Dark liquid in tank

[AlasseKementari]

First of all, I really don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know many proper terms and I don't even know what I have. A coworker got me into e-cigs and didn't really tell me about what I was getting when she went with me to get mine. It even took me about two months to figure out that I needed to change out my cartomizer every week. Please bear with me.

My issue is that I've been getting my juices locally, but I'm bored of the (very limited) flavors from the place I normally go. Mt Baker Vapors was recommended to me by a friend of a friend. So I ordered three flavors. When I got them in the mail, I immediately filled up with one. It tasted really good, but within a few hours, a dark liquid was seeping from the hole in my cartomizer into the tank, and it was starting to taste burned. I thought I might have filled my cartomizer wrong (I have a hard time with it), so I grabbed a new one. Worked fine until the next morning. I thought, maybe I had screwed up twice in a row, so I tried a new cartomizer. It worked until the next day. I ended up using five cartomizers in one week, before I realized that the problem wasn't me.

Now, I understand that different e-cigs work differently, but, I'm really not sure what I have. I know that my replacement cartomizers come individually wrapped in plastic stamped with "510 XL LR PrePunched" on them. Other than that, I really don't know what to tell you, but if anyone could help me figure out my problem, that would be great. I'm thinking it's not compatible with the type of cartomizer I'm using, but I don't know what to use instead. I've been told by a lot of people that they never have this problem and that they love their cool cig that you can change the voltage on it and blah, blah, blah. That's awesome, but I just lost my job. I don't have the money for a whole new e-cig. If it's something as simple/cheap as getting a different type of cartomizer, it would be great if someone could tell me what I'm looking for.

 

[Recon Number 54]

I don't know the answers to these questions, so I have to ask. They may seem like "well, of course I am" sorts of things, but since I don't know, I have to ask.

Are you priming your cartomizer before vaping? Or are you inserting it into the tank, adding juice to the tank and then vaping? If so, then what might be happening is that your carto is pulling in some juice from your tank, maybe even enough to saturate part of the polyfill, you then vape that juice, the carto runs dry and the burnt juice is then seeping back into your tank.

It could also be that your cartomizers may be flooding. Are they gurgling when you take a draw?

How many holes in your carto? What's the PG/VG mix of your juice? Sorry to ask so many questions, but there are a lot of variables at play in a cartotank setup. When they all work, they tend to work beautifully, but there are things that can throw them out of whack and if your carts are burning and seeping "cooked" juice back into your tank, something is messing up that perferred balance.

 

[Nermal]

After a few refills, I see the juice in my clearos becoming quite dark. So far as I can tell, it hasn't yet affected the flavor, but the next time they are nearly empty I disassemble the head and do a reverse flush with a Water Pic. It usually takes about a week for this discoloration to recur. As I say, my flavor doesn't seem to have been hurt, but a clear fluid does make my feel better. I don't know whether this applies to your cartos, or not.

PS: I would not run out and buy a water pic for the sole purpose of flushing wick and coil

 

[t2ak]

I have the same experience with dark liquid as you do.

I'll burn up a cartomizer in about a day with a couple different coffee and dark dessert flavors I have. It seems to be a common thing and isnt really user error. From what I understand is there is additives in the more "savory" flavorings that are normal but tend to build up on the coils and carbonize. Not to mention the pigments. I can vape a clear to light liquid for days and days no problem.

I have since purchased a trident (dual coil dripping atomizer) and a genesis clone. Both are rebuildable with wick and wire. I usually get two or three days out of the trident and a week or so out of the genesis.

It takes a lot of research and practice to get the hang making coils and there's many, many different types.

The rebuildables seem to be the only thing that lasts any decent amount of time for me.



Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Lucky1127]

Pg/vg ratio compared to your old juice perhaps it's too thin maybe you overfilled maybe you covered the air hole and flooded the chamber or maybe it's a bad carto I think you should fill a new one and report back

 

[rotku]

Hi Alasse, Could you provide a little additional information? You say you have filled the carto correctly.... but you have a tank. Aside from the initial priming you should not have to fill the carto. The liquid in the tank resupplies the carto. I have not seen liquid "back up" into a tank on a carto-tank set up. All that being said, clearomizers are inexpensive and pretty foolproof. There are top coil and bottom coil designs and usually run under 10 bucks. Most newer versions have replaceable coil/wick heads that help reduce the long term costs.

