A word of safety to all mechanical users

[amolson]

I thought a kick and a fuse were totally different devices. A fuse just cut the current if it broke a certain amount for a certain length of time. Say 20A for more than 10mS. A kick controls the power, setting it to an amount, like 6 or 8 watts.

I mean I'd probably just get a fuse of the right kind and put it between the positive terminal of the battery and the switch.

Or am I totally off base and they really are the same. I'm coming from an electronics background, not vaping.

 

[Ryedan]

A Kick has over amp protection built in. It also shuts you down when the battery voltage gets to a set number. Both the Kick and a vape fuse are great as long as you don't want to go higher in power than they handle. I believe the highest rated vape safe fuse commercially available right now is 7A. You could install your own fuse though and some people have done this. Then you can chose the amp rating.

 

[SingedVapor]

Oh look. Another thread that has turned into a mech vs regulated


Anyway, thanks for the heads up op. I would like to think that I stay safe enough for that never to happen but no matter what precautions you take, when dealing with electronics there is always a chance things can go wrong. Battery meltdowns are scary and I'm glad to see you are ok.

 

[TheRac25]

There is room for both, sir.

Keep it away from water, impacts, and life

there most certainly is

 

[TheJakeBailey]

im not sure what you're talking about my regulated mod pushes 120 watts through a .3 ohm load with no variance till the batteries are out of electrons, you can keep your mech

And of course there is the guy who picks one sentence out of a paragraph... The average vaper here doesn't have the device that you have, which is something I'm sure you know. But I acknowledge the correction, and that for the few that own them at this point, this is possible. My hat's off to you! And I WILL keep my many mechs, as well as my high power regulated devices. I'll also keep my average power regulated devices. Cheers!

 

[5150sick]

I have a feeling that these iclear30's may have dead short problems.
I remember a guy posting a YouTube vid about a year ago. He had bought a KTS Storm (aka: KTS Explod-a-mod) from fasttech with an iclear30 for his buddy.
Someone there was actually filming with their phone as he screwed the iclear30 on and put the extremely dangerous icr18350 grey batt that comes with the KTS kit in to the mod.
He pushed the button, nothing happened. So this genius pushed the button and held it down for a second or so and BOOM!!!
The battery vented and since the kts is such a piece of junk the whole top cap and atty blew off and shot across the room.
Even worse this all happened at the food court in a MALL!!!
He figured out after taking his used pipe bomb home and checking it with a multimeter that it was a dead short in the iclear30's atty head.

 

[Heavyrocker]

Mechs are more ''dangerous''than regulated devices,thats a given.Ill bet most people have experienced some sort of ''hot'' battery situation with a mech,i know ive had a few like leaving the fire button on.I do like mechs but im rocking the DNA Hana and loving it.

 

[Maurice Pudlo]

I don't believe a mechanical mod is any more dangerous than a knife. Some will go an entire lifetime and never harm themselves while others will use them in some way that results in harm.

The simplicity of most every mechanical mod is nice in that if you understand electricity and own a few basic tools you can effectively identify any issue prior to use.

Maurice

 

[skoony]

I'd tend to believe that if a VV could handle a .05 ohm coil, then pushing it that close to the limit is just as bad as with the mech, especially when you consider the fact that most are taking their ohm reading off a $15 piece that probably has a .1 ohm error, maybe more!

Stay safe my friends...

there are many meters in the 15 to 30 dollar range that are plenty accurate enough to meet the needs of those people rebuilding coils.
30 years ago i had to spend over 100 dollars to get a meter that met the requirements at work. today i can get the same specs in a 30 dollar meter and also get built in diode and transistor checker,rudimentary frequency counter and generator and,other sundry doo dads.

regards
mike

 

[skoony]

did he ohm out the tank after reassembly or,just the coil and wick assembly? it seems to me if one takes their final ohm reading after assembly,then the problem was in fact in the mod. it doesn't take much for a foreign substance to get into the connector base and short out the battery. the heat from a short in the connector would travel through the metal a lot faster than one might think. this would give the impression that the tank was the cause of the short. taking a reading after the fact may not give a reliable indication as damage caused by extreme heat could make it appear the short was in the tank.

regards
mike

 

[Bunnykiller]

Why not? What's wrong with an iClear on a mech? (Not saying that I like iClears, just curious about your question).

dont know... kinda reminds me of putting bicycle wheels on a dragster...

