Dry burning... What is it?

[Snorps]

I used the search function "dry burning" went through the first 15 or so hits however never got a clear indication as to what dry burning 'actually' is. What I am referring to, is maintenance to your atty. I have been switching out the two ego type 'A' standard atomizer's every 3 days with the kit I got.

The one I am not using I clean as follows:
Run under hot water blowing out the excess juice/water.
letting it sit in hot water for about 20-30min and repeat with running hot water and blowing it out.
I then sit it battery end up on my fridge for the next 3 days to dry.

Everything I have read indicates a dry burn in most of the cleaning steps, usually at the end or with the dry burn being the end step to remove the crud/buildup on your wick.

I am aware that when an atty pops it pops, I also understand that it is an electrical part and will degrade with time and use. My wife is having a hard time accepting the fact that I need to replace used parts (atty & battery mostly) she thought when I got the kit that was it. She is grateful that I have quit smoking (don't get me wrong), I know her worry, she doesn't want my vaping expenses to exceed my smoking expenses; we are after all on a fixed income (I am sure this is the case with most).

In theory, any maintenance to your atty should prolong the life even if for an hour or day.

PS, I know I could have posted in the maint section, I am kind of partial to the Canadian section

Thanks, Snorps

 

[wood]

i dont think dry burns are good some do some dont but all it is is holding the button down on a dry atty and gently blowing in it , the spring will turn orange red when theres not liquid crud left on it then u pulse the button to get the spring red but not keep it overly hot
i dont think its good for an atty though
maybe someone who does will have better advice

 

[Concat]

Only do it if your atty is useless. Crud builds up and a dry burn can get rid of it. But it's very easy to over do it and toast ur atty

 

[Anaconda]

I used to use the "Dry Burn Technique" as mentioned above by Wood. He described it well. I stopped doing it regularly only because I didn't find it made much of a differnce and even think it may have shortened the life of my atty.

I instead will soak my atty's in Vodka overnight, and then blow them out in he AM, and then let it dry for an hour or 2. Drop in a couple of drops of juice in my eGo-T, let it sit for a min, drop in 2 more, then pop on a tank. This way I don't run it dry and if there's a bit too much, no biggie, just wipe it down and good to go. I find that I get a longer life, and more enjoyable flavor if it's cleaned about once a week or 2 weeks.

You will also find that darker liquid will gunk up an atty faster than lighter liquids.

 

[RjG]

Agree 100%, dark or sugary liquids shorten coil life drastically...

Rinsing cleans out the gunk from the meshy part, and the holes under/around the coil, both of which also affect atty performance.

Not the coil though. Rinsing/boiling etc doesn't help that. Alcohol either. If you don't believe me, take a burnt atty apart and rub the crusty coil between your fingers with alcohol, it does nothing, doesn't touch it. (neither does ultrasonic for anyone wondering, I have a real one - not a toy, it does NADA for a coil)

All you can do is dry burn it. This turns the brownish nasty gob into a greyish hard crust.

FIRST you have to get all the all the juice out. Rinse it, blow it out best you can, roll up some tissue, stick in in there, and let it soak out as much as you can for 15 min or so. It needs to be dry before you start. Overnight dry is overkill. Dry enough so fresh piece of rolled up tissue stuck in there, and blowing thru it doesn't bring up more water is fine.

Then screw on a battery, hold the button down just until the coil starts to glow, then pulse it to keep it around a dark red. That's like 1400 degrees - letting the coil get hotter than that doesn't help get the crap off, it just hurts it.

Keep going, pulsing, until the entire crust is glowing dark red. If it's taking excessively long, take a break and let it cool off before trying again, or you could melt the solder blobs holding the coil in there. I've never timed it exactly - probably 15 or 20 seconds would be the longest I'd push it. Watch the edges - often they will get much hotter than the middle.

Now - you have a choice to make.
You can vape it right after that. It will work at this point, for a very short time, and then it will be crap again.

OR you can poke at the coil, scrape the crusty stuff off with a toothpick. Odds are maybe 70% you WILL break the coil doing this. I don't recommend it.

OR - you can try this... don't yell at me if you bust your battery. I haven't busted one yet.

Do the full dry burn thing process as described above, in the bathroom. Keep the tap running, just a very small stream, cold water.
At the end of your burn cycle, just as the whole coil is red - hold the button down (no pulsing) and QUICKLY stick it in the stream, nice and vertical, letting the hot coil have a quick DIRECT shot of cold water, let go of the button, and take it out right away so water doesn't run all over the place and into the battery. Seriously quick -- in and out, 1 mL of water is all you need to get in there.

The thermal shock blows all the crap right off the coil almost every time. This so SO EASY to do on an EGO Tank atty, because you can pop the spike out and keep a close eye on the entire process.

Rinse it again to get the chunks of crud out. Occasionally you might still need a toothpick to tease out a chunk that's won't rinse out. Again, resist the urge to scrape at the coil.

