Cartomizer Cleaning 101...

[NOptionsGuru]

Ok so how does everyone do this. I've searched and seen little on the subject. Hopefully this thread will take of and turn into some sort of "How to" guide.

What I've tried so far...

I took one and just ran it under tap water from the sink for a while blowing it out occasionally and then putting it back under the tap. This seems to work but can be very time consuming depending on how many you are trying to clean out.

Next I tried boiling them. At first I just put them in a pot of boiling water but that didn't seem to work very well. No water flow through the Cartomizer. Then I decided to get a metal strainer that fit into the pot so that the bottom of the strainer was halfway from the bottom of the pot. I then tool all of the Cartomizers that I was cleaning and twist tied them together so that they were all standing upright. I then put them in the boiling water upright. My thoughts for this would be that there might be a little more water flow through the cartomizer. This seemed to work a bit better but still a little time consuming.

Another thing with both of those methods is that the Cartomizers took a considerable amount of time to dry out afterwards.

I have heard of people using cheap vodka to clean the carts out with ( I haven't tried that yet) which led me to wonder if using rubbing alcohol would work even better and dry time would be substantially less. I haven't tried that yet either and wanted some thoughts on that before I tried it. I am a little concerned that it might leave some sort of chemical residue or a bad taste behind. I wouldn't think so since it should just all evaporate right?

 

[planetofthevapes]

Even after drying out, there would still be taste and flavor I would imagine...because rubbing alcohol, you can smell it LONG after you use it. It would sterilize them...and might clean them out...but I would NOT do it. I believe that rubbing alcohol is toxic to drink and I imagine the fumes would not be good for the body either... So, stick with water or drinking alcohol I would think! I know this is a silly question, but they are so cheap, why clean them? I have only been using cartos for 4 days, but I get wonderful flavor each time I fill them until time to refill them...just trying to get bad flavors out? Trying to extend life? Sorry, I'm just curious what the point is...

 

[NOptionsGuru]

As of right now my interest in cleaning them is to get flavors out of them. I'm also new to all of this and have been trying a bunch of different sample juices. I'm just trying to clean out my Carts before I try a different flavor so that I can get a better idea of what the flavor I'm trying really tastes like. Once I find a few that I will enjoy on a regular basis, cleaning them out will be less of an issue.

 

[arkangel]

I was never really into cleaning these until someone posted that the VG juice I use is "vegetable" glycerin, meaning it has some organic component to it, which led them to believe it could "go bad" in a carto if never cleaned.

Don't know if I believe that or not, but better safe than sorry, I thought.

I'd heard of the boiling thing too, and like the OP didn't think there was any flow through the carto to help flush them out, so here's what I did and it seemed to work pretty well.

Boil some water in a pot.

Pull the mouthpiece/silicon rings out of the carto's and put them into a plastic container.
I used a container I got some takeout wonton soup in, but could also use the kind you get at grocery deli counters.

Pour enough boiling water into the container to cover the carto's, plus an inch or so

Gently agitate/swirl the carto's around in the container, which seemed to get the water moving in and around them (could tell it was doing something because the water started to tint slightly).

Dump the water and repeat, until you're out of boiling water and/or the water stops changing color when you swirl.

Blow out the carto's (this was the hardest and biggest PITA part--my cheeks were sore from blowing these all out).

I could have filled and vaped right away, but let them stand on a paper towel for awhile (I did it in the evening and let them stand overnight).

Except for ones that had Halo Newpure menthol in them, which is a super strong flavor, all the other carto's smelled/looked clean and refilled/revaped very nicely.

So you get the benefits of the boiling water killing any nasties (if there are any), flushing out the old flavors and not being as tough as tie-wrapping them all together sounds.

 

[NOptionsGuru]

I forgot to mention blowing out the Cartos and pulling out the silicone stopper and plastic rings before boiling them... That's a good idea about pouring some of the water into a Wont-Ton container and swirling it around. Though twist tying all the cartos into a bundle isn't all that difficult it would be easier to just toss them in a container and swirl them around in the boiling water.

 

[tarkus]

Rubbing alcohol is poison so a bad idea. I simply soak cartos in 80 proof vodka for a few hours and blow out. Works fine. btw flavors such as menthol and mint are near impossible to remove.

 

[planetofthevapes]

I now know why one would want to wash a carto...I just got some coffee ones in the mail and have never tasted something so horrid...can't wipe the disgusted look off my face...trying to vape them dry but NOTHING will cover up the original flavor. Washing cartos=great idea now!