The truth about atty resurrection

[MichaelOz]

Since vaping I've accumulated 5 atties. 3 of these vape at about 50% of what they should. 1 is completely dead, leaving only 1 remaining. This is in around 4 months of vaping.

I recently heard about resurrection methods that basically all spread a common myth. this is that you can magically clean an atty and restore it to full health again.

One method I read about seemed to be the most logical, that is clear out any juice, rinse with hot water, then use peroxide to clean off any oxidization. It all sounded so logical.

I am sure this will help if your problem is raw oxidization, but I think most atties stop working not due to oxidization but due to the wick and the inside of the atty burning.

After trying the cleaning method multiple times on the same atty, I decided to open it up and see exactly what was going on inside my dead atty.

Black char, thats what I found. the wick had completely burnt and was like charcoal.

It makes sense no amount of cleaning will be able to fix this.

Anyways, I would like to hear your opinion on this. I think that there is little you can do to an atty to fix it once the wick has burnt up like this, and attys that last long enough all suffer this fate. Is this right?

 

[DC2]

The wick material does not melt or burn.

That charcoal stuff on your atomizer is baked on juice gunk.
The best thing you can do for those atomizers is burn that stuff off by doing dry burns.

This is the best method I have found to restore atomizers back to health...
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tips-tricks/69834-my-atty-resurrection-method.html

 

[DC2]

More information from another thread...

It is an Aramid (short for Aromatic Polyamide) fiber which has no melting point and doesn't ignite.

Aramid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ludo at Janty identified the fibers back in October of 2008!
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...rs-forum/2602-janty-thread-q-5.html#post43065

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Yeah I had some LR 510's that were junk, not worth using. Happened upon a video by DaMulta showing his dry burn method and gave it a try and they are working like new again now

YouTube - Cleaning a Low Resistance 510 Atomizer

 

[OldDragon]

The only attys that I've trashed would still heat, even dry burned them and they glowed real good. What killed their usage was that the POT that sets below the coil was full of chared juice(what ever else) and there was no air flow through the atty. Most likly I could use them a long time if that gunk could have been cleaned out. None of the cleaning liquids I tried would even start the break down of that junk.

 

[AttyPops]

Hmmm... Interesting. I'm only a little over 3 months into this, but I too have had atties that heated but did not wick well. I poped 2 of them being stupid during dry burns (since it was a wicking issue, not a coil issue). I'm open to discussion on this, since I'm a noob, but I think that the dry burn cleans the coil well, and the wick/bridge only so-so (probably my issue with not rinsing well). The rinsing part of the method helps to clean the wick/bridge. The link is in post #2 above.

I've found, being an Atty cleaning type, that using frequent short isopropyl alcohol soaks works well for me and keeps everything clean, since it evaporates away with little or no residue. As a bonus, I don't get a lot of black gunk to rinse out and the wick works. YMMV. See this:

YouTube - E-Cigarette Atomizer Maintenance

Now, to be fair... some cleaning methods work better for one particular situation that another. Also, there seems to be frequent debate as to how often to clean em, or just "blow em out" all the time. Sometimes I just "rinse" pg through em. Add to that, different juices clog faster and leave more residue. Some vendors (FSUSA for example) claim to have clean juice that clogs less. So, I think it varies a lot and I don't know of a single "this way or the highway" approach.

So, for me...so far, the Dry-burn cleans the coil well, the rinse cleans everything fairly well, keeping gunked-up juice out of the atty by blowing out the thick, cooked juice, and using good juice all seem to help. Also, try not to over-clean it if you can just rinse/push some plain PG through it.

For me, I now clean them enough to avoid them dying in the 1st place, so I don't have to "resurrect" them. I rinse em. But, that's just me. Like I said, YMMV.

Two cents. I'm open to debate.

 

[jthebigjay]

In my kit i received 2 attys, one work GREAT, the other not so much. So i just used it as a back up. But then stumbled across the thread about steam cleaners. I used my wife's bissell steam shot and brought that new atty, that i had only used a few times, up to specs. I guess some primer fluid and my over ambitious newb style of filling my carts had clogged it up.

Bissell Steam Shot Hard-Surface Cleaner, 39N7A


I used a pair of junk drawer pliers, wrapped a towel around the atty, and blew 4 or 5 pluses of steam through it. What came out the other end was black and red *cinnamon*.

Worked like a charm.

Bissell Steam Shot Hard-Surface Cleaner, 39N7A

 

[brandon555]

Phosphoric acid... and not diet cola either

 

[Liv2Ski]

I blow them out daily, when vapor production drops suck and blow w/hot tapwater and then dry burn. Seems to work for me. On dead ones I do the bridgectomy and have had success pinching coil with tweezers and getting another 3 or more days out of them (if it is coil break). I use LR510 & LR306 atty's

 

[Liv2Ski]

I blow them out daily, when vapor production drops suck and blow w/hot tapwater and then dry burn. Seems to work for me. On dead ones I do the bridgectomy and have had success pinching coil with tweezers and getting another 3 or more days out of them (if it is coil break). I use LR510 & LR306 atty's

BTW this is essentially the method that DC2 was kind enough to link for you