Sorry if this is long. I'm trying to give lots of information. I'm almost
hoping this is a uder error thing. But if it is, how come the 2 stardusts I got with my first eGo kit are still working?
How are things failing, just cracks or leaks in the plastic ? Are you using a particularly harsh juice - acidic, cinnamon, etc ? Are you over-tightening things ? I think that's WAY above the average failure rate.
It's all about leaks, about 50/50 between dribbling through the centre post and dribbling at the place where the tube meets the metal part at the bottom. (you know how the V3s have the bigger, textured bottom like the Vivi? I can see the discolouration the juice causes and get it all over my hands.) When I got them, I filled them and then set them upright on a paper towel. The next morning, 3 of the stardusts were empty and the paper towel was soaked. Most of the others lasted less than two days - it was the same each time, they started getting gurgly, and if I took them off to blow out or top up, there was a tonne of juice in the well and all over the threads. One of them never leaked, but it never made any vapor. The cracks are hairline fractures around the base. This
could be because of overtightening, but I don't
think I do that, since I'm a big wimp and I've never had any problems getting them on or off at any point (I change juice frequently). Besides that, lots of the SDs failed before even touching the battery.
The juice I used in them was either MLV's Applewood tobacco, GR's Cafe Mocha, or Juggy's Honeybadger. I don't think there are particularly harsh as far as juices go (compared to, say, Juggy's Swedish Pastry), but if they are than at least I know what the problem is.
I've had very few clearomizers break and it was always at least partly my fault. I have screwed up 2 T2s caps threading one wrong and dropping one on the sidewalk (but they're particularly low build quality)
The only one I've ever dropped is the Vivi, and that was onto concrete in the winter. It chipped/cut my aluminum driptip, but the tank still works fine.
hmmm..... I read on one vendor's site that you can expect 3-6 weeks from a Stardust... but certainly that depends on use and the liquid in it I'm sure. Did you get replacement coil/wicks for the V3s? Seems like a lot to go through in 2.5 weeks. (I just got two of them with replacements, but haven't tried them yet)
I didn't get replacements. At $5 a pop I would consider them disposable, assuming they last at least a week or two each. Which is not the case.
I'm particularly interested in your experience with the firebird. I ordered one too (found the site very ambiguous on this.... I thought there would be four in the parcel--- I guess that's why the price seemed too good to be true), but I haven't tried it out yet.
I got one puff out of it. Filled it carefully (even bought a syringe just to fill it). Only filled it about half-way, took one nice puff, then got the gurgles. I took it off to see if I could blow it out, and ended up (with GENTLE blowing, less than I'd blow a cartomizer even) basically blowing out all the juice. I could see bubbles going up from the bottom while the juice was coming out, so I think its vacuum was not very vacuumey.
How's the ViVi nova treating you? Isn't that rebuildable? I'm still learning
Changing a head doesn't count, as far as I'm concerned. Rebuilding a wick? No thanks. I like it a lot, actually, but I think I prefer the head that came with it to the LR ones. I'm getting a bit of a burny taste on the 2.8 head.
What type of e-juice are you using?
What I would consider mild tobacco flavours (and one coffee/chocolate).
The leaking on the stardusts can be fixed by grabbing some new o rings at the hardware store
I'll try that next time. I threw out all my broken ones in a fit of rage a few days ago.