Ultrasonic Cleaners, Pure Grain Alcohol and coils

[yuseffuhler]

I remember seeing a few threads some time back saying that ultrasonic cleaners are awesome for almost unlimited use of stock coil heads. My question is, why hasn't this gotten more popular with the advent of expensive coils? Does it not work as well? I'm curious. I might pick one up if it's awesome for stock coils. It'll pay for itself in 2 packs of coils. Thoughts?

 

[englishmick]

Your title mentioned alcohol. Were you thinking of filling the UC with alcohol? Never heard of anyone doing that. It takes a lot of liquid to fill an UC, if you used alcohol it would get expensive. Unless you reused it I guess.

If your coils have silica wicks I guess you could clean them in an UC. I don't know if that would be more effective than rinsing under the faucet and dry burning. I've read that some people boil them or let them sit in alcohol overnight.

I have a feeling that if you had non-rebuildable heads it would be dodgy. Once you soaked them, in alcohol or water, it would be hard to get all the liquid out from the innards of the head. And if they had any cotton in them it would be hard to get them dry.

There are lots of uses for an ultrasonic cleaner. I got mine for steeping juice, but now I use it for cleaning tanks, and all sorts of non-vaping stuff. Glad I got it.

 

[Alien Traveler]

It is easy to use alcohol in ultrasonic cleaner (I do it every other week). You fill bath with water and put a small beaker with alcohol in it (there should be not too much water - beaker should not float).
However I have not tried coils in ultrasonic cleaner; I do not believe they can be cleaned really good. The only way that really for me is rewicking (with dry burn of the coil).

 

[yuseffuhler]

I would be reusing the alcohol; I don't really have a use for 150 proof other than cleaning lol. I use cotton in my occ coils, And I've put them in alcohol overnight then let them dry. Didn't take too long. if it saves me time and money, I'll keep doing it. If not, I'll just use it for cleaning everything else.

 

[OcalaFlGuy]

Multi hour HOT water soaks, high proof booze soaks, US cleaner, all should work about the same but differ in speed.

Clean is clean.

The major cleaning complication is dry burning the coil. I'm not sure anything else Really degunks them and you need
to remove the daintier flavor wicks for that. IMO, if you don't dry burn them, what Else you do doesn't really matter
(nearly as much).

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[KattMamma]

I've tried everything to get more out of these expensive kanger occ heads -- never got more than an extra day. Boiling them worked better than soaking in PGA, but not by much, but then I was left with the worry of getting them dry (which I didn't worry about with the PGA soaking)

Still, while I was only getting 2 days out of a new coil before, now I am getting 4 or 5 days by combining cleaning and a few other things, I'm making progress. 2 days on a $4 coil sucks. I'll take that extra day.

 

[NealBJr]

I rebuild my kanger occ heads. Here's a video showing how. Also, my kanger heads last for quite a while, so I guess it depends on your juice.

 

[KattMamma]

I rebuild my kanger occ heads. Here's a video showing how. Also, my kanger heads last for quite a while, so I guess it depends on your juice.

OMG he makes it look easy LOL

I have considered trying to rewick these - after watching that video I'm sure I'll give it a go! Thanks!

 

[NealBJr]

OMG he makes it look easy LOL

I have considered trying to rewick these - after watching that video I'm sure I'll give it a go! Thanks!

It really is easy. The best thing is, you don't have to worry about doing a micro coil, or whatever. he goes one step further than I do by removing th top part of the head... I don't even do that. I leave it in tact, and just push the coil through the top opening which is big enough. I've rebuilt the two coils that came with the tank three times. I bought more coils, but I've yet to open them. I figured when I go on vacation, it's good to carry a few spares just in case... The bad thing is, They arrived after my vacation. :/ Oh well, didn't need them anyways.

The difference between that video and what I do, is:
1) I use 28 gauge kanthal. This is just a personal preference.
2) I don't remove the top area. at 4:40-4:55, he takes off the top part. I don't bother, as long as the coil can fit in the opening, you're good. Besides, I figure the less you take apart the coil heads, the less problems that can happen. Putting it back on, which he doesn't show, probably requires
3) I don't bother with a micro coil. If you notice at 8:22-8:25, he has plenty of room to work with. The stock coils aren't a micro coil, so I don't bother.
4) at 8:40-8:48, he clips the short end before inserting the rubber grommet. I leave it long, and cut flush after I put the center pin in. That way, it gives me more wire to gently tug on it to make sure they're not crossed in the atomizer. Just make sure you use nail clipers and cut it REAL close tot he center post.
5) at 9:05-9:15, he puts the rubber grommet on... on my coil heads, there is a little groove to put the kanthal on the outside of the grommet. That is where I put the negative lead wire.

....after typing all that, I clicked on another video, and this guy rebuilds it almost exactly as I do... same tools, and same reasoning behind why to rebuild the OCC coils... I'm just not as energetic as he is.

Anyways, good luck, and save those old coil heads. Once you've done a few, it only takes like 5 minutes to rebuild a coil.

 

[ScandaLeX]

Somebody say Ultrasonic Cleaners, Pure Grain Alcohol & Coils.....

These are old pics but every time someone would post the next best thing in vaping I was off & running strolling (I'm lazy) to buy it.

It took a lot of $$$ to realize with an overabundance of jooz & time, I didn't need any of this other stuff.

Haven't touched my UC in 8 months, still have 2 bottles of the 190% pure grain alcohol & so many coils & rebuildable supplies that it's ridiculous!

I only used the UC for steeping but if you really wanna get buck wild....try this for speed steeping.....

 

[caferacer]

I only used the UC for steeping but if you really wanna get buck wild....try this for speed steeping.....

I love it!

 

[ian-field]

I remember seeing a few threads some time back saying that ultrasonic cleaners are awesome for almost unlimited use of stock coil heads. My question is, why hasn't this gotten more popular with the advent of expensive coils? Does it not work as well? I'm curious. I might pick one up if it's awesome for stock coils. It'll pay for itself in 2 packs of coils. Thoughts?

Before I got ordering consumables organised, I tried ultrasonic cleaning Vivi-Nova coils - it just disintegrated the wick.

The consumables are cheap enough so its just too much effort to bother cleaning old heads.

An ultrasonic cleaner can come in handy for removing things like lingering persistent menthol flavour.

Some people stand the juice bottle in a shallow fill to better mix flavours.