Ego-T burning wicks?

[DawnsDone]

Hi everyone. I'm relatively new to vaping and so I'm not sure why I'm having this problem and hope someone more experienced can give me some insight.

I got the ego-t setup feb 1st. I used the first atty for 17 days straight with no problems then it just died. Not a loss of vapor type death but a coil isnt' working at all death. No matter how long you hold the button it stays cool. So on to attty #2:

I started using it on the 17th and used it for 11 days. I noticed a lack of vapor the last two days using it so I put it aside to clean.

I'm now on atty #3.

Wanting to clean atty 2, I started reading the threads on the various methods used. I'm a huge fan of the dry burn and use that on my 510 atty's but was afraid to on the ego-t since I couldn't see the coil. I then found a thread that said the plate could be removed and put back in pretty easily.

I decided I could try removing the plate on atty #1 that completely died since I couldn't harm it any further. I grabbed some pliers and it did come out very easily. I noticed that a portion of the wick material under the plate had burned. I'd say 1/4 of it. The rest was fine though. THe coil was completely gunked up. I cleaned the coil with alcohol but no reaction from the coil it is dead beyond the gunk.

Since it was so easy to remove the plate I decided to clean atty #2 by removing the plate and soaking the wick/plate in hot distilled water and doing a dry burn on the coil.

Here's where I'm perplexed: When I removed the plate on the second atty, the wick under the plate was COMPLETELY burned. To. A. CRISP.
The coil was also completely gunked up. The surprise is this atty was working ok, just a slight loss in vapor production. How could that be with such a bad wick and more importantly what made it burn so bad. I've only run my tank dry a couple times and by dry I mean the first hit that has a slight burnt taste I refill. I usually catch it before this point though.

Also why would the 1st atty completely die, the the coil to stop working? I had not experienced performance problems before the sudden death, the coil wasn't any more gunked up than number 2 and in fact the wick was in better shape.



I just want to know if there's something Im missing that is causing the wicks to burn. I really dont want to go through a new atty every 11 days. 14-21 maybe, but 11 stinks lol


Any thoughts?

BTW I'm running clear 80pg/20 vg to 100 pg liquids through it, mostly diy fruit flavors using nic and pg from nicvape

 

[Uncle Screwtape]

The wick may not be burned at all. If it is black looking, try holding it with tweezers or something, take a lighter and start it on fire. I've found that they will burn on their own for a few seconds as you burn off all the gunk. Then hold it in a flame again for a few seconds till the wick turns red. Then, like magic, the wick will be white again and clean as new.

I've been cleaning my wicks like this every few days, and doing some careful dry burns while the wick is out. I have found this keeps the Ts running like new.

Try the procedure on a dead one first to get the hang of it.

 

[butt_ugly]

While atty coils can be destroyed by lengthy dry burns, they are notoriously prone to failure and by keeping them wet with juice might reduce the failure rate. I buy atties that are branded Cignot and they seem to out last the copy cats you can get for 6 - 7 bucks cheaper. Yet, they too will die one day or another.

I buy them in lots of 3 so I'm not bouncing off the ceiling while waiting for them to completely dry.

 

[orion7319]

The wick may not be burned at all. If it is black looking, try holding it with tweezers or something, take a lighter and start it on fire. I've found that they will burn on their own for a few seconds as you burn off all the gunk. Then hold it in a flame again for a few seconds till the wick turns red. Then, like magic, the wick will be white again and clean as new.

I've been cleaning my wicks like this every few days, and doing some careful dry burns while the wick is out. I have found this keeps the Ts running like new.

Try the procedure on a dead one first to get the hang of it.

The only thing I would add to that, is to burn your wick while still in the needle plate if possible (hold it with needle nose pliers obviously) Also try not to touch the wick much, they fall apart easily after you have cleaned them with fire. I like to run the wick under a faucet on low flow next in order to get all the fibers clustered together to align with the coil when it goes back together. To put the needle and wick back in, slide it in as far as it will go with some needle nose pliers and then pop it back in place, by pushing on the needle plate straight down with a 1/4 inch nut driver like this one. Amazon.com: Stanley 61-806 1/4-Inch Nut Driver: Home Improvement The last step is a hot water rinse. For me this is really the best and easiest way to clean these things.

