510: included carts work great, filling doesn't.

[roadkilldeluxe]

I'm new to vaping. Was really excited to get my 510 yesterday. However, I'm having issues with filled carts. Here's the rundown:

1) I blew out the atty using paper towels
2) Added a drop or two of ECOpure and plugged in one of the carts that came with 510 (medium strength-tobacco flavored?)
3) Waited a few minutes with the atty standing straight up, cart-side up
4) Took many beautiful puffs, about 5 minutes apart for the next few hours
5) Vapor started getting weak--I removed the cart and the top was indeed a little dry
6) I wanted to try ECOpure so I removed the filling. I noticed it was actually pretty wet near the bottom.
7) I rinsed the filler out anyway, along with the cart and dried them
8) Put the filler back in and filled to the top with ECOpure
9) Dried out the atty by blowing on it, added 2 drops of ECOpure to the brige. Plugged in the cart and let it sit for a minute.
10) Took a few puffs: little to no vapor, and harsher. Before, I would get tons of vapor and it was extremely smooth (I could barely feel the vapor going down my throat)
11) Waited a while, maybe 30-60 mins, same results.
12) Dried out the atty, added a few drops of "PG/VG 80/20" to the bridge
13) Plugged in another cart that the 510 came with
14) After a few puffs, it started producing tons of vapor like before
15) Several hours later, vapor starts to fade. Check the cart, top is semi-dry
16) Top off the cart with like 5 drops ECOpure
17) Still, little to no vapor.

Basically, the pre-filled carts that came with the 510 work great. Every time I try to re-fill them or even top off with ECOpure it sucks.

I really want to get off analogs! This is making it difficult! Please help!

 

[Snarkyone]

What your seeing is the actual real life of the carts. Some E-Cig makers claim you can get the equal to a pack of tobacco smokes to one cart and that is just not true. The best I have seen is maybe about 3 - 5 analogs tops. To say that your cart last for a few hours before you have to top it off with juice tells me that you must not be using it too heavy then.

510's are notorious for needing a day or two to break in and start producing the great vapor. I personally prefer my Dragon which is a m401 model, but that's me. The battery on the 510 just has crap for life between charges making it impractical to be my carry around, go to stick. Just be patient and if it is still not producing vapor in a day or so then you might want to look into returning it and trying again.

 

[roadkilldeluxe]

You are correct in that I am not using it that heavy. I smoked 5-6 analogs a day prior to yesterday. So taking a nice big puff every 5-15 minutes all day completely took care of my cravings.

The problem is, the factory carts work just great. Tons of vapor. Put ECOpure in, no vapor. Put stock cart back in, tons of vapor. Top it off with ECOpure, no vapor.

 

[Parmacrafter]

Actually this sounds to me like the problem I had when I first started using ECOpure. You have obviously used a bit of your ecopure by topping off carts. Some of the Eco is really thick some is really thin. Generally thin juice = little vapor thick juice = tons of vapor. Try this......
Using an empty cartridge, add 2 drops eco, then 2 drops of your PG/VG mix. Alternate til the cart is full. Try that and see if the vapor gets better. If it does try adding several drops of your VG/PG to your bottle of eco.

 

[roadkilldeluxe]

So the actual life of the carts doesn't bother me since I'm a pretty light smoker (vaporer?).

The atty (both, actually) has proven itself by giving me awesome vapor with the factory carts.

But re-filling the factory carts with ECOpure has been completely unsuccessful.

 

[Pumaman]

Go to the modders forum under cartridges, try the PTB Rho mod or such, you won't believe the difference

 

[roadkilldeluxe]

Thanks Parmacrafter, will try it out.

I have a few questions:
1) Can I test a cartridge with just my PG/VG mix to see if I am filling it correctly? It should produce lots of vapor correct?
2) If that works but mixing ECOpure and PG/VG doesn't, could it be a bad batch of ECOpure?

 

[KevinD872]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it is possible that your carts contain Ecopure if you got them from a supplier that sells Ecopure exclusively, such as Innovapor.

