Eheim filterpad mod

[Quitter]

I'm using it on my 510's and my Janty Stick's 801 and have had great success on both. The 801 took a few tries to get the width right. I just use the stock thickness from the size U foam. The secret is to have a small amount of compression. The first try on the 801 I just cut the foam to the height of the cart (1.1") and the exact width. It leaked too much. Second attempt was to leave the length the same - 1.1" - but went 1.5X as wide. No leaks but didn't wick that well. So I split the difference and voila! You need just a bit of compression on the foam and the 1.25X the cart width seemed to do the trick. It basically made the 801 atty/cart system useable.

On my 510's I did kinda the same thing as far as a little compression. The 510 was much less particular. It works great. I've dumped all my PTB's in my 510's for this mod.

I should also note that I use a fairly thick DIY juice. It's basically 2/3 PG and 1/3 Glycerin. So this has an impact on the wickabilty and leaking charactaristics.

[Patriotjed]

Originally Posted by quovadis

For the 801 cart a larger cell reticulated foam works best.

The larger cell foam i found is yellow in color and the brand name is AQUA CLEAR.
made by a company called HAGEN. Rolf C. Hagen Inc.
Product name is "AquaClear 50 Foam Insert".

Quo,

Just wanted to add to the great info you already gave. I went to Petco a few days ago to pick up some AquaClear 50 for my poor-wicking Janty stick. I noticed that Fluval makes some foam blocks, and the manufacturer is Hagen as well.

Here's the link... Hagen Fluval Foam Inserts at PETCO

I opened both the AquaClear and Fluval Foam 104/105 packages and the material is very similar. The Fluval comes in 2 thinner blocks versus the 1 thick block for the AquaClear. The Fluval has slightly smaller "pores" than the AquaClear as well. I bought the Fluval because it had less of an odor than the AquaClear did. Just my own personal preference, however.

I brought it home, washed and dried it, and most of the smell went away. For this Fluval foam, I took one block and cut strips 3/8" wide along the long side of the block. This yielded a bunch of 3/8" x 3/4" strips. I cut those strips in half to make 3/8" x 3/8" strips. Each of the 3/8" x 3/8" strips gets cut up to make 2 inserts for the Janty stick atty. I got around 60 inserts out of one block. So for 4 bucks for a pack of 2 blocks, I got about 120 inserts. That works out to $.03 each.

Anyway, on to performance. THIS FOAM ROCKS!!!

Trimmed the "V" in the bottom of the foam, and stuffed it into the cart with tweezers. Trimmed the top to my liking (1/16" under plastic edge of cart). Tilted to the side and dropped in 34 drops of juice (YMMV, depends on bottle dropper size). Dabbed off the top and loaded it into the Stick.

I have had my Janty stick standing up with the atty down for the past few days. 1 cart lasts me almost the whole day. No flooded atty, no dried out wick (see caveat below). Great flavor every hit. To refill the cart, I used a paperclip to "break the seal" and put 25+ drops back in the cart. In fact, the first refill was taking so much liquid, that I thought I was actually missing the cart altogether and dripping onto the floor.

One caveat. On the first day, I put the Stick on its side because I was a little nervous of flooding. Well, it didn't wick well for me on its side and I got the dried out taste. So, I did the thermometer trick to snap the liquid down to the atty. DO NOT DO THIS with the foam if the cart is over half full. With the large pore size, a whole lot of liquid came right out and it did indeed flood the atomizer. I cleaned everything up and started over. This time I just propped the Stick up vertical. No flooding since.

Huge thanks to everyone who has done the initial legwork on this foam mod.

Vape on,
Jed

[PaulZ]

im going out to buy this tomorrow. i must try this foam stuff in my 510 :P

[Dredbull]

I have and LOVE it, even tho I pack a few ptb mixed bags. My foam is a mixure of fluids I like it, and if i need more clouds I drop a few drops of ecopure and away I go.

