How To Clean and Rebuild The Gogo Cartomizer

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deadlands

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Just remove the filler carefully from a used carto(easy to do if the filler is completely wet). Keep the center tube in place. Now drip down the side of it 2 or 3 drops. You should be good to go. I cut my gocart wall down to one inch just for convenience sake and looks but you can leave it the full length.

Awesome. Works great! However, I don't get a cherry glow after dry burns. I wash the cart under hot water for 5 minutes or so. Blow the cart as dry as can be and let it sit for awhile to dry. Then I try the dry burns 8-10 times and never see cherry glow. But the cart still vapes. Go figure.
 

mohawkx

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Awesome. Works great! However, I don't get a cherry glow after dry burns. I wash the cart under hot water for 5 minutes or so. Blow the cart as dry as can be and let it sit for awhile to dry. Then I try the dry burns 8-10 times and never see cherry glow. But the cart still vapes. Go figure.

Yeah, the gocarts are like pick-up trucks. Very heavy duty.
 

Major

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If you feel comfy with doing so, the same heat that you use to dry burn with will also soften the glue on the tube enough to allow it's removal. It is tricky and may render the carto usesless for any purposes if you apply the heat and are too aggressive pulling on the tube.

If you have a couple to risk though, as you can see from the photo on the previous page of this thread that once the tube is removed (if you decide to take that risk), you will be able to see the coil and dry burn, rinse and repeat as needed until the coil and the wick are almost pristine. :)
 

Memphis Weirdo

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Hey, guys. I'm eating this thread up, and greatly appreciate your advise and info. I have a couple of questions, but first let me throw out my overall situation.

I just got a Go-Go as my 1st e-cig. When I fired it up with a pre-filled cart, it was nastier than I could ever possibly describe. I seriously thought I had been poisoned... coughing up a lung, horrible chemical after-taste for the rest of the day, somewhat nauseous. All 5 of my pre-filled carts gave the same effect. I tried holding the vapor in my mouth for a while before taking it in, but that didn't help. I've tried other people's e-cigs before and loved it, but this was beyond vile.

Since there seemed to possibly be a bit of burning taste in the nasty chemical vapor, I decided to take one of the carts apart in the name of science. I found no charring on anything, so I guess the pre-fill liquid was probably the culprit. Maybe they just mis-read "menthol" as "mustard gas".

Obviously, I am carefully reading this thread to learn how to clean the mustard gas out of my 4 remaining carts, so I can finally begin an anticipated nice long career of vaping.

Anyhow, since I completely dissected a cart (including using a pipe-cutter to cut the case off near the base), at least I now know how they are laid out, and the principle of how they work. So, my questions:

1. What is this "glue" on the case that I keep reading about? I don't see any glue anywhere.

2. When the stuffing is out of the cart, and you want to do a direct dripping, where do you drip the drops? ...down the inside of the outer metal case? ...or, down the outside of the flexible inner tube? Also, like a previous poster asked, what will stop the drops from just draining out of the center hole in the bottom onto the battery terminal? I just don't understand how the liquid will get onto the wick in the coil. Doesn't the liquid need to actually touch the coil in order to vaporize? I don't get it.
 

Major

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Welcome to the Nation Memphis! I usually order pre-fills myself but only the USA Mix and have been fortunate to not have had the bad experience you describe. Since they are pre-fills, unless someone has started selling them on the sly, those came from CigEasy, correct? If so, I would recommend sending an email to ssv2@cigeasy.com . SS has been involved from state-side with many of the technical issues and contact with the maker, Kanger on improvements. Be sure you reference your order number or Customer ID number in the subject title.

As to your questions, there is glue: (inside a GO-GO carto with tube removed)

gogodripper.jpg


and then there is GLUE: (inside an Echo cart - photo courtesy of sierrabravo)

IMAG0309.jpg


Both ways work but the GO-GO gets it done with a smaller amount. Despite it looking like there is no glue in the first picture, the coil is solidly attached from the factory. That is my dripper.

As to 2. and how do you prevent the juice from going out the hole in the bottom, I use a couple of different ways. The easiest is to just angle the carto and drip a couple of drops down the side. You will see where the drops slide down to and rotate it to the coil. But Mohawkz has a better way and when I am not lazy, I use that.

Take a small piece of Fluval (a material used and bought for cleaning aquarium tanks that many have used as replacement filler material on various cartos) and put it near the base of the tube near the coil proper. Want to switch juices? Just use another fresh piece of Fluval after removing the other piece.

