This may be silly, but what about air-filters on the air intake holes?

[UncleChuck]

The other day I helped a friend clean out a dusty basement, vaping furiously the whole time. Later that night I noticed flavor was getting pretty burnt and nasty, which was odd because I can't remember the last time I had to re-wick for a reason other than boredom. The coil was gunked up quite a bit on the outside, but the wick was pretty clean on the inside, although still discolored.

Obviously being in a confined and extremely dusty environment is going to exaggerate the issue, but considering it happened so quick (just a few hours) it made me think what potential the normal dust and dirt in the air has for contributing to coil gunking. Is the amount of dust I exposed the coil to in two hours similar to the amount it would be exposed to in "normal air" over the course of a week or so? I'm not really sure, I don't have the data to say that, but wouldn't it seem reasonable to assume that over the course of a week (or several) we are actually pulling a fairly large volume of air through our attys, which like anything is going to collect dust and dirt, especially with wet sticky surfaces all over the interior of the airways?

I'm not saying there is some potential major issue to vaping or anything, it just made me curious if dust in the air doesn't contribute to/accelerate coil gunking, or maybe even start the process in the first place. I'd be curious to look at what a little filter would look like after a week of pulling air through it, though.

 

[turbocad6]

I work in a very dusty environment and I'd say what your talking about is not going to be much of an issue as far as coils gunking I think, I'd worry much more about the dust you breath making it to your lungs than how much passes through the atty and gets stuck to the coil... that said, one big problem I used to have working in a dusty environment is quantities of dust entering the atty through the drip tip while it's in your pocket. that I have had issues with. now I try to keep it covered when doing really messy work, especially sanding and grinding. in the past I have had grinding dust work it's way into the drip tip and it sucks

 

[8dragon9]

what about finding a way to take the mesh wick material, get it covering the airholes, and run it a week. See what it looks like, I would be pretty curious myself.

 

[Miata GT]

Sounds like an extra layer of effort for where I vape but my first thought took me back to the old days when I ran off-road 1/10th scale gas rc cars. You could buy a heat resistant large open cell airfilter wraps that might work.

 

[UncleChuck]

what about finding a way to take the mesh wick material, get it covering the airholes, and run it a week. See what it looks like, I would be pretty curious myself.

I'm thinking mesh wick wouldn't be fine enough, something more along the lines of a coffee filter or something may work better, but honestly I'm totally ignorant when it comes to filters and micron sizes and all that.

I had considered rigging up some sort of filter, but these days I use kayfuns 95% of the time, and restricting the airflow even further is something that would put them into the "unusable" category for me. Maintaining airflow with a filter would probably require a very large surface area filter, something way larger than the diameter of a typical air hole, but also has a reducer on the back end to funnel the air into a smaller area to velocity back up to normal levels. In other words not really feasible for me to rig into a normal atty without it looking embarrassing

A filter might smooth out the airflow on a lot of devices too, I know there are some other people who are picky about the "feel" of their airflow, even with a large volume of air being moved some attys feel like they have a lot of turbulence or something and it makes the draw feel all strange.

Just another one of my silly ideas!

 

[UncleChuck]

Sounds like an extra layer of effort for where I vape but my first thought took me back to the old days when I ran off-road 1/10th scale gas rc cars. You could buy a heat resistant large open cell airfilter wraps that might work.

Hmmmm... I actually have a few of those filters sitting around my attic somewhere, although they are probably soaked in the air-filter oil stuff, and nitro residue.

If a filter was taken into account while designing an atty it could actually be done pretty easily, something similar to the extra lower chamber on a Kayfun 3.1 but instead of being a juice overflow catch it would have the air passed through it, and feature a round foam disk.

It could also set the mind at east for fellow OCD people who worry about bugs crawling into their air holes and setting up shop Or for cat owners or beard wearers, it's always fun finding random hairs that got sucked into your atty and trying to figure out if it's yours or the cat's

You never know, maybe in another year unfiltered rebuildables will be looked down upon by the high-end community. Plus Phil Busardo might have never boiled his cigarettes, but I bet he filtered them.

OK too much winky face action I'll get out of here

 

[Crunktanium]

Anything you use to filter is going to restrict air flow somewhat. And they would have to be glass to make them cleanable which is not very durable.

 

[Miata GT]

Hmmmm... I actually have a few of those filters sitting around my attic somewhere, although they are probably soaked in the air-filter oil stuff, and nitro residue.

If a filter was taken into account while designing an atty it could actually be done pretty easily, something similar to the extra lower chamber on a Kayfun 3.1 but instead of being a juice overflow catch it would have the air passed through it, and feature a round foam disk.

It could also set the mind at east for fellow OCD people who worry about bugs crawling into their air holes and setting up shop Or for cat owners or beard wearers, it's always fun finding random hairs that got sucked into your atty and trying to figure out if it's yours or the cat's

You never know, maybe in another year unfiltered rebuildables will be looked down upon by the high-end community. Plus Phil Busardo might have never boiled his cigarettes, but I bet he filtered them.

OK too much winky face action I'll get out of here

I used to clean mine in Dawn. Re-oil it with e-liquid, lol.

 

[jaxgator]

Sounds like an extra layer of effort for where I vape but my first thought took me back to the old days when I ran off-road 1/10th scale gas rc cars. You could buy a heat resistant large open cell airfilter wraps that might work.

Sorry, but off topic for a sec...

I love the smell of Nitro in the morning!

 

[Just Me]

If we take that much thought into what it does to our attys, can you imagine what our lungs are having to deal with on a daily basis...

 

[Nomoreash]

If I thought a filter on a 1 - 3mm air hole would help I'd be much more concerned about the air I was breathing in that environment. The amount being drawn during a few second vape is nothing compared to what's being taken in during normal breathing plus it's mostly likely going to restrict airflow causing the need to readjust everything.

I've never had any signs of air intake being an issue that reduces wick or coil life. Juice on the other hand can be a huge issue, mostly flavorings and/or other additives such as sweetners. I can vape flavorless indefinitely, I've had others, coffee, nets and sweet juices that gunked up so much it was unvapable in a very short time.

My personal thought is to not vape while you're confined to a extremely dusty environment such as cleaning a dirty basement and wear a mask/filter.