WARNING: clean atomizer/phosphine poisonous gas
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Ah, sorry about that, I had a sabatical from this forum for a while back then,
and lost all my notification links.
I did get the flourescent dyes, I could post a pretty picture of solutions of
rhodamine, acridine orange, bromoflourescein & flourouscein under UV light if you like.
But it turned out that at very low concentrations (that would have happened in this test)
it was difficult to see by eye, even under UV lighting,
I'd have needed some spectroscopic equipment to quantify it.
Was going to do the same rinse-out testing, but using ice-machine cleaner
(~50% phosphoric acid) and measuring the pH with successive rinses/soaks,
but I got distracted & forgot about it.
Got an atty soaking now in 43% phosphoric, so I'll attempt to do the rinse tests.....
and lost all my notification links.
I did get the flourescent dyes, I could post a pretty picture of solutions of
rhodamine, acridine orange, bromoflourescein & flourouscein under UV light if you like.
But it turned out that at very low concentrations (that would have happened in this test)
it was difficult to see by eye, even under UV lighting,
I'd have needed some spectroscopic equipment to quantify it.
Was going to do the same rinse-out testing, but using ice-machine cleaner
(~50% phosphoric acid) and measuring the pH with successive rinses/soaks,
but I got distracted & forgot about it.
Got an atty soaking now in 43% phosphoric, so I'll attempt to do the rinse tests.....
Thanks for doing this exogenesis! I have been checking this post and have been using the ice cleaner occasionally so it would be great to have someone test this.
Seriously folks. You spent how many dollars a day smoking?
Let's do some math here. This is based off of my smoking habit.
$5.29 per pack (Oklahoma) x 2 1/2 packs a day = $13.22 per day x 7 (one week) = $92.57
$9.95 per atomizer x 1 per week = $1.42 per day
If you blow your attys out once every day or so and just SMOKE THEM and stop worrying about CLEANING THEM then what are you loosing? I talk to so many people who sit on here for HOURS trying to figure out how to clean attys. These things will last for weeks if you'll just not let them run dry! It's that simple! I have a blog about this titled "Just walk away and don't touch a thing!"
When it dies, replace it. You aren't loosing anything and if you didn't have an e-Cigarette you'd still spend $13.22 a day smoking tobacco one way or another and you know it's true!
I know people are here to learn but man ya'll are driving yourself crazy! Not meaning to be rude but if you can't afford to vape how in the world did you afford to smoke????
I'm not trying to sell anything here seriously...but some people drive themselves mad trying to make a $9 part last forever. Kick back and enjoy your e-Cigarette!
Let's do some math here. This is based off of my smoking habit.
$5.29 per pack (Oklahoma) x 2 1/2 packs a day = $13.22 per day x 7 (one week) = $92.57
$9.95 per atomizer x 1 per week = $1.42 per day
If you blow your attys out once every day or so and just SMOKE THEM and stop worrying about CLEANING THEM then what are you loosing? I talk to so many people who sit on here for HOURS trying to figure out how to clean attys. These things will last for weeks if you'll just not let them run dry! It's that simple! I have a blog about this titled "Just walk away and don't touch a thing!"
When it dies, replace it. You aren't loosing anything and if you didn't have an e-Cigarette you'd still spend $13.22 a day smoking tobacco one way or another and you know it's true!
I know people are here to learn but man ya'll are driving yourself crazy! Not meaning to be rude but if you can't afford to vape how in the world did you afford to smoke????
I'm not trying to sell anything here seriously...but some people drive themselves mad trying to make a $9 part last forever. Kick back and enjoy your e-Cigarette!
No one is driving themselves mad. They are simply trying to find an easy method for prolonging the life of their atomizers. If you have no interest in doing that, fine... Use yours for a couple of days and pitch them.
If you have no interest in the topic of this thread why would you bother reading it let alone posting to it?
Mine last me for weeks...I keep them wet and blow them out.
I just happened to see the topic title on the main page and clicked on it. I get emails daily from customers that spend hours here reading how to prolong the life of a $9 part. Like I said above, it's easy, don't let it get dry and blow out the excess daily.
You guys are obviously interested in this like I am home automation systems...nothing wrong with that...but it can really drive some newbies crazy trying to absorb it all. I almost think you should have a 50 post count before you can even see this sub-forum.
