failed atomizers and why.. crushed grommets..

[trog100]

recently we have had some SDs failing due to burnt out melted springs.. not many but enough to know there is a problem out there..

we have ask the owners of the failed ones to send back the atomizers they have been using in an attempt to find out whats causing the problem..

the last one we got back had two out of three newish atomizers with failed or crushed grommets.. this is the cause of the melted springs..

these little grommets are made of a soft silicone material.. they keep the small center positive connection in the atomizer from coming into contact with the outer brass threaded part.. if these two parts come into contact with each other (failed grommet) a direct short will occur.. this melts the spring and makes the SD inoperative.. the spring acts as a fuse and breaks the circuit..

we have some pictures to illustrate this problem.. will post them later..

but for now all we can say is dont use suspect atomizers and do not over tighten them when you fit them..

more later.. the pictures will help explain the problem..

trog

[trog100]

okay pics follow up...

this is a grommet.. this one is crushed.. its kind of squidged outwards... when looked at from the top..





this is pic from the inside showing the damage to the grommet... the top ring is cut clean thru..





the damage seen from a different angle...





when this happens to normal e cig there is no obvious signs of it... just a dead atomizer... when it happens to an SD there is.. the direct short will melt the spring..

trog

[Vaping Angel]

Let me apologise ahead for being a "female".

I looked at the pictures, and is still trying to understand, is the grommet the yucky white glue looking gunk, or the white ring looking stuff?

If it's the white gunky stuff, it looks like its melted, what causes it? The heat, screwing on too tight and the heat, faulty atty? Something else

I guess I'm trying to see if it's avoidable and how.

Live, vape and learn.

Mahalo!

[Kit]

great pics as always are these the attys from wayne cos i have had to RN die in the last 2 weeks.
also i have had to RN bodys come loose when unscrewing from the sd !

[adopted1962]

thank you for the photos and helping us understand the problem.

Now the scary question is...how do we know if we are getting bad atomizers?
Any suggestions on where to buy, what to look for and what we can do to avoid this problem? Is this the reason to not screw the parts too tight.

[adopted1962]

another "female" question. so if we tighten the sd too much we are ruining the the grommet? is there something we can put on the atomizer or sd to avoid this?

[trog100]

okay first blame the pics.. macro pics like these have a very shallow "in focus range"... D.O.F for those who know.. bits of the pics are out of focus and look fuzzy..

nothing is melted.. the grommet is made of very soft but heat proof silicone material.. it dosnt melt and looks like a little top hat it can be described as being like a grey melt proof rubber..

its weakness is it cuts very easily.. i should and will include some pics of an undamaged one... will do some tomorrow..

so nothing is melted simply the ring part or brim of the "top hat" shape has been cut thru.. this should be at the top between the center positive piece and outer negative piece..

some new pics will make it clearer..

trog

[adopted1962]

I know its 5 hours later there...so I'll wait for your response tomorrow. What I am wondering is did "I" damage the atomizer by screwing it on too tightly? Or are some already damaged when we buy them?

Thank you!

[trog100]

Originally Posted by adopted1962

I know its 5 hours later there...so I'll wait for your response tomorrow. What I am wondering is did "I" damage the atomizer by screwing it on too tightly? Or are some already damaged when we buy them?

Thank you!

perhaps a bit of both.. a while back we started to build up the center connection of the SD slightly to make sure of good contact between the two center pieces.. this worked very well.. but.. it also increased the likelihood of crushed grommets if the atomizer is screwed in too tightly..

win some lose some.. one step forward one step backwards.. with our latest batch of SDs we have stopped building up the center piece in the SD..

we seem to have a couple of bad choices.. go for the odd bad contact failure or the odd crushed grommet failure.. we have told the chinese factory about the not overly clever contact between atomizer and battery center connections.. and are advising our customer of potential problems.. not super common ones but ones we thinks folks need to know about..

the best approach is to fit a new atomizer.. dont screw it in any tighter than you have too and dont keep taking it in and out unless there is good reason for it..

trog

[boss]

i think i'll be putting them on only finger-tight from now on, not that i've had any probs so far (touchwood)