Carto filler suddenly turns black?

[Berylanna]

My roommate is having a problem I've never had, and she/we are worried.

She's vaping vg-only on a 3.6 volt battery. Often a clear RY4, sometimes a dark-brown tobacco.

On about the 3rd refill of the carto, after a few puffs, like 3-4, suddenly it tastes funny and when she takes off the drip tip the entire carto filler is black-colored. Not like charcoal, but like filler filled with black ink would look.

At that point she sets the cartos aside, does not try to recover the juice, and mourns the wasted liquid as well as being nervous about whatinell just happened.

Does anybody know? It looks scary.

 

[LucentShadow]

Wow. I have to ask if she was washing out the cartos and letting them dry between fillings. Some who have done that have spotted mold growing in them after that.

Otherwise, I'd guess that the solid particles from the dark tobacco juice that get trapped at the coil and wick area may be getting floated back up when refilling, which a careful cleaning could remedy.

Tap water and air-drying is not recommended, IMO. I used PGA, a wick in contact with the filler, and low heat to clean and dry mine.

 

[OnnaB]

While I really am cheap, I am not wasting time to clean cartos. They are cheap enough to replace when needed. It sounds like the dark liquids just gunked up the carto filler...and started burning this time around.

 

[dirfm]

I have to say WOW also! I have never had this happen. It sounds like a bad batch of carto's to me. I am not an expert, but definitely if that happened more then once, I would question the batch of carto's I bought.

 

[shuffler]

It sounds like something is burnt... You said the liquid is black, but is the wick black?

 

[KForrester86]

dissect the cartomizer and take some photos and post them, might help some of the e-cigarette gurus on here to give you some advice. Sounds brutal though, I would be concerned.

 

[Xaiver]

It stands to reason that not -everything- in our liquid vaporizes at exactly the same temperature. I have a similar problem, though mine doesn't exactly look like scorching or anything of the sort. The filler starts to get brownish around the outside, and sometimes I get little black chunky bits. Tiny things that you wouldn't even notice if you weren't looking closely. That's usually around the 4th or so fill, and that's when I trash them and open a fresh one.

The heating coil in your cartos is where the liquid needs to be for it to be vaporized. That's also the thing that attracts the 'gunk'. Said gunk tends to build up on the coil through lots of use. My guess would be that as it gets refilled ontop of the gunk, the gunk sort of diffuses into the liquid to make room for more gunk. That would taint your flavor and cause what you're describing.

I've also noticed, personally, that when it gets to that stage, I start having to clear my throat a bit more often.

Hope this helps,
-X

 

[AttyPops]

Hmmm. Wonder if it's some kind of chemical reaction between the juices with heat as a catalyst? Does it happen with all jucies, or just those two? You sort of said it's not burnt...does it taste burnt? Can you define "tastes funny?"?

If it is burnt, it got too dry. What carto is it?

There's always CE2's (no filler, clear). Highly recommended. Need a syringe to fill.

If you don't go that route...ditch the dark juice for the time being and use another (clear) flavor for switching flavors.

 

[Berylanna]

Hmmm. Wonder if it's some kind of chemical reaction between the juices with heat as a catalyst? Does it happen with all jucies, or just those two? You sort of said it's not burnt...does it taste burnt? Can you define "tastes funny?"?

If it is burnt, it got too dry. What carto is it?

There's always CE2's (no filler, clear). Highly recommended. Need a syringe to fill.

If you don't go that route...ditch the RY4 for the time being and use another (clear) flavor for switching flavors.

I think it is burnt. But when mine get burnt, they just burn a little tiny bit at the center coil. Hers just suddenly get burnt all over.

One difference is that I rest cartos after refilling.

I'm vaping vision-clones sometimes and I have gone through a box of tissues cleaning drips off my battery. She does not want anything fussy, and uses autos exclusively.

I am also refilling cartos from the same vendor with no problems, but we are not using the same batch. They are 2.6 resistance horizontal bottom-coil.

Guess I'll look up how to dissect one and hope it doesn't take a machine shop.

 

[Berylanna]

Wow. I have to ask if she was washing out the cartos and letting them dry between fillings. Some who have done that have spotted mold growing in them after that.

Otherwise, I'd guess that the solid particles from the dark tobacco juice that get trapped at the coil and wick area may be getting floated back up when refilling, which a careful cleaning could remedy.

Tap water and air-drying is not recommended, IMO. I used PGA, a wick in contact with the filler, and low heat to clean and dry mine.

She is not cleaning them, this is only the 3rd refill.

On a separate note, I clean with boiling tap water, then use the reverse Taryn spin, then air-dry in a medium-humidity climate (26-70, depending on the day.) Guess I need to re-add the alcohol soak I used the first time I tried that, but that adds another spin and I think I just hurt my back that way.......

 

[AttyPops]

It concerns me that you talked about leaking and auto batteries in the same post (although not necessarily the same people?).

Leaking into an auto battery is a death sentence for the battery. The little hole gets juice in it...at least for most auto batteries. I think one vendor has a "sealed" auto. But most are not sealed. Beware the leaks.

On the carto note: I'd see what happens if she changes cartos with her vaping style.

