Cleaning atomizer

[mikeswrx02]

any other alternatives instread of compressed air?

[Jaaxx]

Yes, yes, yes. The Everclear (or Golden Grain) is a must. Great, residue free solvent for cleaning. Dries fast, cheap ($4.99 USD half-pint) and is also great for mixing, thinning and extracting.

[TexasKittie]

I will have to try the everclear method. I have a bottle that has been sitting in my fridge for over a year. If this works it will give me an excuse to use it up and get the bottle outa there.

[UkUsa]

I had an atomizer starting to lose it's performance after a week. Since i'm a real newbie at all of this i thought i'd use just one to start with. That way if i messed up by overdripping, heating up too much, dry vaping, i'd still have one good one.
After reading this post on cleaning and not having either rubbing alcohol or everclear i thought i'd try boiling. Somehow it doesn't seem like a good thing to do but hey, if it gets it working better it's good, if not i'm only one atomizer down. Ordering some more soon anyway.

[Hammertoad]

I don't recommend the air compressor method. Tried that and blew the atomizer right out of the tube! (still had my psi set for framing nailer. oops)

[RjG]

I pulled one of mine apart on the weekend, used for a month or so. It was hard, crispy, and coated in black residue. It still worked.

I soaked it in:
water
hot water
vodka
pure alcohol
vinegar
then moved on to nastier stuff
bleach
ammonia
CLR

The process was, rinse/dry it off, immerse in it the above, check it in 20 or 30 minutes
by rubbing it with my finger to see if any was softening, loosening, or coming off.
The first group (since it would still be smokable after) I left a lot longer.

Further, with the water and vodka, I powered up the atomizer and let it "boil" itself for 20 sec , and 60 seconds.


NOTHING I tried did anything at all. I think oven cleaner may have worked, wish I had some of that when I was fooling around this weekend. It looked / felt like the burned/baked on stuff when your oven needs cleaning.

Then (since I wanted the wire off it anyway) I squished it a bit, and it broke apart like coal. The wisps of fiber at each end were all the fiber there was, the rest was just "coal"

From that, all I can conclude is that if you did find something to dissolve the black stuff, there'd be nothing left ? I dunno.

That was my experiment :-) I know nothing more about cleaning my atomizer than I did before, LOL.

[RjG]

.............

[ZambucaLu]

That was a great test RjG! Thanks for sharing. I was wondering if anyone could just take one apart and try various cleaning methods to see what happened. So maybe oven cleaner would have worked...but if it dissolved the black crud there'd be nothing left anyway? Hmmm....interesting!

Here is something else I found on the net. Haven't tried it myself so don't know how well it would work:

"After ripping several atomizers apart i have come to the exact same conclusion as the mesh is still clean and free of debris but the wick is charred and stops soaking liquid as it should.

I struggled at first with the cleaning and think i found the secret to getting them 100% back to life as the one i have at present is 11 days old after 2 cleans as good as new.(could also just be luck)

When the atomizer starts to block place it in a pan stood on the battery end and fill with water to the level of the collar, then boil the water for 15 mins or so.(this makes the atomizer hotter than the water and causes bubbles of air to rush up inside the atomizer)

Now swish it about, drain, blow out water, add 3 drops of liquid, full cart and hey presto.(can take a good half hour puffing to flush water out and liquid in)"

[RjG]

I would have approached it differently, if I knew I was working with a "lump of coal" to begin with. I was attempting to clean it, expecting black stuff to go away, and fibers to be visible again.

It's entirely possible that all that's required is to clean the charred atomizer core. I mean , maybe once the black charred stuff is clean and dry, it acts as a wick too?
Remember, it still worked fine when disassembled. 100% coal, 0% fiber (except a wisp of fiber on each end).

[K-Sound Krew]

Do you guys know any voodoo?

I have an atomizer which is down to about 25-50% output
Cleaned it 2x both times using boiling and alc
No improvement
Took a hit without a cart, atomiser fires up nice and seemed to be lots of vape from the residue on the wick

Dripped it, new cart, let it sit- no improvement
Any tips?

Have not tried the air yet, still under waranty maybe I'll just send them back

Thanks,