Hi! I'm just a couple weeks into this myself and just went through the exact thing - I've got an Npro Njoy, and have ordered an additional kit and couple extra atomizers. When they get here I'll have 4 atomizers and 4 batteries and a couple bottles o' juice. I've been trying to be careful with the one atty I've got.
My e-smokerette went dead yesterday. I followed a similar pattern and cleaned it out in hot water, once and let it dry. Nuttin'. Battery recharge, nuttin'. I cleaned it a second time and eased a tweezer prong around the heating element and jigged it a little at the base, carefully, and washed it out again and ran a mix of hydrogen peroxide and hot water through it, let it soak, rinsed, repeated. Blew dry the puppy on low for a few minutes.
VAPE!
I didn't think it was actually dirty or gunked up, but it seemed that did it. It's workin' fine as of now - puff puff.
Doing this I noticed - on the RN4081 battery on the threaded end, there's two slots, small ones. On the atomizer there's two small holes in the threaded end. These all actually line up and (appear) to form a pass through for air when there's a draw. The characteristic "gurgle" seems to occur when small amounts of juice get in there (or saliva I suppose, although I like to think I'm a fairly "dry" smoker, but only my atty knows for sure

)
But what I also did was insert a pin into the atty holes and carefully cleared the area inside (I think) and shook it out and did the clean/soak/repeat steps, before finally blowing it dry.
Maybe I'm the last to not know this but those two holes can get misaligned if the cart twists (which I do a little as I smoke) and if they're partially blocked at all, the draw is impeded. Also, if you hold the Npro and fingers block the holes, there's no vape at all. I didn't realize I was doing this at times.
This is probably common knowledge, but if it helps, 'sall good. My take is the atomizer needs to be clearned and cleared regularly to insure a reliable vape. But...If this atomizer tanks again and won't revive, I'll be the one wearing the "'Tupid" t-shirt.

