Bad batch of CE3s or just bad luck?

[Tsuki]

I got my CE3 Bottom coils yesterday... I was so excited to get them but disappointment ensued shortly thereafter...

Now, when I say I was excited about them, I really was. I watched every "review" on youtube, and read every article I could find on them as well as the replies to this thread. I expected the niches and annoyances with the product as well as the clean vape experience its really built on. Shout-out to "Steeljan" for girlpower and her overly-excited, excessively-happy review

I'm usually a 3-5ml/day, LR SC Boge, girl on ego 600mAh. I believe its about 4v fully charged tapering down to an average 3.7v. I do like the flavor from the dual coil LR's for some of my juices, so just accepting a 2.4-2.5ohm minimum for ce3's was a big deal for me, and I fully expected slight flavor changes since I do like a warmer vape. The appeal to me is that my favorite juices are hands-down carto-killers. I'm lucky to get two days out of a Boge single coil LR with my Tiki juice and Malibu (Halo)... they just DESTROY the filling, and that's all I can say about that. But when its good, its REALLY good, and I can't change the fact that I love my fav juices. I was hoping I could get more longevity out of these clearo's with a cleaner flavor and no filling to be destroyed. It seemed like everything I could ask for in a product, outside of those top-coil stardusts that were just horrible or a tank+carto setup, which the very idea of is counter-productive imo. I think Top-coil for me is just no. So here's what actually happened when I opened them up.

To clarify, I got a 5-pack of CE3 cartos with bottom coil/short wick setup. Also known as phoenix bc clearo from Gotvapes and elite ce3 from Altsmoke. I believe the manufacturer is BetterlifeTech, they call them "Clearomizer CE3". I don't think there is a difference between the any of them, just rebranded for the specific re-distributors. Anyways, now that you know what product I'm talking about... I got mine from Altsmoke just because their shipping to Canada was hella cheaper, and here is my experience so far:

I want to stress, having researched these extensively, yes, I am filling them properly (upside-down/syringe) and I know all of the tips and tricks to make them wick better (such as dry pulling to force airbubbles and get more juice delivery to the wicks) etc. I realize the potential for error with these is large, but I want to note that I went the extra mile to avoid any issues.

Clearo #1: Leaked continuously. I filled it correctly and then did a few dry pulls to get the wicks saturated then sat it on my battery for a few minutes and finally fired it. when I did fire it, I noticed immediately there was little to no vapor production. Being a veteran to these sorts of issues, I assumed the battery well was wet, and of course, not only was it wet but it was actually spilling over the well and running down the battery... not good. I took it off the battery wiped it off and set it on my desk for a few minutes to discern whether it was legit leaking or if it was just a temporary atty flood due to the initial fill. When I checked on it a few moments later, ALL of the juice was in a puddle underneath it and on my desk. 1.5ml down the drain.

Maybe its a vaccum problem, I thought, maybe I overfilled it... I drained what little juice was left, and let it sit for an hour and refilled it again, this time leaving about .1mil before reaching the top, just for good measure. 15minutes later, every drop was gone again... 1 clearo and 3ml of juice in the trash. Not a good start... lets try again.

Clearo #2: Not wanting to waste anymore of my precious Tiki, I changed juices, Highbrow Vanilla Bean Decadence was now my flavor of choice, simply because it tastes good and I don't really care about wasting it because its cheap. Also the fact its a REALLY thin juice I thought it would be good to test out because I didn't want to experience any of the thick-juice dry-hit crap. I'm ...... at this point and just want to experience this product in a "working" manner. This worked like a charm, and is still going good. I have had no problems with this clearo and LOVE using it. Vapor is great, flavor is excellent, and it doesn't get crappy when its almost empty, or change the juice color --Hi2U Stardust! Oh, and it DOESN'T LEAK! Yay... well, it would be YAY if it was my favorite juice... and actually had a TH. This juice does not have any TH... and now I'm jonesin' Time for a new carto and a Juice with TH...

Clearo #3: Back to Tiki and filled it up, put it on my battery. It Did not fire. Maybe my battery is dead. Tried 3 more batteries, no dice. wtf. The batteries automatically give me the 3-blink I'm dead signal whenever I try to fire it, so I know there's post-contact. What gives. Put clearo#2 back on each battery and fire with no issue - they are definitely not dead. But this clearo sure is! .... moving on...

Clearo #4: Wow did I seriously just open 4/5 cartos in one day a matter of hours? What gods did I annoy?? Anyways, I was unwilling refused to waste more Tiki, so I drained the dead clearo and used that to fill up the new one. Wearily, I did some dry pulls to saturate the wicks and sat it on my battery again... It fired! And it wasn't leaking, phew. I let it sit a bit more because I'm cautious of leaks still, and Tiki is a thicker juice, not overly thick like 100% VG but I'd say at most 75%, but still nothing like the highbrow vanilla which has the consistency of water. After I was confident it was not leaking, I began my regular vape regime. At first starting from cold and not warmed up yet the flavor was, well, cool. All I could taste was the menthol really, vapor was just "okay" at that point. Tiki Juice needs a warmed up coil to burn off the menthol enough to get to the really good flavors underneath. As I mentioned earlier I was expectant of flavor changes because I'm an LR girl and the best you can get with ce3 right now is 2.4-2.6ohm. I can deal with that. My issue with #4 is every second hit is a really dry burnt flavor. Its disgusting and I can tell its not wicking properly. I'm dissapointed, its really unvapable with the dry hits. I'm not opening 5 cartos in 24hrs. #2 is working really good but I'm wondering if its the clearo or the juice. I've been considering vaping off the rest of #2 and trying Tiki in that to see if I have the same problems as #4. At least that way I can discern if its a juice problem or if its a wicking issue with #4. I may have to trim the wicks a bit in #4.

So I'm pretty disappointed. 1/4 good and 2/4 broke to begin with. I had much higher expectations... so what are your thoughts ECF? A box of duds or am I just extremely unlucky...? I think if #5 is a good one that BWB's Casablanca would be amazing in there. Its also a rather thin juice so I'm hoping for results like clearo #2...

I've sent in a ticket to Altsmoke - they haven't gotten back to me yet, but hopefully they will replace at least the dead ones. But I'm not even sure if they're liable because I'm fairly certain they are just redistributing. we'll see. Thanks for reading my wallotext and happy vaping to all~

-Tsu

 

[beebopnjazz]

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the ce3's. I've used 3 of 5 in my pack and had only 1 that wanted to leak a little. That was corrected by disassembling the unit - completely - rinsing - and re-assembly.

As for #4, have you trimmed the wicks in these? They wick better. Lord Davon did a youtube video on disassembling, trimming and reassembling - it's not hard at all. I do love the flavor and vapor on these. I just received my 3 ml versions and have to trim before I use them as my juices are 50/50 or higher on the VG.

 

[HawkeyeFLA]

The ones that don't fire ... chances are it's related to the NR wire that goes through the base to form a contact. Try screwing all the way on, then backing off a little until you see if it works. I know on my older eGo-C battery (non Twist) 3 blinks is a short, and sometimes I get that with a fully tightened CE3.

Are you using your own drip tips, or the one that came with it ... or the little plug each one has? I've seen some reports on here that using regular drip tips in these can be an issue if they're a little too wide, they can break the seal some around the silicone plug. (The one with the fill hole)

 

[Tsuki]

thanks for the replies guys

@beebopnjazz in my initial investigation into these I did hear about people trimming the wicks but I was kind of hoping not to have to do that where there was money involved. I feel these should work right outta the box without any fuss, but clearly that's not what happened so at this point I am open to trimming especially for the ones I use thicker juice in. I'll have a peak at his video (if I can find it, his vids are all over the place and its not specifically labled "how to trim ce3 wicks"), thank you

@Hawkeye I was using my own drip tips but only after I was sure both were the same size/snugness. I use Halo metal driptips so they aren't as snug as the ones that came with it and easier to get off than the rubber ones because its not that good of a seal. On the clearos that worked, I feel its important to note that I haven't experienced any leaking using my own drip tips. I thank you for your point though, as I do have some wider 510 tips that would probably damage these and I wouldn't have thought anything about it until you said something.

 

[405Brad654]

Between my GF and I we have bought about 5 boxes of these. Currently we still have about 4 singles unopened and both of us have about 5 or 6 in our carry case`s for in between our all-day jooses in the VIVIs. Anytime I have leaking I disassemble it and clean it and do a refill and it works just fine 0 leaks. Once the vacuum is broke in these it does not come back until its taken apart and put back together.
I have some HIGHBROW orange de sang re (not sure on spelling, not at home) that is SUPER THIN (100% PG) and it will NOT stay in a CE3 at all. Leaks out EVERY time.
If you are having wicking problems I would try rocking the post or grinding the post off just a tad to aid in the wicking..
Also had a couple that didn't want to fire and cause the battery light to blink at me, unscrewing just a bit maybe half a turn always fixed this.
When REfilling ALWAYS shake juice away from wicking holes before you fill or it will cause a break in vacuum.
Leave a small air pocket at the bottom by the holes (top side when filling, cause its upside down) when filling.

Using these RIGHT NOW second only to VIVI. IMO of course. Don`t give up on the CE3