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How to Clean Your RDA

Posted by Johnson T. on March 13, 2017

How to Clean Your RDA

Cleaning your Rebuildable Atomizer

Make it a habit of routinely cleaning your hardware for best performance and long term usage. Rebuildable Atomizers (or RDA) are easily one of the messiest part of vape gear, especially since you directly drip ejuice. We encourage every vaper to have a good understanding on rebuildable atomizer maintenance before using.

If you are new to vaping or have any specific questions, feel free to contact Vapebox.

When do we need to clean the RDA?

Ideally, when one's vaping performance is no longer satisfying, it's good indicator to clean your RDA.

Perhaps you took a break from vaping for a while, or just came back from a vacation. Nonetheless, your vape and RDA has been left idle and needs a good pick-me-up.

In fact, right from the opening your RDA from its original packaging, we recommended you clean your atomizer before you use it. Most of the RDA atomizers are produced in a factory or shop, often time machine oil is used. The machine oil that was applied to produce the device can be unsafe and unsatisfying to consume.

Signs that it's time to clean your RDA

Knowing how to clean your RDA is a very important part of the vaping.

Clean your RDA if any of the following indicators apply:

  • Visually - your coil build is "gunked" with leftover residue of darkened e-juice.
  • Odor - the aromas coming from your RDA is more like a stench with no longer identifiable flavors.
  • Textures - touching of your RDA feel sticky and covered in dust.

If your RDA build is showing any of these indicators, it sounds like it's time to clean.

Materials you will need:

  • Paper Towels
  • A bowl of hot/ warm water
  • 90% Alcohol solution
  • Unscented dish soap
  • Toothbrush or small brush
  • Building tools eg. (Coil Cig, Coils, Cotton, Wire Cutters, Ceramic Tweezers, Screw Driver)
  • E-Juice of choice

Steps to cleaning your RDA

Gather the materials you will need and follow these few steps to get your RDA looking fresh and clean!

Step 1: Disassemble

Remove your RDA from the packaging and inspect it to see if there is any damage. Now carefully disassemble your RDA, this includes o-rings and screws. Leave the o-rings on the side, you do not need to clean them. Cleaning them may alternate the shape of the o-rings.

Lay everything out, the RDA parts, o-rings, and screws. Take a mental note or take a picture of the parts, that way you remember how to assemble your RDA.

Step 2: Soak your RDA in water

Grab the bottle of 90% alcohol solution and your RDA parts. Rinse the RDA, over the sink or wherever you prefer, with the alcohol solution. This will remove the stubborn machine oil that may be on your RDA.

Now take your bowl of hot/warm water and mix in the dish soap of your choice. Make sure you put everything except the o-rings inside the bowl. Leave the RDA soaking for about 10 minutes or more. This will remove the residue from leftover e-juice or oil from a brand new RDA.

Step 3: Scrub your RDA

Once your RDA has been soaking in soap water for 10 minutes, grab a small toothbrush. Using the brush, scrub down all the parts one by one.

Make sure to scrub down the inside surfaces the best you can. The inside surfaces are important to clean because that is where the air flows, and tiny e-juice particles get stuck on there.

Tiny parts are hard to use a brush on, so don’t worry if you can’t scrub everything down. The soak usually removes any residue.

Step 4: Rinse & Dry

Take the RDA out of the soap water. Rinse the RDA off under the sink with warm water to remove excess soap. Take your paper towels and dry off the RDA.

Let the RDA air dry so it can dry out completely before putting a new build.

Step 5: Reassemble and build

Gather all the parts including the o-rings and reassemble your RDA.

Now that your RDA is clean, it’s time to start building. This step is all you, so grab your needed building tools and install some new coils!

You should make it a habit to clean your RDA, including your other atomizers. Keeping your devices clean and taking care of them will extend their shelf life. It will also make your vape experience overall better.

How often should you change your coils

Changing your coils is just as important as cleaning your rebuildable atomizers. Replacing your coils is crucial because gunk tends to build up on them the more you vape.

It is is suggested to replace your atomizer coils every few days, but it also depends on how you vape. The life expectancy of your coils depends on how often you vape, what type of e-juice you vape, and the temperature or wattage you vape at.

Chain vaping

Chain vaping is a term used to define vaping all the time. If you like to take a few puffs every couple of minutes then your coils need to be changed more often then casual vapers.

Type of e-liquid

Your coils life is impacted by the e-liquids you vape. E-liquids with sweetners tend to gunk up your coils fast. Sugar molecules don’t entirely vaporize, instead they form small balls of gunk on your coil.

It is hard to determine what e-liquids are used with sweetners because e-liquid companies normally don’t publish a full ingredient list. Typically sweeter e-juices like baked good flavors are the culprit to gunking up your coils.

If you want to extend the life on your coils then choose your e-juices lightly. Test your e-juices before filling up your tank or breaking in your freshly built coils on your RDA. If you notice that your coils are gunking up faster than normal then it could be that your e-juice contains sweetener.

High wattage or temperature

High wattage vaping is normal in the vaping community. Some people like to vape at higher wattages to produce vape clouds and to get the most flavor out of your e-juice. There is nothing wrong with that, but vaping at high temperature every day will degrade your coils performance much faster.

Keeping your RDA clean is important, but it is also important to clean your coils daily. Cleaning the residue off your coils will extend the lifespan on your coil by a few days or a week.

Looking for a new RDA?

Vapebox is a vape subscription service that sends out new hardware and e-juice every month. Every box is custom tailored to your preferences. You can even enjoy the variety between a Sub-ohm Tank or RTA.

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Johnson T.
Johnson T.
In his spare time, he loves to play basketball and gym.
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