Burnt Plastic Taste Vision eGo Stardust V2 Clearomizer

[kathradar]

I've been vaping almost 3 years now. Rebuild atty's, do product reviews for an e-cig company etc. Been using various Clearomizers for eGo's and 510 threads. Just purchased 2 Vision eGo Stardust V2 Clearomizers (replaceable head). First thing I noticed was that it was shipped dry, no fluid on coil or wicks at all (they always pack the coil at least with PG). 2nd was the wicks were quite long and stood straight out (8 of them). From rebuilding all sorts of 510's, Tornados, Ego-c's, all of them use the industry standard for wicking...silica. It's very soft & delicate...shreads very easily. But these wicks were stiff and like a nylon rope almost. Anyway I filled it up & started...hell of a burnt taste, not like a dry coil burnt taste, but with a plastic taste. I rinsed it out and put another juice in and same thing. Ran 3 ml's of juice through it, not inhaling as I'd choke to death the taste was so bad. Took off the tank and looked at the wicks. They sure don't look, feel or act like silica. They draw really well, but my guess is they are some other 'new' material that's cheaper and easier to use in China. Anyone else have this experience with these? All my other Clearomizers definitely have silica threads. I contacted the vendor and asked for an RMA, but I doubt if they'll let me return them as they consider them "disposable". So I'm out 20+ bucks and stuck with 2 Clearomizers and the replacement heads.

 

[Forsaken1981]

Those have the worst dry Atty taste, I put a drop or 2 right on the coil under the cap, fill it up, flip it up side down a few times (seems to aid in wicking) and used it at about 3.5-3.7 volts till the coil broke in a bit seemed to help.

 

[Fyre904]

There is a silicon wrap in where the coil is I found in a few heads this gave an off taste and it went away after removing said piece of silicon. Looks like the woven tube inside of most cartos but it just sits around the coil.

 

[Forsaken1981]

And I also remember hearing something about silica wicks and possible issues with non crystalline silica and health issues. People were ranting about only using natural fibers, (wool.bamboo) but natural fibers can burn which leads to burnt taste ect. So maybe they changed the silica to a wool type yarn material instead of silica.

 

[kathradar]

Yes, I found the problem as FYRE904 below stated. When I lifted up the silicone cap over the coil I saw not only the wrap around the coil, but two pieces of burnt debris about 2mmx2mm (looked like pieces of plastic wiring cover?) I remove them and the small coil wrap and no longer have the problem. Who knows what happens in assembly...thanks for your reply.

 

[kathradar]

I replied to the first member, and you are right, it was a combination of that silicone mesh wrap around the coil and two pieces of burnt debris (plastic wire covering?)causing the taste. I found those just after I wrote the first post. It was really the worst taste I have encountered, worse than a dry coil. Seems to be working ok for now. Not worth squawking about to the seller for the price of a replaceable head. Thanks

 

[kathradar]

Yeah, I've seen those comments around. Natural fibers can not take the heat and exposure to liquids that silica can. People like to panic about stuff like that. They were probably analogging 2 1/2 packs of tobacco a day with God knows how many carcinogens to say nothing about the fibers from cigarette filters and they want to moan about the possibility of a few strands of silica getting through. Simple solution; devise a fine mesh over or under the mouth piece to catch them or mod a mouthpiece similar to a Tornado tank that has an inner and tip vapor barrier to make condensation drip back down. Not that hard to correct.

 

[Rocketpunk]

I've had nothing but failure with any and all of the clearomizers I've used. Even my fellow vapors at work are complaining about how they're starting to suck. At first they worked perfectly, but as time went on, each and every person using a clearomizer started to complain about how it gunked up at the wicks, how it started to have a burnt taste, and how hard it was to draw from. I use an atty for dripping (see my recent post, DON'T DRY FIRE ATTYS!), and until 5 minutes ago (see aforementioned post), I was having awesome performance. I've decided I don't particularly enjoy cartos or clearos. I love my atomizers. But I dry fired one to experiment with "cleaning" it and that was the worst advice possible.

