Cleaning gunk off an RDA

So I have an RDA with a lot of gunk built up, sort of like juice that has turned into something awful. It doesn't seem like just water will get the job done, what can I safely use to remove hard to remove build up?

 

You should clean them more often lol.

I usually rewick every few days and always rinse them out.

An old toothbrush and soap should be good enough.

 

Maybe I'll try the vodka overnight.

Actually I bought it used so it was someone else's. I'm guessing maybe it sat unused for a long time with the juice still left inside. I was thinking rubbing alcohol but maybe vodka would be safer. At least it should be easy to dry out etc, but I guess better to try something safer first.

I just tried soaking my old kanger coil in vodka and like in the past it was worse after cleaning than it was before.

**Updated**

Oh and the Veritas never really gets much build up, probably because like you I rinse it fairly often.

Maybe it has to do with the build, it's the trident V2 I believe.

 

You should have no issues using rubbing alcohol.

I visited Amorn below Tukcom and purchased a ultrasonic cleaner with heat and use distilled water.

Kurt

 

From what I understood the OP is talking about cleaning the whole RDA. I second dry burning the coil once the RDA is clean, though.

I let them glow red and put them under running water, two or three times. They are good as new. I do that 3 times a week I'd say, every time I rewick.

 

The gunk is sort of dried on to areas of the RDA that isn't the coil. For example between one of the posts and the wall of the RDA there's just crusty dried juice or something in that little area and I can't seem to get a brush or anything to rub against it. It's sitting in vodka now, I'm hoping tomorrow with a toothbrush and some elbow grease I should be able to get it out.

Cool thing is these RDA's seem just about indestructible, this thing probably just sat with juice in it and it dried on, might even be rust for all I know, I'm just going to try to get it cleaned before I use it.

That ultrasonic cleaner looks really nice, I just think I wouldn't have to do this if I used it properly (I hope!). I re-wick often as I change juice often, but I'm going to guess this RDA sat for a long time with juice still in it, so it just dried on and it's difficult to get off.

 

What -V- and Tibo said. Dry burn, rinse, repeat for gunked up coils. I never came across dried juice but a good soak in rubbing alcohol and a scrub should do the trick. Even soap and water should clean that off since e-juice is water soluble.

Oh, and just drink the damn vodka will you. No sense wasting it.

 

I don't drink at all so alcohol is in a short supply here. But the ultra sonic cleaner is really great. Warm water with a little bit of soap, about 3 minutes x two and the result is great. I got a tendency to forget attys for days with juice in them, and this is a quick way to clean up the mess.

 

After seeing this atty yesterday, @David in Bangkok just does not do the description of this justice.

The closest I could come to it would be...

A dry shit pipe.

Just unscrewing the coil I could feel the soft squelch of 'gunk' between screw and screwdriver.

Wish I had taken a picture of it beforehand now lol

 

My mistake was trying to vape off it. Shouldn't have been worse than a few cigarettes.

I really love my Veritas and I was just asking around for a used RDA to play with. I guess I got one I could play with, but it doesn't seem like it will ever be safe to really use. I don't know if it can be cleaned, but I guess we'll see.

You know I left the coil in, but I soaked it in both vodka then rubbing alcohol for a few nights, can you imagine what it looked like before?
It made the alcohol turn colors, I am sort of curious how it got this way, but the seller is a really nice guy and it's not like I paid a lot so I don't really want to make a deal out of it.

 

I imagine it looked like something from the bottom of the ocean. I got most of it off, I just used a Scotch Brite pad. When I get some time I'll see if I can remove the posts and have a proper rub around with the SB in there.

 

All with the scrotch brite? I used a toothbrush and soaked it in alcohol, I got a lot off. I just couldn't get the rest off, and it seems like if I put it in vodka, it will turn the vodka red or some other weird color, but I don't even know where it's coming from. There is that ring around it that you were scratching at, it wouldn't come off after hours in alcohol and scrubbing a toothbrush against it.

By the way if it takes a lot, it might be better off thrown away. I don't think it's any original, and as far as when I tried it, it didn't seem like anything special for sure. Was interested if the sonic cleanser or something would have a different/better effect on it, but from the time I had with it, I imagine it's going to take quite a bit of elbow grease to just scrub it all off....
Anyways, don't feel bad about binning it if you get frustrated, I've spent far more on juice I've never used. I think a new one can't be more than 500B, it's really something that should have just been binned in the first place, I just couldn't imagine that juice could really gunk up as bad as it is. I think you were right that I didn't describe it correctly, but I had never seen juice do anything this bad, I am pretty sure it is gunked up juice (that is years old?), but somehow it does look more like it was found while scuba diving.