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

[Credo]

To me:
510 and 901 carts aren't worth the trouble for most flavors unless you actually like a really cutting thin vape with LOTS of Throat Hit (nice with some flavors I guess). They don't hold but a few 'vapeable' drops anyway unless you mod the heck out of them.

Bump up to a Mega 510 atty, or adapt to an 801 (my fave, and if you look around can find them for $5 each all day long), and the carts can be quite nice The SLB 801 w/native cart is very underrated. vape on a cart for a good hour or more usually before it has to be topped again....decent vape/flavor/TH. It even rivals some of the best custom horizontal coil type cartomizers out there in my opinion.

 

[GSmith]

Bump up to a Mega 510 atty, or adapt to an 801 (my fave, and if you look around can find them for $5 each all day long), and the carts can be quite nice The SLB 801 w/native cart is very underrated. Vape on a cart for a good hour or more usually before it has to be topped again....decent vape/flavor/TH. It even rivals some of the best custom horizontal coil type cartomizers out there in my opinion.

I can say, being a newbie I REALLY like not having to make any extra adjustments to my PV (with an adapter) but I obviously always looking out to enhance my vaping experience. I will browse around and try to find some more info on this Mega 510 or the 801. I really honestly don't think I've seen much about the 801. 510 and 901 are what I've noticed the most... but I may not be looking in the right places.

 

[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. (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.

This is GOLD... if you are a newbie (like myself) and your vaping day is going sour... give this a whirl before you jump to that cigarette.

+1 for Credo - GSmith has avoided 1 analog

 

[BigJimInStL]

I buy a bottle of store-brand vodka to use for cleaning attys and cartos. In addition to burning, you'll also find some strong-flavored juices will taint the flavoring in the atty as well. If they're real nasty, soak 'em in the vodka overnight, blow out, rinse with hot water, blow out, and let dry a day or so. That usually gets rid of the bad flavors. I've been using the same 2 attys in rotation along with cartos since March 2011 when I bought my first Riva 510 Kit from LF, and they're still going strong.

 

[Credo]

I can say, being a newbie I REALLY like not having to make any extra adjustments to my PV (with an adapter) but I obviously always looking out to enhance my vaping experience. I will browse around and try to find some more info on this Mega 510 or the 801. I really honestly don't think I've seen much about the 801. 510 and 901 are what I've noticed the most... but I may not be looking in the right places.

Don't much blame you.

Both the 510 Mega and 801 atties are pretty big, and quite deep. The vape is a little 'cooler', but rich and full. This is why their carts hold so much more and work better right out of the box.

The Mega 510 fits perfect on an eGo battery....but would be rather awkward on mini batteries.

To get from 510 to 801 can be kind of tricky and make for a pretty long PV. I use them on a Darwin mod (has an interesting swinging arm thing) so the extra extensions actually work out rather nicely. I mention the 801 because it vapes so well with their stock/native carts, and it's not uncommon to find them in closeout bins and stuff for $5 each.

Mega 510 is harder to find in the cheap bin for sure. It has a little looser draw than the 801. Both perform much better with carts than regular 510 or 901 atties.

The plethora of cartomizers out there warrants a whole new thread

 

[Aunt Cranky]

I think I am probably a carto convert now. I started vaping on a 510 atty and using the fiber fill / tea bag filler on the carts. That got annoying really fast so I switched to a drip tip.
Because I tend to vape on the high vg end (usually 50/50 or sometimes even 100% vg) my attys got clogged pretty quickly.
I would blow them out, start again. They get clogged/flooded, blow out, start again.
I bought an eGo. Some LR attys. They were not all that great.
Try again..
I got an eGo tank. fail.
I got the type B eGo tank. fail.
I got some 510 tanks - those were better... altho still required maintenance.
A couple days ago I got my dual coil clear cartomizers from madvapes.

These suckers ROCK. They rock because they're cheap, I can see when the liquid is getting low, and when the filler gets too brittle and/or the thing starts to taste fried, I can throw them away. (vaping on a standard eGo battery, and my eGO passthru)

Bottom line, it might take some time to figure out what works best for you - and maybe cartos aren't for you (or maybe they are) but I'm really starting to think that these things are way more spiffy than I thought they would be.

 

[RupertFranklyn]

Attys just seem like so much trouble! Dump the attys and load up that DC carto that you have laying around! For the record I did learn a lot from this thread, thanks everyone.

