Well, my mechanical mod went BOOM.

[supermarket]

Mechs exploding, batteries over heating, this is all starting to happen too frequently.....

This is just going to end badly, one way or another, for the vape industry.

Luckily, no one has been perm. scarred, or worse, YET, but it is bound to happen. Especially if companies take short cuts while building devices, or use cheaper components. And especially while people are all into cloud blowing....running mods at 0.02 ohms, and vape shops that are all TOO WILLING to sell unregulated mods to ANYONE, and build LOW, SUB OHM coils for them.

 

[AttyPops]

The point is....ANY COIL can short. Even a 1.8 ohm or higher.

Mod makers (and sellers/vendors) need to make sure mods can survive (well, actually survive and expel gas from) at least a full IMR vent without going to pieces.

 

[retic1959]

This just confirms my conviction that if I ever do use a mech, I'm drilling a ton of holes in it or cutting slots. Look, you guys can beat him up all you want (within Moderator's discretion. ~~~~ Robino ) but the point is that even if the battery vented IT SHOULD NOT HAVE BLOWN UP in this day and age of vaping. Period. Now, I can also add that many have theorized that it wasn't a safe chem battery. In that case, if the mod is designed for safe-chem-IMR only, I suppose that's an excuse. But someone explain to me how it actually blew apart. Even with total internal battery failure or whatever. These things are supposed to be A) Vented and B) use hot springs or other such features. I'm certainly not a mech expert, nor do I know this particular device. Some said spring loaded center pin, others say no. Even if the center pin failed, the battery top should not be touching the pin unless the button is pushed AND the hot spring should retract IF it has one. So it would take 1) Button depression and very low ohms stressing battery 2) battery top to ground (shell) short with battery top somehow in contact with the pin and battery ground in contact somewhere along the battery with the shell. Also confirms my conviction that .2 ohms it a bit too close to a dead-short. IDK if we can tell if it dead shorted or if it was just "perma-on" running through a .2 ohm (supposedly) coil. One set of specs on VC5's I saw said it was a 30 amp battery. .2 ohms at, say, 4.0 volts is 'only' 20 amps and 80 watts. So maybe it was a dead short. Still, mods should be designed to contain this in today's market. IMO. At least with an IMR as they vent slower. But I guess YMMV. and just IMHO.

A lot of mechs are designed to have the battery in contact with the center pin at all times and depressing the fire button moves the negative contact upwards and completes the circuit . This is true for the Stingray X and the black copper Stingray as well as the Panzer , I own all three . On both the Stingray and the Panzer it's possible for the negative contact to loosen with use and protrude past the delrin insulater creating an autofire situation . Checking the negative contact is routine maintenance for me as it should be for any mech owner . I'm not posting this to beat up on anyone , but I've seen the BM's in my area pushing mechs on to noob vapers without providing them with the information needed to operate them safely . You have to know your device in addition to Ohm's law and Battery safety to operate safely .

 

[roxynoodle]

I love my Stingrays, have 4. I don't use the hybrid connectors on my X's. Why add any possible danger?

OP, I'm very glad no one got hurt. The beauty of your new Ipv, aside from safety functions is that you can also build higher and just increase the power. Why push limits when you don't have to?

Be safe, and vape on.

 

[Iffy]

Before getting into this story I want to make it clear that I am well aware of the dangers involved in using Mechanical Mods. I always do my best to vape as safely as possible...

... where my mod was in my jacket pocket.

 

[Jjshbetz11]

Jonny 5 would of not vented....just sayin

 

[LeftofCenter]

It is not the case in this story, but I think one of the reasons things like this happen is because there are so many people who can just go buy something they heard about and they maybe watched a youtube video if we are lucky. Or one of the many B&M shop popping up sold a complete newbie a mechanical without giving them proper instruction or safety information. Lets face it, there are shops that would sell your granny a mechanical if she cam in wanting to quit smoking just to get the sale!

What happened to the OP shouldn't have happened and he knew better by his own admission. It could have been much worse and I think he knows that.
In all honesty I can't say I haven't screwed up when I knew better. Maybe got distracted or rushed. I am not saying it is right or an excuse, but it is human.

And yes, I do know a little about what I am talking about, I spent years as a Safety Officer and Field Supervisor in a construction setting. I understand there being no room for shortcuts or mistakes, but as I said, I also understand nobody is perfect. Mistakes happen, hopefully this is a lesson many will learn from and thankfully nobody had to get hurt in the learning.

 

[r77r7r]

I totally wouldn't have thought they'd have streetcars in Ontario! That's so cool!

 

[LucentShadow]

To those of you trying to shame the OP:

It's getting tiresome to see some people jump into these threads with reactive and/or condescending responses. It's not helpful. It actually hurts the cause, if you are trying to promote best practices. How does making everyone who reads this thread reluctant to discuss an event such as this help anything? It does not. It destroys the chance of any useful outcome to the situation.

