Bad batch of Smoktech LR 1.7 ohm and XL LR 1.7 ohm going around...

[hrtim]

I've been using the LR 3 hole STs in the DCT tank almost exclusively for the past 3 months. I got 6 weeks out of one of them but, usually 3 was the average.
Out of the wrapper, I have always experienced about a 25% failure rate. The local vape shops say that's about right. I thought that seemed reasonable because of the price.
However, the last few I've used have been real PITAs. DOA, go bad in an hour, tight draw by days end, and the taste thingy have convinced me that changes are afoot.

Now, a manufacturer makes changes, discounting any sinister thoughts, for generally one reason. To save money.
The blather about better absorption rates, higher quality are just that. Blather. Much like what passes for political discourse these days.
Unfortunately, the politicos get away with it. But, a manufacturer has a higher power to answer too. That is us, the consumer.

I have no idea how big the European and Pacific Rim markets are for these folks but the US market is huge, hungry, and growing at an incredible rate. If we stop buying what we know to be an inferior product, regardless of price, they will answer, change, or not survive.

That's business whether be it multinational or mom and pop.

Now, I am an easy goin guy. I'm at the stage of life where I'm happier than I've ever been. Smoke free and a method to keep me that way, at peace with myself and the world, and not prone to irrational reactions to slight provocations.

But, I am not purchasing any more of ST products knowingly.

I haven't a clue why they changed a product that I was perfectly happy with, failure rate and all, to something that only works half-heartedly at best. The only thing that comes logically to mind is they want to save a penny or two per piece.

My and our best response, give them no more of our pennies.

We can complain write letters, fax, and make telephone calls that will all be happily ignored if their profit margins grow.

When market share starts shrinking and margins go to hell, heads roll and change happens. It's that simple.

Now, if we could do something about the politicians.....sigh

 

[RobynS]

Very well stated!

 

[Keekers]

The only good thing that has come from this experience is my new love for attys.
I actually like them WAY more than cartos but I have a bottom feeder. I think I would be too impatient to keep dripping. The only time I'll use cartos is on my Buzz Pro.

 

[joeman]

Bump to find???

 

[joek6992]

I got a 5 pack of the Jumbo Resurrectors and didnt like them. The first two tasted burnt. Still have 3 in the box went right back to the Boge 2.0

 

[Keekers]

Still going strong with my new 15 pack of Boges! Thank goodness.

 

[anavidfan]

Ive had similar frustrations with my boge. I originally used the black boge cartos 2.0. They came with my kit and have been working great so found a great sale a survapes, got 25 of them for 23.00 . From the very first one Ive been having problems. either they burned out right away from first vape or in about 4-6 puffs they would get real dry and I had to constantly drip. If they worked okay, they would eventually burn. Ive about 10 of them that have burned , I have 10 left, some I slotted, some I punched, etc. Either they burn or they flood and then burn. What is happening? Have these companies just stopped with any sort of quality control? You would think they would care as it ruins the reputation. Look at us here, some people swear on boge the other half swear on smoke tech. I ordered a Smoke tech shorty tank that came with a smoke tech 1.7 dual coil prepunched with only 1 tiny hole, filled it and its flawless, perfect vape, no drying , constant flow. By the way, the troublesome SSteel "crappy boge" I bought so that I could use them on my beautiful phiniac pyrex tank. I have not been able to enjoy the tank, because of the cartos. I hate giving negative opinions, but after all this forum is a way to communicate with other users. Please speak up if others out there are getting stuck with crappy batches of cartos or any other product that is not living up to the expections of their reputation. I cant believe all those 1000s of loyal and repuatable users and reviewers on the internet cant all be wrong. Smoke tech and Boge are the big 2. Both have their strong points and weakness depending on juice thickness and thinness. People swear that both companies are used with 100% Vg juice and it works perfectly with proper punching etc. I want to make sure this doesnt turn into a slam fest on vendors, or the brand, Its the quality control issue that im concerned with. All over this forum there are countless post regarding BAD batches etc. I just wish the manufactuers would allow vendors to return bad batches and exchange them for other ones.

We dont need no stickin batches.....

