2 maintenance Q's

[val]

Jamvector &/or Lonercom
What is the ml. capacity of the cart carto?
I'm sorry to single you out, but I remember you guys refill with needles! The drop method is inaccurate plus the fact of C's or K's in your inventories to refill.
Bob: Thanks for the videos

Mabbo
I have tasted the burn but not seen it on the Top of the batting. I destroyed 1 while pulling out a stopper so I took the opportunity to dissect my own and see 1st hand.
Are you saying the shaped separator between the atty and batting
"the yellowish hatched tinny straw becomes brown colored"?

TIA
val

 

[jamvector]

Hi Val: They are supposed to hold 1ml, but it varies considerably. I have been refilling prefilled and blanks of 4 different generations of V4L carts: Original Hard Caps, First Soft Caps, Cool Carts, and Premium / Wow. I really only use Cool Carts now, but some will only hold 1/2 ml, some up to and slightly in excess of 1ml. A lot of people don't understand and endlessly argue about how much juice carts in general hold, but it is really hit or miss / batch to batch. I think most of the difference is due to the polyfill composition/density, or vendor/source that V4L uses; some of it is more densely packed than others, in some carts the fill is only halfway up, some almost all the way to the top. After a few refills, I learn enough information about which carts are superior / good enough to keep using; for the good ones, I refill via drip or syringe 5 or 6 times, then wash / recycle per my previously posted techniques - some of these I have still been using for 8 or 9 months (the oldest ones were original hard caps of the same resistance as the current cool carts, I just replace the old hard caps with soft caps from crappy cool carts that I have discarded). Often I try to use the marginal or mediocre carts for a while before giving up - for these, I really only get adequate results when I can use a syringe to fill from the bottom up - again, the problem is the difference in the polyfill batting; nothing else. With the good carts, dripping works fine as the polyfill soaks up the juice right away - this is the first sign that you have a promising cart, IMHO.

Bottom line, trial and error, don't be overly influenced by all of the stuff you read. Find what works best for you and keep looking for ways to improve your own experience. And of course, please share your results with us as you go; Good luck!

 

[lonercom]

I'm with Jamvector.

vaping is very subjective so everyone has differrent experiences and opinions. In fact, get 5 vapers together and ask a question, you'll get 17 different answers. These are mine:

I love new cartos and new flavors (yes, I am a flavor ....) and in the last 10 months I have amassed nearly 1000 cartos. That being said, I'm also a bit of a pack rat. I don't like throwing something away that might be useful. I started using cartomizers because I liked the idea of changing flavors instantly. I have several mods, drip tips, whirlygigs and doodads but always find myself back to the KR8 Batteries and Cartos. It's just too convenient.

I use a carto once and put it in a tub for cleaning. About once a month I get ambitious and wash them out, boil them and let them air dry for a week or 10 days.

Then it's time to refill.

I use a sharp tipped 18 gauge syringe (be sure that the point is touching the metal) and fill exactly 1ml. 99% of the cartos take the whole load. If some still seem dry I will drip more juice while poking the batting until it appears saturated. After the carto appears full, I reinsert the needle to the bottom of the carto and draw back a bit of juice till I get air bubbles. This reduces the number of "Slurpy" cartos in the lot.

***A word about syringes*** There is no reason to fear poking yourself with a sharp syringe as long as it's your syringe, Bought New and never used for intraveinous application. The only risk of infection would be due to not cleaning the needle regularly or not cleaning a puncture wound. I bought 100 18ga syringes 7 months ago, gave 20 away and still have 70 in the box. Wash in hot soapy water, air dry and reuse.------if you stab your self more than once in a refilling session you're not paying attention to what you're doing.

Since I spend most of my time at work talking on the phone I have lots of "hands free" time so I usually do my refilling there. So far I have refilled up to 500 cartos in 1 sitting.

With the cost of cartos going down and my large inventory, the dead or unpleasant ones get a quick and unceremonious burial. When the cost for filled cartos gets to about $.60, I won't even worry about reusing them more than once or twice.

OT: I have been toying with a new idea for relabeling them. The labels are 1 5/16 x 1 5/16 inches so I used MS Word to make a template in that size and I'm going to visit some sign makers and see if a) the vynil they use woud work in a laser printer. b) the lettering is cut by computer. c.) how much to make me 10 8 1/2 x 11" sheets in various colors. If it's cheap enough I can buy some, print the flavor on the label and wrap it over the existing label. They might even be reusable. Might be a business opportunity in there.

feel free to PM me or ask any other questions you may have. Good Karma is priceless.

 

[jamvector]

Loner, I knew you had tons of carts, but filling 500 in one shot? Now THAT's a feat! I agree on the syringe issue, much ado about nothing; chopping vegetables is far more dangerous. Like the idea about the labels, only drawback is that there is always a seam. With my OCD, I would pick at any loose edge until it starts to peel, then it would bother me interminably until I had it all the way off (I do this with beer bottle labels too).

 

[gsc4077]

***A word about syringes*** There is no reason to fear poking yourself with a sharp syringe as long as it's your syringe, Bought New and never used for intraveinous application. The only risk of infection would be due to not cleaning the needle regularly or not cleaning a puncture wound. I bought 100 18ga syringes 7 months ago, gave 20 away and still have 70 in the box. Wash in hot soapy water, air dry and reuse.------if you stab your self more than once in a refilling session you're not paying attention to what you're doing.

Also, Don't force the liquid, be patient with it. I had a needle pop out of the hub, juice burst into the the connector and straight back into my eye (it was a good foot away from my face). Spent forever under the sink, and had a headache like you wouldn't believe. Very unpleasant.

 

[mmcall12]

How do you go about buying these, syringes. tyia

 

[tweazee]

syringes you can get a couple free from pharmacies.


This is where I ordered needles - great deal
Dispensing Needles, Blunt, Stainless Steel, Tapered & Applicator TIps, Industrial, Luer Lock

needle length = 1.5 inches. (when the juice gets close to empty, turn the dropper bottle upside down and pull needle out until just in the juice).

14-16 guage needles for VG.
18 guage needles for PG
17 guage needles for flavor & thin mixes.

 

[mmcall12]

Thanks, will check them out tonight.

 

[lonercom]

It took some digging but I got mine here.

Syringe and Needle | Research Laboratory Supply, Inc.