Vamo Spring Resistance

[Robby]

I just had one of the old springs sent to me in the post, there was no note inside the envelope so I dont know where it came from. I had asked a couple of people to send me one as I was dying to get to the bottom of this. I think it was Charlie, if it was, thank you very much Charlie, I really appreciate it.

Well the first thing I did was to check the resistance of the spring, it was as others before had been, between 1.5 ohms and 4 ohms, occasionaly higher. I held the spring and gave it a quick rub with fine sandpaper on the bottom off the spring where it would contact the end cap and at the top of the spring where it would contact the battery. Put the meter on it and the resistance was a constant 0.3 ohms. So in this case it appears to have been a bit of oxidation. I wouldnt be surprised if that has been the problem all along. When they uprated the spring initially (because of the smaller flimsier spring) they could have got them from anywhere with no idea how long the spring manufacturer had them in stock. I certainly could not see the oxidation initially. The layer of oxidation necessary to cause the relatively high resistance reading on the spring (before I cleaned it) would be very thin and hard to see. Even after cleaning it, I can see no difference. It looked fine when I took it out of the envelope and the little effest battery box that the sender had kindly sent it in.

So if you have still got the old spring, give it a try, chances are it will cure the problem ;-)

0.3 ohms isnt the best it could be of course. The gold plated ones are only reading 0.1 ohms. I have put the spring into my vamo to see how it goes for the day.

 

[Robby]

Update on above, been using it all day and given it a good test, been battling with my DID clone lol, doing a lot of long burns when testing wicks and coils at high wattage. Not a hint of the spring getting warm. I`ll just leave it there now as it doesn`t seem to be an issue. Time will tell.

 

[jrob3rts]

Cheers,
Just done some dry burns on mine (using a non stripped spring) and the spring got very hot. Just burnt myself on it trying to find out how hot it was lol.
Also notice the back of the unit it getting hot, maybe that sorts itself out when the spring is all ok.
James

 

[Robby]

Cheers,
Just done some dry burns on mine (using a non stripped spring) and the spring got very hot. Just burnt myself on it trying to find out how hot it was lol.
Also notice the back of the unit it getting hot, maybe that sorts itself out when the spring is all ok.
James

Did you try giving it a clean with fine sandpaper James?, and then taking a resistance reading?

 

[jrob3rts]

Did you try giving it a clean with fine sandpaper James?

Nope, sadly I do not have any and am unable to get out over the next few days.
I did however get a resistance of 0.4ohms which is better. Just moved it around until it measured that. Not sure if the parts making a better contact are able to handle the load though.

 

[Robby]

Nope, sadly I do not have any and am unable to get out over the next few days.
I did however get a resistance of 0.4ohms which is better. Just moved it around until it measured that. Not sure if the parts making a better contact are able to handle the load though.

What you can do is to rub it on a flat paving stone on the top and bottom surface of the coil, just a few seconds will probably be enough, wiggle it about a bit to clean as much of the contact area as you can. If you have any Vaseline, put a smear (a tiny smear) on your finger, just as much as you can see the shine and rub it on the contact areas of the spring. A brillo pad will probably do it as well, or a kitchen scourer (metal). Worth a try? The only important areas of the spring are the contact points, the rest of the spring can be covered in oxidation or rust, it wont make any difference. Even Brasso or similar will do it.

 

[jrob3rts]

I was jusy looking for some mortar to try and scratch it off. But Vapemail just turned up

0.2ohm on my meter. Suspect mine if not ble to self zero, so that's 0ohm wit my leads

 

[jrob3rts]

New one is fitted.

 

[Robby]

I think the important thing is the relationship between the spring resistance and the Atty resistance, if your spring is reading 0.4 ohm and your atty is reading 1.6 ohm then the heat produced in the spring will be the same ratio. So for sake of arguement, if your atty is burning 4 watts your spring will be burning 1 watt, it`s a direct relationship.

If however you have an atty that is 3.2 ohms the ratio would be 1 to 8. So if your atty is burning 4 watts then your spring would only be burning 1/8 th of 4 watts ie 1/2 a watt.

With a gold plated spring(0.1 ohm) the ratio would be 0.1 ohm to 1.6 ohm, so in that case if the atty was firing at 4 watts there would be a ratio of 1 to 16. ie - one sixteenth of 4 watts = 0.25 watts


If course this is all wasted watts and in the case of low resistance atomizers a really big waste of battery capacity.

 

[Robby]

View attachment 4071

New one is fitted.

Nice one!! I think they are actually gold plated.