My Atty Resurrection Method

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eHuman

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Jul 18, 2010
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I use a 3 mil syringe to force hot tap water through my attys instead of using gravity or blowing through it. With a drip tip on the stty, the tip of the syringe fits perfectly. I fill a coffee cup up with hot water and repeat flush about 10 times then blow it out and remove drip tip for dry burn so I can see the coil.

For you auto battery users, dry burn in a dark bathroom. Blow through the LED end while viewing the atty coil in the mirror.
 

RBommer

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Sep 17, 2010
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First off, I wanted to add my recommendation for this method: it works. I don’t know if I agree with the “good as new,” or “better than new,” but it’s damn close when done properly. Thank you, thank you, thank you Highping! (Where do we vote for this Vapy thing, anyway?)

Second, I’d like to add my own recommendations to the atty cleaning process. (I’m a three-month newb, so take it for what it’s worth).

I personally think when cleaning an atty you are doing three things: 1) cleaning the wire mesh; 2) cleaning the wick; 3) cleaning the coil. If you can accomplish these three things, you will see a marked improvement in that atty’s performance.

I’ve tried many of the “soaking” techniques (soda, alcohol, distilled water and Brew Rite) with limited results. I think this is because these methods are only accomplishing steps 1 and 2. I think Highping’s method is the only one-- that I know of-- that effectively accomplishes step three.

I’ve personally had the best results using a combination of soaking and the Highping dry burn. So, my advice for those thinking of trying Highping’s method, or those who have had trouble with it, is the following:

1) Use a soaking method before doing the dry burns. I know for a fact that the distilled water and Brew Rite works to remove liquid and gunk from the wire mesh (I saw it with my own eyes when I soaked a bare atty as an experiment). But I also think many of the other chemicals mentioned work as well. In fact, I’m currently using a mix of diet-caffeine free Coke; diet 7up w/ Lime; Brew Rite; and Vodka. I just couldn’t make up my mind, and I have all these things around the house anyway.

2) Use distilled water to rinse. Distilled water is the only water that will not conduct electricity or leave deposits. This lessens the odds of a short, and aids in the drying process - distilled water evaporates more readily.

3) Get a bulb aspirator for rinsing. I saw this somewhere else on the forum and it works really well-- much better and easier than “blowing” into the atty. One of the hardest things to accomplish in the dry burn method is to remove the burned ash. A bulb aspirator (or syringe, pump, etc.) really helps.

4) Use a “stock” manual battery, not a high voltage battery. As Highping mentioned, you will not need to “pulse” the battery using a stock voltage battery. Thus, no “skill” required. I use a Joye 510 manual battery with no trouble. It is also why soaking (Brew Rite, soda, alcohol, etc.) and rinsing with distilled water before the dry burn is important: with all the juice and contaminants gone, even my stock 510 battery dries the atty in less than a minute, so I’m dry burning in no time. (A stock 510's lower voltage would probably have trouble burning off a bunch of eliquid.)

5) Use a mirror or goggles when staring at the atty during the dry burn. I saw a guy on YouTube almost put his eye out when his atty exploded while he was staring into it and “dry burning” it: Be careful.

6) Get enough attys so you can “rotate” them. I always have two attys in active service; two in reserve (cleaned and ready to go); and two soaking (waiting to be rinsed and dry burned). At the end of the week, I put the two in reserve into service, drop the two that were active into my soaking solution, and clean (rinse and dry burn) the two that had been soaking (for a week).

7) Accept the inevitable: Even with Highpings cleaning method, your atty will someday die. When it does, stick a fork in it and move on.

These are just my recommendations based on my experience. I’ve cleaned eight 510 attys (two were LRs) in the past few weeks using Highping’s method and my above recommendations, and I’ve not killed a single atty. I personally think the people having negative or mixed results are probably running into random complications that occur when you try to dry burn with a lot of contaminants still in the atty (ejuice, tap water, burnt ash, etc.) Getting rid of all the contaminants before dry burning will increase the chances of success.
 

guitardedmark

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Sep 20, 2010
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First off, I wanted to add my recommendation for this method: it works. I don’t know if I agree with the “good as new,” or “better than new,” but it’s damn close when done properly. Thank you, thank you, thank you Highping! (Where do we vote for this Vapy thing, anyway?)

