ultra sonic cleaner for atty's

[mcquinn]

Well I broke down and bought an ultrasonic cleaner to see if I could save a couple of atty's that still had good elements but would not produce vapor.In my opinion it did not work any better than just soaking in denture tabs or alcohol.If an atty is cleanable it will respond to about any method.I ended up taking apart the atty's after repeated cleaning attempts failed.They had what appeared to be a hard carbon buildup around the element and don't think anything would dissolve that.It crumbled when I squeezed it with needle nose pliers but so did the element wire.So the moral to the story don't waste your money unless you have other uses for an ultrasonic cleaning machine.If you have one use it before the atty quits producing vapor .

[Jim Davis]

The fiber coil core is going to crust up from the high heat. Short of sand blasting, their ain't much you can do about it.

It's just the nature of the beast.

There's a project for ya. Develop an atomizer body to fit one of these heaters.
http://sunelectricheater.com/

Those puppy's should last for years.

[mcquinn]

The buildup was encasing the element and core insulating it so it could not transfer the heat to the liquid .

[mcquinn]

Are you going to use this on present technology power supplies?If it is not going to get red hot it could be soldered onto an atty connecter and you could form a base around an air tube with high temp.silicone caulk the red kind.Then it would just poke into the poly fill.Have you bought one yet?I wish I had more time I would be curiouse to know at what temp. e-liquid best changes state and then how hot does the element get at different voltages.They really don't tell you how hot they get at what voltage.

[Jim Davis]

No. I haven't bought one yet. There's a lot of research to be done first, but that tiny one looks promising. Probably would fit nicely in something like an 801 or BE112. they're nice and deep. I would think a bridge would be needed regardless.

They look like tough little suckers though.

[Royal]

I have had pretty decent luck in removing the gunk from an atty, by boiling them in a citic acid and water bath. I bought a bunch of citric acid from Mountain Rose herbs, I use several heaping tablespoons in just enough water in a pot to cover the attys. I bring the water/acid solution to a boil, then drop them in for a couple of minutes. I then remove them and give them a good hot water rinse and allow to dry. It takes a while for them to start to wick again afterwards, but it has helped in removing a lot of that buildup.

The denture tabs also has worked fairly well and I let the attys soak over night. I use at least two tabs in a glass with just enough water to cover the attys. I think the key here is to clean them before they get to the point of no return. I clean them when I first start to notice a reduction in production.

[mcquinn]

I agree on that ,if you are going to clean them clean them before its too late.I think those two just had some extra carbon that I don't usually get from some different liquid I normally don't use but like real well.I have a feeling that element will require coler to 12 volts to get hot enough to vaporize e-liquid judging from the thickness of the element.It may not get hot enough to melt the poly as liquid vaporizes at a lower temp. than the poly melts at.You would just have to mount one and hook it to a variable power supply and start cranking it up until you get results .

[BillyBlack]

Well according to Caesar PG is the best cleaner. I wish I could find the pictures he posted with all the black flecks that came out of his atties. He said it is a slow process though, but his home-made almost sonic device helps.

YouTube - Atty cleaning station