Filling 5ml dual coil cartos via immersion?

[mobocracy]

Has anyone tried filling big dual coil cartomizers (or really any cartomizer) via immersion?

What I'm thinking is a small container larger than the cartomizer itself, putting in the cartomizer and then filling it completely with juice and let the whole thing soak for a while. After a day or so, pull it out, wipe off the outside and then blow it out. It seems like it would be a great way to make sure the filler was as completely soaked as possible, especially with these big dual coil cartos which I find hard to fill to their supposed 5 ml. capacity. For me, they seem to leak out the bottom after maybe 1-2 ml, requiring you to stop for a while, go back, etc.

The downsides? You might waste some juice via spillage/drrippage/slop, but it seems like you do anyway. Or I guess it might not work or ruin the carto somehow. But it doesn't seem that much different than how a carto tank works.

Smaller ones like 510s and KR808s seem to condom fill without a problem, but the big ones seem like they would be easier to completely saturate this way.



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[suspectK]

That could ruin the carto. Over saturation is already a problem with priming. Drowning it in liquid will cause the bottom portion of the wick to expand, which is the most crutial point for the coil getting adequate airflow. It could swell up so much, that the paper tube gets crushed as well.

I use a syringe. It takes some knowledge of the design/function of a cartomizer, but I can fully prime a carto in 30seconds..let it sit in the tank as long as possible, at least 20 minutes, and boom.

If you're not using a tank, a syringe might be a bad idea. Holes allowing pressure to escape allow it to work well, so use a toothpick, with the condom over the top. You may still get oversaturation, but blow it out from the connection end if so..

 

[mobocracy]

As I look at this, I'm less worried about ruining a $4 cartomizer and more worried about just wasting a bunch of juice sold by the milliliter in what will for sure be a pretty messy operation, even if I can find a cylinder the perfect size that doesn't require too much filling. Inverse (top-down) immersion might help somewhat if I can get the liquid level right to keep the threaded end above the liquid level, although these dual coil units have a ton of air space at their tops which makes this harder.

I don't have a problem filing KR808D-2 cartos -- push filling with the rubber caps works really well, it's these Smoktech dual coil cartos that are kind of driving me bonkers getting "full". I'm not using them standalone on an EVOD battery and they hit great -- good flavor and vapor, but no matter how slowly and carefully I fill them via top-dripping -- plugging the bottom and top with the little plugs from a Boge carto, using a toothpick to drip around the edge so I get juice more than at the top -- they always seem to overfill, taking maybe 1.5 ml of the 5 ml claimed maximum. At that quantity they just don't stay wet very long.

I've always saturated them enough I don't get dry hits, but after 1.5 ml they just run out the bottom. I swear I can get the same quantity in a KR808D-2 carto.

I guess maybe a syringe will be my next tool to try filling them. I have a couple of the clear plastic ones (although the reviews say they crack at the base easily), these might be better to experiment with filling technique so I can visually confirm.


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[r77r7r]

I think I'd try rigging up a kit-


With the drawbacks of these type of carto, many people had moved on to carto-tanks.

 

[jwag1973]

I'd personally suggest you do a search including the word/name....."Baditude", that's "Baditude"! Reading his posts and blogs will answer every question you may have now or later!
(Seriously, look it up!)

 

[Baditude]

E-Cigarette Forum - Baditude - Blogs

I'm familiar with the XXXXL Smoktech dual coil cartos that I believe you are speaking of. I never tried immersing them upside down in a container to fill them...sort of a reverse condom method of filling them if you think about it. It may work for you.

I think what I would do though is to put a wood tooth pick into the center air hole and add some e-liquid until the filler looks like a slushy drink. Then shake it down like you would a thermometer. This acts like a test tube in a centrifuge, forcing the e-liquid down into the bottom of the carto.

Add some more e-liquid, shake it down again. "Drip & Flip". Do this until the filler will hold no more liquid. The whole process takes less than 4 minutes to do, and the carto is ready to vape immediately.

