Dry hits on cartos.. What's worked for me

[mgavilondo]

Been vaping since August. Went through the usual learning curves with egos, then pro tanks, then rebuildables which led me to cartos... Best vape ever now that I am priming correctly. I read Baditudes blogs, fiddled with my thingy a lot, with my ibtanked. I didn't think his method would work for me so I started using the condom method...used smoke techs and found although they primed easy they didn't last long so I got me some ikenvapes and boges ... Slotted .. vaping 50/50 juice...I started having problems with dry hits and was resorting to topping off but that never really solved the problem...only the symptom a little and I had to keep doing it...Baditude is absolutely right when he says if the carto is dry it's not the carto's fault... It's not saturated enough..But I have a feeling my method will work with any carto...it's actually a hybrid of Baditudes shakedown and the condom method. ( I know he uses the drip method) .. I had a lot of problems priming slotted cartos with the thingy.. Took forever and bad results ... The boges and ikenvapes are denser but it can be done perfectly I think..here's how I prime with 100% success....

1) use the condom method - 3/4 full slowly. About halfway through I'll see some slush which actually goes away as it's absorbed. I thermometer shake until it's dry on top and return it to the condom for some more filling. At the end of the first condom I will shake it down again.. (With boges I notice one 3/4 filled condom is not enough) because after the last shakedown it still gets absorbed and no slush remains on top.... I then fill the condom again... This time around 1/4 fill as opposed to 3/4 full the first time and repeat.. Soak and shake after a few soaks. Toward the end I will start to see juice come out the sides and the slush won't go away even after shaking that's how I know it's ready...primer puff or 2 load up the cartotank..and I'm good to go.

2) I thought about the times I had dry hits and it's hard to recover good wicking when that happens.. I learned that initial slush in top doesn't necessarily mean it's ready.. That slush will go down. And it's necessary to soak the whole carto and shake to bring the juice to the wick... The condom alone wasn't doing it for me with boge and ikenvape cartos... But the last few done with the mixture of up to a condom and 1/4 of juice with shaking periodically in between works perfectly with dense filler cartos... I hope this helps anyone with these issues..

 

[BlueSnake]

I use a 20 guage sharp tipped needle and inject 1.5ml of juice, 1/2 on each side of the carto on Boges and have had no problems.

 

[Baditude]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I've tried various methods to prime the carto. I obviously use the one in my blogs, and it works for me. However, not everyone gets the same results and they may find another method which works better for them. Whatever method works, that's a Wonderful Thing.

If you have problems with a cartotank, it most likely is in the method used in priming the carto 90% of the time. If you get that part right, chances are you'll love cartotanks. Proper priming is the single most important aspect of using a cartotank; take your time and do it right. You'll be richly rewarded with great flavor and a consistant vape.

 

[mgavilondo]

I use a 20 guage sharp tipped needle and inject 1.5ml of juice, 1/2 on each side of the carto on Boges and have had no problems.

That's cool.. I've never primed that way only topped it off with a syringe.. Whatever works


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[mobocracy]

I've been using the Johnson Creek Valet filling system since I got it about a month ago.

Perfect primes, every time. Obviously not specifically designed for flanged cartos but they can be made to fit with a little gentle wiggling.

Even refills on standalone cartos (which I normally would not bother with) work great, with none of the runoff and mess I normally get after the polyfill has been vaped dry but still retaining residue from the initial fill.

I like an 808 auto battery at work and this thing makes it trivial to fill 10 at a time. Just taking the condoms off and back on the cartos takes more time than filling them.

Best $10 I've spent on vaping gear next to the Slap Yo Momma tool.

 

[r77r7r]

I've been using the Johnson Creek Valet filling system since I got it about a month ago.

Perfect primes, every time. Obviously not specifically designed for flanged cartos but they can be made to fit with a little gentle wiggling.

Even refills on standalone cartos (which I normally would not bother with) work great, with none of the runoff and mess I normally get after the polyfill has been vaped dry but still retaining residue from the initial fill.

I like an 808 auto battery at work and this thing makes it trivial to fill 10 at a time. Just taking the condoms off and back on the cartos takes more time than filling them.

Best $10 I've spent on vaping gear next to the Slap Yo Momma tool.

Neato. If the JC bottle was plastic, could you just squeeze it to fill?

I wonder if the Valet had a solid protruding tube to plug the center of the carto- that you could leave the carto on the battery, put the valet in the carto and give a little squeeze?? For topping off mostly?


Anyways, I'm a very patient condom using guy myself. I jam a Boge inna condom and let it sit overnite, or days sometimes.


I guess that "Thingy" from IBT doesn't work too well?? Nobody seems to talk about them....

 

[serenity21899]

I pretty much fill cartos the same way bad does. No muss, no fuss. Never a real issue with my carto tanks. But whatever works for you is fine.

 

[TheJakeBailey]

I use the thingy all the time with great results. Other methods work well too, but don't discredit the thingy!

 

[mobocracy]

Neato. If the JC bottle was plastic, could you just squeeze it to fill?

No, I think the concept behind it involves drawing a vacuum on the carto to pull the juice in. This also helps remove air pockets in the polyfill and allows juice to more fully saturate.

Once you've drawn about 1.5ml juice into the syringe, you invert it (bottle down, syringe up) and then push the excess back through. This helps insure full saturation as well as letting you dry pump it a couple of times to ensure there's no excess left in the carto.

When I fill 808s I set them out, base down, on a piece of tissue and I never get wet spots bigger than the carto base itself and I think most of that is just whatever clings to the base of the carto. When I blow them out against a tissue before capping them I get near zero blowout, less than I would get with condom filling.

I wonder if the Valet had a solid protruding tube to plug the center of the carto- that you could leave the carto on the battery, put the valet in the carto and give a little squeeze?? For topping off mostly?

No, it doesn't work that way. The 'system' has two parts, a bottle cap with a pretty thick walled silicone tube that you screw on the bottle and a 5ml or so syringe with a silicone tube. The carto goes base-end into the cap side and the syringe end goes over the top. You invert it bottle up, syringe down and draw back the syringe until you draw about 1.5ml into the syringe. Then invert back to bottle down and pump 2-3 times.

Condom filling works equally well. I don't see any performance difference between condom filled and Valet filled cartos in terms of flavor or longevity -- its solely about speed. This matters less, obviously, for a tanked carto, since you fill less of them.