I use both Joye and SLB 510 attys. When you get through tinkering with them, stuffing the carts wrong, messing them up with cleaning, and using poor e-juice, you suddenly discover they last for months... not days, not weeks, but months.
It's okay though. Humans are naturally curious and like to tinker. It's how we learn the hard way, and many times the hard way gives the best lesson.
My initial starter kit 2 years ago was $150.00 for just one battery and one atomizer. So I was thinking, "This is expensive hardware, so I'm going to do everything I can to take care of it and make it last longer." - Which was a big mistake. I wound up doing overkill babying and pampering, which led to atty death in 2 weeks.
With practice comes experience. With experience comes modding. With modding comes vaporing bliss. In that order, and do not jump around.
My atty life record is 9 months. Everything I did to one atty, I purposely did NOT do to another, just to see what the differences are and what happens to them. This is what I have learned...
1. Never clean atomizers with anything foreign to the atomizer. In other words, If it's not e-juice or PG, then don't put it in the atty!
2. Under no circumstances should you ever let your atty go dry. You do NOT drain them. You can flush them with e-juice or PG, but never drain them dry.
3. Never restuff carts with anything foreign to the cart. You should only use 100% premium polyester fiberfill that doesn't have any flame ......ants added to it. If you can't find that, or have trouble making handmade filler with it, then your second choice should be the Fluval Polyester Aquarium Filter Pads (they are easier to handle). Basically, if the filler is not white, not made of polyester, and has flame ......ants in it, then DON'T put it in the cart. And, always replace the filler after the 5th refill has been used. Trust me on that. You can thank me later.
4. Never put plastic straws in the carts. Since you don't know exactly which type of plasticizer process is being used to make it, they need to stay as far away from e-liquid as possible. Not because of health concerns, but because different plastics react differently to heat and e-liquid. E-liquid can easily strip the first few layers off the plastic straw and into the coil. While you're vaping the fumes it's also corroding the coil. It took me 2 quick dying attys to realize what was going on. I soon learned how to correctly stuff my cart without using a straw. Practice makes perfect.
5. Never pull out the wick fibers from the coil unless you're absolutely sure the atty is about to die. When the atty seems "dead" but still heats up, then, and only then, should you pull out the wick fibers from the coil. This will restore the atty and give you plenty of time to order more atty's.
On a side note, however, if you want to pull the supplemental wick fibers found on some 510 bridges that can cause excessive clogging due to using VG-based liquids, that's okay. BUT, you have to do it before you fire up the atty the first time. I found that out the hard way when I first stumbled upon the new 510 breeds. If you're using mostly a PG-based, or 20% Reduced PG liquid, then this is not that big of an issue. But remember when it comes to restoring an atty later, those extra fibers will just get in the way. You'll just have to weigh the good with the bad and make a personal preference of your own. My biggest concern about them is their effects on air flow and atty life, so I pull those 'wick'ed b@st@rds!
6. Lithium Ion batteries don't suffer from a "memory effect" under reasonable usage limits, BUT high drain usages (such as atomizers) can and will weaken the battery sooner than you might expect (some worse than others, depends on who makes them). As they loose their amperage capacity you will notice your e-cig doesn't give such a great vape anymore. This is because the protection circuit is not identifying the threshold limits correctly. It's NOT that they don't need an occasional refresh, it's should be stated you can't refresh Li-Ion batteries that have a built-in safety protection circuit. And, because of this, a charger has difficulty giving the Li-Ion battery a full recharge. Then when you try to use the battery you notice your atty kills it much faster and way before you ever reach the 300th cycle the battery is suppose to be good for. I've seen battery charge deterioration near cycle 40! - This is why you should invest in 2 other items... 1) a third party Li-Ion charger you can ONLY plug into a wall outlet, and 2) a passthru power supply you can plug into a wall outlet so you can give your batteries a break. To get a power supply without having to mod your own, simply combine a USB passthru device with a 5v 2 amp (2000 mah) USB power supply. - One more thing about e-cig batteries... don't settle for automatic batteries alone. Always get a few manual push button batteries too! You get more precise control with them and you can get more charge cycles out of them. How is that so?... It's because you can "refresh" (more like a reset) the battery using the LED and push button. I might need to explain this a little more... Okay, here it goes, let's say you noticed a significant performance hit on the manual battery and it's dying too soon. The protection circuit disables the battery and you can't activate the LED anymore unless you recharge it, so you can't do any resetting, right?... WRONG!... All you have to do is reinitialize the protection circuit and run a low power drain. Connect the battery to your charger, let the LED blink, then immediately disconnect the battery. Wait 3 seconds and notice you can now press the button and make the LED light up again. DO NOT connect an atty to the battery and try to use it, that will only cause the protection circuit to disable the battery again. What you do is take a piece of scotch tape and wrap it around the battery tightly so the tape will push the button in. Watch as the LED lights up for a few seconds (10 seconds on my 510 bat), then fades, then immediately lights up again. The battery will continue to run this cycle until the low power drain is complete and then blinks at the TRUE low volt threshold limit the battery is fully capable of. When the light is completely out (could take over an hour), take off the tape and connect the battery to your best charger. 4 hours later check your battery and make sure it's fully charged (usually a solid green light, might have a quick 1/4 of a second burst of red on some chargers, but it is charged). You have now recalibrated the protection circuit and the battery is ready to use. The battery will last longer this time. You should do the reset again after the next 20 to 25 regular charge/discharge cycles and thereafter until the life of the battery is completely exhausted... So the next time someone asks, "Can you really get 300+ cycles out of a 510 e-cig battery?", you can say, "Yep, with a manual battery you can."
7. Many poor vaping experiences are caused by poorly manufactured e-juice. The worst of the worst is VG based liquids that don't have any PG in them. If you're one of the unlucky ones that can't use PG due to strange allergic reactions (which I still doubt has any truth to it), then I'm sorry for your loss. You'll just have to experiment with other recipes and find one that doesn't destroy your atty. If you're an ultra-light to light vaper, then you might want to try a KR808-D1. They use quick disposable cartomizers and you can refill them up to 5 times, if you want to. VG based liquids work fine in those because the coil is made of cheaper material and you're going to throw them away more often anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Automatic batteries work best with the KR808. You can make manual battery adapter mods work with them, but the air flow sucks even worse when you do that.
Anyway, back to e-juice... PG is the magic solution that keeps an atty going strong. It cleans, it conditions, has a thinner composition, generates fog like an e-cig was designed to do, and doesn't invade other peoples airspace in a restaurant. The closest I ever go to VG is when it's being used to slightly sweeten a recipe (1% or less). I hate VG! It smells like burnt grease and gums up my attys. I would rather use straight glycerol than the VG version. The only true benefit VG has is it's cheaper for the garage chemist to use so he can make a higher profit. And I've noticed this little "VG is better and safer to use" crap has taken off like a rocket, it's just a gimmick to get your extra bucks, plus it kills your atty so you'll have to buy more of them more often. So, with all that in mind, it's best to get premium grade e-liquid from a reputable business that offers both PG and RPG formulas, are FDA registered, and really cares about safety. They present their products with professional packaging. When you taste the liquid you should be able to taste the pride and integrity in there too. They will post all of their ingredients and work hard to serve you. Yes, it will cost more, but it will be worth every penny of it. Find those people and you'll have a winner!
