First double check that your PV battery is nice and clean in and around where the carto threads in. The CE2 has a very open type of airflow. Some batteries can accumulate quite a collection of nasty tasting crud down around the contacts over time. With cartos that have a tighter draw, or don't pull in air the same way (some do it from the sides instead of the bottom...etc.), such goop might not be as noticeable.
I'm assuming these are newer ones with black (as opposed to white) rubber/nylon parts inside?
Put a drop or two of liquid right on the coils.
Give it a few burns without dragging air, then try a drag or two that way.
If it tastes fine that way your wicks may just need a little more room if your liquid is on the thick side. Pull out the middle seal (the bigger one with holes in the sides for the needle). Hook the wicks with something or use tweezers and pull them upward slightly (just enough so that they are not touching the bottom or edges of the ceramic bowl slots...the idea is to free up wick surface area for the liquid to flow over). Fill the carto if not already full. Put the top seal (the thinner one with no holes in it) in upside down (grooved side facing down) and press it down flat and even.
If it still tastes odd after direct dripping on the coils:
Inspect the coils, they should be touching the wick or very close. If you see major gaps between the coil and the wick then see if you can either use a needle to fluff up the wick some inside the coil, or carefully push the coils so as much wick as possible comes in contact with the coils.
Note, really thick/sticky liquids sometimes just don't work well in a CE2. Thinning such liquids a little with distilled water, vodka, or Everclear sometimes helps if the liquid is just thick (not 'sticky from say...a sweetner). For the sticky ones, sometimes tipping the PV upside down for a moment or two after several drags helps re-wet the coils. I've found that really sticky liquids tend to be carto killers and work best 'direct dripped' on an atty anyway. With a drip tip, you can certainly treat a CE2 somewhat like a dripping atty...just use small drops and drip sparingly.
Still bad after all that? Try another unit from the box but pull all the seals and wash it out first and see if that helps. If it did, you can clean out your first one as well and it might clean it up too.
I've had very good luck with these things. Yes, maybe one in 10 I get that doesn't work so well because the coils weren't wound just right or the wicks are frayed or something...I just recover the liquid, trash it and move on. The ones that do work usually last me for months.
