flooding tank cartomizers

[jabuki]

From my own experience and by looking at the reviews I'd say flooding tank cartomizers from madvapes seems like a big enough issue to warrant it's own thread.

After reading around it seems like manufacturing quality tank cartos might be more of a fine art then simply punching a hole or 3 into any old carto. Although i've seen posts of people swaring by punching boge and other cartos and never having any flooding issues. I've seen people report flooding from single hole cartos as well. Of course user error can have a part to play.

From my experience and the fact that so many of these have been made with the exact same 3 holes and some work great and some flood like crazy leads me to think it has more to do with what's going on inside the carto rather then the number of holes in them. I'd say there is an issue with how these are made that determines if you can use them in a tank or not.

Honestly i would be COMPLETELY shocked if there was ANY quality assurance testing in the manufacturing process specifically for tank flooding. Although since they aren't just punching holes on any old carto and calling it a tank carto that means that they are making these cartos specifically for tanks (the flang). You would think they would have some way of testing them. say a set milliliters of fluid at a set viscosity and applying a set psi suction and seeing if it floods. I already made a big post in a MV quality control thread so i won't go on about madvapes need to up quality control.

I have seen threads where people say they plugged some of the holes and it helped so perhaps it's some magic combination of holes and internals. I don't know I'm not their product engineer so anyway here is my experience.

The carto that came with my 5ml tank was flooded on the 3rd pull. i had primed it with a few drops then filled the tank and let it sit for 15 minutes. Thinking i had just done some wrong i played with that a lot blowing it out, plugging holes, and using it without the tank just to come to the conclusion I got a POS carto. After that i wasn't even going to touch the tank on the 2nd tank carto (2.5ohm duel coil) but rather see what it did without the tank. so i filled it a few drops at a time as to not flood the middle until i noticed juice at the bottom holes. a couple pulls and sure enough it too was flooded. I blew it out, cleaned up the mess, and left it till the next day. Next day i tried it and it did vape without the tank so i was done playing around and figured i'd just try the tank. this time i learned my lesson and only put a little bit of juice in the tank. I can't say i was surprised when it to was totally flooded after a few vaping pulls. So 3rd times the charm. i put on the 3rd and last carto i ordered (3ohm single coil) and again wasn't going to mess with the tank until i didn't think it was just another POS carto. Again i tried filling it till juice was at the bottom holes but instead of flooding by the 3rd pull it worked great. So then i felt like maybe adding it to the tank might work for this carto. Sure enough i put it in and it's been working awesome for a little under a month of daily vaping.

I love the tank but 1 out 3 cartos is pretty hard to recommend to others or even want to risk ordering more cartos in the hopes of getting one good one. So i'll be going back to what i know i like until i see a good month of positive reviews on the tank cartos on madvapes.

What's your experience? Do you have a brand that you have used a dozen of with no flooding? I've put the tank on other 510 cartos and honestly there is pretty much no need for the bottom flange so if there is a punch your own alternative that is consistently better I'll definitely give it a try.

 

[chinsk]

How do you define flooding? Are you talking a total leak of fluid out of the cartridge or a small drop? I am trying to level set on what the definition is of flooding. I definitely experience a leakage of fluid from time to time which usually results in a drop of fluid on my battery connector. As you mentioned, some cartos are better than others. I have learned to deal with it and make it a habit of dabbing up the fluid on my battery connector from time to time. Its kind of annoying but I have learned to live with it and I have noticed it tends to occur more as the tank gets lower.

For reference, I have primarily been using 1.7oh single coil triple punched cartos in a 3.5mL dct.

 

[donesmokin]

I've used prepunched with and without flanges. Also saddle valve punched. Some gurgle right from the start, I hate that! I'm thinking it has something to do with the carto filler.

 

[jabuki]

When i say flooded I'm referring to juice filling the air way to the point of unusable and sucking juice out the mouth piece. Juice coming out the actual connector or tank seal i would call leaking. in generally i wouldn't say leaking is an issue with these but yeah i did have a minor amount of fluid in the connector once the tank carto was totally flooded, but again that's not an issue compared to an unusable carto.

