are there any carto tank loyalists left?!

[DancingHeretik]

I hope your wrong. Ikenvape is still coming out with new models of cartos. I'm hoping there will, at least, be a niche market for the foreseeable future.

I don't think carto-tanks are going anywhere. True, they're not the cool, in thing anymore. But, for people who don't want to rebuild yet (or ever), they're the best option.

Cleaomizers seem to getting better and better. But, they go through phases too quickly. Carto-tanks are the tried and true version of what clearos want to be.

 

[AndriaD]

I don't think carto-tanks are going anywhere. True, they're not the cool, in thing anymore. But, for people who don't want to rebuild yet (or ever), they're the best option.

Cleaomizers seem to getting better and better. But, they go through phases too quickly. Carto-tanks are the tried and true version of what clearos want to be.

I build coils for my kayfun and Igo-S, and I even like it, it's kinda cool. But a cartotank just *works*, it's convenient, and for some juices a cartotank works better than a rebuildable -- I can't explain it, but the blueberry muffin I love so much actually tastes better in my smok UDCT than in a kayfun.

Andria

 

[Grimwald]

I use carto tanks often...in all of their forms, u-dct, ibtanked, boge. They are still the most reliable tank in my inventory. For a long drive or other times that I need foolproof vaping, that's what I reach for.

However, I use my kayfuns and PT/Evod varieties more often because I can more easily and cheaply re-build them...and I prefer the taste. A few bucks will buy me several years of wire and cotton, while keeping a good stock of cartos is a lot more hassle and expense.

So each has it's pluses and minuses.

 

[Baditude]

I don't think carto-tanks are going anywhere. True, they're not the cool, in thing anymore. But, for people who don't want to rebuild yet (or ever), they're the best option.

Cleaomizers seem to getting better and better. But, they go through phases too quickly. Carto-tanks are the tried and true version of what clearos want to be.

I could see cartotanks disappearing from the offline (brick & mortar vape shops) retail market, and be available only from online internet resources. In vape shops, cartotanks have become the forgotten stepchildren of juice delivery devices. I don't know what it is, but cartotanks are becoming scarce to find in the majority of vape shops. Most shops may carry one or two varieties, or none at all. Yet they display several clearomizers and a host of RBA's. Seems there must be a financial incentive there somehow.

I recall recently overhearing a conversation between a customer and a sales person. The customer was frustrated, having tried multiple clearomizers which all leaked or got juice in his mouth, and asked about trying a cartotank. The sales person said, "Nah, that's old technology. Cartotanks haven't changed in years. Let me show you this new bottom coil Aspire tank -- its the latest in technology."

"Old technology"? "Haven't changed in years"? Ummm, maybe that's because they just work as is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Cartotanks are not such a great item to promote to a customer from a salesperson's perspective, simply because they DO WORK. Buy a cartotank and that's all you need for a year or so. The customer returns to the store for only more cartos -- not a big sales item. Clearos for the most part have troublesome issues, and therein lies the possibility to push the next new innovative clearomizer on the market. It seems there is a never ending supply of new clearomizers coming onto the market every couple of months. That's good for the shop's business.

If a person is frustrated with clearos and doesn't want to build their own coils with an RBA, then cartotanks are the intermediate step between a clearomizer and RBA. Unfortunately, vapers are not being offered this option in a majority of cases.

 

[Ryedan]

But a cartotank just *works*, it's convenient, and for some juices a cartotank works better than a rebuildable -- I can't explain it, but the blueberry muffin I love so much actually tastes better in my smok UDCT than in a kayfun.

Yup

I found pretty early on that flavor is influenced by device. Put the same juice in a typical clearo, a carto, a Genisis atty, a Kayfun or a typical RDA and that juice will taste different in all of them. Same for wicking material. When I was using different devices, I would adjust my juice recipes for the device it would typically go in.

I have the feeling not many people know this.

 

[Ryedan]

Clearos for the most part have troublesome issues, and therein lies the possibility to push the next new innovative clearomizer on the market. It seems there is a never ending supply of new clearomizers coming onto the market every couple of months. That's good for the shop's business.

If a person is frustrated with clearos and doesn't want to build their own coils with an RBA, then cartotanks are the intermediate step between a clearomizer and RBA. Unfortunately, vapers are not being offered this option in a majority of cases.

That's interesting Bad. The last time I bought a clearo was late in 2012. It was a mini Vivi Nova. I used CE4s and VVN's for a few months before I discovered cartos and loved these clearos. Yes if you didn't put them together correctly they would leak, but it wasn't hard to figure them out and then they worked very well. I used to dry burn them after every few tank fulls and they would last a really long time even with gunky juices.

