Carto Master Thread - Just the Facts Ma'am - No Chit Chat Please

[Kent C]

4. Kent, if you'd be willing to write a little explanation about the relationship between the voltage, resistance and wattage, like you did so kindly for me, it would be very helpful to a lot of folks.

I missed this and I'm not the most qualified for it but we get help from others. This chart was originally done by Ralph T. I made some revisions today. I filled in the area from red to green with yellow - expanded, the red area that was missed, imo and according to my metering switched the 901 and 801 labels although with the various ohm ratings now on all models, those labels are superfluous at this point. Here it is:

The 'Power Formula' is Volts/ohms x Volts = Watts

And in general, the more Watts the more Vapor, and more vapor can mean more nic absorption and throat hit. Also more watts can enhance some flavors and subdue others. Usually strong flavors hold up to the heat where fruit and berry flavors do better with less heat.

The red area - 12 Watts and above - is where it would be quite easily to burn out an atty on the first draw. The yellow area is the 'advanced dripping' area - people who have experience with the red area ;-) and have learned to keep the atty/carto soaked and also know how long a draw they can take. This is 'focused vaping' and results in the most vapor and flavor that is good enough and with certain flavors 'good flavor'. The green area is 'less focused vaping'. I like to stay below 8, (the top area was already 8.5 so I just keep it). Long drags should not be a problem below 8 if you are keeping the atty/carto wet and that you refill/top off/drip at the first sign of a drop in flavor. Waiting until you have no flavor or burnt taste is to ruin cartomizers and decreases atomizer life.

 

[WitchWay]

tib I received the cartos today, thank you for sending them. I will be using the one with the vertical wire first since it's different and will post findings and pics after I've had a few days with it.


This is list of cartos I've tried, model, design, ohms and brief description/thoughts.

SmokeStik - 4081 - horizontal coil - 3.2 ohms
These seem to be the most burn resistant for me. Downside is they are prefilled. Other's think they cost too much, but if they were empties the price would not matter to me personally, they are worth it.

Good Prophets (sent to me by Katya) - 4081 - horizontal coil - 3.4 ohms
These are almost identical to the SmokeStik cartos, just some small differences in materials used. These are also burn resistant for me. Downside is they are prefilled.

Trueman, brown label (sent to me by tib) - 4081 - horizontal coil - 3.5 ohms
Have not used this yet, but looking inside it looks like the GP carto. Upside is it is empty.

Trueman black label (sent to me by tib) - 4081 - vertical wire - 3.4 ohms
Have not used this yet, but will test it next. Looking inside it looks to be well made, filler quality reminds me of the SS cartos but until it's taken apart it's hard to say for sure so we will see. The vertical wire is coated on top instead of being a bare wire. Just by looks I like it and it is empty. Will report on this one in a few days.

WordUp - 4081 - horizontal coil - 3.0 ohms
The first one I pulled apart the filler and insides seemed cheap in comparison to the SS and GP cartos. However after using the second one for a few days and still using it, it is not burning and it is still functioning well, so it may not be that cheap inside. Plus it comes empty.

IkenVape & LiteCig - SLB 510 - horizontal coil - brass threads - 3.0 ohms
Highly burn resistant for me, but others burn them quickly. This one you have to try yourself and see if it works for you or not.

LiteCig - Boge 510 - vertical wire - silver threads 3.0 ohms
These are not as burn resistant for me, but I can use them if I'm careful. Others have great success with these. Again you have to try these and see for yourself

Vapors Etc - Kanger (I believe) 510 - vertical wire - 2.9 ohms
This one differs, in the coil in the center of the vertical wire, there are extra fibers the coil is wrapped around. This is the same design as the original Kanger 808s, something other 808s and 510s with vertical wires do not generally have. For me these have a medium to low burn resistance, but Lori seems to be having good luck with them. Again, try it to see for yourself as YMMV

VaporNine Turbo & V4L CoolCarts - 808 - vertical wire - 3.3 ohms
I'm lumping these two together because I can't tell them apart. Both are highly burn resistant for me and both preform equally as well.