Carry on with your nitrosulfuricmethanenitrosamineethylpolymer experiments! I sincerely hope you save a few bucks and don't kill yourself vaping remnants of cleaning chemicals.
Seriously, no harm intended.
I just happened to see the topic title on the main page and clicked on it. I get emails daily from customers that spend hours here reading how to prolong the life of a $9 part. Like I said above, it's easy, don't let it get dry and blow out the excess daily.
You guys are obviously interested in this like I am home automation systems...nothing wrong with that...but it can really drive some newbies crazy trying to absorb it all. I almost think you should have a 50 post count before you can even see this sub-forum.
Carry on with your nitrosulfuricmethanenitrosamineethylpolymer experiments! I sincerely hope you save a few bucks and don't kill yourself vaping remnants of cleaning chemicals.
Seriously, no harm intended.
I'm with you Rob , Atomizers are not designed for prolonged heavy use , it was never Hon Lik's vision when he invented these things.
Light occasional use when Smoking a real cigarette isn't possible was their sales pitch and the Atomizer is designed and made to fit that purpose.
They are disposables, the only way around longevity is to redesign and remanufacture the atomizers as we know them to be.
I gave up trying to clean atties, I dont even drain them or blow 'em out anymore it really doesnt help much, and when you can buy a 5 pack of atties for £20 that will last 10 weeks or so ..what's the point ?
ApO
Light occasional use when Smoking a real cigarette isn't possible was their sales pitch and the Atomizer is designed and made to fit that purpose.
They are disposables, the only way around longevity is to redesign and remanufacture the atomizers as we know them to be.
I gave up trying to clean atties, I dont even drain them or blow 'em out anymore it really doesnt help much, and when you can buy a 5 pack of atties for £20 that will last 10 weeks or so ..what's the point ?
ApO
Well, the point for some of us is that here in the U.S. we may soon be facing a situation in which we won't easily be able to buy atomizers at all anymore. I agree that while I can buy atomizers for under $5 apiece (and they last me weeks and weeks), cleaning them isn't exactly a priority, but if the time comes when I can't buy more at any price, you can be sure that I'll be jumping through all sorts of hoops to keep the ones I've still got going for as long as possible.
SSrob,
I think they enjoy playing with the attys.
Some of these guys must be chemists. (I sure hope they are anyway)
Hopefully they will master this process. Once perfected someone can sell us little bottles of cleaner we can use or give us a recipe using harmless household items.
-Gooney0
I think they enjoy playing with the attys.
Some of these guys must be chemists. (I sure hope they are anyway)Hopefully they will master this process. Once perfected someone can sell us little bottles of cleaner we can use or give us a recipe using harmless household items.
-Gooney0
I think it's an interesting read as I've learned alot about atomizers and the e-cig process. But I'm a noob, and probably some stuff could lead to some idiot harming themselves. Though if it wasn't from chemical poison it'd be something else!! I too await exo's experiment.
I am puzzled by the original choice of using H3PO4 to clean a metallic atty. H3PO4 is very corrosive, even though it is a weaker acid than HCl. What is getting into your attys that ethanol and blowing will not get out? I have yet to encounter this.
H3PO4 will take the enamel finish off cars, so it will likely do the same with my blue 510 atty finish.
Related question: anyone know what the metals are that are used for the various components of an atty? I would not want heavy metal ions getting into PG and getting vaped, and they may well be soluble in PB, or VG.
Just a thought from a chemist.
Kurt
H3PO4 will take the enamel finish off cars, so it will likely do the same with my blue 510 atty finish.
Related question: anyone know what the metals are that are used for the various components of an atty? I would not want heavy metal ions getting into PG and getting vaped, and they may well be soluble in PB, or VG.
Just a thought from a chemist.
Kurt
You've got to see the history to all this atty cleaning thing really.
Stubborn stains need harsh measures, so many people tried many things,
& it got ramped up to using 'ice cleaner' (50% or so phosphoric acid),
which seemed to work for some people, where nothing else would.
We're mainly talking about attys that had been used long and heavy,
and milder regimes no longer work too well (or at all).
