How to fix aerosol cans that won't spray?

[greeneyedgirl107]

I bought several cans of aerosol heat protectant/flat iron spray, and several of them appear to be clogged.  Some didn't spray at all, some sputtered and then did nothing, and some only worked for a few sprays.  Does anyone know how to fix this?  All I keep reading online is to soak the nozzle in hot water.  THANKS!  🙂

[laurenreneenj]

I had the same issue with my Living Proof Dry Shampoo. The bottle was full, and that stuff is so expensive, I wanted to cry. I swapped out the nozzle with my old bottle of the same product and pumped it for maybe 30 seconds and it started spraying again. Make sure you are pumping it straight up and down and it should do the trick!

[greeneyedgirl107]

Bumping this up to see if anyone has additional suggestions.  I tried running the nozzle under hot water, soaking it in hot water, picking at it with a pin and nothing worked. 

I looked online and apparently the pressure inside might be off even though the bottles are full.  YouTubers are saying you can use an air compression tank to re-fill in these instances.  However, it seemed like this was more for bottles that were partially empty.  Also, it was geared more toward industrial products.  Has anyone tried this method?

I also saw a posting that said to increase the pressure inside you could stomp on the bottle.  Again, I'm hesitant to try this.

Thanks, all!  

[prettyinpa]

@greeneyedgirl107-   Try soaking the spray nozzle in alcohol, some hair products are laquer based which dissolves in alcohol and not particularly water soluble.

Do not try to repressurize the cans or stomp on them. That's a recipe for disaster. It's the same reason why you shouldn't put aerosol cans in trash compactors, they can explode.

[greeneyedgirl107]

@prettyinpa Do you rec diluting the alcohol with water, or soaking in plain alcohol?  I read about alcohol online, but haven't looked closely enough.

Thanks for telling me *not* to re-pressurize the cans.  I know it's stupid, but I couldn't resist thinking about it since the product has since been changed and I want to use the "old" formula/bottle.  I know my husband would have said "no," too!

[prettyinpa]

@greeneyedgirl107- To be super safe, you can try slightly diluted alcohol first in case some of the sprayer components are finicky, but I think you'd get the best results using undiluted alcohol. If the lacquer component is really hardened up in there it might take full strength to clean it out. The times I've unclogged nozzles with alcohol I used full strength and soaked it over night.

[greeneyedgirl107]

THANKS for the insight @prettyinpa!  It is most appreciated!

[mmmiu]

I usually find my hairspray clogging up and i just pick off the excess build-up around the nozzle then pop the nozzle off and run it under hot water. have you taken the whole nozzle off before?

[greeneyedgirl107]

@mmmiu I've done it both ways.  🙂

[TrysBeautyItems]

@greeneyedgirl107Unidentified Have you held the nozzle under running hot water yet, sometimes that does work. Then try to spray it in the sink, muscles possibly required, it might push the build up out. Take a toothpick to the nozzle opening, for blockage, then try spraying again. Depending what type of bottle, you could transfer it to another when all else fails or exchange it for new one/contact the manufacturer. 

[greeneyedgirl107]

@TrysBeautyItems  Thanks, I will try those!  Should I bother fiddling with the vertical tube that gets exposed when you take the nozzle off?  IDK if that's the problem.  I've been hesitant to play around with it too much 😛

[TrysBeautyItems]

Try with the nozzle cap on first, with contents under pressure you don't want to do too much.