Cartomizer Cleanout Pictorial

[emus]

psa - blowing out your carto while having a respiratory virus could impregnate the carto with the virus

That does not sound encouraging.

 

[donnah]

I work in the operating room of my local hospital.. we have to clean our instruments and some of them are cannulated, after washing, we use a small air compressor to blow out remaining water before we package and wrap the instruments for sterilization. We regularly use white, tissue-like towels to place the end of the instrument on when we do this to make sure what comes out is clean and the instrument does not still have body fluids still in it. The only time anything comes out is when some one neglects to wash the instrument properly (flushing with water and brushing) I regularly help with this and I've never seen anything come out of the instrument that came from inside the air compressor.

I'm neither supporting nor debunking the oil-in-the-air compressor theory.. just stating my experience with one that I use most every day. I'll look at it better tomorrow but I'm pretty sure it's just a regular air compressor and not anything built and bought for this purpose.

I'm also pretty sure that something like this would cost upwards of $100 and not be very cost effective for what we want it for.

 

[alamor]

Not sure if this question has been asked yet, because I didn't read through all the posts. But......You should be able to use a can of "compressed air" in place of a compressor shouldn't you?

 

[Colonel]

I don't have a lot of experience with cleaning cartos, but started using some SR and dual coil LR recently and like them. Even compared to dripping.

Anyway. I do have experience with compressors. Working in automotive refinish.

We use dryers on our compressors to make sure there is no air in the lines. Yeah. If you have a huge tank on the unit, you're bound to get some water in the bottom. But I doubt anyone cleaning cartos with a $100 compressor is going to have a 50gal tank nearby.

I don't think I'll be blasting my cartos at work. But I like the idea.

As far as 'oil' in the lines. Negative. If you have oil in your line, that's a bad compressor. So don't buy used. If you see anything dripping out of your line, it's water. Condensed from the air that's moving through the compress-er. Water in air liquifies when compressed. That's why we use the dryers in the paint booth lines.

Again. I don't think the air is the danger. Lol. Just using high psi air in a tiny thing. So regulate people.

And if you do get oil. Return your unit for a refund. Cause it has a bad diaphragm or seal somewhere.

 

[Drak]

This is an economically minded compressor only, no holding tank, with a preset psi setting ability, pretty much in the same catagory as what I use for ~$50.00.

Black & Decker AirStation Inflator ASI300 air compressor Review: Powered by ConsumerGuide and HowStuffWorks

Not sure if this question has been asked yet, because I didn't read through all the posts. But......You should be able to use a can of "compressed air" in place of a compressor shouldn't you?

Absolutely NOT. Compressed air cans contain other (possibly harmful) ingredients in them besides air.
It is covered earlier in the thread.

 

[ericdjobs]

The real trick with cleaning a cartomizer is plugging the center hole.

Using Vapian's cartomizer fillinator method (where you use the carto condom and a 3ml bd syringe to make a device that slips over a carto perfectly) and a small piece of rubber tubing harvested from a cartomizer end cap-plug and 91% isopropyl alcohol (or +highest proof PGA you can get legally.. here in Cali it's not much, why I use Iso) I was able to take a black dual coil to practically clear in a matter of syringe draws.

 

[aziffel]

So where do you get the syringe without someone thinking you're a junkie?

tractorsupplycompany
or most farm supply stores,cheap too
just got 5 for 3 dollars,with luer lock no less