Atomizer Death Reports - add yours here ...

[Sun Vaporer]

Just bought a Prodigy V1. Seemed like the cartridge was too far from the heating element to get the kind of vapor production shown in the videos. So I started dripping. In quick succession--about an hour or two-- four atomizers (my only 4) stopped working. The heating elements no longer heat. I tried cleaning, changing batteries, blowing out the excess liquid, and even sucking out the excess liquid with a vacuum cleaner duct tape. The atomizers remained cold--both with the Prodigy and with my old classic SD. One of the atomizers (the one that came with my V1) was only a day old. The others had been used only a few weeks (with frequent switching).

Please help. I'm without the means to vape right now and will soon have to purchase cigarettes.

Shed--over the course of time I have had my fair share of issues---but your story here really beats about any reported post I have ever read. Dripping (in the short run anyway) only helps to cool the atomizer coil so I do not think your issue was dripping for a few hours on each of these four atomizers. Nor does it sound like they are flooded as you report that you cleared them. Sounds like their is a short in one of your devices ---Sun

 

[breakfastchef]

Just bought a Prodigy V1. Seemed like the cartridge was too far from the heating element to get the kind of vapor production shown in the videos. So I started dripping. In quick succession--about an hour or two-- four atomizers (my only 4) stopped working...The atomizers remained cold--both with the Prodigy and with my old classic SD.

The only thing you changed when the atomizers died was use the Prodigy. It is unusual to have four atomizers die in one day so my guess is you tried to vape on those atomizers as if you were using a typical device with screw-in batteries running at lower voltage. Vaping at 5V or higher (also at 3.7 volts with a manual button) can prematurely kill atomizers. Not because they are running hotter necessarily, but because the atomizer can overheat and stress the heating coil. Dripping is fine, but if you start dripping room temperature liquid on a hot heating coil, it can easily break from the abrupt change in temperature.

A few good practices include taking 6-8 draws on the Prodigy and put it down for a minute. Have another device, like you SD to use, then go back to the Prodigy. Do not drip the atomizer if it is still hot, and don't drip more than three drops. If you do, and the atomizer floods (gugling sound), the heating coil must work overtime to vape out the excess fluid putting causing it to overheat quickly.

 

[Stephaniems]

I've got a 901 atomizer I got with my second Kit in April thats still going strong, never clean it drip in it to the point of overflow. I use it on a simplistic battery mod that uses 3.6v ultafire rechargable. I use it constantly, all sorts of liquids from DIY, JC, myfreedomsmoke, nuvape, ruyan, and health cabin, all flavors. I'm actually abusing this atty pretty badly and it just keeps on vaping like its brand new. I wish all attys worked this well!! No clue why its going so great the ones in my first kit didnt do near as well. (but I cleaned them often maybe that has something to do with it)

I've cleaned it once only cause I was trying to resurrect the attys I got with my first kit, and thought why not, I used baking soda and vinegar rinsed in hot water blew it out gently, let it sit for awhile, filled with liquid, let it sit a min and blew that out gently.

looks a little tan on the inside probably pretty dirty but I'm just gonna vape it like crazy and see how long it lasts.

 

[2sheds]

breakfastchef: Sounds like a plausible diagnosis. Thank you. If you're right, though, I assume this means the atomizers are permanently shot?

 

[woden]

Welp, here's my 2 cents worth.

I bought my original kit from saveasmoker.com, it came with only 1 atomizer so I was scared by all of these dead atomizer posts and bought a 5 pack from wicked.

But so far I've been vaping away for almost a month without a single failure of any kind.

Maybe I'm lucky ;-)

 

[breakfastchef]

breakfastchef: Sounds like a plausible diagnosis. Thank you. If you're right, though, I assume this means the atomizers are permanently shot?

The only way to know for sure is to test them with a multimeter. If you have one available to you, set the meter to the ohms mode, touch the black probe to the atomizer threads, the red probe to the center conductor and look at the value. Zero means fried, 3.5ish ohm means the atty is still good, a very high reading means it is FTD (fisin' to die). In your case, if they did not work on the SD either, then I would guess they really are fried. Let us know what you find out or feel free to PM me with the results.

