Carbon Build Up

Status
Not open for further replies.

Sedateme

Super Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Aug 9, 2011
521
248
Bismarck, ND
The specific component that causes your coil to gunk up? I'm not sure anyone has it pinned down... but I can tell you sweeter or darker juices will gunk up alot faster than clear/lighter juices. Unless you are vaping pure distilled water, I'm sure anything that gets vaped will leave something behind. I think the miscellaneous flavor components are the big contributors to carbon buildup.
 

tonyorion

Super Member
ECF Veteran
Jun 8, 2010
596
347
71
Michigan
Your juices are mostly all based on carbon chemistry (organic) in one form or another, and that includes flavorings, PG, VG, and alcohol.

If you leave something in a cooking pan too long, it will char. Foods, for example, are also based on carbon chemistry and consist of a large number of different compounds, and they start to break down the moment you expose them to heat, only some compounds break down at much lower temperatures than others. The difference between sugar and butter in a pan is an example.

The coil in an atty or carto does get up to around 500 Degrees which is enough to break down almost anything which you are likely to vape. Organic chemistry is complex, and flavorings are complex compounds with complex molecules; so it becomes a mess to try to explain this any further.

My guess is that the culprit is the sugar, even if you don't think you have any. Artificial sweeteners are still various types of sugar.

It is about the briefest, non technical description that I can come up with.
 

dormouse

ECF Guru
ECF Veteran
Oct 31, 2010
12,347
1,611
Pennsylvania
Possibly related - many find that juices that have particles of (flavoring or coloring?) sediment that are left behind will gunk up everything faster and at worst leave an accumulation of sludge and that sludge can bake and get black around the coil. A clear juice (even with a colored tint) may still be baking on the coil but seems to degrade cartomizers and atomizers more slowly, and can leave the cotton white as the juice recedes.

But I don't know what those particles are. Natural flavorings? Specific colorings? Many vanilla and chocolate/cocoa juices have particles. Fruits seem less likely to have particles. I've wondered if a juice with particles could be filtered (through coffee filter or tea paper etc) and still retain good flavor.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread