Cartomizers

[vapeopotamus]

All I hear about is how great cartomizers are. I must be doing something wrong. Every carto I have tried will only last me about two or 3 fills then it's dead and will not fire any longer. I have heard them being vaped on for hours and how great they are. The few that I have tried (3) were not good. The first one I tried lasted about a day and when I filled it I got juice in my mouth and it was not a fun experiance. Then I tried another on 6v and tasted horrible and died quickly. Then I tried again on 3.7 and got about two fills out of it and it died. I tried filling by removing the cap and dripping (bad idea) then I filled using the cap method and the same thing mouth full of juice. I have two left here I am bringing with me to the meet up on Saturday perhaps somebody can show me what I am missing with these things. BTW thanks for the extra gear Carl! I appreciate it! I found out that I do not care for 6v on a 510 but love it with a 901.

 

[Hellen A. Handbasket]

I'm another that doesn't "get" cartomizers.

I think much depends on what you started off with too. Switching from an atomizer and cartridge or dripping over to cartos is difficult. It takes a while to get down the filling/not over filling thing and when you need to refill them so you aren't vaping them dry/burning the interior (though there is a new one without filler that I haven't really tried yet... ask Bob about them at the meeting).

I don't have the patience for that. I have cartos, but really never use them. If you travel, they're awesome since you just swap over to a new one when you need it (3 or 4 a day in rotation for most people I think). I keep them for that, and an emergency stash in the car.

 

[Wench]

Your not the only one. I also get only a few fills and have to toss.(KR8)
The only one's I've had any luck with are the 4081 carto's.
I mostly use atty's also and only use carto's when I go out because they're convenient. Perhaps as Hellen said.. all in what your used to that makes a difference.

 

[vapeopotamus]

Well I am glad I am not the only one! Still with so many people so happy with them there must be something we are missing. Perhaps we can get schooled tomorrow by somebody. LOL Perhaps we just don't like them either. Of course I don't like drip tips either at least not metal ones. Perhaps I would enjoy a plastic one, the metal heats up too much for me.

 

[bigboom]

Throw me in the "I don't love them either" category. I've tried a few and generally struggled: overfilled, little vapor production, crappy taste, etc. With one, I assume it shorted out and my fairly new eGo XL battery started blinking....too late....it was in melt down mode. I got the carto disconnected but not until after the smell of burning plastic permeated my house (this did NOT score points with my non-vaping Mrs. Bigboom). It scared the Hell out of me and killed a $20 battery. I decided any savings that might exist from using cartos instead of attys was wiped out with the destruction of the $20 battery.

 

[xanas]

I recently picked up a few 801 cartomizers just to try cartomizers since I had never used them and am still new to vaping, and can't seem to get the hang of them. Either I flood it or it's dry. A regular atty is loads easier for me to use.

 

[owutaqt]

The best thing someone told me about cartomizers was to take off the white circle thing and fill them from the top side (not the thread side) and drip down the side fill them up until they now this is KEY "until they look like a slushee" this is the best way to explain it.

I stand mine up in the condom, sticking half way up then drip down the side until it looks like a slushee, then I let them sit for a bit and then dry the threads off with a tissue, hold the tissue around the base and shake it down like a thermometer so that I don't get juice in my mouth. I attach to Ego and vape. I usually put about 7-10 drops in about every couple of hours.

The carto's may gurgle a little bit, if so, unscrew them hold a tissue underneath and gently blow the juice will come out that was in the midddle straw part.

You want the filler to stay wet, if they dry up they are ruined.

I hope this helps.

 

[UberDuper]

<3 cartos. The life of a carto heavily depends on the juice you're using. I've never had a carto stop firing. What happens to mine is they get gunked up and start tasting like crap. How long it takes to reach that point depends mainly on the juice.

Just about every TV juice I've used will give me 3 maybe 4 days of constant use. Probably 9 - 12 refills in all before the carto needs to get tossed. I don't even get a day out of Tastyfinger before it tastes like burnt chocolate.
With vaporbomb juices, I'm getting a solid week and up to 2 weeks on a single carto. Basically 20 refills minimum.