That allows the same drops in my lazy way to stay in the tube but still be absorbed by the coil's wick. As I'm sure you have seen already, Mohawkz is ingenious with his methods and I admit to stealing everyone he is willing to share with us! :laugh: I don't recall how he said to place the Fluval properly but I have success just pushing it down the tube and positioning as mentioned.

If I am wrong as to the best way, Mohawkz will let us know. He has tried and proven all the various tips and rebuild methods he has given us. I have gotten so lazy I just wait if I have an idea on how to do something as Mohawkz will share a more efficient and personally proven method of just about anything relating to the large capacity, horizontal coil family of cartos. :thumb:
 
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deadlands

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2. When the stuffing is out of the cart, and you want to do a direct dripping, where do you drip the drops? ...down the inside of the outer metal case? ...or, down the outside of the flexible inner tube? Also, like a previous poster asked, what will stop the drops from just draining out of the center hole in the bottom onto the battery terminal? I just don't understand how the liquid will get onto the wick in the coil. Doesn't the liquid need to actually touch the coil in order to vaporize? I don't get it.

I just drip 4-5 drops down the side of the cart while rotating it for a minute or two to allow the juice to spread along the bottom. I haven't had any juice drip out and I get a good 8-10 vapes.
 

Memphis Weirdo

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OK, I want to make a dripper, but I still have a few questions that I hope the kind experts can answer.

1. Center Tube - Remove it, or not? Seems that different people are saying different things. If it does need to be removed, is there anything to it, other than just pulling it loose with the needlenose plyers?

2. Getting juice to the coil - Once the polyfill and cotton batting are removed, how does the juice get to the wicking material wrapped inside the coil? The wicking material inside the coil doesn't touch the sides nor the bottom of the chamber, so something must touch that material in order to transmit the juice from the bottom of the chamber to the coil, right? How would that happen if the polyfill/stuffing is gone? I don't get it. Should I cut off a small piece of the cleaned polyfill or cotton batting and wedge it down at the bottom of the chamber, between the side wall and the end of the coil's wicking material? As you can probably tell, I'm not seeing a very clear picture.

3. Driptip - What make/model's driptip will fit on a Go-Go cartomizer? Mohawkx, could you tell me where you got the one pictured in post #4 of this thread?
 

mohawkx

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OK, I want to make a dripper, but I still have a few questions that I hope the kind experts can answer.

1. Center Tube - Remove it, or not? Seems that different people are saying different things. If it does need to be removed, is there anything to it, other than just pulling it loose with the needlenose plyers?

2. Getting juice to the coil - Once the polyfill and cotton batting are removed, how does the juice get to the wicking material wrapped inside the coil? The wicking material inside the coil doesn't touch the sides nor the bottom of the chamber, so something must touch that material in order to transmit the juice from the bottom of the chamber to the coil, right? How would that happen if the polyfill/stuffing is gone? I don't get it. Should I cut off a small piece of the cleaned polyfill or cotton batting and wedge it down at the bottom of the chamber, between the side wall and the end of the coil's wicking material? As you can probably tell, I'm not seeing a very clear picture.

3. Driptip - What make/model's driptip will fit on a Go-Go cartomizer? Mohawkx, could you tell me where you got the one pictured in post #4 of this thread?

Dripping works just fine with the center tube left in place. Some people remove it, some don't. Just know that there is a chance that you will pull out the coil when you remove the center tube. I would recommend leaving it in.

Seems to wick fine just by dripping some juice down the inside edge of the empty carto, similar to pouring a beer into a glass. I use fluval but you can use a peice of old filler and just tuck it around the wick and coil. Why don't you fiddle around with different methods and tell us what worked best for you. I do both. If I'm testing a DIY juice and I want to do a quick drip and change, I just drip into an empty carto. If I want to test a juice for an hour or two for a better taste test, I pack a little filler around the base of the carto so I can drip 6-8 drops at a time for a longer test.

The drip tip that is in the picture is from Liberty Flights. It is a Delrin Ego drip tip for an atty Type A. Cost is 1.59 each when the 20% off is clicked. Here is a link.
Mods - Drip Tips

Here is an example of how I recently used the gocarts for dripping.

