How bad is this?

[newq]

I reading up on how to clean cartos and read several suggestions on using isopropyl acohol to clean carts. I just read somewhere that isopropyl acohol is toxic and not to use it. i have read it is a mucus membrane irritant and as such should NOT be used for cleaning carts.

I admit I have used it for cleaning my carts and imparticular tonight while i am waiting for my new carts to come in the main toasted one and had to pull it from another tank. When I did, I flushed it with isopropyl alcohol, put a drip tip on it and blew it out into a rag then hooked compressed air up to it and finishred blowing it out , refilled it and started vaping.

Should i be worried ?

 

[Huffelpuff]

I used to boil mine and leave them kinda stuffed w/ paper towels to dry. IMHO not big on the idea of vaping alcohol.. sounds toxic. If you are hesitating maybe your instincts are right. See if you have any old carts laying around and buy some blue foam from the pet store if you have nothing else. For me? Wouldn't touch a carto that was cleaned w/ alcohol. Maybe others who tried that can chime in.

Safety first, though. Be careful.

 

[RocketRod]

Did you rinse it in water? Hot water flush is as good as some other methods. Look for a u-tube video from PBusardo and see how he dose it. Carto's/Atty's/Batteries are are disposable. There are many that look at a carto as very disposable because they are inexpensive. I clean mine once with Phil's method, and if they give me a hint of trouble, I toss em.

 

[newq]

Well unfortunately I didnt know any better and was following what i had read. I was asking because perhaps someone else had done this and would know as to wether it was a reason for concern or if it wasnt too terrible and could just let it pass ?? I would hate to end up with some nasty lung infection or disorder because I made this mistake.

No I did not rinse it with water.

 

[Ladypixel]

I haven't cleaned carts this way, but I can say that for cleaning attys, I tend to use vodka... but I let them air-dry for at least 24 hours before use so that all the alcohol can evaporate.

 

[X P3 Flight Engineer]

Everything we vape is water soluable, miscable anyway so water will dissolve anything in there. It takes a lot longer to completely dry and if it isn't completely dry it will not draw right.

Using air from a compressor introduces microscopic oil droplets. Air from a blow dryer on low is OK. Water and time are the most natural ingredients.

What you did may be an occasional thing but no one recommends it. Most of the alcohol comes out in a dry burn.
IMHO

 

[TinyTimberGal]

I've never seen Isopropyl alcohol recommended for cleaning cartos. PGA (pure grain alcohol/everclear) yes. The only use for Isopropyl relating to ecigs would be to clean the battery contacts on a PV IMHO.

 

[Warren D. Lockaby]

I've tried several of these tricks using hot water, PGA, denture cleaning tablets, 91% isopropyl alcohol, brake parts cleaner, electric contact cleaner, etc. (PLEASE NOTE: These are not recommendations, just statements of the excesses to which I have been driven by my peculiar combination of curiosity & stupidity.) With the exception of hot water & PGA, in each experiment the cleaning solvent phase has been followed by several boiling/rinsing/draining procedures, then drying thoroughly before use.

The good news is so far none of these experiments has proved lethal. So far. Yet. The bad news is (and this could be because I have zero sense of smell) if it makes any difference which method I use, I can't detect it. The last method I tried used the denture cleaning tablets and may be the exception, but so far I've only used one carto & two attys from that batch so it's really too early to tell. Also note, I'm still shopping around for a very sweet deal on an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner with a stainless steel pan, convinced this actually will make a difference (along with whatever solvent you might choose, keeping in mind that water is known as "the universal solvent") but have not tried this yet for lack of a unit.

As RocketRod noted, cartos, attys & batteries are disposable. While that is true, all things are relative (though most probably won't claim me as kin) and in fact, money is *also* disposable. Whether 5 soiled but otherwise functional Boge cartos in the hand are more disposable than the $8 or $10 it will take to bring 5 new ones from the bush in a few days is meaningless but to the person holding the five soiled cartos.

