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How To Clean A Cold Spark Machine (CryoFX® Full Cleaning Process Internal & External)

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How to Clean a Cold Spark Machine

What’s up guys, welcome to CryoFX YouTube channel and this video we’re going to talk about how to clean a cold spark machine. So, diving right in as I say in a lot of my videos because we want to avoid wasting any time, there are two different methods to clean this.

Types of Cold Spark Machine Cleaning

You have a general cleaning, and then you have an in-depth, internal cleaning. So, we’re going to talk about both here because I want to make sure that you are aware of what these cleanings are.

Why Proper Cleaning Is Vital For Your Machines

You also need to know how to set your cold spark machine properly up for the best use possible and get the most longevity out of it if that’s even a phrase, and they get the best out of it. Because the problem is that a lot of people return these and say it doesn’t work, or it’s clogged or there’s an issue.

Well, you might not have an issue after one or two times but when you do not clean it, when you do not do the things I’m going to tell you in this video, that’s when the issues occur, six months, seven months, eight months down the road and the last thing that you would want is to have one of these machines mess up before your event, and then you’re high and dry. We’re going to keep it PG here, so I’ll just say that.

Preparing the Cold Spark Machine for Cleaning

I’m not having this cold spark machine plugged in right now because we are shooting this video and I’m going to be showing this on other videos. However, let’s say you just got done at an event you just finished using the machines. You want to let the machine cool off. Again, for the purpose of this video, you will unplug everything from the machine, the machine goes off, you unplug everything, and you let the machine cool down.

We recommend anywhere from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. If it’s outside, maybe a little bit faster, but for this particular cleaning you could wait 15 minutes to go in the machine. You’re going to want to wait at least 30 minutes or more because there are heating elements inside that will have this machine really hot, and you want to avoid doing anything in the machine when the machine’s hot.

Taking Out The Granules

So, the first portion of this cleaning or if you want to know how to clean a cold spark machine, the general cleaning procedures are this. Unplug everything from the machine, you go ahead, and you get a case or a bowl or something that is clean. You have granules still in the machine. You will go ahead, and you open the top, and you will take the machine and turn the machine upside down, making sure that the granules spill out into whatever case that you’re going to be spilling them out into.

There’s not a lot in here because this is just a video that is a demonstration, but you get the point. Tip the cold spark machine over, make sure that all the granules in here are out. You can put your finger in there, you’ll be able to see the little pork screw. Make sure the machine’s unplugged, I can’t stress that enough. Once that is done, then you go ahead to put the cap back on it. And I’m not going to do this on this video, but I’m going to walk you through what you need to do because if you’ve already used the machine, you already know how to do this.

Power and Machine DMX

You will go ahead, and you plug the power con back in. you’ll plug the machine DMX back in if you’re using DMX or your controller, whether it’s wireless or manual. And then you’ll turn the machine on, you’ll let the machine heat back up. You’ll then go ahead, and you’ll fire the machine repetitively until no more sparks come out of the machine.

I say that like this because I can’t stress it enough, what you’re doing at this point is, not only have you cleaned, if you come over here and look at this because I have this cold spark machine open, this is the reservoir on top. So, not when you turn the machine upside down, you’re emptying this reservoir. However, let me get into the machine here. So, I can show you the machine itself. It has this little funnel, once this reservoir is empty, you still have a corkscrew that goes into this funnel.

This funnel actually still has granules in it and there are still granules inside this heating element. If you turn the machine off after emptying it out, and you let it sit well, that’s great and all, but it’s really not because these granules in this heating element and inside the heating element, we have other videos that show you inside it and I have a link in the description below. Those granules inside are going to get cold, and they will stick on the corkscrew.

How and Why To Prevent Granule Residue Accumulation In Your Machine

And then when you heat the cold spark machine back up, they’re still in there, they’re still going to be heating up. And that process over and over is likely to leave residue, and it’s going to cake up. Remember earlier in the video that I said going and using this one or two or three times or 50 times, you might not have a problem, but leaving those in there, that cakes up in that residual compound and could cause an issue down the road. so, that is the initial cleaning on these.

To start again, how to clean a cold spark machine. Initially after every use you turn the machine upside down, you empty the granules out, you plug it back in, and then you go ahead, and you expose the rest of the granules. You get them out of there once the machine doesn’t spit granules out anymore.

