Cartomizer Killed My eGo C Batts

[DangYankee]

Bought these 1.8 ohm eGo catomizers. I'm afraid they may have killed two of my batts:

EgO (2.3ml) 1.8ohm Horizontal Coil Cartomizer

One batt was a 600mah, the other a 1000. Both fully charged. Brand new cart; filled it with juice. Hooked one upto a batt; it died almost instantly. Light on the button stopped coming on. Tried the 1000- worked for a few drags, then same thing. Putting them on the charger to see if they come back. Hope they're not history.

Anybody else come across this kind of problem with a cartomizer?

 

[chinsk]

Do you have a meter that you can measure the resistance of that cartomizer with? Are these authentic joyetech eGos?

I had a situation where a cartomizer started as good, and then the resistance dropped shortly after initially firing it up. My batteries would fire for a split second and then not fire at all. I re-metered it and it was about 0.03 ohms, basically a short. It may be the short protection in the battery.

 

[BuGlen]

I had this happen with one of my eGo-C atties. Put it on a battery and hit it about 2 times and the battery appeared to just die. Tried it on another battery, and the same thing. Did some research and found that the "smart" Li-ion batteries have short circuit protection that resets once you put them on the charger for a few seconds, and it worked. Batteries have been fine ever since.

It would have been nice if Joyetech had put the information in the manual about the short circuit protection reset method in the manual (so I didn't freak out for 30 minutes), but at least I know now.

 

[atty]

Unfortunately another protection is the circuit board itself. If your battery going dead is accompanied with the smell of burning bakelite, then you can pretty much bet the MOSFET on the output side is toast. Like Chinsk, I had several attys suddenly decide to short out, and with no warning you can easily take out a battery.

Despair not, however. GoodProphets sells the board for about $3, and although not a quick fix, it is certainly better than tossing a $20 battery. You need to have patience and a reasonable skill with a soldering iron.

A simple, cheap multimeter is almost a necessity these days. You need to know the resistance of your cartos/attys to avoid roasting another battery.

 

[DangYankee]

Thanks for the feedback. There were Joytech batts. The vendor did agree to replace the one I bought from them. As far as the other, I'll buy a replacement and then see If I can salvage the fried one. Tried to re-charge them but to no avail. Never noticed any burning or anything else out of the ordinary with them. Still, I'll dismantle it ad see if I can do anything to repair it. Are there any good resources about how to take these batts apart and work on them?

 

[atty]

Since I was going to be working on a lot of these batteries, I tried to make life a little simpler by machining a female "holder" to screw the battery into. You could probably do the same thing with an atomizer, although it won't be quite as sturdy.

The process begins by gently working the case off of the head. The first time you do this, it will probably take a while as it is a tight press fit, and I have found that occasionally they will put a drop of glue between the joints to make things even more difficult. Patience is the key. Soon you will begin to see the separation begin.


Be very careful to keep your two hands from flying apart when it separates as this will undoubtedly rip the wires from either the circuit board, battery, or both. I sometimes limit the separation pressure by using my thumbs to push my hands apart thereby limiting the amount of travel. Once apart, you will see the circuit board which will have the two wires from the battery attached to one side and the single wire to the head on the other side. The battery should not come very far out of the case (maybe 1/2"), so don't pull too hard. There is a wire at the bottom of the battery that is soldered to the silver cap at the end. If the battery comes completely out of the case, then that wire has broken and needs to be re-soldered.


It takes a little time, patience, and a somewhat steady hand with a small soldering iron, but it is well worth the effort.