510 atomizer tastes funky after maintainance.

[pchela]

I have 3 atomizers for the 510 I'm using with an Ego. I have read to clean them regularly. I've tried alcohol baths and I've tried simply using hot water. Whatever I use, lately I've found that after they're clean, when I inhale it produces heated (not normal) thin vapor and almost immediately (second or third hit) tastes burnt. It's almost like I'm just sucking in hot air or steam if that makes sense? I would think it was a bad atomizer but this happens with all three. Oh - this happens when trying to direct drip (3-4 drops directly on atty). I've been able to get an atty back to normal once by filling a cart and vaping that way instead of dripping. After one cart full, I then started direct dripping and it was fine. I have been letting them dry overnight and blowing them out before trying to use them. Anyway, what am I doing wrong? Right now I have three unusable attys and no way to vape! Thanks - I hope my question was clear, it's kind of hard to describe what they are doing.

 

[Kurt]

It sounds sort of like the bridge and wick are still wet with water. Try a dry burn, which is attaching the atty to the batt, and firing it up without juice or cart for several 5-second bursts. If the coil is glowing fully within a second or two, then the coil is fine. Also, if you can, use a multimeter to check the resistance (red to center hole, black to outer). If they are coming up around 2.5 ohms, they are good. Much higher than 3 ohms will be weak.

Dripping on a wet bridge will not help. The bridge and wick need to be dry. I put mine in a 200 degree oven for an hour if I don't want to wait a day or so. Or I get them as dry as I can with a blow dried and dry-burn them.

I would also avoid cleaning them unless they are very clogged and blowing them out does little. An atty should be fine for about a week before needing cleaning, if then. Over cleaning them, especially with alcohol, will shorten their lives.

And finally, three attys is the bare minimum. I would have several more as extras. This does sound like they are not dry enough though.