The ohms we think we have, vs. the ohms we think we buy (amazing difference)

[JuniorNA]

I will keep all vendors private for their own protection .
Anyway, after vaping on and off for 2 years, I finally got myself a proper multi-meter and I decided to check the ohms of every single atomizer and cartomizer i've ever owned and used, and I was amazed at the results. Flabbergasted, utterly amazed, and also amazingly confused.

All my "xxxxx spec atties" were nowhere near the advertised ohms.

I ran my test on 5 (2.0 LR) Atomizers, 5 (1.7 cartomizers), 5 (5.0 ohm cartomizers), and 5 old school Joye LR atties around 1.5ohms.

I got my multi-meter today, and I first touched the 2 wires together to know what to deduct from my final reading, and that was .02 - so all my final reading numbers have included the -.02 difference.

Most of all the 2.0 LR spec atties came in at 3.0, and 1 came in at 1.7.
Most of my 1.8 cartomizers came in at 2.2 plus - one of them registered at 3.0 ohms .
The 5.0 ohm cartomizers, for high voltage vaping (2 came in at 4.5, 2 came in at 5.5 ohms, 1 came in at 6.0 ohms)

so in conclusion, none of them are as advertised .

Most of them were cleaned before i did my measurements, but I'm not sure if i would get dramatically different readings if they were dirty? hopefully someone can answer that.

Would I get a Plus 1.0 ohm reading just because the atomizer is dirty? For example, a 2.0 ohm specified atty, used for a week, registering at 3.0 ohms, could that really be because of the juice and dirt inside ? or would dirt not make that drastic of a reading ?

overall, i just wanted to say that i was very surprised to see what ohms i'm actually seeing, vs, what I'm purchasing.

Does anyone know how much of a difference one would get when measuring resistance on a dirty atomizer or cartomizer when clean vs. dirty ?

I thought i'd bring this up in a new thread, because I finally got the multi-meter and now I can measure my VV box mod, but once I did the testing on all my gear, i had to post a new thread to see what others have found in their trials and testing.

Let me know what you guys have found in your testing, so i can rest well knowing that i'm wrong in some way, because there is no way there should be this much variance .

 

[Nomoreash]

They need to be measured dry and new, the resistance can and most always will change as the atty is used, they will also measure different if wet or dirty but not as wide of a variance as after being used a while.

I've also noticed variances on new, mostly CE2s, most all of everything else I've purchased have been spot on or within advertised tolerances, maybe one here and there but it's a common theme with my CE2s, except for the last box of Ultimate I purchased which all of them were spot on. I've use VV so it really doesn't bother me that much and I can also adjust for used attys that way.

 

[Mindfield]

What Nomo said. Resistance changes when the thing the current is passing through (the nicrhome wire in this case) has been used for a while (wire weakens) and/or has stuff on it (water, caked on gunk, etc.). When a conductive material is new and unused it has a fairly predictable conductivity depending on its length, width and material. As the conductive material comes in contact with other conductive materials the current finds itself travelling through not only the wire but also the stuff on the wire, and this can and will change its resistance. Some of these changes can be reversed (cleaning gunk off) but over time the wire will degrade and the resistance will change irreversibly.

I check every carto and atty I get with my ProVari and the ratings have yet to differ from what's advertised when new.

 

[Nomoreash]

They need to be measured dry and new, the resistance can and most always will change as the atty is used, they will also measure different if wet or dirty but not as wide of a variance as after being used a while.

I've also noticed variances on new, mostly CE2s, most all of everything else I've purchased have been spot on or within advertised tolerances, maybe one here and there but it's a common theme with my CE2s, except for the last box of Ultimate I purchased which all of them were spot on. I've use VV so it really doesn't bother me that much and I can also adjust for used attys that way.

My suggestion would be to measure them every so often, best after cleaning and drying. Then you'll know where each stands and where to set your VV. I've got one atty that's about a year old, started off new just below 3 and it's right at 4 ohms but still trucking, I use it for HV dripping.

 

[Iffy]

They need to be measured dry and new

Absolutely! Any other measurement criteria is invalid re factory/advertised specs.

The Mad Vapes eMDCCs I checked outta da wrap were within the advertised ±.2Ω.

 

[JuniorNA]

i totally agree and understand that gunk and build up will certainly make the resistance higher on these atomizers, but for a brand new cartomizer to register at 6 ohms when i'm buying a 5.0 ohm carto is not a very good thing. Yes, we have pro-vari's and we have VV box mods, so we can adjust the voltage ourselves to make these atties relevant and still useful.

I guess the market that does get effected by this, are the ones not using variable voltage, and claiming that their atties are lasting them 5 months to a year. Sure they may still be firing, but they are probably 2 ohms higher than they used to be ! So they lose flavor and vapor production and then get tossed and new ones are purchased, these are designed to be thrown away, not to be kept. but I'm still surprised by what i thought i was vaping, vs what i purchased.

 

[Iffy]

but for a brand new cartomizer to register at 6 ohms when i'm buying a 5.0 ohm carto is not a very good thing.

That is not acceptable and the issue should be brought to the vendors attention. Otherwise, with no squeaky wheel, no lube...

