Warning: Don't damage the atty wick!

[andrew]

This is to the super newbs like myself. I purchased a 901 with 3 extra attys. My first observation was that I really don't like vaping propylene glycol. I don't like the flavor, and I have a minor reaction to it. It feels like a harsh stimulant, and tastes like I am smoking antifreeze.

My second observation was that the attys come loaded with this stuff, I guess as a primer? So I proceeded to try and vape all of it off. After literally an hour it was still producing lots of vapor. Then I started blowing through the hole on the side so I don't have to suck the vapor in. Finally, I just flushed some isopropryl alcohol through the atty several times and blow out the atty very hard.

I still noticed the PG! I proceeded to use purple degreeser through the atty. This stuff is a powerful solvent, you'll feel it if it contants your skin. Finally, it got all of the PG. Hmm, but then it didn't produce any vapor when I put some VG on it 8-o.

Somewhere in the process I ruined the delecate wick. I read somewhere that it is like a fiber glass or fiber of some sort. Now when I active the atty I can see it glow red after 1-2s when I have some VG on the outer mesh. It's not getting to the coil, and the wick is either gone, not working, or burnt off. There is little vapor out of it. When I activate my other attys they don't produce a red glow like this, and instead just produce a fizzing sound.

 

[siap]

I'm not sure that damage to the wick is the problem. THere are lots of threads here that recommend removing the wick altogether. However, I wouldn't recommend that because I tried it, and got plenty of vapor, but the taste was almost unbareable. But who knows? It seems like every time someone here has great results with something like this, someone else says it's the worst idea ever.

 

[kcr]

Well, I am not sure what you reaction to PG was, but I can pretty much guarantee that you do not want isopropyl or degreaser in what you vape.

Throw that atty out, and don't ever do anything like that again.

And it wasn't PG you tasted on the atty, it was the factory primer. Just puff it off without inhaling

 

[gep]

There are lots of threads out there regarding the primer and cleaning of the atty. My guess is that you didn't let the atty dry thoroughly before you vaped on it. Should let it dry for a while or use a hair dryer.

Check some of the older threads. Lots of good info out there.

 

[nubee]

Try soaking them in grain alcohol or coke/pepsi overnight and rinse with hot, hot water.
Vinegar and/or baking soda works well too.

 

[Kent C]

This is to the super newbs like myself. I purchased a 901 with 3 extra attys. My first observation was that I really don't like vaping propylene glycol. I don't like the flavor, and I have a minor reaction to it. It feels like a harsh stimulant

It isn't but nicotine is.

... and tastes like I am smoking antifreeze.

How could you know that?

My second observation was that the attys come loaded with this stuff,
I guess as a primer?

The shipping/primer fluid isn't PG.

So I proceeded to try and vape all of it off. After literally an hour it was still producing lots of vapor. Then I started blowing through the hole on the side so I don't have to suck the vapor in. Finally, I just flushed some isopropryl alcohol through the atty several times and blow out the atty very hard.

Using isopropyl alc. isn't recommended. Not for human consumption and leaves a coating on metal.

I still noticed the PG!

The shipping/primer fluid.

I proceeded to use purple degreeser through the atty. This stuff is a powerful solvent, you'll feel it if it contants your skin.

Not something you'd want to inhale, eh?

Finally, it got all of the PG. Hmm, but then it didn't produce any vapor when I put some VG on it 8-o.

Yep. You killed it with the degreaser most likely.

Somewhere in the process I ruined the delecate wick. I read somewhere that it is like a fiber glass or fiber of some sort.

Yeah, fiber but not fiberglass.

Now when I active the atty I can see it glow red after 1-2s when I have some VG on the outer mesh. It's not getting to the coil, and the wick is either gone, not working, or burnt off. There is little vapor out of it. When I activate my other attys they don't produce a red glow like this, and instead just produce a fizzing sound.

Too bad you didn't take the time to read some of the stickys. Better luck next time, but thanks for posting. Perhaps your mistakes can be avoided by others.

 

[andrew]

Well, I am not sure what you reaction to PG was, but I can pretty much guarantee that you do not want isopropyl or degreaser in what you vape.

Throw that atty out, and don't ever do anything like that again.

And it wasn't PG you tasted on the atty, it was the factory primer. Just puff it off without inhaling

I did wash it out after flushing the alcohol and degreaser through.

