901 battery mass death

[cyberwolf]

It appears I have had three batteries die...THIS MORNING! The batteries have been working fine, but lately seem to get done charging really fast (around an hour or so). I leave them on for 3-4 anyway. This morning I stopped getting vapor and assumed I had a bad atomizer. I tried the other batteries just to make sure and none of them worked. The problem is they don't work on another atty either.

Now here's the odd part. Two of the batteries light up blue, do not heat the atty, and blink orange five times as soon as I unscrew them. The third battery appears to have a stuck switch and is heating the atty constantly, but has not LED lit. All of the batteries are mechnical switch type and none of them appear to be willing to take a charge.

Is it possible a blown atty could cause this type of havoc?

 

[AmyLynne]

Oh man - I have this same problem - 4 of my batteries are doing the same thing and they are only about 2-3 weeks old And of course my passthrough died as well....

 

[cyberwolf]

Mine are about 3 weeks old, too.

 

[MlrGrl]

you mean I may not be going crazy??
I've been having problems with my 2 week old 901 batteries all weekend!

Same thing; put them on the charger, & even though the light turns green after an hour, I still leave it on for 4 hrs. The battery I'm using might last an hour before I see it start flashing orange at me.
I even started thinkinig that maybe I was puffing a lot more than I realized, and started counting each session!!

Hmmm...

 

[luvmyvapor]

Bad charger?

 

[cyberwolf]

Bad charger?

Anything's possible at this point, but a battery from another vendor seems to work properly.

 

[Stormynights]

I had a problem with a bad power strip. When I moved to a new one my problem was solved. It is worth a try.

 

[MlrGrl]

Bad charger?

that's what I'm hoping!
I actually have a new one that should be arriving in the mail today & I"m hoping it will straighten things out....

 

[AmyLynne]

Yeah I ordered a new charger to. The batteries themselves were from 3 different vendors so I'm leaning away from a bad batch. Mine will hold a charge they just get stuck on or I have to smack them on the table to jump start them into working.

 

[MonkeyMonk]

I had that problem, too, awhile ago. The supplier met with me and gave me all new batteries. He said that after thinking about it, considering they all died at the same time, that he thought perhaps that I had an atty that was shorting them out. He gave me a free extra battery to figure the problem out.

Being frugal, I was waiting until I could get my hands on a volt-ohm meter and see it I could detect the bad atty using the volt-ohm meter. Due to family health issues, I haven't pursued the issue to a conclusion, yet. Everything is in Limbo right now waiting to be tested with the volt-ohm meter that I was able to borrow.

Sorry, I couldn't be of more help. If time permits, then I'll try to get some answers relative to mine soon and I'll re-post with the results.

BTW. The really helpful, generous suplier who met with me and gave me the extras was Cigtechs.

 

[The Rain Man]

Had 1 do about the same thing charged it then it started blinking blue took it off the atomizer sat there blinking blue on the table for 2 days...

 

[eric]

I had that problem, too, awhile ago. The supplier met with me and gave me all new batteries. He said that after thinking about it, considering they all died at the same time, that he thought perhaps that I had an atty that was shorting them out. He gave me a free extra battery to figure the problem out.

Being frugal, I was waiting until I could get my hands on a volt-ohm meter and see it I could detect the bad atty using the volt-ohm meter. Due to family health issues, I haven't pursued the issue to a conclusion, yet. Everything is in Limbo right now waiting to be tested with the volt-ohm meter that I was able to borrow.

Sorry, I couldn't be of more help. If time permits, then I'll try to get some answers relative to mine soon and I'll re-post with the results.

BTW. The really helpful, generous suplier who met with me and gave me the extras was Cigtechs.

MonkeyMonk, that is one cute kitten in your avatar.

 

[Jim Davis]

Is anyone dripping? Juice could have gotten into the battery.

 

[Jim Davis]

MonkeyMonk, that is one cute kitten in your avatar.

