I Hope Not

[Prouddad]

[size="5"]I hope I didn't kill my atomizers ! Everyone said that they can be cleaned so I did that today, I made them soak in warm water. After a couple of hours I took them out and blowed in them to get all the water out. So this is the question do I supposed to let them dry for several hours or can I use them right away ? I tried to use them but they are not producing vapor, they are heating up but no vapor. Can someone tell me that they need to sit for awhile so they can dry completely or am I screwed.

[mcquinn]

If they have too much water between the cup the element is in and the battery connector the electrons will cheat the system and go the shortcut.If you are hurting ,blow through it some more and more water should come out.Unless they werent producing much vapor before cleaning and then it is possible they are carboned up so bad as to be beyond cleaning.The only way to really hurt one is poking around in there with a sharp object,you can break the element.

Edited February 6, 2011 by mcquinn

[Sharon]

I let mine sit for at least 24 hours, but I did read where someone used a blow dryer to dry one quicker.

[Nanna]

I would say 24 hours or at least overnight.

[Prouddad]

Thanks everyone, I have more atomizers thank God. Okay I will leave them alone until tomorow.

[Uma]

Here's a tutorial from HighPing that might help: Be sure to read the entire instructions first before trying. Many tips were added after the initial listing.

1. Blow out any excess juice.

2. Rinse with hot water and blow out thoroughly. (no need to dry over night, or anything. They have a built in dryer )

3. Connect to battery...preferably something higher voltage than stock. I use my variable voltage power supply that's connected to a PS passthrough and set it to about 5.2V for a 510 (6.5ish for an 801), but if all you have is stock, then that will work too.

4. Push button until you see orange hot...carefully...not super bright (white hot).

5. Let off button and blow down the barrel (from a distance, not with your mouth actually on it), this kind of flash cools it and also gets some of the moist air out to speed the drying process.

6. Repeat (steps 4 and 5) 5-10 times... you will see that gradually (once you've got it dry) the glow will occur much quicker.

7. Once you have it to this point, press and release the button at a rate that just holds the orange glow (kind of a manual 'pulse width modulate'). Keep this glow going for 20-30 seconds, being very careful to maintain the glow at low orange (not bright red/white) or you'll pop it.

8. Once you have done that, repeat steps 2-7 one more time.

At this point you will have an atty that performs like (or better than) brand new. I have used this technique with 510, 801, 901, 401, and 4081 attys and it always works for me. I like this method because it is quick and simple. No need for any cleaners or overnight soaking. Takes 2-3 minutes and you're back in business.

** You do have to use some caution, as you can pop an atty pretty easily until you have the method down. I haven't popped one in quite some time though.

**Also, no need to remove the wick (that's in there for a reason), as you are baking all the gunk out when you do this. This is the reason for the second rinse in the middle of the process. You basically turn the gunk to ash with the sustained orange glow, then rinse the ash out.

If anyone tries this, give some feedback and let me know if you find any ways to perfect this method. Seems to work great, but there are always ways to improve

Edit: (some tips on the "rinse, dry and burn" stages of the process)

**Tips on the 'rinse' stage (step 2)

Step 2 is meant to get as much juice out of the atty as possible. The more juice you can get out with the water rinse, the faster you will get the atty dry in steps 4&5. (The water will evaporate off much quicker than juice.)

- Rinse by just running hot water from the tap first. Then once you have it somewhat clean, fill the atty barrel with water then (before all the water runs out), put it in your lips and blow the water through really hard. This will give all the nickel foam that's in the atty a kind of "power wash" and get most of any remaining juice out.

**Tips on the 'dry' stage (steps 4 & 5):

Steps 4 and 5 are meant to get the atty 'bone dry', before you move on to step 6 and the button pulsing.

-The more water you can blow out before connecting to the batt, the better. Blow through the atty really hard from both ends (not at the same time)

- You can also blow gently down the barrel (from a distance), while holding the button in step 4 to speed the drying process. This will clear the hot moist air out of the atty and allow for a quicker drying time. The key in these steps is to get the atty dried out.

Tips on the 'Burn' stage (step 7)

The whole key to not popping the atty is keeping a good visual on the coil, and watching the hottest part while pulsing the button. I have had a few attys that will get bright hot on one end of the coil and nothing on the other end of the coil. The way to make this method the most effective is to maintain that orange glow at the hottest end while pulsing the button. If you keep it up long enough you will see the glow slowly migrate across the coil. When you are all done the entire coil should glow when the button is pressed.

Once you are past the drying step, you should not hold the button for more than one second. It should really be much shorter than that. More like a button pulse of 2-3 times a second.

taken from highping thread "How I ressurect my attys" at ecf