Dirty RBA's
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First off, you need to completely field-strip them down to pieces.
Now, the plastic tanks and o-rings are a different matter. I would NOT soak them in Everclear (or ANY strong alcohol) for longer than 30 or 60 minutes. Plastics and rubber can be harmed by prolonged exposure to alcohol.
So take a cup or bowl, put a cup of water in it, and about half a dozen drops of dishwashing liquid in it, and get it good and mixed up. Then soak the plastic and rubber bits in that overnight. Then rinse the HECK out of them to get any soap or perfume residue off them.
IF that doesn't work, go to a homebrewing supply store and get some "B-Brite" or "1-Step". These are powdered "oxidizing cleansers" used to clean and sterilize brewing equipment and will clean almost ANY smell, taste or stain from plastic or glass safely, they rinse off easily, and leave no residue . Instructions for use should be on the container...
Good luck. If all else fails, the plastic and rubber parts that might hold funky smells or tastes are replaceable, and can be bought for next to nothing, so you could just get new parts. I know that is a pain, since you thought you were getting useable parts in an classifieds sale, and now you might have to spend extra money to get them going, but, as they say, "Caveat Emptor"...
Sorry you had a bad experience in the Classifieds. I've made about 8 or 10 purchse through the ECF classies--from mods to super-high-end tank systems--and I've been lucky. All my sellers were 100% top-notch people, who provided great communication, and sent me clean, fully-functional gear for great prices. Better luck with the Classies in the future, man...
Now, the plastic tanks and o-rings are a different matter. I would NOT soak them in Everclear (or ANY strong alcohol) for longer than 30 or 60 minutes. Plastics and rubber can be harmed by prolonged exposure to alcohol.
So take a cup or bowl, put a cup of water in it, and about half a dozen drops of dishwashing liquid in it, and get it good and mixed up. Then soak the plastic and rubber bits in that overnight. Then rinse the HECK out of them to get any soap or perfume residue off them.
IF that doesn't work, go to a homebrewing supply store and get some "B-Brite" or "1-Step". These are powdered "oxidizing cleansers" used to clean and sterilize brewing equipment and will clean almost ANY smell, taste or stain from plastic or glass safely, they rinse off easily, and leave no residue . Instructions for use should be on the container...
Good luck. If all else fails, the plastic and rubber parts that might hold funky smells or tastes are replaceable, and can be bought for next to nothing, so you could just get new parts. I know that is a pain, since you thought you were getting useable parts in an classifieds sale, and now you might have to spend extra money to get them going, but, as they say, "Caveat Emptor"...
Sorry you had a bad experience in the Classifieds. I've made about 8 or 10 purchse through the ECF classies--from mods to super-high-end tank systems--and I've been lucky. All my sellers were 100% top-notch people, who provided great communication, and sent me clean, fully-functional gear for great prices. Better luck with the Classies in the future, man...
No need to go to a homebrew supply store. Grocery stores have Oxyclean Free and it is the same if not superior. Trust me on this. Its also much cheaper. Easy to rinse.
No offense to anyone, but I'm going to be devil's advocate. If we're dealing with used equipment, and it's obviously this difficult to remove a smell, can we really fault a person for selling something with some odor in it? I can understand if it's still dripping with bobas but crack, but if it's totally clean apart from some odor that apparently takes half a forum to figure out how to eradicate, seems like it comes with the territory.
They still had liquid in them. Everything inside the box was totally soaked in this nasty smelling liquid. A lot had apparently leaked out. The wicks and coils were still intact. It was like he finished vaping and just put it in a box and mailed it out to me. So it was NOT just a simple odor issue.
Whoever sold them to you is obviously a pig. I would want to give them a thorough cleaning for sanitary reasons; not just odor. Anything that's not subject to damage, I'd boil in water for a few minutes.
I use a few drops of Dawn in a cup of lukewarm water to clean old LPs that I get at yard sales or in thrift stores. Often they are in good shape, but just grimy. Dawn is an amazing cleaner--it cleans greasy or oily things VERY well, but won't harm plastic or rubber...
This is why I NEVER leave reviews for sellers on the classified until AFTER I actually receive and try the thing I'm buying. You just never know how people re going to treat their gear or how they are going to ship it to you.
I've been lucky--every purchase I've made through the ECF classies has been 100% satisfactory, and all the sellers were top-notch. Everything I've received has been factory-new clean and in working order.
Better luck in the future. But don't get too worked up. Sounds like your problem isn't anything a little soap and water can't fix... ;-)
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