My 801 dilemma, or "Oh god, the juice, it burns, it burns!"

[Ivisi]

Ok, so I've been using the M401 since day 1. It's my first e-cig, and has done me very well up to this point. In fact, it did so well my wife took half of my parts for my 401's and began vaping herself, now she's been 'off the cancer sticks' for a full week. She, unlike myself, plans to stop once she kills the nicotine from the solution, but I am thoroughly enjoying myself and plan to continue usage even if I completely lose the nicotine.

Well, right before she absconded with half my goods, I ordered an 801 (longer lasting, could get a passthrough for sitting at the PC, insert various other reasons here) and a 601 e-pipe (only reason, because I really wanted it). The e-pipe has performed very well, I primarily use it during afternoon D&D sessions at work or while recording in my home studio (the geek in me is in constant conflict with the rocker in me, it's like the old frosted Mini-Wheats commercials, but with 20 sided dice and guitar picks).

The 801, however, I have not gotten the hang of yet. The prefilled carts perform fine, but they taste like vintage .... Dripping, again, works somewhat well, but not nearly as well as the prefills. When I fill a blank with my own juice, that's when things quickly turn south.

I've tried several different levels of liquid in the carts, and no matter how wet/dry they are, it seems I either get absolutely nothing or a mouthful of disgusting, mouth-burning juice. I cannot find the happy medium that is a mouthful of flavorful vapor, and I'm sure it is because of something I am either doing wrong, or completely missing.

So, please, someone show me the error of my ways. I really want to use the 801 to its potential, but the only two words to describe my experience so far is 'epic fail'.

Ivisi

 

[Sun Vaporer]

Ivisi--who's E-liquid are you using?---Sun

 

[Ivisi]

I'm using Juicy E-Liquid 36mg unflavored VG based liquid, and I'm cutting it with VG, distilled water, grain alcohol, and this particular solution has LorAnn Cherry with some dissolved menthol crystals. If you are really into Robitussin or Vicks Formula 44, you'd love it. Me, not so much, but I did manage to make 4ml's of it, so vape it I must.

Could it be my ratio's? It's about 70% VG, 10% water, 5% alcohol, and 15% flavoring. Last batch of the cherry I made was 75% VG and 10% flavoring with no menthol crystals, but the flavor was weak. I also didn't have the pipe or the 801 when I made that batch, and it worked as well in my 401 as the current cough medicine does.

Other than that, I can't think of anything I'm doing wrong, but the device is new to me, so it is highly possible I'm missing something.

Ivisi

 

[Wildsky]

Sounds like your liquid is tooo thin, I found with my 36, just cutting it with VG and then adding flavoring is just fine, no need to add water and alcohol. (If you find it too goopy, then a couple of drops of water should do the trick) I mix very small amounts and have never needed to add water.

My mix is 50/50 the 36mg and the VG, then I add in the flavoring till it tastes good to me!

 

[katink]

To add to what Wildsky is saying (I agree with what she thinks too): you might want to take into account, when mixing yourself, on what base your flavoring is made. It could be on water-base, on VG-base, on PG-base etc... If this is waterbase, you would have to add all your flavor to the sum of water used (result: far too much water). If it's VG-based, then add it to the VG-sum, etc when looking if you have the right kind of mix.

Much luck on getting it right (and hopefully finding flavors you DO like of course!)

 

[Ivisi]

Ok, I'll leave out the water and/or alcohol in my next batch, and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.

Ivisi

 

[BEACHSTYLE]

U love the taste of vintage asss hahahaha lol

 

[V-V]

For my 801, I use teabags for the wicking filter. The thicker liquids do better in the 801 also, but too thick and you'll need to keep your e-cig upright when not vaping so the liquid gets wicked down to the atomizer.

If you're getting mouthfuls of liquid there are a couple things it could be: Your battery is clogged causing you to suck too hard which = mouth full of yuck, or you just aren't used to the way the pen style draws yet....OR, it's a wicking issue so back to the keeping it vertical for a bit and see what happens.

 

[Wolf]

I also use JuicyLiquid 36mg. I mix the following:

2ml 36mg/ml unflavored
2ml Wiltons glycerine
1ml flavor OR .5ml flavor and .5ml distilled water

This gives me 5ml at 14.4 mg/ml for vaping.

I've also been using an 801. I found it is very important to use a couple of primer puffs to get it going. It also gives a very large amount of vapor if you try to inhale just like a cigarette. I have to go lightly. DH loves it.

