Am I dripping too many drops while dripping into my carto with my dropper?

[Mikenet]

Phew that title was a mouthful, but I guess what Ive noticed is that the cartomizers I've tried thus far are holding more than the stated liquid capacity. Also on refills I'm dripping in about half or more than what I did on first fills of a fresh carto.

Here's what Ive done so far, including the cartos I've used...

The first carto I tried was...

MadVapes 510 2.0 Dual Coil Clear Cartomizer

(recommended fill - 25 drops)

Ive used two of these and I managed to put 40 drops in the first one and managed 50 drops on the second one with no leakage. Well after hours of use there was a very small drop of e-liquid on the shorty extension but thats it.

Refills on these cartos ranged from about 10 - 20 drops depending on the length between refills. I should also mentioned that even with the amount I'm filling I was able to use each of these cartos for about 5 days and they still worked at the end of that 5 day period, although the taste changed a bit.

The second type of carto I tried was the....

510 Dual Coil Stainless Mega Cartomizer

(recomended fill - 30 drops)

I filled this one with a whopping 65 drops and it's taking 35 - 40 drops on refills if I go a day without filling.

So on both these different cartos, I'm filling with about twice the recommended amount with very little liquid seeping through the battery end.

This raises some questions though, first of all is this normal on cartomizers, or am I overfilling?

The first link I gave for the clear carto shows a user review where one person said they hold more liquid than the stated capacity, but is this a normal thing for cartos to hold extra liquid?

Lastly how do I know if I'm overfilling? I do get liquid condensation on the inside of the tube near the mouthpiece, and on the mouthpiece itself but I assume this is from the vapor. Also I do cough regularly when I vape, could this be do to overfilling?

Thanks in advance

Mike

 

[Boodle]

I'm not alone! I cough with a carto also. It's like those little fibers tickle the throat. Dripping I get no cough. The cartos also muffle the flavor imo. But they're so darn convenient I use them about 5% of the time.

You want the carto nice and damp but not slushy. If it looks real wet you prolly have too much juice in it. Maybe your dropper is very small and all is well. Have you watched videos on carto filling? Care and Feeding of Cartomizers Part 1 - YouTube

Hope you find your happy spot. If you find a cure for 'carto cough' please let me know!

 

[madjack]

...you should have NO drops coming out of the carto...especially and after hours of use...any gurglings sounds...I dunno, you might just wanna use less juice...there should be no puddling of juice in the carto and once you fill it, you should lightly blow on it to get excess juice out the threaded end.......
madjack

p.s. drops are inaccurate units of measure...I like to use a syringe for first filling to insure proper amount of juice...30 drops should be 1.5ml.........mj

 

[Mikenet]

Boodle

I'm not alone! I cough with a carto also. It's like those little fibers tickle the throat. Dripping I get no cough. The cartos also muffle the flavor imo. But they're so darn convenient I use them about 5% of the time.

You want the carto nice and damp but not slushy. If it looks real wet you prolly have too much juice in it. Maybe your dropper is very small and all is well. Have you watched videos on carto filling? Care and Feeding of Cartomizers Part 1 - YouTube

Hope you find your happy spot. If you find a cure for 'carto cough' please let me know!

Wow, another possible cause to my coughing, the cartomizer filler material.

I'm really hoping I can get around this because I'm all about convenience. Dripping all day sounds like a hassle, especially if I'm not at home where I can do it at my leisure. So I'll update if I get this problem fixed because Im going to try everything I can with cartos before I switch to attys and direct dripping.

First thing I will try soon is getting different liquids with a higher VG content, somewhere between 40 and 60% VG.

Then I'll try lowering the nicotine content below 18mg per ml.

If that doesn't work I'm going to test out 100% VG on a carto, even if I have problems with the thicker liquid absorbing into the filler material, I figure with a little effort it will work long enough to see if it's the PG that is making me cough.

If Ive excluded PG, and nicotine as possible causes to my cough, I guess I'll have to try dripping onto attys but I won't be happy about it.

BTW the way I fill a carto is the standard top drip method that Dr. Vapor showed in his video, which seems to work good for me. With the carto at an angle I drip into the top and rotate slightly every couple drops. The filler material looks wet after a few drops so I do a taryn spin or let the carto sit a while until it looks dry again, then I drip some more. I do this until the top of the filler material stays moist looking (not soaked) for more than a couple minutes.

Oh and I am using small 10ml dropper bottles so maybe that has something to do with smaller drop sizes?