 

[JuniorNA]

agreed, now at least i can use my multi-meter to control the voltage on the VV box I got from madvapes. I've been told it's hard to tell what you're vaping it with those. So i'll do a test at the connector and see where 5v is at and then mark it from there. But again, I couldnt believe the difference in ohms, but not all were dry, and had been used at least once or twice...so my testing is not valid since the atties were not new, but the 5ohm carto's were new and 6 ohms is not acceptable, i agree.

 

[Skyway]

I have never really noticed a change in the resistance of the atty itself personally but I hear it happens. What you need to do is check your voltmeter. Before checking your atty touch the leads together and check the internal resistance of your voltmeter and subtract or add that number to the reading on your atty. If you have say an atty reading 1.8ohm and it is suppose to be 1.5 your voltmeter might be reading a .4 difference in its internal resistance. You might find that the ohm are in line with the vendors numbers.

 

[JuniorNA]

hey Skyway, thanks. One of the first things i did was touch the 2 leads to subtract that. i was getting .02 on the leads, so i was subtracting .02 from my final Ohm rating. The great thing about the VV mod, is that it doesnt matter what ohms these are at..I can just change my voltage to give me the best flavor and TH regardless of ohms. Can't wait to get it.

 

[MickeyRat]

I've actually seen posts from people that claim to measure the resistance of the atomizer to tell them when it's time to clean it. They even use the resistance to tell them when it's clean. Never tried it but, it does make sense.

 

[JuniorNA]

I tried that theory just now. I had a 3 month 2.0 510 that was registering at 3.0. Figured it was gunk build up. Gave it a nice cleaning Using a pressurized syringe flush and let it dry. It still measured at 3.0. I also agree with that theory but it didn't work in my last test.

I've actually seen posts from people that claim to measure the resistance of the atomizer to tell them when it's time to clean it. They even use the resistance to tell them when it's clean. Never tried it but, it does make sense.

Connected via Tapatalk

 

[AteOhAter]

I got my multi-meter today, and I first touched the 2 wires together to know what to deduct from my final reading, and that was .02 - so all my final reading numbers have included the -.02 difference.

Hmmmm. 0.02 ohms seems a bit low for the resistance of the test leads unless they're really short, or your multimeter has a feature to zero-out the lead resistence. My test leads, which aren't great, measure more than 1 ohm. Also keep in mind that reading low resistances can be a little tricky. Anything interfering with the contact between the ends of the test leads and the thing you're measuring can really affect the reading. This would include gunk or even oxidation on the metal surface of the atty/carto. When I'm measuring the resistance I've found that if I'm only pressing the test leads lightly on the atty/carto, the reading is much higher. The harder I press, the more the resistance goes down. So make sure the atty/carto contact surfaces and the ends of your test leads are really clean (which also means vaping would be improved or made more consistent by cleaning the contacts on cartos, atty's and batteries on a regular basis).
I was really curious about this as well, so I built a test jig to measure the actual resistance. I took a burnt-out battery apart, removed the cell and circuit board, and soldered 6" wires to the atty/battery connector. Then attached connectors to the wires so it would plug into the meter. This way I could attach a carto to the meter with more repeatable contact. To zero out the resistance of this test jig, I took an old carto apart and soldered a direct short across the contacts where the nichorme wire attaches. I attach this contraption to the test jig + meter, and subtract it's resistance from the measurements of the actual carto readings. Although this gives me very consistent reading, I've found that its still necessary to twist/turn the carto a little bit until it shows the lowest reading.
After testing a bunch of cartos from the same vendor, I've found on average they fall into the advertised value, however there can be considerable variability between individual cartos. This makes sense given that the nichrome wire is so short that even a small difference in the length of the wire or how well it's soldered to the contacts can make a big difference in the resistance. What I don't know is if the nichrome wires are being attached by a human or by a machine. If it's by a human, then large variability can be reasonably expected. Maybe someone out there can tell us if this is being done by hand or machine.

 

[Iffy]

OK, ya'll got me to pull out my DVM to check my new, used and very used Mad Vapes eMDCCs. Some of these have been vaped for over two months in a three setup rotation.

ALL the eMDCCs fell within 1.6 ±.2 Ω !

 

[JuniorNA]

wow Ate, thanks for that helpful post. I am using a Klein tools Basic MM1000 or something close to that ? I'm actually second guessing the .02 ohms on the leads because when i test my brand new eGo Mega Dual coils, it's registering at 1.5 exactly. I did that on all 5 new ones and all registered at 1.6 exactly. When i touch the leads it jumps around a bit and finally settles at .02 then 00, but when i say settle, i mean for half of a second then goes to 0, so maybe it is zero'ing out the resistance? It was 20 bucks and maybe the klein tools multi meter does zero out the resistance? I'm 100% sure i'm not getting 1.0 ohms resistance by touching the 2 wires. And the wires are standard length, that come with the meter. maybe 12 inches long ?

I agree that we need to clean the connections more, which makes the resistance more attractive to our tastes, and makes our vaping even better. I agree the more gunk on the atty, the more the resistance has to travel across, so i like to keep my atties as clean as possible, but with some juice, it just can't be done due to how gunky some juice is. I'm just happy i'm finally able to check resistance, now when i get my VV voltage box, i can up the volts to match the resistance. No wonder why I naturally "liked" some of my atties over others, it's because some were at 3.0 ohms! lol.

I measures the one i love the most, and it was 1.7...so that is why i used to love the way it hits, the numbers say it all