Doing something wrong with my atomizers

[sebt]

Hi all

Happy vaper here. But doing something wrong on atomizer maintenance.

I've had 3 atomizers die on me; and I think it's the way I'm cleaning them that is causing this. This is what I do:

1) Soak them in hot (not boiling) water with a bit of lemon juice, for an hour or so;
2) Blow out water
3) Leave them to dry on a piece of cardboard on top of a radiator for a few hours
4) Plug a mouthpiece back into them and start vaping.

Now after (4) the atomizers have all died within a few minutes. There is something I'm doing wrong here. It's to do with the physics of how atomizers work: which I don't know! I don't understand what it is about how they operate that can make it possible for me to clean them, but also to get them working again.

Something to do with the water (rust?), or the way I'm bringing them back into service (juice doesn't wick onto them resulting in overheating?), or possibly water left "in the system" resulting in shortcircuits?

Some helpful people here have mentioned the centre contact being pushed in so that it no longer makes contact with the battery, but that's not the problem. I measure these atomizers with a multimeter when they die like this and I get an extremely high or infinite ohm reading.

CAn anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong?

thanks!

 

[SuperLuckyLady]

Not an expert here, but do know that your brief drying period will leave a lot of water in the atty - water is not that easy to get rid of.

 

[jdrewry]

What type of atomizers are you cleaning?

 

[rdbush69]

I was getting my atty's from China and 3 out of 4 died the 1st. week, I now use cartty's and they seem to work better for me.

 

[the.vapyre]

Try dropping 100% PG in and vaping them without inhaling a few puffs. Then blow them out into a paper towel and repeat the process until you can't taste any of whatever you were trying to get rid of.

 

[cags]

I only clean my attys when they don't seem to be working well....and most last weeks before that happens. when I do clean them I used distilled water and a denture cleaning tablet. this will often improve them, and if not I discard them.....I also let them dry several days, blow them out after cleaning and after drying a few days. then I do as the.vapyre suggests.

 

[throatkick]

There are many methods.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...rasonic-cleaning-atomizers-very-best-way.html
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/e-cigarette-maintenance/177570-novel-way-clean-atty.html

Personally, I use something similar to this:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tips-tricks/69834-my-atty-resurrection-method.html

All the best!!

 

[Rickajho]

High ohms means they have reached the end of their life span - the coil wire is just spent. If they are reaching the end of their life span too soon...? Can't tell based on what you have said. If what you mean by infinite ohms is a shorted reading - no resistance at all - something is causing the coil to collapse and short out. No reading at all - an open coil - means the coil is popped, most likely from normal heating while in use or overheating during a dry burn. It happens.

Water in there wouldn't be the cause of the problem. If an atty couldn't handle liquid we also couldn't vape anything at all. Of course you want to blow any water out of it that you can - because vaping h2o is kinda pointless. But getting them bone dry before, ummm..., getting them wet again with nic liquids is pointless.

How old are these attys when you run into a problem? And do you know what brand they are?

 

[RocketRod]

I would suspect the lemon juice (acidic) as being your issue. I still have my all original atty's that I simply run under hot tap water to clean, even between testing different flavors. I blow them out the best I can, add juice and vape. Of course there is no doubt mine are made in the same place, maybe not the same factory, but as I've read many issues with all e-cig parts, Quality Control is not a high priority. Sorry you are having issues here.

 

[bushmasterar15]

If you would like to try the ultrasonic cleaning method. Here is a good deal on Amazon to buy one. As most say use Vodka as you cleaning solution and the alcohol will evaporate quickly.
Amazon.com: New Trent CD-7810 Professional Ultrasonic Watch, Jewelry, CD and Eyeglass Cleaner: Electronics

 

[MrGiggly]

+1 for the atty ressurection method throatkick refers to. You need to burn the crud off the coil. Using this method I have two 306 atties that are about 6 weeks old and working as well as the day I got them.