You've gotten some pretty good advice above, and the only thing I can think of is that perhaps you are mildly flooding the atty when topping off. Do you hear any gurgling when you get no vapor? The louder the gurgling, the worse it is flooded, and even mild flooding can drastically reduce vapor production. What happens if you take the cart off, then vape until it starts to run dry (starts to taste bad) with the cart off or an empty dummy cart, then drip 1 or 2 drops directly on the bridge then vape again (dripping method) again with the cart off or an empty dummy cart? If it doesn't taste bad but you get no vapor, keep taking gentle puffs and if you hear gurgling, try tipping the "cherry" end up a little as you puff. If vapor increases after a while before you get a burning taste, then it is most likely flooding that is causing your problems.

 

[roadkilldeluxe]

Pumaman - Yeah, I was gonna run to the store later today Will try!

KevinD872 - Carts came from CigNot. They taste like tobacco a little, I think.

I've been really careful to not dry out the atty or flood it. Before adding a cart, I blow out the atty then add about 2 drops to "prime" it, then let it sit for a few minutes.

There is no gurgling when there is no vapor. When it works perfectly, there is pretty much no sound. When it isn't working, sometimes there's a very slight "sizzle" almost.

I did try your advice on one cart and it started working =)

The other one has yet to prove itself--I've kinda lost track of which is which, but it has the straw mod and i'm pretty sure I topped it off with just a few drops of "PG/VG 80/20".

 

[Houdini]

It's just weak liquid. I have some that doesn't vape very well either. Is it a low nic level liquid? That will usually cause it. The stuff I got from Johnson Creek is pretty weak on vapor production and throat hit even though it's a 24mg nic level. The juice I got from esmokershop hits really hard and has tons of vapor. Same with eastmall juice. You just need to buy samples from different places and see what works best for you.
And you don't need to keep blowing it out every time you put on a new cartridge. Also, you might want to pick up some flat tip 901 cartridges. I get much better results using them instead of the round one's that come with the 510. It's a very hot burning atomizer and in my experience is hard to actually flood it to the point where it won't work.

 

[Kent C]

Pumaman - Yeah, I was gonna run to the store later today Will try!

KevinD872 - Carts came from CigNot. They taste like tobacco a little, I think.

I've been really careful to not dry out the atty or flood it. Before adding a cart, I blow out the atty then add about 2 drops to "prime" it, then let it sit for a few minutes.

There is no gurgling when there is no vapor. When it works perfectly, there is pretty much no sound. When it isn't working, sometimes there's a very slight "sizzle" almost.

I did try your advice on one cart and it started working =)

The other one has yet to prove itself--I've kinda lost track of which is which, but it has the straw mod and i'm pretty sure I topped it off with just a few drops of "PG/VG 80/20".

Ecopure= big vapor, so something is wrong. For one, the procedure laid out recently for cleaning the primer out of new attys are only for right at first, not for every time you fill a cart. If you're not getting vapor then either you've flooded the atomizer or the atomizer is too dry. Don't blow out the atty on each cart fill. And only fill the cart to where it's moist on top not bubbled.

I'd discourage any cart mods at this point. They are not needed to get a decent vape going with what you have. Nail that down first, then go modding. Right now, keep things constant - full battery charge, just a few drops on the atty to start and a moist top (not overfilled) on the filler in the cart. Push the button a second before the draw, draw slowly like a thick shake through a straw, let off the button, exhale. If ecopure isn't creating a big vapor cloud with the 510 especially, then either your atty or battery is dead, if you're doing all of the above.

 

[roadkilldeluxe]

Push the button a second before the draw, draw slowly like a thick shake through a straw, let off the button, exhale. If ecopure isn't creating a big vapor cloud with the 510 especially, then either your atty or battery is dead, if you're doing all of the above.

Thank you sir. It's a bit too late to discourage me from modding; one of my carts is now PTB-modded. However, both my atty/cart pairs produced a humongous cloud of vapor using your advice.

I've been really paranoid about overheating/drying/flooding, so I always blew out my carts, started drawing a second before hitting the button, and was maybe perhaps overfilling.

