Did Vodka just killed my eGo-C atomizer???

[Benzin]

Ibe had my eGo-C since last tuesday, so far i like it. My atomizer was working just fine, no leaking, no burnt taste, nothing. Everything was great.
But....
I had the "great" idea to take out another atomizer from the blister pack and put this one in some vodka to "clean it up and keep it from gunking up". So i poured some smirnoff in a little glass jar, droped the atti inside it, covered it up and let it rest there for about 2 hours.

When i took out the atti from the vodka, i noticed little white & black "hairs" floating in the vodka. hhhmmm, upon closer inspection of my atti, i saw that those "little white hairs" floating in the vodka, was actually my wick!
Somehow my wick literally disintegrated in the vodka!
So there goes a perfectly good, 100% working atomizer. I guess thats what i get for not following my own advice, witch is, If its not broken, dont fix it!
I know some people make new wicks for their atties, but to be honest, i dont have the materials, nor the patience to do it.
Good thing i got 9 more (5 came with my kit, plus i ordered an aditional blister of 5).

After i installed my second (brand new) atomizer, and even after putting a couple of tanks thru it, i was getting just a little burnt taste, i fixed it by pushing the wick just a bit inside the spike with a paper clip. Now its working like a champ.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, after killing the first atomizer with the vodka, i took it apart just to see if (besides killing its wick) the vodka had at least cleaned it.
The coil was completely black & covered with gunk. I did not see any "cleaning" whatsoever
So im calling this "vodka cleans atties" thing a mith xD

 

[Boognish]

I like how easy it is to switch out and clean the little attys on the ego-c. I usually soak them in grain alcohol for a few minutes in a shot glass and swish it around. Then I rinse it in hot water, blow it out and repeat. You can do a couple of quick dry burns too just to be sure. I think the whole set up is also really classy looking too. I usually vape with my ego-c anytime I'm out in public. Sometimes I'll throw a slim 3.5 dctank on it, or a stardust too.

 

[LucentShadow]

Well, there's absolutely no way that vodka can dissolve the main atty wick, but I'll agree that trying to dissolve anything off of the coil with alcohol is largely futile. Dry burning is the only really effective thing I've found for that, and it can be problematic unless the coil is exposed.

Some atties have a wad of lousy wicking under the bridge, on top of the coil. You may have lost that.

 

[Benzin]

The spike was empty when i took it out of the vodka, all that was left inside the spike was some sort of round hollow little "tube" (dont know how to describe it) witch i guess held the wick in place.
Maybe youre right, maybe the wick was a little loose and the vodka finished loosing it up.
Still, i dont think ill ever use vodka to "clean" my atomizers again, because after taking a very close look with a magnifying glass of the coil, and the wick hairs i "fished" from the vodka, everything was dirty. Apparently the vodka dint clean a thing.

I guess the vodka might be good to get rid of primer, or fresh juice (for trying a diferent juice, etc), but as far as real cleaning goes, like taking out the gunked up juice, i dont see it working at all.

 

[LucentShadow]

Ah, didn't know eGo-C was like an eGo-T. I was describing a regular atty, but the top wick in the spike works much the same way as the bridge in a normal atty. Alcohol is known to dissolve glues used in some atties, so maybe that had something to do with it, too.

The atty should almost certainly still be useable for direct dripping, at least. The main wick runs through the center of the coil, and that is held fairly securely in place. It's always nice to have a dripping atty around for testing juices, or just for backup. Empty carts work fine as mouthpieces for dripping.

 

[n9emz]

hmmmm....I haven't had that problem with my C-attys and I soak and agitate them in 153 proof Grain alcohol and haven't had that problem. I do a couple of approx 2-second dry burns afterwards, re-dip them in aclohol, and blow them out from the threaded end....I do this with all my attys. After blowing them out I can see black flecks in the alcohol. I then dry them and immediately put them back in use.

I've only had two failures in three months with the two of us vaping; one DOA from supplier and the other two days after receiving it. I quit using that supplier and problem solved.

Sorry to hear you've experienced this problem.

 

[juicejunky]

The spike was empty when i took it out of the vodka, all that was left inside the spike was some sort of round hollow little "tube" (dont know how to describe it) witch i guess held the wick in place.
Maybe youre right, maybe the wick was a little loose and the vodka finished loosing it up.
Still, i dont think ill ever use vodka to "clean" my atomizers again, because after taking a very close look with a magnifying glass of the coil, and the wick hairs i "fished" from the vodka, everything was dirty. Apparently the vodka dint clean a thing.

I guess the vodka might be good to get rid of primer, or fresh juice (for trying a diferent juice, etc), but as far as real cleaning goes, like taking out the gunked up juice, i dont see it working at all.