I was mixing some Virginia tobacco juice with some menthol and cinnamon. The ratio of the different juices has to be just right for the flavor I was looking for. I mixed up a little juice to the ratio I thought was right and dripped 2 drops in a blank gogo carto. I tested it and thought it was too overpowering with cinnamon. I added some menthol and dripped a couple more drops to test. I made some more adjustments and tested each time. finally I thought I had my flavor and I added a small piece of filler around the base of the carto to do an extended test of the flavor. After an hour or so of vaping it I decided I didn't like the mix and it needed more tobacco flavor. I adjusted the mix and removed the small piece of filler at the bottom of the carto and inserted a fresh piece and went to extended testing again with 8 drops of my new mix. This time it worked well and I filled up a fresh new gogo carto with 3 ml of my new juice and was good to go. I removed the small piece of filler in the drip carto and cleaned it under hot tap water and put it away for next time.
The point is, you can experiment with these cartos and if you don't like the results you can reverse what you've done and try something else. don't be afraid to experiment. And let us all know how it comes out so we can increase our store of knowledge on these horizontal coil cartos. Good luck and happy vaping. The gogo is a great PV.
 
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Memphis Weirdo

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Thanks for the response to my dripper questions, Mohawkx.

Back to the central issue of re-building dead cartomizers...

It seems to me that these problems with re-packing the dead Go-carts could be easily solved if the base of the cart (with coil and center tube attached) could be removed from the outer cylinder/case. Then, after cleaning and dry-burning (with the added ability to closely eyeball every aspect), the cotton batting and polyfill could be re-wrapped onto the center tube exactly as needed and easily slid back into the case.

Unfortunately, since the base and the outer cylinder are fused together, it is probably impossible to remove the base without destroying it and/or the case.

BUT... what if the case was cleanly cut with a tube cutter right at the top of the base?

The upper part of the outer case should then slide right off the wrapped polyfill (shove the innards through and out with the large McDonald's straw). You would then be able to see exactly how the wrapping was originally placed. After unwrapping the materials, cleaning them and doing the dry burn, you could re-wrap the batting and polyfill exactly as it was originally, and then slide or twist the outer case section back over the wrapped material toward the base.

The only thing left would be to figure out a way to re-attach the 2 sections of the case to each other. The joint would only need to be air and water tight, and it should be a temporary re-attachment so that it could be removed again the next time the cart needs to be re-built. There should be no real need to protect it from strong physical stress, since the cart could be screwed onto the battery by gripping the cart at the bottom of the base. Maybe a small strip of Gorilla tape would do the trick.

Right now, I only have one bad Go-cart, and I'm going to try making a dripper out of that one, but as soon as I have another dead cart I'll try this experiment and report back.

I'm just brainstorming, so if anyone sees any glaring flaws in my logic, please shout out and save me some wasted effort.
 

mohawkx

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Well....I was taking apart a GO-GO carto last night and they straw ripped out!
Can I use this for dripping or do I need to trash it? Thanks!
Good thing it wasn't my only carto.

Try dry burning it to see if the coil still lights up. If it does, then yes, you can use it for dripping. You can also Pack a small piece of filler around the coil to hold the juice.

If you completely soak the carto in a bowl of water prior to trying to remove the filler the filler will slide out easily while still leaving the center tube intact.
 

Sandfury

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Mohawkx, Thanks for posting these instructions. I recently fell off the e-cig wagon and went back to smoking (3 weeks total). My reasoning was because I couldn't taste anything I put in my Go-Go, My Ego with BOGE Cartos, Or my Ego-T. I would clean them in my ultra sonic cleaner and let them dry. I just could not get any taste out of them. Your instructions have inspired me to clean out and completely reassemble my go-go carts in hopes of rekindling the taste I once loved and to get back off this smoking habit.

One random question though, would it be possible to completely replace the filler with Fluval ?

Thanks,
~Sandfury
 

radiated1

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yes it is. I have igo not gogo but same insides. I don't even try to clean the filler. I remove filler, ultra sonic clean for 15 min in vodka, rinse with water, dry burn until cherry red. rinse again with water, let dry and fill with fluval using straw method. They vape just like new. I use tasty vaper liquids and i like sweet stuff, I can usually only get 6 ml thru it before it looses flavor due to the liquid I use. good luck.
Mohawkx, Thanks for posting these instructions. I recently fell off the e-cig wagon and went back to smoking (3 weeks total). My reasoning was because I couldn't taste anything I put in my Go-Go, My Ego with BOGE Cartos, Or my Ego-T. I would clean them in my ultra sonic cleaner and let them dry. I just could not get any taste out of them. Your instructions have inspired me to clean out and completely reassemble my go-go carts in hopes of rekindling the taste I once loved and to get back off this smoking habit.

