WOW Vapor heating element material??
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You wouldn't use copper anyway. Doesn't stand up to the cycling. Nichrome is engineered primarily for the purpose of use in heating elements. "Everything" [that functions as an electric heater] uses it, and that's been true for a very long time.
Nice, Bobby.
Yes, the heating element is nichrome wire. The "copper" wire you see is the power lead. It is not copper, it just has copper colored insulation. Older Premium carts have black insulation, but the manufacturer started using a new batch of wire with our Wowvapor carts, and the new batch had different colored insulation. That's all.
Thanks Leaford for clearing this up
thank you very much leaford for that response and clarification on the subject. Now I can vape even more worry free
Dang you were right! it wasnt a random piece of wire i had on my workbench. i unfortunately found another with the copper crimp, its a margarita cart....
i will need to test this piece to see if it really is copper or some other copper colored metal.......(this is one of the longer premium cart with the soft rubber caps)
I asked this same question a while ago.
The v4l carto manufacturers have used a few different colored insulators, the copper color threw me off too. I just came across a few with blue insulation.
No copper in these wires.
The v4l carto manufacturers have used a few different colored insulators, the copper color threw me off too. I just came across a few with blue insulation.
No copper in these wires.
Ok.
So wanting to know for myself and knowing the leaford was right being the guru he is.
I checked for myself.
Here is a picture of a WOWboy cart, yes I tore the hell out of it for lack of better tools.
What you can see in the picture is what appears to be a copper lead, but you will also notice that i stripped the end of the wire (the insulating material as leaford mentioned) off and you can see it is not a copper wire, i even showed the insulation i took off directly above the lead wire. its not the greatest picture, but i think you get the gist.
I am happily satisified now
So wanting to know for myself and knowing the leaford was right being the guru he is.
I checked for myself.
Here is a picture of a WOWboy cart, yes I tore the hell out of it for lack of better tools.
What you can see in the picture is what appears to be a copper lead, but you will also notice that i stripped the end of the wire (the insulating material as leaford mentioned) off and you can see it is not a copper wire, i even showed the insulation i took off directly above the lead wire. its not the greatest picture, but i think you get the gist.
I am happily satisified now
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Ok.
So wanting to know for myself and knowing the leaford was right being the guru he is.
I checked for myself.
Here is a picture of a WOWboy cart, yes I tore the hell out of it for lack of better tools.
What you can see in the picture is what appears to be a copper lead, but you will also notice that i stripped the end of the wire (the insulating material as leaford mentioned) off and you can see it is not a copper wire, i even showed the insulation i took off directly above the lead wire. its not the greatest picture, but i think you get the gist.
I am happily satisified now
awesome you beat me to it. Its really hard to see without actually taking it apart but you can see why i was asking if it was copper or not. I didnt know they used an insulated wire. If you are just looking directly into the top of the cart it looks just like a copper wire. Thanks for the dissection and posted pic now i am officially satisfied as well.
Dang you were right! it wasnt a random piece of wire i had on my workbench. i unfortunately found another with the copper crimp, its a margarita cart....
i will need to test this piece to see if it really is copper or some other copper colored metal.......(this is one of the longer premium cart with the soft rubber caps)
I have a hard time grasping why it would be copper or how it slipped past everyone that copper is bad to use if it is. A test would be awesome cause if it is copper then maybe something could be done to fix it.
please note that im not saing that the lead wire or the nichrome wire are copper, the copper on this and only this carto is the small crimp between the lead wire and the nichrome wire. i took apart every wow carto i have and this little copper peice was only in the margarita carto which is not a normal premium carto, my guess is that its one of the new premium cartos....... i have access to a SEM with EDAX capabilities at work but won’t be able to use it for this purpose until next week since i will be demoing a machine to a customer this week.
That seems a tad over-kill-ish. Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong supporter of overkill. But dipping a bit of nichrome in hydrochloric acid, and picking up some metal-chloride on the wire, then holding it over a gas flame for a few seconds is a tad easier. Acid's trivially available
Have you scratched it to see if it's solid and how hard it is?
