Mysterious equipment failure - help!

[frilly]

So there I was this afternoon, vaping happily and all was well. But this evening half my equipment has failed and I don't understand why!

An Evod battery started flashing so I unscrewed the IClear and screwed the battery into my charger. But the little llight didn't go red. I tried a different charger - same thing. I reasoned there must be a problem with the battery though it should have been good for a while yet. I put it aside and tried my other Evod which had charged up earlier and....same thing - when I attached the clearo it started flashing. Strange.... I unscrewed, pressed the battery button and it's not flashing. Tried a different clearo and the battery works fine. So is there a clearo problem? Tried the suspect clearo on another (big VV thing) battery which I know is fully charged. That battery didn't like the clearo either and started flashing straightaway.

So.... I have a suspect clearo - I have no idea what's wrong with it. Could it be that my Evod batteries are ok but just don't need charging? (i.e. why the red light didn't go on?) They seem to work ok with other clearos. Why do my batteries flash when I attach this clearo? Do I need to rebuild it or something? Or just bin it? Is the little round bit inside the bottom (that I can't quite reach) in need of being lifted up or pushed down? I do have some replacement coil thingies but have no idea how to do it (and I'm really not sure I could be bothered.) Also, I have 2 lots of these iclear 16 clearos but don't know what Ohm one lot is 'cos I threw away the box - how can I tell? The second lot I have - which I haven't used yet - are 2.1 but for some reason the spare coils I have are 1.5. I guess that is significant but bu**ered if I know what that's all about.

What to do? At this point I am very tempted to bin the dodgy clearo, start with a new one and hide the spare coils so I don't have to think about that... Suggestions very welcome and apologies for the level of ignorance and dislike of icky or techy things...

Frilly in distress
(Or dat dress)

[OneDay]

It sounds very much as though the iclear has been screwed too tightly onto the battery, depressing the centre pin. Take a look at this video for a possible remedy

[dreamylittledream]

Oct 10, 2013 23:50:41 GMT frilly said:

So there I was this afternoon, vaping happily and all was well. But this evening half my equipment has failed and I don't understand why!

An Evod battery started flashing so I unscrewed the IClear and screwed the battery into my charger. But the little llight didn't go red. I tried a different charger - same thing. I reasoned there must be a problem with the battery though it should have been good for a while yet. I put it aside and tried my other Evod which had charged up earlier and....same thing - when I attached the clearo it started flashing. Strange.... I unscrewed, pressed the battery button and it's not flashing. Tried a different clearo and the battery works fine. So is there a clearo problem? Tried the suspect clearo on another (big VV thing) battery which I know is fully charged. That battery didn't like the clearo either and started flashing straightaway.

So.... I have a suspect clearo - I have no idea what's wrong with it. Could it be that my Evod batteries are ok but just don't need charging? (i.e. why the red light didn't go on?) They seem to work ok with other clearos. Why do my batteries flash when I attach this clearo? Do I need to rebuild it or something? Or just bin it? Is the little round bit inside the bottom (that I can't quite reach) in need of being lifted up or pushed down? I do have some replacement coil thingies but have no idea how to do it (and I'm really not sure I could be bothered.) Also, I have 2 lots of these iclear 16 clearos but don't know what Ohm one lot is 'cos I threw away the box - how can I tell? The second lot I have - which I haven't used yet - are 2.1 but for some reason the spare coils I have are 1.5. I guess that is significant but bu**ered if I know what that's all about.

What to do? At this point I am very tempted to bin the dodgy clearo, start with a new one and hide the spare coils so I don't have to think about that... Suggestions very welcome and apologies for the level of ignorance and dislike of icky or techy things...

Frilly in distress
(Or dat dress)

The battery light is flashing because the coil is attempting to short the battery so its refusing to fire.

Try changing the coil in the iclear - the problem sounds to me like the coil has blown

[frilly]

Thanks OneDay... But my batteries work fine with (various) other clearos so I don't think the centre pin is depressed. On the last bit of that video, it mentions pulling the centre pin on the clearo out a bit, I tried this with my best pointy tweezers but it doesn't seem to move.

