Dry Burning Used Coil For Cleaning - Learned Something new! ;-)

[rickyrickeric]

Here I am, over a year into vaping, and loving it more and more every day. Started with the Blu in November of 2013, went to an EVOD/spinner, then a Protank 2 and Mini 3, and finally graduated to an Eleaf iStick 20w with a Kanger Subtank Mini, and have started making my own coils. I love it!!!!

I'm not into hot hits, don't care for huge throat hit, nor can I tolerate a lot of nic anymore. So I don't sub-ohm, and keep my nic really low. My current coil is six turns of 30g Kanthal set at 1.9 ohms, and I vape pure VG at 1.5mg of nic between 8-10 watts. I still manage to create some huge clouds, and I love the mild feel and flavor. For me, this is a perfect setup.

So today at work, my Subtank started hitting hot, and slightly burnt, and I didn't have any wire or cotton with me. Bummer! So I hit up a nearby vape shop, that sold me a square of Japanese cotton, and four feet of 30g Kanthal for dirt cheap. I just wanted to get my rig working again, instead of waiting all day. But when I went to do a rebuild, I discovered the shop had actually sold me 32g by mistake. Ugh!

Well, shoot. I figured that maybe simply re-wicking would help. So I cracked open my Subtank deck, and removed the old wick. But that coil of mine was all black, and coated in gunk. Blech! How to clean it? Hmmm....wiping off the coil? Nope. Wait a sec....did I see somewhere about dry-burning a dirty coil? So I fired my gunked-up Subtank coil on my iStick, and let the coils glow red....and....wait....what's this???? THE GUNK VANISHED!!!!

So I re-wicked with a new piece of Japanese cotton, primed the wick, put it all back together, and it is good as new!

Now, I am sure that most veteran vapers already know this stuff. I'm just sharing a small personal victory today. One of the things I love about vaping is being able to learn new things. And I just wanted to share this with all of You, my vaping family. Cheers!

 

[Ablonz]

Good job!!!! It's amazing the little tricks and trades that are in the whole vaping scene.

 

[DingerCPA]

Nicely done, Rickyrick

I've salvaged many a coil by pulling wick, dryburning and re-wicking. It's quite liberating (not to mention less expensive)

If you're bored some evening (or day or whenever) google "dryburn" and/or "re-wick Subtank". I'm sure there are tons of videos out there to confirm what you now know.

Vape On (with a clean coil)

 

[HDMontana]

Very nice. Congrats on one more step of your vaping journey.

HD

 

[Firestorm]

I use the same coil in my RBAs for months at a time although I dry burn and re-wick after each tank full to keep my vape fresh and tasty and performing well. Some people like to regularly tear down their builds and experiment with new ones. That's fine, but not my style - I just want to vape.

 

[Marc411]

Very cool. Dry burning a good coil is the way to go. Some don't come out of a topper for a month, nicely seasoned

 

[EvlSmrk]

Good find. Definitely dry burning is the way to go in my opinion. Follow it up with some water from a tap or a small dunk in a cup and it'll really clean it up. Dry burn it again to get rid of the water and you should be good to go. Be sure to let the coil cool down before you wick again unless you like having little spiral burn marks on your finger tips.

 

[TraceyS]

Here I am, over a year into vaping, and loving it more and more every day. Started with the Blu in November of 2013, went to an EVOD/spinner, then a Protank 2 and Mini 3, and finally graduated to an Eleaf iStick 20w with a Kanger Subtank Mini, and have started making my own coils. I love it!!!!

I'm not into hot hits, don't care for huge throat hit, nor can I tolerate a lot of nic anymore. So I don't sub-ohm, and keep my nic really low. My current coil is six turns of 30g Kanthal set at 1.9 ohms, and I vape pure VG at 1.5mg of nic between 8-10 watts. I still manage to create some huge clouds, and I love the mild feel and flavor. For me, this is a perfect setup.

So today at work, my Subtank started hitting hot, and slightly burnt, and I didn't have any wire or cotton with me. Bummer! So I hit up a nearby vape shop, that sold me a square of Japanese cotton, and four feet of 30g Kanthal for dirt cheap. I just wanted to get my rig working again, instead of waiting all day. But when I went to do a rebuild, I discovered the shop had actually sold me 32g by mistake. Ugh!

