istick 50 watt exploded

[Bikenstein]

Fearmongering? How about "warning" for good reason. I've had 3 out of 3 fail. We had 40% fail in our co-op group. iSmoka isn't revealing all the problems they are having. joyetech isn't, and neither are the eleaf USA people. My third one died last night. I wish someone had warned me. Got a good one? Great, happy for you. But don't be bashing those who report their problems or warn others to be safe with these units that have melted carpets and ignited coils. I'm opening one up today to see if I can bring it back to life (warranty is out) and will probably post the results in an effort to help others.

 

[AndriaD]

Fearmongering? How about "warning" for good reason. I've had 3 out of 3 fail. We had 40% fail in our co-op group. iSmoka isn't revealing all the problems they are having. Joyetech isn't, and neither are the eLeaf USA people. My third one died last night. I wish someone had warned me. Got a good one? Great, happy for you. But don't be bashing those who report their problems or warn others to be safe with these units that have melted carpets and ignited coils. I'm opening one up today to see if I can bring it back to life (warranty is out) and will probably post the results in an effort to help others.

This thread has helped me tremendously, by encouraging me not to buy a 50w. I was tempted by the 4400mAh, but I don't need that much battery life if it has a really good chance of going haywire -- and judging from this thread ALONE, I'd say the chances of haywire are excellent.

I'll stick with my 30w's.

Andria

 

[james_2k]

Fearmongering? How about "warning" for good reason. I've had 3 out of 3 fail. We had 40% fail in our co-op group. iSmoka isn't revealing all the problems they are having. Joyetech isn't, and neither are the eLeaf USA people. My third one died last night. I wish someone had warned me. Got a good one? Great, happy for you. But don't be bashing those who report their problems or warn others to be safe with these units that have melted carpets and ignited coils. I'm opening one up today to see if I can bring it back to life (warranty is out) and will probably post the results in an effort to help others.

hmm. i'm highly highly dubious. you know how many thousands of these are out there? if the failure rate was anywhere NEAR what you are suggesting it would be pandemic on the forum. oh and massive amounts of legal action being taken, they would be FORCED to withdraw it!

also i'm not actually bashing anyone. just trying to bring some balance. but the chances of three out of three failing for one person are... astronomical. unless its user error of course.

charging batteries has an inherent risk, and this isn't emphasised enough by manufacturers.

this is all regarding the venting issue, follows right along.. more units sold, more people with the device, more problems reported. i would bet good money that a more expensive device with the same userbase would have the same number of charging issues.


the auto activation is another issue though, not sure whats going on there but ill be keeping an eye on mine. as i would with ANY large battery fed device.

This thread has helped me tremendously, by encouraging me not to buy a 50w. I was tempted by the 4400mAh, but I don't need that much battery life if it has a really good chance of going haywire -- and judging from this thread ALONE, I'd say the chances of haywire are excellent.

I'll stick with my 30w's.

Andria

exactly why you shouldn't judge it from one thread ALONE, its mainly the same few people saying they had a problem, a low number of people, and id imagine insignificant compared to units sold. But its your prerogative of course and your money at the end of the day!

 

[Baditude]

Fearmongering? How about "warning" for good reason. I've had 3 out of 3 fail. We had 40% fail in our co-op group. iSmoka isn't revealing all the problems they are having. Joyetech isn't, and neither are the eLeaf USA people. My third one died last night. I wish someone had warned me. Got a good one? Great, happy for you. But don't be bashing those who report their problems or warn others to be safe with these units that have melted carpets and ignited coils. I'm opening one up today to see if I can bring it back to life (warranty is out) and will probably post the results in an effort to help others.

I totally agree with the above.

The manufacturers and distributors of this device are being irresponsible by not acknowledging the issue. At least when Smoktech was selling a similar box mod a year or two ago with similar issues, they RECALLED ALL OF THE UNITS SOLD and DISCONTINUED PRODUCTION OF THE ENTIRE LINE when only a few customers experienced similar issues with autofiring and fires. IMO, this was the right and responsible thing to do when lives are at stake.

The iSticks are flying off of the shelves and the manufacturers of them appear to be ignoring that some of their units are defective and potentially dangerous. Another example of a manufacturer's greed trumping responsibility at all costs.

I watched the 20/20 episode last night about world wide counterfeiting, including fake pharmaceuticals and other discounted consumer products, and the vast majority of crimes of this nature originate from China. The nature of the Chinese government allows for racketeering and poor business practices to originate in China and there is no one to police it. It's unfortunate that there are so many greedy businesses in China just looking to make a quick buck than there appear to be reputable ones. The battery industry in China is outrageously corrupt with false advertising of battery specifications and lying about rewrapping battery cells.

