After much investigation, I have tracked down my issue: its the juice, not the atomizers.
After tearing apart a few of my atomizers, I noticed that there was a gummy, carbon-like residue throughout the unit. Just seeing this reminded me of when I tore apart an engine an noticed similar build up on my heads and pistons. That build up was from using low quality gas. The crappier the quality, the quicker this build up happens. So that lead me to focus on the juice instead of the atomizers. I contacted my main supplier for juice (will remain unnamed for many reasons) and spoke to him at length about this. I didn't get two sentences in and he stopped me and confirmed my suspicions. He was getting increased reports of attys biting the dust, and just finished looking into it. He found that with his juice on a 3.7v w/LR attys or 5-6v units, the flavor/sweetener would create a residue during vaporization that would coat everything. This gunk would act as an insulator, overheating it extremely fast and eventually popping the atty. They could not replicate this on a regular Joye 510 with the same juice. The recent surge of HV and LR attys hitting the market would explain why his atty complains have tripled in the last few months. After changing formulas and going through about 70 atomizers in testing, he did find a formula that minimized this effect. He was quick to point out that it didn't alleviate it completely, so plan on more cleaning cycles. This discovery has lead him to start development on a atty cleaning kit, which is underway. He also speculated that many other juice vendors may be having this issue and not know it, but because of the quick raise in popularity of HV units, they are likely to find out soon enough.
So, lesson learned. If your blowing atomizers, don't rule out the juice.
Edit: He was kind enough to send me 2 attys and new juice.
After tearing apart a few of my atomizers, I noticed that there was a gummy, carbon-like residue throughout the unit. Just seeing this reminded me of when I tore apart an engine an noticed similar build up on my heads and pistons. That build up was from using low quality gas. The crappier the quality, the quicker this build up happens. So that lead me to focus on the juice instead of the atomizers. I contacted my main supplier for juice (will remain unnamed for many reasons) and spoke to him at length about this. I didn't get two sentences in and he stopped me and confirmed my suspicions. He was getting increased reports of attys biting the dust, and just finished looking into it. He found that with his juice on a 3.7v w/LR attys or 5-6v units, the flavor/sweetener would create a residue during vaporization that would coat everything. This gunk would act as an insulator, overheating it extremely fast and eventually popping the atty. They could not replicate this on a regular Joye 510 with the same juice. The recent surge of HV and LR attys hitting the market would explain why his atty complains have tripled in the last few months. After changing formulas and going through about 70 atomizers in testing, he did find a formula that minimized this effect. He was quick to point out that it didn't alleviate it completely, so plan on more cleaning cycles. This discovery has lead him to start development on a atty cleaning kit, which is underway. He also speculated that many other juice vendors may be having this issue and not know it, but because of the quick raise in popularity of HV units, they are likely to find out soon enough.
So, lesson learned. If your blowing atomizers, don't rule out the juice.
Edit: He was kind enough to send me 2 attys and new juice.
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