I was getting cartos from vapornine for a short time until I got a shipment that required pliers to get on and off my 510 - kr808 adapters and they wouldn't do anything but take a return on the unopened packages for store credit. I'd opened one from each box to see if they were all gonna do that to me. So my last order was for the 510 cartos from madvapes. They're made by dekang and they're available in various resistances. I've got the 3R ones and they work well enough at 3.7v and shine at 5v. My next order will be for the 2.5R ones to use only at 3.7v.

I've gone through about 30 cartos between the vapornine ones and the madvapes ones and I've never had any of them burn their filler. I'm pretty sure the vapornine ones are also dekang. The cartos I'd started out with were from ecigsupply and I'm sorry to say they didn't perform as well and I did have a few of those burn.

I still find refilling them to be tedious and messy. I had been using a drip tip and keeping them topped off, but it didn't take long before that got more annoying then just filling them with the rubber cap method. I still use the drip tip because, even tho cartos generally don't give you juice in mouth, the drip tip makes it damn near impossible.

UD.

 

[pipes1]

Guess I may be the lone carto fan, for the Phoenix group. I switched to cartos about 8 months ago and never looked back. I got tired of having to constantly refill atty carts and didn't care for the mess of dripping so moved to filler cartomizers. Some have been good, some great and some just plain bad. The best of the standard filler type cartos have been those from Chad, at ecigsupply. Good flavor and they seem to last. The down side to filler cartos is simply the direct heat in contact with the filler material. At some point you will wind up with the taste of burned filler material so just toss it and go on to the next one.

For the last few months, I have been using the new E2 cartos, exclusively. They have been going through lots of revisions and still have their faults but are the best solution I have found, to date. They produce warm vapor and lots of it, but take some getting used to. They can tend to cook your juce until you learn you don't need to take a long draw, like standard attys or filler cartos. Just takes some time to get the hang of it but then where is that different from anything else we do with vaping?

I am no expert on the subject but will be happy to add my 2cents, at tomorrow's meeting.

See ya all there
Bob

 

[Denrock316]

I <3 Cartos too so far. I have only tried the eGo XL Cartos so far (which need to be filled by syringe). I refill about 3X a day if you include the first fill in the morning. I got 6 days out of my first one and so far this second one that I am on is on day 5 and performing perfectly. I have been getting really nice flavor and vapor all day on them and I love how long they go between fills. I'm kinda new to cartos so far as I used attys with carts or dripping for 3 months before I finally tried cartos. I have some ceramic no poly-filler regular 510 size coming that I will be trying soon. The first one I got 6 days from still fired perfectly it was just starting to get a little leaky and juice wasn't lasting very long. So far I couldn't be happier with cartos they have really made life easy.

 

[wmrwl]

I wasn't a huge fan of cartos when I first tried them either. I ended up giving them another shot (how I fill and use them is explained in my success story here: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/e-cigarette-success-stories/131797-over-9-months.html

I tried every imaginable way to fill them and the best way is to boil off the hard plastic top and drop from the top (not battery side). The inner hole has to be unobstructed and must not have any juice (you should be able to see through it. The slushee description is the best explanation. Whatever you do, make sure you can see all the way through the hole. Otherwise you're just going to keep sucking in juice.

 

[vapeopotamus]

I have two cartos left I am saving for the meeting. I would love to be shown how to use these things. I have the monster ego cart and another regular 510 cart. I had two e2's but they were the ones that did not work for me. So I look forward to learning more tomorrow.

 

[SheerLuckHolmes]

Ok, I've been reading about these e2's. I'm not an egineer or an electrician. They are all talking about ohm, but nothing about voltage. From this I assume that they are in reality all Low Ristance atomizers. But I think I saw one guy say he was using a 3.something ohm at 5volts and liked it real well.

What has been the experience with you guys with what ohm at what volts?

Thanks from just a guy that likes to vape, not study electricity.

 

[pipes1]

Hey Barry
They are making them in a number of resistance levels, for different batteries and preferences. The lower ohm cartos burn hotter so are better at lower voltages, like a standard e-cig battery. As you move up to true 3.7 / 4.2 volts, some prefer a higher ohm for less heat therefore less prone to a burned taste.