Second, I’d like to add my own recommendations to the atty cleaning process. (I’m a three-month newb, so take it for what it’s worth).

I personally think when cleaning an atty you are doing three things: 1) cleaning the wire mesh; 2) cleaning the wick; 3) cleaning the coil. If you can accomplish these three things, you will see a marked improvement in that atty’s performance.

I’ve tried many of the “soaking” techniques (soda, alcohol, distilled water and Brew Rite) with limited results. I think this is because these methods are only accomplishing steps 1 and 2. I think Highping’s method is the only one-- that I know of-- that effectively accomplishes step three.

I’ve personally had the best results using a combination of soaking and the Highping dry burn. So, my advice for those thinking of trying Highping’s method, or those who have had trouble with it, is the following:

1) Use a soaking method before doing the dry burns. I know for a fact that the distilled water and Brew Rite works to remove liquid and gunk from the wire mesh (I saw it with my own eyes when I soaked a bare atty as an experiment). But I also think many of the other chemicals mentioned work as well. In fact, I’m currently using a mix of diet-caffeine free Coke; diet 7up w/ Lime; Brew Rite; and Vodka. I just couldn’t make up my mind, and I have all these things around the house anyway.

2) Use distilled water to rinse. Distilled water is the only water that will not conduct electricity or leave deposits. This lessens the odds of a short, and aids in the drying process - distilled water evaporates more readily.

3) Get a bulb aspirator for rinsing. I saw this somewhere else on the forum and it works really well-- much better and easier than “blowing” into the atty. One of the hardest things to accomplish in the dry burn method is to remove the burned ash. A bulb aspirator (or syringe, pump, etc.) really helps.

4) Use a “stock” manual battery, not a high voltage battery. As Highping mentioned, you will not need to “pulse” the battery using a stock voltage battery. Thus, no “skill” required. I use a Joye 510 manual battery with no trouble. It is also why soaking (Brew Rite, soda, alcohol, etc.) and rinsing with distilled water before the dry burn is important: with all the juice and contaminants gone, even my stock 510 battery dries the atty in less than a minute, so I’m dry burning in no time. (A stock 510's lower voltage would probably have trouble burning off a bunch of eliquid.)

5) Use a mirror or goggles when staring at the atty during the dry burn. I saw a guy on YouTube almost put his eye out when his atty exploded while he was staring into it and “dry burning” it: Be careful.

6) Get enough attys so you can “rotate” them. I always have two attys in active service; two in reserve (cleaned and ready to go); and two soaking (waiting to be rinsed and dry burned). At the end of the week, I put the two in reserve into service, drop the two that were active into my soaking solution, and clean (rinse and dry burn) the two that had been soaking (for a week).

7) Accept the inevitable: Even with Highpings cleaning method, your atty will someday die. When it does, stick a fork in it and move on.

These are just my recommendations based on my experience. I’ve cleaned eight 510 attys (two were LRs) in the past few weeks using Highping’s method and my above recommendations, and I’ve not killed a single atty. I personally think the people having negative or mixed results are probably running into random complications that occur when you try to dry burn with a lot of contaminants still in the atty (ejuice, tap water, burnt ash, etc.) Getting rid of all the contaminants before dry burning will increase the chances of success.

Well said! Very good recommendations! This is about exactly what I think was missing from the OA. I would rather boil in distilled water than use the other chemicals though.
 

guitardedmark

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:confused:Uhmmmm well if using a 510 battery..and no skill is required cant you just time it for one min and hold the button down....instead of looking into it for the glow ect?? Also..another ? If using the 510 battery on LR atties...wont you ruin your battery??
Thanks

If I understand correctly, when the LR attys get too hot they can burn the mosfet switch on certain proprietary batteries such as the joye 510 or eGo. If that switch is ruined the device is useless. They also drain the life of the battery in both short term and long term life because they are basically using more power because they are resisting less. I use LR so when I dry burn I constantly feel the temp of the atty and when it gets too hot I blow into it and let it sit for a second. I would not suggest holding the button down for a specified period of time because the juice build up is going to vary and that should determine how much dry burning your doing. More juice = longer burn. M
 

RBommer

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Sep 17, 2010
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Los Angeles, CA
:confused:Uhmmmm well if using a 510 battery..and no skill is required cant you just time it for one min and hold the button down....instead of looking into it for the glow ect?? Also..another ? If using the 510 battery on LR atties...wont you ruin your battery??
Thanks

You probably don't have to "stare" at it, but after the "hissing" stops, you do need to look at it to see if it is glowing fully from end to end-- it is like described before by others, it will often only glow on one end at first, and eventually work its way accross.