 

[Keekers]

Ive had similar frustrations with my boge. I originally used the black boge cartos 2.0. They came with my kit and have been working great so found a great sale a survapes, got 25 of them for 23.00 . From the very first one Ive been having problems. either they burned out right away from first vape or in about 4-6 puffs they would get real dry and I had to constantly drip. If they worked okay, they would eventually burn. Ive about 10 of them that have burned , I have 10 left, some I slotted, some I punched, etc. Either they burn or they flood and then burn. What is happening? Have these companies just stopped with any sort of quality control? You would think they would care as it ruins the reputation. Look at us here, some people swear on boge the other half swear on smoke tech. I ordered a Smoke tech shorty tank that came with a smoke tech 1.7 dual coil prepunched with only 1 tiny hole, filled it and its flawless, perfect vape, no drying , constant flow. By the way, the troublesome SSteel "crappy boge" I bought so that I could use them on my beautiful phiniac pyrex tank. I have not been able to enjoy the tank, because of the cartos. I hate giving negative opinions, but after all this forum is a way to communicate with other users. Please speak up if others out there are getting stuck with crappy batches of cartos or any other product that is not living up to the expections of their reputation. I cant believe all those 1000s of loyal and repuatable users and reviewers on the internet cant all be wrong. Smoke tech and Boge are the big 2. Both have their strong points and weakness depending on juice thickness and thinness. People swear that both companies are used with 100% Vg juice and it works perfectly with proper punching etc. I want to make sure this doesnt turn into a slam fest on vendors, or the brand, Its the quality control issue that im concerned with. All over this forum there are countless post regarding BAD batches etc. I just wish the manufactuers would allow vendors to return bad batches and exchange them for other ones.

We dont need no stickin batches.....

That STINKS! I've only ordered my Boges from CCV so that might be why I've always gotten quality Boges?
I seriously haven't ever had a bad Boge and I've gone through 45+
If you don't have anything right now or you need a couple Boges to hold you over I can help you out. I can actually send you a whole box of XL Boges because they are too big for my tank. Let me know

Oh good point about not starting bashing vendors in this thread because otherwise a Mod will have to move it.

 

[Keekers]

BTW I really want to make sure people know that just because I started this thread doesn't mean I won't pipe in if I get a bad batch of Boges.

The whole purpose of starting this thread was hoping that I could save people money by sharing my experience.

 

[JerryB]

That STINKS! I've only ordered my Boges from CCV so that might be why I've always gotten quality Boges?
I seriously haven't ever had a bad Boge and I've gone through 45+
If you don't have anything right now or you need a couple Boges to hold you over I can help you out. I can actually send you a whole box of XL Boges because they are too big for my tank. Let me know

Oh good point about not starting bashing vendors in this thread because otherwise a Mod will have to move it.

That is really nice of you to offer to help out a fellow member. There seem to be a lot of really good people here on ECF - and you're one of them! Cheers!

 

[Bmays]

Just to chime in....I buy my Boges in bulk at Vapor Kings. You save money if you buy 50+ All of mine have been working to as expected for a carto.

 

[Keekers]

That is really nice of you to offer to help out a fellow member. There seem to be a lot of really good people here on ECF - and you're one of them! Cheers!

Well thank you! There are a lot of good people here and I found out that's just what we do on here
Most people....some people should just stay in a hole and not come out.

 

[Keekers]

Just to chime in....I buy my Boges in bulk at Vapor Kings. You save money if you buy 50+ All of mine have been working to as expected for a carto.

It's funny because I think bulk is soooo expensive but if I would have bought in bulk from the beginning....well...I don't even want to think of that.

 

[Mindfield]

For what it's worth on the Boge front, the latest batches I've gotten haven't been performing to my expectations either. I got a bunch of Boge SRs (stainless) for tanks, and they're only lasting 2-3 days before they start tasting funky. I suspect thay may not be genuine though as they didn't come boxed, just loosely wrapped, unless that's how the vendor bought them. I'm going to buy some from a vendor that I know gets theirs from a legit source and compare.

 

[anavidfan]

That STINKS! I've only ordered my Boges from CCV so that might be why I've always gotten quality Boges?
I seriously haven't ever had a bad Boge and I've gone through 45+
If you don't have anything right now or you need a couple Boges to hold you over I can help you out. I can actually send you a whole box of XL Boges because they are too big for my tank. Let me know

Oh good point about not starting bashing vendors in this thread because otherwise a Mod will have to move it.

I really hope this doesnt come off as a bash, I understand that they sell tons and there is no way to make sure that all items they carry will be 100% all the time. Im used to getting that 1 in a million "bad egg" its just me. I am down to to only a few and Im waiting on some shipments. If you really want to send those my way, I would appreciate it. If you ever have a photo finishing needs, I can return the favor. You can PM if you want to get my adress. Thank you, I have neglected to check posts as Ive been a bit under the weather.

