Atomizer death - a new theory

[exogenesis]

Is there an image of the coil state itself for the above?

Further relevent piccies, this one has also snapped near the solder.

This was going to be round 2 for cleaning tests,
took three days to slowly (auto)smoke 15 ml of 'junk' liquid,
coil broke just at the finish, very frustrating !



The breakage sure looks like physical force (this black gunk is rock hard), as SunV found,
maybe wire weakening makes its more likely though?

No way this is going to clean up, without the help of the heat of the wire.

[kinabaloo]

Exogenesis - I just asked about a coil image, 30 seconds ago!

[surbitonPete]

Pete - I am not saying the solder disappears; it will probably look the same to the eye, but that if weakens just a bit at the point where the nichrome enters for it to slip out. That could look like a break. If the one you saw was definitely snapped, fair enough but it would be easy to mistake the two.

Here's a picture of a very badly gunked coil where the gunk reaches down to the solder joints; but I think this is really extreme:


Ceasaria - if they are quite new, soak in a hot not boiling wash with some lemon juice or vinegar. Rinse, dry, reprime and try for a few minutes; nothing to lose.

Hey Kinba...that's how my own penstyle attys look after just a few days..lol.

All the broken ones I have looked at under a magnifying glass the wire has definitely 'snapped' at the point it enters the solder rather than pulled out.

[Fox3]

I suspect that the bigger problem is QC in this issue.

Nichrome wire, at least industrially, is crimp connected for some reason.

I think that silver soldering might be useful?

All my atomizers died within a week and checking resistance leads me to think that connections have gone to, frequently, a VERY high value - in the multiple megohms region.

Getting into the 510 ones is on my list (two failed within 7 days, but that MIGHT have been a very hot and long running automatic battery). My 801 atomizers lasted much longer and one I was able to repair the other the nichrome wire broke in the middle of the coil.

Fun projects :-), yes, I think this is turning into a hobby !

[kinabaloo]

Exogenesis - that atomizer is very different from mine and breakfastchef's in that your coil has virtually no 'legs'.

Perhaps heat alone cannot break the wire - maybe that requires white-hot rather than merely red-hot: i.e. it requires vaporising the wire.

So I think the physical force explanation looks the most likely at this time for those occasions (the majority?) where the nichrome wire becomes broken.

It's scary how fast a deposit can form! What juice was that Exo ?

When you say rock-hard - really? not crumbly?

[kinabaloo]

Fox3 - I think this has nothing to do with QC. The attys are dying because of residue build up from the juices used. The variable lifespans being largely explained by the different juices (plus other variables such as drip or cart, drag length, power source, etc.)

However, I agree than a crimp wight be better than a soldered joint (I referred to it as 'wire wrap'). The common 'silver solder' still contains tin.

There might be occasions when solder joint degradation causes an open circuit; perhaps in those instances where there is no snap in the wire, my theory still holds true.

[exogenesis]

There used to be legs
If you look carefully at the 'broken' image,
you can see that the leg-length has been pulled in toward the main body,
and is at an angle.

The coils of wire now definately have a larger diameter than when it started.
As SunV said the gunk build up under the coil forcing it outward,
eventually pulling hard against the solder blobs = snap !

The main body of gunk is absolutely rock hard, no give at all, and doesn't break away
with pushing with a pin point.

That was 15 ml or so of;
approx one half 36mg TW flavourless, + one third VG + one sixth various loranne flavours.
(ie a mixture of left over flavour tests)

There is definately solder (tin) moving from the blob into the gunk,
the blob remains extremely shiny when everything else is getting really gunky.
Like it's being highly polished.
But the wire goes still breaks first, for physical reasons?

Any word of SunV's pure VG smoking tests?

[kinabaloo]

Oh, I think i see what Sun meant now - not that the whole coil is raised up (away from the cup) but the coil diameter is increaded;by 'under the coil' he meant 'inside the coil'.

It would be nice to view the ends of the wire at snap under a microscope to look for signs of tension. Which raises another question why does the wire not simply stretch rather than snap?

Exogenesis - could that mystery peak be iron, from the steel mesh ?

[exogenesis]

Thanks for reminding me, I'll ask some experts today.
It's definately not iron, most probably tin, I'll let you know.

[Nicfits]

I work with nickle plate wire every day. We only solder it with silver solder. No tin solder is ever used on our products. We also use Nichrome in some of our products, it too is soldered only with silver solder.