You don’t mention actually doing or testing anything in your attys. You only said you were reading.
Have you tried the methods you read?
As mentioned before, liquid play a role and you should try/test before doing anything radical.
What I do when facing a “bad” atty: First, check the air flow. I’m a chain vaper, my attys get really hot and many times the plastic base melts closing the vent hole. When this happen, very little or no air getis into the atty making it work hotter and giving you bad taste and little vapor.
So, not mounted in the battery I compare the air flow with a new atty; clean the threads and the venting holes with a needle or paper clip; if it doesn’t work, then I use a small drill bit and make my way inside the atty thru the bottom hole. Be very careful and re-drill (by hand) the venting hole. Don’t go too far because you can damage the coil. Check again for air flow until it let air as your other attys.
Once the atty is physically correct, if not happy with performance, then you can check electrically if is defective checking on the ohms. I really don’t do it since I don’t even own a meter; but if you do, you should verify it and save time.
Ok, so if the atty is not working, I proceed with the cleaning, I mix various methods described around; first, heated crest pro-health, for 15 minutes and moving or shaking the atty several times; then I soak it for about 15 more minutes in vodka to remove crest’s flavor and last how tap water. Then blow the atty and proceed for a dry burn. Dry burn is “tricky” and can kill the atty; so be careful.
After the dry burn, check again air flow, because it can melt the venting hole…
If you succeed, your atty should work properly.
This may sounds like a lot of work, but it really takes about an effortlessly hour and just done when needed.
I normally use 3 or 4 attys with different juices and purposes (one for clear liquids, one for dark liquds and one two more for dripping clear/dark liquids).
In my experience (and several others around); dark liquids clog attys and left remains more often than clear liquids. So I frequently give a round of 50%PG/50%VG session to clean and kill flavor. This helps a little in longevity.
I hope this helps.
