Atty killing

[OldDragon]

After sucking my lungs out trying to get some vap out of one of my old attys, I tried to clean it. Tried all the cleaning processes as suggested on this site, but none cleared up the blockage. The coil was nice and clean, gave a good sizzle when dry burning, but still no joy when trying to vap. A day later I pulled the atty out of the trash and opened it up. Could see why it would not work. Below the coil was a little chamber just full of a charcoal like stuff. The airflow had nowhere it could get thru. Even with all the cleaning, this burnt on stuff was just packed in too tight. I played around with the black stuff, it broke up in chunks and large flaks.
The coil was clean all the way around it, but the material inside was black as expected.
If I had some way to get the junk out of the air flow path, I'm sure the atty would still be good. I have another that is starting to get a hard draw, will have to look for something that might clear out the gunk.

 

[tarazarr]

try to resist ever dry burning an atty again... the wick, if kept wet, should not be black, it turns black when it's burnt...it get burnt by pressing the battery button while the atty is dry. The charcoal like stuff. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing that was wick that had been burned up, clogging the airways

 

[jctennis]

I have to respectfully disagree. More than likely the black stuff is carbon left behind from the vaporizing juice. If you were to put some juice in a pan and boil it away, you will see some residue left behind. That is what becomes carbon.

 

[OldDragon]

Agree with jctennis, I think the black stuff was from juice. The atty had been in use for about 2 months and as many here have suggested had been dry burned a couple of times. There was just too much stuff for it to have been the wick and the lower part of the wick was still in the coil. The main thing I would be interested in would be some way to clean out the lower air chamber. I even tried using a syringe with water, alcohol, vinegar, and what ever else I could think of, but nothing seemed to make the draw any easier. Was applying the clearners thru both the top and thru the battery hole.

 

[jctennis]

Dude, if you got 2 months out of it you got your money's worth! Just buy a new one. I understand your reasoning, but after that long I think it is worth committing to the trash.

 

[AttyPops]

I'm not an expert at this by any means, but you should clean them out BEFORE they clog up completely, while you can still get air flow. A few drops of PG or VG by itself, vinegar, or just water, soaked and blown through the atty will help keep it clean. I use a shot glass and let whatever cleaning liquid soak and run through the atty several times after soaking. Rinse. I do this about once a week.

I'm 50/50 on the dry burn thing... some atties (I've only tried it on two types) may work better than others... easy to burn or pop the wick(s) (probably not the same as your 'black stuff' - cooked e-juice). People swear by it... but I think it's something you have to get good at. The vets can tell you more.

Bottom line... clean before it is trashed, when you start to notice reduced air flow, and a simple "blow out the liquid gunk" doesn't work.