What to Use for Primer on Atomizer?

[Seabrook]

Hi there,

I've searched and haven't found anything on this topic yet, so here's my question. What can I prime my attys with when I store them? I have different juices I vape that I dedicate attys to cut down on crossing of the juice flavors. So, when I run out of a certain juice and put the atty in storage to use with something else down the line, what do I prime it with to put it back in storage? I don't want to just leave old juice on it, and since it's shipped with a primer on it, I figure it has to be kept primed for some reason. Is that right or wrong? And if it's wrong, why is it shipped with primer to begin with then? Still learning. Please and thank you.

 

[DenniZ]

I can't give a definitive answer for you on this one, however from my prior experience working as an engineer and from a lot of DIY auto work, I'll try and make a guess.

The primary reasons that you will find something unnecessary for actual usage, in this case the primer fluid, is that:

A.) It aids in the first usage, in this case I believe this is why they place it in. The original design of the e-cig was based upon the cartridge design. This design depends on capillary action to draw the juice to the coil. Since on the first use, a new user might just place the cart on the pv and immediately vape, this would result in a very poor first impression and quite possibly a ruined atty. It's like installing a new water pump, the pump might need to be primed with water poured into it, otherwise the pump will just spin and heat up but not move any water.

B.) Another reason that they might place the primer in it is to protect it from corrosion. That's why drum brakes smell so bad and smoke when the installer doesn't spend the time and effort to spray it with brake cleaner. I don't think that this is the case here since nichrome, or nickle-chromium is corrosion resistant.

Since I believe scenario (A) is the most probable, I'd venture to say you don't need to do anything for long term storage, you will however want to prime it well prior to the first use. 5 drops and a few minutes to seep in should be more then enough to have it running just fine.

If you still want to prime it for storage I think that straight PG would be the way to go since the likelihood of it causing an issue is slim to nil since atties are designed to swim in the stuff anyway. Wet or dry storage, the choice is yours, I'd do half and half and compare =P

-Dee

 

[Seabrook]

Okay, so I guess the main thing is to just clean them well before storing away. Thanks for the info and the reply.

 

[Switched]

A couple of drops of Pg right on the bridge. I think you couldn't find a thread wrt it, because everyone presumed everyone knew.

 

[sjohnson]

Or, store them dry. The primer is there only to avoid dry burns on first use, IMO.

I store mine dry, for nearly a year now, no problems.

 

[MaxUT]

It's probably best to clean the old juice out before storing. It's partly "cooked" and won't win any prizes for taste later on when you start to use the atty again.

You could simmer them in distilled water for 15 minutes or so, then drain them and let them dry completely.

Here's what I do to start up a completely dry atty:
Stand it on the battery end,
Drip in about 1/2 ml of plain PG,
Let stand for 15 minutes or so,
Blow out most of the PG which didn't seep out,
Drip in a couple drops of the new juice,
Put it on the batt and go.

 

[Xanax]

I use a 50/50 VG/PG solution. No flavoring. Just plain ol vg/pg