Atromizers/// those fickle littke pickles. Help me Please.

[lasttango]

It's all about the atomizer...
4 questions...

1) How can you tell when the atomizers is actually dead?
2) When the draw on my 901 gets really tight and airflow feels restricted, does that mean it's clogged or dead? Little side vent hole seems fine and clear.
3) What are some good low tech ways to keep your 510's and 901's and 801's performing nicely?
4) Does VG affect atomizers differently? and if so, is more maintenance needed?

Thank you

 

[Kent C]

1) How can you tell when the atomizers is actually dead?

Use a multimeter. See:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...omizer-truly-dead-voltmeter-2.html#post413992

Basically if the meter reads 0 = broken coil in the atty. If it reads much higher than the rated ohms of the atty, then it means that the gunk build up is the only thing completing the circuit - ie. try cleaning it, but likely it is dead.

2) When the draw on my 901 gets really tight and airflow feels restricted, does that mean it's clogged or dead? Little side vent hole seems fine and clear.

Since it's possible for the cartridge to be clogged, I check the cart first without the atomizer, just to make sure there isn't any obstruction there. I remove the atty from the battery. First from the batt end (let it cool down), I blow through it into a paper towel - this is to clear any flooding. Then I 'tail pipe' it - put your mouth over the cart end and blow and draw. If the draw is hard there, then there is something in the air channel - most likely build up in the coil area. I use 151 vodka and soak for a half hour - no more. The clear vodka becomes yellow as it dissolves away the gunk. I blow it out from both ends, put in about three drops of ejuice and restart. That should do it. I have stuck a pin through the air hole on 901's too just to clear the immediate area, but it is almost always some build up through the atomizer.

3) What are some good low tech ways to keep your 510's and 901's and 801's performing nicely?

See 2 above ;-) Actually the less you do the better and I've found that running the 510 atomizers on mods that run at a true 3.7V and keeping them pretty soaked without flooding, is the best 'cleaning agent' - a 'wet burn' so to speak. But if your at the regular kit batt or mega level, some cleaning is needed but choose your method carefully. I don't use anything that isn't for human consumption, (others do, I don't and I only recently after a year of vaping lost one atomizer that just died and wasn't murdered by me either using an HV mod or cleaning it to death via a dry burn for example - which I don't recommend - others do, I don't) So nothing that has sugar, I don't boil, nothing with oil, or bitterant - so no isopropyl, coke, pepsi, solvents, or canned air.

4) Does VG affect atomizers differently? and if so, is more maintenance needed?

This is one of the worst lingering myths. First straight VG is viscous - don't use it straight. An 80:20 mix of VG with either distilled/deionized water or pure grain alcohol (good for throat hit and for better flavor with some flavorings that respond to it well) is about the same viscosity as most PG that isn't thinned down itself. (that's the worst on attys, imo and it leaks - esp. with a PTB teabag mod - I won't say the manufacturer's name here.) So the answer is no - no different when used in the above blend by itself and even when I've mixed PG with VG, it's always with the VG already thinned down by 80:20 VG:H2O.