Ego-T Tank/Atomizer System

[Mindfield]

My experience with the genuine 510 carts is to only buy geniune JOYE. It's obvious they manufactured to better quality standards, particularly the finishing of the molded plastic (no sharp edges ) and how well the caps stay on. Totally Wicked's 510 attys totally suck--too much air flow. Again the best bet is to stick with geniune Joye.

The genuine JOYE 510 cartos are of similar quality standards. I've had a few DOA's, but as usual when I try something new, I was making some mistakes. I didn't realize that that the atty had to be good and wet before it started working. In the beginning I probably threw out good cartos.

At nicotine nirvanna, these guys won't supply anything they think is junk, and they only sell JOYE products. For example, they only started selling eGo-T's AFTER the LR atty became available.

Unfortunately JOYE did not adhere to their quality standards with the eGo-T. Perhaps they thought they wouldn't need to

Dave

That's kind of a shame. What I'm getting basically is that the A-type tanks are pretty hit or miss, with more misses than hits, so I might like them and they might work to my satisfaction, but the odds based on this admittedly small sampling are not in favour of it, however the newer B-type (XL-equivalent) are much better -- in vapour production and flavour at least, if not in quality, which right now seems to be an unknown. Really a pity, as the tank system seems like the ideal thing; nobody likes cart filler and constant topping off, dripping isn't for everyone, and funky juice tank mods or fiddly cart mods appeal to even fewer people. These tanks could be awesome if they could only get it right.

 

[wdave]

That's kind of a shame. What I'm getting basically is that the A-type tanks are pretty hit or miss, with more misses than hits, so I might like them and they might work to my satisfaction, but the odds based on this admittedly small sampling are not in favour of it, however the newer B-type (XL-equivalent) are much better -- in vapour production and flavour at least, if not in quality, which right now seems to be an unknown. Really a pity, as the tank system seems like the ideal thing; nobody likes cart filler and constant topping off, dripping isn't for everyone, and funky juice tank mods or fiddly cart mods appeal to even fewer people. These tanks could be awesome if they could only get it right.

Well everyone is on their own path. Bases on my experience though, if an ecig isn't designed right in the first place then there isn't much you can do to make it ever work right. But you can spend one heck of a lot of money believing and buying the latest and greatest "improvement" only to be disappointed once again. That's the money pit I'm talking about.

If the normal bat, atty, carto or whatever doesn't work right out of the box, throw it in the trash and try a new ecig.

Of course extended life batts are a big improvement when one is willing to sacrifice appearance in order to reduce the hassle of charging batteries.

HTH,
Dave

 

[jpf880]

I used the ego tanks for @ 3 months, I liked them a lot. I got the lr attys when they first came out and they did increase the flavor. Then I tried Stormys clear tube mod, it holds about 2mls of juice and the flavor is great, they are all I use now.

 

[Mindfield]

Okay, my 5-pack of A-type attys arrived today, along with a 5 pack of carts, both from GreenhouseOne.

I paired the carts I just bought with the atty I just bought so I could do a straight out-of-the-box comparison with the other ones I bought last month.

Initially, after blowing out the primer, I wasn't getting a damn thing, and I started thinking, "Aw, crap, same damn problem." The liquid was hardly bubbling up, either. However, when I took out the cart I noticed something I hadn't really thought about initially: The carts that came in my latest package have a silicone cap rather than a plastic one. I didn't really think it mattered much but upon inspection, I noticed that the atty wasn't punching a proper hole through the thin center like it should. The syringe-like thingy in the center of the atomizer was just stretching the silicone rather than poking through it; there was a tiny hole in it, but not enough to let either gravity or suction pull liquid through. Terrible design choice. Even after twisting the cart in the atty to "carve" out the hole, it wasn't making a difference. I'd have to take an Xacto knife and cut it out myself if I want them to work, which I'll probably do if/when I need them. But for now they're going in the spare parts drawer of my vape chest.

Fortunately I still had a bunch of proper carts with plastic caps that I bought from the other place, so I swapped out these new ones with the old ones. Success!

