I thought I was getting the hang of vaping, I was wrong.

[GSmith]

Hello again ECF,

(on a Prodigy 3.1 (3.7v kit) with LR attys)

I feel like I'm embarrassing the crowd here by being a nincom when it comes to vaping. Its extremely weird because a few days ago things were going great, I was making custom mixtures and vaping like analogs were going out of style (the sooner the better for me). And now, I can't get anything good to take place.

The other day I was asking about dripping onto the atty with the drip tip, and all that day it was going great until eventually the hits were getting kind of stale and the drops weren't lasting like I thought they should. So I'd drip some more on and continue... but it just wasn't working for me. Then uh-oh I notice my atty is leaking... overfilled so I clean it out really well and start over.

Now with a freshly cleaned atty its back to like it was before... it taste burnt and nasty so I drip more and eventually its leaking again. The sweet spot seemed to just disappear, it went from burned to drowned. At this point I decide to abandon the driptip and wait until I'm more advanced for that activity and I go back to the empty carts.

Now I'm nearly passing out trying to get a good drag out of it. I switch batts and switch attys and its no luck. I feel like a complete 'tard to be perfectly honest it really is quite embarrassing. Weird that I have always been technically apt and could figure out new stuff on the fly quicker than most people... but this eCig... its like someone handed a caveman a power tool.

Now I'm noticing on my Prodigy... that going from nasty burned taste just 2 or 3 drops more... the atty leaks down in that top ring and starts to pool there. I've swapped from the LR to the SR attys and the results are about the same. I have some dual-coil lr cartos that I haven't tried but I'm afraid I'll screw them up.

All the while I've burned through about 10ml of juice and I haven't managed a good vape since yesterday. I'm almost ready to find the next meet and head to it so a pro could show me how to use my own equipment

 

[CBB]

When you are cleaning up leaking are you blowing the atomizer out? If you are just wiping the excess off and trying to vape a still flooded atomizer the draw will be a little stiffer and it won't produce as much vapor. Also, depending on your juices an atty can get clogged in as little as a few days to a week with some juices and will need to be cleaned. There are numerous ways of cleaning you can find videos no youtube demonstrating several ways to clean attys.

 

[Renzuli]

If your flooding the atty , it will leak , as you described . Depending on what juices , your vaping , or dripping , as is the case . may be a little heavy in the vg , content , or maybe even a real dark juice , say a tobacco , english toffee , that sort of juice . If that's the case , you may need to do a better job of cleaning your atty . Just rining it out , under hot water , is not enough .
You probably will have to soak it in some sort of alcohol , vodka , everclear , etc , for several hours , then rinse with hot water , then allow to thoroughly dry (overnight) So , go ahead and use your carto's . There is nothing wrong with your Prodigy .

 

[WomanOfHeart]

It sounds like you need to blow out your atty VERY well. Try putting a few drops of plain VG on the atty to get rid of the burnt taste. Dripping takes some practice, even for those of us who are technically apt. I didn't get dripping to work right for quite a few days, but I was determined not to give up!

Don't be afraid of those dual coils! Just fill one up and vape the hell out of it! If you got the clear types, then you can see how much juice is left and you'll never get a burnt taste. I love mine!

 

[GSmith]

The Juice I use is 50/50 unflavored and I've been mixing it with Coffee Tonic and a few menthol drops. So there is VG and a dark juice, that could be the clogging you're talking about. When I clean the atty I have been using hot water and then blow it out and let it dry for a few hours before I try to reactivate it.

I have not tried to clean it with alcohol and that might be the ticket, I have another brand new LR atty that I have not opened in addition to the cartos. I could switch to that while these are cleaning to see if I get that vaping feel like I was. I guess I never imagined it would be so difficult to enjoy a vape from 1 day to the next. I could be wrong but it seems like I do an unprecedented amount of maintenance as opposed to a lot of what I read.

 

[WomanOfHeart]

Once you get the hang of dripping, the maintenance factor will go down. I drip a lot of dark juice, so I doubt that you're clogging the atty. If you can blow through it, it isn't clogged. Just rinse them out in hot water, blow out the excess and let them dry overnight. I also discourage dry burning because this will just decrease the life span.

