Cartomizer cleaning

[Konstantine]

Hello! Based on ECF posts and reviews i bought a VOLT starter kit (waiting for it to arrive). Must say there is enough material for noobs like me fortunately.

I was reading the cartomizer cleaning thread and i was wondering if i can remove the caps and the wick inside and then put them all together on my ultrasonic cleaner with clean distilled water.
The ultrasonic bath also heats the water enough during use and it can clean nearly every surface inside out of the cartomizer.

Will this be enough cleaning?

Regards

 

[dormouse]

No. You cannot remove the inside. There are wires in there attached to the metal of the shell.

And I don't think people have had much luck with cleaning stuffing cartos in an ultrasonic cleaner. Go to Smoktek.com and buy the carto cleaning kit. And to get the cartos dry you may need to bake them in 175F oven for hours.

However - IMO it is never worth cleaning a well-used cartomizer. Nothing you do will get the baked on juice residue off the coil. I think the only cartos even worth considering cleaning are barely-used sample prefilled cartos you didn't like that don't have clingy flavors like menthol or cinnamon. If I like what is in a sample carto I would just keep it damp with either vanilla or tobacco flavor or whatever flavor I have that is compatible with the prefill flavor. And I would use the carto until it is degraded. Using thin clear juices I can get about 7 days use out of a KR8 carto (about 15-20ml run through it). For me that is 2 weeks because I alternate vaping models and one if the KR8.

Also note - do not use cartos to test new juices - waste of money and waste of your time cleaning them. On a manual Volt you can use a standard resistance DSE901 atomizer and drip tip to test juices (see LiteCigUSA.net for those two items). Dripping on an atomizer is never recommend on auto batteries.

 

[BeelzeBob]

How many times do you gurus refill a carto?

after the 3rd or 4th refill, I have been tossing mine

 

[luvinit]

I've had pretty good success boiling the cartos for 5 minutes, rinse, and boil again. Make sure they dry completely before refilling. They don't last forever though,,, I think I've decided that cleaning is a pain and I just refill with similar flavored liquids.. a cherry liquid in a vanilla carto is surprisingly yummy! They're cheap enough to buy blanks, reuse them as much as you can without cleaning and move on to a new one.

 

[swedishfish]

How many times do you gurus refill a carto?

after the 3rd or 4th refill, I have been tossing mine

Usually when flavor drops off. Depends on the juice I'm using. One of my juices is clear, all PG. The carto for that juice lasts forever. Well, not really forever - but a long time.

 

[mattiem]

+1 I'm with luvinit. I tried cleaning my cartos at first but decided I was just wasting juice buy putting it in a cleaned carto that didn't work well. Now I just use them until they don't vape well or start tasting really bad and then just toss 'em. I get about a week out of each one.

 

[Konstantine]

Oh! i didn't knew about the wires...

That's OK i guess, after some refills i'll just get new ones. I ordered a 30ml refill, some blanks and some prefilled ones with my order.
How about cleaning the automatic battery with the ultrasonic? Maybe with some alcohol.

 

[tbailey]

I'm a boil cart cleaner as well and here is my method which works well but they still aren't 100% but fairly close to get some extra life out of them.

I use distilled water, put them in a pot and just enough water to cover them all(Just saving on water) Boil for 4-5 minutes, drain water, put carts to side, clean pot for any residue, repeat about 5 times. I don't bake my, simply roll up a paper towel in the mouth piece end, let sit for about 12 hours, pull paper towel out and flip, then re-insert, let sit for another 12 hours. Pull paper towel and inspect the inside of the carto, it should look dry and fluffy, if they aren't let sit for additional time.

Alot of people bake them however I find that seems to give them a interesting taste afterwards, maybe its just my oven. Who knows. I usually only boil a carto once and then toss it. I use tanks so I will use a carto in a tank until the taste changes(badly burnt yuckness from the coil being gunked, thank you VG juice -.-) or if you put the air hole to a light and you can't clearly see through it.

I also recommend the cart cleaner from smoktek.com, it is basically the same thing but you are directly forcing liquid in and out of the filler material. Boiling is just a cheaper method.

 

[tbailey]

You should never attempt to clean an automatic battery with an form of liquid as automatic batteries are not sealed connections so that liquid will get in to your battery and cause damage. I fried my very first automatic kr808 by over filling a carto and letting the juice seep in to the connection, it never activated after that.

 

[Konstantine]

True the smoktek cleaner looks nice, for now i think i'll start vaping and then decide!

 

[Konstantine]

You should never attempt to clean an automatic battery with an form of liquid as automatic batteries are not sealed connections so that liquid will get in to your battery and cause damage. I fried my very first automatic kr808 by over filling a carto and letting the juice seep in to the connection, it never activated after that.

Juice may do that, how about a volatile cleaner solution?

 

[tbailey]

Juice may do that, how about a volatile cleaner solution?

I never tried anything, I wouldn't recommend it though because if it does cause damage there isn't really anything you can do about it. So you'd be taking the chance. I usually keep a few q-tips at my desk at work to clean my connections now.

 

[Konstantine]

Got it! Thank you very much for your answers

 

[sandybeach]

I have the SmokTek cleaner. Like Dormouse said, it only is good for cartos that you used lightly and didn't like the juices. It doesn't work for clogged or burnt cartos.

 

[Butters78]

Best bet through my research is to stock up! I got 37 cartos coming in the mail this week. 15 Resurrectors, 20 Boge, and 2 ST carto XL's. Going to see which brand I like best and buy accordingly. I really don't want to trouble myself with cleaning so I'll use them till "the wheels fall off" then replace.

 

[Konstantine]

Haha that is the best solution so far Eric.
I saw there is some tank type stuff for the VOLT but i may research it more, seems to be a nice way to test flavours.
Is there any big difference using non-volt cartos?

 

[dormouse]

For the question - how many times do you refill your cartos - I refill them constantly. I never let them get anywhere near dry. I don't want singed bitter taste. I can usually run at least 15ml through a cartomizer before I toss it and switch to a new one. So you could consider that 15 refills but each of those is actually me adding juice 3-4 times.

I get good carto life by

- only using light clear juices that drop no flavoring sediment in the carto. Flavoring sediment will degrade a carto quickly

- using thin juices like 80PG/20VG so my juice flows easily through the stuffing to keep the coil area damp

- keeping my cartos damp. I add liquid whenever the flavor or vapor is light, if the taste is off, if the carto is getting unusually warm. I always add liquid before I leave the house, after I come home, before bed, before I put a hot freshly charged battery on the carto. And I use a delrin drip tip instead of the endcap so anytime during the day when I think I've been vaping enough that the carto may need juice, I can pull that and look at the stuffing to see if the top of the stuffing has gone light - if it has, then I add some juice. I always add juice with the carto off the battery and not through the drip tip, and I clean it up if needed.

 

[PaporPlas]

I use 70% Isopropyl Alcohol (15 minute soak) and let them sit for a few days in the window seal to evaporate all the alcohol out. After a couple of cleanings this way, they have not lost any uumph or taste. That is with my CE2 clearomizers.

No need to clean your battery, other than gently wipe the contact point with soft tissue every time you have screwed the carto/atty off.

*I should add that if there is even a faint smell of Alcohol then let them dry more, until there is zero smell left. And, you need extra cartos for this to work, so that you can vape from the dry ones while you wait for the others to dry out.

Try it on one....see if it works well for your carto. Mine are shiny brand new when I am done.

 

[Konstantine]

Thank you for your input dormouse.
So the basic rule is to refill and keep clean and after that exchange with a new one.