 

[ElevenEleven]

hmm. i'm highly highly dubious. you know how many thousands of these are out there? if the failure rate was anywhere NEAR what you are suggesting it would be pandemic on the forum. oh and massive amounts of legal action being taken, they would be FORCED to withdraw it!

also i'm not actually bashing anyone. just trying to bring some balance. but the chances of three out of three failing for one person are... astronomical. unless its user error of course.

charging batteries has an inherent risk, and this isn't emphasised enough by manufacturers.

this is all regarding the venting issue, follows right along.. more units sold, more people with the device, more problems reported. i would bet good money that a more expensive device with the same userbase would have the same number of charging issues.


the auto activation is another issue though, not sure whats going on there but ill be keeping an eye on mine. as i would with ANY large battery fed device.



exactly why you shouldn't judge it from one thread ALONE, its mainly the same few people saying they had a problem, a low number of people, and id imagine insignificant compared to units sold. But its your prerogative of course and your money at the end of the day!

Every day or every other day, I see a thread started by someone whose iStick has malfunctioned. The real kicker is that this thread has nearly 10k views.

 

[james_2k]

of course it does. it has the word EXPLODED in the title! hah

well anyway we shall see what happens, will be looking on with interest.

 

[GranFumador]

1. so much fearmongering in this thread though,
2. phones explode while charging and being used all the time, so we going to stop using those too?

3. consider how many of these have been sold and how many reports there are of this happening.
4. someone said in this thread that there must have been loads of (unreported) venting events with this but there will be FAR more being used totally normally with no issues, people who dont come to the forum.

Those are some inflammatory—all puns intended—assertions.
1. People have reported their own experiences wih a specific device. A report, without exhortations to avoid the device or suffer a slow and painful death, is far from any definition of fearmongering I have ever seen.
2. If I were considering the acquisition of a specific device from a named manufacturer, and saw "numerous" reports of product malfunction, I would avoid that model until the reports diminished "substantially". The subjective words above are in quotes. That is precisely what happened when the Apple iMac 27" i5 and i7 were introduced. "Many" of the initial production run units had pixelation problems. Apple stopped selling them for a few months, fixed the design?/component?/manufacturing? issue, then resumed sales. Then I bought one. If the same thing happened with a phone, I would do likewise, as I am sure you would.
3. As a trained statistician, the problems I see with these assertions is that neither of us knows the universe size; nor do we know the sample size or the non-response biases. This is not scientific, on behalf of or counter to the reliability or safety of the device. It is an attempt at street level common sense, nothing more...or less.
How many people bought the device, had it auto-fire, got a trouble-free replacement, and never reported any of that on any forum? You don't know and neither do I.
4. Likely you are correct, but it is a thoroughly unsubstantiated assertion, not a statement of fact. It's speculative.

 

[Bikenstein]

hmm. i'm highly highly dubious. you know how many thousands of these are out there? if the failure rate was anywhere NEAR what you are suggesting it would be pandemic on the forum. oh and massive amounts of legal action being taken, they would be FORCED to withdraw it!

also i'm not actually bashing anyone. just trying to bring some balance. but the chances of three out of three failing for one person are... astronomical. unless its user error of course.

charging batteries has an inherent risk, and this isn't emphasised enough by manufacturers.

this is all regarding the venting issue, follows right along.. more units sold, more people with the device, more problems reported. i would bet good money that a more expensive device with the same userbase would have the same number of charging issues.


the auto activation is another issue though, not sure whats going on there but ill be keeping an eye on mine. as i would with ANY large battery fed device.



exactly why you shouldn't judge it from one thread ALONE, its mainly the same few people saying they had a problem, a low number of people, and id imagine insignificant compared to units sold. But its your prerogative of course and your money at the end of the day!

All of these didn't exhibit auto fire but did have problems and Shek stated 40%. My co-op guy @Shekinahsgroom . I understand your way of thinking, but in this case you are wrong. First, I'm not a rookie and have owned many mods from different manufacturers that are all still functioning well with no problems at all. I'm an ex electronics technician, also. I know how to treat and use these things properly and don't abuse any of my equipment. Second, this is not the only thread about istick 50w with problems
Eleaf istick 50w Owners Group | Page 75 | E-Cigarette Forum
There are more and just check out Reddit and Youtube. This is not the only forum reporting problems either.
Third. I'm not the only one that has had several personal isticks fail. Astronomical? Just one of several I've seen on ECF...
@DarthEmma

I won't buy anymore I sticks. Both my 50W and 30W died after about 3 months (auto firing). I just hope the Sigelei 30W I just ordered works well.

Fourth, if you are not sure and haven't researched, how can you think you need to bring some balance? Initially, I down played the fact that my first one went BLS, even joked about it. I still recommended them at that point. I'm still telling others that I believe that the problems are being dealt with. But with the company not coming forth and due to the ever growing reported faults such as the one that started this thread, I certainly feel it would be wrong to recommend the 50w (I had a 30 die too) and also feel it wrong not to report my problems in detail to warn others. I've been suggesting that it would be best to remove your atty when not in use or while charging until more is known. It is your prerogative to spread the word not to worry about it, user error, very few, fearmongers at work, truth stretching, and all is well. But, I have researched and know better. Check it out for yourself, I gotta go open up the one that died last night to see if I can fix it.

 

[GranFumador]

Adding to what Bike has said, I stumbled on a U.K. e-cig forum. It had an iStick thread, with about two to three dozens posts. More than half were severe problem reports about the 50.