If I understand correctly, when the LR attys get too hot they can burn the mosfet switch on certain proprietary batteries such as the joye 510 or eGo. If that switch is ruined the device is useless. They also drain the life of the battery in both short term and long term life because they are basically using more power because they are resisting less. I use LR so when I dry burn I constantly feel the temp of the atty and when it gets too hot I blow into it and let it sit for a second. I would not suggest holding the button down for a specified period of time because the juice build up is going to vary and that should determine how much dry burning your doing. More juice = longer burn. M

I'm no expert on LRs. I don't like them-- vape doesn't seem any better to me than a regular 510, so not worth "aging" my battery faster. I only have two of them because they came with my two Riva kits from Liberty Flights. When they die, I won't be getting anymore. I use my Joye 510 batts because I don't use them for anything else, so don't care what happens to them. If the LRs ever kill them, I'll report back about it.

But I'll be surprised if it does since it doesn't get that hot during the dry burns I do: I think the cleaning and rinsing has a lot to do with that. That's why I don't agree with the belief that the dry burn alone is the only cleaning you need to do. From my experience, if you dry burn an atty that still has a lot of ejuice in it, you will be pumping a lot of energy through it just to burn off all that ejuice before you even get to burning off the crud on the coil. I just think it makes more sense to get as much ejuice and contaminants out of the mesh and wick before doing the dry burn, so all the energy goes into "ashing" the crud.
 

DC2

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But I'll be surprised if it does since it doesn't get that hot during the dry burns I do: I think the cleaning and rinsing has a lot to do with that. That's why I don't agree with the belief that the dry burn alone is the only cleaning you need to do. From my experience, if you dry burn an atty that still has a lot of ejuice in it, you will be pumping a lot of energy through it just to burn off all that ejuice before you even get to burning off the crud on the coil. I just think it makes more sense to get as much ejuice and contaminants out of the mesh and wick before doing the dry burn, so all the energy goes into "ashing" the crud.
At this point I am under the impression that if you don't rinse out all the old juice, contaminants, and gunk, and you get your atomizer too hot while doing the dry burns, you might just bake some gunk into the mesh that you won't be able to get out.

This might be what leads to the permanent burnt taste AFTER doing a dry burn that some people talk about.
And it also could lead to more airflow restrictions than when you started the dry burns.

It's never happened to me though, so I'm just guessing.
I rinse my atomizers out REALLY good with HOT water before proceeding.
:)
 
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guitardedmark

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This method always seems to work great for me. I never have bad tasting attys anymore. However after I've been using an atty for a bit I noticed I get a lot of air flow restriction. I can usually clear it up a little by doing a dry burn and good rinse but it usually returns pretty soon after. Any thoughts on this?
 

br5495

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May 24, 2010
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This method always seems to work great for me. I never have bad tasting attys anymore. However after I've been using an atty for a bit I noticed I get a lot of air flow restriction. I can usually clear it up a little by doing a dry burn and good rinse but it usually returns pretty soon after. Any thoughts on this?

There may be some ash remaining on your coil after it is burned and washed. I don't use an atomizer, but I dry burn the coil in the C-E2 cartomizer on a regular basis. It does not have a bridge and I can see everything that is happening. There is always a gray ash remaining on the coil and I can brush it off. However, a single burn rarely gets it all. Generally I do multiple burns, but I have to be pretty careful during the process. I would be afraid to do that on a coil that I could not see.
 

guitardedmark

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There may be some ash remaining on your coil after it is burned and washed. I don't use an atomizer, but I dry burn the coil in the C-E2 cartomizer on a regular basis. It does not have a bridge and I can see everything that is happening. There is always a gray ash remaining on the coil and I can brush it off. However, a single burn rarely gets it all. Generally I do multiple burns, but I have to be pretty careful during the process. I would be afraid to do that on a coil that I could not see.

Hmmm I do a very thorough dry burn and rinse so I have difficult believing its ash on the coil.
 
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