 

[chemxsol]

I use Baditude's method of dripping down the sides and shaking the carto, works every time!!

 

[EL Pistoffo]

I've had mixed success filling my kanger cartos using the condom method. I fill the larger condom a little more than half way and slowly push the threaded end of the carto down into the liquid filled condom. Sometimes it works well and sometimes the carto is just clogged and impossible to take a draw. Maybe they are crappy cartos. Regardless, they don't hold much juice. I'm transitioning over to a carto tank.

 

[jwag1973]

I use Baditude's method of dripping down the sides and shaking the carto, works every time!!

I do too! I used his method with no help, other than information obtained from his blogs and prior comments. It works, and works flawlessly!

 

[mobocracy]

The issue I've had with variations on the dripping method is that after I've dripped in about 1-2ml of juice, it just doesn't absorb anymore, it just pools in the bottom of the carto and needs to be blown out before you can use it. Letting it sit really didn't seem to help much, either, even after sitting out overnight any additional past the initial 1-2ml of juice does the same thing.

Now, I'm willing to buy into two mitigating factors:

One, the juice I tried it with, Johnson Creek Red Oak Tennessee Cured is 100% VG and fairly obnoxious/high maintenance with pretty much everything I've used it with (except, ironically, with these generic KR808D-2 blank cartos I get from Vaporkings, where it seems to work as well as anything else). There may be something about the juice that affects its absorbency, although I usually get the same amount of PG juices in the blank KR808-D2s as I do with this one, but maybe the filler in these XL cartos is different somehow.

The other one is that I've only really fooled with one XL carto so far -- the first fill I got closer to 2 ml in but didn't let it sit longer than about 10 minutes before using it, so all my other fill attempts were with a "used" and "partially filled" carto. Although I didn't refill it until the filler looked pretty dry again (but no dry, burned or other hits off it, so it wasn't torched) and vapor production was dropping off, so it shouldn't have been too full, but either way I was definitely only getting the short side of 1-2ml with any refill attempt. Either way, the filler may have been getting gummed from the juice, even after the first use, making it less likely to take on more juice.

I was pretty much out of RO-TC juice and didn't want to waste what I had left on a bit of paper towel, so I didn't experiment with any of the other new blank XL cartos until I had more juice. It may just be I need to have a more thorough and slow filling technique combined with more absorption time.

Anyway, I stocked up on Cyber Monday and should have a whole bunch of RO-TC waiting for me along with some more of the XL cartos and a couple of different syringes. I'm going to try some syringes for filling (which will also give me some improved measurement of how much I use, I was just eyeballing a 3ml dropper bottle) as well as being a little more patient with absorption. I'm also going use one of the clear XL cartos I have so I can get a better visual idea of what might be happening.

Anyway, I like the vapor/flavor off these cartos and at about $4 if I could get a solid 4-5ml fill off off them plus a couple mls of topping off I'd be pretty happy with them. I'm still toying with some kind immersion fill idea, but I need to find the right container to do it in so I don't waste a half bottle of juice in the process.

 

[mobocracy]

FWIW, the syringes are the way to go. I can get nearly the full "advertised" 5ml capacity into these using a syringe with a minimum of dripout through the battery connector hole. I put in about 3 ml initially, let it sit for about 20 minutes and then put in another 1.5 and let it sit (overnight, but not intentionally overnight) and no mess. I let it sit on edge so that any excess would get a chance to absorb in.

The syringe I used was from VaporKings with an 18 ga. blunt metal needle that worked really well to poke into the sides and even a little into the top of the cartomizer filler.

It worked well for a 1.5 ml top-off, too, since you can poke into the filler rather than top-dripping onto the filler.

My theory as to why top-dripping seemed to messy is the areas you can drip into get pretty saturated, which leads to runoff along the walls, which just drains out the bottom faster than it can be absorbed.