How did I ruin my cartomizers ?

[willcar]

I'm new to ECF, but I've been vaping since Aug 2011... after smoking tobacco for 53 years.

I pretty quickly graduated from cigarette-style SmokeStiks to Madvapes' Roughstack v2.... and from the common 3.2 ohm cartomizers to SmokeTech's 1.7 ohms. I'm a happy vaper now.

I also have learned how to clean cartomizers by boiling them and refilling them with e-liquid. I've had really good luck with LiquidXpress' products.

But recently, I boiled a batch of (about 16) SmokeTech 1.7 ohms cartomizers; and when I refilled them, NONE of them worked! No visible vapor... no discernable heat. That makes me think the the metal material somehow failed to heat up. I'm wondering if I left them in the boiling pot too long... I thought I took them out after 5 minutes, but I am not entirely confident of that.

I'm also wondering if maybe I overfilled them. I usually fill them with 30 drops of liquid from a 14 guage needle... smaller drops than using a regular bottle dropper. Yesterday I repeated the process with some brand new cartomizers, and they work like a charm.

I would love to read any experiences other members of the forum have had along this line.

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[Anthony-Usa_OH]

How long did you let them dry out? it can take up to 24 hours.

 

[D. Waterhouse]

Get a dgital muti-meter and check the ohm reading on them, it's the first thing to check when trouble-shooting attie and cartos.

 

[ambition]

How long did you let them dry out? it can take up to 24 hours.

This is most likely it.

I dry mine in the oven. Letting them sit hasn't worked for me so far.

 

[Iffy]

Sounds like they're not completely dried.

 

[dlsw]

Congrats on quitting!!

 

[Anthony-Usa_OH]

After flushing them out and blowing the excess out by mouth I let them sit on top of a heater or a warm place for 10-12 hours. If there is water in them they wont appear to be producing vapor until all of the water is dry.

 

[rolandpibb]

Never boil cartos. Melts the plastic filler. Fill with a needle, keep wet, toss them when they start failing. I routinely get 21-30mls run thru the 1.7s before I toss.

 

[elfstone]

I don't know, I did boil one batch of cartos and it worked well. Two out of 10 didn't work right anymore, and the rest kinda tasted funky, or maybe I imagined it. Maybe something did melt, I don't know. But I'm not boiling them anymore - they're cheap enough to use and toss, as I get ~1 week of use out of one.

 

[ambition]

Never boil cartos. Melts the plastic filler. Fill with a needle, keep wet, toss them when they start failing. I routinely get 21-30mls run thru the 1.7s before I toss.

Have to disagree with that.
I boil standard boges all the time and they last almost forever. They're really hard to kill.

Maybe your water boils hotter than mine.

 

[hairball]

You're not getting vapor because they haven't completely dried out. A food dehydrator works good if you don't want to use your oven.

 

[Sundrinkr]

The vapor pressure shouldn't be that much different as to cause your water to boil at a much lower temperature. Based on your elevation your water should generally be boiling 98 degrees or higher, but that is also dependent upon atmospheric pressure changes. I'd either chalk it up to a wet carto or a destroyed carto from the boiling. I don't boil mine anymore because they flat out suck compared to opening up a new carto. They are so cheap I just toss mine and get a new one. I fill mine using the condom method which is much faster than the needle method.

 

[Grung62]

Yea, I have to agree - any coil with that has H2O near it will produce little to no vaperr - now I don't boil mine I use a large syrnge and very hot water and rinse them. Then I rinse again with everclear, then I rinse twice more with very hot water. I blow out any remaining water from the connection end and then drip three drops of pure pg down the tube to stablize the coil/coils. I dry mine for 72 hours, take an ohm meter to them, to insure they are within spec. This seems to work for me. I lose very few and they seem to be very close to new. But like other have stated, they are very cheap.

 

[willcar]

Thanks, Grung... your reply is very helpful... I had already decided to stop boiling them...and to soak them in hot water instead. Appreciate your help. willcar

 

[sailorman]

Never boil cartos. Melts the plastic filler. Fill with a needle, keep wet, toss them when they start failing. I routinely get 21-30mls run thru the 1.7s before I toss.

What???? I've boiled hundreds of cartos, many more than once, and never had any problem with the filler melting. It's polyester and won't melt in boiling water no matter how long you boil them. I used to do multiple boils of 15 minutes each. If you get melted filler, it's because you ran a carto too dry. It's best to raise them off the bottom of the pot or moderate the burner, since the bottom of the pot is hotter than the water.

That said, I rarely bother cleaning them at all anymore.

 

[zoiDman]

When I used Filler Type Cartos I would dry them by Wedging them in the Grille of this Vortex Room Fan I have. The fan is on most of the time so it works out well.