Need some help figuring out why my Smok Alien fried itself.

[collinsmcrae]

I've had my Alien for a few months, and it's pretty much been my daily mod. Well, yesterday I was browsing on my Ipad, and I started hearing a sizzling noise. I looked over and smoke was coming out of the vent holes on my Alien, which was just sitting upright on my coffee table next to me. I immediately picked up the mod, and released the batteries. The batteries were completely cool, and I could smell that some electrical components had fried in the mod. Any idea what could cause this to happen?

 

[daviedog]

I've had my Alien for a few months, and it's pretty much been my daily mod. Well, yesterday I was browsing on my Ipad, and I started hearing a sizzling noise. I looked over and smoke was coming out of the vent holes on my Alien, which was just sitting upright on my coffee table next to me. I immediately picked up the mod, and released the batteries. The batteries were completely cool, and I could smell that some electrical components had fried in the mod. Any idea what could cause this to happen?

Very smart move to remove your cells, was the atomizer cool also?

 

[Imfallen_Angel]

Bad batteries? early release of mod that might still have some bugs with the board? dust or crap/liquid (or water) got into it? Had a short with the batteries at some point earlier which damaged the board and it eventually fried? (that happened to me with one of my mods - not an Alien - where I had a battery vent as I was putting it in, didn't look like any damage was done to the mod, but about a week later, the mod fried itself out of the blue, but it was a given that this had been the cause)

 

[celticluvr]

What kind of batteries were you using?

 

[Mike 586]

The batteries were completely cool, and I could smell that some electrical components had fried in the mod. Any idea what could cause this to happen?

Yeah I've got a pretty good idea and a few questions.

What kind settings do you vape at, more importantly what's the hardest you push the device and how often do you do it?
Do you have an idea how long it was between the last time you used it and it frying was?
Also, what was the resistance (roughly) on the build that was on it at the time?

It sounds an awful lot like another mosfet failure. If you had mentioned the coil was auto-firing I'd be nearly certain of it.

 

[collinsmcrae]

Yeah I've got a pretty good idea and a few questions.

What kind settings do you vape at, more importantly what's the hardest you push the device and how often do you do it?
Do you have an idea how long it was between the last time you used it and it frying was?
Also, what was the resistance (roughly) on the build that was on it at the time?

It sounds an awful lot like another mosfet failure. If you had mentioned the coil was auto-firing I'd be nearly certain of it.

I usually vape between 70 and 80 watts, .15 ohm dual Clapton coils. I take a few pulls about once every 10-30 minutes. It had probably been around 20 minutes since my last vape when it started smoking.

I was thinking it may have been a mosfet or fuse myself. As far as the coil goes. I was so worried about my batteries exploding that I hadn't noticed in my panicky rush to fuel them in a stainless steel bowl.

 

[collinsmcrae]

What kind of batteries were you using?

Samsung 25r and Sony vtc 4's. Batteries were cool though. I'd imagine they'd heat up with a hard short, but I could be wrong.

 

[collinsmcrae]

Very smart move to remove your cells, was the atomizer cool also?

Not sure, actually. I don't think the atty fired, but I could be wrong.

 

[r77r7r]

Where the batteries married? Did you use the on board charger? Did you use a car charger?

 

[Bunnykiller]

considering the batteries were still room temp ( cool) it wasnt a battery issue...
Im going to go with the premise of a bad board ( mosfets love to fail in a "closed" manner, always on).

there has been situations where the fire button will stick in the on position and the 10 second cut off works for several minutes and finally things get overworked and the circuitry fails, thus letting the magic smoke out....

if you have a chance to do an autopsy of it and find anything, let us know

 

[Eskie]

A fuse wouldn't make it smoke. It would simply fail when you tried to fire the mod. Breaking it open and rummaging through may be the only way to see what happened.

 

[Mike 586]

If the mosfet failed you wouldn't have a hard short. It would be battery voltage going to the coil and considering the ohm range you had, I'm surprised the batteries didn't get hot. Though being right next to it you probably got them out in time or maybe (as sometimes happens) a trace melted or solder joint opened from the heat on the board, maybe the mosfet didn't fully fuse shut. Hard to say.

I gotta go with a mosfet failure. A little vape session at that power level on a mosfet on its last legs would get it pretty warm and it seems that they often like to fail as they cool and fuse shut.

If that product had a fuse, you'd be here asking why your device just stopped working and nothing would have gotten to the point of melting.

Hell if it was a fused product, it would even be (relatively) easily repairable and safe to use again until the next time.

Right now, if you want to vape at 80W Evolv is the only game in town I can definitively say fuses their boards which should have been done all along. I'd like to say Innokin fuses their boards to, they used to list the fuses on their products quit listing them years ago most likely because of marketing reasons and consumer ignorance. I'm only guessing they still use them, but given their history I'd trust them and the Coolfire 100W might be a product to consider.

Go with YiHi or any of the lesser brands like Smok, Eleaf, Asmodus and a similar failure is only a matter of time IMHO.

Its a pretty sad state of affairs that I consider Evolv the best game in town in terms of safety considering how long they dragged their heels on fundamentally basic elements like reverse battery protection, fuses and the like.

 

[collinsmcrae]

Where the batteries married? Did you use the on board charger? Did you use a car charger?

Batteries were maried, always charged externally, and I rotated them after every use.

 

[collinsmcrae]

A fuse wouldn't make it smoke. It would simply fail when you tried to fire the mod. Breaking it open and rummaging through may be the only way to see what happened.

That makes snese, thanks.

