Atomizer maintenance

[austintx]

Hi - I will be new to using an eGo I ordered, so will be my first experience with a 3 piece unit. What do I need to do for atomizer maintenance? Do you blow through them every so often? Or clean them?

What about cartridge maintenance? Do they need to be cleaned somehow? How many times should I expect to be able to refill at 501 cartridge? Am unclear how many of these I will need to buy.

 

[Automaton]

For atomizers, every few days I drop them in a little cup of isopropyl alcohol (you can use 70-91%) for 5 or 10 minutes. Then, I pick them up, threads down, and let the alcohol drain out the bottom. Dunk it back in, and let it drain again, 4 or 5 times. Just takes a minute. Then I let it set in front of a fan overnight to dry.

In the morning, they're bone dry. Isopropyl alcohol leaves no residue. So you have to prime them with juice very well. I put 5 or 6 drops into the atomizer, and start vaping.

I have atties that are 4 months old, and still vaping well. I've never had one die.

For carts, I just keep refilling them until they get a bit dingy, then drop them in alcohol too for a few minutes, squeeze them out, and dry in front of fan overnight. Again, they're dry in the morning, and you can stuff them back in the cart, good as new.

Although I drip now, so I don't use carts anymore. One less thing I have to take care of.

Start with 10 or 15 blank carts. That should be fine for now.

 

[deback]

Isopropyl alcohol leaves no residue.

I soaked some metal drip tips in isopropyl alcohol the other day. Allowed them all to dry completely. When I was vaping with one of them a few days later, I kept tasting isopropyl alcohol, so I used a q-tip to remove anything that was inside the drip tip, and then the taste was gone. So, isopropyl alcohol can leave a residue.

After that happened, I decided to just use hot tap water from now on to clean/soak drip tips, adapters, atomizers, etc. Hot water actually works better (for me) to remove e-liquid residue. Whenever I use isopropyl alcohol to wipe batteries, they tend to still be sticky, but water doesn't leave any of that e-liquid stickiness (when using a wash cloth or similar to wipe batteries).

 

[KissMint]

I have only use isopropyl alc to clean the threads. If they do leave residue, how can some people use them to clean their cartos. I was wondering about this because I would rather vape vodka than isopropyl alc. So far i only use water and Im not doing it again after wasting 7 cartos within my first two weeks. (they still work, just not as good)

 

[Automaton]

No, they don't. Not dry is not the same thing as residue.

Alcohol evaporates completely, and so does distilled water. That's all that's in isopropyl alcohol. People use it to clean film strips specifically because it DOES NOT leave residue. If it did, the film would be ruined.

The problem with water is that every impurity in the water winds up in the atty, and you wind up vaping it. If you want to use water, distilled is best.

I never used it in carto's, though, due to the fact that they can't be air out opening and you can never be totally sure they're dry. I used PGA for that.

I've never had any issues with isopropyl alcohol not drying completely in my atties or drip tips within 8 hours, and usually less.

 

[cskalash]

I soaked some metal drip tips in isopropyl alcohol the other day. Allowed them all to dry completely. When I was vaping with one of them a few days later, I kept tasting isopropyl alcohol, so I used a q-tip to remove anything that was inside the drip tip, and then the taste was gone. So, isopropyl alcohol can leave a residue.

After that happened, I decided to just use hot tap water from now on to clean/soak drip tips, adapters, atomizers, etc. Hot water actually works better (for me) to remove e-liquid residue. Whenever I use isopropyl alcohol to wipe batteries, they tend to still be sticky, but water doesn't leave any of that e-liquid stickiness (when using a wash cloth or similar to wipe batteries).

If you have some kind of residue and that stickiness probably you aren't using propanol /isopropyl, or not the right concentration. isopropyl is used on eletronics for cleaning surfaces because it cleans everything out. No gummy or sticky stuff, at all. I would advise you to try some higher concentration, like 98/99%. Maybe you're using some isopropyl with some stuff added into it.

 

[deback]

No, they don't. Not dry is not the same thing as residue.

Not sure whom you were replying to or what you meant by, "No, they don't," but there was definitely alcohol residue inside one of my drip tips. This happened a few days after I soaked them all in IA. I tasted it several times before using a q-tip to wipe it all out from the inside of the drip tip. The alcohol taste was gone after I did that. I used 91% isopropyl alcohol when I soaked several drip tips a few days earlier -- and they were all definitely dry when I tasted the IA.

 

[deback]

If you have some kind of residue and that stickiness probably you aren't using propanol /isopropyl, or not the right concentration. isopropyl is used on eletronics for cleaning surfaces because it cleans everything out. No gummy or sticky stuff, at all. I would advise you to try some higher concentration, like 98/99%. Maybe you're using some isopropyl with some stuff added into it.

Says 91% isopropyl alcohol on the bottle. I'm saying that it doesn't clean the e-liquid stickiness from the battery, when the battery gets sticky, usually when dripping. Regular water removes the stickinesss, though.

 

[Automaton]

I don't really know what to tell you. Chemically, it doesn't. It wouldn't be used for the kind of applications it is if it left residue. I'm inclined to wonder if there was something on the drip tip the IA couldn't dissolve.

