Reusing your coils - your experiences

[Yodara]

Hello my friends of good taste and mini weather systems,

everyone who has ever 1) not had the opportunity of get new coils while e.g. on holiday or 2) ran out of money to buy new coils might be interested in this.
I have been wondering - did anyone of you ever reuse a coil after cleaning it up?
And what are your experiences?
Please note I am not recommending to do this to everyone hence this might somewhat harm the vaping industry and also does not provide the same experience as using a new coil (does it?).

Cloudy greetings,

Y

 

[dom qp]

I used to do this back in the day.

My vivinova wicks looked like old shoelaces.

You can clean the cotton in the same way you clean a paper plate. Yeah, it'll give you something to eat on, and depending what you ate prior it may be in okay shape, but you're still re-using a paper plate.

 

[untar]

I just rebuilt old Kanger coils years ago, never tried to clean them. Afaik there's a yt vid to rebuild almost any commercial coil head.
Cleaning them... iirc opinions are divided on that, some do it regularly, either with water or vodka and extended drying times. Might work if you're already boned in the Sahara desert without replacement coils but cleaning them regularly... meh.
A rebuild makes more sense since you can often simply swap the cotton and dry burn then rewick once the coil head is set up the 1st time, doesn't take much time or ingredients other than cotton.

 

[dennism]

I've had no luck with trying to clean and reuse a drop in coil. They aren't made to last forever.

 

[sdennislee]

Anytime I try a new juice I start with a new coil to give the flavor a fair evaluation. If I push no more than5 to 10mls of the new juice through that coil then I clean it in pure grain alcohol, followed by hot water soaking, then prolonged drying. Once dry I put them in a pill bottle with desiccant packs. If its a coil I have used for my ADV then when it's dead it's dead and I throw it out.

 

[DaveP]

Years ago I tried recycling eGo coils for a while. It wasn't worth the effort, IMO. I changed to an RBA shortly afterwards and gave up on the idea. It's much easier to use rebuildable atomizers that are designed for that purpose. You just loosen two screws, strip off the coil and wick and replace them from a roll of wire and a package of Rayon fiber.

Recently, I found a bag of used eGo coil heads in a zip lock in my vape cabinet that were covered in green oxidation. I tossed them. Newer coils may be easier to rebuild, but it's in the best interest of coil vendors to design them to be difficult to rebuild. Modern coil heads have multiple windings and it's hard to clean the coils themselves without using an ultrasonic cleaner. That, and I'm told some get a month out of a coil head.

 

[Beamslider]

Not worth the trouble. Easier to get an RTA and rebuild. The savings from cleaning premade coils just not that much and a hassle.

 

[r055co]

Cleaning factory coils are an exercise in futility. Cotton breaks down, that's what it does.

Just get a good RTA

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

 

[zoiDman]

Hello my friends of good taste and mini weather systems,

everyone who has ever 1) not had the opportunity of get new coils while e.g. on holiday or 2) ran out of money to buy new coils might be interested in this.
I have been wondering - did anyone of you ever reuse a coil after cleaning it up?
And what are your experiences?
Please note I am not recommending to do this to everyone hence this might somewhat harm the vaping industry and also does not provide the same experience as using a new coil (does it?).

Cloudy greetings,

Y

Way back in the day when I used Coil Heads, I Rinsed Out a handful of used Coil Heads in Vodka and them Stashed them away for a Rainy Day. Kinda an Emergency Backup.

And then, Months later, that Day came.

I got ahold of 2 packs of Defective Coil Heads. So while the Wacked Coil Heads were being returned, I had to turn to my Vodka Rinsed backups.

They Worked. But the Performance was anything from Great. Or even Good for that matter. And their Lifespan was Abysmal. But they Worked. And got me thru (Barely) until my New Batch of Coil Heads arrived.

 

[untar]

Definitely what the others said, an RTA would be the best solution. You likely won't even have to bring wire to your holiday, just a bit of cotton, and that only if you go to a country that doesn't actually have any cotton. Or to that country Jai Haze gets those lama shavings from he uses as cotton

There's a couple of good to amazing MTL single coil atties in the low to mid price segment you could take a look at (or single coil DTL if that's your jam).

