can I salvage 'burnt' cartomizers?

[ima_syko]

Well, this is discouraging. I thought this was going to be a cost-effective alternative to smoking, but at the rate I'm going, it won't be. I've burned up 6 of the 8 cartomizers I've used, and many of them were nearly full when the burnt taste came on. I refill them long before I really need to, try to keep them cool by waiting as much as 20-30 seconds between drags, but they still keep burning up. (specifically, KR808D1's)

(Any suggestions beyond what I'm already doing to try to keep them from burning would also be helpful!) My reason for posting is to ask if there is any way to save a cartomizer once it gets burnt. I'm guessing the answer is "not without a lot of hassle," or just plain "no," but maybe I'm missing something.

I've taken several burnt ones apart, each time trying a slightly different tactic to dismantle it without ruining it, all without success. Have any of you had any luck restoring a burnt-up cartomizer by replacing the burnt materials? Could I theoretically do anything to replace these burnable materials with something that is much less likely to burn? Even if it means a lot of initial hassle, if I could replace the easily burned paper roll & cloth-like wick inside with something more tolerant of prolonged heat, I would try it.

Thanks for your stories and advice!

 

[dreho]

Hi,
I cant answer your question directly, meaning, I dont know how to resurrect a completely burnt cartomizer, but this may extend their life. I also use a kr808d and admittedly only been vaping for 3 weeks, but in that time, I've only burnt 2 cartomizers to the point where they no longer produce any vapor. Whenever I refill, or even if I get a burnt or harsh draw, I open the cart, (I use a jewellers screwdriver but Im sure a toothpick or any small instrument will do) and using that, push the filler down until the little tube in the middle extends about 1/8th of an inch above it. This has prevented the filler from burning up on me. One thing though, it does reduce the throat hit a bit, and I know some people love that.
Anyway, hope that helps, really extended cartomizer life for me. Other than that, I'm not sure what to tell you, I know some people have said they have occasionally gotten a bad cart that didnt work at all. I havent experienced this and Im pretty much a chain vapor.
Good Luck, hope you stick with it,
dreho

 

[HaploVoss]

2 things:

1st: Standard cartomizers, I have had great success just rinsing them under warm water (after you take the white cap off the top of course) and blowing them out from the top -> down and out through the battery end. Do that several times and the filler shoud now look nice and white like new or very close. THen your cart should hold 25 or more drops and vape just like a new cart.

2nd: Invest in some Greencig cartomizers. They actually have a cartridge and atomizer built into them. pop the top off, scrape out a tiny o-ring and glue, tap out the cartridge, pull out the filler, fill the cart about halfway with e-juice, put the filler back in, drip juice in until you have the filler all juiced up to the top. Then replace the cartridge into the cartomizer IMPORTANT -> The cart is "D" shaped. When you look down into the cartomizer, you will see a 'bundle' of wick material against one side. The ROUNDED part of the "D" goes on top of this when you push the cart back down inside. Then put your white cap back on. Then vape your .... off.
Greencig carts also do not overheat as much and you can basically refill them indefinitely!! I'm sure the attys eventually die, but they definitely last a heck of a lot longer than regular cartomz.

Take care,
- Hap

 

[dreho]

Thx for the tips, Hap, not my thread, but I'm gonna try those out too.
dreho

 

[fonosmoak]

HaploVoss,

I also refresh my carts by the hot water and air flush method, and yes I do find this method to be effective...

The Key in my opinion to prevent any burning is to keep your carts juiced...

What I've adopted as standard practice after 50 odd days of vaping a kr808d-1, and what has effectively eliminated any burnt carts for me in the last 45 days is:

1. Employ several units, I carry four and a Nico stick mod, five or six hits from one then--rotate.

2. Take your soft rubber shipping cap, punch a small hole in the end to draw through, place it mostly on the end of the cart; leaving a space to capture any extra juice---this way you lose the fear of juice in your mouth and become a well juiced max flavor junkey...

So, every 15 or so hits add I'll add 3 or four drops to the bat end--then Rotate.


The cool things about this rubber cap inovation is you never notice the heat, every cart has a smooth soft bite-able tip, (I'm thinking nipple like--sorry lol)

Any juice that does manage to sneak out into the reservoir cap can be reinserted back into the cart by simply sliding down your rubber cap...