Anyway to anyone who does decide they're worth cleaning, I would suggest boiling/rinsing thoroughly afterward, if for no other reason than to get rid of any residual taste left from whatever you used. IMO that *should* wash out any residuals from the isopropyl alcohol, but I must caution that I base this purely upon speculation and not upon one iota of research.

Happy (& Safe) Vaping!

 

[KimCos]

Hello Newq. I am pretty new to vaping myself. My husband and I both started on Dec. 7th never touched a cigarette since. I have read and read about all of this and I have cleaned mine by boiling them in plain water changing the water 2 or 3 times and then blowing them out and letting them dry and that has worked very well. We have been using the vision ego stardust instead of carts lately they are amazing. When I have wanted to change juice in them (they are clear) I just run some water in them put my finger over the top shake it up sling the water out do this a few times then blow out refill with whatever new juice we want at first not much vape keep on pretty soon all the water is gone and is good as new. I have cleaned the ego vision stardusts with peroxide in the exact same way I did with water. (I saw that suggested on the forum and sounded like a good idea to me since if you leave peroxide sitting out it just turns into water.) I used the peroxide for cleaning out really strong dark juices ou. Worked great. I am pretty new also so you still might want to ask others about the peroxide but made sense to me and has worked great.

 

[n9emz]

Let's see....hot water, iso alcohol, vinegar and baking soda, whatever. I just soak 'em and rinse 'em clear with 153 proof pure grain alcohol and pitch them in the back of the box to dry. A month or so when I come close to running out of cartos I'll try the ones I've cleaned....should be dry by then. I don't use water or anything else to clean any of my vaping stuff....only the grain alcohol....plus it's nice to have around as it buys me some time when I need to go to the liquor store.

Everything's working fine and no failures to date....except I get a little lazy when I drink the stuff.

 

[hairball]

Only use drinking alcohol or hot water to clean cartridges and cartomizers with.

Rubbing alcohol, when ingested, can cause liver damage. Rubbing alcohol is okay to use to clean battery contacts and to soak atomizers in. When cleaning an atty, please rinse well in hot running water.

 

[hairball]

Just wanted to add that the info about liver damage came from my doctor who also vapes. She stressed to me about making sure it's well rinsed.

 

[rolandpibb]

Cartomizers are meant to be disposable, but last a long time when kept wet and perform best when first filled properly. I initially syringe fill and then have them in a tank or on a Reo.

I get 1-2 weeks out of my 1.7 XL's and when they start performing poorly on a fresh batt, I chuck them.

I've been there. Washing cartos, boiling them, researching sonic cleaners, etc. Even taking apart horizontal cartos and dry burning the wicks. I found that these methods gave maybe a few days more before they started performing badly again.

Atomizers are slightly different. Keep them wet, and every once in a while blow them out. Some even vape, or drop and blow out some unflavoured PG as a cleanser, but anything other than alternating a couple of scalding water rinses and dry burning will not clean an atty any better.

I decided that my time and effort it took to clean the cartomizers was worth more than the extra couple of bucks to buy a few more. And now even save the difference buying cartos in bulk.

I just ordered a ProVari, so I'm hoping the steady voltage, and the potential to push higher voltage to a dying carto will get me longer vape time, but whether you VV or not, vape and toss is the safest and best bet.

 

[Jim Bob]

IF you want to use those I would suggest you do a LONG boil on them after rinsing as much as possible , I have had success in drying them faster by placing in a pan into a 200* oven for a couple hours to speed up drying time (and to try to eliminate mold/mildew forming (I think LOL)

 

[rolandpibb]

IF you want to use those I would suggest you do a LONG boil on them after rinsing as much as possible , I have had success in drying them faster by placing in a pan into a 200* oven for a couple hours to speed up drying time (and to try to eliminate mold/mildew forming (I think LOL)

Never ever boil a carto. The filler is a plastic and will melt and change consistency.

 

[newq]

It seems like the issue of cleaning is full of misnmenclature (sp) and innaccuracies. Perhaps we could make my stupidity useful and compile a thread in the important notices section of ECF. Despite the idea that many may skip them over as optional reading I did go through all the documetns and although even ECF can't save me from my own stupidity perhaps another can learn from it.