 

[collinsmcrae]

considering the batteries were still room temp ( cool) it wasnt a battery issue...
Im going to go with the premise of a bad board ( mosfets love to fail in a "closed" manner, always on).

there has been situations where the fire button will stick in the on position and the 10 second cut off works for several minutes and finally things get overworked and the circuitry fails, thus letting the magic smoke out....

if you have a chance to do an autopsy of it and find anything, let us know

Yeah, that makes sense thanks. I have dropped it a few times as well. My primary concern was whether or not it was the batteries because I always assumed they should get hot if they short.

 

[collinsmcrae]

If the mosfet failed you wouldn't have a hard short. It would be battery voltage going to the coil and considering the ohm range you had, I'm surprised the batteries didn't get hot. Though being right next to it you probably got them out in time or maybe (as sometimes happens) a trace melted or solder joint opened from the heat on the board, maybe the mosfet didn't fully fuse shut. Hard to say.

I gotta go with a mosfet failure. A little vape session at that power level on a mosfet on its last legs would get it pretty warm and it seems that they often like to fail as they cool and fuse shut.

If that product had a fuse, you'd be here asking why your device just stopped working and nothing would have gotten to the point of melting.

Hell if it was a fused product, it would even be (relatively) easily repairable and safe to use again until the next time.

Right now, if you want to vape at 80W Evolv is the only game in town I can definitively say fuses their boards which should have been done all along. I'd like to say Innokin fuses their boards to, they used to list the fuses on their products quit listing them years ago most likely because of marketing reasons and consumer ignorance. I'm only guessing they still use them, but given their history I'd trust them and the Coolfire 100W might be a product to consider.

Go with YiHi or any of the lesser brands like Smok, Eleaf, Asmodus and a similar failure is only a matter of time IMHO.

Its a pretty sad state of affairs that I consider Evolv the best game in town in terms of safety considering how long they dragged their heels on fundamentally basic elements like reverse battery protection, fuses and the like.

If the mosfet failed you wouldn't have a hard short. It would be battery voltage going to the coil and considering the ohm range you had, I'm surprised the batteries didn't get hot. Though being right next to it you probably got them out in time or maybe (as sometimes happens) a trace melted or solder joint opened from the heat on the board, maybe the mosfet didn't fully fuse shut. Hard to say.

I gotta go with a mosfet failure. A little vape session at that power level on a mosfet on its last legs would get it pretty warm and it seems that they often like to fail as they cool and fuse shut.

If that product had a fuse, you'd be here asking why your device just stopped working and nothing would have gotten to the point of melting.

Hell if it was a fused product, it would even be (relatively) easily repairable and safe to use again until the next time.

Right now, if you want to vape at 80W Evolv is the only game in town I can definitively say fuses their boards which should have been done all along. I'd like to say Innokin fuses their boards to, they used to list the fuses on their products quit listing them years ago most likely because of marketing reasons and consumer ignorance. I'm only guessing they still use them, but given their history I'd trust them and the Coolfire 100W might be a product to consider.

Go with YiHi or any of the lesser brands like Smok, Eleaf, Asmodus and a similar failure is only a matter of time IMHO.

Its a pretty sad state of affairs that I consider Evolv the best game in town in terms of safety considering how long they dragged their heels on fundamentally basic elements like reverse battery protection, fuses and the like.

Thanks for the thorough response. Im going to take it apart and I'll post what I see.

 

[MMW]

This has happened a few times with Smok boxes. The m80, x cube etc.

 

[collinsmcrae]

This has happened a few times with Smok boxes. The m80, x cube etc.

Thanks, good to know.

 

[Nick Jennings]

If the mosfet failed you wouldn't have a hard short. It would be battery voltage going to the coil and considering the ohm range you had, I'm surprised the batteries didn't get hot. Though being right next to it you probably got them out in time or maybe (as sometimes happens) a trace melted or solder joint opened from the heat on the board, maybe the mosfet didn't fully fuse shut. Hard to say.

I gotta go with a mosfet failure. A little vape session at that power level on a mosfet on its last legs would get it pretty warm and it seems that they often like to fail as they cool and fuse shut.

If that product had a fuse, you'd be here asking why your device just stopped working and nothing would have gotten to the point of melting.

Hell if it was a fused product, it would even be (relatively) easily repairable and safe to use again until the next time.

Right now, if you want to vape at 80W Evolv is the only game in town I can definitively say fuses their boards which should have been done all along. I'd like to say Innokin fuses their boards to, they used to list the fuses on their products quit listing them years ago most likely because of marketing reasons and consumer ignorance. I'm only guessing they still use them, but given their history I'd trust them and the Coolfire 100W might be a product to consider.

Go with YiHi or any of the lesser brands like Smok, Eleaf, Asmodus and a similar failure is only a matter of time IMHO.

Its a pretty sad state of affairs that I consider Evolv the best game in town in terms of safety considering how long they dragged their heels on fundamentally basic elements like reverse battery protection, fuses and the like.

Evolv is not the ONLY safest. Yihi and JoyeTech are right up their as well.

 

[HVAC_Dave]

Mine just -kind of- did this tonight. Didn't let the smoke out but I thought I smelled hot plastic after taking a puff so I immediately dropped the batteries out (HG2's, married, ALWAYS charged externally) a closer look at things and the plastic in the battery compartment right behind the fire bar/screen at the bottom of the mod had a small melted spot and was discolored and cracked. Batteries were cool to the touch, so it had to be a board problem. Taking it back to the shop tomorrow (2wks old).

I was vaping on a Griffin 25 at 70 watts with a standard dual 24 ga 8 wrap 2.5mm 316L build ohming at 0.157. This was giving me about a 18 A reading in the display after each puff.

1.5 sec Puff every minute or two (I don't know if that's excessive. I do know that A mod claiming 220W surely can't handle 220W but should damned sure be able to swing 70 for a not quite chain vaper.)