Matching carto type to juices

[KillFace]

Hi guys,

After a couple of months of vaping while using tanks almost exclusively, I've come to develop a strategy for which cartos to use with which juice (or type of juice).

So far, my favourite cartos for use on my Provari are the 2.5ohm DC Smoktech (flanged or unflanged) followed by the Smoktech 2.8ohm SC carto.

By far, the 2.5 DC is the best in my tanks.... depending upon the juice I run them at 5.5-6.0V and they offer the best balance of flavour, longevity, flood-resistance, warmth, consistency, and quantity of vapour. The 2.8 SC is good too, but they tend to be rather variable in quality. I've had a few that have wildly varying resistances and even change through the life of the carto.

That being said, I have found that I'm using these 2 cartos for different juices for diffferent reasons. Here's a breakdown:

2.5ohm DC (in a tank)
AVE Juices
- Boba's Bounty
- Gorilla Juice
- Hype
- Raf-a-licious, etc.

Jughead's VG juices


2.8ohm SC (also in a tank)
- Backwoods Brew juices
- Jughead's 50/50 juices
- Flavourcrafters


It seems to me like thicker, more VG heavy juices do much better in the DC cartos while thinner juices with more PG do better in the SC ones.

When doing the opposite of this, I've come across the following problems:

1. Thin juices in DCT cartos: I've had flooding problems with these....no matter if I use small holes, big holes....1, 2 holes, doesn't seem to matter. I almost invariably have issues with runaway flooding. I think it is because these cartos have a tighter draw in general, so it creates a bigger suction on the holes.

2. Thick juices in 2.8 SC: I find the juices end up tasting burnt and overdone.....even if I turn down the power. They also seem to have LESS taste than in the DCs......also, these seem to go through liquid rather quickly and often do not wick as well without constant manual forcing of juice into the carto (raising and lower a cap, taking the top cap right off, pushing the tank down onto the provari and sucking like hell)


Have any of you developped a strategy like this? Any tips to add to the collective knowledge on this issue?

 

[IamAurora]

Great info Killface. I am contemplating getting a Provari myself so this info will come in very handy!

 

[vise]

Good info. Should come in handy!

 

[kingcobra]

Wow, leaking, overcooking, won't wick properly, hard draw, you're making me glad I don't use cartos

 

[KillFace]

Wow, leaking, overcooking, won't wick properly, hard draw, you're making me glad I don't use cartos

What do you use?

 

[fuzzione]

That was very useful thanks Kill. I've been attempting to troubleshoot some of my ST 2.5 DC carto flow issues and the light finally went off when reading your post. Fiddled with juice thickness and this has indeed cured my flooding problem.

 

[ChellyNelly]

Wow, leaking, overcooking, won't wick properly, hard draw, you're making me glad I don't use cartos

I've never had this problem with cartos on over 8 different brands and probably 200 different juices.

 

[KillFace]

That was very useful thanks Kill. I've been attempting to troubleshoot some of my ST 2.5 DC carto flow issues and the light finally went off when reading your post. Fiddled with juice thickness and this has indeed cured my flooding problem.

Excellent. There was definitely a whole lot of trial and error to tanks, but after working it all out, it's definitely worth it now. The convenience of not having to take a bottle with you, the performance of the cartos.... It's all I need.

 

[Dirty]

Are you using a provari v2? No (or better) amp limit on that unit right? So I bet those DCT's do work pretty good on it. I'm using the poormans provari, the lavatube, and I just today replaced the DCT with the single coil.

I was using DCT's for quite a while with all mostly pg juices and never experienced any flooding (prepunched with one hole) I actually seen throughout the forums most were having flooding issues when there were 3 holes punched when using pg but not so much with vg, but they would get a lot of dry hits with vg in a 1 hole punched carto. But I've never heard of pg flooding 1 hole DCT's until now. You experiencing no wicking issues with VG on a DCT - is this even with one hole?

Have to say I'm pretty dissapointed in the smoktek 2.8 single coils, though they are better than DCT's on the lavatube. The ohms must be lower on this one (quality control is low), anything past 4.2 and I get burnt taste. I think the boge XL's will be the way to go with tanks when they become more available.

 

[kingcobra]

What do you use?