EDIT: Also, dry burning these with the wick in place, just seems to me to cause the wick to get all that gunk built up on it. I think these things are supposed to always be kept wet. I only dry burn these with the wick removed. Also when I use dark juices (especially ones with sweetener) The wick gets gunked up twice as quickly. I find when I use those types of juices I have to go though this procedure every couple of days instead of once a week.

 

[Cat_in_the_Playground]

I just got my eGo T and haven't had any problems with my attys (only had them 36 hours). But want to be prepared. I am not very technically inclined (taking apart electronics and such). I've managed to clean my 510 attys soaking them in either Isopropal or PGA and keep running it through the atty until it runs quickly and I've had my one atty for almost 3 months. But the T attys sound so much more complex. Has anyone posted videos of how to clean them?

I am changing to the LR tank atty (to see if I can get a better TH and flavor, since these are my only complaints about the eGoT). If I went through 1 a week, $10 would still be cheaper than my analog habit, but consider myself pretty thrifty (although you would not know it from how much I have spent on my ecig habit in the past 3 months, LOL), and would prefer not to have to.

Thx!

 

[Devonmoonshire]

I have discovered that Boiling Water in my tea pot and running it through the atty of my eGo-T and then letting it soak for a bit in PGA,(Usually Vodka because it is what is around the house), and then rinsing it out with more boiling water, (I do filter my water to remove contaminates as well). Blow it out a few times and then either let dry and use another atty or hit the button and heat the coil a couple times before loading a tank really really cleans it out very very well.

Hope this helps;
Nate

 

[orion7319]

I just got my eGo T and haven't had any problems with my attys (only had them 36 hours). But want to be prepared. I am not very technically inclined (taking apart electronics and such). I've managed to clean my 510 attys soaking them in either Isopropal or PGA and keep running it through the atty until it runs quickly and I've had my one atty for almost 3 months. But the T attys sound so much more complex. Has anyone posted videos of how to clean them?

I am changing to the LR tank atty (to see if I can get a better TH and flavor, since these are my only complaints about the eGoT). If I went through 1 a week, $10 would still be cheaper than my analog habit, but consider myself pretty thrifty (although you would not know it from how much I have spent on my ecig habit in the past 3 months, LOL), and would prefer not to have to.

Thx!

No video's that I am aware of. They are very easy to get apart and clean though. I will attempt to right it up as simply as I can make it.

Step 1 Remove the needle and wick. Tool needed, a small flat blade screwdriver. Look into your attie, you should see two slots on either end. Take a flat blade scewdriver that is narrow enough to fit into the atty yet not very small. Push the scewdriver in the atty on one of the sides with the slots. Hold the atty and screwdriver horizontally. Try and press the atty against the screwdriver blade. You are trying to push the needle against the blade in order to apply pressure to the plate. This will pop the plate lose. Once it's loose shake the needle and wick out, or grab it with some pliers.

Step 2 Burn the wick. Hold the needle plate and the wick with some pliers and burn the wick with a lighter. Keep burning it until it glows red. Keep burning it until it is no longer black, and has turned white again. The wick is made of silica and can withstand temps of a couple of thousand degrees. It will burn white like when you burn steel. The gunk burns off, but the wick is OK.

Step 3 Dry burn the atty a few times to clean the coil.

Step 4 Hold the wick with your pliers again from the needle end and run the wick under the tap on a very low flow. You want to get the stands of the wick clustered together again in order to have all wick material centered in the atty and touching the coil.

Step 5 Take your needle nose pliers and insert the needle plate and wick as far into the atty as you can. Next hold the atty vertical and insert a 1/4 inch nutdriver into the atty over the needle and onto the plate. Make sure the needle plate and wick are aligned straight down and then push straight down to pop it back into place.

