6 replies to this topic

[urbang]

Hiya,

My Apex Ultramax is firing irregularly. It's a fairly new atomiser, and I charge my two 17670 batteries regularly. I've had them about 4-5 months, daily use, consuming around 60ml a month on the ultramax.

Might I need new ones?

Cheers
Lucinda

[Snow]

Do you mean it's sort of stopping and starting? Is it happening with both batteries? I'd be checking contacts first. Shouldn't really need new batteries I don't think. Might just need a good clean or maybe check that nothing is shorting.

[urbang]

Yes, sometimes I have to activate it a few times until it starts, or it takes a few seconds until it begin to fire. Ok, thanks for that - will give it a clean and see.

[Trog]

just to add.. these type batteries lose run time as they age.. your intermittent firing is likely to be the switch not triggering the electronics.. or as has been said dirty connections.. it not likely to be the batteries..

trog

[urbang]

Aha! Yup. Cleaned it and now it's running smooth as silk. Doh. This video is useful for anyone else wondering how to clean it properly.

Edited by urbang, 27 January 2012 - 09:54 AM.

[prof beard]

The Apex range do need the switch cleaning very occasionally - the intermittent firing is the symptom of this - I've had it on my Ultra. Usually just polishing the contact is enough

[BombJack]

Yeah def the switch needs cleaned - for me a min of once a week. That being said - I've got the brass switch and it seems to build up grime quite quickly - possibly oxidisation of the metal? The brass switch which was the original switch actually comes apart slightly - ie if you press the spring part in, you can pop out the brass "pea". Obviously this means it can be lost, but it also means that all the parts can be cleaned.

I've found that there's 3 parts which need cleaning - 1) the small pea, 2) the post which moves within the plastic sleeve/switch housing, and 3) the brass end switch which touches the battery.
Once all of these things are cleaned, and with a fresh battery, it vapes like a champ.

However - I've also got a spare switch which is one of the aluminium ones. This doesn't come apart from what I can tell.
And this switch I have found is almost unuseable now.
Having read a few threads, I found that you can supposedly clean this with lime juice - and given that the unit is completely enclosed, this is difficult, given that if it's constructed in a similar way to the brass one (apart from the fact you can't ping out the small "pea"), it means you can't get in to clean the middle contacts (ie the underside of the pea, and the top of the inner post.)
Thing is, I tried to clean with LEMON juice, and rather than clean it, for some reason the metal went a sort of dark, almost black gunmetal colour. IT doesn't switch at all - which I think must be from the inner post and undreside of pea being oxidised.
So, the question I have is this - is there any solvent/solution which can be used to remove this build up? I've tried to remove the oxidation from all the showing metallic parts, but it's proving difficult to shift, and if these parts are anything to go by, the inner switch parts will be nearly impossible to clean.

So, anyone got any thoughts on this?

Apologies for the thread hijack, but given that the OP is an Apex user, this could prove useful if someone has a solution.