I'm reluctant to start messing with my (7) batteries as they work fine with other clearos, but all flash when this dodgy clearo is attached. Except one - with that, the battery light went on and stayed on even when I took my finger off and even after I unscrewed the clearo from hell! (I pressed again and it switched off. When I attached a different clearo it worked fine again - phew.)

I think I am more depressed than that centre pin

[dreamylittledream]

Change the coil in the iclear frilly and report back

I'm going to wager real money now that its just the coil in it that's blown.

[frilly]

Well, I'm off to bed now DLD, but I'll have a go in the morning. I've already dripped juice on the carpet when I attempted the tweezer thing so I'm not in the best frame of mind to tackle it now.

Will let you know... and thanks!

Frilly

[markm]

A blown coil leaves an open circuit, whish means the battery has no idea that any things attached
it is flashing telling you that there is a problem, so its definitely not a blown coil. (or a poor connection with
the positive pin on either)
It sounds like a short circuit or very low resistance on the coil, I would suggest trying a new coil,
the chances are that will solve the problem as either way its probably an issue with that part.
If you have a multi meter or VW mod you could try reading the resistance which will tell you for sure
where/what the issue is.

[charon]

this is a classic case of a blown coil..Just fit a new head.
Hiding the box is akin to putting your head in the sand..problem still there. As markm says use whatever equipment you have to check the resistance.
Multimeters are a usefull thing to have around and simplicity itself to use. ( If you can't or don't want to check them yourself, a nice person at your local B&M store may be able to help)

[markm]

Just to be a tad picky, the symptoms are NOT a blown coil,
A blown coil is an OPEN circuit, the symptoms described are of
The exact opposite - a shorted out circuit, or very low resistance one.

The same solution can often fix either problem, but I think it's important to differentiate
As if a coil change isnt the solution then the next steps are very different.

[Jaguar7777]

Sounds like the resistance is way down. Doesn't happen often, but it does crop up from time to time.


Jag. (Sounds like the battery is doing what it should .......)

[jaysey]

Oct 11, 2013 0:25:06 GMT dreamylittledream said:

Change the coil in the iclear frilly and report back

I'm going to wager real money now that its just the coil in it that's blown.

Same happened me and problem solved;)

[frilly]

Thank you to all for the enlightening replies. The problem was definitely the coil (and I'll let you fight over whether it was shorted out or blown...) I've put a new one in now and it really was easy to do, though my fingers still smell of caramelised cappuccino despite having washed them 3 times...

All my batteries are now happy to unite with this clearo again.


Markm and Charon: I do love your sensible suggestions regarding multi-meters But I guess you know I'm not going to go down that road. I'll admit to the ostrich analogy but at least I also admit to my areas of ignorance and asking for help here always increases my knowledge. And hey - have you seen my beautiful frilly tail feathers?

[OneDay]

Oct 11, 2013 10:26:14 GMT frilly said:

Thank you to all for the enlightening replies. The problem was definitely the coil (and I'll let you fight over whether it was shorted out or blown...) I've put a new one in now and it really was easy to do, though my fingers still smell of caramelised cappuccino despite having washed them 3 times...

All my batteries are now happy to unite with this clearo again.


Markm and Charon: I do love your sensible suggestions regarding multi-meters But I guess you know I'm not going to go down that road. I'll admit to the ostrich analogy but at least I also admit to my areas of ignorance and asking for help here always increases my knowledge. And hey - have you seen my beautiful frilly tail feathers?

I'm delighted you've got it sorted with the easiest of the suggested solutions.
I can think of plenty of other hobbies that leave your fingers smelling a lot worse than cappuccino
One of the great things about this forum is that you can ask any question, no matter how 'silly' or 'ignorant' it might feel, and people will rush to your aid without making you feel like an imbecile. Long may it continue!