Now, its safe and I say safe, but it’s okay to turn it off, let it cool down and put it away for use the next time. so, that’s the first part on how to clean a cold spark machine. Getting in and doing a deep dive on spark machines in which we kind of already showed you the inside of one here, how to clean the inside is a whole different story.

Steps to Carry Out Internal Cleaning On the Cold Spark Machine

Disconnect all plugs

First and foremost, make sure the cold spark machine is completely unplugged. You do not want this plugged in. I don’t even want to plug in the machine. Unplug it from the wall, unplug the plug from the machine. Literally make sure the machine looks like this, like you can slide your hand across the entire face of it because nothing is plugged in. then you know that it’s safe to open the machine up.

Remove the screws and top

There’s a series of screws on top, I don’t have to go over that. Literally every screw on the top of this faceplate, you can see the holes in that faceplate except for this one and this one is going to have a screw. You literally take all those screws out. I don’t have to show you, that is super rudimentary. Now on the top of the machine, you’re going to have a little tab that sticks up here.

Let me turn this portion of the cold spark machine like this. There is a ground wire that will disconnect, and then you can take this top off. You set the top aside, this would normally be upright like this. So take that off, set the top aside. This would normally be on the machine but for the purpose of this video, we have it apart.

Detach the cords

Now, this particular cord right here. It would normally be through the machine as such. If it’s not, there’s a problem. Nothing should be going over this heating element. Now this would normally be attached to the circuit board. As such, you’re going to want to detach that very carefully, do not pull on this wire. You pull on the wire, you will pull the wire out of this bracket, and it’s not going to be able to connect back to there, and you’re going to have a difficulty.

So, make sure you get this white piece, and you disconnect the white piece very gently. I have to be comical at some point, anyway, disconnect that again all the screws. Let me take this off for the ease of the video. You won’t be able to do that because the screws are on. You can take the entire cold spark machine case off and out of the way.

Now you have this cold spark machine open and exposed. What you’re going to want to do is you’re going to want to go into the machine as such, let me move this completely out of the way so I have some access here. So I’ve already taken some of this apart and I’ll explain exactly where that is because I want to make this video fast and I don’t want you seeing me undoing screws and all this unnecessary stuff. So I’ve already loosened these four screws one, two, three, four.

Therefore, I can move this motor up and down. So, I probably should have mentioned this before, these are the I spark effects m3 and m4 machines. The m2s, which are the larger ones, look identical inside. It’s just a larger case and maybe some rearranged circuitry.

Are The Interiors Of All Cold Spark Machine The Same?

If you’re working on other spark machines, the general gist of the items and the general internal components are going to be the same. So don’t think that they’re not, they will be the same. They might look a little bit different, but the functionality and everything inside is more or less the same. You might have a chain instead of a rubber belt, if you have a chain you’re not going to have this blower.

Those are just some things that you need to be aware of. So for the sake of this video and how to clean a cold spark machine, if you come forward, I’m going to go in, and we’re going to go right in and deep dive into this. So, I’ve loosened these screws if I haven’t said that already so that I can bring this motor up and down. By doing so, I bring the motor up, and I’m able to take the band off.

Now there are two holes here which an Allen wrench like this five sixty fourths can go in and actually undo this. Well, I’ve already done that for the purpose of this video because I want to make sure that we get straight to the point. So, once those are loosened, there’s two of them, this thing will come off.

Dealing with the screws

Now what I will have to do is instead of those, let’s go up here, and I will, I did one screw already as you can see. This hole right here, I’ve taken one screw off. Again, for the purpose of this video, this one screw was just holding this piece on. Now let me say this, while I take this screw out, make sure you don’t lose these screws.

Make sure you know which screws go in what areas on the cold spark machine. This is because certain screws fit in certain areas and some don’t, they don’t fit in other areas. Some screws are longer than some other screws, and they will not do justice if you put them in the wrong areas.  Now I’ve loosened that, I’m going to turn this around, so you can see this. Now why I do this is because, presently, this is loose, right?

Cleaning Out the Funnel

Well, this funnel will normally have granules inside it, so you want to make sure that you get your finger up under that as fast as possible. This is because if you don’t, you’re going to spill granules all over here. They can get in your motors, they can get in areas you just don’t want to do that it’s not going to completely harm the cold spark machine, but it’s definitely not good for the machine. This one is already emptied, so in order to do this, let me turn this completely around.

