Pls advise which is the longest lasting cartridge filler for 510?

[SwanVesta]

Short answer: Shredded PTB! Click here for the details.

There are two factors affecting how long a cartridge lasts:

1) (Generally the most important.) How well the material "wicks" the liquid to the atomizer. If the filler doesn't wick well, it won't matter how much the cartridge holds - after using just a bit of the juice in it you'll need to top up.

2) How much liquid you can put into the cartridge. For most materials this isn't a big factor. With polyester fibers (the stuff cartridges come with) or PTB, the filler material takes an insignificant percentage of the space in the cartridge. You'll get well over 90% as much liquid into the cartridge with these fillers in place as you would with an empty cartridge.

Some other factors come into play in this. You don't want a filler which doesn't hold the liquid well enough to avoid flooding the atomizer. And you probably don't want a filler which has a chance of being vaporized itself. (Those polyester fibers can create an awful taste if they stray into the hottest part of the atty, and I doubt that those gasses are healthy.)

The shredded PTB filler takes some practice to get right. I did it quite a few times before I felt I'd perfected it. If you want the ultimate result it is important to understand how it works. You want to end up with a lot of PTB fibers which will surround the atomizer's bridge even after pulling the cartridge out, refilling, and reinserting it numerous times. But the final result is awesome. I can now make a new one in a few minutes for either a 510 or an 801. I can vape over 75% of the cartridge's raw juice capacity with the same vapor output as direct dripping. (If you haven't done that, please just consider it to be the gold standard for the best that wicking can ever be.) I carefully pull these out with tweezers, rinse in water, dry in a paper towel, and re-insert when changing flavors. They last a long time if they're not put through that procedure much. (After a few times through that routine they can become hard to re-shape to hug the atomizer correctly.) I have one which I've left in use with the same flavor for over two weeks now, never pulling or cleaning it. I vape that one for about 1/3 of my day (it is my high-nic unit) and haven't noticed any degradation in performance, so I'd say life expectancy (for full time use with just top-offs, i.e. one flavor and no pull/rinse/reinstall cycle) is at least five days of full time use for shredded PTB without flavor changes.

Hope this helps.

WOW thanks for your time writing such a great reply and giving me the link too!

I have ordered some PTB from Tesco Online although I hear our UK PTB are not the same as yours over the pond so I might pop a question in the UK forum to ask which make they use.

Really appreciated thank you

Swan

[SwanVesta]

Marineland Aquarium filter foam sleeves size U. I can fit 26 drops in my 510 and can get upwards of 75-100 puffs on one cart. Its kind of tricky to figure out the exact size to cut the foam to prevent leaking, but once you get it its so quick, easy, and long lasting. Plus, after a couple days you just rinse it in hot water and its good to go again! Poly-fill sucks, tea bags are ok but it takes to long and its really tedious. Blue foam is by far the best.

OK the possibility of 75-100 vapes from one cart has me very interested in this!! Thanks for your reply

Swan

[SwanVesta]

Can I just say a huge thank you for your help with this guys. This forum is so helpful and I hope one day to be able to help the newbies too!

Swan

[rhoneil]

Ok, I just did another test video. What I was testing was how many drops I could get in an empty Brass 'Rose' screen mod and an FRF PTB mod. In an earlier test I found out that I was able to top off a Brass Rose with 15 drops so I also wanted to include in this test how many drops it would take to top off an FRF PTB mod.

I am able to get 20 drops into an empty 510 round tip cart. That said what I found was I could get 19 drops in a new FRF PTB and a new Brass Rose mode. I also found that I was able to top off an FRF PTB mod with 15 drops. So, just speaking of capacity, the FRF PTB and the Brass Rose are the same. Again, this is just from one experiment. There are other factors such as type of juice and droppers, I guess, but I tried to make those as consistent (as I was willing to)

All this being said, I would not necessarily put that many drops in a cart especially when topping off. When Im topping off I am usually not in a position to blow out my atty. I really dont even care how many drops Im topping off with. I am usually leaving the house or leaving the office for an hour or so and dont what to take everything but I dont want to run out of juice. So I would grab a battery out of the PCC and top off by touching the dropper head on the edge of whatever material is in the cart that day and squeeze until I see it pooling, then use the bottle to suck some juice back out.

