Just wondering how everyone is using their cartos... I've got mine in rotation right now; I use a separate one for each flavor and I rotate what I vape daily. Because of that, I really don't know how long they are lasting me. I'm guessing that it's somewhere in the realm of 10 - 15 refills before the draw gets a little stiff and the TH/VP falls way off. The ones that I've tried to clean (flushing them with hot water + reverse taryn spin to get excess water out) still seem to have a really stiff draw but the TH/VP is improved. I dissected one that died on me to see what it looked like inside and I found some build-up within the polyfill -- but it wasn't burnt up at all, so that's a plus-- and I'm suspecting that's what caused the capacity drop and stiff draw. Since I don't clean them out nightly before they are stored (caps on both ends), I'm wondering if storing them with the juice remnants is causing this build up to occur. Any insight?
Cartomizer usage habits?
- Thread starter doxzilla
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oh...so you actually take care of your cartomizers? LOL
I honestly don't know the answer to your question....but I have often wondered/thought it might just be compaction of the filling. I also notice that it isn't consistant...some are better than others. I am not talking brand here...out of the same pack or box...some may be a little more tightly packed than others. But it sounds to me like your doing something right! Your getting alot of use out of them and are not complaining about "burn out"....so in all seriousnes....what else are you doing with them? Like are you really vigilant about keeping them filled? And tell me more about the rotation.....do you rotate them throughout the day as well as between flavors? In other words I'm wanting an idea of how long you actually vape on one carto before you switch to a different one?
Sounds like you may be on to something. My hubby vapes them until they are too hot to touch....needless to say you take one apart and it's burnt all the way through....doh! I wonder why?
Thanks doxilla!
I honestly don't know the answer to your question....but I have often wondered/thought it might just be compaction of the filling. I also notice that it isn't consistant...some are better than others. I am not talking brand here...out of the same pack or box...some may be a little more tightly packed than others. But it sounds to me like your doing something right! Your getting alot of use out of them and are not complaining about "burn out"....so in all seriousnes....what else are you doing with them? Like are you really vigilant about keeping them filled? And tell me more about the rotation.....do you rotate them throughout the day as well as between flavors? In other words I'm wanting an idea of how long you actually vape on one carto before you switch to a different one?
Sounds like you may be on to something. My hubby vapes them until they are too hot to touch....needless to say you take one apart and it's burnt all the way through....doh! I wonder why?
Thanks doxilla!
Well, I'm kinda taking care of them, LOL...
Rotation... I dunno, I just grab two carts (lets call them A & B), switch from A to B at about noon and then just use B for the rest of the day keeping it kinda topped off. Then at night, I randomly choose what flavors I'm gonna use the next day, grab those carts (lets call them C & D) and fill them up. Repeat cycle...
Last night, there was a used carto massacre, all in the name of science of course and I found that some of them were on the brink of melting...
I try to avoid chain vaping and overheating the cartos because I don't want the guts of the carto to start burning. I guess I kinda over did it at some point. None of them were super terrible like some of the pics that I've seen, but I can definitely tell that they'd gotten too hot at some point. I'm okay with that since there weren't melted clumps of plastic inside.
One of the things that I'm going to try is keeping them filled when I store them & store them in the fridge. I'd been keeping them in there previously, but moved them out arbitrarily. The set that was initially in the fridge lasted about a week longer than the ones that were just stored at room temp (ex. set A opened on week 1, kept in rotation; set B opened on week 2 for new flavors, kept in rotation; end of week 3, all cartos were under performing). Another change I'm going to make is filling the cartos before they are stored in the fridge as the ones that were more saturated seemed to have less build up in them.
I kinda sorta cleaned set A & B (from the above example) by flushing them out with warm water and let them dry out completely but it didn't do anything to improve the life span of the cartos and it didn't do squat about the build up mentioned in the initial post. I'll update this thread as this experiment goes on just in case anybody else cares.
Rotation... I dunno, I just grab two carts (lets call them A & B), switch from A to B at about noon and then just use B for the rest of the day keeping it kinda topped off. Then at night, I randomly choose what flavors I'm gonna use the next day, grab those carts (lets call them C & D) and fill them up. Repeat cycle...
Last night, there was a used carto massacre, all in the name of science of course and I found that some of them were on the brink of melting...
