I've read that it's not good to vape a cartomizer dry, but how do you know when to stop?
How do you know when its time to refill cartomizers?
- Thread starter kathie
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Kathie if you have been steady vaping for an hour or two and you notice less vapor and taste....it's time to stop. Once you get to the point it tastes bad, you've burned up your carto. Best to just top off with a few drops every hour or so before you notice any difference.
when i started vaping, i dried them up....all the way to burning the filler. (just like when i smoked...all the way down to the filter!) had to learn that one the hard way. now i stop when the flavor drops and you get that sudden change in flavor. some people call it a marshmallow taste. i think it just tastes VERY artificial.
but today i picked up a spent cartomizer from a few weeks ago to refill it. i put a battery on it since i was changing flavors. i thought i had vaped it down to next to nothing, but i killed a fresh battery trying to finish that one! i spent about 2 hours of HEAVY vaping. it acted like a brand new cart! crazy.
but today i picked up a spent cartomizer from a few weeks ago to refill it. i put a battery on it since i was changing flavors. i thought i had vaped it down to next to nothing, but i killed a fresh battery trying to finish that one! i spent about 2 hours of HEAVY vaping. it acted like a brand new cart! crazy.
I made a serious mistake about a week ago. I didn't notice that the carto was dry, it was still prodicing good vapor. I took two very long vapes. I had a burnt plastic toxic waste taste for almost a full day. It even seemed to be in my lungs. It was so bad it even woke me up a few times that night. No amount of tooth brushing or Listerine spray could remove it. I actually thought about never vaping again, it was that awful.
I am now extremely careful. If in any doubt whatsoever, I top it off. I also carefully inspect any cartos before I refill them. Any sign of burning, I throw it out.
I also had another "experience" yesterday. It was a prefilled carto. I screwed it onto my PV, and took a vape. Got a mouthful of juice. Not pleasant, but nothing like burning the heck out of a carto, which was indescribably awful. Now I blow through every carto, not just the ones I've refilled. After I cleared that carto, (and the amount of juice that came out was amazing) I tried to vape it. Must have been defective, because I could not get a good draw on it. Tossed it, and was disappointed, it was from a sampler pack and a flavor I really wanted to try.
If you take long hard heavy vapes, be sure the carto is not dry. Trust me...
I am now extremely careful. If in any doubt whatsoever, I top it off. I also carefully inspect any cartos before I refill them. Any sign of burning, I throw it out.
I also had another "experience" yesterday. It was a prefilled carto. I screwed it onto my PV, and took a vape. Got a mouthful of juice. Not pleasant, but nothing like burning the heck out of a carto, which was indescribably awful. Now I blow through every carto, not just the ones I've refilled. After I cleared that carto, (and the amount of juice that came out was amazing) I tried to vape it. Must have been defective, because I could not get a good draw on it. Tossed it, and was disappointed, it was from a sampler pack and a flavor I really wanted to try.
If you take long hard heavy vapes, be sure the carto is not dry. Trust me...
I vaped that carto for a day and a half but when I put maybe 6 or 8 drops in, a whole bunch came out of the bottom. So maybe I did it too soon?
probably not..most likely you got some in the tube in the center. Alway tilt your carto a bit to aviod the hole in the middle. Alsao give your carto a light blow from the mouth end into a tissue. Saves you from the dreaded mouthfull of juice! LOL
More than likely your carto was already burned up and when you went to refill it the juice pooled up in the polyfill, seaped through the wicking material and wick tube then went straight out the air tube.
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Just a thought as I have had this happen to me...I had a coffee cart that I thought was close to burnt but decided to top it off and keep vaping it...halfway through the cart I noticed it tasted "funny" so I spun out the juice and took the cart apart only to find the poly was burnt to hell and back....just for fun i lit the poly on fire to see how it burned and after seeing and smelling that I never let my carts get anywhere near dry as I'm sure a burnt cart will produce vapor if covered up with a strong enough flavor but at the same time your vaping burnt poly fill...yuck
This is really my one and only concern with the safety of vaping. I don't beleive there is a single health risk (of course excepting the nicotine issue) with them at all, but man, vaping plastic sure seemed like toxic armegedon to me. I don't ever want to experience that gain. I love vaping, I think it may have saved my life, it certainly has improved it in too many ways to list, but vaping an empty carto... I may be tossing cartos or refilling them with an unmatched flavor, but I am very cautious about this now.
The upside is that sometimes refilling a carto with another flavor before it's empty results in something unique, and often very tastey. I top off very often now.
I just started using carto's and I love them... but Im noticing that the top seems to get dry pretty quick... maybe 15 minutes of vaping and it looks bone dry... but it still tastes ok. Im parinoid so I top off as soon as it looks dry with about 6 drops... can I wait longer? I want to make these last as long as possible!
Yes....you can absolutely wait longer. The Juice will always settle on the bottom so it's perfectly natural for the top of the polyfill material to appear dry after only a minute of vaping. Cartomizers on average hold 25 drops or 1 ml, if you are taking 2-3 draws within 5 minutes or so you will typically need to top off after 2-2.5 hours. This can vary a little bit depending on what type of Cartomizer you are using and if you are using a higher voltage device like a passthrough. Even this voltage difference may only reduce the time needed to top-off by 30 minutes to prevent it from being burnt.
I would say that you should experiment a little even at the risk of burning up a Cartomizer. Then you'll know what is right for your vaping style. Here is some info that might be helpful with a detailed cut away of Cartomizer for you to see how they work.
YouTube - Vapor4life Tips, Tricks & Fixes for Cartomizers (burnt cartomizers....inner workings of a cartomizer...2:13 mark)
Hope that helps.....
I would say that you should experiment a little even at the risk of burning up a Cartomizer. Then you'll know what is right for your vaping style. Here is some info that might be helpful with a detailed cut away of Cartomizer for you to see how they work.
YouTube - Vapor4life Tips, Tricks & Fixes for Cartomizers (burnt cartomizers....inner workings of a cartomizer...2:13 mark)
Hope that helps.....
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When I start feeling a little panicky, which is about 30 min to and 1 hour of steady vaping is when I refill! I guess it is my woman gut instinct!
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