 

[Heavyrocker]

Iclears taste to me likeCr....ap...no offence.The KF tanks and RDA`s are the only way to go.

 

[DaveP]

The simplest solution is a fuse backed up by a sacrificial spring. The fuse itself acts fast enough to prevent the short from affecting the battery.

Smoktech Safety Fuse

 

[tj99959]

It's possible for many clearos to have dead short problems. That's nothing new, and dates back to the old CE4/Vivi Nova days.
So should we blame the PV's, or should we blame the clearos?!? The most common short is cause by the coil not being centered, and touching the side of the metal tube.
Common sense told me to stop using clearos on a mechanical PV a long time ago. (they fried a lot of eGo batteries too)

 

[DaveP]

I've made it to early retirement age and life is good. If my mod shorts (and it has several times) I want it to notify me with a simple message. No hot liquid and gas emissions, please! And no fireworks ... I've seen the pictures of those who ate an exploding tube.

 

[tj99959]

I've made it to early retirement age and life is good. If my mod shorts (and it has several times) I want it to notify me with a simple message. No hot liquid and gas emissions, please! And no fireworks ... I've seen the pictures of those who ate an exploding tube.

I found a cheaper solution ..... I stopped using clearos!

 

[DaveP]

I found a cheaper solution ..... I stopped using clearos!

Well, there's always good quality tanks and rebuildables. Anything can short or experience coil sag that leads to high amps. If it creates vapor there's always a potential short contributor inside. And then there's the alignment issues with anything that has a threaded connection. I've had things I screwed in that made the mod report a short.

My main concern with anything that has no safety devices is new user mishaps. The learning curve can be somewhat dangerous. Most of that comes from the "watch this! I made a .1 ohm coil!" or the "Look! I put two 18350's in my mech" syndrome. Oops, one of them was in backwards ...

 

[Wow1420]

It measures at 2.4ohm but shorts on a mod.

How was it measured? with meter leads touching the connector or screwed into an resistance checker?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that you posted the warning, but I'm enough of a nerd about these things that I'd like to know more about how the coil head failed and why the first check didn't catch it.

 

[tj99959]

Well, there's always good quality tanks and rebuildables. Anything can short or experience coil sag that leads to high amps. If it creates vapor there's always a potential short contributor inside. And then there's the alignment issues with anything that has a threaded connection. I've had things I screwed in that made the mod report a short.

My main concern with anything that has no safety devices is new user mishaps. The learning curve can be somewhat dangerous. Most of that comes from the "watch this! I made a .1 ohm coil!" or the "Look! I put two 18350's in my mech" syndrome. Oops, one of them was in backwards ...

Agree with that, and the moment a person forgets that THEY are the safety device their mechanical becomes an accident looking for a place to happen.

side note:
I was reading a safety report a while back (not vaping related) that suggested that the most accident prone group was actually older long term machine operators that had become complacent, not apprentice or new operators.
So, just because we have been doing it for a long time, doesn't mean that we can skip over things!

 

[Wow1420]

It's possible for many clearos to have dead short problems. That's nothing new, and dates back to the old CE4/Vivi Nova days.
So should we blame the PV's, or should we blame the clearos?!? The most common short is cause by the coil not being centered, and touching the side of the metal tube.

I've also had an end of the wire stick out past the insulator and short against the 510 connector. Caught that on the meter.

Common sense told me to stop using clearos on a mechanical PV a long time ago. (they fried a lot of eGo batteries too)

I've not yet run into an ego that didn't have short circuit protection. Which I've tested, both intentionally and unintentionally.

I run my PTs on a kicked mechanical, the kick provides the short circuit protection.