Been vaping for one month now, first post.

[redfourjohnd]

Hi,

I'm John. I'm in California, 39, smoked for 20 years, marlboro reds, quit for one full year, then honey backwoods cigars for a year. Tried the 7-11 xhaleo2 and saw some potential in it.

Then spent an entire weekend reading this and other forums researching. Lots of new terms in this hobby! Analogs, atty, cart, carto, LR, dripping, vape, vaping, TH, etc.. It took a while to learn.

Got some real gear and immediately switched to vaping. 36mg juice was it for me. My Mom and brother are both vaping now too, as well as a couple guys at work.

I've bought about $700 worth of gear from madvapes.com. I like the roughstacks and maxi roughstacks best. I've had a few 510 batteries fail already, some bad atomizers and cartomizers, good juices and bad juices, etc..

I also contacted the ACSH and was interviewed via skype for the report they're doing. Also, I've been telling everyone that will listen how great these things are, including my doctor and dentist. They were both impressed.

That's my intro! Great board.

I have some questions.

Is there a way to get rid of the burnt taste from atomizers and cartomizers? I have some that were burnt from the start, and some that developed it later.

Are there any uses for completely dead cartomizers? How do you take them apart without mangling them?

Thanks,

John D

 

[BlackMetalBuick]

Welcome to the forums.

Great question you asked, I'm interested in an answer too. I had an atomizer that started tasting burnt, no big loss, but now one of my fresh cartomizers is starting to taste that way too. If I constantly drip a few drops into it to top it off, the flavor is powerful enough to mask it, but after just a few hits, I'm noticing a bad taste.

 

[BestLion]

I'm John. I'm in California, 39, smoked for 20 years, marlboro reds, quit for one full year, then honey backwoods cigars for a year. Tried the 7-11 xhaleo2 and saw some potential in it.

I am 35 I smoked about 20 years also.. Also Mar reds! and backwoods..man i liked backwoods!!! the cigar and cuban flavors are good..mix cigar from Dekang with 555 and rum it taste just like a Backwoods! Cheers!

 

[starrynight]

hi john, great to meet you, i don't know the answers to your questions for i am only a week in and quite cluless but i am sure others here will. great place to hang!

 

[redfourjohnd]

Thanks for the warm and fast welcome!

I've been doing the same thing to mask the burnt taste. I had some mega 510 cartomizers that got it immediately, and some that have been going for a month now that still work great. It must be the manufacturing quality.

I'd love to learn to repair these things.

By the way, madvapes banana is my favorite. I might have to get some of the others to mix for the backwoods flavor though, sounds great!

 

[Liv2Ski]

Welcome red and all. Happy to hear vaping is doing the trick for you! You asked about burnt flavor on Cartos and atty's:

1) Cartos - I haved found once burnt = Junk. This occurs if you do not soak the wadding good enough when first filling. I use a sryinge on ALL cartos for the first fill. Fill sryinge, drive needle to bottom, fill and pull out needle slowly as you do. Then I just top them off w/10 or 12 drops as I am vaping

2) Burnt atty = fried wick. Most likely caused by chain vaping and running it dry. I drip 85% of the time so an easy fix is to remove the wick. When you do you will most likely see a chared wick (black). The wick is right under the bridge and can be easily removed by carefully pulling it out w/a pair of tweezers. I do not have the link handy but on this forum are posts concerning wick and or bridge removal. A Neutered atty (Bridgectomy w/wick removal) is then only used for dripping.

Happy vaping all

 

[redfourjohnd]

Right on liv. Thanks for the info. I'm still using my very first atomizer, and have only used it for dripping. Seems a safe way to keep the atomizer going.

I think you're right that the mega cartomizers I burnt immediately needed to soak longer before using. I had luck filling some before bed and using them the next morning, not that 8 hours was necessary, but better than using right after filling.

Any uses for the burnt ones?

 

[Liv2Ski]

Right on liv. Thanks for the info. I'm still using my very first atomizer, and have only used it for dripping. Seems a safe way to keep the atomizer going.

I think you're right that the mega cartomizers I burnt immediately needed to soak longer before using. I had luck filling some before bed and using them the next morning, not that 8 hours was necessary, but better than using right after filling.

Any uses for the burnt ones?

If you like to play around there arer uses. You can pull the wadding and fill with other material (again I don't have the link but there is info here somewhere---sorry). If not they are cheap and consider it a learning experience.