I’m going to bring this out to the side, I’m going to go ahead and kind of work it’s way up. And when I see that it’s right about, well, that took it all the way out, but let’s say it’s right about there. Tilt it, get my finger there and bring this like this. Now you want to make sure that you’re careful because that can come completely apart. Remember this will be full of granules, that’s what it looks like there.

That’s the top of it, and of course there’s the corkscrew that screws them in there. What you’re going to do is you’re just going to put that back together and set that off to the side. So, you don’t want that anywhere near what you’re doing.

Safety Caution

Again, I will say this, please make sure this cold spark machine is not plugged in, and please ensure that this machine has not been plugged in or used for at least let’s say 45 to 60 minutes. Earlier in the video, I think I said 30. I want to make sure that this is not hot because what we’re going to do here is actually go into this and if it’s hot, you’re really going to damage yourself and that’s going to be a big problem.

Cleaning the Heating Element and Bearings

Now, I know we’re kind of all over the place here, but I wish to make sure that we’re not sending the video guy all over the place so what we’re going to do is this. I’m going to keep talking because I will explain a couple of things but these four screws one, two, three, four are the four screws that I will go ahead, and I will take off completely. So while I’m taking these screws off, why we’re doing this is because what’s happening is this is the corkscrew for the heating element.

Now, this heating element itself needs to be cleaned periodically. Earlier in the video, I mentioned that if you don’t empty the machine out, and you don’t do the initial cleaning that we talked about earlier in the video, you’re going to have to be doing this a lot sooner than later. So, I’ve already loosened four screws down here, which I mentioned. I’ve already taken the belt off, I’ve already taken the other drive wheel off or reciprocal drive wheel, whatever you want to call it.

More on Cleaning the Heating Element

Therefore, now this is completely apart and loose, not to mention I’ve also taken this screw out already so that you could see this. And the reason why is that those two screws allow this frame and this frame to come apart, and it’s needed because after I took those four screws out on the drive heating element, what happens is this is basically sandwiched in between this piece and this vertical piece.

Without taking the vertical piece completely off the machine, it is designed in such a way that you can just open this up a little bit like this and this pops out just like that. Now this comes out, you want to make sure that this washer, if you will, goes to the side. There are some bearings, you can go ahead and clean these bearings. We recommend just blowing them off with an air compressor. I’m going to set this heating element, you can see that there’s some residual inside.

There are some granules. Tap those out, we can blow those out of there sometimes they’re really in there, and they will not come out.

Avoid the Use of Solvents

I need to stress this really importantly here, do not clean this with solvent. Do not put any solvent in this machine at all. No WD-40, no gasoline, no alcohols, nothing. I don’t care if other videos have told you to do that, we’re not doing that on this video, and I’m not going to advise you to do any of that on this video. Not only to mention that anything wet around this circuitry will ruin it.

Anything wet around motors is going to ruin it and anything wet around these bearings and around this internal heating corkscrew lots of parts is going to ruin it. Remember I said earlier that things build up on here. There’s a little bit of stuff that’s already built up, I can literally just wipe my fingers on it, and you can see that it’s built up. You want to avoid cleaning it with anything because if you do, it may leave a residue, more so than the granules.

It may gunk up, it may be problematic, and it may just be an issue, so all I would recommend is literally taking one of these, if they do come off. I even just don’t I don’t even take it off, just leave it like this. This one’s already kind of sandwiched on there with this clip. Go ahead, and you’ll just use an air compressor, blow all of this off, get all the granules out. I’m just blowing that here, but you could see most of them come off already. Use my finger, get some of those other ones off. Now that stays like that.

Cleaning Your Cold Spark Machine with a Wire Brush

What I’m not going to do on this video is show you how to clean this with a wire brush. But you would just take a wire brush similar to the wire brush that you would use for a battery terminal or similar that you would use for I want to say a barbecue grill. Don’t grab your barbecue grill because there’s grease on that one, and grease on this is going to mess it up. So get a clean wire brush, make sure that the wire brush is brand new, and you’re going to want to wire brush this off.

Furthermore, make sure that it is completely clean. Once it is, then you go ahead, and you want to make sure that this is clean take a rag just wipe this out, and you’ll stick the corkscrew right back inside. Now, for the purpose of this video, I’m going to go ahead and take this off. Probably not over the circuit board, but therefore you can see the inside of this. Blow all that away.