Kanger (from WordUp) - 808 - vertical wire - 2.9 ohms
Same as it's 510 cousin, vertical wire has fibers in the coil in the center. Medium to low burn resistant for me. YMMV

WordUp (unknown manufacturer) - 808 - horizontal coil - 3.0 ohms
I do not believe these to be SLBs as they do not have the same quality as the SLB 510s, but not sure who the manufacturer is. Got them today and have already burned two of them so I'm going to say these are not burn resistant at all for me. YMMV Plus they came prefilled with a nasty tasting RY4 juice. Personally I won't be buying these again.

And last... I ordered a couple of the Mega Ego Cartos from TW and hopefully won't have to wait too long to get them.

EDIT: CARTOS HAVE ALL BEEN USED AT 3.7 - 4.2 VOLTS


So if you have read this far, thank you and happy vaping!!!!

 

[ZambucaLu]

Hello everyone! For the time being, this thread is a work in progress. This thread is dedicated to establishing the facts on various cartomizers through experimentation and testing by some of ECF's most diligent and knowledgeable carto users.

The plan is to post only carto facts here with another thread for discussion and Q&As. The designated thread for anything other than such facts can be found here:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...s-e9-vk-bloog-totem-808-dpv9-smoke51-etc.html

For the time being, this thread will be closed until the appropriate posts are moved here. The thread will then be opened for the OPs to edit/add to their posts if they so desire. Anyone wishing to contribute to this thread should feel free to discuss it in the open discussion thread first.

Anything posted here that is not appropriate to this thread will be moved into the open discussion thread.

We hope this will be beneficial to our members and we thank those who have taken the time and trouble to provide us with this information.

Lu

 

[Scottbee]

I've come to the experts to have you take a look at these new EGO cartomizers from HG. Here's a link to the page -

5pc empty eGo cartomizers black! BIG SIZE! - Cartomizers - Wholesale & Retail Best E-smoking Supplier

Hit detail under the picture to see how they're filled. Interesting.

I'm returning after quite a long hiatus.. and I'm not even going to try to catch up. Sooo... if any of this has already been mentioned I apologize.

I actually have one of those Super-Mega-Tornado cartomizers... and for those who are worried about burning/charring polyfill, they may give you some relief. The internal design is reminiscent of the Greencig configuration and they should have more of a tolerance for coil over-heating. That being said... the actual coil pot on these units is plastic though... and although I never over-heated the one unit that I was given, I could see how serious abuse might lead to some melted plastic.

Personally I think they are a royal pin to fill. You really must use the hypo needle, and if your try to fill from the battery end you simply won't be able to hit capacity. And when you do fill from mouthpiece end using the needle, you are most assuredly going to overfill it.. meaning that raw liquid is going to come out the battery end. Fill them over an open bottle.

I've got some picture of the autopsy of the singular unit that I have. They're really bad pictures (the good camera is at work), but I'll post them soon anyway.

 

[Scottbee]

As promised, some (bad) pictures:

Tornado cartomizer "split down the middle":

You can see that the reservoir is plastic and it is filled with "traditional" polyfill. You can't really make it out, but the "fill port" is at the top.

Here the poly has been pulled out:

It's hard to make out, but this is with the poly pulled out and looking down into the reservoir:

You can see that the coil pot is plastic (like the rest of the housing). What you really can't see is the the actual coil is wrapped with a "knot" of braid.. which I am going to guess is silica rope. It is the braid that actually makes contact with the saturated polyfill and wicks the liquid to the coil.. much like a traditional atomizer.

And now, with the coil pot almost completely cut away, you can see the braid "knot" around the coil:

Interesting.. eh?

 

[Kent C]

Guess I will try the oiler bottles (thanks Kent).

Hey Lu... here's another source on the oiler bottle that may be better (ordered some - not in yet) but the price is right and I figured this rather than the round bottle might be better.. Posted by kellie!

https://www.rcplanet.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=RCE3000

What I do is just remove the middle cap and fill right through the mouth hole on the top cap. You have to make sure you hit the sealed hole. Take both the middle and top cap off first to see what you're doing. And you have to break the seal on the sealed hole in order to fill and you should fill like that first so you know what you're doing and to fill it up (keep the plug and cap on the batt end). Once full, only replace the top cap (ie the one that fits on the end of the mouth piece - replacing the mid cap would prevent refills. When needed for a refill, put the needle in and 'feel for the sealed hole' - straight in basically, and squeeze. You can experiment on how much after a loss of flavor that you'll need to refill. For me it's about 6 pumps but, ymmv on force and by the bottle. I'll have to 'retrain' after the new bottles come in ;-)