 

[Bugsy2700]

Do not forget that new attys often have primer on them. As a result, the first 10 draws or so will often have a "burnt" taste. It seems to me, redfourjohnd, that you encountered an abnormal amount of bad stuff in a short time. I've been vaping for 3 months with the original 2 attys, batteries, etc. I started with (Joye EGO). I have, however, had mixed results with cartomizers. Some work great while others leak, draw poorly, taste bad, etc. After numerous efforts, I find syringe prefilling blank cartos (I do it the night before) yields better results. Maybe the juice distributes more uniformly through the wadding? There are plenty of youtube videos on just about any procedure involving ecigs.

 

[banjo]

Welcome to the ECF community. Very nice post. Thank You!

 

[Jenn1181]

Is there a way to get rid of the burnt taste from atomizers and cartomizers? I have some that were burnt from the start, and some that developed it later.

Unless the heater coil is completely shot out in an atomizer you can soak them for a few hours in either 99% Isopropyl alcohol (not rubbing alcohol), white distilled vinegar, or a very strong, pure alcohol from the liquor store like Everclear 190 proof. Most people use either vinegar or the alcohol, as pure grain alcohol is illegal in many states and difficult to come by in general. Then I take mine, blow through the threaded end of the atty (the one that screws into the battery) and let soak in water for about an hour. Then I blow through it again, over a paper towel, to remove any residual liquid. Inhale through the open end of the atty and see if the burnt taste (or any taste) is still ghosted. If so, repeat the process. Sometimes it just takes vaping a stronger flavor to get rid of that nasty taste of letting the atty run dry and burning the e-juice. I find that menthol often does the trick, but then you sometimes run into the menthol flavor ghosting your atty.

Cartomizers, to my knowledge, it's better to just toss them once the actual atomizer has gone bad. In terms of refilling, opinions vary as to how many times a carto can, or should, be refilled. And it largely depends on what juice you're vaping and the brand of carto.

As far as removing wicks, this should only be done under two circumstances - it's a new atty and you drip. The threads under the bridge are crucial if using filled cartridge tips, because that is what helps pull liquid onto the heater coil and keep everything moist. When dripping, those threads are simply unnecessary and usually end up a gunked up mess. I mean, you can try to de-wick a used atty, but I have dislodged heater coils and ruined perfectly good atties attempting this, even using tweezers and toothpicks ever so gently. That's because they will melt against the heater coil and get sticky e-juice melted onto them.

 

[Lisa B]

Welcome to ECF, is a great place with many good people. Looks like you have got really good advice already and when you have more questions just ask. Vaping is a wonderful new way of life, enjoy it.

 

[redfourjohnd]

Thanks Lisa! I will ask you a question. Is that you in your avatar, and do you own a monkey? If so, I am jealous! Great pic!

John D

 

[Lisa B]

It is me and a real chimp but I just got to hold him to get my picture taken. He was very well trained and hugged me after the picture. He plays in movies and I have collected monkeys for years, even have one tattooed on my back so was a dream come true for me.

 

[redfourjohnd]

He certainly was trained to smile for the camera! I'd love to get a pic like that.

Thanks!

 

[DC2]

I am not a cartomizer expert by any means, so someone will hopefully correct me if I'm wrong...
But I think a burnt tasting cartomizer is probably burning filler material, which means it should be tossed.

Again, I am not sure I know what I'm talking about here.

As for atomizers, you might try cleaning them the easy way to see if that gets rid of the burnt taste.
The easy way includes rinsing/soaking in almost anything on earth, as far as I can tell.


If that doesn't work then you should move straight on to trying a dry burn using the method below...
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tips-tricks/69834-my-atty-resurrection-method.html

You might be interested in reading this thread for more insight into what's going on with your atomizer...
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ion/97014-facts-about-cleaning-atomizers.html

 

[Dmortal]

Welcome to ECF nice to have you here Good Luck and happy Vaping!

 

[redfourjohnd]

I was getting a nasty burnt taste on an atomizer on my 6 volt roughstack. I blew through the inhale side to get out most of the juice then blew compressed air through the little hole on the battery side and the taste was gone! I thought I had wrecked it, as I had first tried it at 7.4 volts.

I was surprised how much liquid came out with the compressed air. It made a fine mist for two seconds at least.

 

[Fall On Fridays]

Wow im not a heavy smoker but this gives me great hope for the transition into a better lifestyle. Thanks man youre inspiration.