 

[kinabaloo]

If the ohms test shows they are ok, the coil might be soaked, which takes a minute or so of puffing to clear and vapor spring to life.

If dead, the problem was more likely not enough juice rather than too much.

It's important to begin a puff as one activates the atty, and rlease the button before stop the puff. Also, to puff sufficiently hard to draw the juice onto the coil.

 

[davecury]

Attys come and go. I'v had some for a month, and some for 2 days. I just buy one a week till I have a few back-ups then cut back.

 

[imahuph]

first one lasted me 43 days then went caput

 

[happily]

My wife lost her first 510 atty after 7-8 weeks......It got a nasty burnt taste so I had to tear it apart and pull the wick out.(very burnt) I cleaned it thoroughly and glued it back and I figured she didn't prime it enough and vaped it dry... it burned up that day. Solder connection to the coil. You might wonder if the wick is necessary but I have removed the wicks from both my atty's and they are still going strong

 

[MattyMo]

got my 901 from ECM a few weeks ago. The atty it came with died after a day. I couldn't see anything within the atty that resembled damage. I dripped about 3 times before i attached the medium-nicotine cart. I'm pretty sure the drip was the 24mg vanilla from heavenly gifts. standard battery. no cleaning.

it's weird. i bought an additional atty with the order, and that one still works to this day..

 

[Stephaniems]

I'm thinking people are burning them up by accident, either hit a cleaning cycle when its almost dry that does it or are not putting enough drops in. I drip 1 or 2 drops in my atty every time I top off.

 

[TommyGunBC]

I don't get the testing the attys , I tested all of my so called dead ones and they were all about 4-5 volts does this mean they can be resurected ??

 

[Jherek]

I am just a neophyte at vaping, and I've lost three 901 atomizers in 5 days.

One, the one I used the most, got gunked up after vaping it really hard for 5 days. I'm vaping about 3/4's VG with PG fluild and a bit of water. It wasn't hitting as well and was giving off a nasty burning smoke, along with the vape, so I tried cleaning it out with H2O2 and heating. While that removed the obvious gunk, the chemical taste remains, rendering it unusable.

Another died that a friend tested out last week. It was barely used, and was washed out throughly hours afterward with water and soaked in vinegar, heated with the battery to red hot, etc. It also gives off a nasty chemical taste, and is unusable.

A third had the same chem taste problem, and I went at it with tweezers to remove gunk... I pulled out several bits of polyester from the wick, but, due to a neophyte error, I pulled the thin power leads (?) from the atomizer core - they were burnt black, and, of course, that atty is beyond help now.

 

[Tatsur0]

1. Prodigy 801
2. 2 days; Medium use
3. Rechargeable batteries
4. Using 801 when it died
5. Drained overnight (sat vertical)
6. Puresmoker.com Marlboro Juice
7. Drip
8. Looks brand new
9. Sorry no photo

Well I just bought the prodigy with 3 atomizers. Had a day and half with the first atomizer before it died on me. I had assumed it was the batteries, so I charged em and put in my other set. Those didn't work so gave the ones charging another chance when fully charged. Still no luck, tried a 2nd atomizer and it worked fine for about 5 puffs and died. Tried draining both thoroughly but they're dead and don't heat up at all. I'm on my 3rd and final atomizer which has worked for the last 15mins. I'm a bit nervous to continue burning $ on more atomizers.

 

[Keef]

Device : SD
Atomiser : RN4075
Liquid : TW - e-cigs - Janty - JC
Life : 2 -3 weeks.
Liquid vaped : 40 - 60 ml

The atomiser life expectancy has improved slightly this last 3 months I am getting nearer to 3 weeks out of them.
Before that 2 weeks - same as I was getting with the Mini 901 last year.

My atties dont fade away they die .
On the whole there is not really much build up of anything in them.

I do not wash them and I stopped blowing them out and draining them overnight in Dec 08 .

I did have 3 that got mega hot and really vile flavour like vaping acid and rotten egg.
They did have a lot of cruddy deposit in them at the ends of the bridge.
I give them a coke bath and that sorted the nasty flavour but they died a few days later.
I was trying some RoyalSmokers liquid in between the others I usually vape.
My guess the combination of liquids I was vaping at the time caused some kind of reaction, its never happened again.