As for some others, sitting on a perceived pedestal, presuming that one is so superior that one cannot have an accident? It's laughable. No matter how much you'd like to believe that, it will never be true. Accidents will always happen. Being very conscientious only reduces the chance of them happening.

A more proactive and reasoned approach to threads like this would help all of us. Letting false feelings of superiority or unreasonable fear of bans rule your behavior is not helpful to the community.

After reading the OP's posts, I can see no evidence of gross negligence. Unfortunately the incident will have no clear determination of cause. Speculation can be useful to present possible causes. It's not useful when used for unwarranted attacks.

If you think that this comment was directed at you, and you're feeling indignant, there's a good chance that it was. However, there's also a decent chance that it wasn't. Either way, that's not the desired result. I just hope to have people step back for a moment and think about how this thread could have gone differently, and whether the outcome of the thread could have been better.

I'm going to go have a peaceful vape. I wish the same for everyone here.

 

[Ryedan]

Thanks to the people on here that are not giving me a "stern talking to" about this, and to the ones that are, yes I will admit. I should have taken the battery OR rda off the device before pocketing that. I own that as my own fault. However. I have done my reading, know, and understand ohms law. I am always super careful (with this exception, bring on the "if you were super careful this would not have happened blah blah blah.) But regardless it still happened. My point with sharing this is to make people aware that no matter how safe you are with your devices things CAN, not will, but can go wrong. Such is what happened to me. If you want to say what happened to me is "highly suspect" that's fine. Keep in mind that you weren't there. I know that people COULD have been hurt, but nobody was. I am aware of all the *What might have happened* Luckily none of those scenarios came to pass.

Nisstyre, kudos for posting your story. This outcome happens rarely so it is IMO even more important to talk about it when it does. I posted just the other day about how rarely batteries explode but that it does happen once in a while and when it does it can be nasty.

It's too bad that some people have come down on you for not using the mod correctly, specially since they don't even know this incident was caused by something you did or didn't do. I vape mechanical mods all the time and I know that one day, no mater how careful I am, I can experience a battery short, or a auto-on event. I count on my batteries to be safe enough to not explode if that happens and I don't catch it before it's too late. I know I'm only human and I will make mistakes no matter how careful I am. That's why it's law that we all have to have car insurance, even if someone is a good driver.

Thanks again, and vape on my friend

 

[Ryedan]

To those of you trying to shame the OP:

It's getting tiresome to see some people jump into these threads with reactive and/or condescending responses. It's not helpful. It actually hurts the cause, if you are trying to promote best practices. How does making everyone who reads this thread reluctant to discuss an event such as this help anything? It does not. It destroys the chance of any useful outcome to the situation.

As for some others, sitting on a perceived pedestal, presuming that one is so superior that one cannot have an accident? It's laughable. No matter how much you'd like to believe that, it will never be true. Accidents will always happen. Being very conscientious only reduces the chance of them happening.

A more proactive and reasoned approach to threads like this would help all of us. Letting false feelings of superiority or unreasonable fear of bans rule your behavior is not helpful to the community.

After reading the OP's posts, I can see no evidence of gross negligence. Unfortunately the incident will have no clear determination of cause. Speculation can be useful to present possible causes. It's not useful when used for unwarranted attacks.

If you think that this comment was directed at you, and you're feeling indignant, there's a good chance that it was. However, there's also a decent chance that it wasn't. Either way, that's not the desired result. I just hope to have people step back for a moment and think about how this thread could have gone differently, and whether the outcome of the thread could have been better.

I'm going to go have a peaceful vape. I wish the same for everyone here.

I didn't see your post before I made my last one or I would have quoted you too LucentShadow. Very well said

 

[Nisstyre]

Actually what I had said was that my Dark Horse didn't work on any of the PRAXIS mods in the shop. It worked fine on everything else but those ones. So yes, I bought a different mod that worked.

 

[BlkWolfMidnight]

I believe there is a lot to take away from this thread.
Take precautions when building a RBA, these are advanced user devices and require research.
Do your reading, learn oHm's law and learn how to safely build within the limitations of your equipment.
Double and triple check, it doesn't hurt to be safe and will protect others around you and yourself.
Don't use short cuts, jury rigging is fine but know what your doing before you attempt it. (See double and triple check as well).
Don't believe the vendors all the time, do your homework and know what your getting (when in doubt check it out policy).
If in doubt, buy equipment to your level and understand the proper operation and use of that equipment before using it.