 

[CigFreedMike]

I really hope this doesnt come off as a bash, I understand that they sell tons and there is no way to make sure that all items they carry will be 100% all the time. Im used to getting that 1 in a million "bad egg" its just me. I am down to to only a few and Im waiting on some shipments. If you really want to send those my way, I would appreciate it. If you ever have a photo finishing needs, I can return the favor. You can PM if you want to get my adress. Thank you, I have neglected to check posts as Ive been a bit under the weather.

I don't think you're bashing at all, you're just stating your experience. Personally, I'm baffled all the time with the different experiences different people have. I tried fluxomizers and they almost made me vomit from the plastic taste. I tried smoke tech dual... And got them with a tank, and here too ...plastic. I wasted my money, they were unusable. I had grat, I mean great luck with the boge cartomizers ( I only have one box, so my experience is limited to this one box), I figured I found the perfect non plastic. Tasting cart, so I bought some boges in xxl size, and mblah...I taste plastic. Not as bad as with the flux os and the smoktechs, but there's this under taste if plastic. Damn!

So, as you say, a lot of these things have their followers, and maybe I just got bad batches. I don't know. The only thing I do know is what I experience and what I see other people say. My guess is that it's just not quality controlled enough, and that mistakes happen...or..I don't know what.

 

[JerryB]

My experience with Boge and Smoktech cartos has been inconsistent quality - from any source I've ordered them.

The way I see it is that they're so inexpensive, there's little chance that they undergo any measure of quality control during manufacturing.

The typical carto is comprised of metal, plastic, filler and wires - is manufactured in a factory, and is then shipped around the world from Asia. Along the way, any number of individuals (manufacturer, wholesaler, vendor) are making a profit.

When you consider that you can buy a Boge carto in the US for as low as $5.50 for a box of five (and perhaps even lower), you've got to ask yourself how much does a $1.10 retail item cost to produce (before all of the profits are taken and shipping costs from the factory are factored in)? A nickel? Maybe a dime? On that basis, how can we expect any real quality control during manufacturing on an item that costs so little to produce?

I don't like cartos basically because of the inconsistent quality - however, they are useful for me when dripping isn't convenient. That said, I've simply resigned myself to the reality that buying cartos is a crap-shoot. At $1.10 each, if every other one goes bad (as has been my experience), my actual cost per carto is more like $2.20 or more each. Not bad.

What I'd prefer is that one of the manufacturers start producing a quality carto (with quality control used during the manufacturing) and sell it for more. As it is, we're paying more than the purchase price (when you factor in all of the bad cartos) so why not just pay more at the onset, and not be disappointed with an inconsistent product?

Either way, this is still far less expensive than the cost of smoking tobacco, so I'm happy about that.

 

[chinsk]

Here is the summary of keeping track of my last batch of Smoktech 1.7ohm single coil tank cartos (from my blog).

Number) [Start Date] [meter reading] [e-juice used (ratios represented as VG/PG%] [End Date] - Notes (* indicates what I consider to be a bad carto) (** indicates not necessarily a bad carto, I think it was the juice that was tasting bad)

