Carto Mystery? Or Something Else? Expert Help Please.

[BassPlayersWife]

Hello folks.

Hubby and I need expert help please.

Yes, we are noobs to carto/tanking. Only a couple or three weeks going now. We got our Provaris and tanks set up right away, no problems. vaping was Heaven and life was good. We were using Boge sr cartos, all bought at the same place. The TH on one of our juices wasnt that great so I bought 6 boxes of Boge lr cartos, and two sr from another place (Yes, i have tried to find Ikenvapes in stock, but we all know how that goes, lol).

All of a sudden our cartos are only lasting one day, at best. Sometimes hours. Everything is good, then there is a bad taste, or dry hits, then it burns. It doesnt matter if you catch it at that first dry/bad taste and drop the voltage, add more drops, it doesnt matter..the next is burned.

I have tried raising the holes to just under the center of the carto, using three holes, vaping at very low voltage (boring), but nothing helps. I have made sure that the tank stays upright and there is not an air hole anywhere near punched hole :/
I have tried using the Vamo in case the Provari was bad. But that doesnt make sense as it happening to both hubby and me, and we do our cartos differently, and we use different juices, but are both having the problem.

The only thing I can tell you that am catching is that when i test the atty, the ohms have changed. Example:
Last night I punched one of the last sr boges I had. In desperation i punched it three times, just under center. I drenched it for an hour in juice (condom method), always adding more as it soaked in. I drop it in my J-tank, test the atty (2.7-8ish ohms), I start at 3.4 volts and get up to around 4.2 and its good. 4.4 volts was a perfect vape for me. 60/40 juice, 18 nic. I read for about an hour and went to sleep. Vaped from about 10 am till about 20 minutes ago and it happened again. Not one thing has changed. I havent touched anything. 1.7 ohms, and it tastes burnt. Not bad burnt.. but its there. Ruining my Heaven, lol.

I do not know what we are doing wrong. Is it bad cartos? Are we punching them somehow wrong and hurting them (we have a nice carto punch that has worked well so far)? Can it be that many bad ones as they from different boxes but the same vendor? Are we doing something wrong? How can two grown adults with higher than avg IQ's, have such a great time vaping for weeks, and then it all goes bad? Hubby blew out his throat with dry, burned, hits while stuck at work. Not good for a musician/singer.

He went back to ViviNovas last night as he cant risk his voice. He almost went back to analogs :/
I have some Kanger cartos on order, as Ikenvape is still and always sold out. I am about to order Smoketech as well just to test.

Any advise you can offer will be appreicated. We have to work tonight so I will be off and on reading. Thanks folks, Terri

 

[sawlight]

Sounds like bad carto's, but I can't understand the change in resistance, that's the oddity here! I've had them change, but no more than .5 ohm!
Is your juice really dark? I've heard of darker juices plugging up the filler material in some carto's.
Sorry, I've seen a lot of things, but not this and I'm just grasping at straws to find a solution.

 

[Baditude]

Nothing to add here, unfortunately. I've never heard of cartos changing that much in resistance. Mysterious..

 

[sawlight]

OK, I have one possible thought. MAYBE when you punched it in the higher places you managed to touch the coil with the metal on the outside of the carto?
How are you punching them? I seem to recall you were using the screw in carto punch? Maybe keeping the holes lower, and away from the coil will help on that part?

 

[BassPlayersWife]

Hi Saw. No, my main juice is light yellowish. Zeus Juice if you've ever had it. Hubby's is Dragons Blood, its reddish amber but light. But we use maybe 3 different juices as adv each. Not all the same.

I cant figure it out either. As i said, i wondered if maybe we somehow got 2 bad Provaris, (which seemed a billion to one odds), that were blowing the attys somehow. I just cannot accept that. While we use them as our main mods, we do have Vamos too. The readings are basically the same when i test the atty on another mod just to check. But the vamo and Provari agree, the atty has changed somehow.

 

[sawlight]

Then it doesn't sound like a juice problem and I seriously doubt it's a device problem, as the Vamo did the same thing.
I just remember Ikenvape having a problem with people punching the 801 fusion's too deep and damaging the coil, that's where I came up with the last post.
Really, with that many holes in it, you should be flooding the Hell out of the carto! That's also bothering me, it should be gurgling like a fiend right now!

 

[BassPlayersWife]

OK, I have one possible thought. MAYBE when you punched it in the higher places you managed to touch the coil with the metal on the outside of the carto?
How are you punching them? I seem to recall you were using the screw in carto punch? Maybe keeping the holes lower, and away from the coil will help on that part?

I have wondered. We both have the standard punch i have seen around. its a tight circle with a wing nut/type screw. We used to measure and punch near the bottom, clearing it, but as close as possible. We had the same problem (once it started). It's been going on for around 4 days. Two different people, different juices, two different punches, different cartos and different boxes. But EVERY carto is useless in under24 hours. As i said, the three hole method was desperation to keep hubby off of analogs.

My last "test" I can think to do is go punch another, soak it for an hour before the gig tonight, and then use the Vamo the whole time. But two Provaris ??? No way :/ The only error i have ever seen on my Provari is E4 when i am running though the system too fast. Hubby said he hasnt ever had an error msg on his.