My mistake about assuming the primer was PG.

 

[andrew]

Try soaking them in grain alcohol or coke/pepsi overnight and rinse with hot, hot water.
Vinegar and/or baking soda works well too.

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't know about both vinegar and baking soda though, as it seems that these would neutralize and the remaining solution would be neutral in terms of PH.

 

[Moonflame]

Did you ever make a baking soda and vinegar Volcano in elementary school, or see one on any number of tv shows. It makes a a bubbling foam that should get in any little cranny in the atty and clean it out.

 

[andrew]

Kent C Quotes

This is to the super newbs like myself. I purchased a 901 with 3 extra attys. My first observation was that I really don't like vaping propylene glycol. I don't like the flavor, and I have a minor reaction to it. It feels like a harsh stimulant

It isn't but nicotine is.

Nicotine is nearly the smoothest stimulant I've tried.

... and tastes like I am smoking antifreeze.

How could you know that?

It smells like it anyway.

My second observation was that the attys come loaded with this stuff,
I guess as a primer?

The shipping/primer fluid isn't PG.

It may have been the primer vapor that was giving me the reaction then... I'll try the cleaning method recommended by nubee and see how I respond to a PG liquid.

So I proceeded to try and vape all of it off. After literally an hour it was still producing lots of vapor. Then I started blowing through the hole on the side so I don't have to suck the vapor in. Finally, I just flushed some isopropryl alcohol through the atty several times and blow out the atty very hard.

Using isopropyl alc. isn't recommended. Not for human consumption and leaves a coating on metal.

Flushed with hot water after application of the isopropyl.

I still noticed the PG!

The shipping/primer fluid.

Whatever, it tasted horrible.

I proceeded to use purple degreeser through the atty. This stuff is a powerful solvent, you'll feel it if it contants your skin.

Not something you'd want to inhale, eh?

No, this is nasty stuff, and I have inhaled its vapor when degreasing engine parts, which feels great (sarcasm). This is why I flushed hot water through the atty after the application of degreaser.

Finally, it got all of the PG. Hmm, but then it didn't produce any vapor when I put some VG on it 8-o.

Yep. You killed it with the degreaser most likely.

Somewhere in the process I ruined the delecate wick. I read somewhere that it is like a fiber glass or fiber of some sort.

Yeah, fiber but not fiberglass.

Now when I active the atty I can see it glow red after 1-2s when I have some VG on the outer mesh. It's not getting to the coil, and the wick is either gone, not working, or burnt off. There is little vapor out of it. When I activate my other attys they don't produce a red glow like this, and instead just produce a fizzing sound.

Too bad you didn't take the time to read some of the stickys. Better luck next time, but thanks for posting. Perhaps your mistakes can be avoided by others.

I did read some stickys, but atty cleaning was not covered in them. Maybe we could use a sticky dedicated to atomizers in the newb forum?

 

[breakfastchef]

Vaping is not for everyone. You may never find a PG or VG-based flavor you like. Much of the stuff you may read on this forum is experimental, conjecture or plain nonesense. Just use the device as intended.

Try it for another week or so without doing anything but providing power to your atomizer as they rarely need cleaning.

 

[andrew]

I'm not sure that damage to the wick is the problem. THere are lots of threads here that recommend removing the wick altogether. However, I wouldn't recommend that because I tried it, and got plenty of vapor, but the taste was almost unbareable. But who knows? It seems like every time someone here has great results with something like this, someone else says it's the worst idea ever.

This might depend on the e-cig. I damaged the wick on another atty as well, probably by blowing too hard on it or with isopropyl alcohol. It also doesn't produce much vapor, even when I put some VG on. I can also see it glow red when I activate it. The flavor seems fine, it's just that there's very little vapor.

I cleaned the attys with vodka which works ok because 190 proof ethanol is hard to get. Vinegar also works.

My last two attys which still have the wicks intact produce loads of vapor with some VG.

 

[andrew]

The primer may have been affecting me, but the PG does still give me a bad reaction, after I've cleaned all of the primer off. Can't wait for my VG liquid to get in.

 

[xogul]

around here, isopropyl alcohol is the liquid used to clean hardware parts, cpu, heatsinks and ram mainly, just because it doesn't leave a 'noticeable' coating compared to other liquids, acetone or denatured alcohol, so the problem could have been the other stuff. but this is just a guess.