 

[Baditude]

I'll join in to echo what others have said. It's not worth the time and effort. As someone else said above, the cotton wick eventually breaks down. Many clearomizer coils manufactured today are made to make it extremely difficult if not impossible to replace the cotton.

I always insure that I have a supply of new coils for several months use. I get a month out of my coils for my original Crown tanks. I've never had a dud coil in 3 years of use.

I'll be SOL for the long term should there be an outright ban on imported coil heads. I'll then have to resort to making my own rebuildable coils for my RDA's. Not a bad thing, really, except I'll miss the convenience of using drop-in factory-made coils for my clearomizers.

 

[Kickingthesticks]

I used to do it back in my beginning years, could never really get the burnt taste out, but they did lasted a few more days if I was stuck. My advice get a rta, cotton, and wire or prewrap coils

 

[sorrynomore]

I never had much luck cleaning out and reusing the cartridges that came with my Smoov ecig.Boiled them in water and then a long period of drying,it was a wasted effort really because they never worked quite right afterwards.I then got a Protank Mini and learned how to recoil and wick those and did that for a bit.I've since moved to RTA's and haven't bought a prebuilt since.

 

[vapdivrr]

Yep , not worth it imo. My wife vaped drop ins for a while and although I tried for her , it just wasn't worth it and could never really get that flavor. Reusing these reminds me of reusing a cigarette ....

 

[Coyote628]

An rta is the best way to go. I never had any luck cleaning up drop in coils either. Just not worth the trouble. Theres a reason they're disposable. Its because they're disposable.

 

[Alter]

Making and rebuilding coils for over 5 years I figured out long ago that trying to save that coil by dryburning, cleaning, scraping took as much time as just winding up a new coil. The more dryburns the less integrity the wire has thus distorting and lifespan is shorter and shorter the more its dryburned. Single wire builds IMO are not worth reusing, making fancy multiwire builds is another story since some take time and skill to make and have stronger integrity so one can reuse them several times. Tossing the cooked build instead of trying to save it saves battery stress and mod stress.
You can soak, boil, ultrasonic cleaner or whatever that factory head but all your doing is getting the juice out of the coil. The burnt juice cocoon on the coil is still there so it takes no time for that burn taste to reappear or linger cause you burnt the wicking and no amount of cleaning the factory head will remove that taste. I can see trying to save that coil you paid several to many bucks for but they design the coils to be replaced.
Getting yourself something with a RBA option and learn to rebuild...for the price of a couple factory heads you can equip yourself with wire to last a long time. My crappiest build is 1000 fold better than any factory head. My atty of choice for the last several years has been subtank mini and now toptank mini RBA..easy to rebuild and for me have worked flawlessly.

 

[DaveP]

If you are contemplating recycling factory coils it's a sign that you are ready for a rebuildable. RTA/RDA and the like are designed for that purpose. They are much easier to rebuild than factory coils because they have accessible components and wicking. That, and a $7 coil of wire and a box of Sally's Rayon will last you a couple of years or longer if you cut a piece at a time and ziplock the excess from a strip. I get a month or more from a 6" strip of Sally's Rayon from the 40ft box.

 

[United States]

I have a few stashed for hard times.

Once it poofs it's trashed. But if it was one that had a flavor stuck, like trying to un-vanilla the wick when changing to a tobacco for example it gets stashed for hard times. I write on the ziplock it's stashed in what the flavor previously used was.
Unflavored juice would be used in that tank load.

 

[stols001]

I did in my early days and honestly gave up the practice because ultimately I was not sure how clean they were getting the process is soak (in whatever you desire, I would probably use vodka if I had to rinse one at this point) then rinse (a fair bit) then dry. Whatever method you hear is just going to be a variation on that theme, and ultimately the outcome will probably be similar a usable coil with much less coil life and an unpredictable die off period.

I don't personally recommend it but given your situation which is kind of unique (also hypothetical I guess) in that you can't get more coils I see absolutely no reason to TRY it. I mean, worst case is you'll have a slightly less than ideal situation until you can get more coils.

I will also add, certainly trying an RTA MAY be something you want to do at some point, but if you just want to know if you can revive spent coils, well the answer is sometimes you can in a pinch but most folks just don't do it for that long. Etc.

Anna

 

[barkfunklerbunk]

I spent maybe 30$ on cotton and wire, and in 4 years I've barely put a dent in it.