Internal Components Of The Spark Machine

What you’re seeing here is this, just to name a couple of things, here you have your insulation, you have your heat shield and of course that leaks white powder. What that white powder is these wires come all the way up to this temperature, this is a temperature sensor really. All this does is just get the temperature of this and report back to the logic board. This is your actual heating element right here, this wrap around that comes out here, all that is a heat element that goes around here as you can see. If I take the internal piece out, that’s how the inside of it looks, literally.

How to clean the inside of a cold spark machine. So, those are your internal parts, we’ll go ahead and get some of that stuff out of there. I’m going to go ahead and put this back on as such. Let me see here, I just want to make sure that this is correct and once that goes like that, looks like we’re good to go. So then you can go ahead and take this, put this back over here, feed this through this hole as such.

More on the Internal Components of the Cold Spark Machine

And I’m going to go ahead and pry these apart, I know my hands kind of in the way but I’m putting this inside the hole that comes up from this vertical piece on the inside of it. So, once I do that oh you know what if you guys didn’t catch it, I just did because that was loose in there. I have to put this washer back on, so try to get ahead of yourself, but that happens sometimes.

But you want to make sure that you double-check yourself once that’s in there, and it’s seated appropriately, they’re leaning back and forth and that makes sense. So, moving quickly, I’m going to line these up as you see these holes right here. I’m lining the holes up and I’ll go ahead and put one of these in the kind of hold that in place as such. Let’s go here and then I’ll go ahead and make it lined up here and I’ll put the other one in place.

Recoupling the Cold Spark Machine

Now, for the purpose of this video, I’m not going to put the whole thing back together because you’ve already been on it enough, but I’m going to put the other two screws in there. Let’s go ahead and point, I’m going to insert this screw insert this screw I’m going to tighten them cross cross cross cross get those nice and tight. Once those are in, I’ll go ahead and I’ll put this piece back up. What I’m going to do here, turn this around, put this funnel inside the hole, boom.

Swing this around, now you come to the other side. Again this will have two screws, I’m only putting one in right now for the purpose of this video, if I can even find it where it goes. There we go and once that’s in here we go here. I’ll just screw this in, so it stays and I can continue explaining the rest of the video. However, you will be putting another screw in right here. Do not leave it like this again, this is just for the purpose of this video. Another screw goes in here.

These will already be tight, then you come down here you’ll go ahead you’ll put this piece back on the drive shaft there and this will go back on one of these ways. And once it goes back on it’s the inside is super clean now, so it’s a little bit easier to kind of turn. But once that’s back on, then you’ll use your Allen wrench, you’ll go ahead you’ll tighten this down, you’ll tighten this down, lift the motor up, grab your drive belt, put the drive belt on it like that.

Handling the Drive Belt

Make sure the drive belt is seated accordingly and then with your hand you’ll come over here, and you’ll push this motor down. While you’re pushing it down, you tighten one, two, three, four. Once that’s done, you’ll go back over, and you’ll put the machine back together quickly. I’m gonna breeze through this super fast so that we can get you off this video. I hate long videos, and I know you do too.

You’ll go ahead, and you’ll put the case on the machine but while you do that remember this does not go over here, no you don’t want that over there. You want to go underneath, grab this, we’ll go ahead and kind of put the case on it as such. Oops, don’t want that falling all over the place there, go ahead and connect this to the circuit board right here. I’m not going to do it just for the purpose of the video, and then we’ll go ahead, we’ll put this piece up.

Fixing up the Ground Wire

However, before we put that piece up, I just noticed something here, see? I’m getting ahead of myself already. This ground wire, you want to make sure is on the case here. So that ground wire here, remember that? So, this goes on ground wire here you’ll probably want to put your screws in as such, and then you’ll go ahead and again this will already be connected. These will look a lot neater because there are zip ties already in there, and you’ll go ahead and put this up.

Put the screws in, then you have your top plate. Top plate goes on now this would not be here like this, the top plate will go on like this. Remember this ground wire goes on the top plate there to that little tab. Then this goes on here, boom, these two screws and then screws on the top and then the cap goes on and that’s the cherry on top of that cake right there.

Conclusion

Wow, so there you have it. In a nutshell, how to clean a cold spark machine. Please do me a favor if you like this video, click that like button because it seriously helps us and I am completely not winded right now. I can keep going but anyway I wanted to dive in deep to show you how to clean a cold spark machine with your normal cleaning and on the inside. I hope you guys like this video, super informative. Again all spark machines work the same on the inside.

Resources and links in the description and until next time check us out online CryoFX.com or the links below we’ll talk to you.