It's difficult to say whether you are doing anything wrong or not! You might just be unlucky with your batch... Most of them have for me worked acceptably out of the packet.
Without being an "expert" on these I have a few observations and can suggest a few things to try, based on my own personal experience with them. The real experts are in the the cartomizer technical section of the forum.
- I find they work better with PG or mostly PG based liquids, so I avoid thick VG mixes.
- Some C-E2's can have the coil wrapped too tightly around the wick. This is a manufacturing error and these will never work that well.
- Liquid "flow control" to the coil is governed by the main silicone seal (the seal that sits on top of the ceramic cup). The small notches in the seal need to line up perfectly with the wick and the slats in the ceramic cup. If they aren't, or if the seal is somehow pushed down too far and "pinches" the wick, then it shuts off the liquid supply and you get the wicking issues and burnt taste. It might be necessary to pull the seal up a bit so that it is slightly proud of the ceramic cup. Not too much, or it goes the other way - it can be prone to leaks and flooding.
- Cutting the wicks so that they are "loopless" can make a difference.
- Prime them before first use by directly adding a couple of drops to the coil.
- If they start to taste a bit dry while
vaping, briefly tipping them upside down usually solves this.
- I don't like them at higher voltages.
The thing about the Clearo's is that it's very easy to get access to the workings - you can just (carefully) pull the body right off. The most critical thing is that the main seal is re-fitted properly, and this can take some practice. There are some
mods that involve disposing of that seal and replacing it with an alternative like one of the "doughnut" seals supplied with some C-E2's (but not the Clearomizers that I've received).
Vid here showing how to take them apart :
YouTube - CE2 Clearomizer Cartomizer Tips - Gotvapes Fluxomizer
