How to restore coils?

[melissa1928]

Nothing is as good as a fresh coil, but why do my coils function acceptably for maybe two days at most? My original impression was that they should last for several weeks except for the occasional dud, but none do.

I clean them. I take them apart, soak the two pieces in vinegar overnight, scrape gently at the blackened coil, use a sonic glasses/jewelry cleaner, and put them back together with a piece of cotton yarn as the new wick. This doesn't help to any noticable degree, and adds a nasty taste of cotton from the homemade wick.

I've seen some videos on dry-burning. It looks suspiciously like the self-cleaning cycle on an oven -- good in theory, useless in practice.

If I don't put in a fresh, new coil every couple of days. the urge for a real cigarette grows until it's overpowering.

I don't believe that other people are getting only two days' use out of a coil. Does the dry-burning work a lot better than it sounds, or is there some other secret?

Also, why on Earth do some people say cotton wicks are better? Do some people just enjoy the taste of cotton, or is there another secret I haven't learned?

I have a Kanger ProTech Mini tank 2, no drip tip. I'm using 2.2 ohm coils. I'd like to go lower, but that would just carmelize the liquid even faster.

 

[SirSteve]

A lot of people use a cheap Vodka to soak their coils, I haven't tried it but others swear by it.

Cotton, it depends on what you are using, and many people boil it before use to remove traces of processing. You can not dry burn a cotton wick, the wick will burn.

Dry burning stock coils does help to remove the gunk that builds up on them. You can also replace the wick with silica, it will hold up to a dry burn.

Dark, thick, and sweet juices can gunk up a coil quickly. Not sure what type of juice you are using. Never fear others will come along with more information on all of this and more.

 

[*deleon517*]

there are several factors to how long they will last. darker and sweeter juices will burn a coil out quicker. all that burnt sugar will cause the coils to not heat as nicely. Thats where the idea of dry burning works. after a hot water bath(no need for vinegar you dry up the base and fire the coils. the hot water will make it so that the gunk will be able to heat up and break off exposing the coils again.

i mainly use sweet fruits and dessert flavors and most coils would last me a few days. my buddy only vapes menthol and has to clean ever couple of weeks. as there is no sugars to caramalize.

in a bottom coil set up i never liked cotton i always preferred silica wicks. to me cotton just gives off a funky taste, with the silica i never had that issue.

 

[Rickajho]

A lot of it has to do with what liquids you are using. The components in very sweet, very dark liquids can gunk up a coil and wick in a matter of hours. Why your cleaning method isn't helping is that stuff gets baked onto the coil and wick. I don't think vinegar is going to cut it. Most people use the highest volume alcohol they can get for soaking - vodka's or PGA - and soaking it in that for days. Even then, it won't remove the worst of the really baked on stuff. But dry burning does away with the concept of dissolving it and resorts to simply burning it off. Personally, it's the only effective way to get the crud off the coil and the wick inside the coil.

 

[joecil]

I have used vodka but now trying Polident which is working well. I rinse them off with fresh water then dry burn a bit to be sure everything was removed. It also works well with cleaning clearomizers in some cases also.

 

[chikkaccino]

I never use vinegar, too hard to get the flavor out once it's there, so I soak mine in cheap vodka overnight. I dry them out, then do said dry burning (NEVER with a cotton wick, never, ever, ever. Take a cotton wick out first.) That burns off any of the gunk left on the coil, usually leftover from dark/sweet/heavy juices. Then rinse off whatever is leftover.

I prefer cotton because I can pick up a bag of cotton balls from the store and it's a lifetime supply. It takes just a little, and some rolling and twisting to get it back into the coil.

I'll assemble everything back up, put a few drops of juice on the wicks, assemble the tank, and let it sit for about 10 minutes to let the wick soak completely.

Back up and running again. I've gone through some heads, in about 2 days, which is why I went on YouTube to learn how to re-wick and also how to rebuild my coils from scratch. I don't want to have to constantly buy new coils.

 

[Rugar7]

I bought some bottom burners CE10 from e5cigs in china and the replacement coils are only 79cents.

 

[melissa1928]

I guess I'll try the dry burning. Maybe it won't seem like such a hassle once I get the hang of it.

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

Heads lasting 10 weeks. Soak 8 hrs in PGA. Rinse with water, dry burn, rinse with water again. After 10 weeks the only reason I replace the head is cuz the silica wick begins to shard- still fires great.

 

[Vapo Marx]

I vape natural tobacco juices in Kanger T2 clearomizers. I do the cleaning/dry-burning thing to get a little more life out of my heads but they're never quite as good as when they were new. I've come to accept that I'm going to have to change heads often if I want the best vape.

 

[Spazmelda]

Dry burning is actually quite easy, and IMO works great to restore a coil. It burns off all the gunk. I always rinse mine afterward to wash off the ashes of the burned off stuff. Works great! Don't dry burn with a cotton wick in though. That would not yield a pleasant result!

 

[*deleon517*]

dry burning is pretty easy. hold the button for 10-15 seconds, once the coils start to glow you can do 3-5 second pulses till it glowing red hot and not emitting any more vapor, steam or what ever it is that the water wet coils are producing at that point. I do like to give a quick strong blow on the coils as i let off the button to blow some of the ash off. then just a quick 1 second water dip under the running faucet to remove any extra burnt off ash and another quick dry burn to get it dry.

all in all it should take 1-2 minutes once you get it down to dry burn a coil and get it ready to use again.

 

[LDS714]

The idea behind the dry burn is that it turns the 'toasted' gunk on the coils into ash, that then can be effectively cleaned off.

