Cartomizer Refill Results

[HaploVoss]

Ok as promised in another thread, this looks like best place to post the results. After a lot of testing with various juice types and refill 'schedules' I have come up with some interesting findings:

Juices Used:
- 24mg 555 from nHaler
- 50/50 PG + VG, butter rum loranns.
- 50/50 PG + VG, Vodka, flavoring
- PG, Dist. Water, flavoring
- VG, Dist. Water, flavoring

2 cartomizers were used for each juice. 1 type has 4 slots at the base, the other has 2 slightly more shallow slots. I do not know a brand name that discerns these from the other.

Brand name 24mg 555 Juice:
Both cartomizers are still going strong after 10 refills. No burnt taste at all. Very tasty and smooth draw - nice throat hit. There seems to be a very slight reduction in vapor production. I will keep using these until it dies or becomes unusable due to taste or performance.

50/50 PG+VG, flavoring
Both cartomizers are now unusable. 4 slot works but has horrid burnt taste and has very little vapor production and does not hold juice well. 2 slot cartomizer is now dead entirely. Both had 4 good refills before failing in respective manners.

50/50 PG+VG, Vodka, flavoring
Both cartomizers now dead. 4 slot had 8 good refills, 9th started to have a burnt taste and then died. 2 slot died upon the 6th refill.

PG, Distilled Water, flavoring
4 slot still going after 7 refills, but now unusable due to burnt taste. 2 slot died midway through 5th refill.

VG, Distilled Water, flavoring
4 slot died after 6th refill, 2 slot died after 7th refill. Neither ever had a burnt taste and were flavorful with good vapor up to the end.

Generally speaking I have found that if you keep cartomizers wet, and do not 'over-vape' them - as in get them extremely hot, which they are prone to do, they will last a very long time. If they come even close to drying out however, it is very easy to burn them up it is as simple as that, and no matter what, they are going to die end of story.

All of these are indeed the kind that have the atomizer coil running through the center of the filler, not underneath like the GreenCig cartomizers I have heard about. I will try to get ahold of some of these when I can.

Also, I have disassembled a few of these now, tried replacing the filler, but it is just not worth the effort it takes to do so IMHO.

In the end, I now find that cartomizers are still extremely inexpensive compared to cigarettes, and I think even comparable to regular carts / atomizer combinations depending on failure rates if you choose to refill your cartomizers, and the now lowered costs of cartomizers.

That's it! Thanks for reading I hope it helps somebody.

Take care,
- Hap

 

[Joe81]

thanx for the follow up haplovoss, keep us updated on the greencig refill...btw, dpv9 cartomizers fit about 1ml, would u say urs are the same? are they from vaporking or? anyways, hopefully more places will carry blank cartomizers soon...i'm fine with my 510, but i also gotta try this for some buds who can't bother with a 3-piece during certain working conditions...they get alot of gunk on their hands & i don't think they want to risk adding that to the atty by mistake...

update: how about dripping after u rip out the filler?

 

[pcore]

I've been vaping the same cartomizer for about 3 days now, using the 555 16mg PG. Vapor and taste are almost as good as new.

What I've been doing is 2-3 drops through the battery hole every 20 puffs or so, then opening the cart up from the bottom at night and refilling several drops from that end before bed.

A couple of times I've lost production due to flooding. In that case, I just take the battery off and blow through the mouth end until a drop or two comes out of the battery end. Wipe, reattach and voila!

Like haplo said, keep it wet! I figure losing a drop or two now and then because of flooding is better than letting the cart dry out and burning it. I'll repost on this thread when (and if!) my cart dies.

 

[HaploVoss]

I would agree that these hold around +/- 1mL certainly. They hold anywhere between 12 - 21 drops depending on how thick the mixture is.

I purchased my cartomizers from Drew at nHaler, and I also received a few from a user here on the forums when I purchased some more spare batteries. As I understand they were VK.

It appears the greencig cartomizers are quite a bit more than these that I have been using, so hopefully there will be some major benefit to them. I will probably be purchasing some of them here in the next couple of days as I need some juice and 'mizers anyway

Take care,
- Hap

 

[pcore]

SNAP! I'm on day 7 of a cartomizer. Regular old 808. Working like a champ, no hard pulls, no burned taste. Then I put a few drops of some VG liquid in and BAM! Hard pulls immediately and I bet it'll start burning very soon.

Note that this is with dripping into the battery end the majority of the time. The next one I'll do straight 555 PG and see how long I can actually make it last. Too bad I have 60mL of VG liquid =(

Moral of the story: drip your 808 carts with straight PG liquid and use them a long long time!