 

[brandondparris]

I use the Kanger XL 510 cartos in all of my tanks and they work great. I punch them with a hammer and a trim nail, it is very easy. Nothing fancy only 1 hole.

 

[jabuki]

yeah don't like the gurgle but, i can deal with gurgling as long as it still works. even the one carto i have that works great will occasionally gurgle a bit.

 

[chinsk]

When i say flooded I'm referring to juice filling the air way to the point of unusable and sucking juice out the mouth piece. Juice coming out the actual connector or tank seal i would call leaking. in generally i wouldn't say leaking is an issue with these but yeah i did have a minor amount of fluid in the connector once the tank carto was totally flooded, but again that's not an issue compared to an unusable carto.

Oh, ok. I do not ever think I have had that condition occur yet and I have been through about 8 or so of these cartos so far. The leaking is definitely a re-occurrence but I haven't had outright flooding like that.....yet. I just received my shipment of 32 more so lets see!

 

[Marb]

I tried the 3.5ml tanks for a while with the pre-punched flanged cartos - the ones with the single hole. For reasons unrelated to this thread, I went back to the EMDCC's... But anyway, I did have a couple issues with what I would consider flooding: gurgling to the point of getting insufficient vapor, but not to the point of sucking fluid or actually leaking out the base. It wasn't consistent though. IIRC, it was only one or two specific cartos - heck, it may have even been fluid-specific since I don't generally change flavors on particular cartos.

For reference, I was using either Top Vapor fluid or a combination mix with unflavored, with no more than 30% VG.

In my opinion, it would difficult, if not impossible to QC every carto AND to make them work with EVERY type of fluid. They're built by machine, not by hand (I assume, or else they'd be a LOT more expensive!), so there's going to be some variance. Whether it be a thin spot right in the filler right where the hole is or some other mess-up on the assembly line that only affected a small enough number to slip through... IDK... even the EMDCC's have weird issues sometimes.

Which reminds me - one of my recent clear EMDCC's had a dry spot by the base even after a week of refills - I did everything I could think of to try to get fluid into it... it vaped fine as it was, but seeing that spot just irked me and I overfilled it almost every single time and flung fluid out the connector even, trying to get fluid to "settle in" ... I'm just glad I ran out of that particular flavor just so I could retire it!

 

[motelgrim]

Jesus, I gave up tanks because of this. My first tank system was a dual coil smoktek from crystal clear vaping and it worked fine for a few days or a week then, it started filling up with fluid, flooding the batting and spewing juice drops into my mouth. No matter what I did to fix it, it wasn't having any part of it. I tried 2 more prepunched and the same thing.
Now, I'm a pretty smart cookie in the general sense of the word, more so with physics. I couldn't conceive that 2 cartos, fresh from the packaging wouldn't work properly in a tank. The more likely solution is that it was me, or my equipment. I'm using a Bolt, so it's pretty straightforward.
The physics involved are simple: Negative pressure on the drip tip (sucking) causes higher pressure to flow in through the holes in the bottom of the carto. In the case of a punched tank, you have an additional hole in the side of the carto. Air can't freely pass through this hole because the tank is a sealed chamber, so it's like drilling a small hole in a tennis ball and trying to breathe through it. The negative pressure *will* pull liquid through the hole in limited quantities, though (as seen by the little bubbles that come out after drawing hard on it.
If there was a hole in the outside of the tank, juice would, theoretically, flow right through the hole in the carto and out the bottom. Same goes for whether the tank is sealed against the carto properly. Any gap would let air in and send liquid pouring into the carto. On that note, it would let liquid out too, though....
I dunno. My bet is my hardware. I don't have another tank to try it out on that's store bought and I can't really be objective about this on a homebrew franken-tank that I've been known to create.

Maybe my stream of consciousness rant will help someone else shed some light on why I/we're having so much trouble with this..

p.s.: This happened on boge and smoktek cartos, btw.

 

[iowajosh]

The cartomizer does need to be wet enough all the way through or they will leak.

Make sure the center hole in the cartomizer is clear or a siphon starts and it will leak.

The "priming with a few drops" one, that is user error. Luckily, we learn as we go. Combined with the actual duds and yes the number of failures can be irritating. That was my first experience also.

