Atomizer Cleaned ! Simple Cheap Effective Method.

[exogenesis]

Round Three : Testing the e-liquids ingredients seperately:
Part 1. Glycerine

(click a thumbnail for bigger image)

btw there was a Round Two (15 ml flavoured PG liquid):

but the wire snapped due to the coil expansion with the hard build-up, sigh.



Anyway moving over to Joye510 atomizers, which run hotter than 901's,
(taking 850 mA at 3V rather than 500 mA).


New coil:



After vaping 28 ml of plain Glycerine (VG) over 3 days
(actual recipe was 30 ml glycerine + thinned with 4 ml deionised water):


This build-up is definately softer than round two at the top.

Not decided yet which way to test cleaning.

Thinking I might try a sequence of low to high probability of success:

1 water wash
2 alcohol wash
3 vinegar soak
3 lemon juice soak
3 coke soak
6 Heat wire at 1200 mA, or at least bright cherry red.
7 hydrogen peroxide 'boil-in-place'

or should I just go for the kill (i.e. 6 & 7 only) ?
or maybe 7 first, then 6 & 7 to see if it gets any cleaner.

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

[nomochokes]

I'm new to this and so far have not had to change out atomizers yet so I don't want to experiment with this at this time but was wondering if anyone has tried baking soda and vinegar. This creates a very basic chemical reaction that consist of non hazardous materials that should be safe after the fact.

Not sure if it would work any better than all the other things that have been tried but you never know! If you have tried then please post your results.

Thanks.

[exogenesis]

Hi nomochokes,
I've tried alternating drops of phophoric acid & saturated 'bicarbonate of soda'
(baking powder has acids included in it).

Make a lot of fizz & repeatedly breaks tiny chunks of black debris off
of the gunked coil, but eventually that stopped happening, & there was
still a lot of hard gunk on the coil.

Then again this was for a very heavily gunked coil in the first place.
The method may be quite good for lighter caking ?

[~Wonder]

Thinking I might try a sequence of low to high probability of success:

1 water wash
2 alcohol wash
3 vinegar soak
3 lemon juice soak
3 coke soak
6 Heat wire at 1200 mA, or at least bright cherry red.
7 hydrogen peroxide 'boil-in-place'

or should I just go for the kill (i.e. 6 & 7 only) ?
or maybe 7 first, then 6 & 7 to see if it gets any cleaner.

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

Why don't you try a soak in distilled water for an hour or two and than a rinse and then maybe some heat. See how much comes off that way.

[Ann]

I have cleaned stuff for years with baking soda and vinegar. What if people just need to clean out the atty everyday to keep the build up off, if that is even possible. Just a thought. So far I have not lost an atty and they all look good, as best as I can see in there anyway.

[exogenesis]

OK wonder, I'll try that, water soak then wash.
But will probably then go to H2O2 before heating first,
possibly to show whether heating is required before H2O2.

Ann, I think it's possible that the mild methods, like weak acid soak
(vinegar, coke or lemon juice)
if regularly done could stop things getting as bad as these extreme tests,
but it seems to be different for everyone.

[Ann]

OK wonder, I'll try that, water soak then wash.
But will probably then go to H2O2 before heating first,
possibly to show whether heating is required before H2O2.

Ann, I think it's possible that the mild methods, like weak acid soak
(vinegar, coke or lemon juice)
if regularly done could stop things getting as bad as these extreme tests,
but it seems to be different for everyone.

I understand that.

[surbitonPete]

Hi exo.....even though I haven't tried it yet....I think your no7 is probably going to be the most effective cleaning method of all.

[jesrf]

I'm new to this and so far have not had to change out atomizers yet so I don't want to experiment with this at this time but was wondering if anyone has tried baking soda and vinegar. This creates a very basic chemical reaction that consist of non hazardous materials that should be safe after the fact.

Not sure if it would work any better than all the other things that have been tried but you never know! If you have tried then please post your results.

Thanks.

nomo,

I have used vinegar and baking soda (talked about it in another thread) . Primarily on 401 atomizer (and one nPro) The nPor has been used for 6 weeks and is still going strong.

My method is filling the atomizer with baking soda, and then dropping it into a glass of vinegar. Blow dry, repeat... It works best if I let it soak in the vinegar for an extended period of time (such as overnight). The 401 atomizers are very hard to see in, however there is a significant amount of black/gray material floating in the vinegar afterwards. It is extremely hard to get baking soda down into a 401 atomizer as well.

Last week I began using this treatment every other day on my atomizers as "maintenance". I have two dead 401 atomizers and will disassemble one and try this if someone would like to recommend the best way to disassemble the atomizer.

I believe the key is to actually get the baking soda on to the coil, then give it the vinegar (we used to clean car battery's this way)

[exogenesis]

Round Three : Testing the e-liquids ingredients seperately: Part 1. Glycerine - RESULTS

(All pictures can be clicked on for larger a picture)

Start (new Joye510 atomizer) and after 28 ml glycerine vaped:


Tried boiling-in-place first (no burn cycle) :
deionised-water, then hydrogen-peroxide (H2O2):

Not very much removed.

The real clean cycle:
1280mA burn at '4.5V' setting , after burn,
reset to 3V (850mA),
H2O2 boil-in-place, H2O2 boil-in-place with added ammonia (NH3),

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ^
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PRETTY CLEAN
Burn cycle ashes the gunk
(don't like the yellow ash colour much - not sure what that implies),
H2O2 fizz breaks off the ash,
much better with added NH3 (1 part household ammonia, 10 parts H2O2 solution),
because the fizz is made much more vigorous.


NH3/H2O2 fizz on heated wire (850mA with normal 3V setting):




Fairly good result, a bit of ammonia in the H2O2 does quite a
good job of fizzically removing the ashed gunk.
Cleans up the ceramic pot nicely too.

There's no remaining chemicals, since the NH3 all gasses off,
and the H2O2 is broken down to water.
Still I'd rinse the atomizer in water anyway to
clear away the broken off ash.


Next test VG + 20% loranne flavouring,
or shall I wait, to receive the pure PG I ordered, to test that first ?