But it's pretty much problem free once you get the routine down. I'm still on my first carto that I got weeks ago. Again, one should refill on first sign of flavor loss to keep from letting it go dry and burning the filler. And with these, since there's no 'center hole' as in KR8 cartos you don't have to worry about using an angle to prevent flooding. If you've never refilled KR8 cartoz then you won't know what I'm talking about ;-) But it doesn't matter - just hit the sealed hole and squeeze and you should be good. I don't even remove to refill and I've never 'overfilled' to where I was getting leakage at the batt end. ymmv depending on ejuice I suppose - some run rather thin but I'm using DV VG from Totally wicked... DIY.

 

[Kent C]

I'd like to know this too. Elendil says he thinks his are either 18 or 20g...I'll know more when I get them.

Any more info on this Kent?

Lu

Lu,

Both the ones that Elendil has and the ones from rcplanet work. Only difference is that Elendils are round with a metal cap and the rcplanet ones are oval? with a plastic cap. Both with metal needles that fit and are long enough.

To recap... The middle cap has offset holes 1 below, that prevent direct filling without removing both caps. 2 fits into the sealed cap below, so the airflow is 'right' - via the air channels along the sides of the cart and through the two holes in the middle cap so there's no possibility of juice in the mouth (never had that happen yet by this method). Right pic = losing the middle cap (again, probably not recommended by the manufacturer) allows direct fill without removing anything - except that you have to know how many squeezes you can do on a top off without overfilling.

Suggest always filling a new cart by removing both caps - keeping the batt end plug and rubber on and filling until it overflows through the sealed hole. After that refill directly through mouthpiece hole, guiding through the sealed hole and squeezing until you get some overflow through the batt end. Still been good for 4-5 hours for me.

And if you feel like a newbie, at first, I thought the diagram was the batt end ;-)

 

[Quick1]

Would you, or Bad or Naviathan, be willing to write a little blurb about the CE2 series and include some pics and info about refilling and using them?

Maybe better to wait a bit? They're turning out revision/modifications about 1 or 2 a week. It looks like they're settling in on something "stable" here shortly.

For a blurb on them.
These look like a really good design. More of an atomizer than a cartomizer? The basic idea is an atomizer coil wrapped around a wick (just like an atomizer). This is suspended in a cup on the air tube over the resevoir of liquid. The wick extends into the liquid resevoir.

On a regular atomizer you have soaked filler that contacts a meshed bridge that guides the liquid to the wick in the coil. Here the wick just extends directly into the liquid.

You get the benefits of an atomizer with the capacity benefits of a cartomizer. It eliminates the drawbacks of both.
On a regular atomizer you have limited juice capacity.
On a regular cartomizer you have filler/sock in close proximity to the coil.

Things they're working on:

wicking -- much improved over earliest revisions. Still room for improvement. Some people say it runs dry, requiring recovery time. Seems it's highly dependent on juice viscosity and composition.

the cup -- reported to be going to ceramic instead of plastic. Some have experienced deformed cups. Also, these seem to be operating best at very low wattage so something like ceramic might allow some (excess) heat to be transfered away from the coil/wick assembly. Some are experiencing a "chemical smell/taste" that may be related to the plastic cup but more likely to glue (see below).

refilling method -- The cup (on the tube) is at the center and top of the reservoir. A cap seals the top. Think of a tulip in a can. If the tulip came to the top of the can you could fill the can with liquid and the cup of the tulip would be dry. Put a wick through the side of the tulip and the wick would stay wet with liquid while the tulip cup was still dry. In order to carry this thing around in various positions while keeping the liquid in the resevoir and not having it spill into the tulip cup you would need a lid across the top that seals the can as well as the top of the tulip cup inside the can. They have that.

In order to fill the can with liquid again there are small holes through the cap where you use a needle to replenish the liquid. Small diameter of the holes and the surface tension of the liquid keep it inside once it's there. People are finding this difficult and are removing the cap, refilling, and replacing the cap. The manufacturer thought it necessary to glue the cap in place. My guess is to ensure it's position and seal. The glue is suspected to be an issue at the moment and may be the source of a chemical taste/smell that a few have experienced.

So, bottom line: I think there are some further changes still in the short term pipeline. A description and tips at this point may be outdated/no longer applicable in the very near future. I'd wait a while for things to settle out.