Thanks everyone for the advice, and helping a newbie out

 

[Pumaman]

Ecopure= big vapor, so something is wrong. For one, the procedure laid out recently for cleaning the primer out of new attys are only for right at first, not for every time you fill a cart. If you're not getting vapor then either you've flooded the atomizer or the atomizer is too dry. Don't blow out the atty on each cart fill. And only fill the cart to where it's moist on top not bubbled.

I'd discourage any cart mods at this point. They are not needed to get a decent vape going with what you have. Nail that down first, then go modding. Right now, keep things constant - full battery charge, just a few drops on the atty to start and a moist top (not overfilled) on the filler in the cart. Push the button a second before the draw, draw slowly like a thick shake through a straw, let off the button, exhale. If ecopure isn't creating a big vapor cloud with the 510 especially, then either your atty or battery is dead, if you're doing all of the above.

If it's from Innovapor, I went through the exact same curve. The filler on the cartridges is recessed from the lip, I think to accommodate the "new" atty's, but mine shipped with standard Titan atty's, that's why I recommend the mod for the cartridge. When I first got it, I didn't think vapiong was for me because of this, once I modded the cartridge and refilled with some Dakang juice, haven't touched an analog since.

I've been really paranoid about overheating/drying/flooding, so I always blew out my carts, started drawing a second before hitting the button, and was maybe perhaps overfilling.

No need to worry, I have drowned the things while playing with cartridge mods, as pointed out earlier the 510's will chug right through it.

 

[Dredbull]

Man I have 1 atty that clouds up the place the other is a throat hitter.. I am almost shaking the rush is huggge.

WHEW so played more around with the high bridge atty and a tooth pick.. the toothpick it kinda juicy and keep the cravings at bay, the cart and atty are now vaping like the low bridge.

 

[Kurt]

Since you are all ready into mods, I suggest the straw mod. I have a 510, and I agree that the cart does not feed all the juice to the atty before drying out on top. The straw mod helps the juice to cycle a bit more, makes filling easier, and vapes a lot smoother than stock fills. The thread is in Tips and Tricks: Incredible 510 cart upgrade.

I used everything as is, prefilled carts or adding fluid to stock empty carts, but I love to do mods and tinker, so it was only a day or so before I was trying more innovative approaches...not necessarily better, just innovative.

I think you should play around if you have the time (it can suck up huge time) and find the place where analogs are simply not as good as vaping. There is an enormous amount of info here, and Youtube vids of mods and reviews. Have fun and explore! Most of your issues you will find have all ready been written about or someone made a vid on it.

Cheers,
Kurt

 

[Kent C]

RKD,

Glad that helped!

It should be pointed out to all newbies that some of the methods suggested here are for when things really don't go right - they are not intended to be 'standard operating procedure'. For example, if you think your atomizer isn't working properly, you don't soak it in a mixture of everclear, 151 vodka, coke, isopropal alcohol, and oven cleaner while doing a dry burn inside an ultrasound chamber, then putting it in boiling water, blow dry with a hair dryer or bake it in the oven or microwave

First, see if you have a good battery and juice in your cart and drop _2_ drops on the atty bridge and if you have a manual battery, be sure to press the button.

My intent on 'no mods yet' was just to get you going, but Kurt's right imo, the straw mod is one the actually works.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tips-tricks/11421-cart-mod-better-refilling.html

... and because VG (ie Ecopure) can run a bit more thick than PG it is even more important for good cart 'flow' to have the straw mod which allows the juice to drop down into the cart easier, so you get a better refill.

 

[JustSayHuh]

Since you are all ready into mods, I suggest the straw mod. I have a 510, and I agree that the cart does not feed all the juice to the atty before drying out on top. The straw mod helps the juice to cycle a bit more, makes filling easier, and vapes a lot smoother than stock fills. The thread is in Tips and Tricks: Incredible 510 cart upgrade.

Cheers,
Kurt

I agree with this, I have a 510 and after trying the straw mod I was able to fill it up and vape for much longer.

 

[Kurt]

I agree with this, I have a 510 and after trying the straw mod I was able to fill it up and vape for much longer.

Justsayhuh, I couldn't help but notice your vaping banner. Would you really only be paying $6 for about 9 packs of analogs? If I was getting them for this price I might not have been as tempted to quit them!

kurt