@MisterBill2, the unit is back together. There was never a problem with it. Only had curiosity as to why it continued to glow even after being unplugged.

Back when I was a kid we had steam vaporizers that heated an element. That hot element turned water into steam. More modern vaporizers - the "COLD STEAM" vaporizers are not producing steam at all. They use ultrasonics to atomize the water and then blow the water into the air where it is "supposed to" evaporate. My experience with those devices has always resulted in a wet floor or dresser top. Even putting a towel under it, you still got a lot of wet things. That's why I went back to warm steam. It doesn't wet things down. Though it CAN fog up the window.

 

@MisterBill2, the unit is back together. There was never a problem with it. Only had curiosity as to why it continued to glow even after being unplugged.

Back when I was a kid we had steam vaporizers that heated an element. That hot element turned water into steam. More modern vaporizers - the "COLD STEAM" vaporizers are not producing steam at all. They use ultrasonics to atomize the water and then blow the water into the air where it is "supposed to" evaporate. My experience with those devices has always resulted in a wet floor or dresser top. Even putting a towel under it, you still got a lot of wet things. That's why I went back to warm steam. It doesn't wet things down. Though it CAN fog up the window.

Tony, We use the ultrasonic ones with no problem,, except for having to refill them daily. But some of them can't be set to MAX because of exactly the problem you describe. But Michigan winters may be dryer than where you live. And still there is the challenge of the mineral build up, which in our area will clog a furnace humidifier in one season. And the ultrasonic ones don't have the hot part hazard for grandkids and dogs, which is handy. I have had two of them fail after a few years, wjith no clear sign of what went bad.

 

Tony, We use the ultrasonic ones with no problem,, except for having to refill them daily. But some of them can't be set to MAX because of exactly the problem you describe. But Michigan winters may be dryer than where you live. And still there is the challenge of the mineral build up, which in our area will clog a furnace humidifier in one season. And the ultrasonic ones don't have the hot part hazard for grandkids and dogs, which is handy. I have had two of them fail after a few years, wjith no clear sign of what went bad.

I've had smoke bowls - - - same principle. Ultrasonic sound waves bounce back and forth from the surface of the water to the transducer and back. The energy striking the surface atomizes it. Problem I've seen in the smoke bowl was that the piezo starts to delaminate. If they build up with minerals they lose their efficiency. If you try to clean them you usually end up taking the metallization off the surface, rendering them useless. Those smoke bowls, you can buy replacement piezo's. The ultrasonic vaporizers operate the same exact way. And I bet minerals build up and reduce their effectiveness, eventually rendering them useless.

I messed with an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner some years ago. Wondering, as I do, just how those waves could clean I decided to stick my finger in there and feel them. At first I barely touched the surface, but felt no sensation whatsoever. Going deeper and deeper into the bath I reached a point where the ultrasonic waves were focused. It was just like sticking a jack hammer on the bone of my finger. Hurt like the dickens. Wasn't injured, but I decided I didn't need to feel those sound waves again. It was at that same depth that I noticed ink stamps would clean up nicely. Literally, the ink would explode off the surface of the rubber stamp. However, occasionally so would the rubber from the handle.

 

@Danko; wondering why you quoted my motto (signature) in post #71.

 

@Danko; wondering why you quoted my motto (signature) in post #71.

This is information from your post #1:

"I have this warm steam vaporizer. It consists of some very simple elements. A power cord that connects to a resistor and a neon lamp (don't know the sorts). The neon lamp and resistor form a series circuit from line to neutral. Parallel to that are two electrodes that sit in water. The water is the heating element in that current passes through the water and generates the steam. This morning I unplugged it. Immediately the steam stopped but the neon lamp continued to glow dimly. It took about 30 seconds to fully extinguish (or to dim so low I couldn't see it). I've never seen a neon lamp do that. Any explanations?"

Because it was not accurate, not complete and not reliable information,
I cited your motto:

"What is truth? It is accurate, complete and reliable information."

 

That's the point of why this was a conundrum if indeed it was a NE2 type neon lamp. A NE2 type NEON lamp simply could not do the things listed in post #1 without some additional energy storage system.

 

The opposite of truth is a lie. Deliberate mis-information. I didn't lie, I was mistaken. Wrong. Forgive me. Consider that the next time you make a mistake.

 

The opposite of truth is a lie. Deliberate mis-information. I didn't lie, I was mistaken. Wrong. Forgive me. Consider that the next time you make a mistake.

Tony, it's no big deal. You tried as hard as possible to explain everything. There was no way for you to know exactly what you had and all in all it made for an interesting thread. Important is that anyone who reads the thread will come away with something.

Ron