My first two are still going strong, two months and probably 45 refills later. I haven't had to rebuild them. I do clean them after every second or third refill.
CLEANING A STARDUST: There are many different ways to skin this particular cat. Here's what's worked for me:
- Unscrew the drip tip, being careful not to lose the white gasket.
- Shake out those last 0.2 ml. or so of discolored e-liquid still in the Stardust, then rinse with tap water. Shake out as much of the water as is possible.
- Put Stardust and drip tip in ultrasonic jewelry cleaner (cheapies are available at amazon dot com for about $18) and cover with 91% isopropyl alcohol.
- Give the Stardust several four-minute blasts in the ultrasonic cleaner.
- Let the Stardust and drip tip dry overnight unassembled.
- By morning, it's dry. Reassemble and refill. If you want, dry-burn before reassembling. (I've found it makes no difference whether you dry-burn or not.)
Needless to say, I wait until I have several gradooed Stardusts and run them through this process as a batch. I like the 91% isopropyl alcohol because it dries
thoroughly overnight, even when it's humid. Isopropyl evaporates completely and leaves no residue. Do
not try this with denatured alcohol! That stuff
does leave poisonous residue.
REPAIRING CRACKS:
- Go to a crafts store, or buy online, a small bottle of Ambroid plastic solvent. This stuff is not glue; rather, it dissolves plastic so the cracks weld shut. There's no glue residue, since the Ambroid simply evaporates.
- Only do this to dry and unfilled Stardusts!
- Baste the cracks at the base using the brush affixed to the cap of the Ambroid bottle.
- Let dry for a couple of hours. The Ambroid on the surface evaporates almost instantly, but the Ambroid deep in the cracks takes a while to percolate up to the surface. The weld dries clear.
- Reassemble the Stardust, fill and vape away.
I've found that, once the cracks form, and the pressure on the push-fitted plastic is relieved, you'll only need to baste cracks a few times before new cracks stop forming. While many of my Stardusts have cracks, I haven't had to discard one after using this simple repair.
