How would juice short out a battery?

[UncleChuck]

I'm sure most everyone remembers using little auto batteries and worrying about getting juice in them. juice shorts out the battery they say. How?

In order to short the battery out, juice would have to be conductive. Is it? I've lost my multimeter so I can't test it. But just thinking things through here, if juice was conductive enough to short a battery and destroy it, then our current vaping technology simply wouldn't work, would it?

We oxidize SS wicks so that they won't short against the coil. SS is conductive, which is how it can short the coil. Well... the coil is constantly surrounded by juice. If it was conductive, it would short the coil out.

Soooo.. what gives? I'm thinking it's more likely that juice gets into the draw sensor, and just clogs it up, not shorting anything out. Anyone want to stick some multimeter leads into a puddle of juice and let me know what you find?

 

[Fury83]

This seems like a too complicated method. I just try to not get the wet sticky stuff in in my batteries, mods or other non atomizing devices. It just seems like a good practice

 

[MorpheusPA]

Dow lists the EC of propylene glycol as 10 micro S/m. Which translates to about 100,000 ohm per meter resistance. Or 2,540 ohms per inch.

Glycerin is 0.16 micro S/in, or a resistance of 6,250,000 ohms per inch.

Warranted, nicotine could be highly conductive, I wouldn't know. But it doesn't seem like our PG or VG would short a battery.

Maybe it mucks up the electronics or sensor that makes the automatic fire?

 

[bmrdave]

I guess technically it does, but since the coil is magnitudes more conductive than the liquid solution, the current through the liquid would be miniscule.

At least that's why the carto or atomizer or whatever doesn't short, but if it got into the battery compartment, with the switch to the carto not engaged then if a path between the anode and cathode presented itself, the electricity would flow I imagine.

 

[Rader2146]

It doesnt. But it's an easy scapegoat for people that don't necessarily know about electricity to blame for their battery/autoswitch failures.

I'd venture to say that a good cleaning in some alcohol would rectify must of those "shorts".

 

[Mavrik1]

Most people think that water is conductive, but it's not. It's the minerals in the water that is conductive.

Minerals (dirt) in the pipe or juice would be what shorts things out.

 

[dgm76513]

What happens is, the juice leaks down through the air hole of the auto battery, and clogs the little microphone (yes microphone) that "listens" for air rushing by, rendering it deaf. It does not short the battery out, rather it acts like earplugs.

Permanent earplugs at that, as I have seen little success in extracting the juice from the airflow sensing device.

For example: Say you drop your phone in the toilet some water, and somehow it magically still works. When you place a call, you either can't hear the person on the other end, or you can but just barely, and vice-versa.

Microphones don't like to get wet, especially with a thick, yet viscous material such as those found in e-liquid.

ETA: I do agree with Raider, if anything will work, it would be alcohol. Don't expect immediate results, though. You'll need to wait for everything to dry out thoroughly.

 

[UncleChuck]

It doesnt. But it's an easy scapegoat for people that don't necessarily know about electricity to blame for their battery/autoswitch failures.

I'd venture to say that a good cleaning in some alcohol would rectify must of those "shorts".

I figured as much, I just didn't want to blatantly call BS on the idea of juice shorting batteries in the event that there was some aspect I didn't consider. However many times I've thought about it I could never come up with a good idea on how juice could short a battery even though I've heard people talk about it happening probably thousands of times over the years.

Kind of like how the idea got spread around that using a magnet as a battery spacer is a bad idea (even on the negative battery terminal) even though there really isn't any way for it to cause an issue (unless magnetic fields are somehow harmful to the battery's chemistry, although that's far too advanced stuff for me)

Seeing how incredibly young the ecig community and industry are it isn't surprising that there is a lot of "misleading" information and bogus concepts floating around out there. There just hasn't been much time for everything to get ironed out yet.

Since I was about 99% sure there was no way the juice was shorting the battery it only made sense that it was gumming up the sensor. Manual batteries don't get messed up because they have nothing to mess up, not because they are sealed. I mean, technically yes they don't get damaged because they are sealed, but even an unsealed manual battery shouldn't have an issue dealing with juice.

Also relevant to the people who worry about getting juice in and around the button on their APVs, I can't see that actually causing an issue either.

Good idea on the alcohol... I'm thinking 99% iso would probably be best, dip the LED end into the alcohol and swish it around a bit, followed by some blowing/sucking should clean any juice gunk off the sensor. I don't have any "damaged' auto batteries that need a cleaning so unfortunately I can't test it out.

The only thing I'd worry about with alcohol is possibly dissolving some sort of adhesive or something inside the battery. The cells inside are just wrapped up in some plastic wrap that appears to be taped or glued shut. Not sure how those would put up with alcohol.

It's best just to keep any area with batteries or electronics clear of any debris or foreign material, but I just wanted to confirm that the juice is not shorting the batteries out. I get technical about this sort of thing, it bugs me when misleading things are spread around so often.

 

[73ckn797]

I'm thinking it's more likely that juice gets into the draw sensor, and just clogs it up, not shorting anything out.

I have an auto battery which seems to automatically turn on when I screw in a clearomizer or carto. I hear the atomoizer crackle for a few seconds then turns off. I know that liquid has gone down through the hole in the battery. I am a newb and made a few messes that first week.

 

[Johnnie Price]

I've seen numerous references in the older posts of this forum to cleaning batteries in PGA. Soak it for a while, suck and blow on both ends to loosen any dried gunk and then let it dry. It'll taste like alcohol for an hour or so when you first start using it, but it should fix the issue.

It seems that knowledge like this is mostly forgotten now that most people use manuals, or are immediately turned off of autos after hearing about certain issues.

 

[darkhood]

This seems like a too complicated method. I just try to not get the wet sticky stuff in in my batteries, mods or other non atomizing devices. It just seems like a good practice