Not cartos, one of the things that concerned me was the way you find out it is used up. I'd much rather have an atty producing less vapor and then throw it out rather than inhale the burning remnants of a carto. However I have learned to keep an open mind, but to be honest my main concern has always been about avoiding issues such as the ones you speak of. There might be some cartos out there which do perform well, I end up hearing nasty things about them though so often I haven't really been sold too much. I'm a simple man I guess, been using 510-t's for almost a year and have never had any issues at all, there's stuff out there that may give you more flavor but at a price I guess, like dripping for instance which is IMO a pain in the ..., some other atties, some cartos for sure. The real small tank does require fairly frequent filling but I don't mind, never leaked a drop, every vape consistently good, wicks fine at 7.5 watts with my Darwin, easy draw, etc.

 

[KillFace]

Are you using a provari v2? No (or better) amp limit on that unit right? So I bet those DCT's do work pretty good on it. I'm using the poormans provari, the lavatube, and I just today replaced the DCT with the single coil.

I was using DCT's for quite a while with all mostly pg juices and never experienced any flooding (prepunched with one hole) I actually seen throughout the forums most were having flooding issues when there were 3 holes punched when using pg but not so much with vg, but they would get a lot of dry hits with vg in a 1 hole punched carto. But I've never heard of pg flooding 1 hole DCT's until now. You experiencing no wicking issues with VG on a DCT - is this even with one hole?

Have to say I'm pretty dissapointed in the smoktek 2.8 single coils, though they are better than DCT's on the lavatube. The ohms must be lower on this one (quality control is low), anything past 4.2 and I get burnt taste. I think the boge XL's will be the way to go with tanks when they become more available.

Yes, I'm using a V2. The amp limit is 3.5A. The high resistance DCs do work awesome. They take a second to warm up, but when they do, it is a nice warm smooth vape.

Yeah, I've been using the saddle valve to punch additional holes in these cartos. With high PG juices, such as the 70/30 BWB ones, I usually only make one small hole in addition to the pre-punched hole. With the thicker high VG juices, I make 2 or 3 holes accordingly. I've pretty much solved my flooding issues....I think it was mostly because I'd punched either too many holes or too big holes for the juice it was for.

Yeah, the 2.8s are strange so far. I've only used maybe 10 of them so far, and only a few have actually been 2.8ohms. Usually they are 2.4-2.7. I've only had one so far that actually tasted good at a full 5V. Usually they're running at 4.3-4.7 depending upon the juice.

I started out with a bunch of Boge XLs when I got my Provari...had gotten them from HealthCabin. They are decent cartos, but I found that, due to the tightness of their poly, juice is very slow to wick through them (you've probably noticed how long it takes to fill a boge XL initially). So, it seemed like there was never any passive wicking through the holes and the only way to refill them was through force-filling techniques. Not that that makes them terrible, but I just found I liked the smoktechs better. Also, LR stuff seems like kind of a waste of the Provari's abilities.....perhaps the Boge XL SR ones might be worth it, but I haven't had any yet.

 

[KillFace]

Not cartos, one of the things that concerned me was the way you find out it is used up. I'd much rather have an atty producing less vapor and then throw it out rather than inhale the burning remnants of a carto. However I have learned to keep an open mind, but to be honest my main concern has always been about avoiding issues such as the ones you speak of. There might be some cartos out there which do perform well, I end up hearing nasty things about them though so often I haven't really been sold too much. I'm a simple man I guess, been using 510-t's for almost a year and have never had any issues at all, there's stuff out there that may give you more flavor but at a price I guess, like dripping for instance which is IMO a pain in the ..., some other atties, some cartos for sure. The real small tank does require fairly frequent filling but I don't mind, never leaked a drop, every vape consistently good, wicks fine at 7.5 watts with my Darwin, easy draw, etc.

Awesome, I'm glad that works for you.

I wouldn't agree with your first statement about inhaling the burning remnants of a carto. This never actually happens. You can tell the carto is getting dry first by the flavour starting to seem thin and airy. If you keep going without filling, yes eventually you will burn the poly, but as long as you heed that first "dryer" puff and fill, you'll never burn it.

By 510-t on your Darwin, what do you mean? Is that the little plastic tank on an atty? I've only encountered the ego-t....

 

[ChellyNelly]

Imagine a regular 510 atty with a tank cartridge (like the ego-t). That's a 510-t. Personally hate them and the ego-t/c as they leak like sieves and give me a ton of dry hits. I stick to cartomizers, carto tanks, and dripping for juice testing.