 

[Rachel1225]

The dreaded burnt taste ...

 

[kathradar]

I've actually had some great luck with CE4's and now that the 'burnt taste' is resolved, with the Vision V2 rebuildable. This is what I've found to clean up the wicks when they start to 'gunk up" right where they go in to the cup. First I empty them out and flush with warm to med hot distilled water. Just keep filling em, shake em then blow them out from the mouthpiece end. I do this the first couple of weeks, then I do this and follow with a soaking for 2 hours in 2% Hydrogen Peroxide. doesn't seem to damage tank or coils. I rinse them good after this and blow them out, them sit them on a paper towel and let them dry out over night. #rd step, when they are about a month-six weeks old, I 'dry burn' the coil. You have to be very careful doing this & you are going to lose about 15-20% of em even being careful...but what the hell, they're a month old anyway. This is how I was taught to dry burn, and I have very good luck with any type atty, where you can see the coil:

On the clearomizer disposables, wiggle off the soft silicone cap by holding down the metal tube with a wooden toothpick (if there is one) that comes up through it for the mouthpiece, as the two together are too fat to squeeze out the top. You need to make a little hook with a small paperclip (just slightly bend an 1/8" on one end). Slip it down side of tube to where the wicks go under the cap and turn it slightly so it hooks under the silicone cap. You just need to bring it up bout 1/4", as then you can use a very narrow tweezers or other fairly blunted device and pull it up through the hole where the metal mouth piece vent is...still holding the metal vent down till you get the cap up to the top. Get the cap out first and then the metal air tube for the mouth piece. I know this sounds involved, but it isn't, just takes some manual dexterity. The rebuildables are a snap, as you can open them up and just pull it off!
Step 2: rinse either the disposable or the rebuildable and get as much water off the wicks as possible...a snap with rebuildables cuz you can gently pat the wicks dry. with disposables I've twisted a piece of toweling and stuck it in the coil cup to soak up water. Reassemble the dried out rebuildable without the silicone cap or mouth piece, dry off battery contact and looking down through top of Clearomizer at the coil, press battery button while gently blowing on the coil, and watching it.
Hold button for about 2-3 seconds Max. Stop and do it again, and again...you must blow on it to keep it from overheating. By about the 4th try, you should see part of the coil starting to glow red. At this point, you can increase time a second or two. The objective is to watch the red glow travel across the coil until the entire coil glows red from wick end to wick end, and a white ash forms on copper wire. It has to be done slowly!When the entire coil is covered with the white ash, let it cool down and rinse with distilled water. I sometimes use a wooden toothpick and gently run it across the coil knocking off any large chunks of debris, then rinse again and reassemble. This process, not only cleans out all carbon deposits on the coil, but also burns off build up juice deposits where the wick goes into the coil.Do not think more is better! If you burn it too fast and hot you will fry the atty, but if you keep watching, you will see it start turning red at one end, stop, repeat & you'll see it go a bit further each time. I done this with hundreds of atty's and Clearomizers...It DOES void the warranty! But it also works quite well for 80-85% of atty's. I have four $4 CE4's that I have been using everyday, all day for 2 months now, and volume flavor etc has hardly changed. Unless you can afford to be totally disposable all systems need maintenance! Cheers.

 

[kathradar]

there are many reasons for a 'burnt' taste, not always gunked up coil or wicks. 'Dry burn" tastes can come from juice not getting to the coil..too thick (too much VG/AG), a blockage etc. but when the taste develops over time, it can be from gunked up atty or wicks. Read my rather long post below yours on how to clean up a gunked up one...Kathradar

 

[Hitmetwice]

Hey kathradar, I'm sure your method works just fine. The process I use is more "quick and dirty" as they say.

I no longer deal with the disposables but only the V2 replaceable head types.