Sounds weird I know but works like a charm.

Lastly, do you have any photos or links to this quite different d-cart greencig gizmo

Regards
fo

PS. I only fill from the plastic cap end after cleaning, the add to the bat end method seems to keep them going just fine for days...I'm a VG mixer and find that after a few days what's left in the cart (that does not vape) builds up and you need to flush them clean...(colored liquids are the big offenders)

I boil water, remove from the heat toss in my carts, let sit for ten minutes--then take each to the tap--then to the air compressor--I blow in both ends never had a problem...

Kr808d-1s rock my world
f

 

[fonosmoak]

Oh yeah,

The question---If you could get the cap off the battery end of the cart you could rebuild them---I've never had any luck doing this...

Those Mothers are on there plenty good, it's a press fit but boy howdy what a fit...

I end up smashing them with a hammer out of frustration every time.

So NO you cannot rebuild them unless you can get that cap off.

Right-on
fo

Another PS..If you have a burnt cart you can still use it with a darker tasting vape--I mean really? didn't we used to burn copious amounts of tobacco every single day for years and years?

And really, have you tried an analog lately?

Talk about a burnt taste...

It's a princess and the pea issue.. that's my take.

Best Regards
fo

 

[ima_syko]

Thank you all for your very detailed and thorough responses!!!

Just to clarify, when I speak about burning a cartomizer, I don't mean that it doesn't produce enough vapor, I mean that it produces such a disgusting taste that it is too nasty to use. Kind of tastes like scorched wet cardboard might taste if you could smoke it. When I take burnt ones apart, the filler material is still white, but the roll of paper surrounding the wick has a hole burned into it with blackened edges. Also the wick itself will have a large blackened spot where it touched the paper roll.

Dreho, I'm definitely going to try your idea of compressing the filler to expose the wick/straw thing. I'm not entirely sure why that would prevent burning, but I'll definitely try it on my current unburned cart. I'd trade the throat-hit altogether to keep them from burning up at this rate. Hopefully this will help, thank you for the idea, I'd have never thought of it!

HaploVoss, I'm not sure how your flush-out method would make a burned paper/wick taste go away, since it's still burned regardless, but I'll certainly try the next time I burn one. Maybe the burned flavor comes from tainted liquid versus the burnt paper/wick itself, in which case that might indeed work. Also, I will investigate greencig carts the next time I need to buy more (I've got about 25 new ones at the moment) as your recommendation is intriguing. I really appreciate your time and effort in explaining the cleaning & refilling process.

Fonosmoak, with your second opinion on flushing, I'll most definitely try it. I do in fact keep several cartomizers on my desk at all times, and I rotate as often as every 5 hits, give or take. This seems to have helped the rate at which they burn up, but it still seems like I burn one every day no matter how often I fill them or rotate them. I had tried the rubber cap idea already as well, but I found that being able to feel the heat lets me know when to slow down and rotate. I still do it sometimes when I need both hands and want to bite down on it, and I appreciate the suggestion. Thanks also for the info on taking them apart, I kind of figured it'd be nearly impossible, but I wondered if anyone had done it. The notion of continuing to use a burned cart won't work for me though. When I say it's disgusting, I really mean it. A million times nastier than smoking a cigarette, which leads me to believe that once they're burnt, they're useless. However I will definitely try all these methods to prevent and correct it..!

Thanks again to all of you for your time and your help, it's above and beyond what I could've asked for..! Please, if anyone has anything to add, speak up! I'm hoping the flush-out method will get rid of the burnt taste, but based on the severity of the nastyness, I'm still skeptical until I try it. Is there any chance these are inferior KR808D cartomizers, or is there only one company that actually manufactures them? I get mine from CigEasy and they're very reasonably price, but I'd pay more for carts less likely to burn so easily.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR INPUT, AND KEEP IT COMING IF ANYONE READS THIS!

 

[fonosmoak]

No problem,

I think you'll find in time that not burning them is the secret;

that the reason they do burn is lack of juice to vaporise;

that juice in the mouth, or absent minded puffing is why one burns one, or tends not to be liberal enough with the juice.

Rest assured I also burned my share of carts week one, but once I overcame the urge to explore the limits of my carts and refocused my efforts to maintaining max flavor the burning became a non issue...

