Atomizer- Dead?

[PsychoMaster]

Ok. So. This may sound retarded, but i am a new vaper (only been a month or so) and believe i have just experienced my first "dead" atomizer. Not only that, but it was a twofer! My one atty started acting up the other day by producing little or no vapor, so i wiped down the threads, put a paper towel into it, and let it dry out overnight. This didn't work. Then today, my other atty went out (Don't have a spare)! And it's a Saturday, so if i order it will not ship until Monday (which sucks. . . badly). So, i am gonna boil one of the atties, and if that don't work i will try to hold out until the new ones arrive. But i have a question. Will boiling actually help? At this point i don't have anything to lose, so i am just curious.

By the way, it has been about a month, and i have been switching the atties back and forth every other day (1 one day, the other the next), so realistically each of these atties have lasted me about 15 days, but i vape CONSTANTLY. Is this normal? (the atties dying i mean)

Edited July 17, 2010 by PsychoMaster

[Brian]

Boiling may help the atty that's still alive. You may just try running it under hot tap water, blow it out real good and let it dry over night. For the dead atty, does it get hot at all?

They say the average life of an atty is about 4 weeks. Some will last only 2 weeks, others will last much longer. My experience is that if one lasts more than 2 or 3 weeks, it'll probably go a lot longer. You always want to make sure you have a few on hand.

[nana]

It's hit and miss with attys. I've had them last one week, two weeks, a month, and even two months. You just never know. Which is why I always recommend backups. I always have several on hand. Right now I have at least 25 just waiting to be used.

I've never had any luck with bringing attys back by boiling, but I think others have. Someone will be here shortly to let you know what they do.

Good luck. I hope you can salvage at least one until you can get some more. I know what an awful feeling it is to be on the verge of not having the vaping supplies you need.

[Jolly]

i had 3 attys last 95+ days, one got used 3/4 of that time as my daily vape. *i killed them on accident and if it hadn't been for my mess up i bet they still would be working today*

don't boil yet

take a q-tip and clean out the threads inside your battery.

use rubbing alcohol on the q-tip, dont drench it. clean with the wet side then with the dry side. repeat till it is totally clean.

blow out the atty from the threads end.

try to vape.

if nothing happens make sure the battery has a full charge.

any time you use the charger or an atty clean the threads as best you can.

boil the atty just till it actually starts to boil then take it off the heat. there is plastic inside and you do not want to melt that.

after they sit for a min pick them up with tongs and let the water run from the top threw the bottom.. take them out and try them.

prime it with two drops, sit it standing up for 5mins. drop in one more drop and try to vape on it with NO cart.

Edited July 18, 2010 by Jolly

[mcquinn]

Just curiouse ,what liquid are you using?Some seem to do in atties faster than others .The things that can make an attomiser quit producing are flooding very likely if you drip(blow through it backwards),bad connection (dirty ,contact pushed into atty )battery malfunction,carboned up ,and burnt out.I am of the opinion that a person should have two or three atties in play and another two three in reserve ,as it is a long sad wait for the mailman to bring you another .

[FreedomSmokeUSA]

look folks the whole dead attie thing? it is from impurities in vape fluids. nothing more and nothing less. there is always the fact that maybe your batteries are not true joye batteries, that will do it too. I have atties over 8 months old. there are alot of reasons for that but I am telling you, I see posts constantly about 3-4 weeks lifespan for atties. that is crap. ok sorry for the language. I just get a bit frustrated when I see so many folks chomping about atties. It can be only a few things. knock-off not joye atties. knock-off not joye batteries, or junk fluids with too much mositure content. alcohol, water or whatever. These are the basics of atties. 3-4 weeksw for an attie? I have over 1 dozen that I test constantly, I have only had one die in 8 months and it is from a bettery that died a horrible death on its own and took the attie with it...

Just so this is said, I am degreed in electronics at the highest level. Electronics, batteries etc. is what I do. It isn't rocket science, just plain old electronics. Power goes in, power goes out etc.

David

[Burn]

look folks the whole dead attie thing? it is from impurities in vape fluids. nothing more and nothing less. there is always the fact that maybe your batteries are not true joye batteries, that will do it too. I have atties over 8 months old. there are alot of reasons for that but I am telling you, I see posts constantly about 3-4 weeks lifespan for atties. that is crap. ok sorry for the language. I just get a bit frustrated when I see so many folks chomping about atties. It can be only a few things. knock-off not joye atties. knock-off not joye batteries, or junk fluids with too much mositure content. alcohol, water or whatever. These are the basics of atties. 3-4 weeksw for an attie? I have over 1 dozen that I test constantly, I have only had one die in 8 months and it is from a bettery that died a horrible death on its own and took the attie with it...

