Hey! I am knew here, but not new to E-Cig.

[Crystal110472]

Hey Everyone! I'm not new to E-Cig, looks like a Cigarette. I used to Smoke Fuma, but of Course they took them off the Shelves! So I'm trying to find Another E-Cig, went out of town yesterday and found a store that had Clayton E-Cig , Came home and Charged the battery, and Tried to try Clayton E-Cig and the dang thing don't even freaking work, the damn battery was a faulty Battery, which now I upset because I spent that much money and it didn't even work, I don't Even know if I could return it or not!! Does anyone happen to know What E-Cig is the best? I don't like liquid vape, I'm looking for E-Cig that looks like a Cig, and that takes Cartridges. The reason for Explaining what kind and Everything is Because Everyone I talk to Don't know what the crap I'm looking for! I'm trying to find a store near me, instead of having to go in every store! Can someone please help me?

 

[bombastinator]

Your problem may not have been the battery but the diaphragm switch. Though those are commonly in the battery. Ones that look like cigarettes are called “cigalikes”. They tend to be mechs and have very small batteries. They can be automatic or manual switched. The ones that smoke just like a cigarette are auto switched. The biggest issue the automatics tend to have is the switch works off a vacuum diaphragm and if it gets juice in it there can be problems. The best one I ever used was not normally sold in the U.S. it had a charging case to deal with the small battery, and the batteries had a hole through the center to get the vacuum inlet at what would be the “hot end” on a cigarette so they didn’t clog as much and were easier to clear when they did. I’m forgetting the name but I’ve got one somewhere. I’ll post it when I find it. Iirc blu was an auto switched cigalike that worked much like a cigarette except that it glowed blue not orange. Iirc they are still around. Most people eventually wound up with non mech manuals that had bigger batteries which were swappable and looked like boxes with a nipple on the end.

A way to clear an auto cigalike clog that sometimes works is use very high molarity alcohol which both evaporates and doesn’t conduct electricity. You put the battery with the clogged switch in the alcohol for a bit to dissolve the clog, then pull it out and wait a day or two for the alcohol to evaporate away. Sometimes works. I used Wisconsin everclear (Wisconsin had a law allowing higher proof alcohol) because it was nearly pure ethyl alcohol and didn’t have that stuff in it that makes you sick if you drink it that they put in rubbing alcohol. COVID made high molarity alcohol fairly easy to get though. You may not be able to get Everclear of high enough proof (every state is different and they’ll sell it to you anyway, the proof will just be lower) in which case your best bet is probably rubbing alcohol. For the ones with the hole in the end you could just set it end down in a pool of the stuff and the alcohol would be dragged up the tube through capillary action. Capillary action is the bugbear of those things becaus all the holes and parts are very small and the result is capillary action will literally suck in liquid. Now I’m wondering if 20/80 gasohol would work. Gasoline has the same properties and the 80% alcohol is VERY high proof. Close to 200. So very little water in the stuff. Probably make the thing taste like gas though. I dunno. The cheapest way to do things is of course a rebuildable, so rta, rba, or rdta (though I haven’t really figured out what makes those different from RTAs) which is -the-box-with-the-bit-on-top. Lately the form factor of autos has switched to things that look more like a highlighter marker

 

[Coyote628]

I didn't think they made those anymore. Honestly, they're pretty much worthless as vape because you're restricted to the proprietary cartridges that they use. If you end up not being able to get the cartridges for whatever reason, all you have is a worthless battery. A disposable pod is better than a cig-alike and nearly every gas station sells them. In a myriad of flavors even. They are quite ubiquitous these days.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

Those types of vape/ecigs have gone out of style a decade ago and what's left on the market is mostly junk. If you don't want to have to buy juice and refill your own gear, then look into Vuse Alto, sold at just about any convenience store. That's not a cigalike, it's a close system pod system. So you can recharge the battery and when the juice is done in the pod, you buy another prefilled pods. Flavors are very limited, of course.

 

[bombastinator]

I didn't think they made those anymore. Honestly, they're pretty much worthless as vape because you're restricted to the proprietary cartridges that they use. If you end up not being able to get the cartridges for whatever reason, all you have is a worthless battery. A disposable pod is better than a cig-alike and nearly every gas station sells them. In a myriad of flavors even. They are quite ubiquitous these days.