One random question though, would it be possible to completely replace the filler with Fluval ?

Thanks,
~Sandfury
 

mohawkx

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Mohawkx, Thanks for posting these instructions. I recently fell off the e-cig wagon and went back to smoking (3 weeks total). My reasoning was because I couldn't taste anything I put in my Go-Go, My Ego with BOGE Cartos, Or my Ego-T. I would clean them in my ultra sonic cleaner and let them dry. I just could not get any taste out of them. Your instructions have inspired me to clean out and completely reassemble my go-go carts in hopes of rekindling the taste I once loved and to get back off this smoking habit.

One random question though, would it be possible to completely replace the filler with Fluval ?

Thanks,
~Sandfury

Yes, Fluval works very good. You have to experiment with it to determine the density you pack it in the carto depending on the juice you use. You never get as much juice in the fluval packed one as you would in a factory filler carto but it works well. I pack the fluval tight for thin juices and looser for thick, sweet juices. Actually works better than factory filler for some juices. You'll have to experiment a little. Cut some, insert it and fill, if you don't like the results, pull it with a pair of needlenose and try a different piece. No reason you can't squeeze the juice into the new piece from the failed experiment. Fluval is cheap.

In a related note to your post, I've found that most of the loss of flavor concerning horizontal coil cartos is that the bottom of the filler where it meets the coil tends to shrink up and away from the coil with usage. I have made a habit of pushing the filler down when I top off my cartos and this seems to keep the flavor and overall vape fresh and strong longer. The whole concept is to keep the filler right at the bottom where the coil is to insure proper wicking. Some on this and other gogo threads have reported a loss of flavor/vapor/etc after only 3 to 5 days with the gocarts and the Igo/Echo and pushing the filler down with the big McDonald's straw restored the hit to full flavor and I haven't heard from them since.

You might also want to try dripping with one of those old gocarts using the method I described in the rebuild posts. That will for sure give you back some full flavor and a satisfying hit.
 
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GoodDog

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Be sure to buy the Fluval Water Polishing Pad and not the Fluval foam. I also found it easy to move the filler down the carto just using the soft whistle tip. I just push it in farther than I want it to be and then pull it back up. It works nicely to seat the filler closer to the coil and eliminates the need for a straw.
 

radiated1

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I have tried to push down on filler but my problem is not really loss of flavor like I said before. It gets really harsh for me. Maybe I need to lower nic? Anyway seems when I dry burn atty it's better. I do use mostly really sweet dark juice from tasty vapor. I just thought it was cause of that. but am open to other advise that would make them last longer than a day.
 

mohawkx

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I have tried to push down on filler but my problem is not really loss of flavor like I said before. It gets really harsh for me. Maybe I need to lower nic? Anyway seems when I dry burn atty it's better. I do use mostly really sweet dark juice from tasty vapor. I just thought it was cause of that. but am open to other advise that would make them last longer than a day.

Can't say for sure but you seem to be on the right track. For some juices, using fluval and doing regular dry burns and replacing filler with fluval may be the only method of maximizing the life of the cartos with the sweet, thick juices. The harsh taste is Probably the coil collecting residue and caramelizing up rapidly with the type of juice. Then you get the nasty, harsh taste of burnt, caramelized gunk on the coil, instead of the clean taste of the juice. Dry burn and fluval fill probably helps mitigate the degradation.
 
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Major

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I have tried to push down on filler but my problem is not really loss of flavor like I said before. It gets really harsh for me. Maybe I need to lower nic? Anyway seems when I dry burn atty it's better. I do use mostly really sweet dark juice from tasty vapor. I just thought it was cause of that. but am open to other advise that would make them last longer than a day.

I hear you man but my "go to" is Tasty Vapor Atomic Cinnacide. If I get 4-5 days of 4ml plus a day, I sit them aside in my "Need to be Mohawkz cleaned" bin. I think the only reason I am getting more days than you is I mix it with DK-Tab to cut out the harsh burn of the AC but the coils do gunk up pretty quickly and that's with a relatively clear juice.

I still say it's a win because I'm not smoking analogs or dipping Copenhagen. I'll take that any day of the week and twice on Sunday. :D
 
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