Have you scratched it to see if it's solid and how hard it is?
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lol yea, i was just trying to impress you
..... Actually its already starting to tarnish. was rubbing it a bit between my fingers and i can detect the distinct smell of tarnished copper.....Scratching it reveals the golden copper color under the tarnish, cant really comment on the hardness. i have some copper etchants in our metrology lab or like you mentioned take a flame to it and see what color the flame burns.
Oh, trust me - always enthralled with a SEM. I can just think of so many cooler things to pump-down and bombard with electrons.
Sounds like it might well be copper. Tarnishing green, I trust?
Sounds like it might well be copper. Tarnishing green, I trust?
Hmm..
I guess the real question is if you actually have copper weld points on that cart, since the element which is not copper is the only peice designed to heat up, would the weld point heat up as well?
I would guess given V4L's incredible customer service and reputation, that they will stompt the hell out of any of there manafacturers who are taking short cuts or using materials that could be harmfull.
Anyway, I know that my cart is clean, but you really never know until you take it apart to see whats in there.
Just my thoughts anyway.
I guess the real question is if you actually have copper weld points on that cart, since the element which is not copper is the only peice designed to heat up, would the weld point heat up as well?
I would guess given V4L's incredible customer service and reputation, that they will stompt the hell out of any of there manafacturers who are taking short cuts or using materials that could be harmfull.
Anyway, I know that my cart is clean, but you really never know until you take it apart to see whats in there.
Just my thoughts anyway.
That's a pretty big piece of copper, and it looks like it's at the solder-joint. So there's not going to be much Ohmic heating going on there. ** Still - it's something I'd rather not see. There are many other metals that could be there in its place that are a bunch more inert. Nothing to panic about, imho, but it's bad form.
** Q=I2 * R * t (Joule's First Law)
** Q=I2 * R * t (Joule's First Law)
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On my six mile jog to the store and back, I gave this a little thought.
Seems to me, since we can pretty safely assume it's not heating up and vaporizing off a [reportedly] solid chunk-o'-copper -
PG is an excellent [safe] industrial solvent. That's the primary reason we see it in _everything_ (that and as a humectant). You probably have what you need in the lab, Lando, but for those following along at home:
Go to the pool supply store, pick up some copper test strips. Prepare two samples of PG (or ejuice) - a control and a test sample. In the test sample, soak a little bit of solid copper wire for a couple days. Remove the copper wire, and use the test strip to test for free copper in the PG sample and in the control sample.
I'm not a chemistry-guru, but I'm wondering if an unacceptable amount of copper is going to leach-off in that solvent...
I'd do it, but I don't see myself at the pool store in the next few weeks...
Seems to me, since we can pretty safely assume it's not heating up and vaporizing off a [reportedly] solid chunk-o'-copper -
PG is an excellent [safe] industrial solvent. That's the primary reason we see it in _everything_ (that and as a humectant). You probably have what you need in the lab, Lando, but for those following along at home:
Go to the pool supply store, pick up some copper test strips. Prepare two samples of PG (or ejuice) - a control and a test sample. In the test sample, soak a little bit of solid copper wire for a couple days. Remove the copper wire, and use the test strip to test for free copper in the PG sample and in the control sample.
I'm not a chemistry-guru, but I'm wondering if an unacceptable amount of copper is going to leach-off in that solvent...
I'd do it, but I don't see myself at the pool store in the next few weeks...
i have every flavor of the WOW's and non has the suspicious copper looking crimp......
it hasnt tarnished green yet, just a dart brown tan color. i think the green patina will take some time to form without using chemicals to accelerate the process. i read i could coat it in a vinegar, salt, and ammonia solution to achieve the green patina. might give this a try since i wont have time this week to perform any other testing on it.
I am looking into that crimp, just to be safe. But I don't think it is anything to worry about.
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