While true I might have phrased it a “the next worst thing” because they don’t solve the cost problem or safety problem at all. Better than fuma? Sure. Blu at least inadvertently addressed the cost problem by screwing up their patents. The 510 connector? That ubiquitous thing that every box mod attaches their atty with? Thats right off a blu. Notice it’s the same diameter as a cigarette? There’s a reason for that. Before blu everything was a pod, because everyone had proprietary connections. Everything was a disposable too, but they made their juice “tips” out of plastic so people started refilling them with syringes. So companies said “why bother” and made refillable tips. Then blu screwed up their patent and batteries became “refillable” too and attys with refillable wicks became possible and vapers were off to the races. When I see a modern disposable I think “welcome to 2007”

 

[Crystal110472]

Your problem may not have been the battery but the diaphragm switch. Though those are commonly in the battery. Ones that look like cigarettes are called “cigalikes”. They tend to be mechs and have very small batteries. They can be automatic or manual switched. The ones that smoke just like a cigarette are auto switched. The biggest issue the automatics tend to have is the switch works off a vacuum diaphragm and if it gets juice in it there can be problems. The best one I ever used was not normally sold in the U.S. it had a charging case to deal with the small battery, and the batteries had a hole through the center to get the vacuum inlet at what would be the “hot end” on a cigarette so they didn’t clog as much and were easier to clear when they did. I’m forgetting the name but I’ve got one somewhere. I’ll post it when I find it. Iirc blu was an auto switched cigalike that worked much like a cigarette except that it glowed blue not orange. Iirc they are still around. Most people eventually wound up with non mech manuals that had bigger batteries which were swappable and looked like boxes with a nipple on the end.

A way to clear an auto cigalike clog that sometimes works is use very high molarity alcohol which both evaporates and doesn’t conduct electricity. You put the battery with the clogged switch in the alcohol for a bit to dissolve the clog, then pull it out and wait a day or two for the alcohol to evaporate away. Sometimes works. I used Wisconsin everclear (Wisconsin had a law allowing higher proof alcohol) because it was nearly pure ethyl alcohol and didn’t have that stuff in it that makes you sick if you drink it that they put in rubbing alcohol. COVID made high molarity alcohol fairly easy to get though. You may not be able to get Everclear of high enough proof (every state is different and they’ll sell it to you anyway, the proof will just be lower) in which case your best bet is probably rubbing alcohol. For the ones with the hole in the end you could just set it end down in a pool of the stuff and the alcohol would be dragged up the tube through capillary action. Capillary action is the bugbear of those things becaus all the holes and parts are very small and the result is capillary action will literally suck in liquid. Now I’m wondering if 20/80 gasohol would work. Gasoline has the same properties and the 80% alcohol is VERY high proof. Close to 200. So very little water in the stuff. Probably make the thing taste like gas though. I dunno. The cheapest way to do things is of course a rebuildable, so rta, rba, or rdta (though I haven’t really figured out what makes those different from RTAs) which is -the-box-with-the-bit-on-top. Lately the form factor of autos has switched to things that look more like a highlighter marker

Thank you for the info! I let my oldest daughter look at it and she says the tip of the battery still turns red so it couldn't be the battery, she thinks it's the Cartridges but we tried all 5 Cartridges and none worked!

 

[smacuser]

Thank you for the info! I let my oldest daughter look at it and she says the tip of the battery still turns red so it couldn't be the battery, she thinks it's the Cartridges but we tried all 5 Cartridges and none worked!

Just for fun, does any vapor escape when you blow out into the mouthpiece?

 

[somdcomputerguy]

Welcome to ECF, Crystal110472.

 

[BrotherBob]

Hey Everyone!

Welcome and glad you rejoined.

 

[bombastinator]

Thank you for the info! I let my oldest daughter look at it and she says the tip of the battery still turns red so it couldn't be the battery, she thinks it's the Cartridges but we tried all 5 Cartridges and none worked!

TLDNR: MORE MECHANICS
There are 4 parts to an ecig: the power source, the switch, the atomizer, and the juice tank. In cigalikes the juice tank is usually the tip (in pods the atomizer and the tank are combined) the atomizer, or coil, is in the middle, and the battery, which combines the power source and the switch, is on the end. Sometimes, like in many disposables, the juice tank is a qqqqqqsatuqrated pith, like in a marker. The light going on (which is I think what your daughter is describing) indicates the power source and the switch are both functional, though the switch may be fouled, and not behaving normally. Autoswitches have a rep for fragility and are easy to foul. The switch allows power to the atomizer which heats and vaporizes the juice which the tank passes to the atomizer much like the power is passed to the atomizer. If any of these passings are broken the thing doesn’t work.
It’s a bit like a gas engine which needs fuel, spark, and compression. If the juice doesnt pass to the atomizer or the power doesn’t pass to the coil in the atomizer, or the coil in the atomizer is broken and can’t heat up you get a broken chain of behavior and the system fails. One or more (but probably only one) of these things isn’t happening. If it’s not the diaphragm auto switch (the most common failure point in cigalikes to the point that manual switches which are just buttons became popular) it’s something else. All a box mod is is a really fancy battery. That’s part of why it’s called a mod. It’s an ecig battery with additional features.

 

[bombastinator]

double post

 

[5cardstud]

I was a new member in 2010 but have been tardy for awhile. Got a couple emails from ECF so I thought I'd stop back and see what you've done to the place.

 

[bombastinator]

It seems about the same as it was in 2015 technologically. It still seems concentrated on non-disposables mostly.