Disclaimer: I own and use three 30s, all problem free. I've given two more 30s as gifts,without any problem reports. I know lots of people with Minis and 20s, and no one has reported explosions or auto-firing issues. I'll probably buy one or more 50s, if and when knowledgeable, experienced folks stop reporting problems.... but not now, thank you.

 

[bwh79]

I can't remember where, but I think I heard somewhere that (at least some of) these problems might have been caused because some of the early 50w units had used some parts in the charging circuitry "recycled" from the 20w and 30w lines, but that now, the manufacturer was aware of the issue and using new parts more appropriate for the larger batteries in the 50w. Can anyone point me to more information on this?

 

[Bikenstein]

I can't remember where, but I think I heard somewhere that (at least some of) these problems might have been caused because some of the early 50w units had used some parts in the charging circuitry "recycled" from the 20w and 30w lines, but that now, the manufacturer was aware of the issue and using new parts more appropriate for the larger batteries in the 50w. Can anyone point me to more information on this?

Not really. I've heard similar reports and others that disclaim the same. Without iSmoka coming forth with a statement, I don't see how anyone could know enough to detail the problems in full or know what the statistics of overall failures may be or if there is any way to prevent a failure. I hear new causes weekly but there is a lot of speculation by many. Juice leaking in, button fails, shorts and grounds in wiring, loose boards, faulty chips, faulty usb ports, 20 and 30w parts not holding up in the 50s, quality control. It doesn't really make a difference because most people are not qualified to repair them however simple a fix may be and there are just too many reports to count it as user error. And apparently no recall will be done. I'm thinkin of just keepin my mouth shut about em because for one thing I believe there is a good chance the latest ones have had the problems resolved and there are enough people reporting faulty ones now anyway. And I won't feel the need to justify my "claims" (save some time and wear and tear on my fingers)

 

[james_2k]

thanks for the replies to my above post. i am not as experienced in vaping etc. as the two who quoted me undoubtedly are, but just reading this thread made me uneasy about how quick people are to condemn things, especially things that are very popular (with many happy users) and while no i dont have evidence of me saying that there are lots of satisfied users of this device, there are also plenty of statements in the thread which allude to the opposite, also with no statistical evidence. I mainly thought fearmongering when i saw the word 'exploded' in the thread title when the OPs Istick clearly didnt actually explode. if it had, it would be much worse, naturally!

if you dont want to buy one of these things based on this thread fine, but i wont be throwing mine away. if anything though i will be keeping a close eye on it. and for that im grateful for the headsup.

like i said, if its as bad as some people say the company will be forced, one way or another, to do something, even just a statement.

will still be watching with interest

 

[Toney Thomas]

I have read or heard from youtube videos it was due to defective chargers

 

[james_2k]

i cant imagine that would cause the autofire issue though, maybe if its damaging the circuitry. but im not an electronics expert so others can hypothesize on that one

edit, oh and i wanted to address the person who said there is no venting on the istick 50 (a while ago), it vents around the usb port (from the review i linked earlier)

 

[Okierider]

Dang, they should replace your rug too! I have one as well and have noticed it gets hot but no more than if I am vaping heavily. It' not any hotter than my phone ( Moto Droid Turbo) or my Tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1). Now, I am worried.

 

[Bikenstein]

 

[Toney Thomas]

there have been people contact eleaf and they have helped them I don't know if that was a new mod or what again I heard that on youtube

 

[Bikenstein]

there have been people contact eleaf and they have helped them I don't know if that was a new mod or what again I heard that on youtube

Go for it
Wholesale

 

[Okierider]

I just sent eleaf a link to this thread asking if they had seen it. I am just curious what their response will be.

 

[Bikenstein]

Success! I repaired the one that failed last night. It wouldn't fire an atty at all. When you hit the fire button it would read low charge and show a blank battery even though the battery was fully charged. I was gonna disassemble it but couldn't find a torx bit or flat screwdriver to fit good enough. After trying to fire it 3 times it would turn off and I'd have to plug the charger in to reset it. I did it 3 times with the same result. I remembered that if they detect a short they will turn off and you have to plug a charger in the usb port to reset it. Also there have been ones that won't fire when you screw an atty down all the way if the grommet is bad. So I tried screwing an atty down until it just started reading the coil and tried it. It still wouldn't fire and still read low charge but I could keep doin it and now it wouldn't turn off. I then screwed it all the way down and it immediately turned off. At that point I could tell it was in the 510 pin, so I pumped it up and down and wiggled it for a couple of minutes. I put the atty back on gently and it worked. I screwed it down snug like I generally do and it's worked great now for over an hour. I believe there was a foreign metal shaving or something in it maybe from the manufacturing process as it has acted up since new quite a bit. I emailed my co-op guy earlier and he said he could get it replaced but I see no reason to now, for the time being. He also said that he has had no reports of failures from the second round of purchases compared to 40% reported faulty in the first round. So things are looking up for the 50s it seems. Sorry about the letter but I will continue to report on whatever happens. Thanks for reading.