 

[Lucky1127]

Ambient temperature can cause tanks too leak as well

 

[t2ak]

Ambient temperature can cause tanks too leak as well

Sure can. Left it in my car once.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk 2

 

[BardicDruid]

If it's something as simple/cheap as getting a different type of cartomizer, it would be great if someone could tell me what I'm looking for.

Get one or a couple of these in the 3.5ml: Dual Coil Cartomizer Tank
And these to go with them: Pre Punched Replacement tank cartomizers
And then at least you know what you've got, I've been using these for about a year and a half now and only change cartos about every 2 weeks. But I only use Dekang liquid, which you can get at that site also, it's clear and thin and I have fewer issues with it than other liquids. For the cartos get them in 2ohm and you can adjust from there.

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

Mt Baker Vapors was recommended to me by a friend of a friend. So I ordered three flavors. When I got them in the mail, I immediately filled up with one. It tasted really good, but within a few hours, a dark liquid was seeping from the hole in my cartomizer into the tank, and it was starting to taste burned. I thought I might have filled my cartomizer wrong (I have a hard time with it)

Nothing wrong at all with your setup but the PG/ VG ratio of your juice may be giving you problems-. Higher ratio thick VG juice doesn't wick too well and it sounds like your cartomizer, although being in a tank of juice, is running dry and the carto filler is burning- dark juice coming out of the carto hole usually indicates the above. If your juice is too thick/ high VG you have 2 options:
enlarge the holes in your cartomizer- I punch my own cartos with a hole 2.5 mm wide and vape 50/ 50 PG/ VG to 80/ 20 PG/ VG juice.
or
add a tiny bit of distilled water to the juice
What is the PG/ VG juice ratio?

I know that my replacement cartomizers come individually wrapped in plastic stamped with "510 XL LR PrePunched" on them.

That means they're low resistance/ LR and Extra large/ XL. They're prolly 1.8 ohms resistance and are fine for your eGo. Prepunched means they already have holes through which the juice in the tank can feed the filler in the cartomizer.
XL cartos hold 1.8 ml juice while standard sized holds 1 ml juice.

You may want to think about trying some rebuildable clearomizers. With maintenance my heads (wick+ coil) last 10+ weeks. When the head is finally done it's very easy (15 secs) and cheap $2.00) to replace the head.

 

[Jon_mcd]

I used to have this problem with dark juices like coffee or chocolate flavors but I have since switched to using Kanger TS3 bottom coils and a 50/50 PG VG juices and I get about a months use before I have to rebuild or replace tanks.

 

[MadHacker]

I picked up some fruity juice and tried vaping it, I use the Kanget T3S clearomizer and only filled the clero to 1 ml, (holds 3) after an hour or so I noticed a brownish formation near the bottom, no change in flavor...
I emailed the supplier and asked about it... he said it was normal... like an apple going brown when exposed to air.
so I vaped it till it was gone... then added some tobacco flavor and noticed immediately that he flavor was off. not a case of flavor mixing from the previous, but a burnt flavor...
I changed the head... and the flavor was fine again.

my wife said she would try it in her IClear16 and see if the same thing occurs.
I have a dripping atomizers on order and that may be the only way I will vape it... not sure yet...

 

[badexec]

My fluids in my clearos also get dark after a few refills. I think it's accumulation on the wicks. Once a week I take them out and flush them with water and let them dry before re-using them, That usually keeps the discoloration away for about a week, and then I have to repeat. I'm finding heads last me about 4 weeks this way.

 

[Jewels]

I am using a bottom coil tank.
Only one of my juices gets dark - licorice - so when it does I vape until the juice level is low - then dump the rest out and wash the tank and wick in super hot water - then refill it and put it back together - don't even let it dry out after washing.
Works and tastes great!

 

[AlasseKementari]

Wow, I really didn't expect so many replies so soon. I'll try to answer as many questions as I can.

I do prime my cartomizer before vaping, sometimes it floods, sometimes I didn't prime it enough, but I don't recall having those problems while using the MBV flavors.

There is one hole in my carto.

My regular mix is 75% PG/25% VG, but the stuff I got from MBV is 65/35.

I went through 5 cartomizers in 1 week. Filling a new one and reporting back is just gonna waste more cartomizers. I don't have the funds for that.

I was told to fill the cartomizer with about 10 drops of liquid and then prime it.

I tried a clearomizer (i think) and it burned out in three days with the MBV juice.

I hope these answers help. Thanks everyone for trying their best to help me. Like I said, I don't have the money for a whole new setup, but I really don't want to waste the juice I got from MBV, either.

 

[Recon Number 54]

Wow, I really didn't expect so many replies so soon. I'll try to answer as many questions as I can.