 

[cskalash]

that's strange, really. Besides there's a lot of people posting success on this method. I would try another bottle, preferably with higher concentration (less distilled water), you can have it like 99.7% wich is used on electronics (less water, which means less curt-circuit possibility), that sad you could even take your battery and dump it in a cup full with isopropyl, really no curt-circuit, and clean as new

 

[cosmic charlie]

I would not dump a battery in a glass of alcohol. And how old is the bottle you are using? Has it set open for any amount of time? I put my attys on a shot glass fill with alcohol and place in an ultra sonic cleaner I blow attys out rinse the shot glass and repeat 2-3 times the first time or two the attys still feel oily by the third or fourth time they don't!

 

[deback]

I don't really know what to tell you. Chemically, it doesn't. It wouldn't be used for the kind of applications it is if it left residue. I'm inclined to wonder if there was something on the drip tip the IA couldn't dissolve.

My only point was that I could taste IA when putting one of the drip tips into my mouth, about 3 or 4 days after I had soaked all of my drip tips in IA, and that I was able to get rid of the IA taste by wiping out the inside of that drip tip.

Just did a search at Google for "isopropyl alcohol residue" and found several pages where people think there's such a thing. The first page came to a thread here, if anyone's interested.

Anyway, I'm bored with this subject, so I'm movin' on.

 

[Automaton]

Well, there's a difference between someone thinking it and the actual chemistry behind it.

I'm inclined to think there's either a contaminant in the alcohol, or there was something on the drip tip that IA won't dissolve. Because that's all that makes sense, given the chemistry of IA.

 

[cosmic charlie]

Just like it says on the shampoo bottle rinse and repete!

 

[deback]

Well, there's a difference between someone thinking it and the actual chemistry behind it.

I'm inclined to think there's either a contaminant in the alcohol, or there was something on the drip tip that IA won't dissolve. Because that's all that makes sense, given the chemistry of IA.

There could be a misunderstanding going on here. My point was that 91% isopropyl alcohol can leave a residue. I had a real-life experience where 91% isopropyl alcohol left a residue -- and it ended up in my mouth three or four days after it had dried, regardless of whether there was any contaminant in the alcohol I used or whether or not the IA will or won't dissolve certain substances. The 91% IA I used is in a brand new bottle, and the only substance that might have been inside the drip tip would be e-liquid residue or saliva. I know I wasn't imagining the taste of alcohol, and the only alcohol I used to clean the drip tips was 91% IA from Walmart.

The following sentence was found in the link below:

"However, as rubbing alcohol can leave a residue behind that can affect keystrokes, contact cleaner is preferable if available."
Rubbing alcohol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here's another link where people have confirmed that 70% and 91% IA can leave a residue:
Isopropyl alcohol for cleaning negatives?

I'm still bored with this subject, so I'm movin' on again.

 

[deback]

I would not dump a battery in a glass of alcohol. And how old is the bottle you are using? Has it set open for any amount of time? I put my attys on a shot glass fill with alcohol and place in an ultra sonic cleaner I blow attys out rinse the shot glass and repeat 2-3 times the first time or two the attys still feel oily by the third or fourth time they don't!

I bought this bottle about two or three weeks ago. No, I never leave the bottle open. The cap is always on after I get what I need out of the bottle.

 

[deback]

that's strange, really. Besides there's a lot of people posting success on this method. I would try another bottle, preferably with higher concentration (less distilled water), you can have it like 99.7% wich is used on electronics (less water, which means less curt-circuit possibility), that sad you could even take your battery and dump it in a cup full with isopropyl, really no curt-circuit, and clean as new

A few years ago, I used 91% IA when trying to clean a lens inside my 50" HD TV, and it left a residue. I ended up buying some denatured alcohol, which worked much better and left no residue.

I remember spending lots of time researching all of that, bought both denatured alcohol and acetone, and I was bored to death that time, too. Won both science awards in high school, but that was 40 years ago!

 

[deback]

You can find all kinds of sources on the web where people believe that IA leaves a residue.

Here's a message where Red agrees with me:
Re: Depth Sounder on the blink

 

[JonnyVapΣ]

Anyway, I'm bored with this subject, so I'm movin' on.

But this is just getting interesting...

 

[Automaton]

Your second link does not say IA leaves residue. It says you have to wait longer for lower concentrations to dry, due to its higher distilled water content.

I also notice that quote you grabbed from the Wiki is tagged as "citation needed."

More about the uses of isopropyl alcohol which wouldn't be possible if it left residue, and it's quick and complete evaporation.
What is Isopropyl Alcohol?

More about IA not leaving residue (Conclusion).
http://www.ehow.com/about_6540795_ethanol-vs_-isopropyl-alcohol-disinfect.html

There are only 3 possibilities.
1. The water used in your IA was not properly distilled.
2. Something contaminated it.
3. There was something on the drip tip that won't dissolve in IA.

EDIT: As per your link by "Red"...

Ok. Here's a post from the exact same site where someone else DISAGREES with you.
http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.chem/2005-06/msg00623.html

What point does it prove to site people who don't know anything about the chemistry of IA? This is not subject to anecdotes. This is science.