Dripping and Topping: A Happy Medium?

[Antebellum]

Wow - thanks for the response! It is puddling on the top!!! I feel like I'm wasting the juice. I don't have a syringe but I was thinking - if I take the stuff out & maybe soak it in the juice would that work? Anyone tried that?

Hi, Kitty,

Before I got a syringe, I used a pair of tweezers to pull the filling out about 2/3s of the way, then dripped on the filling while turning it over. This is a little wasteful of juice, since when it's saturated outside the cart, it will be overfilled when compressed. The trick is starting just short of it being totally saturated.

However, you can buy a 3 or 10 ml syringe at the pharmacy and save a lot of tinkering.

[kittycatt]

Thanks so much, this has definitely helped!

Now about the fact that you are suppose to discard the cartridges 24 hours after opening? How to avoid this?

[tmbrown327]

Thanks so much, this has definitely helped!

Now about the fact that you are suppose to discard the cartridges 24 hours after opening? How to avoid this?

I think you'll find that most participants in this forum re-use their carts until they start degrading, then either start a new cart, or put new stuffing in the cart (or wash the old one, depends I guess). I think it's fairly safe to say that this precaution is overly cautious. I get 3 to 7 days use from a cart before I toss it into the bin for re-stuffing myself (801 style carts).

[Rhetoric Camel]

been using the same 5 cartridges for a month, clean them every other day or so. Has saved me money on carts but I did just put in an order for a bunch more, I want to be fresh again. Plus I'm going to need all the carts for all the flavors I have.

[Moonflame]

I use a big safety pin to stick down in the cart filling to make liquid go to the bottom or to fluff up the filler when refilling. It's about the width of an unbent paper clip with the bonus of being able to pin it to the zipper pull of the bag I keep my supplies in so I don't lose it or have to hunt for it.

[kittycatt]

What is the stuff that comes in there? Can you buy it or is there something else you can substitute with? How do you wash them?

I'm just full of questions. But all the advice is really helping me get it.

Thanks

[tmbrown327]

There are a bunch of threads on this forum discussing cart filler material, it is generally thought to be just polyester batting (pure polyester, no other chemical treatments), which many people have found to be identical to a fish tank filter material manufactured by a company called Fluval, available in many pet stores (cheap). There's even a video of how and what posted somewhere on here.

Again though, I'd recommend the Janty Stick to eliminate most of your maintenance issues.

[Bigbob]

Had the same air-pocket issues with topping off. I have had good success using the syringe method of refilling.

[Sebastian]

IMO dripping and topping in general is a bad thing. Besides the fact that more often than not, people are careless and 'misdrop' causing hardware to fail, there is also the more scary fact that harmful bacteria can grow when this practice is used. We currently don't know the effects of heating and inhaling that bacteria, but it doesn't take anyone with more than a basic understanding of science to realize that it can't be good...

If you are already making a decision to switch over to what is likely going to be found via scientific clinicals/studies etc. to be a safer and healthier alternative to traditional cigs, wouldn't it make sense to limit or eliminate exposure to something else?

[tmbrown327]

In my opinion, your opinion may be biased by the fact that you're a supplier and your income is at least partially dependent on people buying cartridges. Of course, that's just my opinion as a regular joe.