The Wizard - Why not?

[Charged]

You don't know until you try, but nothing compares to the vapor this poduces and you can lower your nic and still get the same satisfaction. I'm serious. Your coil is cute but I don't think it's a coil. I think it's just a straight nichrome wire. They test every one they ship to make sure there is not a short to the sidewall. This is why every device still has a bit of juice in the delivery tank. Buy one and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Conjecture is useless unless you've experienced it for yourself.

 

[nicotime]

What kind of deal can you get me...you have got to be a majority shareholder by now?

Did you tell the engineer that your vape keeps cloggin up the atty? I'm sure they have to know by now why their sales went through the roof.

I wonder how it would be if the nichrome run a little cooler so it didn't bake the fluid.

I guess I do have a few inches of space here for some more spare parts...lol

 

[Charged]

Honestly nic I have no idea about the sales. I have nothing to do with these guys. I started vaping 4 months ago and since quitting the analogs I've been looking for a good replacement. The KR8 is my vape of choice but you still have to switch off because they get overheated easily. I found this by accident and just gave it a try. Too be honest I could give a .... if anyone uses it. I'm just doing what I do and attempting to learn something. If I can save someones life by offering a viable alternative for a couple dollars then I acccomplished my goal. If you want to spend hundreds and not smoke analogs then have at it and I'm happy for you.

 

[nicotime]

Yep, I know what you mean. I was trying to find the scientific surplus website that I saw the other day that had these for $14. Plus they have some other goodies to play with too. Just messin with you about a deal...cost about 2 packs of smokes anyway...no BFD

 

[SurfVortex]

Hey, wow! 2 pages added to the thread while I was gone....
Broke the glass on my ultra-clogged first wizard, and I actually heard a slight gurgle and saw some vapor!!!!!!!!!!!!! Had to hold it upside-down to get it to go further, but the more I hold down the buttons the futher it goes towards actual fog. Fabulous!
Seems now like it's burning off goo inside the tube. Mr. Wizard is going to the vinegar spa tonight.....
Thought I'd killed it, Phew!
Amazing work with deciphering the heating element code! All Hail Nichrome Wire!

 

[Charged]

Yep, I know what you mean. I was trying to find the scientific surplus website that I saw the other day that had these for $14. Plus they have some other goodies to play with too. Just messin with you about a deal...cost about 2 packs of smokes anyway...no BFD

It's POW science. Looks like they raised the price to $15.99. I linked to this a couple other places in this thread. Like you said they have plenty of interesting items and the prices seem very reasonable.

 

[Big Daddy]

Charged , How about a pic. of just where and how you break the glass tube , please .

 

[Charged]

Charged , How about a pic. of just where and how you break the glass tube , please .

There is several ways to go about it. If you have long thin needle nose pliers you can just reach down in there and crush the glass about half way up the glass tube. It doesn't reall matter where you crush it but, you would like to avoid right at the top were the wire enters as you could break the wire by accident.

Another thing you can do to make it easier is to enlarge 1 or 2 of the holes on either side of the heater. It will make it easier to get to the glass tube and also allows you to get a stiff brush in there to clean where the glass and metal tube meets. I used a dremel but you can use a rotozip or drill or whatever you have available.

I used this bit on a dremel tool and it cuts realy well:

No need to make the hole really high but you would like to get it about even where the metal and glass meet. This is a photo before breaking the glass tube.

I try to crush the glass about half way up. Cracking it should work as well but it's hard to make a controlled crack:

Hope that helps.

 

[SurfVortex]

Well, the overnight vinegar soak made a little difference(in the wizard that is so very clogged), seem to be getting more vapor initially, then I think it clogs again when I pull the trigger. Gurgling some and that gives me hope. Going to soak it somemore and see what happens. In the meantime,I think I will break the glass on my second one and see if that works smoothly with the thicker juice from the get-go.
What I did to break the glass was Charged's first option ("doesn't matter what you use"...); just got 2 thin objects(1/4 teasp. and 1/2 teasp. measures) and used them like chopsticks down the center of the main tube, grabbed the little peice of glass, then gently snapped it. Really doesn't take much to do it. Held the whole thing upside down while I did it to make sure all shards went into the trash, then compressed the bulb to get air through the tube to hopefully get any remaining glass out.
Hope this helps.

 

[Charged]

Well, the overnight vinegar soak made a little difference(in the wizard that is so very clogged), seem to be getting more vapor initially, then I think it clogs again when I pull the trigger. Gurgling some and that gives me hope. just got 2 thin objects and used them like chopsticks down the center of the main tube, grabbed the little peice of glass, then gently snapped it.

Good thinking on the chopstick approach SV.

I have another Wizard that simply will not comply... Similar to your clog. I think they are not all created equal. If you look closely at the top of the glass tube you will see where they seal it to the wire. I think sometimes this seal also forms down at the bottom of the tube where it enters the metal section. In this case, breaking the tube to allow another flow path will not work. My other device that had a similar clog has been working like brand new after breaking the tube and I've been running every kind of juice I have through it without one problem. With thicker juice you just have to press the button harder to force it up through the tube but it works great

I've spoke with the designers of the Wizard Stick, they are really nice and helpful folks but they are not interested at all in dealing with the FDA in the PV/E-CIG area. They are all non smokers and although they understand our feelings they would rather not deal with all the red tape and spending $ on a design that may become restricted and/or banned in the near future. They said that they need really large quantities > 10,000 units to even begin a production run.