 

[dormouse]

Note - by "clean" I mean both soaking with all air bubbles out (submerged well and I use a tongs to tilt the atty to let out air bubbles), and also scooping the liquid through the atty.

I usually clean first with near-boiling water and then shake/blow out and soak in pure grain alcohol (not poison like iso). Next day I shake it out well and set it to dry. Then when you switch to a cleaned one, you gotta work at letting it WELL PRIMED because it is BONE DRY - like use not too thick a juice and WAIT for it to soak down there. Flooding is better than not enough with a clean dry atty.

But actually I rarely do any of that any more - I switched to Boge cartomizers and I am perfectly happy not screwing with attys. I now only use attys to test juices and to drip some juices that are higher VG than I put in my cartos. I get the best continued performance out of a carto with clear juices that have 20% or less VG. For my couple of 50/50 juices (FSUSA Hopscotch and Voodoo) I either drip on the atomizer with them once in a while or cut them very hard with a similar PG juice so I can use them in cartos without giving the carto a bad draw.

Re dark juices or any juices that leave flavoring sediment - I try to avoid them. Then clog up attys, they clog up cartos. I have wondered if it would help to run those sedimenty juices through a tea bag or a coffee filter... I adore FSUSA Cocoa but the sediment was clogging my carto stuffing. So I found a different juice.

 

[Susett]

Howdy GSmith..
I know exactly what you mean!
The longer I vape (about 4-5month now but only since may with ecf). So really I should say I vape since May cause before May I used the lil generic apollo ecig with prefilled fiter and wasnt happy with that. AFter I got to ECF I got with the program. I love to drip myself, but had a bit of prob with the Cartomizers and now just trying to get use to using carts lol ... On any given day I feel like a dunce when my equipment doesnt do what I think it should be doing lol

Anyway Im sure the brilliant folks here will have excellent suggestions and hopefully I find out what I do wrong myself
Susett

Hello again ECF,

(on a Prodigy 3.1 (3.7v kit) with LR attys)

I feel like I'm embarrassing the crowd here by being a nincom when it comes to vaping. Its extremely weird because a few days ago things were going great, I was making custom mixtures and vaping like analogs were going out of style (the sooner the better for me). And now, I can't get anything good to take place.

The other day I was asking about dripping onto the atty with the drip tip, and all that day it was going great until eventually the hits were getting kind of stale and the drops weren't lasting like I thought they should. So I'd drip some more on and continue... but it just wasn't working for me. Then uh-oh I notice my atty is leaking... overfilled so I clean it out really well and start over.

Now with a freshly cleaned atty its back to like it was before... it taste burnt and nasty so I drip more and eventually its leaking again. The sweet spot seemed to just disappear, it went from burned to drowned. At this point I decide to abandon the driptip and wait until I'm more advanced for that activity and I go back to the empty carts.

Now I'm nearly passing out trying to get a good drag out of it. I switch batts and switch attys and its no luck. I feel like a complete 'tard to be perfectly honest it really is quite embarrassing. Weird that I have always been technically apt and could figure out new stuff on the fly quicker than most people... but this eCig... its like someone handed a caveman a power tool.

Now I'm noticing on my Prodigy... that going from nasty burned taste just 2 or 3 drops more... the atty leaks down in that top ring and starts to pool there. I've swapped from the LR to the SR attys and the results are about the same. I have some dual-coil lr cartos that I haven't tried but I'm afraid I'll screw them up.

All the while I've burned through about 10ml of juice and I haven't managed a good vape since yesterday. I'm almost ready to find the next meet and head to it so a pro could show me how to use my own equipment

 

[GSmith]

Once you get the hang of dripping, the maintenance factor will go down. I drip a lot of dark juice, so I doubt that you're clogging the atty. If you can blow through it, it isn't clogged. Just rinse them out in hot water, blow out the excess and let them dry overnight. I also discourage dry burning because this will just decrease the life span.

I can blow through the attys easily, well not easily... its like a heart-attack waiting to happen lol but I can blow through them without there seeming to be any clogging. I've got a white cloth rag I've had at my desk to prevent the spilling etc onto my desk and its littered with all these dark coffee stains from the amount of times I've cleaned my atty in a week. I keep looking at all the juice I've wasted.

