I have an Ego with all it's variations: 510 atty & carts, cartos, XL LR atty & cart, Type A tanks and Type B tanks... I've NEVER had those "clouds of vapor" I see on YouTube and that people talk about... Any suggestions?
I've been using the eGo-T (and 510-T) for a while now and it took about two weeks to get to the point of getting consistently good vapor and taste. A friend has been using his for about a week and keeps asking how I do it. There does seem to be a few things I do differently than him but I hadn't thought about documenting them. Guess this is as good a time as any.
All this is probably out there somewhere but I for one haven't found it all in one place, so please forgive me if some or all of this is old hat. If it isn't, maybe this would be good for someone's FAQ or something.
So no one gets ...... at me, DISCLAIMER first: Follow any of this at your own risk. I take no responsibility if you follow any of the advice below and something doesn't work, goes wrong, your atty blows up, your tanks implode, or anyone in your immediate vicinity develops boils, cysts or gurgling chest wounds.
While I am citing my own experience with eGo-T and 510-T, YMMV.
That said, everything below applies to both eGo-T and/or 510-T except where specifically noted.
- PIERCE: Before doing anything else, pierce the tank with a clean atomizer. I don't bother to de-chad the tank.
- CURSORY CLEANING: Before first use and once a week or so. Two cups water in the microwave for 3 minutes. Use a 5ml syringe w/blunt needle to flush the tank 3-4 times (not too hard or gets all over) and flush through the draw hole at the top. Use syringe/needle to draw most of the water out of the tank/condensation chamber. Blow through the top to clear the chamber and side channels. Air dry or do a T-spin with tank side out for a quicker dry time.
- FILLING: Keep a paper towel handy. AVOID taking tanks apart. Fill with a syringe or needle-tipped bottle (15 ml / 1/2 oz RCE3000 hobby bottle works great). Place the needle all the way in, fill until the juice just peaks at the fill hole, withdraw the needle. This will leave a nice, small air bubble in the tank. Be careful of air in the syringe/bottle/needle - if it catches you off-guard juice can spray out of the fill hole. Wipe the tank down and dab at the fill end to remove juice. If you use the rubber fill caps, pinch & roll a corner of paper towel and clean old juice from the inside of the cap before placing on the tank.
- TANKS: Some tanks just seem to work better than others and/or may work better in one atomizer than another. I have Blue, White and Black tanks and for eGo-T they're a mish-mash of soft rubber and hard plastic tank caps. Doesn't matter which -- some just work better. If a tank is having problems of any kind set it aside and try another. Later on try that tank on another atty. If it still has issues, toss it and move on.
- ATOMIZERS: Similar to Tanks - some just work, some just don't, and some degrade more quickly than others (especially if taken apart for deep clean and not assembled carefully/properly) and all require cleaning at some point. If an atty causes problems from the start, contact the vendor -- they might replace it for you. If it degrades but you got good use out of it for a while, be happy with that and toss it. While more expensive than tanks and it "hurts" more to toss an atty, keep in mind they are still consumables and the frustration of leaks/flooding/dry hits isn't worth trying to get another day or two out it.
- INSERTING: Start with atomizer off-battery and upside-down. It shouldn't matter, but I swear I get better results by lining up the narrow part of the tank with the narrow part of the atomizer needle plate. Insert the tank, squeeze tank and atty together. Spin the tank on the needle 180 degrees. For 510-T that's enough; for eGo-T you still have to orient the tank to preference once it's on-battery.
- ATOMIZER CLEANING: For any time there is any trouble with an atty (flooded, burned taste, "mixed" taste, etc.) between major cleanings. Blow the atty out into paper towel/napkin. Run a small stream of hot tap water. Fill the atty with water, blow it out before it empties. Repeat until water blows clear, then blow atty out until there's no more water/"gurgle". Wipe dry. For eGo-T, twirl a corner of paper towel and wipe inside bottom around atty connector. Prime atty needle with two drops juice, insert a new tank. May take a few draws but juice will get through.
- ATOMIZER DEEP CLEANING: Heat two cups water in microwave for 3 minutes. 510-T can be disassembled but I don't recommend it. eGo-T can be disassembled as per video from Cignot's Vicky (it's somewhere out there) but personally, I don't remove the wick from the needle plate. Hold eGo-T needle plate/wick with pliers or forceps, use a lighter to burn off residue. Light blowing/brushing will get most out. Repeat until wick is mostly white and doesn't smell bad (a very, very slight burned odor is almost unavoidable though). Soak all components in hot water for 10-15 minutes then remove. Blow out attys as much as possible or T-spin battery side out for a faster drain.
