Cleaning my carto/atty with alcohol?

[pantera]

So I feel like an idiot and I want to confirm...

I've been vaping a little over a month now... I started with an ego t type B... Bad idea... It leaked like crazy... So a friend gave me a nice Boge carto and it worked great... Then I got a smoketek tankomizer (DCT?) and it also worked nice...

Now, the ego-t arty never had to be fully drained and cleaned, just cleaned the guts with paper towel, changed the tank and good to go (til it leaked again)

The new cartos from Boge and smoketek worked for a good week and then seemed to lose draw and vapor... I was told to clean them and a friend suggested when I bought the ego to just use 99% iso alcohol to clean everything... So i assumed that cleaning the cartos would be the same... I have cleaned both the Boge and DCT cartos 1 time in the iso alcohol by soaking them overnight in it, blowing them out and the leaving them to dry for a day or so...

So, I recently read here that ppl suggest using grain alcohol or vodka cuz inhaling possible "leftovers" that might still be in the carto could harm, render blind or kill the user?!

Both times I took about a dozen pulls without inhaling as it tasted like crap till the juice really hit the coil and then it tasted fine...

Will I be ok? Can I continuenusing iso? Should I go punch my "friend" for suggesting this idea? Lol

Thanks guys

Paul

 

[CES]

A week with a carto is a pretty good run (i can run 6-8 ml through a Boge carto before it's toast). I'd suggest tossing the carto at the point that it loses vapor and becomes hard to draw. If you must clean them, then don't use isopropyl. As you've discovered, it's hard to get all of the liquid out of the carto after cleaning, and iso is not a good thing to ingest or inhale. There might not be a lot of iso left in the carto after cleaning, but why take the chance?

Occupational Safety and Health Guideline for Isopropyl Alcohol

Acute exposure: Acute exposure to isopropyl alcohol causes eye and mucous membrane irritation and may cause incoordination and narcosis. Ingestion causes gastrointestinal pain, nausea, vomiting, and may cause coma and death.

and, eh, don't punch your friend, just show him the link

 

[Kurt]

I have found alcohol can kill cartos. Maybe just luck of the draw, but if I clean 10, a couple will be dead afterwards. I use the boiling water method for mine with good results:

Cover the cartos in a sauce pan with water, boil on high heat for 15 minues. drain the water off and replace it with more water, and boil again for 15 minutes. Repeat 5 or 6 times. To dry I bundle the cartos together with a rubber band, open ends pointing the same direction, and put the bundle open-ends down in the bottom of a sock and knot the sock so the open ends are still down, and spin them out outside. Then take care of residual water in a 200 degree oven for an hour. Some cartos will still be too far gone if they burned from vaping, but in general they come back in good shape. I often get a a few cleaning cycles before they are too far gone. YMMV.

 

[Kent C]

I use high proof vodka without a problem and for me it cleans better than other methods - if I try something new - mouthwash or water, I always follow up with the vodka and I still get yellow vodka after 'cleaning' but not when I clean with vodka - I'd use everclear if it was available in my state. I've never used isopropyl for the same reason CES mentions above and iso can also leave a film even if you rinse with H2O. Likely not enough to harm you but the taste might get you I have used iso on cleaning battery and charger connections, but then alway clean the batt connection with a qtip with 151 proof after.

 

[mlinky]

I use pure grain alcohol or steam to clean my atomizers, and I throw away cartomizers, but I did read a great idea for cleaning cartos that doesn't require drying time: Using an ultrasonic cleaner filled with PG.

The best idea is to always use something that won't hurt you if ingested.

 

[Katya]

And, at the end of the day, please remember that cartomizers are disposable. Like CES said, 6-8 ml of ejuice, maybe a little more if you're lucky, and then they need to go... So, if money is no object, just chuck them. If you need to get some more mileage out of them, you may try the Ultrasonic method that Mlinky suggested above, or, if you don't own an ultrasonic cleaner, fill your cartos with 100% PG, leave them overnight, blow out as much of the PG as you can and refill with your ejuice. PG is a decent solvent. But don't expect miracles....

Good luck!

 

[hairball]

I boil mine like Kurt does. The run them through my ultrasonci jewelry cleaner with a 50/50 mix of vodka and water. Load into our food dehydrator and set it on high. About 6-8 hours later, they are dry to go again. However, I've been really lazy and have been tossing them in the trash when the draw gets hard on them.