drdave

Hey everyone,
It seems that I am having crazy bad luck with atomizers. I have several M401's and M-403's. I just lost atomizer #3 last night in less than a month. I ordered a bunch of extras but was kind of under the impression they gave a good life expectancy. I don't ever drip the units, just fill the cartridges and make sure they are properly drained every couple of days. I also make sure the charger contact and battery contact are cleaned frequently. I saw the youtube vid about not twisting on the atty's with the cartridges on so I'm careful of that. I even tried cleaning the dead units with the cola soaking and was only able to revive one of the three, and it was weak as heck. Is the normal expectancy on the atty's less than 2 weeks? Keep in mind, I have 5 total M series and rotate them so none get a constant duty cycle. Any ideas here would be appreicated.

godling

The M-Series atomizers are supposed to be good for a month (ymmv). If you're burning them out faster, you might be harder on your attys than the typical person ... or you might have gotten a bad batch.

I'd suggest you contact your supplier(s) and have them replace the bad atomizers. While your waiting on your replacements, try and find if it's something you're doing thats making them burn out faster.

VapingVictoria

Buy them in bulk! The first few I had worked great. But it's been downhill since then. When I tried to clean them several died. Now I just blow the out with compressed air. Eastmall has bulk atts really cheap.

Stehle

I've only had 1 atti go bad in 3 months (knock on wood), so my observations may be of limited use here.

I did have two come DOA 2 months ago though. (I believe they were a Dse103 and M Series)

I just do regular maintenance on all that I use.

Depending on the atti...

Steam Cleaning, Cola Soak, Alcohol Soak, Ultrasound Soak, Distilled Water Soak, Burn Off, etc.. I'm sure you've read about all the methods before so I won't bore you, but find one you like that works for you and stick with it regularly.

Hope you have better luck with atomizers in the future!

VaporFiend

I've been going through 401 attys like crazy too. 3 in one day gets expensive. I did notice something weird with one of them. It seemed to be dead (cold when drawing on it) so I put it in my desk drawer, I pulled it out a couple days later and it was working again. Dunno whats up with that, but maybe save them for a couple days and revisit.

TrueSmoker

Quick question are you using a passthrough?

drdave

True Smoker,
I have never used a passthrough, just the charged batteries.

flavorcountry

Are there any components in that model atty that could have a short(wires etc.), and after being moved around may work again? I'm thinking of the way stereo headphones sometimes get worn. You know how the sound goes out in one ear, but if you jiggle the cord they work fine for a while.

VaporFiend

That's quite possible. It would require destroying the atty to find out though.
Truesmoker: Yes, I use a passthrough and drip and do all the bad stuff to atomizers.

firhill

Not sure if this applies to M4xx atomizers as I've never seen one up close....

With 801 and 901 atomizers every once in a while I will get one that quits working. I stick a paperclip in the hole in centre of +ve and gently pull the middle insert out just a bit. Same with the battery.

Sometimes they get pushed in a little to far to keep making contact with one another due to screwing them on and off and also from being pushed "in" slightly from the paper towels used to clean them.

Lazarus

Yep,

There is only a thin rubber gasket that seperates the + from the - of both the atty and the battery on the 401 and most other e-cigs. If this gets pushed in on either unit, it could cause a dead short on one or the other when screwed together.

Someone needs to re-design this, a common batt and atty killer.

Cl0ud9eSm0kes

hmm.. I will have to try that paperclip trick on one of my dead 901 atomizers.
I've never really investigated the inner-workings of a bad atomizer.