Remove tip, dump out juice, unscrew tank, pop off the rubber/silicone cap and dry all the parts with tissue/paper towel.
Dab the wicks dry(ish), helps speed dryburning. Remove head and wipe dry the connectors too.

Screw head back onto base and attach to your battery. Set volts under 4 if you can adjust voltage.
Begin the dryburn...4-5sec intervals relaxing 10secs. in between burns.

Gradually increase voltage as you go(if you can), at some point it should start to smoke and burn off the built up gunk.
Continue 'till there is no more smoke and the entire coil glows nice and red.

Re-assemble, let cool, re-fill and vape. A few short primer puffs with the power on should get it wicking nice again.
I do this every couple days and haven't lst a coil yet. I only use one Stardust at a time, also.
When the silica wick needs replacing I'll simply slide in some 1mm. cotton(string) through the coil(after a dryburn).

Been workin' well for me....each to their own I guess.

Vape on...

 

[reborndead]

I either turn down the voltage, or clean the connectors. Both seems to help in the burnt taste. Also, more VG seems to cut down on the burntness

 

[klynnn]

If the silicone cap is on wrong you will also get a plastic taste. The flat side of metal piece in there should face down. I clean the whole thing with reckless abandon in hot water dry burn it and rinse. Dry the wicks refill and go and I gets at least 6 weeks out of em.

 

[jonnyfalmouth]

i bought one of these online it was junk tasted burnt no matter what i did so today i went to my local flea market. The guy there that sells e cig stuff has always giving me his card and anyone that buys something from him and tells him i sent them he gives me afree bottle of liquid well anyway i knew that a few of my buddies had been there so i went to get my free juice. I asked him instead of the free juice if he would give me a free ego case he said sure. Then i noticed he was selling the ego visions i told him i had purchased one and that they were junk he said i have had nothing but good luck with them the wicks were the long ones just like the one i purchased but they were braided together and looked different he told me here take one for free and tell me what you think and sure enough the thing works great

 

[tooBerk]

I've done with stardusts. Threw away 2 clearomizers with terrible+terrible burnt tastes.

 

[kathradar]

Oh yeah, I've done it both ways...forgot to mention about the smoke when the crap burns off. I was just trying to explain it to some people who had never done it before. You get a feel for it...how long you can burn at what voltage. It really doesn't take me as long as it did to write it! Cotton? I would think that would burn up?? I used to use silica stuff in porcelain ovens and you could bring certain kinds up to 2300 degrees. As to that little fiber wrapping they have around the edge of the coil (some Vision replaceable heads have it, some don't), on more delicate flavors you can really detect a bad plastic tastes. I presume it's meant to keep the liquid around the coil or to keep it from touching the metal, as on the vision I don't see any ceramic cup unless it's further inside. Sometimes I just get tired of messing with stuff, but then I hate to spend unnecessary dollars. I have a friend with a retail e-cig outlet and every time he orders the same thing he last had like C4's & C5's, they've changed something on them, when the original ones worked best. Don't think they don't read these forums in China ...they use us as their 'proving grounds'. Thanks for your input...I do get a month to 6 weeks out of one. How the hell do you get the cotton string though there? loop a smaller string on it and pull it through? I suppose if I wanted to re-wick with silica, I could fold it over a fine wire and pull a new one through. (FYI for another poster...silica often comes twisted tight with 6-8 strands) That's for when I have far more fiddle time and am losing more than a $2 head. Another thought...I think they use way to much wick on the Vision V2 (not length). but thickness, as here's this big fat wick going into a tiny compressed coil area so of course it's going to build up gunk. Like trying to flush your toilet through the garden hose. I have a number to disposable C4's with half that amount and they go for 2 months without gunking up. Fat wick can be a reason for dry burn if someone is pulling too fast & hard...like in all the Titan and Tornado Tanks, man they just crammed as much as they could in the spike and the juice can't flow. Ta-Ta nice chatting with you