 

[tiburonfirst]

no, atty - the room mate doesn't want to try the clearos because berylanna had bad luck with the visions which are basically clearos. i have used them and had no leaks .....

as to the carto with the black filler. i would dissect and/or just try to wash out the filler to see if there is a burn or just discoloration.
if you can take some pics we would be more than happy to look at them in the burning carto thread and discuss.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...us-510-kr808-4081-etc-filler-type-cartos.html

don't worry about the length of the thread - just go to the last post

 

[AttyPops]

Well, I think it was the other roomie that was using the clearo's, not the burnt carto one ... however I'm having trouble deciphering who likes what. Anyway... I only mentioned clearo's since 1) No filler to burn, 2) they vape like a monster, 3) no leaks with what I'm using. So.... meh.

Hey, that's why I asked for more help here tibby! Thanks for the link to the burning carto thread. IDK why it would get burnt all at once all over the place and look like black ink. Strange one to be sure. We'll see when she is done with dissection.

 

[tiburonfirst]

they are my preference, too, atty, but a lot of people got turned off by leakage .....

 

[Synnuh]

Every time mine get black around the top of the filler it's been burned pretty bad. I'll also notice the juice coming out of the battery end a lot darker when I overfill. I've had some that just barely burn the center of the filler and the wick material around the coil, and others that have gotten so dry it gives out a super harsh hit, and ends up burnt completely through the wick material and part of the filler material, as well. Refilling them gives off a stinging taste on your tongue, and only gets worse as the juice in the carto gets lower. Once I taste the stinging on my tongue I know the carto is completely gone, unfortunately. Hope it helps a little.

Also, you can just take a pair of tweezers and start ripping everything out of the top of the cartomizer. Pull the wires out with the tweezers and everything else comes with it, then just unroll the filler and take a look. 9 times out of 10, when I think they're burned, dissecting them shows that they are.

 

[Katya]

Ouch! Synnuh, you really shouldn't let your cartos get to the "tongue stinging" stage!

I don't know what cartos you're using, but, generally, properly maintained cartomizer can be refilled several times without any burning or darkening of ejuice. In my experience, a good cartomizer is only good for about 6-10 ml of juice; after that, things begin to go bad--the flavor changes and vapor diminishes due to gunk buildup on the heating coil. There really is not much that can be done about. Cartomizers are disposable and can't be properly cleaned.

What are you using? What's the resistance of your cartos? Voltage of your battery? What kind of juice are you using? How often do you top off your carto--they need to be kept moist at all time.

 

[Katya]

My roommate is having a problem I've never had, and she/we are worried.

She's vaping vg-only on a 3.6 volt battery. Often a clear RY4, sometimes a dark-brown tobacco.

On about the 3rd refill of the carto, after a few puffs, like 3-4, suddenly it tastes funny and when she takes off the drip tip the entire carto filler is black-colored. Not like charcoal, but like filler filled with black ink would look.

At that point she sets the cartos aside, does not try to recover the juice, and mourns the wasted liquid as well as being nervous about whatinell just happened.

Does anybody know? It looks scary.

Berylanna! It's very hard to answer your question without seeing the damage; Tibur's suggestion is very good--if you can take some pictures of the innards in question and post them here or on the "Burning Cartomizers" thread we'll be much better able to help you.

That said, I'm thinking the culprit might be that "dark tobacco." What kind of juice is it? If it's one of those extracted tobacco eliquids that are full of sediment, coloring and sweeteners, then it can indeed clog and dicolor the carto very quickly! RY4s are also usually sweetened and colored (caramel and vanilla).

In the meantime, don't use any cartos that are clogged, discolored or leak dark liquid. Yikes. Grab a fresh one--they are disposable!!!!! They were not designed to be refilled many times and/or cleaned...

 

[Synnuh]

Katya, yeah, live and learn. It was a definite learning period with carto tanks. Ended up burning up 24 cartos in a month trying to get them to work. Now I've been on the same carto for 10 days without any issues. The ones that got to the stinging stage were in the very beginning when I couldn't tell when the carto was burnt. It's happened a couple times since, but never to the extent it was. I'm a slow learner I guess.

I'm using a LavaTube with Boge 2.0s and voltages anywhere from 4.0 to 4.5 volts. I've learned to take a few primer puffs before using the power, though. I've also started popping off the drip tip every so often and make sure that the top of the carto stays moist, and if it isn't I'll pull a few more primer puffs or blow back into the tank and pull a few from there. It went from not working at all to working flawlessly with someone telling me to pull primer puffs on the tanks.

 

[Katya]

Synnuh, 2.0Ω carto on 4.5v will result in 10.15 Watts of power (heat). That's very high for a filler type carto, honestly. They are not designed to handle that much heat, even with a tank. Have you tried using standard resistance Boges?

Boge makes good cartomizers, but I would never take them beyond 8.5 Watts or thereabout--but that's just me...

Anyway, be careful on those high voltages or switch to fillerless cartomizers. There are plenty of good choices on the market nowadays. I like my eGo-C atties and the new CE4 changeable-coil clearomizers.

Good luck and happy vaping!

 

[r77r7r]

Synnuh, 2.0Ω carto on 4.5v will result in 10.15 Watts of power (heat). That's very high for a filler type carto, honestly. They are not designed to handle that much heat, even with a tank. Have you tried using standard resistance Boges?

Boge makes good cartomizers, but I would never take them beyond 8.5 Watts or thereabout--but that's just me...

Anyway, be careful on those high voltages or switch to fillerless cartomizers. There are plenty of good choices on the market nowadays. I like my eGo-C atties and the new CE4 changeable-coil clearomizers.

Good luck and happy vaping!

You can go to 10.15 w/ ego-C and C4's?