Step 6 Do a hot water rince and blow out the atty really good. Dry the inside of the atty and the battery end of the atty as best as you can with a paper towel. You can now use your atty again, no need to wait for it to dry. Just prime it and start vaping.

If you destroy a wick, build another one following this thread. http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/ego-type-models/169520-simplecjs-ego-t-wick-mod.html

This is all it takes to keep your atties clean and vaping great. It takes me less than five minutes to break down and atty and have it vaping again. Also rebuilding the wicks isn't a big deal either, just read the whole thread carefully, and not just the first post. You will like the LR atties.I have them and I use 510 Riva SE batts, and my juice is a 50/50 PG/VG mix. I get tons of vapor and great TH with this setup.

 

[Cat_in_the_Playground]

No video's that I am aware of. They are very easy to get apart and clean though. I will attempt to right it up as simply as I can make it.
<<SNIP Steps 1-6>>
This is all it takes to keep your atties clean and vaping great. It takes me less than five minutes to break down and atty and have it vaping again. Also rebuilding the wicks isn't a big deal either, just read the whole thread carefully, and not just the first post. You will like the LR atties.I have them and I use 510 Riva SE batts, and my juice is a 50/50 PG/VG mix. I get tons of vapor and great TH with this setup.

I really appreciate the detailed description. Best I've read. But I must either be dense, or more likely, I'm a visual learner (or perhaps a little of both). If someone could make a video, man, would that be awesome!

I'm glad to hear that the LR attys will be good. Most of my juices are 50/50 as well. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how my attys perform.

 

[Nancyusa]

I really appreciate the detailed description. Best I've read. But I must either be dense, or more likely, I'm a visual learner (or perhaps a little of both). If someone could make a video, man, would that be awesome!

I'm glad to hear that the LR attys will be good. Most of my juices are 50/50 as well. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how my attys perform.

Here is a video showing the cleaning process
YouTube - How I clean my eGo-t atty... or... Sunday morning at Vicky's kitchen sink

There are only two things you should do differently than what is shown in the video.

1. To avoid losing the wick....do 3 or 4 very short dry burns BEFORE you remove the plate. This seems to detach the wick from the coil and keep the wick in the piercing needle.

2. Only let the coil burn to orange..never red or white hot so you minimize the risk of blowing out the atty (very short dry burns to an orange coil will do the job)

Note: The tool used in the video to remove the plate is a 3 1/2" hemostat also known as forceps...costs about $4 on amazon

Note: The video mentions burning the wick to clean it... but she only rinses it in water. I've done both..burning probably gets the wick cleaner


A couple of other points if you don't want to invest in the tools shown in the video...

Use the tank itself to reinstall the plate. Just attach the plate to the tank and insert into the atty..if it doesn't sit all the way in, tap the tank with something heavy (I use a tape measure...a wrench).

To remove the plate I use a dental pick to pull the plate up from the side


Note: Some plate needles have been crushed using pliers..it's safer to pick the plate up from the edge


Whole deal takes about 5 minutes and atty will be good as new


Here is another video by the same person showing how to best position the wick in the plate
YouTube - eGo-t wick adjustment

 

[Flaklaflubillibu]

I hung up my eGo-T attys yesterday because I was getting a chemical taste I could not get rid of after trying everything.

I tried everything including (all things I have read here should work):
1.) incubated in hot water followed by blowing out both ends
2.) incubated in hot water followed by ethanol, then water, then blowing out both ends
3.) incubated in hot water followed by incubating in hot ethanol (my idea), then rinsed and blew out both ends.
4.) incubated in hot water, blew out both ends, removed plate, burned wick (which looked very clean. There was a little crud on a few fibers that burned instantly), and did many many dry burns (I think this made it worse; after this I could put the atty 8 inches away from my nose, with the wick plate removed, and get puched in the face by that chemical smell)
5.) incubated in hot water, blew out both ends, removed plate, did the baking soda/vinegar cleaning method several times

After each attempt the nastiness was still there, and if anything only got worse.