Eric;

Have you contacted Lika about joining the Texas Social Group. Lot of your neighbors are there.

 

[cyberwolf]

Is anyone dripping? Juice could have gotten into the battery.

No. Honestly, no! At least not on the 901. The 401s have seen their share.

 

[need_2quit]

had a similar day the other day with 4 batteries not charging completely. 2 drags and the light was blinking again.

I tapped the battery lightly, sprayed contact cleaner into the charger end, cleaned the batteries with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol (the cotton ball really digs into the brass and gets them super clean)... blew out both ends of the battery...charged them 3 hours and they "seem" to have come back.

I'm going to order a new charger. I'm sick of the light going red/green/red/green. I think it's just a poor design on my charger (M401).

 

[tokarev]

It appears I have had three batteries die...THIS MORNING! The batteries have been working fine, but lately seem to get done charging really fast (around an hour or so). I leave them on for 3-4 anyway. This morning I stopped getting vapor and assumed I had a bad atomizer. I tried the other batteries just to make sure and none of them worked. The problem is they don't work on another atty either.

Now here's the odd part. Two of the batteries light up blue, do not heat the atty, and blink orange five times as soon as I unscrew them. The third battery appears to have a stuck switch and is heating the atty constantly, but has not LED lit. All of the batteries are mechnical switch type and none of them appear to be willing to take a charge.

Is it possible a blown atty could cause this type of havoc?

An atomizer with a dead short (zero resistance) maybe, but that's not very likely. The batts that light up but don't heat could maybe be due to a bad charger. The one that heats constantly with no LED light I've seen before. I think the battery switch is shorted, and if so, that can't be fixed. I had one from e-smokeytreats do that after about six weeks. Phil exchanged it no problem, but he has a longer warranty than most.

TT33

 

[cyberwolf]

I tested the batteries last night and read 3.6V or so all the time. I am assuming this means the switch is stuck on, but when connected to the atomizer, still nothing. I tried pulling the center pole out a little bit, to no avail. Any ideas or are they just toast? I think a battery mod is in my future.

 

[tokarev]

I tested the batteries last night and read 3.6V or so all the time. I am assuming this means the switch is stuck on, but when connected to the atomizer, still nothing. I tried pulling the center pole out a little bit, to no avail. Any ideas or are they just toast? I think a battery mod is in my future.

If you get full voltage with a meter, they're stuck all right. Have you tried all the usual fixes? Tapping, blowing, poking (gently) with a paper clip, etc. If none of the switches will come loose, you're pretty much out of luck. I suppose if you're so inclined, you could do some battery surgery and strap on some kind of manual switch. Everything in there is tiny and hard to work with, though. If it were me, I'd just spring for new batteries.

A battery mod is easy enough. I build a "juicebox" style mod for 901 attys out of about $10 worth of parts from Radio Shack. It's not that hard to do. Add in some batteries and a charger and you're good to go. It uses 3 AA nickel (nicad or nimh) batteries in a 4 AA size housing and will last me a couple of days before needing recharging. I won't be taking it to the airport, though. It looks exactly like one of those "detonators" you see on TV or in the movies!8-o Mine is kind of big, but it fits in my shirt pocket with a bottle of juice. You can build a smaller one with the AAA size battery housing. Some folks have built them using a 2 AA or 2 AAA housing and use a lithium rechargable battery. I think the Kissbox and e-cigar batts are AAA size and would be easy to source.

Another option would be to get the Kensington USB power supply and a passthrough. I sometimes carry a 901 or 801 this way. The p/s slips in my shirt pocket along with the assembled PT batt and atty. When I'm not vaping, I coil up the cord and slip it in behind the p/s. If anybody asks about the wire, just tell 'em you're using a supercharger on your e-cig!

TT33

 

[cyberwolf]

Thanks for the info tokarev. I'm glad to hear your feedback on using 3 AAs. I think that may be the first thing I try, just for simplicity's sake.