I haven't given up, I've got more toys and juice coming but I really wish I could find the zone to make everything just click right for me. Its this stuff that makes me REALLY want that cigarette and I know I'm on the verge... just right there waiting for it all to fall into place for me to turn that hit or miss vaping experience into a life changing event. But I'll be damned if its not frustrating as all hell.

I'm going to whip out the new LR atty and dry dripping again, very cautiously and carefully with this newly charged batt and see if yesterdays good feel comes back while I thoroughly clean out these other attys.

 

[Boodle]

I've heard it called a BVD (bad vape day). Nothing works right. I felt totally overwhelmed and couldn't smoke a cigarette because the taste would make me spew. I went to Walgreens and got nic gum, lol. I use the hot water with vinegar cleaning method in a sonic cleaner for badly gunked attys. Almost never have to do that anymore but it was a lifesaver that day. I wish you calm and a good vape.

 

[GSmith]

But actually I rarely do any of that any more - I switched to Boge cartomizers and I am perfectly happy not screwing with attys. I now only use attys to test juices and to drip some juices that are higher VG than I put in my cartos. I get the best continued performance out of a carto with clear juices that have 20% or less VG.

I have some DC LR Attys here... and I just ordered 10 cartos from Puresmoker (3 sr and 7 lr) they are the BOGE 510 because I think you recommended them in another thread of mine. I prefer the carto concept, I think that would be a dream for me if I could get it right because I like chain vaping for 3 or 5 minutes and then setting the thing down for an hour or so and picking it back up. I can't do this while dripping at least it didn't work for me.

 

[MissNikNic]

I could never get the whole dripping on an attie down :/ theres always a burnt taste, even with brand new ones. So I have just been using the cartos even though I liked the concept of dripping and getting a cleaner taste.
I hope it works out for you GSmith, dont give up!

 

[Credo]

Blow it out good and hard from both ends....
Prime the atty good.
From a 'totally dry atty' that you've just blown out good, without the drip/tip.
1. Drip about 5 drops of liquid on the bridge of the atty. (3 to fill the bowl, 2 to start saturating the bridge)
2. Give it 3 burns at about 3 seconds each without drawing air through the atty. (Important step).
3. Drip 3 more drops on the atty (saturates the bridge good).
4. Pop on the drip tip and vape away.
5. Add about 3 drops every 8 to 10 hits or so (how often varies depending on how hot your atty burns and how long your draws are).
6. When done with that flavor stop adding drops and vape it till it drops in flavor/taste/vapor.
7. Blow out the atty and put it away.

If an atty sits for awhile on the PV but has been primed as above, and you're not changing flavor or anything...add a couple of drops, give it a few primer burns without drawing first, add a few more drops, and vape. The primer burns help break up oxidation film that can settle on the surface of many e-liquids and it also gets it 'flowing' in the bridge and wicks better.

If it keeps flooding/leaking...your dripper might be making very large drops. No problem, cut back on the number of drops from what I described. It can also mean your atty has tons of build-up on the coils. See atty cleaning and dry burn threads to learn how to 'revive' gunked up atties that still work.

As a 'preventative' measure:
I like to vape .5ml to 1ml of a pure PG e-liquid with a high acid content through my atty at least every few days. It helps keep them clean. Something like Atomic Cinnamon from Tasty Vapor gets it done. The high acid content of that kind of cinnamon flavor loosens up the gunk build up on the coils. The pure PG type vapes out the cinnamon flavor fairly quickly so it doesn't take long to go back to your other flavors without traces of cinnamon lingering in them.

 

[GSmith]

Also

Dear ECF Members,

Thank you for all the courteous help and making me feel welcome and letting me hang around while I transition into a vaper and all the ups and downs that go with that journey.

I can honestly say, anything else this much trouble I wouldn't have bothered... I'd have tossed it all in the garbage by now if it weren't for the MANY MANY helpful and friendly people here.

I guarantee that any future ecigs and vaping have, it will be survived and likely pioneered because of and by the efforts of the great people here.