So I've been vaping for ten or so minutes now, and I have to say, this is not bad. Not bad at all. Vapour production is slightly anemic and the throat hit isn't quite as pronounced as normal carts on a similar draw, but it's still very present and satisfying, and no burnt taste if I heat too long or get fibers from a reused and slightly scraggly polyfill plug caught in the bridge. Plus, no leakage! I have a terrible problem with this using thin liquids on the XL attys and I'm constantly unscrewing the atomizer to wipe out wasted juice from the battery and connector end of the atty.

As for taste, well, I have to be honest: My old eGo XL attys are fading a bit and aren't producing long periods of vapour or flavour like they used to, so I've kind of gotten used to weak flavouring over the past month or so that this has been happening. But I can say the flavour is still stronger than it is in the XL atty, so that's a good thing, and so far the flavour and TH have been pretty consistent draw after draw.

Overall I'm pretty pleased, though I've only just started it -- and they do work several orders of magnitude better than the two I bought from the other place. Time will tell how they hold up, of course -- I'm pretty sure these aren't genuine Joye, so the question of quality is up in the air. However, from what I'm hearing it may be difficult to do worse than Joye have done with their tank system, and the purportedly genuine Joye tanks I got before don't work worth a damn, so who knows?

So, yeah. Apart from the ridiculous silicone caps on the carts, I'm going to go ahead give this one the thumbs up. Plus, a 5 pack of attys for $30? Even if they don't last as long as I'd like, that's still a hell of a deal. I paid that much for two real Joye attys.

I think next paycheque I'm going to order the 5-pack of LR attys and give those a try. I'm thinking the bump in vapour and TH will be just the thing to make this the perfect replacement for my XLs. I've never bought LR attys before specifically because of their shortened life span, but I think in this case they might just be worth it.

 

[Mindfield]

Okay, just to follow up on my experiences so far now that I'm halfway through day 3. It has been ... interesting. Possibly educational.

So my first atomizer worked fine on first try for the rest of the evening that I was using it. By the time I was ready to get to bed (about 6 hours after hooking up the new atty) I found it was starting to lose a bit of its edge. But I didn't think much of it.

By the next morning I noticed that I was starting to have to give it primer puffs to build up its strength. By the afternoon it was worse. By the time it was time to go home, and into the early evening, I found the draw was getting harder. Eventually, around 9pm last night I figured it must be getting gunked up already -- which I found odd, as I'm vaping pure PG and the liquid isn't dark, more an amber colour, so neither thick nor particularly dark as are the caveats of vaping with tanks -- or at least Type-A tanks like mine. Less than a day of practical use out of an atty just isn't acceptable.

I gave the atty a dunk in some isopropyl alcohol and took out a second cig that I'd already had assembled. Still a brand new atty (I bought a 5 pack, so this is #2), but I used the cart I got with these attys, the one with the silicone cap (that is, the plug that seals the cart is silicone, not the cap that goes over it like the other carts -- these didn't even come with silicone covers like the others.) I'd reamed out the center hole with an Xacto knife so the hole was perfectly clear and I figured it should work fine now that the needle didn't have to struggle to puncture it.

Started vaping last night. Still vaping this morning. Neither strength nor flavour have waned so far, and the draw is still normal. Interestingly, while it's possible that it might be that the wick in this one might be positioned slightly differently, or maybe fluffed better, I actually suspect that it's working better because of the silicone caps I derided in my last post. It seems as though the silicone is providing a better seal over the needle, which promotes more consistent suction, which gets juice to the atty more consistently, even over time. It still hasn't been a full day with this one yet, but so far no need for primer puffs at all, nor a need to do a hard dry pull once in a while to suck more juice into the atty; it's been doing just fine with normal draws.

I'm going to try another test with atty #1 and cart #1 to see if my experience of rapidly weakening strength and harder draws repeats itself -- and I think it will. If so, I'm thinking a thin coat of rubber cement or epoxy around the rim of the center hole in the plastic caps might create a better seal and thus work better for longer periods of time.

So, curiously I've kind of reversed my opinions on things a bit: The attys are probably fine, and I'm still enjoying them, but the original plastic-capped carts seem to be the problem, at least in this instance. The silicone-capped carts I bought that I initially thought was a terrible design (and it still is if the needle can't puncture the hole by itself) actually seems to work better by creating a better seal around the needle -- once you clear the hole by hand, anyway, which isn't really a huge problem and worth the slight extra effort for improved functionality.