Atomizer Death Reports - add yours here ...

[kinabaloo]

Originally Posted by Palmetto

The culprit's fairly obvious on this one:

2 DSE901 (the original) attys and one RN4075 serially fried each in about a week or less on an automatic USB 901 pass-through connected to a powered 5V hub, with no in-line battery. Mostly ECig flue-cured liquid and some JC Tobacco liquid.

1 RN4075 still going strong after 4 weeks with the same liquids on an SD.

Heavy use on SD; medium use on USB. No cleaning except for occasional blow-out and overnight drain. Did try soaking dead ones in coke or hot lemon juice mixture -- still dead.

I am suspecting usb passthrough without inline battery is bad news. Just too powerful.

Adding 3 1N4001 diodes in series would help a lot by bringing the voltage down to 4v. But of course, few people would feel confident to do that mod.

With batteries, the voltage dips under load and more when the atty gets hot. A straight usb will not.

[~kerri]

First atomizer death since I started vaping late feb. 09:
rcvd. 4/28/09 died 5/19/09
901 on a KR808D1 battery. (heard it sizzle and fry before it went cold) I was being lazy and didn't want to hold my Adaptever mod. so I screwed it on the Nebula took a hit and BANG. Dead. Damn. worked fine on the Nebula before...
VG DIY w/ Mr Bean Flavor- topped off cart/dripped
blown, rinsed in hot water & dried out semi regularly.

all other atomizers including the evo ones I got in feb. still going strong.

[Palmetto]

Originally Posted by kinabaloo

I am suspecting usb passthrough without inline battery is bad news. Just too powerful.

Adding 3 1N4001 diodes in series would help a lot by bringing the voltage down to 4v. But of course, few people would feel confident to do that mod.

With batteries, the voltage dips under load and more when the atty gets hot. A straight usb will not.

I know little about voltage, and I wouldn't know a diode from a gumdrop, but the attys get incredibly hot on that type of passthrough connected to a 5V source. When I started looking through the forum for a solution, I found quite a few comments about atomizers dying prematurely on the battery-less pass-throughs.

The 901 model with the in-line battery is hard to find, but I finally located one, and until it arrives, I'm not frying any more attys on the old one.

[kinabaloo]

Originally Posted by Palmetto

I know little about voltage, and I wouldn't know a diode from a gumdrop, but the attys get incredibly hot on that type of passthrough connected to a 5V source. When I started looking through the forum for a solution, I found quite a few comments about atomizers dying prematurely on the battery-less pass-throughs.

The 901 model with the in-line battery is hard to find, but I finally located one, and until it arrives, I'm not frying any more attys on the old one.

Wise. A direct USB connecton has a very low effective internal resistance and thereby suuplies more power than would a battery showing 5v off-load.

[Myshkin]

I have had 5 atomizers die in the 5 weeks i have been vaping. All DSE901.
Mostly mocha and 555 from myvaporstore
All regular battery at time of death. Have used the last 3 on passthrough
1st - 2 days
2nd - 4 days
3rd - 4 days
4th - 1 week
5th - 2 weeks

three of them died right after topping off. All during a smoke session of good production. I have thought that hitting it good, and then getting the funny taste so refill, and then hit soon after could get the coil real hot, then wet, and reheated. These extremes in such a short period could have an effect. I'm going to try and wait for 10-15 mins to top off after heavy vaping, and then waiting before beginning vaping again. I hope this helps me have some luck.

When i top off i put some in the cart( but not pool), and then put 2 drops on the bridge.
i have washed and dryed them all and have had 0 luck getting them restarted. They are completely cold

[Rubberjohnny]

I use generic 901 atomisers in my 3.7v 2400mAh Li-ion mods. My favourite juice is a home brew of 36mg TW tobacco taken down with glycerine, vodca and coffee extract made from expresso granules dissolved in the vodca. The whole 150ml mix has 4 split vanilla pods soaking in it at all times. There is no doupt the coffee extract is the cause of build up on the atomisers and is the main culprit in their subsequent failure. If I take out the coffee extract there is far less build up and the atomisers generally last longer, maybe a couple of weeks as opposed to 3/4 days. I have tried all the cleaning methods and the regular "burn off" is the only one that gives any real reduction in the carbon(?) build up on the coil. Excluding initial atomiser manufacturing defects (which are fairly regular) I am positive the cause of failure (by build up on the coil) is seriously affected by the content of the juice. The "cleaner" or least deposit inducing juice the longer the atomisers life.