They verified that they are using nichrome as the heating medium but wouldn't go into detail of the exact construction.

I also asked about the clogging issue and they believe it is the nicotine or flavoring or a combination of the 2 causing our clogging problem. He said to be warry of artifical coloring and anything that includes a sweetening agent. They also spent quite a bit of time developing the superfluid for consistency and fog production as these where the goals and they have not tried other types of fluids in the device.

They call the atomizer, "The Generator". They had 5 generator assemblies laying around and agreed to send me them for a small fee. They also pointed out that we may be interested in a newer more compact version that utilizes a much smaller "Generator". I wanted to have a look at them so I ordered 5 of these to experiment with.

All in all it was a great phone conversation. They also said they would be willing to make minor appearance and functional changes as far as removing some items and modifying colors or adding silkscreen graphics if it may better suit our needs.

Whew! Too much typing

 

[nicotime]

Great researching Charged. It did say on their website that it was 2 years in the development of this thing. Surprising they would volunteer their "generators" like that. I have been researching patents trying to find it and found a lot of other interesting devices. One that was by a tobacco company even had epinephrine among other strange chemicals in their fluid...makes you wonder.

 

[nicotime]

Bingo....

Patent US20020071664

 

[Charged]

I'll be..... You found it. Looks like they are using coiled nichrome wire. They mention the glass tube is sealed and runs down through the metal tube almost to the bottom. If this is correct and the tube is sealed on the top and the bottom then breaking the tube should not have any effect on a clogged tube. I have for sure seen a difference breaking the tube at least on one of my devices. I'm thinking that the tube on the one that is working so well after the clog may have the tube also broken or cracked inside the metal tube. Not sure but just guessing.

Nice find nico. I'm going to study this for a while. Thanks very much for looking.

 

[Charged]

Fog Generator/Atomizer drawing. We came close to having it exact but here it is. Thanks, nico.

Interesting coil information from the text of the patent:

The resistance coil has a resistance of from
between about 4 ohms to about 10 ohms when cold (room
temperature), and draws about 400 to about 600 milliamps
in normal use to produce smoke. In the absence of liquid, the
coil heat continues to draw current, but its resistance
increases without the liquid acting as a heat sink. In this
"liquid-withdrawn" state, it draws preferably about 300 to
450 milliamps, a conservation of about 1/3 of the current
drawn when vaporizing (assuming a fixed voltage). The
resistance coil can be made from a wide range of suitable
materials, but nickel or alloys of nickel are preferred. Nickel
that is at least about 99.9% pure is preferred.

This explains why this looked like a constant current device. The coil resistance increases at a substantial rate as the coil heats reducing the amount of current required. The amount of cooling by the liquid dictates the current needed for vaporization. This is a very good attribute and makes the efficiency as far as battery useage excellent.

 

[nicotime]

Well basically what they have here is a thermistor. When you break the sealed tube it is reverting back to an open element design like our ecigs. Fluid is probably coming up the metal tube then down inside the glass tube around the coil, vaporizing it from there. Doesn't a resistance wire run hotter in the presence of air?

 

[Charged]

Yes, similar to a positive temperature coeficient thermistor (PTC). however in the patent description they say the tube is not evacuated of air when sealed to increase the temeperature exchange between the wire and outer surface of the glass tube. In other words as you say the wire will run hotter if open to air. I suppose it is possible that some devices do have somewhat of a vacuum in the glass tube and maybe run cooler causing the tube to clog and breaking that tube allows a hotter burn.

I broke the tube on 2 of the devices I have. They were both clogged. The tube was broken in the same locations on both devices (part way up the tube about 1/4" above where the metal tube ends). The the liquid could never flow up and over the glass and fall down inside as gravity just wont allow it. Even with a brand new device that's never been tuned on, if you press the rubber bladder all the way down without energizing the coil you'll be lucky to get 1 small drop to flow out of the metal tube. It could just be that some tubes do have a vacuum and burn at a lower temperature causing the device to clog easier. I know that one device started working like new after breaking the tube but the other one is no better and is still clogged. It will be interesting to perform some tests when I get the "Generators" in my hands.

 

[nicotime]

Hey, did you ask them about that other wire hanging outside of it?

 

[Charged]

No I totally forgot about it but I will fire off an email to them and see if he will answer. From looking at it more it seems like a safety wire to keep the tube from falling out if the lead wires break loose. Although it is awefully thin wire.

 

[nicotime]

Thats what I though too.

 

[Charged]

One important point from the patent information, is the clearance between the metal tube and the glass tube. The defined amount of space for the liquid to travel is from 0.001" to 0.005" with the optimum to be 0.004".

0.004" is the average thickness of a human hair. Also as the glass tube heats it will expand in diameter so the gap becomes smaller after heating.

Based on that information, the thickness of the fluid plays a huge roll in clogging the tube. The thinner the liquid the better the flow and lesser chance of a clog.

Edit: I quoted the hair diameter incorrectly.