Cleaning Boge 510 cartos.

[johnnydotexe]

I'm trying to find safe ways to clean my Boge 510 LR and non-LR cartos in order to squeeze a bit more life out of them, and so I can re-use them for new flavors.

The only method I've tried so far was the walgreens syringe method...while this works quite well, it also damages them. If you use this method on these cartomizers, there's a high chance it will damage the center tube near the battery end. I'm not exactly sure how or what is exactly damaged, but if you look down the center tube after syringe flushing...it will look blocked, as if the material started coming apart/coming loose. This has happened to three out of the four I've flushed so far with this method.

Any ideas?

 

[fuzznut]

The center tube gets blocked by the brass crimp that connects the coil to the ground wire. It's a design fault that I would like to see fixed. I use a pokey stick to carefully move the connector to the side of the airway, and it draws like new for a while. Cleaning, I soak in alcohol for a while, then boil for 5 minutes. The stuffing becomes white again.

 

[oldjoe]

I use alcohol for cleaning cartos. Cleans better and dries faster.

 

[johnnydotexe]

Thanks for the info.

fuzznut; I noticed that I can use a safety pin to "drag" down the center tube to somewhat re-align whatever may be blocking the airway, and it works fine until the next flush. I too would like to see these Boges maybe get a small redesign, they're really good cartos but as you have mentioned they do have their flaws.

oldjoe; I have yet to try the 90% alcohol, or even boiling. I'll have to look in to those options a bit more and give them a try.

 

[Katdarling]

Some people on the Forum have recommended drying the cleaned cartos in a low oven (250 degrees).

WELL.

I would not do THAT again! I just baked a 5 pack of Boge 501 LR attys til the black outside coating came off, partially came off. They are icky sticky and disgusting. They might still work, but my hands are now so sticky from just trying to clean them off with a bit of alcohol, it's "forget it" time. Take the loss. Lesson learned.

Bake cookies, not attys!

PS. Anyone got a good tip for cleaning atty gunk off my baking pan?

GRRRR!

 

[VonDrukinski]

Try WD-40, then run it through your dish washer. WD-40 is amazing at getting sticky goo off, it just tastes and smells aweful so you're going to want to wash it all off.

 

[Harvard]

alcohol works very well, it's a great solvent..

 

[Katdarling]

Thanks to both of you.

 

[Epsilon]

Some people on the Forum have recommended drying the cleaned cartos in a low oven (250 degrees).

WELL.

I would not do THAT again! I just baked a 5 pack of Boge 501 LR attys til the black outside coating came off, partially came off. They are icky sticky and disgusting. They might still work, but my hands are now so sticky from just trying to clean them off with a bit of alcohol, it's "forget it" time. Take the loss. Lesson learned.

Bake cookies, not attys!

PS. Anyone got a good tip for cleaning atty gunk off my baking pan?

GRRRR!

heh heh
250 is actually about right, honestly - but that's 250F -actual- temperature, not 250 by the dial on the oven.

I use a toaster oven to do exactly this. Boil the cartos, blow out, boil cartos, blow out, then bake in the toaster oven, making sure the cartos are sitting on the tin foil put over the rack. I've never had them burn, and I've "baked" 10-15 of my cartos. The toaster oven heats up to 250, but I have the dial set to 150 - go fig. Just saying that might be what happened. Good luck with your next time cleaning!


Edit: I just noticed that you said that the outer cover came off, not that they got burnt. Yeah, this has happened to a few of them, though not all five at once. o.o
And even the ones that it -has- happened to, I was able to easily peel the sticker off once they cooled. Odd.

 

[Katdarling]

I decided not to give up. I retrieved the cartos and tho ugly and sticky, they work very well. They are now covered in little stickers (not only to spruce them up, but so that they are not sticky...alcohol did not take off the stickiness). Next time, lower temp in the oven! Thanks.