1) [4/6/12] [1.7ohm] [Alien Visions Boba's Bounty 12mg] [4/22/12] - Using part time until I get another DCT tank, resumed usage 4/15/12 using Awesome Vapor PG coffee 9mg
2)* [4/6/12] [2.0ohm] [Awesome Vapor PG Coffee 9mg] [4/9/12] - Flavor became absent, performance dropped sharply, re-metered it at 4.5ohm
3) [4/9/12] [1.7ohm] [Awesome Vapor PG Coffee 9mg] [4/15/12] - Retired due to start of burnt (not burnt as in bad unit, burnt as in gunked up coil) taste, normal with coffee after a week of heavy usage
4)* [4/10/12] [1.9ohm] [Awesome Vapor Just Menthol VG 18mg & Menthol PG 9mg mix] [4/10/12] - Got chemical like burnt taste immediately, no "sizzle" or pop like a normal functioning cartomizer. Heavy priming was performed in attempt to rule out dry carto.
5) [4/10/12] [1.8ohm] [Awesome Vapor Just Menthol VG 18mg & Menthol PG 9mg mix] [4/21/12] - Taste was starting to get a little off, time to switch. I probably could have squeezed a few more days out of this one.
6) [4/21/12] [1.9ohm] [Awesome Vapor Just Menthol VG 18mg & Menthol PG 9mg mix] [5/6/12] - Taste was getting harsh as well as diminished performance
7) [4/22/12] [1.8ohm] [Awesome Vapor PG Coffee 9mg] [5/9/12] - The usual signs of time to switch
8) [5/2/12] [1.8ohm] [ECBlends Dragons Tear 50/50 12mg] [5/12/12] - Taste was pretty much gone, a lot of dark e-juice going back in the tank. I noticed this one seemed to be a little hotter than the others, not sure if it was from chain vaping or not.
9) [5/6/12] [1.9ohm] [Awesome Vapor Just Menthol VG 18mg & Menthol PG 9mg & Doublemint PG 18mg mix] [5/30/12] - Taste was getting bad
10) [5/9/12] [1.8ohm] [Awesome Vapor PG Coffee 9mg] [6/22/12] - Didn't vape this one that frequently, but enough to where it started to taste a little burnt and lacked flavor. Expected.
11)** [5/12/12] [1.9ohm] [ECBlends Dragons Tear 50/50 12mg] [5/14/12] - I am getting a chemical burnt taste on this unit all of a sudden, looked at the filler and its unusually dark already. This is a bummer, what a waste of good juice.
12)* [5/12/12] [1.9ohm] [Awesome Vapor Just Menthol VG 18mg & Menthol PG 9mg mix] [5/15/12] - Draw has become extremely tight on this unit and it keeps flooding, pretty much unusable and barely any vapor production.
13)** [5/13/12] [1.7ohm] [ECBlends Dragons Blood 50/50 0mg] [6/1/12] - Noticing a hint of bad taste to this carto as well, it comes and goes.
14)** [5/14/12] [1.8ohm] [ECBlends Dragons Tear 50/50 12mg] [5/17/12] - I am getting a faint bit of that chemical burnt taste again. I am wondering if its the juice or a wicking issue. I am going to give this carto a little bit more of a chance to see if it goes away. I finally gave up on this carto.
15) [5/15/12] [1.8ohm] [5/30/12] [Awesome Vapor Just Menthol VG 18mg & Menthol PG 9mg mix] - Draw got tight, taste started to get harsh
16)** [5/17/12] [1.9ohm] [ECBlends Dragons Tear 50/50 12mg] [5/21/12] - Got this re-occuring burnt taste I just could not get to go away. I think once they burn they are pretty much done.
17)* [5/21/12] [?ohm] [5/21/12] - Dud off the bat, it metered all over the place, as low as 3.5 as high as 20 and fluctuated all over the place in between.
18)** [5/21/12] [1.7ohm] [ECBlends Dragons Tear 20/80 12mg] - Getting that same bad taste. I am going to refrain from using Dragons Tear in any additional cartos until I can figure out whats going on.
19) [5/30/12] [1.8ohm] [Awesome Vapor Just Menthol VG 18mg & Menthol PG 9mg & Doublemint PG 18mg mix] [6/27/12] - Draw got tight, flavor got harsh, time to change.
20) [5/30/12] [1.8ohm] [Heathers Heavenly Vapes Menthol Ice 30/70 12mg] [6/27/12] - Flavor was getting weak.
21) [6/1/12] [1.9ohm] [Heathers Heavenly Vapes Blade Runner 30/70 12mg] -
22) [6/1/12] [1.9ohm] [Heathers Heavenly Vapes Bleeding Heart 30/70 12mg] -
23)* [6/1/12] [1.8ohm] [Heathers Heavenly Vapes Blueberry Muffin 30/70 12mg] - Obnoxiously tight draw, kept flooding down the middle.
24) [6/2/12] [1.8ohm] [Heathers Heavenly Vapes Blueberry Muffin 30/70 12mg] [6/22/12] - Started to taste a little burnt and lost flavor. Vaped frequently.
25)* [6/22/12] [1.7ohm] [Awesome Vapor Coffee PG 9mg] [6/29/12] - I did not use this one much but I took it out of circulation. It had a misthreading that I was concerned would screw up the threading on my batteries.
26) [6/22/12] [1.9ohm] [Heathers Heavenly Vapes Bluberry Muffin 30/70 12mg] [6/27/12] - Started to taste burnt, dark liquid leaking back into tank real bad.
27) [6/27/12] [1.8ohm] [Awesome Vapor Just Menthol VG 18mg & Menthol PG 9mg & Doublemint PG 18mg mix] -
28) [6/27/12] [1.9ohm] [Heathers Heavenly Vapes Blueberry Muffin 30/70 12mg] [7/9/12] - Taste got very dull, very hard draw

 

[bzlytbeer]

I have noticed the same issue. I had been using the 1.7ohm single coils - loved them. The last batch I ordered from Madvapes keep flooding on me. I thought they were just wrapped too loose on the inside of the cart, but then I heard they changes the filler material. It got so bad for me that I made the switch to the vivi nova 2.5.

Mine were the stainless ones.