So far, all of mine have been around the 2.5 / 2.7 ohm range, which is the lower end and hottest of the bunch. You know I use only mods at 3.7v so in theory, I should be using a higher resistance. This is where personal preference comes into play. I find I like the hotter vape and control the burn taste by shorter draws. With the range I am using, I am able to get a great response with a 2 / 3 sec draw compared to 8 on a standard carto.

Since I haven't tried the 3+ ohm carto's, I don't have anything to compare but most still feel none of the CE2's work well on anything over the 4.2v of a freshly charged mod battery.

Later
Bob

 

[UberDuper]

It's (mostly) all about the watts. Watts translate to the amount of heat generated by the atomizing coil in the cartomizer. Other factors specific to the design of different cartos would be the surface area of the coil and contact with the wick, saturation of the wick, and the amount of air flow through the cartomizer.

I like 3.0Ω @5v but it goes through juice twice as fast as when I use 3.0Ω @3.7v. I think 2.5Ω @3.7v will be a nice compromise.

1.8Ω would be considered a low resistance cartomizer. Keep in mind most batteries can't actually support the 2.06A draw that a 1.8Ω carto would pull and the battery will respond with reduced voltage. IMO the 1.8Ω is a waste of time unless you have a high quality, high drain battery or two batteries in parallel. (5v mods use two batteries in series)

Cartomizers at 3.7v:
Resistance Current Watts
1.8Ω 2.06A 7.6W
2.5Ω 1.48A 5.48W
3.0Ω 1.23A 4.56W
3.2Ω 1.16A 4.28W

Cartomizers at 5v:
Resistance Current Watts
1.8Ω 2.78A 13.89W
2.5Ω 2A 10W
3.0Ω 1.67A 8.33W
3.2Ω 1.56A 7.81W

Cartomizers at 6v:
Resistance Current Watts
1.8Ω 3.33A 20W
2.5Ω 2.4A 14.4W
3.0Ω 2A 12W
3.2Ω 1.88A 11.25W

 

[kgeiger002]

Unless I missed it you didn't mention what kind of PV you are using. If you are using a KR808 then I would highly recommend vapornine.com ...the turbos they have are awesome. Especially with a kr808 passthrough.

fyi - this recommendation is coming from a Riva/Ego user....but my kr808 is always there for a great backup.

 

[SheerLuckHolmes]

Unless I missed it you didn't mention what kind of PV you are using.

I have a variety of PVs. Mostly I use a GLV at 5v. I have a GLV mini at 3.7v, a SB for either 6v or 3.7v, a Riva and an Ego (at whatever a Riva and Ego are in volts.

I plan to get the 510 Mega XL E2 Cartomizer Black - Ceramic v4 3.0 ohm. I will play with these on the Riva and Ego and GLV mini. I will also try one on the GLV 5volt for comparison.

Any advise with these units? Or should I approach this any differently?

 

[pkj]

I am new to cartomizers and I am doing very poorly with them too.

I've experienced them from ecigsupply, Royal Smokes, and I'm about to try them from FreedomSmokeUSA.

FSUSA had a special where they sent you a bunch of free cartomizers and syringe when you ordered juice. They Want Feedback on the cartomizers. I am feeling pretty lost and "Out of my League" with this offer. Although, I suppose feedback from a newbie to cartomizers might be beneficial to a supplier?

I use eGo and Buzz and 510's

Question: How do you clean the syringe? Alcohol? Water?
What works best and give me the longest life on the syringe?

Thank you,
Paula in Arizona City

 

[SheerLuckHolmes]

I would use alcohol or vodka to clean a syringe. The best and longest life would come from not using it at all. (Sorry couldn't resist) Just be carful and not put any stress on the needle like bending it to where it gets bent or breaks. (I have found shooting them at my dart board ends their useful life fairly quickly ~ couldn't resist once again)

 

[pkj]

Thank you, SheerLuckHomes.

FSUSA sent a syringe along with the complimentary cartomizers. I found syringes for less than a $1. each at my local feed & tack store. Guess if I ruin one I can pop over to the feed & tack store and pick up a couple. Have several bottles of alcohol in the closet so will use that to clean the syringes.

Wish me luck!
Thanks again,
Paula