how do I know if my 510 atomizers are dead?

[robl45]

is it once they get flooded they are dead? 2 atomizers lasted over a month and now I have 3 that seem not have lasted more than a few days each. I know I flooded them, but I think they flooded from not getting hot enough than anything else. The original two I bought got flooded, I blew them out and got the juice out and they worked fine.

These 3 new ones now heat up but its like they just don't heat up enough, all they do is flood and flood, work great maybe for a puff and then are done. I have two more on the way probably thursday and would rather not destroy those as well.

 

[Pete54]

Step 1 - Blow the atty out until nothing comes out of it.
Step 2 - Drip 3 drops directly on the bridge of the atty.
Step 3 - Make sure your battery is fully charged.
Step 4 - Take a toot. If you're not getting good vapor then get a multimeter (you really need one in this hobby) and set it to ohms Ω. Put the black lead on the threads and the red lead in the small hole (battery side of atty). It should read about 2.3Ω. If it reads zero it's a dead short. If it reads high, like 3.9 or so, it's on it's last legs!

Good luck.

 

[robl45]

i used my multimeter, all 3 read right aroudn 9 to 10 ohms, is that bad? how would I kill them? is it just from getting flooded?

 

[Scottbee]

i used my multimeter, all 3 read right aroudn 9 to 10 ohms, is that bad? how would I kill them? is it just from getting flooded?

If your meter is working right.. and you're reading it correctly, and the atomizers are really at 9-10Ω.... then they're shot and there is nothing that you can do to bring them back.

And that's very strange indeed.

 

[robl45]

and how do they get shot? just from flooding?

 

[Pete54]

What Scottbee said, and did you try the steps I mentioned anyway? To answer your question, no, flooding doesn't kill atty's. What are you using? Is it a standard 510 battery or a mod? Are all the atty's from the same place? Where did you buy them?
What you are describing is highly unlikely to happen. There must be some piece of info we are missing.
Hey Scottbee, kinda like an episode of House!

 

[robl45]

2 atomizers from rocky mountain vapor, one from ecig supply. standard 510 batteries. I bought one with the atomizer from ecig supply and the other I've had that came from cignot. using the BFD cart mod. I think somehow the carts are flooding the atomizers, hard to really tell right now because clearly the atomizers aren't working.

oh and yea I tried the steps you mentioned many times already and no luck. maybe a good puff or two and then nothing, it just floods almost instantly, like it doesn't get hot enough.

 

[robl45]

when I put the meters leads together on ohms, they read 7.2, so I'm guessing I need to subtract 7.2 from my numbers? so based on the readings this morning,t hey all read like 13. so I guess they are more like 5.8 ohms.

 

[Scottbee]

when I put the meters leads together on ohms, they read 7.2, so I'm guessing I need to subtract 7.2 from my numbers? so based on the readings this morning,t hey all read like 13. so I guess they are more like 5.8 ohms.

Frankly, I wouldn't trust the meter readings at all. Something is very wrong either with your meter, or the leads.

 

[Richie G]

What Scott said.

There is a crimp or solder connection where the meter wires meet with the probes. Sometimes that comes loose and gives false readings.

A battery on its last legs will give false/inaccurate readings.

Your meter could be way out of calibration.

Or the meter is toast.

Compensating your readings, as if 5 ohms is zero when the probes are shorted and working from there is a bad idea.

 

[robl45]

I guess the meter could have problems, although i doubt it, but i can confirm when the new atomizers get here.

but its pretty clear these are dead, I tried the method above and and I'm getting like no vapor. if I hold the button down for like 10 seconds, I get a little vapor.

So the main issue, what the heck can I be doing to kill these atomizers? I do vape a lot at home and on my way to work and home. am i running them too wet, to dry? I thought they don't die that easily.

 

[Kelemvor]

if you regularly flood your atomizers, the liquid gets on all threads of atomizer and battery connector. before you do anything else, you should clean all threads.

i had one battery that wouldn't charge anymore because of liquid deposits. and atomizers working not as they should.