This was with my first atty that I had used continuously for 2 weeks or so (also essentially my first PV). I can understand that this might mark the end of its life, however I never got the impression from any of my readings here or elsewhere that this was how it would end, especially after all these cleaning attempts. This is not upsetting to me. What is upsetting to me is that now that I have become increasingly aware of this particular chemical smell/taste, I can smell/taste it right away on a brand new eGo-T atty (Type A Std). It is disgusting and I can no longer ignore it. Looking back, I remember there was something peculiar, but I thought this was normal. Now that I have experimented enough with other attys and cartos, I have resorted to dripping on a 510 atty and have ordered 510-T atty/tanks since I like the convenience of a tank system and hope to see that [maybe] the 510-T uses a better/different material in place of the one(s) causing the chemical smell/taste in the eGo-T atty. If any one is curious, on the brand new eGo-T atty I went straight to vaping a clear DIY juice consisting of 75/35 PG/VG with 5% TPA strawberry, 10mg/ml nic, which should have caused zero fouling, especially that soon.

 

[Rysup]

take a lighter and start it on fire. I've found that they will burn on their own for a few seconds as you burn off all the gunk. Then hold it in a flame again for a few seconds till the wick turns red. Then, like magic, the wick will be white again and clean as new.

Thank you!! Thought I was doing something wrong when it just caught fire lol... They seem to burn for ages if they're really gunked up!

 

[Nancyusa]

I hung up my eGo-T attys yesterday because I was getting a chemical taste I could not get rid of after trying everything.

I tried everything including (all things I have read here should work):
1.) incubated in hot water followed by blowing out both ends
2.) incubated in hot water followed by ethanol, then water, then blowing out both ends
3.) incubated in hot water followed by incubating in hot ethanol (my idea), then rinsed and blew out both ends.
4.) incubated in hot water, blew out both ends, removed plate, burned wick (which looked very clean. There was a little crud on a few fibers that burned instantly), and did many many dry burns (I think this made it worse; after this I could put the atty 8 inches away from my nose, with the wick plate removed, and get puched in the face by that chemical smell)
5.) incubated in hot water, blew out both ends, removed plate, did the baking soda/vinegar cleaning method several times

After each attempt the nastiness was still there, and if anything only got worse.

This was with my first atty that I had used continuously for 2 weeks or so (also essentially my first PV). I can understand that this might mark the end of its life, however I never got the impression from any of my readings here or elsewhere that this was how it would end, especially after all these cleaning attempts. This is not upsetting to me. What is upsetting to me is that now that I have become increasingly aware of this particular chemical smell/taste, I can smell/taste it right away on a brand new eGo-T atty (Type A Std). It is disgusting and I can no longer ignore it. Looking back, I remember there was something peculiar, but I thought this was normal. Now that I have experimented enough with other attys and cartos, I have resorted to dripping on a 510 atty and have ordered 510-T atty/tanks since I like the convenience of a tank system and hope to see that [maybe] the 510-T uses a better/different material in place of the one(s) causing the chemical smell/taste in the eGo-T atty. If any one is curious, on the brand new eGo-T atty I went straight to vaping a clear DIY juice consisting of 75/35 PG/VG with 5% TPA strawberry, 10mg/ml nic, which should have caused zero fouling, especially that soon.

I don't know what you are smelling...possibly the alcohol or vinegar??

I only use hot water and dry burn. You MUST do the dry burn until all the old juice is burned off (no more smoke or burnt smell) and you see a clean coil burning red. This could take as many as 50 or more burns on a junked up atty (I let the atty cool during this process if it seems too hot). Then you must rinse again to remove the ash left by the dry burn.

 

[Flaklaflubillibu]

I don't know what you are smelling...possibly the alcohol or vinegar??

