Wintergreen flavoring warning

[Wink]

I have a different experience with using oil too. I love my cinnamon and decided to try it even though it is an oil. Hubby loves it too.. and his clove oil. At first we each dedicated one atty to use oil with in case it caused problems but no bad experiences. We've been using these oils (in my case every day, almost all day) in all our atty's for two months now and we've only lost one atty - which would be a good record without oils. We leave our PV's put together and filled overnight. We only clean when they start drawing hard - then we soak in vodka for 1-10 hours, rinse, dry and they work perfect again.
The use of oils as flavors (and the cinnamon is made strong) hasn't cause any problems at all as far as we can tell. I do have to change my polyfill more frequently with oil flavors as they get brown and lose their fluffiness quicker. I"m not recommending it.. just our experience.

[Angela]

If you want a good, strong, non-oil based cinnamon, have a look at flavourart (Italian-based company). I can highly recommend it!

[miketr]

I think it's clear from Tna and Wink's comments that Wintergreen Oil by itself was not the direct cause of this bizarre stuff. Further, while I think everyone agrees oils are not good for attys, I may have overstated about oil in general. Yes, I've used cinnamon oil and anise oil without it immediately conking out my atty. And I definitely did like the cinnamon oil in a moderate amount- it gives a great hit, although after a while I feel like I'm breathing in Red Hots.
I think I am still learning about cleaning, I've used PGA with some success, but when an atty actually goes cold (draws without difficulty, but no vapor and the element doesn't heat at all), I don't think cleaning can fix it. This one didn't get hard to draw, or start producing less smoke (I've experienced that) It just stopped working completely within a few hours of putting that mixture in it. From the feedback here, it sounds like I had some kind of mysterious one-off experience, probably very difficult to reproduce. I just wanted to throw it out on the forums to see if anyone else had experienced similar things with Wintergreen, but given the variety of responses, and no overwhelming response on Wintergreen in particular, I'm chalking it up to me inadvertently doing some things wrong, still being a learner.

[RenaissancePuffer]

Very well could be there miketr. We are all learning a lot as we go with these PV's, it's still quite new to a lot of us, and with the varieties of combinations out there, what worked yesterday with parts A and B may not work the same way today, with Parts A and C.

One thing to note about the atty's, you can use a multimeter to check the resistance on an atty to see if there may still be hope and if a cleaning may be necessary.

[Scubabatdan]

Very well could be there miketr. We are all learning a lot as we go with these PV's, it's still quite new to a lot of us, and with the varieties of combinations out there, what worked yesterday with parts A and B may not work the same way today, with Parts A and C.

One thing to note about the atty's, you can use a multimeter to check the resistance on an atty to see if there may still be hope and if a cleaning may be necessary.

Correct! I was about to chime in on the Ohms check on the atty, to further that here is how to do it. Get a multimeter from any radioshack, or auto place. Set it to Ohms


Then touch red to center, and black wire to outside if it shows resistance then the attys heating element is not broken/burned out and is allowing electricity through. But if the mutimeter/volt meter does not change then the heating element is broken/burned and beyond rescue. Here is how to test it, red to center black wire to on outside edge ie.


Should read 3.2 - 3.5 ohms.
Hope this helps
Dan

[JustMeAgain]

Correct! I was about to chime in on the Ohms check on the atty, to further that here is how to do it.
Should read 3.2 - 3.5 ohms.
Hope this helps
Dan

I just happened in here b/c my atty just died...first one I've lost and for some reason I expected something more distinct. I dont know what, maybe a pop or a crackle or at least a Wily E. Coyote-type poof of smoke, but I guess they just stop working?

Anyway, I saw your pictures and since we have one of those meters you posted in your pictures. When I tested it, it jumped around so there was no particular number. If it were really dead, would it have done nothing or is that a sign that it's not totally gone?

Thanks for posting that info, Dan...very helpful.

[KevinD872]

I just happened in here b/c my atty just died...first one I've lost and for some reason I expected something more distinct. I dont know what, maybe a pop or a crackle or at least a Wily E. Coyote-type poof of smoke, but I guess they just stop working?

Anyway, I saw your pictures and since we have one of those meters you posted in your pictures. When I tested it, it jumped around so there was no particular number. If it were really dead, would it have done nothing or is that a sign that it's not totally gone?

Thanks for posting that info, Dan...very helpful.

Generally speaking, when checking for resistance, any meter (analog or digital) should not move at all if there is no connection (probes not touching or a completely dead atty). Some may fluctuate a teeny bit, but it should be obvious. To get an idea of what kind of change you are looking for, touch the two probes together. You will see a major change on the meter. You should see a similar thing when you check your atty, but the exact reading should be different.

As for the jumping around, if your meter doesn't do that when the probes are just sitting on the desk and not touching each other, that may be a good sign. The jumping could be from the probes making good/bad contact. Make sure you are getting good contact with your probes on each part of the atty. It should settle on a number eventually or at least hover around it. You could also try changing the battery in your meter.

[Scubabatdan]

Does the multimeter jump around wheh the leads are touched together?

KevinD872 is right the needle or digits should plato and become stable at one reading. If you have a manual UBS passthrough try wiggling the inside connector as the silicon rubber can mash causing a no contact situation, then energize it for 10 seconds. and see if it come back to life. All the ones I have that failed the ohms check I tore down and the element was broken.

Dan

[miketr]

OK, that's a good idea... I used to do electronics as a hobby, and I still have my old analog multimeter; it works fine for measuring resistance, so I will try that tonight on my atty. I just needed to know what contacts to touch, and Dan's pictures show that just fine. Thanks!
PS, I understand about determining the proper Ohms reading being a more accurate test, but for those who don't want to get a multimeter, I wonder if you could just test for an unbroken circuit as a basic first test using a very inexpensive device called a continuity checker (looks a little like a pen with a light on the end of it, but you can't vape with it, and it also has testing wires coming off it) They are available at just about any home supply store. Or do you need something that measures resistance?
So, if the atty does measure as having no continuity/infinite resistance, I would be interested in taking it apart to see if I can see what the cause was, and if the rubber in the device experienced any "melting" or other effects. If it's all silicone, that would surprise me. But anyway, does anyone have links to instructions on how to go about taking apart a dead atty? (In this case it is an original 901DSE).

[miketr]

Couldn't find my old multimeter, so I picked up a new digital multimeter at a home supply store. I checked the dead atty, and also saw a lot of jumping around, but it was in the mega ohms range, which I would think probably indicates a mechanically unstable break in the connection. A good 901 atty gave a consistent reading in the 3-4 ohm range mentioned. Tried some good 501 attys too, and they gave consistent ohm readings more in the 2.2-2.3 ohm range.
So it looks to me like that 901 atty is basically toast. Oh well, I have a new batch of them coming in a few days... live and learn!