What am I doing wrong??

[Medic313]

It seems like every time I get a new atomizer the things will last for about a week and go to .....

I just recently bought two low resistance atomizers from totallywicked for my mega tornado. They worked fine for about a week and now barely produce any vapor. I was getting a burned flavor so I'd remove the wick and it would work just fine after that but now it's barely producing any vapor. I tried cleaning them out with a steamer and I also have an air spray canister.

This is what's frustrating me the most about e-cigs. I'm spending so much money on buying new atomizers and cartridges because something always goes wrong. Am I using the product incorrectly?

I always let the atomizer cool off after a few drags because I've burned one out before. I felt like I didn't do anything wrong but the damn thing is shot after a week. Why?? Aren't they supposed to typically last about a month at the very least? I always do my research on youtube and this forum and seems like most people liked these LR atomizers for this e-cig and I did too but why don't they ever last for me?

Can anyone give me some advice?

 

[Godzilla]

I find a certain brand of ejuice is hard on my Attys. Now that I have avoided that juice, my atty seems to be lasting longer. (My all day vape was always from this certain vendor, and loved that juice dearly. I feel I have left behind a good friend)

I have almost 2 weeks with my LR306 dripping on an ego. (I read stories about people having attys last 6 months with no cleaning, and I have to chuckle)

Anyway, backwoods brew and Kick Bass Vapor seem to be atty friendly in my book. I did find after 9 or so days my flavor was dropping off, and was getting a bit burnt taste, so I decided to do a dry burn on it. I kept pulsing it, while blowing the vapor away. 2 or 3 second pulses max, wait about 10 seconds, and pulse a couple more times, until it glows orange quickly with little to no vapor. I found that it took the burnt taste away, and assume it was a little juice build up. It worked nearly like new.

This other juice I spoke of made my wick inside the coil turn basically to carbon or charcoal. I disected an atty, and the wick inside the coil discinigrated in my hands and turned to black smelly burnt granuals. I guess that is what they call a burnt atty.

Anyway, be careful with the dry burns, and I am sure you will get many more good tips. But I am with you. There is zero savings with all the consumable parts I have to keep buying.

 

[cskent]

What kind of burned flavor are you tasting? I've found there are a couple of different types. One is kind of like burned caramel, the other is like hot metal. If it's the burned carmel flavor try removing your atty and take the cart off, then blow through it into a tissue until all the juice is gone. If you've got some pure vg you can vape a few drops to get rid of a bit more of that flavor. If it's the hot metal type of flavor, you've probably run your atty too dry and burned it. There's no way to get rid of that flavor that I'm aware of, but maybe someone else has found a way and will share their wisdom.

 

[Medic313]

When I get a burned flavor it usually just needed more juice because it was either dry or a small piece of a cotton material (whatever it is) got caught inside the atty and it needed to be removed.

I'm not tasting a burned flavor. That isn't the problem. It's that the atomizer is performing at 50% of what it used to and I don't understand what I did wrong to let that happen. I've never owned an atomizer that worked for longer than a week. They all screw up, even when I'm careful and clean them ever night.

 

[Godzilla]

I have heard many say that you dont have to clean them at all. I have heard many say only dry burns are necessary. Advice is all over the board, but I know one thing. I have a package of 4 regular joye510 attys I may not touch because I enjoy dripping the LR306 so much.

I have heard real great things about the ikenvapes LR attys. The must be built slightly different because people rave about them, and the LR306's were sold out the last time I checked, and they did not know when they would get more.

I do know you are better off keeping them too wet, than too dry, and as the earlier poster mentioned, blowing out the atty periodically can help clean that taste out, plus give you an idea of how moist you are keeping it. If nothing comes out at all into the papertowel when you blow it, you have let it get too dry before adding more juice

I am not sure if you are supposed to wash them before dry burning them. Once I found my regular 510 attys had gone dry, and the little threads that are found just underneath the bridge that assist getting juice to the atty werre burnt in the middle, and as soon as I removed those it was better.

 

[Medic313]

One thing about these attys is they leak a lot onto the battery. Maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[Godzilla]

My 1st LR310 did not leak when I dripped but only lasted a week. This one going on 11 days leaks quite a bit. Sure is messy. My next venture is the Cisco Attys, and the Ikenvape attys. I hope they can figure out the consistency issues with these things, or I may have to start chasing the dragon.

 

[texasgranny]

Why don't you try using cartomizers instead to see if this makes things better.
The Boge soft tip are the ones I would highly suggest as they are easy to fill and use.
My cartos last 7 to 10 days, dependent upon the juice used. Chocolate or dark colored
juices will clog one up in less than 2 days.
I'm not sure if your Tornado can handle any LR attys or cartos with the battery size.
I am not familiar with the battery size on the Tornado but you might want to check
out what they can actually handle in the ohm's correctly. I cannot use LR on my
Riva 510 but can on my Provape with a much larger battery.

 

[WomanOfHeart]

Carts just don't work well with LR attys. They can't wick fast enough to keep up and the filler material often ends up getting stuck to the bridge. LR attys are really meant for dripping.
texasgranny made a great suggestion about using cartomizers and I agree. IkenVape has some fantastic 510 cartomizers that should work very well with your Tornado.

 

[AttyPops]

Yeah, but I (and others) hate cartomizers and want the atty to work. OTOH, some hate atties, and use only cartos! lol. Anyway,

A standard atty should last you a month, if not more. Some suggestions:

1) LR atties don't last as long. You can get them in varying Ω ratings. Try 2.0 ohms if the 1.5 ohms are burning up.
2) over cleaning can be an issue too....as noted. Try blowing them out everyday, or an alcohol rinse/dry.
3) avoid dry burns at 1st.
4) Try rinsing, followed by a "light" dry burn. Don't get it too hot. Sometimes, if atties go to 50% that's because it got too hot and one of the 2 coils in the atty broke. So it literally is performing at 50%. You can tell this by cleaning it and doing a "quick" heat/dry burn and seeing if BOTH coils glow, or only one. A dark room/dim light helps.
5) Try dripping to keep it wet.... screw the cart/filler crap... PITA IMHO.
6) leaking fouls the threads. Clean the atty/battery threads. The fouled threads lead to bad performance, which leads to over-vaping and thus over-heating.

Since you removed the wick, you must drip. Be careful not to flood it.

If all else fails, or if you want better vaping, try a 5 volt PT/Wall-Wart and/or a 5v box mod with a STANDARD ATTY (I like the joye 3.0 Ω). You can build 5v boxes yourself (or find someone handy with a soldering iron) for around $10.00 not counting the batteries and charger (about another $30.00 or so for 2 pair of batts+charger). For $40.00 + some hands-on-time, you end up with a 5v PV that has batteries that won't die after a month of charge/recharge, standard atties, and 5v. As long as you don't mind the 3xAA box.

Try switching atomizer brands if you are getting a lot of leaking and it's not flooded.

Hope this helps.

 

[Medic313]

So is dripping on the carts when the wic is removed just wasting liquid? I've been wondering why I've been using up so much liquid. I've been putting it on the cart a lot when I get a burned taste and maybe that was all for waste. I'm defenitely going to switch brands.

 

[AttyPops]

The wick moves the liquid from the cart to the atty. If you remove the wick.........

Dripping: Drip into the atty - 3 drops. vape. Drip. Vape. The atty will still work, but you put the juice into it manually. Pull the filler out in that case. You don't need it, nor juice in the cart. Just the atty.