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Maintaining Your Electric Cigarette Atomizer
There is nothing discussed more in the realm of electric cigarette maintenance than how to clean an atomizer. Do a search for “how to clean atomizer” and you will find all kinds of wild things people do in an attempt to extend the productive life of their electric cigarette atomizers.
The vast majority of “solutions” involve soaking an atomizer in everything from lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide to Everclear grain alcohol and Coca Cola. Other people advocate doing extreme things like boiling them or putting them in the silverware tray of their dishwashers. We have tried all of those methods and not found any of them to be effective methods of cleaning an atomizer. In fact, most of them have on more than one occasion completely killed an atomizer that was working, albeit not as well as a brand new one. Still, there are those out there that swear these methods work for them.
Atomizers are electronic pieces of equipment with tiny wires and circuit boards in them. Before taking such drastic methods as the ones mentioned above, ask yourself if you would do the same thing to your cell phone to clean it. We doubt it! Electronics and liquid simply do not mix and because of that, atomizers are inherently designed to fail at some point. Although you will most certainly need to replace them, the money you spend replacing things like atomizers is miniscule compared to the cost of smoking regular cigarettes. You can, however, do sensible things to prolong the life of your atomizer and allow it to function properly over a longer period of time. Below, you will find the ways that the manufacturers of electric cigarettes suggest that atomizers be maintained …
Clean the Connection Points
Cleaning an electric cigarette atomizer’s connection points is something that definitely should be done at least on a weekly basis. Proper electrical connection with the battery is essential in ensuring that the proper amount of current is getting to your atomizer.
When cleaning the connection points, use a lint free cloth, cotton swab or tissue and gently clean in and around the threads that connect your atomizer and battery. Make sure that any cloth you use is clean and will not tear apart. The last thing you want is threads or paper towel pieces clinging to the connection area. This not only can cause electrical current problems, but it could also be potentially dangerous if any of those particles were to make it into the heating coil housing. After cleaning the outer connections, take a fresh tissue or untarnished area of your lint free cloth and gently dab the area around the electric cigarette atomizer’s vent holes (those are the tiny slots that exist at the edge where the atomizer meets the battery). Make sure there is no liquid or material on the connection.
Some people advocate pushing a piece of cloth or the corner of a tissue into the atomizer in order to soak up any remaining e cig juice. We are not super fond of this idea, especially with individuals that are new to electric cigarettes, because you might accidentally leave tissue particles inside your atomizer housing. If at all possible, it is best to avoid placing any foreign object inside of an electric cigarette atomizer. You can usually effectively clean your atomizer without doing this, avoiding any resulting complications.
Purging Built Up E Cig Juice from Your Electric Cigarette Atomizer
Proper overnight storage and regularly purging your electric cigarette atomizer housing and coil chamber can definitely prolong its useful life. It is really quite simple and is something that everyone can and should do. Simply put, as you use your electric cigarette, e cig juice is constantly draining into your coil chamber. Even if you are very careful to not overfill or flood your electric cigarette atomizer, some e liquid is bound to find its way in there. E Cig Juice left inside an atomizer can cause problems with stale-tasting vapor as well as a buildup of un-atomized juice on and around the coil. This is something that can definitely lead to a clogged atomizer and the degradation of an atomizer’s components if left unchecked.
One method of purging your atomizer is to disassemble your electric cigarette every night, placing the atomizer, battery connection side up (or at a slight angle), onto a paper towel. This allows gravity to drain the unvaporized e juice down onto the paper towel. When left overnight, you will be able to see all of the e cig juice has collected on the tissue when you awake in the morning.
An even more proactive way to purge an electric cigarette atomizer of old e cig juice is to place it in a paper towel and gently blow into the hole where the electric cigarette atomizer and battery connect. As you blow into the hole, you will likely hear a slight gurgling noise made by excess e cig juice as it is being cleared from the heating coil. While doing this, be careful not to blow saliva into the coil housing. After every two or three blows, lightly tap the atomizer onto the paper towel. Any e cig juice in the atomizer from the day’s use will appear on the paper towel. Repeat this until you no longer hear any gurgling sound when blowing into the atomizer. If you really want to be thorough, place the atomizer (battery side up) on a clean paper towel, allowing any additional e liquid to drain down the atomizer’s inner wall.
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