Possible BEST Atty Cleaner

[2cb]

i haven't seen anyone use this method of cleaning atomizers, but it was the 1st thing i thought of as a chemist. why hasn't anyone tried NaOH (sodium hydroxide/lye) ?

about 1 measured teaspoon per ounce/shot of water should do. soak for a few hours, and rinse and dry. NaOH is what is used in oven cleaners and other cleaners to remove burned carbon deposits, and it's safe for most metals and plastics. if carbon and burned residues are the main culprit, it should perform excellent cleaning of atomizers. i haven't tried it yet, because my water is frozen today, and i only have 1510LR atomizer that has failed to day (after a few days). but i will be trying it in a week or two.

ps. i think any factory that makes ammunition cartridges should be able to make atomizers. they look like cartridge (bullet) casings to me.

using a Precise 18650 with 510LR's. pretty satisfied, but i am disappointed with the low lifetime of atomizers, and hope there is a good way to bring them back to life.

 

[NCC]

using a Precise 18650 with 510LR's. pretty satisfied, but i am disappointed with the low lifetime of atomizers, and hope there is a good way to bring them back to life.

How many atomizers have you had fail on you? I've been vaping for a year and only have had 3 or 4 completely die on me. I don't know about the lye. I'm not afraid of the suggestion, mind you. With a thorough after rinse I see no problem.

My secret is minimal cleaning. I sincerely think a lot of folks here are obsessed with cleaning atomizers. I have access to compressed air at work and use that from time to time to blow them out. I do that with a new atty, to get rid of the primer. And, now and then if one seems to be drawing hard. Other than that, nothing.

BTW, excellent choice on the P18. I've only had mine for a couple of weeks. But I'm enjoying it!

 

[dormouse]

I like to use something edible on mine so I use vodka (because I can't get grain alcohol in my state).

BTW someone raved about Polident for cleaning attys - I might try that some day if I have one that needs extra cleaning.

 

[Ardeagold]

I'm not sure I'd want to be inhaling Lye, should there be any residue left. I don't know if heated Lye would create any toxic vapor, but I don't think I want to find out.

 

[2cb]

removed - double post.

 

[2cb]

BTW, excellent choice on the P18. I've only had mine for a couple of weeks. But I'm enjoying it!

i had 1 atomizer fail within 10 minutes - probably a dud. just went cold, broken circuit. my 2nd one lasted about 3 days - at which point i had to heat it forever to get some vapor. i compared the glow of the heating elements between the 2nd one, and a fresh one. the 2nd one had about 3 tiny lines of glow, about 15% of the total surface area at the bottom of the atomizer. the fresh atomizer had about 85% of the bottom surface area glowing. i blew on it as it glowed, and then i made a popping sound, and fried. i guess the extra oxygen from blowing fried it. anyway, they do get bad fairly quickly. i don't know if it is the VG or other additives. only time will tell, or someone else that performs tests in a scientific way. i guess it will depend on residuals/carbon caused by various eLiquids, amount of vaping and brand of eliquid used, and strength of the draws (extra oxygen might burn them out, or oxidize them faster), and total time the heating element is on, as well as individual hit times.

i don't see that residues should change resistance, since they will not be conductors. if resistance changes, it is likely due to the oxidation/breakdown of the heating element. i a combination of heating element oxidation/breakdown and residuals (insulation) of eLiquids are probably the major factors in the lifetime of an atomizer. and both will make it more difficult to vaproize. i am on my 4th atomizer in 3 days, but 1 was a dud, and i burned one out semi-intentionally.

lye isn't poison (hehe, even if it has a skull & crossbones on a package). it turns fats to soaps, and does some other reactions, so it will burn body tissues (but only blister, and only after several minutes at the dilution i specified), but it is completely water soluble, easy to rinse, and it won't vaporize. not in any appreciable quantity anyway (there's always a zillionth of something). i meant, it's not poison as in a drug, but it is corrosive and needs to be rinsed immediately if you don't want a skin blister (be very careful with eyes, and don't drink it of course - because it burns the esophagus). but those same precautions go with many things in life. i am not one that favors laws to protect idiots while stealing freedom from those that are responsible for themselves.

the Precise 18650 or P18 purchase was 1st class. everything about my dealings with that business was 1st class. i have nothing bad at all to say about the service or product. i trusted everything would be fine from the start, because i trust perfectionists like David my only regret is not buying 2 ... i do want a backup, and was considering the Sabre Touch. i want to use the same batteries and atomizers, but i am not sure if i want to spend $220 again. the Precise isn't something you want to drop on a bunch of rocks. it's really a fine quality piece, and i want something cheaper to use when doing construction and other things that might cause some nicks and scratches.