Of course not everyone could or would figure them out so a lot of people ended up hating them. The same is true for carto tanks though. Remember all the posts about burnt hits or flooding from carto users? I used to send people over to your carto how-to blog all the time. That doesn't happen much anymore probably due to fewer people trying them these days.

I think the biggest problem is most people just want plug and play vaping. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just doesn't exist in vaping unless you consider cigalikes and probably will not for a long time yet. It is too bad more people are not exposed to cartos though. They are not for everyone, but some people who might have liked them will never get the chance now unless they research it themselves.

 

[Baditude]

I see a LOT of newer vapers coming into the shop complaining about clearomizers. Burnt taste, having to replace the heads on a daily basis, flooding & gulgling, juice in the mouth or on the battery. It's frustrating to them. Often its just because they are sucking too hard on the device and causing the flooding issues; this pulls more e-liquid in to the coil than it can vaporize, and the excess liquid has no place to go but in the air chamber. Or the coil head isn't screwed in enough to the base allowing leakage. But nothing can be done for the apparent poor quality of the heads themselves. Maybe the new vertical-coil, ceramic-wicked clearomizers like the Mini Nautilus has will be a revolution for clearomizers. These have been described as a hybrid between a clearo head and a cartomizer.

Cartomizers have had their own quality control issues. I generally had good luck with the Ikenvape cartomizers, however the last time I primed a new carto to setup a new cartotank, I had three cartos in a row that were unvapable. That was nearly 5 ml of juice wasted because of bad cartos, and $6 paid for three cartos I couldn't use. I finally gave up and rebuilt my Kayfun instead.

At least when I'm using a rebuildable dripper or Kayfun, the results are all on me, not the factory-made coil/wick which I have no control over. I have no one else to blame but myself, because I'm the one making the coil and the wick. I'm not wasting $2 - $3 on a bad carto/clearo head. Kanthal wire is dirt cheap as well as cotton, so if I make a bad setup I'm not out of much money.

I realize in the grand scheme of things, vaping still turns out to be cheaper than smoking tobacco, even with poor quality clearomizers and cartomizers. But the lack of quality control of these factory-made devices can be frustrating.

 

[DancingHeretik]

Speaking of quality control, has anyone tried using a Sophia in their carto-tank?

 

[Vermonster13]

The days when you didn't need a machine shop to make a tank. I still have some of originals kicking around.

 

[AndriaD]

That's interesting Bad. The last time I bought a clearo was late in 2012. It was a mini Vivi Nova. I used CE4s and VVN's for a few months before I discovered cartos and loved these clearos. Yes if you didn't put them together correctly they would leak, but it wasn't hard to figure them out and then they worked very well. I used to dry burn them after every few tank fulls and they would last a really long time even with gunky juices.

Of course not everyone could or would figure them out so a lot of people ended up hating them. The same is true for carto tanks though. Remember all the posts about burnt hits or flooding from carto users? I used to send people over to your carto how-to blog all the time. That doesn't happen much anymore probably due to fewer people trying them these days.

I think the biggest problem is most people just want plug and play vaping. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just doesn't exist in vaping unless you consider cigalikes and probably will not for a long time yet. It is too bad more people are not exposed to cartos though. They are not for everyone, but some people who might have liked them will never get the chance now unless they research it themselves.

I know there are a real lot of IBtanked fans, but since I discovered the UDCT, I don't even consider an IBT anymore, I love the "goof-proof-ness" of that locking ring. And one other factor: some folks in the vv3 thread were talking about those carto-filling funnels, and I coulden't figure out the point of them, since it's pretty easy to push the carto down myself and fill with a syringe, but it was explained that those funnels save wear and tear on the o-rings from the edge of the carto. So I had a good look-see at the UDCT, the next time I had to replace the carto, and do you know, the only o-rings in the thing are the small ones that seal the carto, and in the UDCT, those are surrounded top and bottom by the metal flanges of the caps -- you'd have to be pretty spastic to do any damage to them, even with pushing the carto up yourself. So I think the UDCT saves whatever trifling price those funnels run -- at least, if one is careful and doesn't try to push up the carto like a gorilla in a china-shop. And also considering that I found the UDCTs at Vapor Kings for $6, replacing a UDCT if the o-rings were damaged wouldn't be a major expense -- I can certainly understand not wanting to damage an IBT, considering what those things cost!

