I'm sure I'll take some friendly fire on this, but I am a "battery end" filler on both my GC and regular 808 cartomizers. I have been using both types for quite a while now and my batteries seem to last as long as anyone else's. I'm careful in dripping into the battery hole and I make sure I dry off any excess with tissue and I keep them in my pocket with LED up when not in use. Flame at will....
Taste wise, I think the other posters have nailed it. Flavor and vapor are much "milder" with the GC's although sometimes almost too much. Thats why I find myself switching back and forth.
Cart quality and refill-wise, huge difference. Quality Control on the GC's seems much more consistent. The cartomizers on GC last a little longer before refilling. On refills, I can get 10-20 drops easily into the GC. With regular 808's it is much more hit and miss. Sometimes can't get more than 5 or 6 drops in with pooling or run-through problems, depending on the qc of that particular cart.
Hope this helps.
I have only two "flames" for the above statements:
1: Battery end dripping on a GC entails dripping over and past the atomizer (its very like a 901) and could shorten atomizer life..as we all know drowning a 901 once too many times means its cleaning time, and cleaning an assembled GC cartomizer seems to be a technical nightmare. The juice has a long drive between battery hole and it's *intended* target..the filler batting. I'm impressed and amazed you get any of it where you want it with a GC cartomizer. I do see that you could do a "dripping method" with a GC..which would entail dripping a couple or 3 drops, vapin them away, then doing again like with a 901..but that kinda defeats the purpose of the cartomizer.
Battery end dripping for a VK cartomizer suffers some of the same setbacks, in that you're saturating the atomizer on your way to the batting, and that the liquid has to do a 180 degree turn to achieve it's intended target of the batting. This would apparently entail dripping, then inverting, then dripping, then inverting, to fully fill a cart...
This brings us to the second issue:
Issue number 2:
In either case, the VK or the GC cartomizer..it is utterly impossible to fill a cart completely without excess from the battery end. IE, you will either guess low and underfill, or guess high and over fill. You can't see what you're doing.
The danger of underfilling is pretty limited, but in the VK cart, if only the top of the batting is moist and the lower area is dry (and as such the atty in that area is dry) it can burn prematurely. Burnt atty is the "end of life" declaration of a cartomizer of the VK variety.
Overfilling runs risks of battery leakage which spells end of life of a battery..somewhat more expensive than a cartomizer. This can be resolved by letting the cartomizer drain and/or blowing through it, with a VK cartomizer. I see no really reasonable solution with a GC other than letting it stand battery end down and hope the excess drains.
Blowing wastes juice, the quantity dependant on how accurate your *guess* was on cart fullness/capacity and how much actually achieved its target.
Letting it stand exposes the juice to air, which does no favors for the juice flavor, and can thicken it (evaporation) resulting in premature cartomizer failure (thicker liquid refuses to wick properly)
Other than the few above mentioned issues, i'm all for battery end dripping...although the above issues prevent me from doing it, ever.
As always; Your mileage may vary.