Last, dry it out real good, same as before. PRIME it with a good squirt of crappy juice, or PG, whatever you want.. Blow gently in each end, so it "gurgles" a bit, then blow that completely out of the atomizer too. That gets the remaining water out, and primes the coil, and gets the meshy stuff wetted, ready to suck up more juice. Then fill up a tank, and vape it. For some reason, it always takes a day to taste "normal" again - but then your back on the life cycle of almost a new atty again after.

I have never wrecked an atty doing this, never wrecked a battery, and cleaned attys 5 or 6 times to bare coil every time, before they finally die on me.

If you've never adjusted an Ego Tank wick before - there's some videos on youTube. The wick always needs adjusting after taking the spike out. I always start on the "lean" side - with the wick about level with the top of the spike. After an hour (or less if it's REALLY hot vape) I'll push it down a tiny bit with a toothpick. The vape will get cooler, less burnt taste, everytime you push it down a smidge (and 20 or 30 puffs later). After not too long, it's perfect

 

[RjG]

Either of these threads have some nice zoom shots of the "crud" you are burning off if you feel like a closer look ;-)

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/8368-cigar-rebuild-pics-bling-v2.html

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/atomizer-mods/17306-m401-atomizer-disassembled-pics.html

 

[Zeeman]

Youtube also has some good instructional videos. I've dry-burned a couple clearomizers and had them functioning like new.

 

[Snorps]

Thanks for the info everyone; I got what I was looking for. Everyone has their methods and I was trying to determine a way I would do some maint to the atty. I don't think I am going to attempt a dry burning until I have more then one as a backup.

Interesting info on the ultrasonic RjG!

Thanks,

Snorps

 

[wood]

just thought id post this
IKV Vaping Fun Facts

iken crafts one of the highest quality atomizers and if he doesnt recommend it i wouldnt do it

 

[r4nd0mCh40s]

Dont dry burn atties, there is a reason why people and suppliers say keep them wet. only thing that works good for dry burning is CE2's I dried burned them without any problems or popped anything because they are ment to take the heat

 

[wood]

ya alot of vapers do recommend it though , so heres a more professional opinion i wouldnt do it ... i have done it but i find if u burn the wick its will never taste the same , also the lifespan decreases its pretty common sense

 

[NoizMaker]

What is Dry Burning? Well my answer is similar to Woods... It's a way to wreck your atty, burn the wicking and stress your coil out. I personally never dry burn and with good reason, I tried it a few times and every last atty I tried was injured beyond repair and the TH was gone forever. I know it works for some but it is a very select few IMHO and you will keep your atties alive a lot longer than dry burning them.

My advice will always be to never dry burn anything, ever for any reason. In fact, even getting an accidental dry hit is enough stress on some atties to reduce their performance by more than half.

 

[RjG]

LOL, to each his own. After two weeks, for me, the atty is crudded up enough that's it's not a good vape anymore.

At that point, there's really nothing to lose... throw away the atty, or burn the crud off.

I wouldn't dry burn a WORKING atty - that would be silly, lol. Dry burning a cart is unlikely to work well either.

Burning it off restores a crappy working atty to 80 or 90% of new condition, 4/5 times. That's for me, I'm pretty careful. I'm not saying it works for everybody.

If you follow the links on post#6 you can see I've been doing this for many years, I do know how an atty works

 

[NoizMaker]

LOL, to each his own. After two weeks, for me, the atty is crudded up enough that's it's not a good vape anymore.

At that point, there's really nothing to lose... throw away the atty, or burn the crud off.

I wouldn't dry burn a WORKING atty - that would be silly, lol. Dry burning a cart is unlikely to work well either.

Burning it off restores a crappy working atty to 80 or 90% of new condition, 4/5 times. That's for me, I'm pretty careful. I'm not saying it works for everybody.

If you follow the links on post#6 you can see I've been doing this for many years, I do know how an atty works

Hey RjG, glad it works for you and I honestly didn't mean anything by it man. This is just my experience, even with a well used atty that is crudded up with gunk. I would sooner use vodka to clean an atty and I get good results that way but as always YMMV.

 

[RjG]

Oh, I wasn't offended Different strokes is all ...

 

[kanadiankat]

Dry burning is what you do on a working atomizer to kill it (ie: atticide)

Or is what you do on an already dead/dying atomizer to revive it (ie: atty cpr).

The best method I've ever used for cleaning at atomizer - is the blow-out method, followed by priming with straight PG or VG (no flavor or nic).

Water soaks can cause gurgling and flooding - so do be cautious with this. It's actually better to pour a wee bit of rubbing alcohol into the barrel, swish, rinse, blow out, prime and go.

 

[Switched]

Well said

 

[BuzzKilla]

I dry burn...

i had a single 510 Cisco LR last me 6 months...
no noticable loss in performance.

but that is just my experience.