Coils: Is Cleaning Really Worth It?

[Baditude]

if you are talking about the throw away type... I tried cleaning, didnt work well. If you are talking about DIY coils ( rta type) then a good dry burn and brush off and rewick is the method to follow the throw away types are just that... and thats why they sell them in 5 packs

This is one of the reasons I don't use clearomizers or cartomizers any more.

Rebuildables are the way to go. You may have the convenience factor of buying factory made coils, but that comes at a large price. Wire and cotton are dirt cheap compared to factory made, and homemade coils last months at a time. Simply dry burn with each wick change.

 

[drksideken]

I've never gotten very much mileage out of store bought coils. When I clean the coils on my kayfun, I rinse it off and make sure there is no extra cotton stuck to it, then I rinse in hot water, then I dry burn, then I use a toothbrush with a dab of dish soap and scrub it as hard as I can without ruining it and I try to get on the inside of the coil with the brush as well, rinse again, wipe it out and dry it by firing it a little. Let it cool off, rewick and it's ready to go as good as it was before. My coils have lasted anywhere between 2 weeks and a month in between change outs. I probably don't even have to change them out when I do. I just like to do it to do it.

 

[Susaz]

Whenever I change flavors I do wash them up. OCC coils unfortunately can't be cleaned. or the cleaning is really lousy. But with other wicking materials it goes fine. I've had heads go for 4 months with regular cleaning. But remember, not OCC.

 

[Susaz]

This is one of the reasons I don't use clearomizers or cartomizers any more.

Rebuildables are the way to go. You may have the convenience factor of buying factory made coils, but that comes at a large price. Wire and cotton are dirt cheap compared to factory made, and homemade coils last months at a time. Simply dry burn with each wick change.

Not everyone likes cotton. I resist from using cotton, I'm still using some kind of silica in my builds. Nevertheless, I make coils bigger (2.5 mm) and thread ekowool through them.

But I repeat: if your coils are silica, these can easily be washed and dry burnt while wet, because silica doesn't really burn.

 

[miro011]

Whenever I change flavors I do wash them up. OCC coils unfortunately can't be cleaned. or the cleaning is really lousy. But with other wicking materials it goes fine. I've had heads go for 4 months with regular cleaning. But remember, not OCC.

I clean the OCC coils , but I personally find it a pain in the ... to take the cotton out from that thin 26g without damaging it . As for the cleaning , again heat it up really nice and run cold tap water on it . And yes it will flood the air flow deck but then I just use a cotton swab to clean it up . You can only do this to stock coils though because they are NR-R-NR . And today after i demeled the juice channels on my RBA , there is literally no point for me to deal with OCC heads , I get no dry hit after chain vaping at 35W-40W . My resistance is 0.4 , everything is great

 

[beckdg]

sterilized cotton
organic cotton
japanese organic cotton
cotton string
cotton gauze
cotton balls
cotton bacon
ceramic
glass
rayon
stainless steel mesh
silica
german silica
amorphous silica
readyXwick
ekowool

doesn't matter the wicking material. i agree with Baditude.

though, the wife prefers throw away heads for convenience.

we get along fine despite our differences.

i've rebuilt, rewicked and dry burned factory heads before. wasn't what i'd call fun.

though, if you're going to "clean" a factory head, it's probably best to remove the wick before dry burning.

well... unless you know the wicking material in your particular head can withstand the cleaning process.

in this case, it seems it probably doesn't on whatever OP is using.

 

[sonicbomb]

Agreed.
Trying to clean up pre-bought heads without replacing the wicking material is a waste of time. It's not just the gunking, it's the fact that the vaping process denatures the integrity of the material. No amount of washing or soaking in solvents can undo that change.

 

[Susaz]

sterilized cotton
organic cotton
japanese organic cotton
cotton string
cotton gauze
cotton balls
cotton bacon
ceramic
glass
rayon
stainless steel mesh
silica
german silica
amorphous silica
readyXwick
ekowool

doesn't matter the wicking material. i agree with Baditude.

though, the wife prefers throw away heads for convenience.

we get along fine despite our differences.

i've rebuilt, rewicked and dry burned factory heads before. wasn't what i'd call fun.

though, if you're going to "clean" a factory head, it's probably best to remove the wick before dry burning.

well... unless you know the wicking material in your particular head can withstand the cleaning process.

in this case, it seems it probably doesn't on whatever OP is using.

Just today I received two packs of coils. Subtank OCC here cost 8.50 each and eLeaf GS Air cost 7.5. Of course I clean heads. Subtanks I rebuild entirely, since it's easy but not my preference, I wish I could ditch 3 heads per week. Rebuildables are more cost effective but heavy for going out, even having a nano or bellcap on. So for some people washing heads is not an option but a necessity. And rebuilding dual coils like the GS Air a PITA.

