ok, figured i'd start up in a new thread instead of getting lost in the other post 
borrowing terra's and sun's little experiment (giving you both credit, heh) with soaking the atomizers in soda to clean them, i finally dunked my EVO and Pilot atomizers last night. i've been using both of them for about a month now, and finally started seeing some degraded performance.
draw was harder.
vapor was lessening.
throat hit was dropping.
now, i didn't get any new tastes, no burning tastes or anything like that, i could just tell it wasn't performing the way it was when brand new. i was pretty lucky i guess, that all my parts have worked great...and hell, even a $10 atomizer for a month is no big deal...but why not try cleaning?
also i hadn't done maintenance on mine, sorta forgot that. first i did try rinsing them out and left them to dry overnight, but still didn't get the performance i was looking for after that, so i decided on the RC soak.
they ended up soaking for about 2 hours, not by choice just by me being preoccupied. took them out, noticed that my Pilot atomz was still shiny and clean, and the EVO atomz had some tarnish marks on it, but oh well. it wouldn't wipe or scrub off. so i rinsed them, blew them out, and left them to dry.
right now i'm repriming the EVO first and so far, it's seeming to do a little bit better, but still not close to original performance. i'm going to toy with it for a few hours and see if it starts chugging well again.
the Pilot atomz so far isn't...working. or maybe it's a weird cart, i dunno, but it's not vaping. i'm getting a whistling sound from the air, and the battery lights, but no vapor. maybe i flooded it, so i just blew it out and reset it in the cart, we'll see.
at this point, like i said, no loss if they've both degraded, i got a month from them and now i'll start watching my maintenance, but maybe they'll loosen up again and start doing me good.
note, i only did the soak in RC, i didn't heat them after to sizzle off the gunk.
don't get me wrong, and not to go on a tangent, but i may personally be liking the 901 a little better. it's easier maintenance and good vapor, just the batteries don't last as long and i can't supercharge them in an hour like my 401s
maybe if these don't start performing how i want, i'll donate them to Terra for field testing!
--
ok, so far, teh EVO atomizer is still showing weak performance, but the Pilot one is acting much better. who knows :/
followup again, 3/24 - neither are working at peak. maybe they need some heat applied to them after cleaning, maybe i'll try soaking them again and heating them via blowing on the battery and then a dip in the water to sizzle. the vapor and hit is pretty weak on both now, but the Pilot atomz is still making a bit more than the EVO one after cleaning. i still have two brand new atomizers (one of each) that i haven't opened, so i could do a true comparison, but it's obvious these aren't working up to par. sad.
borrowing terra's and sun's little experiment (giving you both credit, heh) with soaking the atomizers in soda to clean them, i finally dunked my EVO and Pilot atomizers last night. i've been using both of them for about a month now, and finally started seeing some degraded performance.
draw was harder.
vapor was lessening.
throat hit was dropping.
now, i didn't get any new tastes, no burning tastes or anything like that, i could just tell it wasn't performing the way it was when brand new. i was pretty lucky i guess, that all my parts have worked great...and hell, even a $10 atomizer for a month is no big deal...but why not try cleaning?
also i hadn't done maintenance on mine, sorta forgot that. first i did try rinsing them out and left them to dry overnight, but still didn't get the performance i was looking for after that, so i decided on the RC soak.
they ended up soaking for about 2 hours, not by choice just by me being preoccupied. took them out, noticed that my Pilot atomz was still shiny and clean, and the EVO atomz had some tarnish marks on it, but oh well. it wouldn't wipe or scrub off. so i rinsed them, blew them out, and left them to dry.
right now i'm repriming the EVO first and so far, it's seeming to do a little bit better, but still not close to original performance. i'm going to toy with it for a few hours and see if it starts chugging well again.
the Pilot atomz so far isn't...working. or maybe it's a weird cart, i dunno, but it's not vaping. i'm getting a whistling sound from the air, and the battery lights, but no vapor. maybe i flooded it, so i just blew it out and reset it in the cart, we'll see.
at this point, like i said, no loss if they've both degraded, i got a month from them and now i'll start watching my maintenance, but maybe they'll loosen up again and start doing me good.
note, i only did the soak in RC, i didn't heat them after to sizzle off the gunk.
don't get me wrong, and not to go on a tangent, but i may personally be liking the 901 a little better. it's easier maintenance and good vapor, just the batteries don't last as long and i can't supercharge them in an hour like my 401s
maybe if these don't start performing how i want, i'll donate them to Terra for field testing!
--
ok, so far, teh EVO atomizer is still showing weak performance, but the Pilot one is acting much better. who knows :/
followup again, 3/24 - neither are working at peak. maybe they need some heat applied to them after cleaning, maybe i'll try soaking them again and heating them via blowing on the battery and then a dip in the water to sizzle. the vapor and hit is pretty weak on both now, but the Pilot atomz is still making a bit more than the EVO one after cleaning. i still have two brand new atomizers (one of each) that i haven't opened, so i could do a true comparison, but it's obvious these aren't working up to par. sad.
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