 

[Pete54]

I guess the meter could have problems, although i doubt it, but i can confirm when the new atomizers get here.

but its pretty clear these are dead, I tried the method above and and I'm getting like no vapor. if I hold the button down for like 10 seconds, I get a little vapor.

So the main issue, what the heck can I be doing to kill these atomizers? I do vape a lot at home and on my way to work and home. am i running them too wet, to dry? I thought they don't die that easily.

Without a multimeter that is working properly, it's a bit hard to diagnose where your issue is. Another thing to check is the voltage of your battery. Assuming your meter is working, test the batt by selecting V on the meter and touching the black probe to the outside of the connector and the red to the center. Now push the button and tell us what it reads. Again, I'm assuming that you are using a standard e-cig battery. Fully charged your battery should read over 4 volts. If you've blown all the juice out and dripped 3 drops and are not getting vapor then either the atty is alomst dead or you're not getting enough power to it. I've had 3 atty's die in almost 6 months of vaping so I'm inclined to believe you're not getting enough power. Make sure all connections are clean and dry. Have you tried different batteries?

 

[Scottbee]

I guess the meter could have problems, although i doubt it, but i can confirm when the new atomizers get here.

Your meter should read 0, or very close to 0Ω when the leads are "shorted". If not, either the leads are bad, the meter is bad, or it has poor accuracy in the lower Ohm ranges (which makes it useless for this test).

So.. the meter absolutely has problems. No getting around it.

 

[robl45]

Your meter should read 0, or very close to 0Ω when the leads are "shorted". If not, either the leads are bad, the meter is bad, or it has poor accuracy in the lower Ohm ranges (which makes it useless for this test).

So.. the meter absolutely has problems. No getting around it.

well voltage readings are dead on, I've verified that with other things so I can check the voltage on the batteries.

 

[robl45]

Without a multimeter that is working properly, it's a bit hard to diagnose where your issue is. Another thing to check is the voltage of your battery. Assuming your meter is working, test the batt by selecting V on the meter and touching the black probe to the outside of the connector and the red to the center. Now push the button and tell us what it reads. Again, I'm assuming that you are using a standard e-cig battery. Fully charged your battery should read over 4 volts. If you've blown all the juice out and dripped 3 drops and are not getting vapor then either the atty is alomst dead or you're not getting enough power to it. I've had 3 atty's die in almost 6 months of vaping so I'm inclined to believe you're not getting enough power. Make sure all connections are clean and dry. Have you tried different batteries?

I will check the voltage later, three different batteries.

 

[Richie G]

Unfortunately, the voltage meter portion of your multimeter can work flawlessly while the ohm meter portion can be off the wall. From what you've typed out and relayed here *that* is the case...

Have you checked the meter's battery that I mentioned earlier? That could STILL be the problem even though when you checked your PV battery it came up correctly. The ohm meter itself relies on the meter's battery for testing resistance (that's its source), but the voltage meter doesn't -- the tested device is the voltage 'source', for the most part.

 

[robl45]

you are probably right, the meter hasn't had a battery change in probably forever.

i'm at my wits end because I have no working atomizers. the only way I can get anything now is to hold the battery for about 5 secs or just about till it turns off, then i get a little bit of vapor.

 

[Richie G]

Well... the idea is to eliminate possible issues one at a time until we have nothing else to resolve. Then we'll know for sure what the PV problem is.

Most importantly, first off, is to make that multimeter work correctly if at all possible -- it's the tool to start the rest of the diagnostics in motion.

 

[robl45]

battery will be checked tonight, new atomizers here on thursday.. not sure what else I can tell about the atomizer. if the batteries voltage is okay, and i'm sure it will be, and the atomizer is not lighting up and barely produces smoke, I think we have to assume that its dead? usually when i get new ones, i connect the battery, barely depress the switch and its glowing bright red.

i'm pretty sure the new atomizer will read lower on ohms, I'm just not sure what would cause the problems in the first place.