I have the Kangertech Subox Mini and I use the pre-made coils that you buy and just drop in. I am also a member on a Facebook group for vaping and some of them were saying there are ways to clean your coils and use them again. I know there's some gurus in here so I felt this would be the best place to ask. Is this true? If so, how would you go about it?
Can you really clean your coils and use them again?
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For the replaceable heads, not really, you can soak them in PGA then rinse in hot water, blow excess out & allow to dry.
Sometimes it extends their life.
For the RBA deck, yes you can clean the coils & replace wicking material.
Sometimes it extends their life.
For the RBA deck, yes you can clean the coils & replace wicking material.
For drop-in coils, there are some folks who will say you can clean them with this or that or soak them with this or that or run them through this or that. And in the end the results are always debatable.
If you're going to go to that much time and effort buy an RTA or RBA and build your own. Way cheaper anyway.
If you're going to go to that much time and effort buy an RTA or RBA and build your own. Way cheaper anyway.
This post is basically the same as what @Topwater Elvis said but includes some why. As a result it is vastly longer though the effect is the same.
Yes, kind of, but not really and not well. There are a bunch of ways folks used to clean old fashioned bridged atomizers back in the day but the cotton wrap and o-rings in the coil cartridge kills most of them.
One was a sonic cleaner which won’t work because the coil head contains not only cotton but rubber which will dampen the vibrations
Another is denture tablets which also won’t work because it will make the cotton taste like donkey doodle.
Boiling in distilled water (NOT tap water) might possibly work, but it never worked very well, and all it does is loosen the cruft anyway so you still need a way to scrub it, at which point you run into the cotton.
@Topwater Elvis ‘s suggestion seems to be a more advanced form of this one. He’s using a PG soak instead of hot water which should shorten drying time by like a week and cause a lot less flavor damage to the cotton. He’s also not using a pipe cleaner to scrub the inside of the coil which implies that’s a bad idea in this case anyway. I’ve never boiled a modern coil cartridge so there may be other problems with the cotton as well.
The last option I know of is to soak in really high strength ethanol. I used everclear for this myself. I still got a gigantic mostly empty bottle of everclear lying around somewhere. It’s the only alcohol in my house and tends to cause comments. It didn’t really work any better than the distilled water boil though.
You might be able to get a result using multiple layered methods but the amount of sheer labor makes it totally pointless. It could possibly be worth it if and only if getting new coils is impossible, but it’s still probably cheaper to buy a whole new tank if you include labor cost.
IF your particular cartridge uses silica instead of cotton (some pods are doing this again. Silica wick got dropped years ago because of silicosis danger). the alcohol method followed by dryburning (you can dry burn silica a bit) does kinda work. That’s how I used up most of a 2 liter of everclear. I was doing EVOD cartridges (the little tiny ones) until they dropped in price from $5 to less than a dollar.
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I think that it slightly fails because the gunk on the coil usually remains. Maybe, maybe if you can access a vertical coil and scrub the coil with a dental brush. it's probably of more use to find an eliquid that isn't so hard on the coils. The technique normally only extended the life of the coil by a few days.
Yes! What @r77r7r said. Switch flavours, dilute or use unflavoured.
Cleaning is dependably hit and miss.
Cleaning is dependably hit and miss.
Ooh, dental brush! I always used a pipe cleaner. That would work better. Also might be more abrasive so you might have even more cotton issues.
PGA = pure grain alcohol, everclear / moonshine & such ~ 190 proof. 151 minimum.
It gets replaceable heads as clean as they will get, which from my experience isn't saying much.
For me it isn't worth the effort.
It gets replaceable heads as clean as they will get, which from my experience isn't saying much.
For me it isn't worth the effort.
Made me read your post again to make sure I didn’t miss anything.With a Dremel?
Yes, I take things too literally and as a result trolling me is fairly easy.
Wait.. hold the phone! I’m not sure which kanger coils the subox mini is compatible with. Cleaning is a waste of time but some of them can be rebuilt. It’s a PITA and generally considered not worth it either, but it’s possible.
No sorry, I didn't mean that as an offense. I was just thinking it'd be cool to spice things up with a Dremel.
Lol. None taken. Perhaps my attitude about trolling is over positive. I don’t generally do it to others because it’s mean. I generally applaud it when I see it done to me though. Trolling can be an art and when it’s done well it’s done well.
The only cartridge I've found to be cleanable is the Vaporesso NGR GT Ccell. I really wanted to take one apart and see if I could re-rape it in rayon. Be four I got to that stage I saw a video about boiling them, so, yup, why not
and 3 months latter I am still using the same Ccells. The 2 new boxes are still collecting dust!
IE. on the Ccell the wire is competently enclosed in ceramic, so it stays cooler and crud does not build up on it.
And thank you much, spell checker
and 3 months latter I am still using the same Ccells. The 2 new boxes are still collecting dust!IE. on the Ccell the wire is competently enclosed in ceramic, so it stays cooler and crud does not build up on it.
And thank you much, spell checker
Hmmmm. That’s exceptionally cool.The only cartridge I've found to be cleanable is the Vaporesso NGR GT Ccell. I really wanted to take one apart and see if I could re-rape it in rayon. Be four I got to that stage I saw a video about boiling them, so, yup, why not
IE. on the Ccell the wire is competently enclosed in ceramic, so it stays cooler and crud does not build up on it.
And thank you much, spell checker
It could actually PWN RTAs then. Are you by any chance one of those people who vapes flavorless?
Here's the thing...
Yes. You can boil some coil heads and reuse them. You'll get a couple extra days. But, what's your tine worth? If you spend 2 hours cleaning and rinsing and drying coils, and your time is worth minimum wage, you've spent around $20 (depending on where you are) to refurb a couple coils. $20 you could have spent on new coils and been done with the BS that cleaning coils is.
Yes. You can boil some coil heads and reuse them. You'll get a couple extra days. But, what's your tine worth? If you spend 2 hours cleaning and rinsing and drying coils, and your time is worth minimum wage, you've spent around $20 (depending on where you are) to refurb a couple coils. $20 you could have spent on new coils and been done with the BS that cleaning coils is.
True.
Referring to the ccells though still true. To make it efficient you’d have to do a pot full at a time. Dozens at least. Still the concept of a vapeoccalypse hardened cartridge coil system interests me.
But if it’s a hobby then your time is priceless, or another way to look at it, an hour watching tv (and getting fatter) or an hour doing something productive.
At the end of the day, if your saving money by extending the time of use, your saving money!
I’ve spent years building and repairing bikes instead of paying someone, and I always had people on the forums telling me I’m wasting my own time doing so.
Well no, it’s fun and I keep stuff working for free.
My time is free and always will be.
Imagen if I started charging my partner for my time?
Right that’s 125e for last nights cuddling and kissing sweetie!
I vap a fairly strong mint, its clear but I had to re-wick everything once a week!
I got these things as an add on, I wanted the swag mod and these kits were on sale for less than I could buy just the mod.
I tried the tank as a lark, Everything else I own takes coil, now I have 14 rolls of wire sitting there gathering dust.
The swag has a puff counter and I hit 9999 prior to tiring the cleaning rout. I now use 3 of these tanks and clean all of them together!
There is no one that is more surprised than me
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