I think you just had a loose wick which would have slipped down with Vodka or water. Bad luck.

Vodka or PGA is good at sterilizing and getting old juice build up out of the wick, air holes, and surrounding areas. It helps with air flow and wicking problems from juice buildup. It does nothing for the burnt crust on the atomizer no matter how long you soak it. Hot water works just as well but takes much longer to dry.

 

[Benzin]

hmmmm....I haven't had that problem with my C-attys and I soak and agitate them in 153 proof Grain alcohol and haven't had that problem. I do a couple of approx 2-second dry burns afterwards, re-dip them in aclohol, and blow them out from the threaded end....I do this with all my attys. After blowing them out I can see black flecks in the alcohol. I then dry them and immediately put them back in use.

I've only had two failures in three months with the two of us vaping; one DOA from supplier and the other two days after receiving it. I quit using that supplier and problem solved.

Sorry to hear you've experienced this problem.

Do you remove the spike plate & wick before soaking & dry burning?

i think the other guys might be right. Maybe this particular atti had a loose wick or something.
Oh well, i still have 9 working atties left

The user´s manual mentions a diferent way of cleaning them, it sais (im copying the text from the manual)...

1.- Unplug the cartigide and inhale directly at atomizer till theres a little burning smell. Then keep pressing the battery button to dry the atomizer head untill the liquid inside dry out and you will see heating wire turns to red. Then drip 2 or 3 drops of e-liquid into the atomizer head, plug the cartigide and inhale about 10 times. The atomizer head will work normally again.
The method can be repeated 2 or 3 times if doing once is not enough.
During drying, the atomizer temperature rises, please take care not to burn your hands. There will be burning smell when inhaling your electronic cigarette after drying the atomizer head. After inhaling for several times, the smell will dissapear

Has anybody done it like it sais in the manual? does it work? it sounds convenient as no soaking or disasembling is required. But i worry that if done this way the "burning smell" will never go away!
If anyone has done it according to the manual, please let me know if it worked.

 

[LucentShadow]

Ack! That is describing an inadvisable way of dry burning the atty. Inhaling the 'dry hits' is not something I'd do. There is actual smoke, and other fumes from overheating the liquid, that smell and taste bad because they are bad. This is probably aimed at auto battery models, where it's not easy to dry burn, because you have to draw on it to activate it.

You shouldn't need to pull the spike plate, as it may be dicey getting the upper wick back in proper contact with the lower wick. Instead of inhaling on it until it dries, you can rinse it out with hot water or alcohol, blow it out thoroughly, and let it dry. Then, you can try dry burning it with several cycles to burn the remainder of e-liquid captured in the wick out, until the coil glows red hot. It may be difficult to see the glow with the spike plate in, but you may be able to look in the gaps on the sides and see it.

This can overheat the coil and 'pop' it if not careful, so a few 2-3 second red-hot glows is usually enough. A second rinse to wash the ash out, blow it dry, and it should be ready for use again.

If proper wicking material is used in any atty, it's impervious to the heat generated by the coil during dry burning, so no damage should occur. That said, I've had a couple of cheap atties where the upper 'wads' of wicking material burned a bit. I didn't buy any more of those.

 

[n9emz]

I never received any written instructions with the first complete assembly or the additional 5-pack of atty heads I purchased. However, I did receive verbal instructions from the salesperson I purchased the original assembly from after circumstances convinced me the atty was failing; and it still works fine after a couple of months of use. Loosely recounted, here's the only operational instructions I got from her:

When taste and/or vapor production declines; or, atomizer floods and sends juice to your mouth, unscrew the complete assembly from the battery and blow strongly for about ten seconds through the threaded end with a paper towel covering the cartridge end. Repeat process until no juice appears on the paper towel. Twist up a clean section of paper towel and wipe out the cartridge end; repeat until no juice appears on the paper towel and the interior of the cartridge end appears dry/clear of any juice. Disassemble, inspect for cleanness, clean all threads including battery, reassemble, load filled tank cartridge, and vape away.

No mention was made of ever soaking, dry burning, or any other procedure than the above. The soaking and dry burning are things I added to my "preventive maintenance" routine on my own from reading many such suggestions mentioned in these forums. Frankly, I've experienced no situations with any atomizers including the C variety that forced me to do anything other than follow the instructions that salesperson gave to me. I have no idea how long an atty would properly perform without soaking and dry burning.