Well, shoot. I figured that maybe simply re-wicking would help. So I cracked open my Subtank deck, and removed the old wick. But that coil of mine was all black, and coated in gunk. Blech! How to clean it? Hmmm....wiping off the coil? Nope. Wait a sec....did I see somewhere about dry-burning a dirty coil? So I fired my gunked-up Subtank coil on my iStick, and let the coils glow red....and....wait....what's this???? THE GUNK VANISHED!!!!

So I re-wicked with a new piece of Japanese cotton, primed the wick, put it all back together, and it is good as new!

Now, I am sure that most veteran vapers already know this stuff. I'm just sharing a small personal victory today. One of the things I love about vaping is being able to learn new things. And I just wanted to share this with all of You, my vaping family. Cheers!

Yup! It's even more amazing with the readyXwick! You dry burn with the wick in and it turns back to white as the gunk goes away.....Love it, easy vaping!

Tracey

 

[Alien Traveler]

I dry-burn my coils before using also.

 

[EBates]

Dry burning is a required part of building or cleaning an atty. Just be careful not to allow the coil to get so hot that it melts your insulators.
I dry burn all new coils to get rid of mfg chemicals and during cleaning dry burn to remove all of the burnt on crud that caused the need for cleaning and rewicking.

I fire my coils for 4-5 seconds and while still glowing blow on the coil. The crud will begin to flake and get blown away.

About the only time I replace a coil is when I just want a new build.

 

[Frenchfry1942]

I love the exploring of things. I read a lot here and try to remember so I don't ask as many questions. I do sometimes blow my head up ala cartoon style though.

I did catch that the vape shop charged you. It was a very good opportunity for them to give a good impression to a potential future customer. The value of the material was all of .50 cents.

Anyway, I like to tinker and try things.

 

[rickyrickeric]

I did catch that the vape shop charged you. It was a very good opportunity for them to give a good impression to a potential future customer. The value of the material was all of .50 cents.

Yeah, they charged me $1.99 for the wire. Oh well, no biggie. It's only a couple of bucks, and I'll have the 32g on-hand should I ever want to experiment. Besides, the fact that they gave me the wrong stuff was what led me to try and clean my original coil. If I had simply built a new coil, I might not have learned the dry-burn cleaning thing.

 

[EBates]

Ya know you can get a 100' roll from Temco (the wire mfg) for about $5 and free shipping, right?

Resistance Wire

 

[HauntedMyst]

Ya know you can get a 100' roll from Temco (the wire mfg) for about $5 and free shipping, right?

Resistance Wire

I did not know that. Awesome share!

 

[Mellowbuzz]

when I first started vaping, I was changing my coil out every 2 or 3 days because of gunk buildup.....until a fellow vaper shared the dryburn and wash secret. lol I was amazed! Now every time I rewick, it gets dryburned and put under the faucet a few times. Comes out looking like new every time! Now the only time I build a new coil is when I want to change things up a bit.

 

[BrushyHillGuide]

Dry burn, rinse coils and re-wick regularly and you'll be amazed how rarely you actually NEED to build a coil. Especially with thicker or twisted wire.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Runamok3x]

Cool story.
If you had a drill handy you could have cut two or three lengths of that 32 and twisted it together to get you close to where you wanted to be for a new coil.
IMO but I think they wick juice better because of the crevice where the strands meet.

edit: adding link http://youtu.be/TjCPQNiRVv4

 

[Fizzpop]

Works even better if you remove your cotton and then rinse the coil in water, dry burn, and then rinse it again with a final dry burn to dry off the coil. I've had a coil last six months using this technique. I could have gone longer, but just wanted to make a new coil because I actually like making them and missed it!

 

[AndriaD]

I use the same coil in my RBAs for months at a time although I dry burn and re-wick after each tank full to keep my vape fresh and tasty and performing well. Some people like to regularly tear down their builds and experiment with new ones. That's fine, but not my style - I just want to vape.

Same here, months on the same coil unless I just feel like tinkering -- not often, but now and then the bug bites me. But I dry-burn pretty much anytime the taste isn't quite right, or the juice looks darker, or I take the chimney off and see a bunch of gunk. My 29ga coils in my kayfuns lasted from Aug to Dec that way.

Andria