 

[caramel]

I'd say not worth cleaning.

If cost becomes an issue, RTA are the way to go. Get a good one and it will pay for itself.

 

[CardinalWinds]

Cleaning throw away coils just isn't worth it, imo. They all have a sort of "wet dog" taste to them to some degree. Out of all the methods, I've had the best results from boiling them for 5 minutes and letting them dry, but even that doesn't work all that well.

 

[440BB]

Using factory coils with silica and fairly clear liquid, I typically dry burn after about two weeks, and the silica comes out white and clean. With darker/sweeter liquids, it's after one week. Following that, it's a dry burn every week until the silica changes a bit in texture and appearance, normally about three dry burns total. Then it's into the vapocalypse baggie for a maybe someday rebuild.

I dry burn right after a wash, rinse again, then it's just pat them dry and put them back in service. After a handful of puffs the flavor is pretty good, and after half a ml it's up to speed. I do stick to single coil heads with accessible coils for flavor and ease of maintenance. I have quite a few dual coils, but I don't dry burn them more than once as they never seem to clean up fully.

I go through about 60ml per week, and it still surprises me how well heads hold up and taste good compared to earlier products like cartos.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

It sounds like some are "cleaning" coils, soaking in hot water or some alcohol and Not dry burning after that. I read what
appeared that way in a couple posts.

Especially on the darker juiced, gunked up ones, I really don't think you can soak them Back to really decent WITHOUT
dry burning them.

Just a (probably unnecessary) reiteration.

Bruce

 

[thatrandy]

Op really never said what coils were being cleaned. If it's pre-made head style that the wick can't be removed and replaced then I just toss those unless I can rebuild them completely. Some say they have success cleaning them but to me it's just to much effort for little to no results as the wick-cotton or whatever is never going to get back to where it was originally and you won't be able to dry burn the coil properly with the wick still in it.

If it's a coil that the wick can be removed and replaced then yes I clean those indefinitely. Remove the old wick and dry burn the coil by starting a single stream of water from the faucet, fire the coil until it just starts to glow, let go of the fire button and quickly while the coil is still hot place just the coil under the water stream...this will wash the burnt juice and other junk that's built up away (let go of the fire button before placing JUST the coil under water).

Repeat a few times till the coil is clean, blow it dry, re-wick and you're off and running again with a new coil. I cut prepare my cotton wicks ahead of time, maybe once a month then store them in a airtight bag or box so I can just grab one when needed which makes things go much faster. I can do this with a dripper in less than a minute and most tanks not much longer.

Its the Kanger Heads. If I chuck the wick, what do I re-wick it with"? (I need the mm)

 

[sucram]

Duel coils with a flavour wick are impossible to clean with dry burning.

Single coil no probs, i got over 6 months with one until it burn the leg dry burning. It was rewicked with silica a fair few times too.

long time ago i went through a cup with old coils to find a suitable one, torched it and used it while waiting for the right wire to be delivered.

Now i will dry burn once a week, after about 2-3 wweeks just stick in a new coil and silica wick. I will change cotton after about 4 days max

 

[HawaiiGrown]

I think cleaning coils are worth it. Depends on if it is factory made "disposables" or on a RTA/RDA as someone else mentioned.

As for factory heads, I've tried to rebuild some Nautilus coils myself but never could get it quite right.... Too frickin small to work with. Stuck with buying em but at $2 a pop, costs can get up there especially when I was changing out every 3 days or so.

Suggestion: get a decent RTA or master the rebuilding of whatever factory made coils you use. Wick and wire are dirt cheap and you don't get stuck with whatever resistance those factory made coils come with.

For me, I was spending around $20 a month on Aspire BVC coils for my Nautilus mini. I loved the performance but for the same investment in wick and wire for my RTA, it can easily last me a year. The wire anyways if you clean/reuse but the cotton gets used up much faster. Still way cheaper...

However, IMO a cleaned/reused coil will NEVER be quite as good as a brand new one but close to it which is enough for me. As long as it keeps me away from analogs...

 

[KattMamma]

I tried boiling kanger OCC stock coils the other day (using distilled water) -- the results were slightly better than using PGA, I actually got about 24hrs out of one this way (only tried one so far - saving the others for now). At nearly $4 each, another day is good.

I'm trying everything I can to get more time out of these stock coils. People keep telling me to rebuild but my hands (and my eyesight) aren't going to cooperate. But it's looking more and more like I am going to have to give it a shot.

 

[Panorama911]

Its the Kanger Heads. If I chuck the wick, what do I re-wick it with"? (I need the mm)

2 mm max, for the coil and 2.5 mm for the flavor wick. Even 1 mm works inside the coil but is pretty loose. May need to "screw" the new 2 mm wick inside to assist insertion, being damp also helps.

This assuming you have a PT 2