 

[HaploVoss]

Oh crud I forgot to update this thread! lol - thanks for bumping this up with your information!!

Ok here we go:
Brand name 555 24mg juice:
Carts finally died. 4 slot after 16th refill, 2 slot after 14th refill. They both actually lasted right up to the bitter end without so much as a hint of foul taste. I have pulled them apart now and they both do have a tiny area where it was starting to burn through. I am really impressed by this.

All others had died already so what can I deduce??

Drew at nHaler either has magic juice, or a much better mixture than my DIY stoofs - which is quite likely. LOL

Also, I still cannot grab any of the GreenCig cartomizers at this time, but I will do so as soon as I am able. Hopefully over the weekend or first of next week. I have some in a shopping cart just waiting to go through when I am able to do so.

Take care all,
- Hap

 

[HaploVoss]

Ok, I have a 10 pack of GreenCig cartomizers ordered a la Drew, so they will be on their way to me as of tomorrow. I expect I will have them mid week and I will do a howto on the tear down and refill of them.

I have been doing some research on these so I know there will be some serious advantages, but also a couple of minor drawbacks to them compared to the standard KR series cartomizers. What could those possibly be? Well you'll find out

Take care,
- Hap

 

[Joe81]

Ok, I have a 10 pack of GreenCig cartomizers ordered a la Drew, so they will be on their way to me as of tomorrow. I expect I will have them mid week and I will do a howto on the tear down and refill of them.

I have been doing some research on these so I know there will be some serious advantages, but also a couple of minor drawbacks to them compared to the standard KR series cartomizers. What could those possibly be? Well you'll find out

Take care,
- Hap

thanx, i been waiting to hear more about the greencig cartomizers...btw, one drawback would be the price i believe hehe anyways, keep us updated! (with pics too, if u can)

 

[HaploVoss]

Greencig Cartomizer results are in:

Ok so from what I am reading, these new Greencig cartoz are being redone and are a bit lacking on the throat hit and flavor side although the amount of vapor is absolutely friggin astounding -> I can attest to all of the above. Especially the vapor. Holy friggin Gawd! LOL

Ok eaze of refilling: It does not get any better than this. You can re-use these nearly indefinitely.

Pop the white top off - this takes a little bit more work than the standard cartomizers as they are glued down pretty good. So work your way around and around until it pops off. Then there is a small black rubber o-ring embedded in that white 'caulk' glue. I just discard this, and scrape out that thin circle of caulk. Eazy Peazy. Now get this... turn it open end down and smack it good... a CARTRIDGE will come to the end with a flat side to it, take your pick (or paperclip whatever) and pull it on out. No kidding there is a MASSIVE cartridge in here you can just gleefully refill to your hearts content.

Now for a tangent. This thing also has a huge amount of wicking material in the bottom. YOu can easily drip 5 drops of your fav juice down there, and vape away for an awesome throat hit and vape for a good bit.

Problems: Probably wont want to bother putting the cap / mouthpiece back on just to drip (no biggie that is a choice it is simply awesome that you can) - for now, until they get them fixed, you can refill these with 24mg juice that hits you like a ton of bricks normally, put the cartridge back in and close it all up nice and neat, and the hit and flavor is mediocre at best. Although once again, the vapor is impossible to beat. Weirdness.

Awesomenesses: Buying a 10 pack of these is like buying 10 drippable atomizers for a couple of bucks each that will last you for who knows how long. I am going to stress test a single one for the next few days and report back after I have beat the crap out of it with some different juices, all just direct dripping it, and power vaping it to death to see how long it lasts - or if I can kill it at all in a few days. In any case I will keep using the same one until it dies and will report back when that happens.

Take care all and just ask if I missed anything you wanted to know. I LOVE these and I hope they get them back to wherever they were at when people were touting hit and flavor also. If they do.. holy crap I am sold for life!!!

- Hap

 

[Joe81]

thanx for the info again haplovoss, yea i heard the greencig carts are better for ppl who want a smoother taste, less throat hit, etc...btw, with either cartomizer, do u notice much of an aftertaste from previous flavors? and how long does it last?

 

[HaploVoss]

Previous flavor aftertaste depends on how dry you vaped it of course, but it is a pretty big wick down there at the bottom, so it can take all the way up to 10 long and strong tokes before your new flavor kicks in full on. Here is a really nice trick though...