 

[jkmtwo]

I quit using smoktech cartos because of flooding, I've never had a smoktech cartos that didn't flood. I switched to Boge cartos, not a problem, a drop on my battery connector here and there, but o flooding.

 

[motelgrim]

Jesus, I gave up tanks because of this. My first tank system was a dual coil smoktek from crystal clear vaping and it worked fine for a few days or a week then, it started filling up with fluid, flooding the batting and spewing juice drops into my mouth. No matter what I did to fix it, it wasn't having any part of it. I tried 2 more prepunched and the same thing.
Now, I'm a pretty smart cookie in the general sense of the word, more so with physics. I couldn't conceive that 2 cartos, fresh from the packaging wouldn't work properly in a tank. The more likely solution is that it was me, or my equipment. I'm using a Bolt, so it's pretty straightforward.
The physics involved are simple: Negative pressure on the drip tip (sucking) causes higher pressure to flow in through the holes in the bottom of the carto. In the case of a punched tank, you have an additional hole in the side of the carto. Air can't freely pass through this hole because the tank is a sealed chamber, so it's like drilling a small hole in a tennis ball and trying to breathe through it. The negative pressure *will* pull liquid through the hole in limited quantities, though (as seen by the little bubbles that come out after drawing hard on it.
If there was a hole in the outside of the tank, juice would, theoretically, flow right through the hole in the carto and out the bottom. Same goes for whether the tank is sealed against the carto properly. Any gap would let air in and send liquid pouring into the carto. On that note, it would let liquid out too, though....
I dunno. My bet is my hardware. I don't have another tank to try it out on that's store bought and I can't really be objective about this on a homebrew franken-tank that I've been known to create.

I was thinking about this after I wrote it and realized I was forgetting about the center tube.
I mean, I can take a reg carto and fill the hell out of it (within reason) and it still works fine so supplying the carto with juice from another source shouldn't affect it or make it flood.
Yeah, I just don't get why I have so many problems with cartos and tanks.

 

[cnhauf]

I've been using the CCV Resurrector 1.7ohm single coil shorties in my 3mil J-Tanks and haven't run into any flooding issues.
These Resurrectors really rock on my Provari set at 3.7v using a 50/50 mix.
Took my vaping to a whole new level !!
One problem I'm seeing on a few of them is after a few hits I notice reduced vapor and an off taste.
I've found when I push/pull the tank up/down slightly over the carto I can see those air bubbles coming out of the 2 holes
punched with my saddle valve.
After doing this it's right back to a total "fog machine" and excellent taste again !
Doesn't do it on all the tanks/cartos though, just a few.
This one's got me stumped
Some I can fill and vape it till the tank is empty, others I have to push/pull after every couple of vapes.
Can't figure out why these are not letting the juice in like the others.
I'm using the exact same 50/50 mix on all my juices, two holes punched exactly the same, 3.7v on my vv.
Anyone run into this one before and have the magic solution ????

 

[icanhazvapor]

When i say flooded I'm referring to juice filling the air way to the point of unusable and sucking juice out the mouth piece. Juice coming out the actual connector or tank seal i would call leaking. in generally i wouldn't say leaking is an issue with these but yeah i did have a minor amount of fluid in the connector once the tank carto was totally flooded, but again that's not an issue compared to an unusable carto.

I have noticed that laying one of those type of tanks on it's side for an extended period (a couple of hours) can often result in that behaviour. Incidentally, that "little drop" on the connector is usually just condensation from the vapor dropping back down the center tube... usually.

 

[motelgrim]

*update*
Ok so I got a 15 pack of cartos today and I was going to make one work in a tank come hell or high water. I cut it, filled it, forgot to actually fill the carto first tho and scorched the ....ing thing.
Cut another, filled it, jammed it in a tank and filled the tank (might I also add that I got an order of Clear Water from LJ's E-Smokes and its the BEST).
Vaping perfection.

So far so good. I'm curious to see how long it lasts

 

[icanhazvapor]

*update*
forgot to actually fill the carto first tho and scorched the ....ing thing.

I hate that. I've gotten in the habit of actually filling the carto when I take it out of the packaging, before I even place it in the tank.
I'm glad it's working for you so far this time around though.