Hi All: I just thought I would share the many things I have learned on this forum from all the great people. The following is a detailed procedure I use to clean and refill my carts based upon input from posters too numerous to mention. I hope it is helpful to all those posting questions regarding this issue. I'm not saying it's the best way, but after trying many things many times, this is what I have found works best for me anyway. Good luck, and feel free to comment or augment as you see fit.
1. In a normal kitchen saucepan, heat about 2 or 3 quarts of water to a full boil.
2. Disassemble carts, place plastic caps and o-rings in a small tupperware container full of hot water and allow to soak until later in the process. For the newer premium carts with the hard to remove brittle plastic caps, dip the mouthpiece end in the hot water on the stove for about 10 seconds to loosen the glue, then remove with your "pick-type" tool (courtesy of Adrenalynn).
3. Place cartos without mouthpieces into the bottom of a 5 qt ice cream pail. Pour the boiling water into the pail covering all the carts with at least 3 inches of water (this way you don't get your good kitchen saucepans dirty with juice = preventing wife from beating you). Let sit for 1/2 to 1 hr., stirring occasionally.
4. During the carto soak time, I run medium hot water in my utility sink, and rinse and clean all the little mouthpiece parts and set aside over some paper towels on a paper plate.
5. By this time, the carto soup is cooled enough to start the rinsing process. I use a 10 ml syringe, and place a small tupperware bowl under the running stream of water to form a pool to draw clean water into the syringe. I remove one cart, draw the syringe full, place flush against the open (mouth) end of the cart, and firmly squeeze the fresh water through the cart out the battery hole into the sink. (Using Maxx's cut condom technique at this part of the process is an improvement to what I was used to doing.) I syringe-flush each condom with fresh water 3 times, shake and set aside. (If you are wondering why flush from the mouth end vs the batt end, it is because you will force more water through the batting this way, vs forcing water through the batt end only forces water through the hole.)
6. When all the carts are flushed clean, I take them out to my garage where my best friend, the air compressor lives. I then hold them up and blow out each carto with the "cleaning wand", which dries them almost immediately. Caution should be used here as you can damage the cart if you direct 120 psi at contact into the cart; I have the wand about 4 - 6 inches away which works very well. I realize not everyone has an air compressor, and I'm sure some will say this is unnecessary, but the added benefit of this is that the batting is significantly loosened and fluffed vs letting them just sit and dry on their own for a few days (if you do let them air dry, you should fluff the batting with a needle or sharp object prior to refilling IF you wish maximize refill volume).
7. I let all the parts dry for at least one day. Now since the mouthpieces are still removed, I use a smaller syringe to refill as follows: Draw 1ml of juice into the syringe, insert syringe into batting down close to the bottom of the cart. Squeeze 1/4 ml into the batting, remove and repeat 3 more times around the cart to cover 4 polar locations maximizing juice distribution.
8. Replace mouthpiece parts and condom caps and store vertically with the batt side down for future use. After using the carts, I refill with the carto cap (CCFM) method with a short Taryn spin 3 or 4 more times before needing to boil them again.
The entire cleaning process took about 1.5 hrs, and refilling with the syringe takes about 1 min per cart. They are literally factory fresh this way, as I believe this is equivalent to the method and quantity of the prefilled versions.
Sorry if this was too long and detailed, but I hope it will answer some of the new folks' many questions as they approach this part of their V4L journey. It's not as hard as it sounds, and you will really begin to save money on this happy habit if you take the time to take care of your carts.
1. In a normal kitchen saucepan, heat about 2 or 3 quarts of water to a full boil.
2. Disassemble carts, place plastic caps and o-rings in a small tupperware container full of hot water and allow to soak until later in the process. For the newer premium carts with the hard to remove brittle plastic caps, dip the mouthpiece end in the hot water on the stove for about 10 seconds to loosen the glue, then remove with your "pick-type" tool (courtesy of Adrenalynn).
3. Place cartos without mouthpieces into the bottom of a 5 qt ice cream pail. Pour the boiling water into the pail covering all the carts with at least 3 inches of water (this way you don't get your good kitchen saucepans dirty with juice = preventing wife from beating you). Let sit for 1/2 to 1 hr., stirring occasionally.
4. During the carto soak time, I run medium hot water in my utility sink, and rinse and clean all the little mouthpiece parts and set aside over some paper towels on a paper plate.
5. By this time, the carto soup is cooled enough to start the rinsing process. I use a 10 ml syringe, and place a small tupperware bowl under the running stream of water to form a pool to draw clean water into the syringe. I remove one cart, draw the syringe full, place flush against the open (mouth) end of the cart, and firmly squeeze the fresh water through the cart out the battery hole into the sink. (Using Maxx's cut condom technique at this part of the process is an improvement to what I was used to doing.) I syringe-flush each condom with fresh water 3 times, shake and set aside. (If you are wondering why flush from the mouth end vs the batt end, it is because you will force more water through the batting this way, vs forcing water through the batt end only forces water through the hole.)
6. When all the carts are flushed clean, I take them out to my garage where my best friend, the air compressor lives. I then hold them up and blow out each carto with the "cleaning wand", which dries them almost immediately. Caution should be used here as you can damage the cart if you direct 120 psi at contact into the cart; I have the wand about 4 - 6 inches away which works very well. I realize not everyone has an air compressor, and I'm sure some will say this is unnecessary, but the added benefit of this is that the batting is significantly loosened and fluffed vs letting them just sit and dry on their own for a few days (if you do let them air dry, you should fluff the batting with a needle or sharp object prior to refilling IF you wish maximize refill volume).
7. I let all the parts dry for at least one day. Now since the mouthpieces are still removed, I use a smaller syringe to refill as follows: Draw 1ml of juice into the syringe, insert syringe into batting down close to the bottom of the cart. Squeeze 1/4 ml into the batting, remove and repeat 3 more times around the cart to cover 4 polar locations maximizing juice distribution.
8. Replace mouthpiece parts and condom caps and store vertically with the batt side down for future use. After using the carts, I refill with the carto cap (CCFM) method with a short Taryn spin 3 or 4 more times before needing to boil them again.
The entire cleaning process took about 1.5 hrs, and refilling with the syringe takes about 1 min per cart. They are literally factory fresh this way, as I believe this is equivalent to the method and quantity of the prefilled versions.
Sorry if this was too long and detailed, but I hope it will answer some of the new folks' many questions as they approach this part of their V4L journey. It's not as hard as it sounds, and you will really begin to save money on this happy habit if you take the time to take care of your carts.
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