Refill it as I state below, take a vape or two, then take your juice you just refilled with, and put three drops in the battery end of the cartomizer. Hold it upside down a few seconds, wipe off anything that didn't suck up into the hole. Screw it on and it will greatly reduce to eliminate any previous flavor depending on how strong your new flavor is

UPDATE: I have now got the refilling of these things down to a science and they are fantastic. I am 100% sold on these. I have an awesome throat hit going with *18mg* Flue Cured right now, and I've been vaping it for over an hour... HARD. lol I'm friggin loopy from too much vaping. It is my weekend to do absolutely nothing (which will never happen but...) so I am having a *me* night

Also - be sure to pull out the filler from the internal cartridge... and squeeze it HARD in a paper towel or even rinse it out real well and dry it, then you can fill that cart a bit over half full and THEN put the filler back in, top it off, put it back, and just sit back and enjoy. Man I'm in vapin' heaven.

EDIT: On the regular KR cartomizers: Simply rinse them out with warm water, blow them out from the top down. Do that a few times and the filler will be nice and white again, pretty darn dry, will take a good 25-30 drops of e-liquid and taste and vape just darn near like new (as long as you haven't burned it up) and you will not have ANY previous liquid aftertaste.

You can do the same thing with the Greencigs. Rinse out the filler, take the cartomizer to the sink and rinse it out, blow it out - do that a few times... fill up your cart, throw it back in to the 'mizer pop the cap back on screw it down and start puffin. No prior aftertaste


Take care,
- Hap

 

[deeanne59]

Hap...when you say blow it out from the top down...do you mean from the battery end? Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but I am new to cartomizers.

 

[HaploVoss]

Oh that's ok no worries. Kinda hard to describe isn't it

I'll use a standard KR808D as an example here:

What I mean is to take the white cap off the top that you draw through, then you would hold the cartomizer (now topless) under a faucette and let warm water run in it for a bit. When you take it away from the stream of water... you will see that the water will drain out through the bottom... through the battery hole. THEN at that point you would just put it into your mouth (as if you were going to take a drag) and blow hard. You will feel and hear the water and any leftover juice gurgling and blowing out the "bottom" of the cartridge (the battery hole).

Repeat that process a few times, and you will end up with a white and fluffy filler material just like new.

So to directly answer your question, you are holding the cartomizer's mouth end to your mouth, then blowing THROUGH the cartomizer and the fluid will be exiting outward FROM the battery hole

I hope that is more clear. [basically if you put your mouth on the threaded / battery end.. you are doing it wrong!!! ]

Take care,
- Hap

 

[deeanne59]

Thanks Hap...that helped a lot. I am waiting for a new e-cig with cartomizers, so I am getting all the carto "lessons" I can. I am converting from the normal carts and filler.

 

[Joe81]

thanx again haplovoss, after rinsing, do u dry it out at all? or do u go right to vaping? i hate rinsing stuff out and being told to let it dry for 16 hours/overnight/whatever...plus, it seems so far that blank cartomizers are not much cheaper than filled cartomizers...

EDIT: with the greencig carts, do u even need the filler?

 

[Ghetto_Cowgirl]

That's it, I'm sold. Next time I order it will be a 10 pack of GreenCig carts to use on my extra long manual battery. Damn that's gonna be one long cig! Oh well...thanks for the great explanation, I have the regular cartomizers down to a science so I figure the GreenCig ones shouldn't be too hard to figure out
Thanks again!

 

[Pawpaw]

I'm having one heck of a time with this.

I took the end off with one of those paper clasp handles (great tip, that one!).

Pulled out the o-ring and used a tiny swiss army knife to gently scrape out all the white junk.

I turned the cart upside down and banged against my leg so much it sorta hurts. The cart has moved maybe a millimeter.

I already destroyed one cartomizer just so I could see the insides for the next attempt. Well, I'm in the next attempt and am having the same problem.

HELP!!!

Bob

 

[Pawpaw]

Never mind. I got it.

The metal of the cartomizer tube is so soft I was concerned about bouncing it off of something hard. I finally bounced it off the table top and got the cart down to the end so I could pry it out.

 

[Pawpaw]

I've made a minor modification to Hap's method. Instead of banging the cartomizer on something to get the cartridge out, I bent a paper clip that can be pushed down beside the flat part of the "D" to lift it out.

Sorry for the crappy image... cell phone.

Hmmm. Can't insert an image.

 

[buttercrunch]

they do last a LONG time! I remove and refill the cart sometimes, especially if I want to change flavors, but mostly just drip into the batt end. easy as pie!
I don't like the feel of the metal tube in my mouth, so instead of replacing the white end piece, I insert an empty 510 or 901 flat tip cart. (cut a little off the end of the empty cart with scissors before you push it into the tube). Or even easier, just push one of the little black caps that come with 901 carts onto the tube, instant mouthpiece! both work great but I prefer the flat tips.