Cleaning Battery & USB Contact Points
Battery & USB Charger Lead Maintenance
It remains that by far the best way to look after your batteries and charger leads is to prevent the contact points on each collecting any dirt, debris, fluff etc.
Always store Miniciggy products in a cool or room temperature dry environment. They do not like damp or wet environments, this will damage them
With batteries, when not on charge the best advice if you aren't using it is to keep an old cartomiser attached to it. That way if it is in a bag, wallet, purse or pocket then the contact point is protected from picking up any debris or fluff. This is important as any debris that gets into the contact point can build up and settle in the well around the small circular contact. This will eventually block airflow which is required for the battery to activate and your battery will prematurely fail. It will then need clearing out for it to begin working again. The other issue of dirt/debris in and around the contact point is that this can alter the taste being dragged through on inhale. If you want batteries to work better for longer keep those contact points clean
With Charger Leads it is also important to keep the contact point, in particular the small circular disc free of any dirt/grime. Any build up of dirt on there can create a thin barrier between battery and charger.
In this scenario you attach your battery for charging and the light on the USB Lead remains blue as it is not detecting the battery because of the barrier caused by dirt/grime.
Again it is important to keep your USB Leads in a dry environment, this will dramatically reduce the risk of any build up of grime and your leads will continue to work effectively
We would say 9 times out of 10 the batteries and leads we receive back after being replaced are functioning but appear to have failed because of dirt and debris on and around the contact points. Once cleaned they more often than not begin to work again.
If you find you have a build up of dirt or debris on contact points of either batteries or charger leads then it is easy to resolve yourself with about 5 minutes of your time and just 3 simple tools
What we use to clean up contact points :
- End of a Sharp Knife
- Small Pin
- Alcohol cleansing wipe (Not essential but helps)
Picture below of the simple tools used
The end of the knife is used to scrape away and dirt and grime on the small circular contact point. Scrape lightly until you start seeing shiny metal again. Get as much dirt off as you can and blow away any debris
The pin is used to run around the well area around the outer edge of the contact point to loosen up any dirt and debris in there. This is more useful on the batteries as it's the debris in that well that causes blocking of essential airflow. You also need to use the pin to poke through the small pinhole in the thread of the batteries. Important that small hole in free of blockage as this is where airflow is directed through. You can also use the end of the pin for any finer scraping required on the contact point itself. Although the knife will be best for that job
The alcohol wipe is not essential but a bonus if you have one. Just use it to wipe in and around the contact points. With batteries it helps remove any dirt from the thread of the battery aswell. It takes off any excess dirt on the surface which should leave a nice clean contact
These are all very simple and very inexpensive items which you may even already have to hand anyway. Looking after your batteries and charger leads will help keep them working better for longer
Below is a video link of how we cleaned a USB Lead with the above pictured tools. The lead in this video was returned to us after being replaced with a new one. When we received it the light on the lead was remaining blue when attaching a battery for charging. So in other words it was not detecting the battery and therefore not charging. As you can see in the video the contact point is covered in dirt/grime. Once this was cleaned out the USB Lead began to work again. In reality it never stopped working, it was just not looked after very well. This lead took 4 minutes from beginning to end to get cleaned up and you will see it's really quite straight forward