I try to avoid chain vaping and overheating the cartos because I don't want the guts of the carto to start burning. I guess I kinda over did it at some point. None of them were super terrible like some of the pics that I've seen, but I can definitely tell that they'd gotten too hot at some point. I'm okay with that since there weren't melted clumps of plastic inside.
One of the things that I'm going to try is keeping them filled when I store them & store them in the fridge. I'd been keeping them in there previously, but moved them out arbitrarily. The set that was initially in the fridge lasted about a week longer than the ones that were just stored at room temp (ex. set A opened on week 1, kept in rotation; set B opened on week 2 for new flavors, kept in rotation; end of week 3, all cartos were under performing). Another change I'm going to make is filling the cartos before they are stored in the fridge as the ones that were more saturated seemed to have less build up in them.
I kinda sorta cleaned set A & B (from the above example) by flushing them out with warm water and let them dry out completely but it didn't do anything to improve the life span of the cartos and it didn't do squat about the build up mentioned in the initial post. I'll update this thread as this experiment goes on just in case anybody else cares.
This is great,doxilla! Thank you! You've mentioned some new things...or at least things I have not heard yet and they seem to be working for you.
How do you personally identify when a cartos is "used up" or at the point where you no longer want to use it?
Your idea about storing them filled makes sense to me. I think you may be on to something about leaving lie around after they have been vaped dry...also about storing them with the condoms on. Maybe other people already do this stuff but I know I don't and maybe that is why I have problems and other people don't.
Thank you again for posted in such detail. I am finding it very helpful! I do love cartos and didin't want to give them up and this is the first time I have seen anything useful to me that might help. Cheers!
How do you personally identify when a cartos is "used up" or at the point where you no longer want to use it?
Your idea about storing them filled makes sense to me. I think you may be on to something about leaving lie around after they have been vaped dry...also about storing them with the condoms on. Maybe other people already do this stuff but I know I don't and maybe that is why I have problems and other people don't.
Thank you again for posted in such detail. I am finding it very helpful! I do love cartos and didin't want to give them up and this is the first time I have seen anything useful to me that might help. Cheers!
I've been told that e-juice won't evaporate. I never thought about them drying out.
Either a. the draw gets way too stiff or b. the flavor is off a bit...
Maybe not all the components of the juice but I'm sure that whatever water is in the juice may evaporate. I think this may be the cause of the residue regardless of the caps being on or off. Personally, I just cap them to keep them from leaking onto the shelves and to make sure debris doesn't get in.
Ejuice must evaporate to some extent. A paper towel that has absorbed excess juice from filling one night will be dry the next. There is a lot less airflow through a carto, though, so it would take awhile.
I'm a "heavy" vapor and have been using both the 808 and 510 cartos for about 3-4 weeks. I rotate 2 batches of 20-25 cartos at a time... all with the same flavor (my daily vape). I refill the same batch over and over and as the performance drops off I throw them into a "to clean" baggie. Once batch #1 is used up I switch to batch #2 and clean/dry batch #1.
I refill in batches while watching TV using the condom/spin/condom top-off method. When I come across one that has reduced air-flow I insert a large paperclip through the battery end to re-align the filler (gently). I store all my filled cartos at room temp with the condoms in place sitting up on their battery end.
I refill in batches while watching TV using the condom/spin/condom top-off method. When I come across one that has reduced air-flow I insert a large paperclip through the battery end to re-align the filler (gently). I store all my filled cartos at room temp with the condoms in place sitting up on their battery end.
Man, I thought I was a heavy vaper... What method are you using to clean your cartos because what I'm doing -- flushing them with warm water w/ a 5ml medicine dropper and then reverse spin -- isn't doing much to clean them at all.
I'm using TV Tobacco/Menthol, which is pretty hard on cartos (and attys). After about 3-4 refills the performance drops off pretty quickly. I've tried various cleaning methods but I find repeated soaks in very hot water while blowing out in-between works as well as anything else I've tried. Once cleaned they're never the same, but I do get an additional 2-3 refills out of them (then they go in the trash).
I sincerely believe that atty/carto life is very dependant on the e-liquid being used. I've found that the lighter the juice color, the longer it can be used before cleaning is needed. It's the main reason I'm using cartos with this particular juice (it's cheaper).
I totally forgot about this little tip; when I was using my initial KR808 cartos, I would do this after refilling.
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