I've had the best luck with dry burning prior to soaking. I have a Vivi Nova head that's 4 months old and still going strong with daily use.

 

[Dana A]

I use dark sweet liquids as well. When I used cartomizers I needed a new one every 2 days. I ended up going with a tank RBA (I chose the AGA T2) with a ss mesh wick. I am able to rinse it out after every 2 tanks then I dry burn. After the dry burn I scrape the coil clean with a dental pick while it's glowing red. Then I rinse with water again dry burn to get the water out and refill the tank. This keeps my coils running like brand new all day every day. I never get surprise hits that taste like crap. I don't know if you like to tinker or not but if you watch some you tube videos on basic rebuilding and think you may be able to do it I bet it would solve your problem. I have used the same wick for about 2 months and I never change the coils unless they pop breaking the wire. This happens rarely. I never had any luck dry burning silica wicks. They always tasted burnt after. I hated spending so much money on cartomizers when half of them worked great and the other half had too stiff a draw for me. I never went near a clearomizer after the vivi nova. That was always burnt tasting to me no matter what. I found clearomizers never functioned well if I turned the voltage up as high as I wanted it. If you are like me and love coil killing liquids but want to keep cost down learning to rebuild is a great idea. If not you may just have to replace heads more often then you would like. Either option is way better then cancer sticks. Good luck and don't give up.

 

[dice57]

Dry burning works best if you remove the wick first, then pulse the coil several times till it glows nice and red hot evenly. Also brushing off the coils with a small wire brush helps remove the carbonized particles. Then re-wick the coil, saturate with juice, test fire, assemble and fill and vape. I can use the same coil for months using this process, usually I'll rebuild before the coil is spent, to try a different build style, or ohms. Cotton works great, and if wicking properly, you never taste cotton, till you run out of juice and get a dry hit. Depending on the build though, one has to change out the cotton after as soon as a few days, or up to a couple weeks. Depends on the build, watts vaped at, and juice used. I now am running hemp fiber wicks in all my atomizers, wicks better, more heat tolerant, last longer, and I like the taste a bit better.

With everything vape, it is a matter of learning the proper procedures and how to operate you gear to get the optimal performance. On most low end atomizers, people generally have wicking problems when they don't allow sufficient time for a new coil head to get saturated with juice. This can scorch the wick, reducing it's wicking potential, and shorten the life of the build.

A great entry level tank is the new Aspire Nautilus BDC tank. They listened to the vapers and have given the already outstanding Aspire BDC and overhaul, they increase the tank capacity to 5 ml, increased the diameter to 22 mm, changed up the bottom dual coil change able head making it bigger and better performing. This tank is blowing everything away and making experienced rda and rba users rethink their vaping needs. Hearing of vapers retiring their Kayfun rba's, and Omega rda's in favor of the easy to use and maintain Aspire Nautilus BDC.

I am a fairly experienced Vaper, own a high end regulated mod, a high end Mechanical mod, a couple Mechanical clones, and 4 high end rba's, (re-buildable atomizers). I build coils from .3 ohm to 2 ohms, vape at a range of 15-50 watts, make my own juice, DIY, and am very pleased, happy, ecstatic with my gear and the level that I vape at. But, with all the fantastic reviews and recommendations by my vape friends, I ordered an Aspire Nautilus to see what the excitement is all about. When the Nautilus first came out, just by looking at it, I knew this was one to own, especially for a new vaper. It has everything I look for in a quality rba, bottom coil, side air intake that is adjustable, and a decent tank capacity, but it is in a changeable coil head format. If you can find one, it just might be worth trying.

I found it HERE which also gives you a 10% discount, and is free shipping when you purchase the 5 pack replacement coil head pack, and they offer a free juice sample with every purchase. Worth the risk for a rba quality vape in a changeable format.

 

[ericm12121977]

Not that I saw any mention, but what is your PG/VG ratio of your juices? I find high VG juices gunk up my coils faster. 60/40 blends or 70/30 blends are my choice and the 70/30 blends I can get a good month out of my coils.

 

[blakhani]

As some of the posters have already said, it's probably your juice. I switched to a mint type juice a little while ago and i can easily go 10 days without cleaning/dry burning or even rinsing. Before that I was constantly dry burning and soaking in hot water.. i'd say every 2-3 days. The dry burning would clean the coils for me but it'd never be quite the same as fresh coil.
Now I just change out my coil when the taste is off. Since I get a good 10 days out of it, I don't bother dry burning or cleaning... i've got my money's worth

 

[JQside]

The liquid is probably too thick. And I found that the liquid doesn't have to be too thick to produce acceptable amount of vapor.

 

[melissa1928]

The liquid is probably too thick. And I found that the liquid doesn't have to be too thick to produce acceptable amount of vapor.

How do you get more vapor without higher VG?

I like 50/50 juice for light things like blueberry, but for a go-to vape I want it dark and sweet. Vanilla Splash, from Aroma Ejuice, is 80% VG and is my overall favorite so far. So, yeah, I'm guessing that my preferred juice is part of the trouble.

I will try the dry-burning. I'm still skeptical, but I'm open-minded.

I ordered 100 heads from a wholesaler to keep me going unless and until I can get these things to work longer.

 

[melissa1928]

Not that I saw any mention, but what is your PG/VG ratio of your juices? I find high VG juices gunk up my coils faster. 60/40 blends or 70/30 blends are my choice and the 70/30 blends I can get a good month out of my coils.

I like the smooth feel of the 30/70 and 20/80 juices, so that is probably part of my trouble. That's unfortunate, since I don't see myself switching to high-PG any time soon.