Why do atty's fail?

[sattec]

I'm a firm believer in cleaning the atty/coil to enhance the deminishing performance and extend the "usefulness" time to the max. Dripping cool juice on a hot coil (wait 10 seconds before you drip more in) is the worse thing you can do other than dropping it on a hard surface to shorten the life of the coil.

 

[Saints]

It wasn't until later that I recalled that Blu offered a one year warranty. Having read enough information on ECF about atomizer life, I thought my recollection must be wrong. No one can warrant an atomizer for a year, can they?

Well, Blu does, and I have no idea how they can claim theirs work that long. I verified with their online chat that they do, indeed, cover not only the atomizer but also the battery for a full year. I'd love to hear if anyone ever had an atomizer that made it that long with even moderate use (1 ml or less per day).

This is pretty impressive imo. I have only been vaping for about 3 weeks and I started with an m401. I ordered a 510 with a pcc because the price was right and all of the hype on here has my curiosity up, BUT, I did run into a guy the other night that had the Blue pack and it was pretty cool. I have seen some people on here that do not really like the Blue product, but I guess I just dont see why not. The vapor production looked pretty good from what I saw and with a 1 year warranty on the battery and the atty it seems like a solid choice. Can anyone maybe shed some light on why it isnt more popular?

 

[Keef]

Can anyone maybe shed some light on why it isnt more popular?

If I remember correctly they pretty much underhand marketing , spammed the boards with posts about their product with different IDs all new and posting about a product no one here had heard of and that the seller took a long time to send out.

Suppliers are not allowed to post on the newbie area of the forum.

There was quite a row at the time and some ended up being banned.

This behaviour Pd some people off and SJ at the time banned anyone mentoning them anywhere apart from a sub forum that was set up specially to stop the spamming.

I was not following it particularly at the time but you could not miss it, thread after thread was started.

 

[pmd]

I'm just a liitle amused at myself sometimes for reading so much here on atty life and falling for so much of this obssessive compulsive cleaning for extra life of an atty. Geeesus, if an 8$ atty can last 4 wks and a 8$ pack of smokes lasts 12 hrs, which is a better deal, huh?
As time goes by I am only slowly appreciating this little device and not expecting so much for something that costs so little and saved me so much.
Vape it, keep extra attys and batts and juice and enjoy !

 

[Mister]

It seems to me that there are many factors which contribute to atty failure. And that the resulting high variability between different people's experience makes it difficult to determine either a reasonable expected lifespan or how best to acheive it.

Factors which I suspect have an impact on atty lifespan:

• Specific atomizer design, manufacturer, and quality control.
• Style of use. (E.g. keeping it wet, flooding it, preheating, length of draw, shaking it to get the juice down, etc.)
• Juice used. PG vs VG, nicotine strength, flavorings used, and impurities may all affect the amount and type of deposits formed. This factor will of course be affected by style of use and cleaning approach.
• Cleaning approach. There's much disagreement on which cleaning method results in longest lifespan, ranging from "do nothing" to extremes such as coke baths. The best cleaning method for an atty might also depend on the juice used.
• Voltage applied. And although most posts I've read suggest that high voltages will often kill atomizers more quickly it isn't even clear that this is always the case. With some atty and juice combinations higher voltages may prove to prolong lifespan.
• Wicking material used. E.g. the occasional burning of polyester fibers may well result in undesirable deposits.
• Amount of use. Atomizers take a thermal beating and each tiny internal fracture will contribute to long term degradation. Although we may learn to optimize a lot of the other factors it will remain true with current designs that at some point usage will take its toll and an atty will degrade or die.

Something which I, as a fairly new vaper, have found to make all this even more complicated is that new vapers often can not be confident about how a particular liquid ought to taste. So when a liquid doesn't taste good, how to tell if the atty has degraded or something else is wrong?

My advice in this regard to new users is, if you're thinking something is wrong (vapor or flavor):

1. Start by checking your power source. Ideally try the atty/cartridge with a "passthrough" device to see whether voltage is the problem. If you don't have a passthrough, try a new and fully charged battery. So far in my vaping I've had two Joye 510 batteries reach the point of not being able to hold a sufficient charge. But I haven't lost an atty yet.
2. Recheck the atty, after using whatever cleaning procedure you've adopted, with a cartridge/flavor/filler you have confidence in. After my first bit of playing with an e-cig I purchased some USP grade PG from a pharmacy. And then learned how it tasted and how much vapor it produced. Since then each time I've changed my vaping approach (new atty type, new filler type) I've rechecked with plain PG. If you try something new (different atty, different wicking, different flavor), it seems weird and you suspect the atty, recheck your known base flavor. That will tell you whether the atty is ok or not. And if it is not ok, try a different and perhaps more brutal cleaning procedure, that may be all you need. After all, now that you know the atty isn't working right, you have nothing to lose by hitting it hard with whatever cleaning procedure strikes your fancy. (So far I've used blowing through it from the battery end as my standard cleaning procedure, swishing in rubbing alcohol when that didn't work, and have once used a blowout with a compressed air can.)
3. When reading other people's posts about how they get a particular lifespan out of their atomizers, the more they tell you about all the factors which may affect atty lifespan the better. Without knowing their particular atomizer, style of use, voltage, etc. it will be hard to apply their experience to yours.

 

[trog100]

I'm just a liitle amused at myself sometimes for reading so much here on atty life and falling for so much of this obssessive compulsive cleaning for extra life of an atty. Geeesus, if an 8$ atty can last 4 wks and a 8$ pack of smokes lasts 12 hrs, which is a better deal, huh?
As time goes by I am only slowly appreciating this little device and not expecting so much for something that costs so little and saved me so much.
Vape it, keep extra attys and batts and juice and enjoy !

yep... just just to make the point again cos its quite clear some folks just read the thread opener ignore whats in the middle and what has already been said..

they are cheap treat them as semi disposable items keep plenty of spares and your troubles will go away.. your costs might go up but that is a small price to pay for frustration free e smoking..

trog

 

[RenaissancePuffer]

So long as you find out early what product you enjoy, the price is worth it. But I'm sure a lot of people that complain about atty life have had to do a lot of trial and error and just see their bank accounts dwindle down as they order this and that.

I was fortunate to really enjoy my type of atomizer early in my vaping, so I bought with a bulk discount when the company offered. I for sure can't complain about the price of vaping. Every week I am saving at least 35 bucks by not buying cigarettes.

 

[a2dcovert]

yep... just just to make the point again cos its quite clear some folks just read the thread opener ignore whats in the middle and what has already been said..

they are cheap treat them as semi disposable items keep plenty of spares and your troubles will go away.. your costs might go up but that is a small price to pay for frustration free e smoking..

trog

Just wanted you to know how much I enjoy your enlightenments. There's a lot of flailing about and wasted time trying to preserve the atty. I do one alcohol soak to try and get more time out of my attys. But, when you think of all the battery life and juice expended trying to get a little more use out of them, it just isn't worth it. I think I finally see the light. I really liked your visual aid, it speaks volumes.

Kevin