 

[Ivisi]

U love the taste of vintage asss hahahaha lol

It's an acquired taste, like caviar or Hot Pockets.

Ivisi

 

[Ivisi]

Ok, update time.

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. Wolf, I followed your basic recipe, and mixed a fresh batch of grape.

2ml of 36 mg unflavored Juicy E-Liquid nic juice (VG base)
2ml of VG
1ml Lorann's Grape flavoring

Filled both an 801 and a 601 cart with it. The 601 is putting out about the same amount of vapor as before, and the flavor is terrific.

But the 801, wow, now it's performing like I expected it to. Crazy amount of vapor, massive throat hit, and not one drop of juice in my mouth after about 30 puffs.

So, again, thanks everyone for helping me solve this. I knew it had to be something I was doing wrong, since I'm fairly new at this.

I will say that this mix was incredibly thick, but the carts seem to be wicking it just fine. My dropper bottle, however, isn't handling it too well. I do have a big bottle of PG on order, so now that I know what I'm looking for, I should be able to cut with the PG and get a nice balance of viscosity vs. performance out of my recipes.

Ivisi

edit: Popped the passthru on the 801, and still vaping like crazy now, but I'm noticing something else. (Yes, I'm threadjacking my own thread, big whoop, wanna fight about it? ) When I start puffing on it, the passthru lights up, but it stays on through to the cutoff point instead of turning off when I'm done with the puff. Is that normal, or could I be looking at a bad passthru?

 

[JFleshman]

If the 801 uses a pressure switch in the battery to heat the atomizer, then some juice from your atomizer has most likely leaked into the battery.

I have that problem with my DSE901. I have to exhale before I inhale quite frequently. Either the light stays on while I'm not dragging, or my drag produces no vapor and the light doesn't come on.

The issue might spawn from a flooded atomizer. I'm going to have to try a different filler material than rolled tea bag. I keep getting bloody juice in my mouth, and my atomizer is always flooded. -_-

 

[MissVapor]

When I first got my 801 2 weeks ago it tasted like gross licorice....come to find out it tasted so crppy b/c of the primer on the atomizer..it took many puffs (without inhaling) to get that taste out..

 

[gashin]

Try filling your carts fully - this helped with my 4-hole atomizers. However, honestly, I have found the 4-holes burn liquid too well and end up drying the cart and burning some of the cart filter. Í've come back to using only 2-hole 801 atomizers because there is a significant improvement in taste - possibly because you're kinda forced to keep some of the liquid in your mouth instead of having go straight to your throat as usually happens with the 4-hole.

 

[Melinda09]

Try filling your carts fully - this helped with my 4-hole atomizers. However, honestly, I have found the 4-holes burn liquid too well and end up drying the cart and burning some of the cart filter. Í've come back to using only 2-hole 801 atomizers because there is a significant improvement in taste - possibly because you're kinda forced to keep some of the liquid in your mouth instead of having go straight to your throat as usually happens with the 4-hole.

Help! I didn't realize that there were different pen-style 801s until I just got a back-up set. My original set was silver batteries with silver atomizers. My new one is white/white ... I thought I might get less funny looks while smoking in the car with white ones.

At the same time, I got a supply of blank pen carts, which turned out to be more rubbery (less hard), and they don't snap into the white atomizers. The fitting is a little different. They fit very snugly into the white pen, but also seem to go more deeply into the atomizer. And when I pull out the cartridge to top it off, the filling is squished down about 1/3 of the way (with the white ones). The new (rubbery) carts don't fit snug in the silver pens. If you tip them LED up, they fall out, and you don't get a good hit without the snug fit. I've taken to putting a little piece of tape around the new carts to help them fit into my original pens ... guess it's time to wash the pile of used ones.

I've also been getting juice in my mouth quite often with the new white pens and the new (rubbery) carts. I can't fill them up nearly as far as the silver ones, or I get a mouthful of juice ... so I have to fill them up about twice as often. I'm using the same store-bought juice that I've been using all along, since I tried VG, and it didn't agree with my lungs (I'm going to order some PG).

Does this make sense? Has anyone else noticed these differences? Do different suppliers have different sizes of carts? Are the white pen-style e-cigs supposed to be different from the silver metal ones? What am I missing? I thought that - as far as ordering parts - a pen, was a pen, was a pen (801s).

I'd appreciate any suggestions or confirmation about who makes what ... or did I just get a bad batch of one or the other?