I do prime my cartomizer before vaping, sometimes it floods, sometimes I didn't prime it enough, but I don't recall having those problems while using the MBV flavors.

There is one hole in my carto.

My regular mix is 75% PG/25% VG, but the stuff I got from MBV is 65/35.

I went through 5 cartomizers in 1 week. Filling a new one and reporting back is just gonna waste more cartomizers. I don't have the funds for that.

I was told to fill the cartomizer with about 10 drops of liquid and then prime it.

I tried a clearomizer (i think) and it burned out in three days with the MBV juice.

I hope these answers help. Thanks everyone for trying their best to help me. Like I said, I don't have the money for a whole new setup, but I really don't want to waste the juice I got from MBV, either.

Thanks for the additional info.

As far as the "prime suspect"?

* I don't think that it's your juice, those mixtures would be considered typical and not "too thick" like a 100% VG mix.
* I don't think that it's the number of holes in your carto, one hole is pretty standard and should allow a good flow with a 65/35.

There are two things that you said that have me curious.

1: I do prime my cartomizer before vaping, sometimes it floods, sometimes I didn't prime it enough...
2: I was told to fill the cartomizer with about 10 drops of liquid and then prime it.

How are you defining "priming"? In #2, you mentioned putting 10 drops of juice into the cartomizer and THEN "priming" it.

For me, the addition of e-liquid to the carto (and 10 drops isn't that much) is what I call priming it. If you have a needle-tipped bottle or a syringe, you can "inject" about 1ml to 1.5ml into a the longer cartos. If you are dripping into the carto, it's a patience game of adding drops, letting gravity (or the old "thermometer swing") and wicking draw the juice down into the polyfill. Eventually, the polyfill will saturate (like a sponge) to where an additional drop appears to "pool" (you eventually get a feel for when it's about to start pooling). That would be a "fully primed" carto.

If you're only adding 10 or so drops, and then filling the tank (is that what you're referring to as priming, the tank fill?) then I think that we've got a likely root cause. If that is the case, your cartos are wet on top, getting a little juice from the hole, but you are burning/scorching that juice after a couple of draws and that scorched/cooked juice is then seeping back into the tank from the "basically" ruined carto.

Again, if I am misunderstanding (and that's easy in a text-based exchange) I apologize. But based on what you just explained, that's my "best guess" as to what's happening on your rig.

 

[AlasseKementari]

"Priming" was first defined to me as taking a couple drags without pushing the button on the battery, drawing juice into the carto.

I decided to go back to my regular vape shop and ask them about it. I was told that, when stores have a wide variety of flavors, they don't spend enough time perfecting each one. If one flavor isn't quite right, they just put in a bunch of sweetener, which clogs up the carto, thus burning it. So, it's possible I just got a bad flavor. I did purchase two more flavors (and then got a free sample) from MBV, so I'll just have to try them and hope that not all of them were a waste.

 

[Spazmelda]

When I used to use cartos in tanks I filled the cartos to the point where they looked slushy on top. I used the 'condom method' which is where you fill the little silicone sleeve that the carto came in with juice and then push the carto down into it. Leave it there until its slushy on top, blow the extra juice out of the carto and wipe it down. Only putting 10 drops into your carto could be causing some of the problems you are having.

Different juices do tend to darken at different rates. I don't know if it would be the sweetener. I have some juices that are about equal sweetness, but some darken more quickly than others. I've always thought it was from the various flavorings. For me, juices that start darker tend to get very dark, while juices that start light only darken slightly. IME, juices with flavor extracts do tend to get darker than juices with purified or synthesized flavor molecules. Probably due to organic material in them than can burn onto the coils.

When you get a chance, I'd recommend giving clearos (specifically bottom coil ones) another try. I was a dedicated cartomizer fan, until the protank came out. Now the convenience of the protank and how much more use you can get out of a coil has won me over.

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

Standard sized cartos take 1 ml juice. XL take 1.8 ml. 1 ml= approx 20 drops so with a standard sized carto I'd put in maybe 25 drops.
We all have diff ways of filling a carto. Here's one way:

 

[AlasseKementari]

So, I don't know if this was on their site when I ordered, but I looked up the flavor I'm having trouble with, and I found this:

"This flavor is known to clog atomizers, cartomizers and tanks, it is recommended that when using this flavor to use a thin blend (ie 80pg/20vg) to mitigate this issue. Use at your own risk."

Could I just water it down with tap water, knowing that the flavor won't be very strong, or should I just throw it away?