[decatur]

This stuff is great. One question: some folks have said when their carts are dry their vapor just goes away. When mine goes dry I take a big gnarly drag of burnt nasty vapor I can't say its much different than when a poly or PTB cart goes dry, but maybe more pronounced and immediate. Is that a sign that my atty is going dead, or needs cleaning? It would just be nice if I had a friendlier reminder to refill.

[decatur]

Here's a simple technique when topping off for people having trouble completely refilling. Add several quick drops...there's no need to wait for it to completely soak through. Grab the cart between finger and thumb with the mouth hole facing away from your grip and do a quick windmill motion. Centrifugal force pushes the juice to the bottom of the cart and you can continue topping off. Repeat as necessary, but once or twice is probably all you need.

[hxj]

Originally Posted by decatur

This stuff is great. One question: some folks have said when their carts are dry their vapor just goes away. When mine goes dry I take a big gnarly drag of burnt nasty vapor I can't say its much different than when a poly or PTB cart goes dry, but maybe more pronounced and immediate. Is that a sign that my atty is going dead, or needs cleaning? It would just be nice if I had a friendlier reminder to refill.

In my admittedly limited personal experience, that taste will occur with ANY filler when the atomizer starts to go dry, because it's not the filler burning, it's the atomizer eating itself—specifically, the white fiber wick that connects the mesh bit to the heating coil area.

If you let the atomizer get too dry, it heats up so hot it starts to burn the wick. This appears to be one of the two main causes of atomizer death: the wick finally burning all the way through so that no liquid actually makes it to the coil anymore. (The other is a coil getting so gunked up with caked-on residue that it burns out from the increased heat or breaks the circuit from the pressure. You can prevent the coil-gunk death somewhat by regular cleaning and using better liquids, but the only way to prevent wick-burning death is by keeping the atomizer wet during use—and every time you taste that burnt flavor, the atty is one step closer to the rubbish bin.)

YMMV, as may your atomizers: I use mostly L88b and 306a ones, myself, and the above may not apply to other models.

[DC2]

Originally Posted by hxj

In my admittedly limited personal experience, that taste will occur with ANY filler when the atomizer starts to go dry, because it's not the filler burning, it's the atomizer eating itself—specifically, the white fiber wick that connects the mesh bit to the heating coil area.

I second this motion.

If you let the atomizer get too dry, it heats up so hot it starts to burn the wick. This appears to be one of the two main causes of atomizer death: the wick finally burning all the way through so that no liquid actually makes it to the coil anymore. (The other is a coil getting so gunked up with caked-on residue that it burns out from the increased heat or breaks the circuit from the pressure. You can prevent the coil-gunk death somewhat by regular cleaning and using better liquids, but the only way to prevent wick-burning death is by keeping the atomizer wet during use—and every time you taste that burnt flavor, the atty is one step closer to the rubbish bin.)

Well said.

[cazzz29]

i have the flugal foam, it worked good but it looks plasticky to me, does anyone know how this holds up to heat. I thought it may be melting slightly when using it, but it could have been me being nervous.

[Luv2CUSmile]

Okay, I have my FluVall but now am wondering should I also get the Aquaclear... I haven't had the need to refill filler yet but am eager to rip out a good one just to do it and see how it works...
Ilike the concept behind the Aquaclear though- I am opposite cazzz though- I think the Aquaclear seems to be plasticky... Yet many people are having success with it...?
Well, I am going to try out the FluVal first- then I may try Aquaclear just to see the difference...
Oh! & I already had the idea of- when using Aquaclear (the blue filter) and needing to "plug" w/ polyfill (FluVal) at the top - Just use a hole punch to punch out a circular piece of FluVal to put right on top of cart to keep blue filter from leaking... A hole punch should be exact size of cart diameter... & no "wad" needed...
At any rate, as soon as my new liquids come in, I will be trying out my FluVal... WTH! I need to see if it will work when I really need it to!