Canned air on atty

[Spoontallica]

yeah, you don't want bitterant in your atty...yeck

[EAPellow]

I find using the compressed air works really well in conjunction with dry burning after a good power flush (I use Shado's technique there) to help work off the ash that forms from burning off carbon and other deposits on the coil. I heat it up, then give it a very short burst of air. The air rushing out of the can is what makes it cold because it's going from high to low pressure - the longer you hold down the nozzle on the air canister, the colder it gets, and you can monitor this by how cold the canister is to the touch. A few short bursts at a time while dry burning shouldn't create too big of a temperature differential to damage the coil. It has definitely helped me to remove chunky bits of black residue and always helps blow off ash, allowing for more oxygen to reach the coil and potentially a more efficient dry burn/descaling.

Whenever possible, I try to use compressed CO2 cartridges, which are nothing but CO2 since, let's face it, who in their right mind would wanna huff that? I've been using a normal compressed air canister recently though without issues of any smells or tastes being left behind.

[MrBones]

I've been using one of those mini air compressors used for airbrushing. It has a regulator (0-40 psi) and a filter on it. I had a cheapo airbrush that was never used and works good as a nozzle. This compressor is a diaphram type so there isn't any worry of getting oil in the compressed air.

[EAPellow]

sweet, how much was that? The smallest hardware store air compressor is too much for anything I really need (well... really just more than I'd ever like to haul around). It never occurred to me to use a smaller diaphragm operated one like this.

[MrBones]

I got this one from my SIL who used to work for Badger. Looking around on Ebay they are $50-$100. Mine is a Badger 180-11. I got tired of blowing the water out of tanks and attys after washing them and with 2 of us vaping it seems like I do a lot of cleaning. You can dial the pressure down to a few PSI so no worries blasting lots of air through an atty.

I put a hose on the thread end of my clearos and the dry air clears out most of the moisture very quickly. Way better than blowing moist air from your mouth, that is for sure.

[Old Hippie]

Canned air uses butane as it's propellant.. That's why if ya turn the can upside downer at a wrong angle..liquid butane comes out...it is very cold.. When you spray canned air you are spraying vapor off the top of the liquid butane..so if ya spray it faster than if can vaporize.. The can freezes up.. Ya can warm it with your hands or let it warm on it's own..and continue spraying.. Canned air is highly flammable..don't ask me how I know lol..but yea ya don't wanna spray it on anything electrical unless it's unplugged lol:) Peace. Wait my brain worked:)) what's up with that? I must be sick lol:)) Peace

[EAPellow]

From what I understand, butane has mostly been fazed out as a propellant. At least, I haven't seen it in any compressed air canisters by me in NY for quite some time. The propellant in my canned air is some sort of fluorocarbon, trifluoroethane if I remember correctly.

Still, it is classified as "extremely flammable," so heed hippie's advice! It's easy to get careless and tilt the can while using it, causing the liquid propellant to spray out the nozzle and either frost over whatever you were dusting, or just ignite on a nearby flame or spark. (I'm not telling anyone to go playing with fire, but burning the propellant is probably better than letting it rarify in the air. It may not be a CFC, but fluorocarbons are pretty stable greenhouse gases. A little compressor like MrBones' is really a good choice as buying canned air really stacks up to a lot of dough over time, and you have no flammability or temperature issues.)

[EAPellow]

Also, if you're interested in using an air pump that uses a diaphragm like the one MrBones uses so that no compressor oil gets into the air, another choice instead of an airbrush pump would be a pond pump. I'm not really familiar with air brush pumps, but I know that pond pumps are generally low pressure, high volume pumps. They also are available with manifolds , from which you would attach 1/8 inch tubing that would go to airstones, but you could attach a bunch of cleaned attys instead and let it dry them. Being low pressure, they are very quiet.