Thanks again... seriously

 

[GSmith]

Blow it out good and hard from both ends....
Prime the atty good.
From a 'totally dry atty' that you've just blown out good, without the drip/tip.
1. Drip about 5 drops of liquid on the bridge of the atty.
2. Give it 3 burns at about 3 seconds each without drawing air through the atty. (Important step).
3. Drip 3 more drops on the atty.
4. Pop on the drip tip and vape away.
5. Add about 3 drops every 8 to 10 hits or so (how often varies depending on how hot your atty burns and how long your draws are).
6. When done with that flavor stop adding drops and vape it till it drops in flavor/taste/vapor.
7. Blow out the atty and put it away.

If an atty sits for awhile, but you're not changing flavor or anything...add a couple of drops, give it a few primer burns without drawing first, add a few more drops, and vape. The primer burns help break up oxidation film that can settle on the surface of many e-liquids and it also gets it 'flowing' in the bridge and wicks better.

If it keeps flooding/leaking...your dripper might be making very large drops. No problem, cut back on the number of drops from what I described. It can also mean your atty has tons of build-up on the coils. See atty cleaning and dry burn threads to learn how to 'revive' gunked up atties that still work.

As a 'preventative' measure:
I like to vape .5ml to 1ml of a pure PG e-liquid with a high acid content through my atty at least every few days. It helps keep them clean. Something like Atomic Cinnamon from Tasty Vapor gets it done. The high acid content of that kind of cinnamon flavor loosens up the gunk build up on the coils. The pure PG type vapes out the cinnamon flavor fairly quickly so it doesn't take long to go back to your other flavors without traces of cinnamon lingering in them.

Step-by-Step instructions... holy cow thanks for going through that trouble. I learned the hard way not to use the driptip as anything but a mouthpiece. Getting a mouth full of liquid that was just kind of hanging on the rim and inner edges... not cool.

I don't presently have any of that Juice with high acid content like you mentioned. I have low nic unflavored juice and menthol drops (plus the coffee). I'll shoot off and go clean these attys REALLY well and pop open the new LR and see if I can get it primed properly and get back to vaping.

 

[WomanOfHeart]

GSmith, you're welcome! This is what we do; help each other so that we can get the most out of vaping.

 

[Credo]

Step-by-Step instructions... holy cow thanks for going through that trouble. I learned the hard way not to use the driptip as anything but a mouthpiece. Getting a mouth full of liquid that was just kind of hanging on the rim and inner edges... not cool.

I don't presently have any of that Juice with high acid content like you mentioned. I have low nic unflavored juice and menthol drops (plus the coffee). I'll shoot off and go clean these attys REALLY well and pop open the new LR and see if I can get it primed properly and get back to vaping.

After it is primed good, it's not a problem to drip right into the drip tip.

The TV AC tip is just somthing I learned helps 'me'. I like the flavor too, so it's just an added bonus of that flavor It is a pretty hot type of cinnamon (similar to Altoids or Fire Balls)...

 

[Mr. Texas]

i'm right there with ya.... dripping doesn't work for me for some reason, i either get weak vapor or a flooded atty, the cart isn't wicking well, i've ran thru 5 mL of juice without one decent drag... hopefully my new atomizer/smart carts come in today.

 

[Sellaman]

Weird that I have always been technically apt and could figure out new stuff on the fly quicker than most people... but this eCig... its like someone handed a caveman a power tool.

Exactly how I feel, and trying out new hardware is expensive too.

 

[GSmith]

I think I am going to hold off on the cartos right now... I have plenty of pure menthol and unflavored nic juice but I'm running out of the coffee. I like having a flavor in the front and then get that menthol hit in the back... its really unique.

I think my next step is going to be getting another PV... I LOVE the prodigy, but I noticed while chain vaping, the atty would get quite hot and I'd have to set it down for a bit. It'd be nice to have another loaded PV so when I do feel like chaining I can bounce back and forth between the two.

Exactly how I feel, and trying out new hardware is expensive too.

Haha, well I know for a fact the Prodigy is pro... but maybe it's like getting a 16yr old a Mercedes as a first car. Its definitely operator error. I don't feel it was expensive... (not in the sense that the price isn't equal to the value) now I couldn't afford to get a couple others left and right just to test drive them.

But yeah... I'm in the deep end of the pool with the inflatable arm things keeping me afloat, but I'll get it... i'm sure.