Initially coke soaks, IPA, ethanol, lemon juice etc, etc do work OK,
but later (if you're not in the 'chuck it out' faction), then you might
try the harsher regimes
Personally I use the 'dry burn + H2O2' method, since the red hot coil
carbonifies & 'smokes off' (90%?) of the burnt-on juice,
then any hard crud left behind gets broken up by the H2O2 'fizz' and
breaks away with a rinse.
So it's case of whatever works...
afaik the atty case is stainless steel, so doesn't get corroded,
the metal with is pure nickel, the only thing that might suffer
would be the silicone grommets (they dissolve in strong sulphuric),
but they seen to survive H3PO4 completely.
The element is Nichrome which is totally OK with this too.
Also the point is to rinse/soak any chemical completely out before
using the atty to vape with
(which is really the point of this latter test....I'm getting to it, just gearing up fully).
And yes, some (cheaper) atty paint jobs can be peeled with strong H3PO4,
but most are OK.
Stubborn stains need harsh measures, so many people tried many things,
& it got ramped up to using 'ice cleaner' (50% or so phosphoric acid),
which seemed to work for some people, where nothing else would.
We're mainly talking about attys that had been used long and heavy,
and milder regimes no longer work too well (or at all).
Initially coke soaks, IPA, ethanol, lemon juice etc, etc do work OK,
but later (if you're not in the 'chuck it out' faction), then you might
try the harsher regimes
Personally I use the 'dry burn + H2O2' method, since the red hot coil
carbonifies & 'smokes off' (90%?) of the burnt-on juice,
then any hard crud left behind gets broken up by the H2O2 'fizz' and
breaks away with a rinse.
So it's case of whatever works...
afaik the atty case is stainless steel, so doesn't get corroded,
the metal with is pure nickel, the only thing that might suffer
would be the silicone grommets (they dissolve in strong sulphuric),
but they seen to survive H3PO4 completely.
The element is Nichrome which is totally OK with this too.
Also the point is to rinse/soak any chemical completely out before
using the atty to vape with
(which is really the point of this latter test....I'm getting to it, just gearing up fully).
And yes, some (cheaper) atty paint jobs can be peeled with strong H3PO4,
but most are OK.
Apparently some (most? eventually all?) users get some seriously baked-on gunk accumulating on the coil that nothing else will reliably dissolve. At some point someone tried soaking atomizers in Coca-Cola and it did a better job of removing said gunk than anything else, and then someone determined that it was the phosphoric acid in the Coke that did it, and then someone found out that ice machine cleaner is a far more concentrated version of phosphoric acid and tried that, and it cleaned up atomizers that were thought to be beyond saving.
My only atomizer to get so caked up was actually recoverable by shaking it in slightly warmed-under-the-tap isopropyl alcohol (and then died anyway when the wick burnt through), but reportedly the phosphoric acid works wonders. I doubt if I'll chance anything more concentrated than Coke, though...
Thanks for the clarification! Anyone gone the other direction and used something basic like Drano? Or NaOH? I'm still ok with ethanol yet, haven't really caked up an atty too much.
Kurt
Kurt
I find that every time I tried the rinse with either steam, coke or hydrogen peroxide those atties did not last much longer. Now I do as Rob does. NOTHING>> I blow them out if they are flooded and stand them up for a few hours. When I come back to them good as new.
Now for the flavor getting stuck in there. I try to use one for the fruity flavors and one for the tobacco flavors. Maybe one other for a coffee like juice. This seems to work for me. Atomizers are disposable and always have been. I have had a few last me for two months though. Those were the ones I did nothing to.
Now for the flavor getting stuck in there. I try to use one for the fruity flavors and one for the tobacco flavors. Maybe one other for a coffee like juice. This seems to work for me. Atomizers are disposable and always have been. I have had a few last me for two months though. Those were the ones I did nothing to.
Of course I killed one or two attys before getting familiar with how to correctly use an e-cig (don't smoke it dry). But then quickly figured out that the best method for prolonging the life of an atty is to stop messing around with it and just USE it. I don't even bother to blow it out anymore.
As for the cleaning because of a potential shortage (ban)... I simply calculated how many I would need to last me for 2 years and bought them.
Respects
As for the cleaning because of a potential shortage (ban)... I simply calculated how many I would need to last me for 2 years and bought them.
Respects
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