How I clean my atomizers and tankomizers

[Day Trader]

I don't use anything harsh like alcohol or anything that could raise problems with the silicon gaskets in them.

But after a dip and slosh cleaning session I said to myself there had to be a better way.

So I was thinking about alternatives while I was waiting for everything to soak and work and I hit upon a solution available to me.

My wife had a jewelery cleaning unit that was battery operated. Basically it is a miniature ultrasonic sink and so far it has not done any damage to the silicon gaskets or O rings. If you really go off the deep end with long sessions it might raise those kinds of issues.

All I use is water from a Brita dispenser and put that into both sides of the unit since it has double sinks built in.

Just a one minute run with them in the hot water side followed by about two minutes in the cold water flush side and they are done.

I have done batches of 12 or more pieces with no issues. If really breaks down the 'gunk' that builds up in the wick and cleans the threads to factory new. Internal passages have all their buildup removed in the process. It restores factory fresh draw to give that original feel.

[Clint]

I think i'm going to try this method out. I normally do the hot water soak, but I have to do it like 3 or 4 times for my tanks to really get clean, it has gotten old fast!

[thevapinggun]

People mentioned using ultrasonic cleaners a long time ago. I think they stopped because the vibrations were breaking the solder joints inside the attys. But I could be wrong.

[Artist Boy]

I still use my homemade Ultra sonic cleaner for my attys. I know some stopped, but I thought it was more due to it making the Magma attys rub against each other and chip the paint.

[Day Trader]

I really think the one minute cleaning is probably overkill. This thing works so well probably only a few seconds would do the job unless you have a real gummed up wick or grunge built up in the threads.

It is so low power that I am not having a lot of concern with breaking internal solder joints. Yeah if I was using an industrial 9.5 Rickter scale carburetor cleaner I would probably suffer a bit of a head slap moment or face palm your choice. But the lower power here seems to clean and not abuse. The key here is breaking down and renewing the wick since that is the usual critical clog point. Also with taking out the buildup in internal passages it is far and beyond any other methods I have even considered as options.

[Shado]

Yes AB...I still use my U Cleaner...but only on Magma attys.

However...the vibrations can dislodge the wic in the TankO's...so....that is one method I do not recommend.

[Day Trader]

Jewelery cleaner units are much lower power since they are dealing with delicate items. They have many solder joints in their makeup depending on the item in question.

Do I propose this as a solver solution? Nope that was not what I was saying only just that it is the method I am trying now to improve over the manual soak and dunk policy. Just giving a heads up to a method I am trying and hoping is a good to go method.

But if they don't break solder joints on jewelery after any number of uses then I would not expect them to break the same things in another product unless that product had very poor joints to begin with.

As I said the key thing I am looking for here is a method to clean out the wick which gets gunked up and renew it to factory condition. I can't really think of another alternative ,unless I can find some chemical to do that and then I would still have the issue of not having it degrade the silicon seals or gaskets in the process. To clean the wick and not damage the silicon seal would be a tightrope walk and for me a LOW power ultrasonic sink MAY be a potential solution that I am evaluating.

For me in the long run it is really not an issue since I can easily foot the bill for attys at whatever rate they fail out or go dead. The closer issue is when they cap me on a single order and say you can only get so many of these and come back later.

[Shado]

Its all cool....do what you feel you must....that is the cool thing here.....just info from everyone from past experiences.

I never said anything about solder joints....they are heat connected.....but the wics are just pressure fitted into the spike and even then.....it is very minimal pressure holding it there.

That was all I stated....vibrations may allow the wick to lose its grip and fall into the coil.

[Day Trader]

Right now I am running two sets of tankomizers to determine trends.

One set I do by the hot water stir and flush method that is recommended and the other set I do for a very short session in hot but not boiling water in the jewelery cleaner.

So far neither group has suffered a failure.

The only odd thing I have happened is not related to cleaning.

I have one takomizer I have to fish out the bottom cap from a tank which stayed inside the thing when I was pulling out the tank to refill it.

Another thing I do is rather than doing the puncture of the tank hole with the tankomizer and then having to pick out the remainder of the hole piece I just use a Dremel Tool with the right size bit to drill a clean hole with nothing to remove later. I hold the bottom cap piece in a jewelery vice when it is drilled so I don't have to flush the tank after drilling.

I am even considering enlarging the hole a bit so that the tip of the bottles of fluid I buy will mate directly up to the tank or I can use the syringe without a tip attachment at all. The tips in the kits seem to clog easily (even when I flush them after usage) so I tend to fill the syringe without the tip on and then put the tip in place to fill the tank since keeping the tip pressed against the tank stops it from blowing off the end of the syringe if it has minor clogging issues.

[geekdgirl]

Some have said that slightly twisting as you pull off the tank keeps the lid attached...