I’ve seen a few tutorials on cleaning replacement coils. Does anyone here do this? I’m currently using Aspire Atlantis 2 tanks with ni200 coils on a tc mod. I pay around $3-4 per coil and they usually last me around two weeks. It’s not like they’re crazy expensive or anything, but if I could get a little more life out of them I’d love it. I’ve seen people boiling them, running then under hot water, soaking them in rubbing alcohol (gross!) or vodka, or soaking then in straight pg to clean them. Just wondering if anyone can give me any tips, or is this just a stupid idea…?
I’ve seen people do this with coils that haven’t gotten blackened yet. Mostly with an ultrasonic cleaner and distilled water. I’ve never tried it, but would love to know if others have had good results, too.
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Hmmm… I’m picturing a coil in some pg in an UC. That might work.
Before I learned to rebuild them, I used to soak my evod/protank coils in PGA/vodka overnight, but the results were never as good as after I learned to rebuild.
Atlantis does make an RBA head, but I don’t know anything about it…
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I just haven’t gotten to the rebuilding point yet. I know, I really should. But I’m dragging my feet. Good to know they have rebuildable option though. I might have to look into that.
Fasttech has these, https://m.fasttech.com/p/3856300
Spin your own coil and pop it in. Maybe the only way to use tanks soon. If FDA gets its way.
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Vodka. It is really that simple. Get some cheap vodka, a few $ and you’ll have 500ml or so, will last you months. Rinse the coil in hot watter first, to remove any heavier gunk, then just drop it into an egg cup, or something similar. Pour in your vodka and leave it over night. Rinse off again with hot water an allow to dry out. You’ll have a perfectly fine coil good to go. I would only do this once per coil mind.
@VapeyMama I am also cheap. I just throw them in my ultrasonic cleaner with hot tap water. Mostly you’re just cleaning the cotton. That is what is giving you the bad flavor. Tip #1 don’t vape your juice all the way down.
I don’t vape below the top of the coil because that’s were you’ll find your cotton has turned to ashes (black). I can go like 10 days before it’s just not good vaporwise (cotton is gunked).
After 20-30 minutes in a ultrasonic the cotton is pretty washed out but the coil isn’t perfect. Gently take the tip of a pipe cleaner and spin it down in there. It will come out dirty. Just snip off that little dirty 1/4" and save the rest for next time (now that’s cheap!)
I get about 3 times, but it doesn’t get as clean that second time (cotton). If you have some old (dry!) coils now you can look closely at the very top and even poke it with a pin. If it’s ashey it can’t be fixed …it’s a taste thing
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Idk… Since building my own, I don’t see myself ever going back to premade coils… For the 3-4$ for a premade coil, I could make enough to last me months… To whatever resistance I want
Truuue. I haven’t bought coils for awhile. Maybe @VapeyMama should look at a Kanger Dripbox. The coils would be able at least to be re-wicked
I tried it a few times with Nautilus and various other coils but they never come close to being “like new”. Something happens to the wick and it disintegrates enough that it tastes muted at best and leaks at worst. I just received a couple of VVTF Nautilus/Kabuki RBA V2 heads and they work well but frustrating to built on due to the super small size. At least I can now blow the dust off my Nauti collection.
If anyone is interested:
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@VapeyMama hello I have never re used a coil before and I had the crown until recently I was sick of buying coils for it so I bought the rba head for it and never had any luck with that either I always had hot legs metalic taste burnt all the time so I did a bit of digging and quite a lot of people have problems with rba heads so I went out and bought the griffin rta and from the first day I got it I have loved it no problems at all so easy to build on now I am running ti coils on it and using tc and the flavour is amazing
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I’ve done it. I use my UC then after an hour in it. I soak the coil overnight in Vodka, then let it dry out for a couple of days depending on the weather and temp. It always seems a little harsher than a new coil and won’t last as long as a new one.
Try it next time without the alcohol. I think the alcohol might dissolve some of the oil-based gunk which might contaminate the cotton instead of clean it …theory. Dry brushing the coil (pipe cleaner) gets crusty stuff off the wire core without dissolving it …and maybe keeping that flavor out of the cotton. …totally guessing but worth a try …oh wait or just buy an RTDA heh
The coils are pretty clean by the time I get to alcohol, and dry brushing them just pushes the gunk into the cotton. I use the alcohol to displace the water, makes them dry better/faster. Also if you get to the alcohol soak and the alcohol comes up with some discoloration in it you know they weren’t clean enough.
[scratching head] makes sense. I have cleaned things in my ultrasonic with solutions you couldn’t fill your ultrasonic with… like take a small tall glass and fill it with whatever and the item being cleaned and put the glass down in the ultrasonic and the UC transfers into your little subcontainer. Maybe take a capped bottle (10 ml?) put in your coil, and fill with alcohol. screw the top on tight and drop it in the UC? Then you’re UC cleaning with pure alcohol …or blowing up …ermm maybe do it with cold water instead of hot in the UC.
I have 2 of those RBAs on the way here now. Glad to hear they work well, performance-wise. The rebuilding difficulty is hopefully something I’ll overcome, with practice. I’ve been rebuilding the Joytech CLR coils for a while now, and they’re pretty small, as well. My magnified desk lamp is my friend!
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The screws that come with it are tiny. Smaller than what you would find on a pair of glasses. Make sure you have a work area where they won’t get lost if you drop them. If you have a Nautilus mini use the base for that to mount/wick your coils as the full size base is too deep and you won’t be able to. If not, maybe use a block of stiff foam to hold the RBA while you align and screw everything in. You might be able to get away with 28g wire. I ran out and had to use 30g.
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Sounds like good common sense to me.
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Thanks for the tips, good to know. I’ll use a tray for the inevitable dropping of the screws.
Yes, mine’s a Mini.