Andria

 

[Ed_C]

I know there are a real lot of IBtanked fans, but since I discovered the UDCT, I don't even consider an IBT anymore, I love the "goof-proof-ness" of that locking ring. And one other factor: some folks in the vv3 thread were talking about those carto-filling funnels, and I coulden't figure out the point of them, since it's pretty easy to push the carto down myself and fill with a syringe, but it was explained that those funnels save wear and tear on the o-rings from the edge of the carto. So I had a good look-see at the UDCT, the next time I had to replace the carto, and do you know, the only o-rings in the thing are the small ones that seal the carto, and in the UDCT, those are surrounded top and bottom by the metal flanges of the caps -- you'd have to be pretty spastic to do any damage to them, even with pushing the carto up yourself. So I think the UDCT saves whatever trifling price those funnels run -- at least, if one is careful and doesn't try to push up the carto like a gorilla in a china-shop. And also considering that I found the UDCTs at Vapor Kings for $6, replacing a UDCT if the o-rings were damaged wouldn't be a major expense -- I can certainly understand not wanting to damage an IBT, considering what those things cost!

Andria

NIce to hear that those UDCTs are working well. I saw those when I was first looking for a cartotank, but read several posts from people who had issues with leaking. so I passed and bought some IBTanks. I guess for 6 bucks, I might give them a try.

 

[tj99959]

The days when you didn't need a machine shop to make a tank. I still have some of originals kicking around.

Same here, all of my carto tanks are over 3 years old. There will never be the day that a clearo lasts for years. (and that's why B&M's love Clearos, they keep you buying instead of just vaping)

Yes I like my RDAs & kayfuns, but my carto tanks aren't going away anytime soon.

 

[AndriaD]

NIce to hear that those UDCTs are working well. I saw those when I was first looking for a cartotank, but read several posts from people who had issues with leaking. so I passed and bought some IBTanks. I guess for 6 bucks, I might give them a try.

I haven't had a single bit of leaking; the only tiny leaks I ever see are when the tank gets down pretty low, I guess it affects the vacuum in the tank the same as with a clearo getting too low, and then there's a bit of juice on the battery post, from the carto. But it's never more than a drop. Other than that very small and quite preventable problem, absolutely hassle-free -- and I really don't consider the locking ring a hassle; it's more like insurance, protecting me from my own very fallible and accident-prone self, from the tank sliding up unexpectedly and wasting a bunch of juice -- all over me, knowing my luck.

Think I need to get a couple more of these tanks; I like my ADV in my Kayfuns, but there is one other juice I like, late at night, and it tastes so good from a plain ol carto, I think it should have a cartotank too.

Andria

 

[WharfRat1976]

I use my cartos when I feel like a muted plasticky carto vape.

 

[Mowgli]

XLBoge LR double punched - 1 bad out of 10 - it started off with a hard draw that got worse
Boge LR double punched - 1 bad out of about 25 - it started spitting and frying after about 5ml
Otherwise I get about 20-30ml out of them
I have 6 Kir Fanis tanks. I sold the Lil Mamas & IBT I got in package deals. I like the Kir Fanis tanks better.
Some of my tanks have a needle tip fill hole, the others get the Slap Yo Mama treatment in a New York minute.
Stainless Steel Slap Yo' Mama Multi-Purpose Adapter [SYMSS] @ Big Daddy Vapor

I still use my Kayfun Light + and Russian 91 when I feel like dealing with making a wick. I know I'm spoiled

I recently got a couple of Nautilus Aspire glassomizers and 20 BVC. 1M times better than a Protank or Evod.

KFL+/R91 wins for taste & economy
Nautilus cranks at 13-14W and lasts long (so far) without gurgling or burning.
I use 2 cartotanks and a Kayfun or Naughty everyday with my 3 mods.

Provari mini and cartotank for the win @ better than adequate vaping simplicity

 

[Distroshack]

I have a GP SnP tank and its pretty much unbeatable with a killer 705 in it

 

[ProjektMayhem]

I've never tried a carto tank before. I've seen them for sale in the local B&M but I've never really looked at them before. I started with an iClear 30 and then 30S and now I'm vaping a dripper exclusively. I'll definitely have to try one soon though!

 

[ppeeble]

The weird thing is that i use cartotanks for my home-made RY2 because i DO like the muted plasticky taste i get. Tried it in a Kayfun and it was too much.

 

[Brend]

Cartotanks are all I use.
I have 12 of them.
They are perfect for me.

 

[gpjoe]

Use cartos in IBTanked tanks every day at work, on ego batteries. I drip at home and inderstand that I'm sacrificing a bit of vapor and flavor for the convenience of using carto tanks at work.