However, I have greatly relaxed my preventive maintenance routine. Initially, I would do the blow out and wipe up ditty only for a few days; then I would soak the atty overnight in grain alcohol and dry burn it the following morning....I was rotating two attys during that time. Since then I've I've been using attys for up to two weeks with only the blow out and wipe up process before soaking, dry burn and rotation. I've been using the same two attys since their original date of purchase nearly three months ago with no failures....that's a total of four original attys in rotation between me and the wife.

The eGO-C is used as backup by both me and the wife when we go somewhere on less than fully charged batteries and rests in a convenient location in the house on a fly-by basis. It sees daily use and the battery has to be recharged weekly. Over the course of sitting for a few days unused, it floods and I do the blow-out wipe up thingie....then put it back in standby. I guess it's been nearly a month since I soaked and dry burned it. Every time I do soak and dry burn them; then do a re-soak and blow out, I get miniscule granular black particles out of them.

No matter what and how I've done it with attys; 510 cartridge and tank, eGO-T, eGO-C, and Lavatube drips....no failures but one DOA from a supplier and one 2 days after receipt from same supplier before any cleaning was done. I have Joye, Boge, Innokin, and Lavatube-branded attys....none of them have failed, only the two I purchased because they were cheap. I'm either doing something right or I'm lucky.

I do not suggest anything described above to anyone else....I think everyone just has to discover their own way in the matter and good luck, Ernesto.

 

[martinc]

Burning smell is lack of wicking,plugging the vent holes and drawing a bit cures that.

 

[n9emz]

Burning smell is lack of wicking,plugging the vent holes and drawing a bit cures that.

Good one....also a fix for an "airy" vape situation. Sometimes I get a carto with an airy light draw and plugging one of the vent holes corrects it.

[/HIJACK]

 

[LucentShadow]

You make a good point about overdoing the maintenance, n9emz. Dry burning is only recommended when the coil is severely caked. How long it takes for that to happen can vary greatly, depending upon juice type, and vaping habits. I'd usually have to do it once per 7-15 days, depending upon the juice.

Blowing the excess juice out before going to sleep is recommended by many, as that can help to keep the airways from getting gunked up. I've had that happen. When it does, usually a few hot water rinses followed by blowing the atty out will clear it. I'll rinse mine just often enough to keep that from happening, which is usually every 3 days or so.

 

[Benzin]

LucentShadow: yeh, im betting that inhaling that burning stuff must be discusting as hell!

Sam: my eGo-C did came with a users manual. i also have it in .PDF version, if you want, please send me your email via PM and ill be glad to send it to you to keep for reference.

Thanks for all your input guys, based on your input and more research ibe done, i decided on a maintenance routine for my eGo-C atties:

- Blow out excess liquid every night before bedtime (i allready do this)

- Use a paper to whipe the condensation from the cartigides, atties, etc when i change the cartigides (i also allready do this)

- When (and only when) the atti starts to give me problems, ill do some dry burning without inhaling and without taking off the plate, in short bursts (kind of like the manual sais, but without inhaling) untill i can see the coil glow thru the sides of the plate. Then, ill do some rinsing in hot water to get rid of the burning taste, and finally ill add a couple of drops of liquid inside the spike to prime the atti.

 

[n9emz]

Will do, Ernesto....and much appreciated. I have a confession. So far I haven't summoned up los huevos to dry fire any of my attys until they glow red. About two seconds is my limit....up until they do a steady crackle/sizzle and I'm off the button. That seems to have been enough to clean them out sufficient to continue to vape good. Neither have I taken an atty apart. I still have the two, new dead ones but I'm saving that project for a rainy day when I feel more adventurous.

 

[Benzin]

Will do, Ernesto....and much appreciated. I have a confession. So far I haven't summoned up los huevos to dry fire any of my attys until they glow red. About two seconds is my limit....up until they do a steady crackle/sizzle and I'm off the button. That seems to have been enough to clean them out sufficient to continue to vape good. Neither have I taken an atty apart. I still have the two, new dead ones but I'm saving that project for a rainy day when I feel more adventurous.

LOL!!!

You have a point! why risk the atty poping by waiting for it to glow? when i decide its time to dry burn, ill do it for just a couple of seconds like you do. And only if that doesnt work, ill attemt to dryburn some more.

 

[Iffy]

Did Vodka just killed my eGo-C atomizer???

Doubt it! But it did kill my neighbor...

Seriously, when I dry burn an atty, it will glow crimson before I consider it 'cleaned'.

 

[Benzin]

Did Vodka just killed my eGo-C atomizer???

Doubt it! But it did kill my neighbor...

Seriously, when I dry burn an atty, it will glow crimson before I consider it 'cleaned'.

LOL!!!!
hhmm... that Smirnoff that killed my atty is still in the little jar. I wonder if i can still use it with some orange juice to kill ME?