Cartomizer question

[jayleekay]

I have just bought a new 5 pack of smoketech 510 cartomizers. The first cart seems to have only lasted me 3 days. I don't technically know when to refill the things, but if anything, I'm refilling too soon. Is this bad for the cartomizers? After a few days of filling the cartomizer and not even coming close to emptying it, it just takes aweful to me. Not quite burnt, but close, and definitely not like it's supposed to taste. I unpacked a new carto and filled it and everything's been fine the last 4 days. I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong.

Oh, the first cart I tried the condom method and didn't like that one bit. Could this attribute to the problem? The bottom of the carto by where the threads are is blackish. Inside the inner circle area, not the outside. Since my new carto doesn't look burnt in any way down there, I'm assuming I did something wrong.

 

[sethkal]

you might want to try dry burning it and then do a wash... multiple videos on youtube on how to do these things...

that should fix your problem!
It occasionally happens to me with CE2's that I use.

 

[ambition]

Hi mate.
Filling cartos too soon I perfectly fine. In fact there's no such thing as too soon.

There are things called tank cartomizers that have a carto surrounded by a chamber filled with juice and they work by constantly feeding juice into the carto keeping it full all of the time.

Keeping the bottom clean might help somewhat but my guess is that maybe your juice is fouling up the carto causing a nasty taste. This happens to me when I use darker liquids.
Tell us more about your juice.

 

[jayleekay]

It is a somewhat darker juice. Desert ship tobacco 24mg. I thought about switching to a tank. Maybe I'll do that after I finish up these cartos.

I have been filling up a bag with old cartos as well. I wanted to wash some of the flavors out of them since I didn't really care for them.

 

[elfstone]

I don't know what happened to you. It may be the juice - is it high in VG? Sometimes the carto doesn't wick properly and it burns even if you top it off correctly. Below is what I can share about my carto experience so far, but I don't know if it will help you.

1. The little dark ring is normal after you do the condom method. I don't know if it hurts, but I tend to clean the battery every so often to make sure the contact doesn't get gunked up.

2. There's no harm in topping off cartos too soon. But you should avoid flooding them (you know you've done that when it gurgles as you draw). In fact, keeping cartos wet all the time prolongs their life.

3. I used this method to clean my cartos and it worked, but I can't be bothered to do this regularly given the low cost. I get ~2 weeks of a carto (I don't really vape the same carto continuously because I rotate the flavors, and I mostly vape them in tanks, which helps).

4. Darker juices leave residue on the wicking tube of the carto - this may end up causing tight draws and even burning the carto, but it never happened to me until several refills. That's a lie: I've killed cartos in one day with very dark juices - "Espresso" and "Kick-azz caramel".

5. If you have stainless steel cartos (not black / without the sticker) you can punch your own for use in tanks. I use a $6.99 1/4'' self tapping saddle valve from Lowe's and it works really well.

 

[jayleekay]

Thanks for the suggestions and comments. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and I'm getting better at not over filling my cartomizers.

Once I get down to my last 2 carts I'll go ahead and clean them and see if can prolong them.

anyone know how long the tankomizers seem to last?

I don't actually know the content of VG in my juice. It seems pretty harsh. So I'm assuming high in PG

 

[mynameisrob]

Do NOT dry burn them. You will burn the filler and/or wick and make the burnt taste 10x worse.
Sethkal these arnt fillerless cartos or attys, you can't dry burn them.

Like ambition said, topping them up is perfectly fine, just make sure you don't overfill them. What juice your using def can affect how long they last. Thick VG juices help clog cartos faster, dark juices do as well. Many dark/cloudy juices contain flavoring sediment and juices with sediments I find clog cartos faster than anything.

As far as it tasting burnt, that's normally due to the carto getting too dry. If your 100% sure though that the carto was never low on juice though, then it could be caused by vaping too much too fast.
Are you using a thicker VG juice and do you like to chainvape? VG juices dont wick as well, and if you chainvape a lot you could actually burn the carto that way and give yourself a burnt taste, even though the carto has juice in it

 

[classwife]

Moved to Atomizer, Cartomizer and Tank Discussion

 

[donnah]

No, I wouldn't dry burn a carto either. Your juice has a lot to do with how long a carto lasts (taste wise) ive found that some vendor's juice gets stale within a day or two. I diy my juice now and am satisfied with how long they last still tasting good.

 

[mke67]

Yeah, sometimes you get that dry scratchy throat feeling/nasty taste out of the blue. Try adding some more juice and let it sit. If it continues, just toss it and use a fresh one.

Don't bother cleaning them, you may get mold/mildew. Just buy another "fiver," as they are so cheap.

 

[RosieRags]

I am interested in getting CE2's for my 900mah eGo and 18650 E-Power. Does anyone know what ohm I should should purchase? I see myVaporStore carries 2.4 and 2.8 ohm.

Thanks in advance,
Rosie

 

[washvap]

To keep the carto from burning. Then it's a good practice to keep them topped off. Which means with every 10-15 drags. Or when you notice a decrease in flavor. Drip at least 5 drops into the filler material. Then letting it rest for a few minutes. This gives the juice time to seep throughout the filler material and keep everything moist.

That is just the proper way to use a cartomizer. It's basically impossible to vape all the juice that you have put into the carto. It'll burn before that even happens. This is because the diaper (piece of cotton around the coil) can be burnt every easily when it gets dry. Also, remember that the coil is located in the middle of the carto.

You mentioned that the bottom is blackish due to filling it, using the condom method. You might have forgotten to wipe it dry before putting it on your mod or pv.

Lastly, DO NOT DRY BURN IT. That's only possible with horizontal coiled cartos. Since it's fairly easy to remove the filler material. With vertical coiled cartomizers like your smoktechs then it's virtually impossible.

 

[jayleekay]

I don't even know what dry burning means. So I doubt I'll be doing that.

And I do think you're right. I don't think I wiped it good enough after filling. I'm still a newbie so I'm learning this stuff rather quickly.

 

[Calypso53]

I don't even know what dry burning means. So I doubt I'll be doing that.

And I do think you're right. I don't think I wiped it good enough after filling. I'm still a newbie so I'm learning this stuff rather quickly.

I don't know what that means either....can someone explain what "dry burning" is??

 

[vikeme28]

Dry burning is how you would clean a ce2 cartomizer. You rinse them out with hot distilled water and then put them back on a battery and fire it up for 5 or so seconds at a time witch cleans the gunk off the coils. The wicks are designed not to burn. I can probably get 50-70 ml use out of one if I am careful with it. That's the drawback to ce2's is they need lots of care.