Information on how things work and why they wear out?

[Krissie Pearse]

Is there an article (or series of articles) here about how atomisers, cartomisers and e-cig batteries work, and why they wear out?

Also, does anybody have any information on how designs of these things have improved over time, and why those improvements have brought better results? (eg, to the amount of vapor, for example)

 

[Eddie.Willers]

Start here:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/ecf-library/36180-wonderful-world-vaping-illustrated-guide-e-cigs-part-1-6-a.html

 

[Oicu812]

Well, speaking as an engineer, anything designed to create heat will wear out over time.

When you have a lightbulb filament or a heating coil, you are heating them up to a red hot state for them to work. Once metals reach that point, the resistance value goes down and they slow in their heating.

That being said, heating metals changes their molecular structure (think of the way Samurai swords are created). The metal expands during heating, and contracts during the cooling phases.

After repeated reheatings and coolings, stress fractures happen. And then your coil will no longer heat properly, or at all.

O

 

[Krissie Pearse]

Thanks for that. I've just learned almost everything I needed to know.... for now minousface:

 

[dormouse]

All rechargeable batteries wear out whether they be in cell phones, laptops, anything. They can work well for some number of recharges (usually somewhere between 150 and 250) and then they stop holding charge well. And if you buy automatic batteries or any battery with an open hole in the end, there's a good chance juice leaks that get into the battery may kill it early.

Everything that makes heat gets stressed and can fail. Lightbulbs, toasters, electric stove burners, etc. Atomizers have the additional problem of burnt juices gunking up the coil so an atomizer may degrade to poor performance before it dies.

Everything with stuffing or wicks gets dirty with juice residue. Simple atomizer cartridges can be restuffed but they are the more annoying way to vape so most use cartomizers instead which have limited lives. Every cartomizer is both fresh stuffing (or wicks) and a fresh atomizer coil inside.

 

[Krissie Pearse]

I'm actually fairly technically minded myself - I was actually wondering more about different kinds of atomisers, how they worked, how they've developed, what's improved and why, how different batteries can have different results with diffrerent atomisers (mostly down to voltage and storage I guess), and how different atomisers/carto's can have different effects with different connections to the juice. I'm also curious about direct juice injection and how it works.

said that, I have all the basic information I need now... everything mentioned in this particular post is/would be a bonus.

 

[frosting]

I'll take a whack at it!

A lower Ohm atomizer often called low resistance, eats up more power from the battery. With that said using one with your battery can in turn lower it's life a bit faster. Some people say it doesn't matter. It seems to be from my observations on ECF a very ymmv issue. I want to say most atomizers work about the same but I could be wrong. The atomizer coil heats up, vaporizing the liquid added. There are also de-bridged atomizers that are suppose to be a "drippers dream" I haven't used them myself or extensively looked into them to speak too much about them just mentioning as the only other kind of atomizer i'm aware of besides the standard sort.

You have different results with different atomizers and cartomizers based on the "Ohm" rating. 1.5/1.7 is typically low resistance, 2.0 standard , 3.0 high. The higher the Ohm the cooler the vapor. The lower the Ohm the warmer the vapor, but harder on the battery in general be it an atomizer or cartomizer. When it comes to connections with juice well, one juice may taste slightly different on an atomizer compared to a cartomizer. Some juices do not suffer at all and stay the same. Dark juices are known to be difficult on both for whatever reasons I am not positive. Possibly more sediment happens in darker juices.

Mostly I would sum up things getting better because it's a brand spanking new technology. Hope that helped

 

[mayday]

@frosting....great info

 

[Krissie Pearse]

It's certainly of some help, though I'm looking more from a development perspective. For example, horizontal cooils are supposedly better than other coils... why? and what's the difference exactly?

Put another way... if someone were to design a new E-cig, apart from adding new features, how would they go about improving on what's already out there?

 

[frosting]

Thanks mayday. Krissie you may want to take a look into Mod sub forums. Some of your questions might already be answered be there. Sorry I couldn't help you out more. Hopefully someone else can chime in for you.