat the metal around bolt holes for press fits and other assembly processes. Anyway, they all specifically told me not to leave that type of heater without anything to absorb the heat because it would significantly shorten the heaters life span. Being stubborn, I asked him if this could be avoided by using an embedded temp sensor in the cartridge heater (very much like what wicked roots did by putting that thermocouple lead on top of the heating element) to make sure it didn't over heat. He conceded that it would help a little, but that the heater would still have a much shorter life and if the temp "got away from you at all", it would be all over for the heater.
Great thread. Very interesting comments on insulating the heater and glass tube. I confess that I have spent a lot of time wondering why they didn't make more of an effort at that. Anyway, this thread gives me a lot to think about for my own project.
-skippy
Edit 1: You can find another set of pictures of the internals of the SV at the following link. It is an interesting study to see what is different. The two have a few significant differences that I can see.
http://www.wrug.net/forum/showthread.php?t=152
*the thread containing the user survey is in the same forum by the same poster who started that thread. He has a lot more comments about his interactions with wicked roots as well. Let's just say they were not pleased by him posting all those pictures.
Edit 2: Ok. I just spent way too long staring at the wiring diagram on page 7 of the manual for the CAL3200 (a slightly nicer, slightly newer version of the CAL32E (E for economy) controller that the SV uses):
http://www.advindsys.com/Manuals/CALManuals/Cal3200.pdf
The only reason I started looking at this was because I just noticed that there wasn't a SSR (solid state relay) in those pictures. The only reason I noticed this is because designing one of these blasted things is all I have done for about two weeks now. Anyway, an SSR is an external device that should be somewhere in that box if they want to use a powerful heating element. It is essentially an external switching device that gets a control signal from the temp controller to turn on when the heater is too cold. When it turns on, it then sends power to the heater. Anyway, there isn't one of these:
http://www.omega.com/pptst/SSRL240_660.html
*They look the same no matter where you get em.
Since one of those isn't in there, they must be using the SSR that is built into the CAL3200 controller. Which means that, according to the manual, they have a 2 amp cap on the current they can send to that heater. Well, since they don't have an external SSR, the voltage going to the heater must be the supply voltage to the controller (120V since it is coming from an outlet). Looking at the pictures confirms that there is no trickery, and the ground goes through the switch but the hot side goes straight to the controller. Anyway, in conclusion, the most they could be putting out to that heater is (power = voltage*current) 2*120 = 240 watts. What this means is that either I am confusing something or they are lying about the wattage of that heater. I know that was probably really confusing and poorly presented, but anyone have any thoughts? Tom, you wouldn't be willing to fire that beast up and put a multimeter on those leads would you? =)
I think the ape vape with a 7 mm little sista roor would be a pretty good combination. I would like some advice from you guys is there anything you would add to this combination?
. The price I got on the digital controller was $200-250. I think the fans were $50 each and the heating element was $75.