 

[BassPlayersWife]

Then it doesn't sound like a juice problem and I seriously doubt it's a device problem, as the Vamo did the same thing.
I just remember Ikenvape having a problem with people punching the 801 fusion's too deep and damaging the coil, that's where I came up with the last post.
Really, with that many holes in it, you should be flooding the Hell out of the carto! That's also bothering me, it should be gurgling like a fiend right now!

Not only do they not gurgle, hubby has FOUR holes punched in his current carto, not a single gurgle. I dream of flooded cartos.

 

[sawlight]

The filler material is packed in to tightly, period! You can try to take a small needle, or syringe and CAREFULLY poke it around the outside edge of the filler, then the inside edge and see if you can loosen it up, pull it up towards the top some to "fluff it". But as I said, be careful so you don't damage the coil and you will have to fill these carefully as well, with the filler being taller than the air tube it's going to flood easily.

 

[BassPlayersWife]

Ok, that sounds good!
I have to go get ready but will check back later if i can, if not first thing when we get up. Glad i paid for extra fast shipping on those Kangers. I hope they are good cartos. Hubby has had about enough.

 

[BWhare]

Love a good mystery ;-)

Was wondering what the tips of the wing nuts are like. Are they still nice and sharp? If they've gotten dulled somewhat, maybe they're squeezing the carto just a bit when you punch and that could be damaging the coil. Maybe sharpen them a tad and then go back to your original way of punching.

 

[sawlight]

Love a good mystery ;-)

Was wondering what the tips of the wing nuts are like. Are they still nice and sharp? If they've gotten dulled somewhat, maybe they're squeezing the carto just a bit when you punch and that could be damaging the coil. Maybe sharpen them a tad and then go back to your original way of punching.

I've also heard some of them aren't that sharp to start with!

 

[FogHawg]

The only constant seems to be the cartos themselves. FWIW I had a sort of similar prob w/a batch of Boge cartos, except mine didn't really burn so much as just went flat w/maybe a slight metallic taste. I have a feeling the Smok ones will solve your problem. Keep us posted?

 

[BassPlayersWife]

Heheh, I just poked a hole in my finger testing it, lol. It can at least bring blood, lol. I have no way to know if that is sharp *enough* or not. I would suspect the punches themselves more, but again, two different punches, two different people, at the same time? As much as i think "meh, i doubt it," it could be. But then i would think that at least one or two cartos/coils would have made it through ok.

Even a blind squirrel catches a nut every now and again.

*Hurry new cartos, hurry*

 

[HK-47]

I tried to look for it but there was a thread that was referring to the advantages and disadvantages of punching your own cartos.

Basically iirc it summed up that the laser drilled cartos (pre-punched) were better overall because it didn't deform the carto or damage the coils. Strange though that with four holes you're not gurgling like a murloc....

The other conclusion that I can remember was that the pre-punched weren't signifcantly more expensive than the non-punched ones. Might be an option just make sure you order flanged or non-flanged depending on your tank setup.

 

[BlueSnake]

When you're vaping are there air bubbles coming out the holes of the carto? If not then there is no juice getting in. I'm wondering if it's possible you could have damaged the orings when inserting the cartos and your tanks aren't pressurizing so the juice is not getting sucked into the carto. Just throwing some things out there.

 

[sawlight]

I tried to look for it but there was a thread that was referring to the advantages and disadvantages of punching your own cartos.

Basically iirc it summed up that the laser drilled cartos (pre-punched) were better overall because it didn't deform the carto or damage the coils. Strange though that with four holes you're not gurgling like a murloc....

I agree! That thing should be feeding like a river!

Wife, if it poked a hole in your finger easily, it's plenty sharp!

 

[tmcase]

I go along with the too tightly packed filler material. I've had new cartos start to taste burnt after the first or second day. When I pulled the filler out to see what was going on the filler material was dry even though I had soaked it before putting it in the tank. They were damp near the bottom but from there up totally dry and I use 2 large holes in my cartos because I vape high VG.

Also, I agree that you might be hitting the coil when you punch. How many complete turns of the wing nut do you do? Usually the 3rd full turn punctures the wall and then another 1/2 turn is about all you need.

 

[tmcase]

When you're vaping are there air bubbles coming out the holes of the carto? If not then there is no juice getting in. I'm wondering if it's possible you could have damaged the orings when inserting the cartos and your tanks aren't pressurizing so the juice is not getting sucked into the carto. Just throwing some things out there.

Good point. You want to make sure there is an air bubble over one of the cartos holes before you close up the tank.

 

[grandmato5]

If the ohms on your cartos are changing from 2.7 ish to 1.8 over a few hours timeframe, then yes, its very likely the cartos. Since you are using a Provari and can do it easily I would suggest checking the ohm often (every hour?) to see if its a gradual degree or seems to be happening all at once. Most likely a gradual decrease and then you will need to adjust your volts accordingly to avoid the burnt taste.

The ohms in my cartos/attys/clearo change often but that great of a change doesnt often happen until they've been in use for several months and/or are about to totally go out of range and no longer work at all.