 

[Noe]

New to forum & need my 5 posts! GRRRRRRRR
Anyway I am also new to vaping but I have noticed sometimes the atty burns the end on the plastic cart(501). I know burnt plastic isn't good to inhale & probably worse than smoking ciggies, so I'm wondering if this is due to alignment with the atty & cart or something else?

 

[NCC]

I'm not a chemist, although I took introductory chemistry in college. And, at that same time period, I had fun creating a water heavy mixture of hydrogen by using lye in solution with aluminum as a catalyst. Granted this was decades ago, and my memory may be fuzzy on the details ... but, that reaction consumed solid aluminum. So, it deserves at least a degree of caution in my mind.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with atomizers. I've had at least one instant death, but I blame that on carelessness. I fired up an LR atty dry. And, it may have been defective before I got my hands on it.

I understand your thinking about residues. Just not sure that they're real. I mean, I haven't been a problem in my experience. Perhaps I've been lucky in the juices I've selected.


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Me and some buddies filled plastic garbage bags with the generated hydrogen. Set some off at close range (can you say singed eyebrows?). We also set some aloft. Some with long tails of toilet tissue, some with time delay fuses, which exploded high overhead. We contemplated covering one with aluminum foil, but decided that possibly scrambling jets from the nearby AF base might not be a good idea.

 

[Noe]

Would the lye also eat away at paint/coatings or any other parts on the atties?

 

[2cb]

New to forum & need my 5 posts! GRRRRRRRR
Anyway I am also new to vaping but I have noticed sometimes the atty burns the end on the plastic cart(501). I know burnt plastic isn't good to inhale & probably worse than smoking ciggies, so I'm wondering if this is due to alignment with the atty & cart or something else?

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i know Super-T has brass and SS tips. i had the same problem with melting plastic. get a metal Drip Tip from Super-T.

 

[Dob_Bobolina]

I am anxious to hear if this works well or not, you should test it out!

 

[2cb]

Would the lye also eat away at paint/coatings or any other parts on the atties?

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well, you can see what it does if you try it but whatever it does will dissolve away in a water rinse. yes, it can react with aluminum - but not dangerously as implied above (it would react slowly). anyway, atomizers seem to be a kind of brass. it should be safe with most "inert" type of things, like most metals, plastics, glass, ceramics, etc. anyway, if the atomizer is already a problem, there's nothing to lose by trying it. always wash your hands after messing with it.

 

[NCC]

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yes, it can react with aluminum - but not dangerously as implied above (it would react slowly).

We kept our one gallon reactant bottles in a water bath to keep them cool. The solution boiled. I would call that a rather energetic exothermic reaction.

But, that was water, not PG nor VG. The hydrogen was liberated from water. The reaction was with water.

I once knew a guy who worked at a paper mill. He corrected me when I thought they used acid to break down the wood to pulp, Bases. not acids, work on organics like wood lignin. Lye is basic, and that's actually what they use. So, your thoughts have some foundation in my limited experience.

OTOH, you are wrong to poo poo the potential hazard of caustic soda.

 

[Noe]

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i know Super-T has brass and SS tips. i had the same problem with melting plastic. get a metal Drip Tip from Super-T.

It's not drip tips but rather cartridges I was referring to.
My suspicion is, the way carts are shaped isn't perfectly round but rather like a U with the bottom of the U also enclosing the top of it. It's on the sides of the U where I have noticed the plastic gets melted/burnt. So I think the bridge is what causes the burning if it isn't aligned right, so that the U fits over it with the round ends of the U at top & bottom of the bridge. I hope that made sense lol.
Problem is I tried that with a new cartridge & I still had a little plastic melt on it, so now I'm not quite sure which way the carts should line up on the atty or if it even matters...

