Juice Shorting boards

[UncleChuck]

So I've seen the worry expressed more than a few times that certain mods are prone to getting juice leaking inside the mod, and this is supposed to short the board out. I've always been really confused about this for the following reasons:

I've revived "shorted" auto 510 batts back in the day via an iso alcohol soak, the juice just clogged the sensor didn't short the battery.

Ive put multimeter probes into several different eliquids in the past and they registered no conductivity (or rather, infinite resistance) it wasn't the best meter, and eliquids probably vary quite a bit, but I was never able to get eliquid to demonstrate any sort of conductivity. You'd think juice would short out your coil, or your 510 connection, if it was significantly conductive.

Old Smok Zmax back in the day had it's board soaked with juice through the screen cutout, it never shorted out, the button was wonky but that's a common problem and was present before getting juiced.

I've drenched the inside of my IPV Mini II with juice several times to the point it was leaking out all the seams in the body and used it for awhile after (didn't know where the juice kept coming from at first) never malfunctioned or gave any issues (has since been cleaned, and I don't trust the Lemo II )

I recently had to clean a family members Smok M50 because the button was completely seized up with a mixture of beach sand and juice. After taking the board out of the device I realize the entire board is coated in this juice/sand mixture. Mod was working fine before the button seized and after being cleaned it's still working great (it was the metal button that was seized, not the one on the board)

I have more examples but I figure that should be enough, so if juice was significantly conductive wouldn't I have expected to see some serious issues with the above examples? Are some boards completely coated with some sort of waterproofing film while others not?

 

[Rabbit Slayer]

Juice isn't conductive unless you're using salt water to thin it out

 

[hashtag]

I think the juice shorting is just speculative. It became popular as an excuse when the istick 50 blow ups were happening. But most people who had a blow up were fairly certain they hadn't gotten juice inside the mod.

 

[Kwtony]

Thats excuse is commonly referred to as a 'scapegoat'

 

[TheRac25]

just checked some juice i made, no water or salt added, i read several meg ohms from atty terminal to the juice.
this could cause a button to read as closed and it wouldn't effect anything as far as atty resistance

 

[UncleChuck]

Thanks for the replies, I had guessed that maybe it was just one of those vaping myth things that never goes away, but figured I'd check to make sure there wasn't something I was ignoring.

Also, if juice getting in the device isn't an issue as far as damage to the electronics is concerned I think this should be more common knowledge to put minds at ease, judging by things said YT vids and posts on forums it seems like there are more than a few people out there who are worrying themselves to bits over nothing

 

[crxess]

I don't worry of shorting, but I could not abide a gooped up screen.

 

[Robert Cromwell]

I figure any shorting out from juice would be due to corrosion not the juice itself shorting things out. If a juice can "crack" a polypropylene tank then it can corrode a circuit board.

 

[Papillon61]

I have no shorting but I do have some tiny spots of humidity on the inside of my screens and that does bug me a little. Just bugs me mind you, not worry me unduly.

 

[Matty316]

I've had problems with e liquid getting into my vapor flask. It sometimes builds up between the top plate and the main body of the flask. It doesn't short it out but does the opposite. Because the liquid is non conductive when it builds up it will cause a bad bad negitive connection through the body of the flask so my power will start to drop.

Is easy to fix though I just unscrew the top plate and give it a wipe and all's good again.

 

[Bunnykiller]

with enuf voltage present.... everything is conductive

 

[Underwhelmed]

I figure any shorting out from juice would be due to corrosion not the juice itself shorting things out. If a juice can "crack" a polypropylene tank then it can corrode a circuit board.

This 100%.

I bought a Semovar from another member here and took it totally apart to clean it and it had apparently had a pretty regular dousing of e-juice to the internals. Several of the surface mount components had corrosion where they contacted the board.

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Corrosion could be one cause of auto firing regulated mods. The corrosion can conduct enough to impact the operation of the device if it builds up enough to short 2 really close pins on a SMT chip or something.

 

[93gc40]

Glycerin (PG/VG) by itself is non conductive.. BUT, it is HYDROSCOPIC, meaning it attracts and absorbs water, hence the water vapor. This water is conductive and can cause shorting, or damage to the board. i recommend NOT using a leaking atty on a regulated UNsealed device.

 

[DaveP]

Having spent 40 years as an electronic field engineer (fancy name for Tech Rep), I discovered early on that oils and silicone/glycerine products generally don't present conductivity issues by themselves. It's more of a contaminant drying on the contacts and creating a problem with insulating the contacts due to dust and particle accumulation in the oily residue. Clean it with alcohol or an appropriate cleaner and connectivity is restored. Clean is good when it comes to contacts.

Dissimilar metals can also be a problem, especially with Aluminum threads. Noalox is a great help with those types of problems.

Keep it clean and it will work longer.

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Having spent 40 years as an electronic field engineer (fancy name for Tech Rep), I discovered early on that oils generally don't present conductivity issues. It's more of a contaminant drying on the contacts and creating a problem with insulating the contacts due to dust and particle accumulation in the oily residue. Clean it with alcohol or an appropriate cleaner and connectivity is restored. Clean is good when it comes to contacts.

Dissimilar metals can also be a problem, especially with Aluminum threads. Noalox is a great help with those types of problems.

Yes but I suspect that some juices with high citrus content for example can cause corrosion which can cause malfunctions if the corrosion bridges 2 pins on a chip....

 

[DaveP]

Yes but I suspect that some juices with high citrus content for example can cause corrosion which can cause malfunctions if the corrosion bridges 2 pins on a chip....

Acid (citric) and metal don't play well together. I agree.