 

[Mikenet]

...you should have NO drops coming out of the carto...especially and after hours of use...any gurglings sounds...I dunno, you might just wanna use less juice...there should be no puddling of juice in the carto and once you fill it, you should lightly blow on it to get excess juice out the threaded end.......
madjack

p.s. drops are inaccurate units of measure...I like to use a syringe for first filling to insure proper amount of juice...30 drops should be 1.5ml.........mj

To clarify the minor seepage is very very small. I said a drop before, but its not the same size drop that is coming out of the dropper bottle for example, in fact its not even close to the same size. Also the time frame of seeing the liquid that I gave before is just when I noticed the liquid seepage. It probably got on their sooner than a few hours but I didn't take the carto off to look sooner than that.

However I just refilled the stainless DCC again and checked it 10 minuets after filling it. I noticed it had the same small amount of E-liquid on the shorty extension again. I cleaned this up with a Qtip, and it hasn't reappeared in the last 30 minutes or so. Any thoughts?

I may switch to using syringes like you are, but I need lower gauge needles than what Im using. My mom is a nurse and she sent me 22 gauge needles that have trouble extracting the Eliquid.

 

[WomanOfHeart]

If there isn't any juice seeping out of the threaded end of the carto, then you're golden. Vape your head off!

As for the coughing, it might not be the carto itself, but the ohms of the carto you're using. If you're dripping with a standard resistance or even a LR atomizer, then this is going to be a very different experience from vaping a DCC. Most DCC's are a lower ohm, which produces more TH. Thus, you might cough when using them.

 

[madjack]

I found the dcc type cartos to be too hot/harsh for me...the single coil LR Boges and Resurrectors hit my sweet spot...also as a new to vaping person, the coughing could just be you needing to get your vape technique adjusted...also, DRINK LOTSSA WATER, vaping will dehydrate you and can add to the scratchy throat.........
madjack

p,s, I used syringes for the first couple of weeks for filling...I now just drip around the inside edge of the carto, wait for it to puddle, subside and repeat until it won' take anymore juice.......mj

 

[Mikenet]

I found the dcc type cartos to be too hot/harsh for me...the single coil LR Boges and Resurrectors hit my sweet spot...also as a new to vaping person, the coughing could just be you needing to get your vape technique adjusted...also, DRINK LOTSSA WATER, vaping will dehydrate you and can add to the scratchy throat.........
madjack

p,s, I used syringes for the first couple of weeks for filling...I now just drip around the inside edge of the carto, wait for it to puddle, subside and repeat until it won' take anymore juice.......mj

I do have 2 single coils in my inventory that I can try. There the Smok Tech 2.0 ohm 510 Cartomizers. I think that when I get ready to put my current DCC to rest that I'll fill one of those next to see if that helps.

Mike

 

[LilyBear]

I have one or two maybe flavors that are tart that make me cough no matter what I vape them with. One is a white grape type flavor and i can drip carto or atty with a cart and i will cough. It isnt every hit but nearly every. I have plenty of other juices that do not make me cough and I am not saying that this is what is helping your cough but i did find other juices were better for not coughing, if you are vaping only a flavor or two try another!

 

[Mikenet]

Madjack, I tried my single coil Smok Tech 2.0s and this is helping with the cough a little bit. They need to be filled every 3 or 4 hours due to their small size which I don't particularly like but these are helping at any rate. I'm thinking there are two possible reasons why these are making me cough less.

Either the single coils produce less heat and less TH, or the smaller filler inside is less irritating. The smaller filler might mean that there is less opportunity for vapor to collect on it while passing through. If VP's are anything like cigarets, and I'm not saying they are, but on a cigarette the more you smoke on it the harsher the taste gets.

I think this is because smoke starts saturating the tobacco and filter the more you smoke. Every time I've relit a short that was already more than halfway burnt, it was very harsh tasting. On a cartomizer it could be that something similar is happening, especially on the larger cartomizers with more filler. Revaping on an older cartomizer could be harsher because of all the old dried up liquid that starts saturating the filler material as time passes.

I don't know, but it did seem that I was coughing from the very first hit on a new carto to the very last hit. So It's probably the extra heat and TH of the DCC Ive been using contributing to my cough but I'm hoping I can eliminate all my coughing with better liquids because I do want a strong TH. I just want a strong TH that isn't too harsh.

Mike

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

Just a newb and offering my experience but I was also coughing with cartomizers until I changed my filling procedure. Originally just putting drops in, let it settle and put more drops in. My new procedure is to put some drops in until it's "slushie" and then "thermometer shake". Put another 5-6 drops in and thermometer shake. Continue until it can't take anymore. Like I said just a newb but this took away the harshness/ coughing for me and I'm not filling as often and the only thing I can think of is the bottom stuffing was not being saturated enough.

Edit: when doing the thermometer shake make sure condom is on the end to prevent liquid coming out.