How to see if your atomizer is truly dead with a Voltmeter

[mamu]

Howdy mamu;
You should be OK. I test my 4081/401/510/801/901, and get readings between 2 and 5.8. Different atty models will give you a slightly different reading, due to the heating coils being different.

Thanks so much Jim.

I tested all my 510 attys and got readings averaging 2.5 ohms, except for one - it was 3.2 ohms.

My 801s averaged 3.3 ohms and my 901s were about the same.

I'm so glad I found this thread and thank all for the help.

I've stocked up on these attys and was worrying if they were all good. It's nice to know they are and that I don't have to return any.

BTW: We had our 2nd annual Red Skelton parade in June. They said there were over 1000 clowns - lol I believe it hahaha!!

[LameBMX]

A little additional note about touching the leads together with a digital MM. There is normally a little resistance due to wires and corrosion on the leads themselves. So digital scale, 200ohm range. touch the leads together and hold firmly (previously a poster mentioned the numbers jumped around) and you will notice there is something on the range of less that 0.5V. This is the inherent resistance due to the factor I mentioned above. People that know electronics should remember the 10% rule, basically the value is correct if it is within 10% of what is expected. That value will need to be subtracted from what the meter reads while testing the atomizer. In most items these meters were designed for testing that resistance is minute in comparison to what is tested and is ignored, but what we are testing is only 3ohms and should be taken into consideration.

By the way, the analog meter mentioned earlier in this thread, the needle adjustment was on the left side of the meter. 10x scale, hold the leads together and move rotary knob until the needle sits on the 0. Make sure you are reading the right scale for what you have the meter set to.

[LameBMX]

So I went out and grabbed my Actron DMM (CP7677) from the toolbox in the car to test things out. Joye 510 Atomizer BTW.

As expected lead orientation makes no difference, red does not have to be on the center.

resistance of AT was measured at 2.5ohms (10%=0.25ohms)
resistance of meter leads was measured at 0.3 ohms (above 10%)

the actual resistance of the atomizer is 2.2 ohms

Next atomizer:

Same figures

Last atomizer:

2.3 ohms measured

2.0 ohms actual.

At the risk of sounding like a douche, please use actual resistance instead of measured, otherwise joe schmoe with a brand new DMM has 3.0 ohms and larry blow with a nice thick grease and tar (from the old analog days) layer and gets a 4.0 ohm reading from the same atomizer that is truly only 2.8 ohms of resistance.

[Jim Davis]

So I went out and grabbed my Actron DMM (CP7677) from the toolbox in the car to test things out. Joye 510 Atomizer BTW.

As expected lead orientation makes no difference, red does not have to be on the center.

resistance of AT was measured at 2.5ohms (10%=0.25ohms)
resistance of meter leads was measured at 0.3 ohms (above 10%)

the actual resistance of the atomizer is 2.2 ohms

Next atomizer:

Same figures

Last atomizer:

2.3 ohms measured

2.0 ohms actual.

At the risk of sounding like a douche, please use actual resistance instead of measured, otherwise joe schmoe with a brand new DMM has 3.0 ohms and larry blow with a nice thick grease and tar (from the old analog days) layer and gets a 4.0 ohm reading from the same atomizer that is truly only 2.8 ohms of resistance.

Good advise;
I usually tell people to expect between 2.5 to 5 Ω depending on the type of atty. I know the + & - leads don't matter when testing resistance, but I try to keep the process uniform for the newcomers. If they get used to Red+ and Black-, they won't get confused when checking other things.

[breno]

Mine measured 5.4 but touching the probs togeather measured 3.5 as it is not zeroed properly so overall thats a 1.9 ohm.

It's a 510 atty.

[bikergirl1908]

So an atty (901) that reads 8.9 on the ohms scale, is this DOA? I bought the ten pack from Health Cabin and this is the only 1 that is not within 3.0-3.6 range.

Thanks.

[LameBMX]

how about trying out the 8.9ohm atty and posting what you thought of it? kinda keeps tabs and let people know if it dont work for crap, died in 2 days, works like a champ, or whatever you notice about the brand new yet out of spec atty.

[bikergirl1908]

how about trying out the 8.9ohm atty and posting what you thought of it? kinda keeps tabs and let people know if it dont work for crap, died in 2 days, works like a champ, or whatever you notice about the brand new yet out of spec atty.

Ok, here's my report. I tried the atty on my 901 with a manual battery today and it lasted about an hour and a half with nice slow drags of medium vaping. It kicked a** for the whole time it worked, but then it just died...no slack off in throat hit or vapor, it just went kaput.

Contacted HC and their customer service is great....don't have to send the atty back and pay China postage to get a replacement. They are sending my replacement by registered airmail with no additional cost to me which is great because a lot of places won't warranty a bulk atty purchase. 19 out of 20 good ones ain't bad and they are making good on the faulty one with no hassle so I am a happy camper.

[bigozone]

This is incorrect for non-linear PTC heater elements.

just wondering what the ohms readings you get when testing the DSE103.... i have only 1 atty for my 103 and it no longer works w/ the stock battery, but when i throw 4.5v @ 300mh to it i get vapor after ~2 seconds. i've left my meter @ work, but i'm gonna test it asap.

i'm just glad that i finally got my 901 and supplies from china

[boa279]

Hello, This is my first post and although I'm new to E-cigs I'm not new to electronics so I hope I can shed some light on whats going on in your e-cig to help you better understand. So you put your meter on the atty and got a number on your meter....what does that actually say to you other than "its good" and what does the "beep" coming from your meter really mean?

With your meter set to ohms and the probes touching the center pad and the threaded area you will get a number (for simplicity lets say its 4 ohms) This number is only half of the equation you need in order to figure out whats happening. Now you set your meter to volts dc and read your battery at 4 volts dc (again theoretical) with these 2 numbers you can apply the following formula:

V2 / R = W

so 4volts squared is 12. 12 devided by 4 ohms equals 4 watts. So in this example the atomizer is dissapating 4 watts of heat to attomize the juice into vapor! Now lets say your battery is 4 volts but you have a suspected bad attomizer that reads 1000 ohms when you use your meter. Using the above formula that would be 12volts/1000 ohms =.012 watts. That means this attomizer would produce 200 times less heat to the juice which would make it useless.

So lets simplify:

If the resistance of your atty is 0 then its the same thing as putting a piece of metal from the positive part of the battery to the negative. The result is the battery overheating. (I used to make hand warmers as a kid buy taping a wire to the top and bottom of a D cell battery...got nice and toasty for a short time )

If the resistance of the atty reads open or infinity (these terms simply mean there is no connection at all) then without any resistance, no watts are produced and its exactly the same thing as disconnecting the atty from the battery....its useless.



If I read correctly the average resistance is somewhere in the 3.5 to 8 ohm area depending on model of e-cig. That means that a good atty-battery combo should produce 2-4 watts of heat. Now obviously, 4 watts of heat produces more vapor but with the sacrifice of battery life...the same battery with an 8 ohm atty would last twice as long but produce half the vapor...make sense?

So, charge your batts and read your attys...the highest voltage batt with the lowest ohm atty should produce the best vapor! Hopefully this helps a little!

Boa279