I only use hot water and dry burn. You MUST do the dry burn until all the old juice is burned off (no more smoke or burnt smell) and you see a clean coil burning red. This could take as many as 50 or more burns on a junked up atty (I let the atty cool during this process if it seems too hot). Then you must rinse again to remove the ash left by the dry burn.

Alcohol was long gone and the vingar was the last thing I tried.

I dry burned the heck out of it. It was clean; there was no juice left to burn off, especially after holding the coil red many times.

It stinks; I don't know why.

 

[Nancyusa]

Alcohol was long gone and the vingar was the last thing I tried.

I dry burned the heck out of it. It was clean; there was no juice left to burn off, especially after holding the coil red many times.

It stinks; I don't know why.

Sorry to hear it...The method I've outlined above works for me ..on 12 different atty's so far (between my sister and myself)

 

[Flaklaflubillibu]

I've got a fantastic update:

After receiving a 510-T setup today, getting it all primed and ready, and hitting it for a good while trying to like it, I couldn't help but find the same exact chemical taste problem that I had with the eGo-T. I was like WTF. Considering no one has had anything but good things to say about the taste of the 510-T, I realized there must something wrong with what I am doing. I have always pulled lightly, since early on I read pulling hard can cause it to wick too much and then leak. Since leaking was never an issue for me, I thought hell, I got to pull hard on the 510-T instead, and then perhaps I won't get that burning/chemical flavor. I tried it again, pulled hard each time, and I'll be damned, I could not sense the awful taste I described before. To take it one step further, I brewed up some fresh 70/20 VG/PG juice cut with 10% water (1% TPA Ripe Banana), to help it wick even better, and I've got to say it is damn good! So good, I took back out the second eGo-T atty (I'm convinced the first one's fried since it really smells burnt), and I've been hitting the eGo-T ever since. I'm so pleased.

 

[Nancyusa]

I've got a fantastic update:

After receiving a 510-T setup today, getting it all primed and ready, and hitting it for a good while trying to like it, I couldn't help but find the same exact chemical taste problem that I had with the eGo-T. I was like WTF. Considering no one has had anything but good things to say about the taste of the 510-T, I realized there must something wrong with what I am doing. I have always pulled lightly, since early on I read pulling hard can cause it to wick too much and then leak. Since leaking was never an issue for me, I thought hell, I got to pull hard on the 510-T instead, and then perhaps I won't get that burning/chemical flavor. I tried it again, pulled hard each time, and I'll be damned, I could not sense the awful taste I described before. To take it one step further, I brewed up some fresh 70/20 VG/PG juice cut with 10% water (1% TPA Ripe Banana), to help it wick even better, and I've got to say it is damn good! So good, I took back out the second eGo-T atty (I'm convinced the first one's fried since it really smells burnt), and I've been hitting the eGo-T ever since. I'm so pleased.

That's great...must be you weren't hitting it hard enough to wick properly

 

[Flaklaflubillibu]

Precisely. Still going strong now on 70/20/10, VG/PG/H2O.

 

[Formosa]

I have discovered that Boiling Water in my tea pot and running it through the atty of my eGo-T and then letting it soak for a bit in PGA,(Usually Vodka because it is what is around the house), and then rinsing it out with more boiling water, (I do filter my water to remove contaminates as well). Blow it out a few times and then either let dry and use another atty or hit the button and heat the coil a couple times before loading a tank really really cleans it out very very well.

Hope this helps;
Nate

That's the method I use too except the I believe the hot water will make the paint on the cone chip. However this method is easiest, I would take EVERYTHING apart that's in the cone and let it stay in hot water for 10 mins, then Vodka for 30 mins, then water it another 10 mins, the burnt wick will come off easily and the bad taste will be gone.

BUT here's my question, there is a silver spring in between the coil, when the cone is new, the spring looks silver, BUT the spring turns black after 2 days of use, they look burnt and smells bad, I believe that's where the bad smell is coming from for my eGo-T. So my question is that, is it normal for the spring to turn black? Can you open up yours and let me know if they are still silver or they are black? TIA!