I used to be overly focused on the LED also, now I cannot be bothered to look.

You've made an excellent choice, and I'm sure you're now on your way to better times...

Best Regards, and congrats on your efforts to getting off tobacco
fo

and PS>

HaploVoss, could you link me the proper greencig cartomizer page, the one that fits a kr808d-1 battery?

Thanks

 

[PhoenixRising]

Another sort of lateral thought here...could it be that you got a bad batch of cartomizers? I know they all come from the same factories, but with that said, I have ordered from 4 different vendors and there is definitely a difference in the cartomizers from vendor to vendor. The only thing that makes sense to me is that there are batches that are good, and batches that are not so good. Each vendor, at any given time, could have a batch of bad ones under this theory. Have you considered ordering from another vendor?

I have ordered from Mist-stix, CigEasy, Vapor4Life, and Nhaler (all great vendors and positive experiences for me). Perhaps try a different vendor and see what happens if you get some cartomizers from a different batch. My personal favorite cartomizers have been from V4L, but I would encourage you to try a few from the different vendors to check the bad batch possibility.

 

[ima_syko]

Guys, this advice was awesome! When I think of having thrown out 7 carts now, it makes me wince! I ran a very burnt-tasting cart under a hot tap and blew it out about a dozen times, let it sit for an hour or two and refilled. To my surprise, there was almost no burnt taste whatsoever! I guess the liquid gets tainted by the burning, and the burnt material itself doesn't affect the taste nearly as much as I thought. Because I was so skeptical, I took apart this formerly-burnt-tasting cart just to make sure it really was burned and I wasn't going crazy. It had the same nasty looking burnt hole in the paper and a scorched wick, yet it tasted almost like new. I can suffer a wee bit of burnt taste in exchange for extreme longevity, and now I know it's easy. Still not sure why I'm so prone to burning em, but I'll figure it out in the long run.

This trick is going to extend the life of my carts by a huge measure. I should've known you guys would know your stuff..! Thanks a lot!

Advice still welcome, but case closed as far as I'm concerned.

 

[ima_syko]

Odd that newbies can't edit their posts -- Thanks for this advice Phoenix, I had planned on trying a different vendor for my next batch anyways. I suppose it's possible that I got an inferior batch, but I'm beginning to think it's more likely that I wasn't filling them full enough each time I added liquid. That or this batch is prone to overheating for whatever reason.

Thanks to everyone who answered, this forum is an invaluable resource for the novice e-smoker!

 

[PhoenixRising]

If you are wondering about your fill leves, on the V4L subforum there is a video posted by kc0cmp (it's a sticky so you won't have to search for it) that details how to refill a cartomizer. I have found that his recommendation of around 18 drops to refill is dead on. Obviously this will vary a bit depending on the viscosity and drop size of the liquid you are dealing with, but it is a great place to start! This video should be a must for all new cartomizer users! Check it out!

Welcome aboard to another North Carolinean! There are many of us here!

 

[Cat5ive]

I tried this rinsing and blowing out method and my carto was completely shot after I did it.. It doesn't heat up at all and I get no vapor.. Did I do something wrong?? I popped the cap off and ran it under the water. Blow out. Repeat several times. Fill. Then nothing..

 

[swedishfish]

I tried this rinsing and blowing out method and my carto was completely shot after I did it.. It doesn't heat up at all and I get no vapor.. Did I do something wrong?? I popped the cap off and ran it under the water. Blow out. Repeat several times. Fill. Then nothing..

I've never had luck cleaning out a cartomzier either. To me it's like washing out a paper towel. When it dries it has that weird stiff feeling. I don't think they're the same as a brand spanking new carto.

Cartos aren't that expensive. Maybe $1.30-1.50 a piece. Mine can last anywhere from a week, pushing it, two weeks. I just throw them away.

I can't imagine why a carto would be burning like that. It does take awhile for the carto to absorb the juice. Even after it seems to, you can still have dry pockets. You can see this in action when you use clear cartos. I think maybe the juice wasn't completely absorbed and maybe didn't make it's way down to the bottom of the carto.

With a manual battery, you could drip some drops into the battery end. But you can't do that with an automatic battery.