Just so this is said, I am degreed in electronics at the highest level. Electronics, batteries etc. is what I do. It isn't rocket science, just plain old electronics. Power goes in, power goes out etc.

David

I take it your highest level of electronic degrees does not cover web page linking? =)

Correct link for those who are interested is:

http://www.freedomsmokeusa.com/

I wonder what fluids you use to avoid the impurities that you mention kill atomizers.

[Brian]

I have over 1 dozen that I test constantly, I have only had one die in 8 months and it is from a bettery that died a horrible death on its own and took the attie with it...

Can you elaborate on this? How much do the attys get used? One dozen attys lasting 8 months does not equate to one a atty lasting 8 months. When I first started vaping I had 4 or 5 attys that I rotated through. They all lasted about 5 months. That doesn't mean one atty used constantly would last 5 months. Honestly, I had pretty good luck with attys when I vaped at 3.7v. It was after switching to 6V that I started blowing them.

[Jolly]

an atty buring out has little to do with the purity of your liquid.

the atty burns out because of the build up on the coil or the connections breaking. regardless of what it is that you use as juice, the problem is that the juice becomes diluted of the amount of liquid in it and becomes more like a jelly and then finally a solid mass.

this acts as insulation and the atty coil will get hotter to do the same job. heat = break. i would elaborate more but i just dont care to.

[Brian]

Wouldn't impurities cause more build up on the coil? To Dave's point (I think), the better quality the juice, the more of it actually vaporizes and there's not as much left behind to create build up.

[Jolly]

impurities aren't a factor because the juice turning to a sludge is the problem.

think of it like jello. if you have a lot of water it is runny, if you put in just enough to make it soluble it is like a rock.

what we are doing is removing the liquid from the compound. sure impurities can/will play a factor into this but if there were zero impurities you would still have the same result.

proper cleaning of the attys is the only solution to keep them from dieing prematurely.

if i had to guess, my juice is far more impure than most of the ones people use. i run 50% 56mg pg and 50% loranns glycerine. with the exception of 1-3 drops of loranns flavor per 10ml.

vg/pg designed for vaping has at least some standard for removing or having less impurities. my mix is 50% cooking additives.

now with me using one atty 3/4 the time of 95+ days, along with my cleaning, would show that as long as you don't have a manufacturing problem then you should be fine. also i used no name attys. this whole "get janty" topic reminds me of how people say that generic drugs aren't as good as name brand when they are the same chemical compounds.

[Burn]

impurities aren't a factor because the juice turning to a sludge is the problem.

think of it like jello. if you have a lot of water it is runny, if you put in just enough to make it soluble it is like a rock.

what we are doing is removing the liquid from the compound. sure impurities can/will play a factor into this but if there were zero impurities you would still have the same result.

proper cleaning of the attys is the only solution to keep them from dieing prematurely.

if i had to guess, my juice is far more impure than most of the ones people use. i run 50% 56mg pg and 50% loranns glycerine. with the exception of 1-3 drops of loranns flavor per 10ml.

vg/pg designed for vaping has at least some standard for removing or having less impurities. my mix is 50% cooking additives.

now with me using one atty 3/4 the time of 95+ days, along with my cleaning, would show that as long as you don't have a manufacturing problem then you should be fine. also i used no name attys. this whole "get janty" topic reminds me of how people say that generic drugs aren't as good as name brand when they are the same chemical compounds.

Not that I am saying you are entirely incorrect, because I agree to some extent. However, generic medicine is an irrelevant example because the manufacturing and disclosure of production is heavily regulated, they all HAVE to be made the same. Atties do not have any standard that they must meet and no penalties, other than consumer trust if they put out a bad product, cut a corner or have lax QA procedures, if any at all. QA may differ amongst brands of atomizers but there really is not any way to evaluate a quality metric, today.

I stopped fussing with Atomizers and my constant need to clean them, I was becoming quite OC about them. I tried just about every method mentioned on this forum. What I have settled on is this:

I rotate 2-3 atties, only use one per day (not dedicated to flavors). At the end of each day, I put 10 - 20 drops straight PG into the atty and blow it through the battery connector to remove most of the juice from the day. I then store them upside down (batt end up) for a day or two to drain until it comes up in rotation. No boiling, chemicals or dry burn. This has been working very well for a couple months now and the flavor, performance and resistance (measured weekly) has not changed...yet.

Also of note, I run these on either a 5v passthrough or an variable amp regulated device set at either 4.35 or 4.5 volts. Finally, I do remove the bridge and wick from every atty when I first use it. I run a wide variety of juices but 90% are DIY, I dont use any oil based flavors and almost all of my flavoring is derived from natural sources (no artificial flavoring like Loranns, Capellas, Flavourart, et al.), I am not suggesting that artifical flavorings cause issues, just qualifying that I do not use them, for personal taste reasons.