 

[guitarmeetsjake]

Surprisingly, I haven't had any problems with mine yet. As far as BVD's go, It's been going pretty good since I got mine. The first time I tried to clean it, however, I read to soak with hot water and let it dry over night. Wait until morning to "lightly" blow excess water from the atty. This is nonsense. I lightly blew, and was EXTREMELY frustrated when I was getting nothing from it. I need my nicotine in the morning before work, or I will spaz. I just unloaded it, blowing very, very hard this time. There was a ton of water that dripped out. Loaded it back in, and after a few puffs, it was working like new again. I've read afterwards that the water should be blown out of the atty BEFORE setting it out to dry overnight. I'm worried that it may have caused some minor problems, but everything is still vaping smoothly. Other than that, I'm enjoying my vaping

 

[Saintscruiser]

Welcome to ECF, GSmith!!! When you first start, you're leery to do anything that's not on the instructions. I've allowed my instincts to kick in some and I'm of the old school.....'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.' My setup 'tee tees' on me from time to time and I keep a paper towel handy. I have new equipment on standby, because I was cleaning out my attys or awhile. Then I decided to do nothing, just to see what happens. I change out my tip, but not the atty. It's like a new coffee pot. New coffee pots make icky coffee, say the first 10 times or so. Once they are seasoned, the coffee is sooooo much better. Now I do blow out my attys, but I'm not using any dark juices. That may be the problem there. Now I seem to 'misplace' my e-cig from time to time and I have enough backups to fix up 2 new 'peace pipes.' (That's what I call them.) I'm not going to have a cow if I misplace it. I've had this equipment long enough for some of the black paint to chip off of it. Regardless, it's still 200% better than smoking tobacco!

P.S. Don't get upset for asking new questions! That is what we are all here for. I don't answer many of the posts as I don't know all the answers to many of them!

 

[GSmith]

There are 3 real truths I think every newbie to the vaping scene is going to have to face that has dawned on me since last week.

Truth 1: Vaping is a very unique to you type of experience. Although there are bridges of similarity, the path is always unique. What works for her does not work for him and what works for him does not work for you. As such: Every vaper has to find that good mixture (of PV, voltage, atty / cart / carto / tank, & liquid). That seems like a daunting list but its not over the top, but with everything there is a learning curve then a comfortability down-swoop before you're really kicking it up.

Truth 2: It *is* going to be an adjustment. Not only getting away from analog (cigarettes) but getting into the details of vaping, the hit the taste the experience. As such: It definitely seems very troublesome at first. With cigarettes you need a lighter / matches etc and you're smoking. With vaping, there is a bit more equipment, chargers, batteries, liquid, devices etc...

Truth 3: Regardless of what your mind or equipment try to tell you... an analog (cigarette) is not better / easier and vaping is a superior activity in every way. As such: Putting into practice all the little aspects that go along with vaping is essential to become familiar with it. How many people smoke and drive (or perform some other task)... vaping will get to that point, when it become second nature.

---

So I am definitely going through all of that, and my experience hasn't been all bad... its just the cigarettes talking... telling me that its always going to be like this, and I know its not going to, I've got to tough it out.

 

[B4DJ1N64N]

Hi gsmith,
I vape for almost 1 year now, and I still can't drip like a pro. Maybe I'm just a carto person. Much less hassle & more vaping time, although much expensive (since carto can't last like atty do).

 

[hairball]

Toss the atomizers and use cartomizers on the Prodigy V3. Cartos are the best vape for this device IMO. Good luck to you.

 

[V_Joe1981]

I've definitely had my share of bvd's and hope all is going well! When I first learned how to drip last year all the juice pretty much fell in my mouth lol then saw videos that said blow gently since the juice loves to linger at the bottom if the tip...problem solved for me

The dual coils I have lasted a good while for me...2 weeks in and love them!

 

[Credo]

That Dualie you mentioned should be nice on the Prodigy. To fill it just drip into the top condom cap and shove the mouth end of the carto down into it. Repeat this till you see a bead of liquid start to come out of the battery end (usually 3 to 4 condoms-full) then stop pushing. Pull off the condom, flip over the carto, wipe it good, and give it a blow through from the mouth end to get the excess liquid out of the center tube of the carto (back into a condom or the bottle if you can). Screw it on and vape away

Expect shorter battery life per charge and higher liquid consumption with those as they pull higher amprage/current from the battery (expect from 2 to 3 amps). At 3.7v you'll most likely want the 1.5 or 1.25 Ohm variants. If you use these often make double sure you use protected or safe chemistry batteries, and check them regularly. The good news is people report they are loving these things with few problems on a wide variety of batteries (600mah and up).

 

[Credo]

More on atties:
If you're put off by the idea of using adapters to try an 801...there are hybrid variants that have 510 threads. They won't be 'cheap', but they don't break the bank either. Here is one example: IKV LR 2.0

Of course it's all personal prefs and all the stuff out is a unique experience...
At some point grab an 801 and a box of carts for it to try when you need a new atty. I use a bit of everything these days, including the exotic jumbo cartos and tanks. Dualies, CE2, G4, you name it (like them all for various flavors and situations)...and I still find myself reaching for an 801 and cart quite often. A nice vape if you want big fat atties that work good with carts.