 

[2cb]

I'm not sure I'd want to be inhaling Lye, should there be any residue left. I don't know if heated Lye would create any toxic vapor, but I don't think I want to find out.

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lye isn't poison. people eat it every day with lutefisk, green olives, hominy, lye rolls, century eggs, pretzels, Chinese dumplings (Zongzi) and noodles. in Asia, lye is used to keep food from turning rancid. by-products of soaking in lye will either be water soluble, or visible metal oxides with a boiling point in the 1000s of degrees F. lye vaporizes at 2530F ... it is also used in oven cleaners, soap making, drain cleaners, and many other common household uses. it's not poison, and corrisive only in high concentrations along with several painful minutes of time. i work with it all the time. i have gotten solid pellets in my eyes, and washed them out without problem. you'd have to be very foolish to hurt yourself or another with it. life is full of dangers, please don't use a democracy to make it safe for me. i don't know why people want do that. reminds me of my 5-gal buckets with a baby head upside down and under water.

 

[NCC]

Out of here. I didn't realize I was responding to a lye zealot. Obviously, lye is poison. But, I won't waste any more time on this thread. Jezz.

 

[2cb]

I was referring to.
... the U where I have noticed the plastic gets melted/burnt.

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yes, i understood what you meant, and i agree, the bridge makes the 2 U shapes in the burnt plastic. i was just saying that metal Drip Tips solve the problem. mayble plastic ones also, but i don't like the idea of plastics around that kind of heat.

 

[2cb]

Out of here. I didn't realize I was responding to a lye zealot. Obviously, lye is poison. But, I won't waste any more time on this thread. Jezz.

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i don't know what a lye zealout is. but i do know what FUD is: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. and i don't know the purpose in spreading it. it's not spreading knowledge or anything of value. it's merely acting as an ignorant authority for others, which i despise. i don't know of a greater threat to freedom, knowledge, and human advancements/developments.

anything is a poison in the right dose. typically, lye does not harm people from poisoning, if ever. it would take a large non-corrosive oral does over a very extended period of time to be "poisonous" (weeks, months), eg, kidney damage. that would be a difficult way to harm yourself with it.

 

[n2xe]

I've bought a few attys that were duds right out of the box but my attys last at least 3 months. I don't let them get dry, I don't dry burn them. I just rinse them out with hot water every 3 or 4 days.

 

[2cb]

We kept our one gallon reactant bottles in a water bath to keep them cool. The solution boiled. I would call that a rather energetic exothermic reaction.

But, that was water, not PG nor VG. The hydrogen was liberated from water. The reaction was with water.

I once knew a guy who worked at a paper mill. He corrected me when I thought they used acid to break down the wood to pulp, Bases. not acids, work on organics like wood lignin. Lye is basic, and that's actually what they use. So, your thoughts have some foundation in my limited experience.

OTOH, you are wrong to poo poo the potential hazard of caustic soda.

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i am sorry, but that is nonsense. it is an experiment for * cub scouts *, and i think you have to be over 18 to join the forum. see http://www.faqs.org/faqs/scouting/leader-hints/section-7.html
a little Al foil is not going to make a bowl of lye boil. you saw H2 bubbles, not boiling. yeah, lye is also used to soften fibers, as in hair relaxers and natural fibers. i don't poo-poo, i try to inform fairly accurately to sensible people. you could dump me in a pool of the most caustic lye solution, and it wouldn't hurt me if i dry it and shower within a few minutes. cases of strong skin burns can only arise if you have the strongest solution possible, and you let it sit wet on your skin for a 5-10+ minutes - that may burn through the memory layers of skin and cause a depigmented scar. it is not that dangerous unless you are a complete fool. i make soap and get pure NaOH all over my hands and arms all the time, and i have no scars from it, even when i let little crystals burn holes in my skin. anyway, i would agree that if you are too stupid to put a teaspoon of lye in 1oz of water (exothermic, but no boiling) without harming yourself, forget it.