 

[Kurt]

Just saw this thread. In the first few days of using my 510, I didn't know the correct way to wash the atty, so I was soaking up excess juice with a cotton swab, then blowing it out with compressed air. I saw these little threads coming from the bridge, but I figured they were fiber from either the swab or the filler material, and since they were charred at the ends, I pulled them out with tweezers. I thought the char meant they should be in there, but I am guessing these are the wick being spoken of here.

The attys are still working great! Lots of vapor and no problems at all that I can tell. Perhaps I dodged a bullet this time, but in the future (have more on the way), I will leave them in!

I am assuming they help get excess juice to the bridge so it doesn't drown.

Thanks for the thread! Live and learn.
Kurt

 

[andrew]

Kurt,
thanks a lot for posting your experience with the 510 atty cleaning.

My thinking was that the wick actually drew liquid directly to the coil. Without the wick, then the coil would have a hard time pulling liquid to it. And this seems to be true of my atty that was damaged--It will produce only marginal amounts of vapor, like about 25% as much as it should be.

But OTOH, maybe the coil can heat the steel wool portion (the part you see when you look into the atty) hot enough to vaporize liquid, or at least part of it to do this. And the 510 with a hotter coil might do this much better than a 901 atty coil. See the diagram about 1/4 of the way down here:
The Wonderful World of Vaping: An Illustrated Guide to E-cigs (Parts 1 through 4 of 6)

Anyway, go easy with atty cleaning. It's best to wash them out or soak in just water and then let them dry overnight I hear. However, I will post a thread on a faster method for dry them that I am experimenting with.

 

[andrew]

EDIT: The following post was premature. The atty in the OP is still not producing much vapor, but it did for like one or 2 draws. The other atty I mention below is, however, producing great vapor. I don't understand what is going on yet.

I have just revived the atty that this thread is about!8-o

I had cleaned another atty, and that atty stopped producing vapor. It was working fine before the cleaning. I had soaked it in vodka overnight. So, with nothing else to do, I fired it up for about 3-4 seconds without drawing on it. This was not a dry burn, as the atty had about 2-3 drops of liquid in it. Then I heard a fizzing, and it started producing great vapor.

I did the same thing for the first atty (in OP), again wet with about 2-3 drops of liquid and a 4 sec or so burn with no draw on it. Now it produces vapor. WTH. I don't know what is causing the liquid to wick to the coil, but whatever it is, maybe heating it up caused it to reform? Now both attys don't glow, but instead produce a nice fizzing sound with vapor coming off when energized.

I want to emphasize NOT to do a dry burn, and not a long burn at that. This was of short duration, only 3 or 4 seconds, and the atty steel wool portion was saturated with liquid.

WTF, I'm such a noob...

 

[hobnob62]

When I called Mark at Inovaper. He was against soaking them in anything. Instead, He said to blow them out with either canned air or the like . and if you felt the need to use a Q-tip with alcohol to wipe it out of any thing left . ..... maybe your not getting them completely dry. one thing to consider is that steel wool will rust. once that happens your s.o.l. unfortunately . so if you are washing them , dont let them sit out wet. Try to dry them a.s.a.p.

 

[Kurt]

When they get clogged up, I have been putting them in vodka for about 10 minutes max. Then blowing them out with comp air. In general it is not a good idea to let anything electrical sit while wet. Rubbing alcohol is denatured with pyridine, which has an awful taste and high bp. Absolute ethanol (100%) would be ideal, but it is very hard for a nonchemist to get. Used to be you could buy in a liquor store everclear, which was 95% alc. I don't drink so I haven't been to one lately, and haven't looked for everclear since my younger days! Someone else mentioned warm water. Thing is, most everything that gums up an atty is water soluble, and also ethanol soluble. Just blowing it out is sometimes not enough, especially when you are new and inexperienced and do all the wrong things.

As I think about it, acetone might be a good solvent. No water, dissolves the gunk, and dries fast and completely with some air. Not sure if there are any plastic parts that might dissolve however.

Not really making a point here, just discussing details...its just chem chat to me!

Kurt

 

[artguybri]

I have had my 901 atty for 7 weeks, never cleaned it, never messed with it and it works like it did the day i first used it. I would say, dont clean them, they dont need it