[kinabaloo]

Originally Posted by Rubberjohnny

I use generic 901 atomisers in my 3.7v 2400mAh Li-ion mods. My favourite juice is a home brew of 36mg TW tobacco taken down with glycerine, vodca and coffee extract made from expresso granules dissolved in the vodca. The whole 150ml mix has 4 split vanilla pods soaking in it at all times. There is no doupt the coffee extract is the cause of build up on the atomisers and is the main culprit in their subsequent failure. If I take out the coffee extract there is far less build up and the atomisers generally last longer, maybe a couple of weeks as opposed to 3/4 days. I have tried all the cleaning methods and the regular "burn off" is the only one that gives any real reduction in the carbon(?) build up on the coil. Excluding initial atomiser manufacturing defects (which are fairly regular) I am positive the cause of failure (by build up on the coil) is seriously affected by the content of the juice. The "cleaner" or least deposit inducing juice the longer the atomisers life.

I aim to try the coffee extraction same you have, then try to distill it, simply on a stove. See if the taste will carry over after leaving behind all the dry residue stuff.

[crazyhorse]

Bumping to the top

* Model number (901, 801, etc)

DSE 801

* Lifetime and use profile (e.g. '2 months, used daily, light use')

3 days/3 ml total

* Power supplys used (e.g. 'standard battery and occasional passthrough')

Custom pack. 3 x 14500 PCB @ 3.7v 2700 mAh. Voltage at death, 4.01v

* While what you were doing at the time (this may be coincidental, it is still worth noting)

Vaping. One puff working fine. Next puff, dead without putting it down. Turned off like flipping a switch. Open circuit. Still analyzing potential causes of rapid catastrophic failures.

* Had you performed any cleaning? (if so, what and how often)

At day three? No.

* What juices did you mainly use (specify brand, flavor and if whether PG, VG or both, if known)

36 mg PG/VG cut with 24 mg PG cut with USP PG. Final strength 20 mg

* drip, cartridge or both

Cartridge only.

* If you can see the heater coil, how does it look?

Coil good. Solder joint bad. Disconnection at joint.

* If you are able to include a photo (using macro mode) looking into the atomizer, that will be very useful too

No photo. Maybe later. Still need to sort out the picture hosting site where I signed up a while back.

[emus]

I have four RN4081 attys about 10 months old.
Very durable.
One died at about 8 months when I dropped it on the concrete.

All my batteries died so I made DIY passthrus with led.
Power source 1=motorola razor charger, 4.4v @ 1.5 amps
Power source 2 = sony CD player power adaptor, 4.5v @ 0.5 amps
Switch=3 amp soft touch industrial micro switch

Juice: I use any kind of juice I can get my hands on. First I was using ebay juice from different vendors, Ive used VS and nuvape as well.

The RN4081 atties are my work horse attys now.
One atty suffered 3 events. Event is accidental activation of switch till I heard the boiling and saw the smoke; yet it still works.

How I care for my atty = Avoid getting atty to warm to the touch, direct drip thru opened cart, avoid running dry, avoid flooding, clean with distilled water when performance wains.

use profile: 1st 8 months = medium usage with batteries rotating between 4 attys
Month 8-10 =heavy usage with 4.4v/1.5A power supply rotating three attys.

[crazyhorse]

Originally Posted by emus

I have four RN4081 attys about 10 months old.
Very durable.
One died at about 8 months when I dropped it on the concrete.

Holy crap! Who built those monsters and do they make a 801 compatible?