iClear 30s Ohm Weirdness

[leigho]

Hello everyone,

As you will guess I am new the the forums and relatively new to vaping. I have been using a Vamo V5 for about a month with a variety of tanks/clearomizers (I think they're the same thing ) I've been getting on well with it and feel reasonably comfortable understanding what's going on. However last night and today I have had some strangeness going on with iClear 30s's and wonder if anyone can explain it.

Last night I was vaping Unicorn Blood which had been in the tank for about 5 days. I can't remember if I was on VW or VV but if I was on VW it would have been between 8-10w and if I was on VV it would have been 3.5-4.5v (probably below four). I remember getting a couple of burnt tasting draws but then it carried on as before. This morning I was clicking the buttons like you do and noticed the resistance had gone up to 3.3 ohm on a 2.1 ohm atomizer. It still seemed to be vaping OK though. As I had to top up the liquid I took this as a chance to clean the kit and followed some instructions from this forum on how to dry burn an atomizer. I did that and smoke came out but I noticed the top coil wasn't glowing but you can't see the second one on a 30s so difficult to check that one. I put it all back together and the resistance had gone up to 4 ohm.

As atomizers are relatively cheap I decided to put a new one in. It is clearly labelled on the atomizer as 2.1 ohm but the Vamo is reading it as 1.6.

Is anyone able to explain what happened in the first place for it to go up so much and yet still seem to vape OK? Then what has happened with the second one? Is mislabelling something that happens or is it possible that something else is faulty? I have tested an iClear 30 and an Aspire Nautilus and they are giving the readings I would expect so it's more likely to be 30s related that Vamo.

Many thanks

Leigh

 

[generic mutant]

Yes, there is some variation from the stated ohms - manufacturing tolerances in cheap kit.

If one coil broke and stopped conducting, you would expect resistance to approximately double. That *approximately* ties in to what you saw. Maybe it didn't break completely, but was only letting a small current through.

Coils increase in resistance over time anyway - we believe the top layer oxidises, stops conducting, and presumably partly disintegrates, so the 'usable' wire gradually thins.

 

[1wildman]

i dont have one but checked one out at the vape shop. I dont think you can dry burn a 30S. If you take the silicone tip off the coil the wicks come out and dont go back in. There is really no way to clean your wicks before burning them. Dry burning could melt that silicone tip if it is not removed. Your resistance will change if you pop one of the coils. Easiset fix is to put a new coil in it. They are only a couple bucks.

 

[leigho]

Wow, quick replies. Thanks very much.

In case anyone is interested I got the link for dry burning from How I clean my iClear 30S coils which was referred to from the e-cigarette forums. I did remove the silicon and it appears the wick that is attached to it is just for "flavouring" (I thought that was what they were all for) and I can confirm that a thin piece of wicking material comes out that is not attached to the rest of the "tube" and it seems like the rest of the material stayed in there.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

I've been successful at dry burning the 30s. I first rinse it in warm water and then take the silicone cap off. sometimes the top wick comes out. kind of a pain to get it back in so if I'm grumpy I just leave it out. I will pulse it around four volts until the coils dry and glow red. after that I now boil them for a little bit to get the burnt coil crud out. works pretty good. now that my favorite b and m has them for two bucks a pop, and since they last so long I'll probably just replace them with new ones.

 

[Revelene]

The manufacture tolerance definitely. But I see no one has mentioned that the built in ohm meter on the vamo is not super accurate. If you want more accuracy either use a specifically built ohm meter or DMM.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

mine will creep up ohmage wise so I will adjust accordingly. some after a few days and some after a couple weeks. no big. once they get up around three ohms they are just about at the end of thier life. obtw, I run unicorn blood around 4.7 for a flavorful vape and swagger around 4.0.

 

[CreepyLady]

I noticed the top coil wasn't glowing but you can't see the second one on a 30s so difficult to check that one. I put it all back together and the resistance had gone up to 4 ohm.

Ok this answers the question a dual coil means 2 coils work in parallel. In order to get a final resistance of 2.1 Ohms on a dual coil set up - you need two 4.2 Ohm coils working in parallel. If one stopped glowing and the Ohm reading approximately doubled - only one coil was firing

And the second question - coming in at 1.6 Ohms just means the crappy QC let through a build with two 3.2 Ohm coils.

Hope this helps to explain what happened - and with the increased resistance prior to your dry burn - it was probably already on its way out.

 

[leigho]

All very helpful information so thanks everyone. FWIW the Vamo has read every other coil exactly as labelled so I think it is reasonably accurate. On the other hand it could be an excuse to buy a dedicated ohm reader to my box of tricks!