Atomizer Life Spans

[Frankie]

I seem to remember an electo guru who claimed switchig off lightbulbs too often is not economical, cause it destroys the bulb. He said that for anything less that 10 minutes it is not worth. If that is true and the peak current in the switching milisecond does most damage, it is completely irrelevant if the drag is 1 or 5 seconds long.

[Kate]

Only if you're measuring the lifespan of a dry filament?

Most atomisers seem to die because of the amount of gunk that builds up from eliquid and clogs them. They don't wick properly and the filament gets covered and has to work harder.

[Frankie]

I believe boiling in vinegar dissolves / removes the gunk.

[equazcion]

If it's just buildup that "kills" an atomizer, then has anyone ever attempted to revive one with some heavy cleaning? Maybe some of that CLR stuff that can dissolve minerals and rust?

[Frankie]

Vinegar dissolves mineral buildups in domestic appliances that use water,

[Kate]

Some people seem to think that cleaning is beneficial. There are threads about it on the tips and tricks board.

[equazcion]

Vinegar dissolves mineral buildups in domestic appliances that use water,

Well then have you ever been able to boil in vinegar to revive a "dead" atomizer? I'm just curious; If nothing has actually broken inside the atomizer and buildup is the only problem, it would stand to reason that some solvent should be able to revive dead atomizers.

[Sun Vaporer]

I truley believe it the the autoclean feature on the batteries--my first two atomizers lasted 3 weeks each till I got my usb passthough and this atomizer is going on a month with never any "burn char" taste that that clean cycle produced and unless you are sitting in front of a mirror it is hard to catch the blinging cylce fo the autoclean fast enough to screw the battery out before the damage is done.

[SuperStack]

Maybe some of that CLR stuff that can dissolve minerals and rust?

It contains several different acids, one or more of which may help...

How Does CLR Work? | eHow.com

It would be great if someone could rip apart a bunch of their old gunky atomizers, yank the coil sections out, and then test various liquids on them to actually see which is best at dissolving the gunk.

- boiling water / soap
- vinegar
- rubbing alcohol
- CLR
- others ???

[SuperStack]

I truley believe it the the autoclean feature on the batteries--my first two atomizers lasted 3 weeks each till I got my usb passthough

Do the USB passthroughs not have a cleaning cycle? I was under the impression that they used the same chips inside...?