WARNING: clean atomizer/phosphine poisonous gas

[gooney0]

SSrob,

I think they enjoy playing with the attys. Some of these guys must be chemists. (I sure hope they are anyway)

Hopefully they will master this process. Once perfected someone can sell us little bottles of cleaner we can use or give us a recipe using harmless household items.

-Gooney0

[stillcrazy]

I think it's an interesting read as I've learned alot about atomizers and the e-cig process. But I'm a noob, and probably some stuff could lead to some idiot harming themselves. Though if it wasn't from chemical poison it'd be something else!! I too await exo's experiment.

[Kurt]

I am puzzled by the original choice of using H3PO4 to clean a metallic atty. H3PO4 is very corrosive, even though it is a weaker acid than HCl. What is getting into your attys that ethanol and blowing will not get out? I have yet to encounter this.

H3PO4 will take the enamel finish off cars, so it will likely do the same with my blue 510 atty finish.

Related question: anyone know what the metals are that are used for the various components of an atty? I would not want heavy metal ions getting into PG and getting vaped, and they may well be soluble in PB, or VG.

Just a thought from a chemist.

Kurt

[exogenesis]

You've got to see the history to all this atty cleaning thing really.

Stubborn stains need harsh measures, so many people tried many things,
& it got ramped up to using 'ice cleaner' (50% or so phosphoric acid),
which seemed to work for some people, where nothing else would.

We're mainly talking about attys that had been used long and heavy,
and milder regimes no longer work too well (or at all).
Initially coke soaks, IPA, ethanol, lemon juice etc, etc do work OK,
but later (if you're not in the 'chuck it out' faction), then you might
try the harsher regimes

Personally I use the 'dry burn + H2O2' method, since the red hot coil
carbonifies & 'smokes off' (90%?) of the burnt-on juice,
then any hard crud left behind gets broken up by the H2O2 'fizz' and
breaks away with a rinse.

So it's case of whatever works...

afaik the atty case is stainless steel, so doesn't get corroded,
the metal with is pure nickel, the only thing that might suffer
would be the silicone grommets (they dissolve in strong sulphuric),
but they seen to survive H3PO4 completely.
The element is Nichrome which is totally OK with this too.

Also the point is to rinse/soak any chemical completely out before
using the atty to vape with
(which is really the point of this latter test....I'm getting to it, just gearing up fully).

And yes, some (cheaper) atty paint jobs can be peeled with strong H3PO4,
but most are OK.

[hxj]

I am puzzled by the original choice of using H3PO4 to clean a metallic atty. H3PO4 is very corrosive, even though it is a weaker acid than HCl. What is getting into your attys that ethanol and blowing will not get out? I have yet to encounter this.

Apparently some (most? eventually all?) users get some seriously baked-on gunk accumulating on the coil that nothing else will reliably dissolve. At some point someone tried soaking atomizers in Coca-Cola and it did a better job of removing said gunk than anything else, and then someone determined that it was the phosphoric acid in the Coke that did it, and then someone found out that ice machine cleaner is a far more concentrated version of phosphoric acid and tried that, and it cleaned up atomizers that were thought to be beyond saving.

My only atomizer to get so caked up was actually recoverable by shaking it in slightly warmed-under-the-tap isopropyl alcohol (and then died anyway when the wick burnt through), but reportedly the phosphoric acid works wonders. I doubt if I'll chance anything more concentrated than Coke, though...

[Kurt]

Thanks for the clarification! Anyone gone the other direction and used something basic like Drano? Or NaOH? I'm still ok with ethanol yet, haven't really caked up an atty too much.

Kurt

[vapn]

I find that every time I tried the rinse with either steam, coke or hydrogen peroxide those atties did not last much longer. Now I do as Rob does. NOTHING>> I blow them out if they are flooded and stand them up for a few hours. When I come back to them good as new.

Now for the flavor getting stuck in there. I try to use one for the fruity flavors and one for the tobacco flavors. Maybe one other for a coffee like juice. This seems to work for me. Atomizers are disposable and always have been. I have had a few last me for two months though. Those were the ones I did nothing to.

[exogenesis]

scratched this post, acid rinse-out info in 2nd post below

[Stric9]

Of course I killed one or two attys before getting familiar with how to correctly use an e-cig (don't smoke it dry). But then quickly figured out that the best method for prolonging the life of an atty is to stop messing around with it and just USE it. I don't even bother to blow it out anymore.
As for the cleaning because of a potential shortage (ban)... I simply calculated how many I would need to last me for 2 years and bought them.

Respects

[exogenesis]

info moved to a new thread,
see next posts.