Okay, I got some menthol and blank cartomizers. First a little background that I used to smoke Camel Filters, moved on to Camel Lights and then Camel Crush, which allows you to snap the filter and turn it into a menthol when wanted. I smoked for 21 years. So I've been through dozens of juice flavors and lately have been on a Halo menthol kick.
I don't think I really ever do reviews but more like I give my first impression and move on from there, so I'll try to have this be a running tally of my thoughts on these cartomizers over time. Some of you may know I want to not only see how they compare to atomizer/carts in taste, throat hit and vapor but how they compare in endurance and cost. Feel free to add here if you want to.
I love how cartos are packaged with a rubber cap on both ends. Nice and clean and a great way to label your flavors. As most of you probably know, these are much shorter than an atty and cart if you use it as it, which you can do - and most probably do. I can see how first timers will love just buying these and throwing them away. Easy, they work and hey, they're still way cheaper than analogs. Coming from filling my own atty/carts though, that's not cost effective enough. Being its shorter, popping these onto a LUX almost looks funny - a little too short for my taste. But that's okay, I didn't want to use it like that anyway. More on that later.
I wanted to start with a pre-filled menthol and see how it works and how long it lasts. At some point, I'll even re-fill the pre-filled carto with Halo. I've hated pre-filled carts in the past but was immediately surprised and impressed that this thing immediate worked. No fuss, just pop off the rubber caps, screw it on and it works. Immediate flavor and vapor. Much better than a pre-filled cart in my opinion. Here's the problem starting with a pre-filled carto though. I don't like this menthol taste and can't gauge the vapor, taste or TH without it being the stuff I'm used to vaping. So I moved on to a blank instead.
Here's where I decided to make the carto longer. I love the 902 round mouthpiece. I also don't feel like doing the condom method of filling cartos (check Youtube). If I'm going to use a cartomizer then refilling needs to be easier and less messy. I don't want leakage nor have to wipe juice off of the carto after filling. So the mouthpiece of the carto out of the box has an outer and inner plug. It was beyond easy to pop both out in one go with a paperclip. I then dripped juice in while turning it around, slowly letting the filler soak up the juice. Soak it did. I put in 25 drops and called it a day. I was so impressed with the material in there. Its amazing. Turn it upside down and nothing is coming out. I left the original plugs off and capped it with the 902 round mouth piece and it fit like a glove. ZERO mess and 100% easier to fill than dealing with a cart and filler. With the 902 mouthpiece on though, its about a mm longer than the atty/cart, so obviously the cartomizer is a touch longer than an atomizer without the cart.
I wish this filler was in the atomizer carts. But that brings up the question as to how these cartomizers are made. Is it just an atomizers with filler packed around it? Then why do five of these cost the same as one atomizer? I might have to rip one of these apart.
In fact I hear a filled carto lasts longer than a filled atty/cart. I'll be testing that real soon of course but isn't a ml of juice a ml of juice?? Or is the carto more efficient? I'll soon find out. Some of you using other cartomizers may already know, but I've stayed away from them until now and I'm specifically comparing a 902 atty against this 902 carto.
So how'd it work? First I should say I don't know if these are primed or if they need to "break in" like a new atomizer. I say this because the taste is ever so slightly different. Possibly good news for those of you who can taste the blue foam. I say different but don't mean bad. In fact its great, just slightly different. Vapor is easily just as good as the 902 atty. Throat hit is baffling me just slightly. Sometimes I think its just a touch smoother than a 902 atty, with not quite as much throat hit. Then I think its in my head because it actually made me cough and made my throat a touch scratchy by over doing it while trying to answer this question. Which probably means its safe to say its about on par with the 902 atty, but I'd love to hear from others on this. Now for my favorite part.
An atomizer and cart can sometimes not get quite enough juice or perhaps too much and with the latter you get that gurgle sound. It can be a pain and you know you're not getting the hit you should be getting. Well I no sooner filled this thing and screwed it in and I got a perfect drag. In fact in the past couple hours, every drag has been identical, and I've been going stronger than usual. Not too much, not too little. No gurgle. Amazing. Funny as write this, I took a drag that tasted slightly different. That taste that says I might be going dry. Not burnt yet, just slightly different. That may answer my question that this lasts no longer than a filled atty/cart. We'll see. I'm going to refill before I keep writing though.
Okay, I think I was actually just hitting it too much, too fast. Definitely not dry (but almost so to speak), but where the first time I put 25 drops in, this time instead of stopping when the filler looked soaked, I decided to go farther. The result was it bubbled out of the battery end a little after 15 drops. My guess is I vaped 10 drops in the past couple hours. Remember though, even an atty/cart is similar in refilling. For those, with fresh foam I fill 25 drops but I refill with 15 when the taste starts to change. So what I just learned tonight is refill until it looks good and wet but if you want to continue with no mess, don't over do it. Guess what though? Still no gurgle. Still a perfect drag. Oh and man was this easy to refill. Popped the 902 round mouthpiece off, dripper some juice in, popped the mouthpiece back on and it was done. WOW!
So if these hold up, I'm sold. For me as long as each carto lasts a week, then its cost effective for me. My guess is this will easily last a week. We'll see of course. The big difference being, I can't just swap the foam in the cart and keep the atty going. When this carto (or its foam) seem done, then its done.
Now if you prefer to drip, you'd want to keep the Sidesho going. I don't drip. Although I love the taste, its just too much hassle for me. I loved the 902 for the reasons we all know in addition to the ease of filling compared to a Sidesho (because I don't drip). So far this thing seems to be closer in consistent taste to dripping than an atty/cart yet even easier to fill than a 902. Although my wife doesn't drip, she still prefers the Sidesho, but she hates refilling them. She'd be in heaven with a Sidesho cartomizer. If this thing holds up long enough, I might be in heaven with the 902 cartomizer - which surprises me. I'll let you all know.
