Let me see if I can help.
During use, your atomizer heats up the liquid in the cartridge, providing of course that it's making proper contact with the "heat" source, a coil which hides under the bridge in a little well and heats when you draw or push a button on the battery. The heat keeps drawing the liquid downwards from the wicking inside.
Not all of the liquid however is going to be atomized by the "mesh" that surrounds the coil...there is mesh all around the base of the unit, which all absorbs some of the liquid.
After a time, this liquid starts to get a little charred, or overcooked, if you will, because it's been heated every time you draw, but maybe not vaporized and inhaled from above.
If you don't find a way to empty that out once in awhile, it will keep charring and tasting very "burned". Nasty taste. So blow into the atomizer from the base, yah, unscrew it from the battery, and blow it hard, several times, until it quits dripping onto a paper towel. Gently tapping it in the upside down position helps dislodge the droplets too, but I said gently. The unit inside the atty can dislodge and slide up into the "mouth" end, can break wires or twist them if you don't take care.
After you stand it battery contact side up overnight or when it's not in use, the next time you re-attach the battery, drip a couple drops back onto the atty, because a dry atty can kill itself from too much heat. Sometimes you can hear a kind of "gurgle" noise, that is a warning signal you may have too much liquid in and around the coil, or a flooded atty. Time to empty it, OR take the cartridge off and just vape for awhile without it until the gurgle goes away.
You never want to puff on a dry cartridge. A dry cartridge tastes burned, or plasticey.
That should explain the dry and wet aspects everyone talks about, it's kind of important. If the atomizer is flooded, i.e., it hasn't been emptied out for a time, it can leak liquid into the battery, if it's an automatic type battery. This can kill a battery, as you know. If it's a sealed battery (a Manual type) it can still leak out around the connection and cause problems with conductivity.
Yes, I burned one or two attys before I figured it out. And shorted a battery. Hate that.
That was before I found ECF, so had to learn a lot the hard way. Keep them out of water, also...any kind of water.....