cartos.. hard to draw and life lenghts ?

[hook425]

I now use LR cartomizers which I believe are the best thing to use as they are low maintenance and easy to fill with the condom method.

I keep one carto per flavor and change them as I change flavors... I find that after a while (week or so) they get hard to draw like they plug up or something.. I pushed a paperclip through to see and they do not seem to plug up but still hard to draw. Is this normal ? I usually throw them out when that happens...

how long do you guys keep the same cartos ?

 

[renstyle]

I use "plain jane" cartos (majority of mine are still from my V2cigs kit). I have about 45-50 cartos right now, and I've only used maybe 10 in the last three weeks.

If you nurse them really well (either by topping off while using, or never allowing them to "burn"), you could see a single carto last weeks, some have reported over 20 full refills with no trouble. It's always a crapshoot, sometimes even in the same batch/order.

I notice mine showing less "capacity" in the number of drops I can give them. Start with a prefilled carto, I have to start either refilling or topping off after a day (I normally have 2-3 cartos in a daily rotation, give each of them a rest after an hour or two). Haven't cleaned any out yet, and had to toss some after I didn't pay attention and torched the batting inside when I let it get too dry (they are too fargone at that point).

 

[N2rock]

I know exactly what you mean about the cartos becoming harder to draw. And definitely not the center hole getting plugged up, as I can see clear thru mine with no issue. That leads me to believe that the tiny little holes (down above the threads) must be getting plugged up. One of these days I'm going to tear open one of my many clogged cartos so I can see what is going on inside there.

 

[Katatonik]

I find that a single carto will give me great performance for one week and taper down after that.
If you're concerned about clogging, you can drop your cartos in some everclear and let them sit over night. Next morning blow it all out. Let them sit to dry the rest of the day (with cap off). Then refill. It won't be a "fresh carto", but it'll definitely improve.

 

[N2rock]

So I tore a "clogged" one open last night, and could not find any reason for it to be clogged. Everything was still "open" as far as I could tell. One thing I did discover was the filling still had a ton of juice in it, even though it was "dry hit taste". That filling was completely soaked- just touching it got juice all over my fingers. Makes me wonder if as you use it, only one section of the juice is actually getting vaped (the section nearest the atty element) and the rest is just constantly absorbing more and more juice as you refill it, until it eventually gets to a point where the filling is just soaked thru and can't absorb anymore, and is so full that airflow thru it is restricted.

 

[Katatonik]

So I tore a "clogged" one open last night, and could not find any reason for it to be clogged. Everything was still "open" as far as I could tell. One thing I did discover was the filling still had a ton of juice in it, even though it was "dry hit taste". That filling was completely soaked- just touching it got juice all over my fingers. Makes me wonder if as you use it, only one section of the juice is actually getting vaped (the section nearest the atty element) and the rest is just constantly absorbing more and more juice as you refill it, until it eventually gets to a point where the filling is just soaked thru and can't absorb anymore, and is so full that airflow thru it is restricted.

A rigorous cleaning (like mentioned above) could help "empty" the filler, if that's what is happening.