I don't think I really ever do reviews but more like I give my first impression and move on from there, so I'll try to have this be a running tally of my thoughts on these cartomizers over time. Some of you may know I want to not only see how they compare to atomizer/carts in taste, throat hit and vapor but how they compare in endurance and cost. Feel free to add here if you want to.
I love how cartos are packaged with a rubber cap on both ends. Nice and clean and a great way to label your flavors. As most of you probably know, these are much shorter than an atty and cart if you use it as it, which you can do - and most probably do. I can see how first timers will love just buying these and throwing them away. Easy, they work and hey, they're still way cheaper than analogs. Coming from filling my own atty/carts though, that's not cost effective enough. Being its shorter, popping these onto a LUX almost looks funny - a little too short for my taste. But that's okay, I didn't want to use it like that anyway. More on that later.
I wanted to start with a pre-filled menthol and see how it works and how long it lasts. At some point, I'll even re-fill the pre-filled carto with Halo. I've hated pre-filled carts in the past but was immediately surprised and impressed that this thing immediate worked. No fuss, just pop off the rubber caps, screw it on and it works. Immediate flavor and vapor. Much better than a pre-filled cart in my opinion. Here's the problem starting with a pre-filled carto though. I don't like this menthol taste and can't gauge the vapor, taste or TH without it being the stuff I'm used to vaping. So I moved on to a blank instead.
Here's where I decided to make the carto longer. I love the 902 round mouthpiece. I also don't feel like doing the condom method of filling cartos (check Youtube). If I'm going to use a cartomizer then refilling needs to be easier and less messy. I don't want leakage nor have to wipe juice off of the carto after filling. So the mouthpiece of the carto out of the box has an outer and inner plug. It was beyond easy to pop both out in one go with a paperclip. I then dripped juice in while turning it around, slowly letting the filler soak up the juice. Soak it did. I put in 25 drops and called it a day. I was so impressed with the material in there. Its amazing. Turn it upside down and nothing is coming out. I left the original plugs off and capped it with the 902 round mouth piece and it fit like a glove. ZERO mess and 100% easier to fill than dealing with a cart and filler. With the 902 mouthpiece on though, its about a mm longer than the atty/cart, so obviously the cartomizer is a touch longer than an atomizer without the cart.
I wish this filler was in the atomizer carts. But that brings up the question as to how these cartomizers are made. Is it just an atomizers with filler packed around it? Then why do five of these cost the same as one atomizer? I might have to rip one of these apart.
In fact I hear a filled carto lasts longer than a filled atty/cart. I'll be testing that real soon of course but isn't a ml of juice a ml of juice?? Or is the carto more efficient? I'll soon find out. Some of you using other cartomizers may already know, but I've stayed away from them until now and I'm specifically comparing a 902 atty against this 902 carto.So how'd it work? First I should say I don't know if these are primed or if they need to "break in" like a new atomizer. I say this because the taste is ever so slightly different. Possibly good news for those of you who can taste the blue foam. I say different but don't mean bad. In fact its great, just slightly different. Vapor is easily just as good as the 902 atty. Throat hit is baffling me just slightly. Sometimes I think its just a touch smoother than a 902 atty, with not quite as much throat hit. Then I think its in my head because it actually made me cough and made my throat a touch scratchy by over doing it while trying to answer this question. Which probably means its safe to say its about on par with the 902 atty, but I'd love to hear from others on this. Now for my favorite part.
An atomizer and cart can sometimes not get quite enough juice or perhaps too much and with the latter you get that gurgle sound. It can be a pain and you know you're not getting the hit you should be getting. Well I no sooner filled this thing and screwed it in and I got a perfect drag. In fact in the past couple hours, every drag has been identical, and I've been going stronger than usual. Not too much, not too little. No gurgle. Amazing. Funny as write this, I took a drag that tasted slightly different. That taste that says I might be going dry. Not burnt yet, just slightly different. That may answer my question that this lasts no longer than a filled atty/cart. We'll see. I'm going to refill before I keep writing though.
Okay, I think I was actually just hitting it too much, too fast. Definitely not dry (but almost so to speak), but where the first time I put 25 drops in, this time instead of stopping when the filler looked soaked, I decided to go farther. The result was it bubbled out of the battery end a little after 15 drops. My guess is I vaped 10 drops in the past couple hours. Remember though, even an atty/cart is similar in refilling. For those, with fresh foam I fill 25 drops but I refill with 15 when the taste starts to change. So what I just learned tonight is refill until it looks good and wet but if you want to continue with no mess, don't over do it.
Guess what though? Still no gurgle. Still a perfect drag. Oh and man was this easy to refill. Popped the 902 round mouthpiece off, dripper some juice in, popped the mouthpiece back on and it was done. WOW!So if these hold up, I'm sold. For me as long as each carto lasts a week, then its cost effective for me. My guess is this will easily last a week. We'll see of course. The big difference being, I can't just swap the foam in the cart and keep the atty going. When this carto (or its foam) seem done, then its done.
Now if you prefer to drip, you'd want to keep the Sidesho going. I don't drip. Although I love the taste, its just too much hassle for me. I loved the 902 for the reasons we all know in addition to the ease of filling compared to a Sidesho (because I don't drip). So far this thing seems to be closer in consistent taste to dripping than an atty/cart yet even easier to fill than a 902. Although my wife doesn't drip, she still prefers the Sidesho, but she hates refilling them. She'd be in heaven with a Sidesho cartomizer. If this thing holds up long enough, I might be in heaven with the 902 cartomizer - which surprises me. I'll let you all know.
