First Ikenvape (double punch for tank) carto and its leaking non-stop!

[ashabrown]

Ive gotten really good at priming my cartos before I start a new tank with fresh liquid. I was sooooo excited that i finally had a batch of these coveted Ikenvape cartos and its been a nightmare of leaking. The o-rings and top/bottom of the tank is tight, no air is leaking...should i been priming these cartos differently than say a smokteck 1.7 sc which is what ive been using for the past 3 months....?

 

[ashabrown]

Come on guys? no advice? im so lost here....

 

[Tennovan]

I've got a bunch of the 510 Fusion LR punched cartos and I'm having the opposite problem, I can't keep them wet. In fact if the carto isn't flooded, I'm getting a really nasty taste... its weird. Normally when I have a carto that wants to flood, it turns out to be a pressure issue. Here's a post I made on another thread, maybe it will help you.

As mentioned, lightly blowing the excess out will usually do the trick. In the year and a half that I've been using tanks, I've had maybe 5 cartos that flooded fairly consistently but I was able to fix them all. My first step is to lightly blow the juice out and then do a couple of hits with an extremely light pull. That works most of the time. If that doesn't do the trick, I'll try to repressurize the tank by either (a) pulling the carto down to allow air into (or out of) the tank and then slowly reseating it, or (b) holding the tank upside down while I take a hit or two. If your cartos have two holes, you can always break a toothpick off in one of them as a method of juice control... I've only had to do this once.

One thing to keep in mind is that removing/connecting some drip tips can cause flooding as well. My favorite SS drip tip does this for some reason. Every time I connect it, juice is pulled into the carto (which is evident from the bubbles). I'm actually sort of baffled by this since the drip tip has a fairly wide opening... I can't see why it would cause any fluctuation in pressure within the carto/tank.

 

[ashabrown]

this really helped actually, Thank you!

 

[Tennovan]

No problemo. Oh and to answer the other question from your post, I don't think you have to prime them any differently. I've used LR DC and SC tank cartos from several different vendors and I prime them all the same. For me that involves filling the carto with a syringe and lightly blowing out any excess. This is done before it is put into the tank.

 

[Unforeseen]

Moved to IkenVape sub-forum

 

[5cardstud]

If you punch too deep and pierce the inner tube they will leak and are ruined. I barely pierce the outside then work the hole bigger. The best thing to do is get pre-punched or get a carto punch that don't go too deep. We have all done it.
Another thing is on my M1A1 tank if the screw on the side just touches the carto, it leaks. That's why I shortened the fill port screw on that tank.

 

[lctrc]

Here's my noobish procedure:

- don't prime the carto before it goes in the tank
- push the carto most of the way into the empty tank
- fill the tank
- push the carto the rest of the way into the tank
- take unfired pulls until I stop getting bubbles (I don't even screw it onto a PV for this)
- let it sit for at least an hour, longer is gooder, overnight is ideal (which is why I don't bother screwing it onto a PV yet)
- take more unfired pulls until I stop getting bubbles
- after that its good to go

I run two tanks, so I always have one of them in the "sitting overnight" phase.

And yeah, if you don't get pre-punched then make sure you just punch them no further than through only the outer shell. These days, I'm willing to pay the extra few pennies for pre-punched - the consistency is well worth it.

 

[5cardstud]

I fill my carto just like I would if I wasn't using a tank when I put a new one in.

 

[Iken]

I actually don't fill my carto at all. Just the tank really. If I notice any dryness. I just cup where the base of the tank meets the unit and take a non-activated 2 second pull and watch the air bubbles rise. A few pulls later if I recieve the same dryness (which is rare with a 80/20 mixture) then I would depressurize it by removing the top cap and reapplying as with the air constraints this would push the liquid through the carto. On a used carto (refilled more than twice) The liquid would pool into the cartomizer, when this happens, just dump it out the excess.

 

[thejeff]

If you punch too deep and pierce the inner tube they will leak and are ruined. I barely pierce the outside then work the hole bigger. The best thing to do is get pre-punched or get a carto punch that don't go too deep. We have all done it.
Another thing is on my M1A1 tank if the screw on the side just touches the carto, it leaks. That's why I shortened the fill port screw on that tank.

I actually did exactly that with the first fusion carto I punched; didn't hear the 'snap' and bored a gaping hole in the side of my carto. It still worked, as long as I didn't let it rest un-tooted for more than a half hour; I made sure to leave the tank on a hand towel when I went to bed. Around the second refill it started getting gurgly, so I tossed it. If that's not the problem, I would think it was a defective carto; otherwise, here's my 'rule of thumb' for fusion cartos:

30% vg juice: pre-punched
50% vg juice: non-pre-punched, punch 4 holes at 2 heights
70% vg juice: pre-punched, punch 2 more holes

I haven't used one with 100% vg juice (I don't vape 100%), but I imagine you'd have to slot your carto at that point.