For eGo-T, dry burn the atty with 2-4 second bursts, blowing out atty in between. If only a section of the coil turns red during burn, drip 1-2 drops of water on coil, repeat dry burn & blow. I repeat this until entire coil lights up and sniffing the atty reveals only a slight leftover odor. Adjust wick depth in needle if necessary. Reassemble eGo-T atty. Personally, I dry burn & blow again until I see the wick turn red at the top of the needle (
NOTE: do
NOT do this if you've re-wicked using PTB or anything other than metal mesh as a wick jacket!). If using right away, prime needle with 2 drops juice.
VERY IMPORTANT: If you've disassembled your eGo-T atty, you MUST be sure the wick reaches the coil and to
FULLY SEAT the needle plate into the atty body during re-assembly! Failing to do the former results in dry hits; failing to do the latter can result in any combination of dry hits, flooding, tank leaks and locusts (
yes, locusts
. Don't say you weren't warned).
ALSO VERY IMPORTANT: If you disassemble your eGo-T atty often, examine the needle EVERY TIME you put it back together. If the needle appears bent, nicked, chipped or out-of-round it's time to retire that needle plate. Whether you keep the atty body is up to you... there may be good uses for it later.
For 510-T, I will occasionally do a dry burn & blow (still fully assembled) until the wick turns red during burn (
again, NOT if it's been re-wicked with PTB wick wrapper). If atty still smells nasty, fill atty with hot water & blow out a few times, then burn & blow again until it doesn't. When satisfied, prime needle with 2 drops juice.
THE DRAW: Aside from tanks/attys that are clean and work well together, technique seems VERY important in preventing flooding and getting good vapor/taste. The aspects I can identify are Prime, Draw, Battery Type, Inhale/Exhale.
PRIME: First-time use of an atty and maybe after a tank change, a few strong priming draws are OK. After that, too many hard draws means too much juice and floods the atty (and exacerbates any tank/needle issues, if present). My draws are very light, less than I use for a drinking straw and about 3-4 seconds long.
BATTERY TYPE: Battery certainly has an effect. For manual battery, fire up the batt a second or two before the draw and release about a second before finish, no later than when finished.
Autos can be tricky. There are three variants of newer model Joye autos I've identified with the common feature of a very small hole in the atty cup, which all work great with a relatively light draw while a 510-T atty is attached. If the atty's "cold" a two-second light draw (not a "priming" draw) before the longer "real" draw often makes for a good actual draw.
Older Joye autos tend to have a much larger hole in the atty cup. Personally I don't think they work well with the 510-T atty. In such cases they require a harder draw to fire the battery, so by the time the battery's really going I've drawn about as much as I can and don't get much if anything out of it. I avoid Joye 510 batts with the larger atty cup holes, except for the manual versions (in which case it doesn't matter much).
With 510-T there seems to be some speculation that if the atty gets too hot the liquid in the tank becomes heated, expands and leaks. I cannot say that I have experienced that, but I don't like my vapes very warm. So, I will often let the atty cool between every six or so good draws if I'm vaping a 510-T hard.
INHALE/EXHALE: This makes a HUGE difference in the vapor you end up seeing and feeling on the exhale (assuming you're getting good vapor in the first place). Most likely, your inhale/exhale routine depends much on how you used to smoke and, to some extent, how much nicotine you need to get and the nic level of your juice.
I normally do what my friend refers to as "half-inhaling" -- after the draw, I don't tend to inhale "deeply". I inhale until I can feel it much like I did when smoking, and don't hold it for very long - maybe a few seconds. On the exhale this results in a pretty good amount of vapor and I like the feel of it. For the nic I need and the nic level I use, this works for me.
If I inhale deeply, or hold my usual inhale a lot longer than usual, more vapor is captured/trapped/absorbed in the lungs so less comes out on the exhale. For my usual inhale that means holding it about 10 seconds (vs the usual 3 or 4 seconds).
Amount of vapor aside, I find the exhale very important to the flavor/taste of some juices. If I exhale only through the mouth or the nose I don't get much from any juice. However, if I exhale through both many of my favorite flavors really "pop". A great example of this is my very favorite, High Caliber's Cinn-a-Bunn. It's a good strong flavor on its own no matter how I vape it, but on a mouth/nose exhale there are all kinds of nuances of cinnamony-bun goodness that come through.
For completeness, I'll mention juice bases. I've read a lot about what a difference PG, VG or a blend is supposed to make with respect to vapor production. Honestly I've never paid much attention to it other than avoiding 100% VG due to using a tank/wick system. I've got PG juices that make just as much vapor as my 70/30 and 50/50 blends. I'm sure that it does make a difference in many situations with certain hardware, but it is not something I think about much.
Once again I'm in TL-DNR territory so I'll stop for now. But I hope that someone finds at least some of this useful.
Exhalesior!