The times I would use that much juice in a cart is if I have a minute to blow out the atty. That way I know that the atty gets some juice and I dont flood it or get some juice in my mouth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwc8M4_crQA

rho

[Mister]

I have ordered some PTB from Tesco Online although I hear our UK PTB are not the same as yours over the pond so I might pop a question in the UK forum to ask which make they use.

Really appreciated thank you

You're welcome! Good luck with the PTB, hope you get the right kind easily.

[plantlvr]

Marineland Aquarium filter foam sleeves size U. I can fit 26 drops in my 510 and can get upwards of 75-100 puffs on one cart. Its kind of tricky to figure out the exact size to cut the foam to prevent leaking, but once you get it its so quick, easy, and long lasting. Plus, after a couple days you just rinse it in hot water and its good to go again! Poly-fill sucks, tea bags are ok but it takes to long and its really tedious. Blue foam is by far the best.

This sounds great Vapinator! I found a 3 pack of the stuff on amazon and ordered it. Would you consider posting some pics on how you do this?

[HeyYouComOvrHere]

I haven't had any time to put together any pictures or fancy videos but I have been using nothing BUT the blue foam. I have YET to replace a blue foam filter...maybe pull it out and rinse it out but that's about it. Someone mentioned the ONLY problem I see, leaking. You have to cut the foam to create a snug fit and you won't get any leakage. I was emailing to PR department for the company back and forth about the uses and I never got a straight "it's okay to burn it" answer but they said they saw no reason their product could NOT be used in this manner. But because it was not created for this purpose, they would not commit to it's safety.

That being said, I use nothing but the blue foam and I fill maybe twice a day...that's vaping all day with a USB at work. Obviously, the more you vape, the less it will last. But I won't using anything but the blue foam and I tell all my friends to use the blue foam.

Take care.

Mike

[MaxUT]

I've found that good tweezers make the job of inserting the foam filler much easier. The best are narrow and have flat tips with no serrations on the gripping surfaces.

I cut a section of foam slightly longer than the depth of the 510 cartridge, tapered along its length, one end the same width as the cart and the other about 1.25X the width.

Compress the foam and push it in between the legs of the tweezers, leaving a small amount of foam extending past the tips. Insert the tweezers and foam into the cartridge, making sure that it touches bottom. Place a small stick (I use a thin strip of bamboo) between the legs of the tweezers and push down against the mouth of the cartridge while withdrawing the tweezers.

Use a single-edge razor blade to trim the foam flush with the end of the cartridge. Done.

One problem with the foam, at least in my experience: it doesn't absorb liquid easily when completely dry. The liquid beads up and sits on the surface for a long time before wicking takes place. Once it's wetted, then there's no more problem. You might try soaking the foam in distilled water, then squeezing it almost dry with a paper towel. It needs to be rinsed before use anyway; some people have said it gives a "plastic taste" if this isn't done.

[boondongle]

Marineland Aquarium filter foam sleeves size U. I can fit 26 drops in my 510 and can get upwards of 75-100 puffs on one cart.

Are you sure about your numbers? I can't fit 26 drops into an empty 510 cart, let alone one that has filler.

[MaxUT]

Drop size varies... I put 20 drops from a 5ml DeKang bottle into a 510 cart which was stuffed with blue foam. 20 'standard drops' = 1ml, so this tells me my drops were smaller-- 510 can't hold that much.

One way to really tell "how much?" is to fill a 1ml syringe with juice, fill the cart, then check how much is left in the syringe. True measurement.