So far, they have lasted very well. Boiling was inconsistent for me, I stopped with that. The only method that I did like was using the steam from an espresso machine and I dont even do that now since I started my "flush and drain" routine.

[PsychoMaster]

OK, so i tried this, and so far it has worked. I shoved the corner of a napkin in the atty and let it sit overnight. When i removed it the next day, the napkin's corner was soaked through with juice, and a weird green sludge. When i took a q-tip and cleaned inside the atty, there was more sludge. I tried the "dry-burning" method before, and didn't notice anything but a little vapor. After removing the sludge, dry-burning made the inside of the atty glow red like there is a fire inside. Now it woks ok, but still has its moments. I take it a build-up of crap in my atty is why it was crapping out? And now i have to drop 3 drops instead of 2 to get good vapor, taking a few "primer" puffs to get my Tornado going. This normal? It's ok for me, cause I buy e-juice from Tastyvapor.com at $35 for 150ml of around 8-12 nic juice, just wondering.

Thank you to everyone for the input, much of it was helpful, some of it...interesting. But all of it in good intentions!

[DAYVAPE]

an atty buring out has little to do with the purity of your liquid.

the atty burns out because of the build up on the coil or the connections breaking. regardless of what it is that you use as juice, the problem is that the juice becomes diluted of the amount of liquid in it and becomes more like a jelly and then finally a solid mass.

this acts as insulation and the atty coil will get hotter to do the same job. heat = break. i would elaborate more but i just dont care to.

I think what he's trying to say is that the buildup occurs because of the impurities in the liquid... in the end, causing failure. Correct??

Edited July 30, 2010 by DAYVAPE

[Brian]

OK, so i tried this, and so far it has worked. I shoved the corner of a napkin in the atty and let it sit overnight. When i removed it the next day, the napkin's corner was soaked through with juice, and a weird green sludge. When i took a q-tip and cleaned inside the atty, there was more sludge. I tried the "dry-burning" method before, and didn't notice anything but a little vapor. After removing the sludge, dry-burning made the inside of the atty glow red like there is a fire inside. Now it woks ok, but still has its moments. I take it a build-up of crap in my atty is why it was crapping out? And now i have to drop 3 drops instead of 2 to get good vapor, taking a few "primer" puffs to get my Tornado going. This normal? It's ok for me, cause I buy e-juice from Tastyvapor.com at $35 for 150ml of around 8-12 nic juice, just wondering.

Thank you to everyone for the input, much of it was helpful, some of it...interesting. But all of it in good intentions!

Do you keep the button press the whole time for the primer puffs? If you're having to do that, then it sounds like the atty probably isn't heating up fast enough (just my theory). It could be dying or still have some buildup. Could also be that you're putting to much juice in it and it can't heat it up fast enough.

[PsychoMaster]

Brian, sorry it took so long for me to reply, but yes, it was taking the atomizer a long time to heat up, I believe the heating coil was going out. I bought a 5 pack of atomizers from TW, but had to wait for them to arrive >.<. Unfortunately I feel like I have failed at vaping, because I had to smoke analogs for 4-5 days before receiving my atomisers. Still, I am back on track, and my girlfriend couldn't be happier! After seeing what people had to say about DD, I went and bought me a drip tip, 30ml of Black Currant e-juice, and, of course, the 5 pack of atomizers, all from TW. I'm back to vaping my fellows! Expect me to be more active on the forum (but not excessively so)!

[Brian]

You didn't fail. Many of us have been there... two weeks after I started vaping I had to go back to analogs for three days due to a three day power outage (snow storm). Quite a few member still have an occasional analog. We don't judge here.

[Burn]

I am concerned, I hope Nana is o.k......

It has been 5 hours already and there isnt a post about the importance of backups?!?!?!

Anyone have a contact number to make sure she is ok.?

j/k much love for nana, feeling a bit sprite this a.m.

[Mark]

I am concerned, I hope Nana is o.k......

It has been 5 hours already and there isnt a post about the importance of backups?!?!?!

Anyone have a contact number to make sure she is ok.?

j/k much love for nana, feeling a bit sprite this a.m.

LOL---Must be ready for the beach or something--

As Brian said, Don't think of it as failing. Think of how many analogs you didn't have (as opposed to the few you did) and Nana will be along shortly to dish out the punishment for not having backups--LOL

[PsychoMaster]

Well, thanks for all of the encouragement! I know that vaping is helping save my life, so any time I am forced to smoke a large amount of analogs over more than a one day period, I freak out. Still, at least I don't feel so guilty about it anymore. Vaping For Life!