For those afraid of mechanical mods, there is no reason to be but understand that they are advanced user equipment. The have been around for a long while now and really as safe as your going to get. As mentioned before researching different battery chemistries will help understand the stages of what happens should the cell fault in the mod. Do the work and know what you've got, I wouldn't expect to fly a plane before knowing the instruments and safe operation of the plane and you should really take that same approach to any mechanical mod. Your on ECF for (censored) sakes, there is enough information on this site to fill thousands of encyclopedia's and then some. There is no reason between Google and ECF that you can't get what you need to educate yourself on advanced principals and operation of a mechanical mod and safety there of its operation, same goes for RBA's as well as batteries.

I understand that the OP was in the wrong, he may be trolling for all I know but lets offer constructive advice for future vapers to look back on and educate themselves as well. I'm guilty myself of jumping pretty hard on the OP and for that I apologize however I've tried to offer constructive feedback as well which hopefully has helped. I guess my part in this whole mess was to be safe when using advanced devices, there is no harm in checking more then once and there is no shame in admitting that you may not know the proper technique or skill level to play with RBA's or mechanical mods. ECF is here to help, all the members have a sea of knowledge to share in and assist anyone who asks, next time if you are in doubt then just post it up on here as if nothing else I'd be happy to help out.

 

[Ryedan]

I believe there is a lot to take away from this thread.
Take precautions when building a RBA, these are advanced user devices and require research.
Do your reading, learn oHm's law and learn how to safely build within the limitations of your equipment.
Double and triple check, it doesn't hurt to be safe and will protect others around you and yourself.
Don't use short cuts, jury rigging is fine but know what your doing before you attempt it. (See double and triple check as well).
Don't believe the vendors all the time, do your homework and know what your getting (when in doubt check it out policy).
If in doubt, buy equipment to your level and understand the proper operation and use of that equipment before using it.

BlkWolfMidnight, I agree with all you've said here, but even if I do all this all the time, once in a while I will make a mistake. I am human after all.

 

[BlkWolfMidnight]

BlkWolfMidnight, I agree with all you've said here, but even if I do all this all the time, once in a while I will make a mistake. I am human after all.

To error is human, this is a truth we can't avoid, however you can minimize and almost eliminate any issues by paying due diligence. I'd say that I've got a better then healthy respect for my mechanical mods and RBA's just because. Sure I've screwed up in the past as well however by following my own rules of checking first I've caught them before it became an issue. To date I've never even gotten a mod beyond the point of warm, I've not had a coil dead short on a mod (yes, the ohm meter caught a many bad builds), and typically I play it on the side of caution for just about everything from DIY juices to mods and so forth.

You got to remember I come from a time where ripping apart a carto to re solider the coil back in was a normal, 510 ohm checkers didn't exist and a RBA that didn't require a masters in rocket science wasn't available. Heck my first "Tube Mod" was some cobbled together parts from the home depot plumbing section and a defunked switch assembly that worked about 80% of the time, the top cap was a pieced together from parts from an Ego at the time. This is where the rubber met the road and checking all the time was essential, you learned to do that just like breathing and it became second nature to do so. Trust me with today's mechanical mods its a whole lot easier to do the 30 second quick check then it was to disassemble my cobbled together frankenmod. The good ole days, I'm half glad they are gone in truth but in some ways I miss them.

 

[aggo]

Well, I've gone through the whole thread and I don't think anyone asked the OP, so I will.

Were there any other metals in your jacket pocket?

 

[TruSound]

Some of the posts here are blaming this incident on a counterfeit battery, I don't believe anyone here has factual data stating that a genuine Sony battery won't explode under any circumstances, come on people...I don't care what the manufacturers rating is, these batteries are not designed for this sort of rapid discharge.

I'm amazed we haven't heard more of these stories considering what people are doing with mech mods, I'd be willing to bet these instances are much more frequent than we think, the stories just aren't making it to social media, and with the new sport called cloud chasing getting bigger by the day and the participants wanting to win their local contest...someone is going to pay the price at some point, it's getting out of hand IMO.

 

[Katya]

To those of you trying to shame the OP:

It's getting tiresome to see some people jump into these threads with reactive and/or condescending responses. It's not helpful. It actually hurts the cause, if you are trying to promote best practices. How does making everyone who reads this thread reluctant to discuss an event such as this help anything? It does not. It destroys the chance of any useful outcome to the situation.

+10

Indeed... Mocking, suspicion and derision...

We are better than that. We're here to help one another, aren't we?

 

[WharfRat1976]

It's this kind of thing that gives ammo to.......KIDDING

2 words, user error.

Back to you, bob

 

[chia]

apart from auto fire, there is another possibility that the tank positive post got a leak, or something like that.. or the 1st thing led to the 2nd.. happened to me twice, on my Russian 91. there was a leak and juice was going down thru the middle post, or the insulator broke down, I m not sure.. but the mech(StingRay Also!!) got damn hot in like 2 seconds.. lucky I was able to unscrew the tank and dismantle them quickly..

anyway mech devices, vv or not, is better carried around in their own pouch. be it clip to your belt, which is what I do, or in your bag.. better safe than sorry..