I fell in love with a dark juice that became my first daily vape. vaping any other flavor after I first tried it was just not satisfying, but this stuff clogged up attys like nobody's business. I loved this dark, cloudy atty killer too much though. I'd finally found a flavor that I could vape for more than a few hours straight and I wasn't letting it go. I was determined to figure out how to make it work. After trial and error, the solution turned out to be pretty simple, though the process of getting there wasn't.
When I began vaping this dark liquid, I was using a Chuck with 3.7v lithium ion batteries and Eastmall 510 LR 1.5ohm atomizers. Brand new attys were clogging up in anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Nightly alcohol soaks helped, but I was still going through, at least, one atomizer every week.
I briefly tried Eastmall 510 2.5 ohm attys on a 5v device I had, but a careless mishap led to me frying the circuitry in the mod and I was back to 3.7v. The 5v plus 2.5 ohm setup had potential though. I was onto something, and I thought it might have something to do with heat.
I'd heard around the forums that Cisco 306 LR 1.5's burned hotter than other attys, so I decided to give them a try to see if they might be the solution to my clogging problems. They weren't quite the solution, but they resisted clogging better than anything I'd tried. I'd also heard around the forums that debridging and dewicking attys would help them run even hotter. This also helped the clogging problem, but it didn't quite get me all the way there. Debridged Cisco 306 LR 1.5s were lasting about a week.
The key to completely conquering the clogging problem was solved by an observation I'd made that batteries fresh off the charger seemed to be slightly de-clogging my attys. I thought perhaps the extra heat at the beginning of the battery's charge, when it comes off the charger at 4.2v and drops down to 3.7, might have been burning a slight amount of particulates from the coil. I considered the possibility that I was getting a sort of dry burn effect, and maybe keeping the heat at the coil higher throughout the battery's charge would be the final piece to the puzzle.
IMR batteries, which would provide more consistent current throughout the charge than lithium ions and don't suffer from voltage sag with 1.5 ohm attys, seemed like a possible solution. I gave them a try next, and they were the last piece. I'd finally conquered the clogging problem. I was getting two to three weeks of use from my attys before noticing significant performance degradation, sometimes even a month. The key to preventing a dark juice from clogging atomizers turned out to be getting enough heat to burn off some of the particulates stuck to the coil throughout the battery's entire charge.
Understanding this, I started experimenting with different vaping techniques. One thing I found that helps is to occasionally let the atty go a bit drier than you normally would. I'm not talking cherry red coil hot dry, but not necessarily too far off from it either. I like to call this a micro-dry burn. Using a bottom feeder also helped. I found I could run attys just to the edge of too dry and give a quick squonk mid-vape to quickly cool the coil before it was too late.
A downside to this is that because the particulates are being burned off a bit of ash will start to collect on the coil. This can affect flavor over time, but is easy enough to work around. Alcohol soaks help get to rid of the build up as well as lightly scraping your fingernail across the coil. I've often wondered whether a small wire brush might not help as well, but I've not found the need to test it out myself as alcohol soaks are generally enough to satisfy me.
When I began vaping this dark liquid, I was using a Chuck with 3.7v lithium ion batteries and Eastmall 510 LR 1.5ohm atomizers. Brand new attys were clogging up in anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Nightly alcohol soaks helped, but I was still going through, at least, one atomizer every week.
I briefly tried Eastmall 510 2.5 ohm attys on a 5v device I had, but a careless mishap led to me frying the circuitry in the mod and I was back to 3.7v. The 5v plus 2.5 ohm setup had potential though. I was onto something, and I thought it might have something to do with heat.
I'd heard around the forums that Cisco 306 LR 1.5's burned hotter than other attys, so I decided to give them a try to see if they might be the solution to my clogging problems. They weren't quite the solution, but they resisted clogging better than anything I'd tried. I'd also heard around the forums that debridging and dewicking attys would help them run even hotter. This also helped the clogging problem, but it didn't quite get me all the way there. Debridged Cisco 306 LR 1.5s were lasting about a week.
The key to completely conquering the clogging problem was solved by an observation I'd made that batteries fresh off the charger seemed to be slightly de-clogging my attys. I thought perhaps the extra heat at the beginning of the battery's charge, when it comes off the charger at 4.2v and drops down to 3.7, might have been burning a slight amount of particulates from the coil. I considered the possibility that I was getting a sort of dry burn effect, and maybe keeping the heat at the coil higher throughout the battery's charge would be the final piece to the puzzle.
IMR batteries, which would provide more consistent current throughout the charge than lithium ions and don't suffer from voltage sag with 1.5 ohm attys, seemed like a possible solution. I gave them a try next, and they were the last piece. I'd finally conquered the clogging problem. I was getting two to three weeks of use from my attys before noticing significant performance degradation, sometimes even a month. The key to preventing a dark juice from clogging atomizers turned out to be getting enough heat to burn off some of the particulates stuck to the coil throughout the battery's entire charge.
Understanding this, I started experimenting with different vaping techniques. One thing I found that helps is to occasionally let the atty go a bit drier than you normally would. I'm not talking cherry red coil hot dry, but not necessarily too far off from it either. I like to call this a micro-dry burn. Using a bottom feeder also helped. I found I could run attys just to the edge of too dry and give a quick squonk mid-vape to quickly cool the coil before it was too late.
A downside to this is that because the particulates are being burned off a bit of ash will start to collect on the coil. This can affect flavor over time, but is easy enough to work around. Alcohol soaks help get to rid of the build up as well as lightly scraping your fingernail across the coil. I've often wondered whether a small wire brush might not help as well, but I've not found the need to test it out myself as alcohol soaks are generally enough to satisfy me.
