Newbie with cartomizer questions....

[cactusgirl]

Hi all, I'm a new member, new to vaping (last analog was 4 weeks today) and ecigs in general.

Along with the 6 prefilled cartos that came with my auto starter kit from SmokeTip (didn't know about the manual type until after I started...oh well) I also got an additional 10 prefilled cartos in various flavours. I have since ordered additional prefilled cartos (awaiting their arrival) from SmokeTip but after reading about the endless array of ejuice flavours out there, am a little disappointed with the flavour choices of the prefilled cartos...guess I'm still trying to find 'the one'..lol! That said, I've already made the transition from analogs to vaping (have NO desire to go back to 'smoking') and am just trying to navigate my way to finding the right system and set-up for me. I ordered a couple bottles of ejuice from eVapers and was so relieved when it arrived yesterday (3 days after placing the order!) since all of the cartos from my original order were pretty much empty and I know it'll be at least another week before my replacement order gets here (Canada) from SmokeTips (US).

I followed this forums directions for cleaning out the old cartos (boiling, blowing, etc.) and refilled a couple of them with the juice that I ordered. It was working for a while but now I'm finding that I'm not getting any flavour (or throat hit) from my refilled carto...if I take a few quick drags (to get it going), I get vapour, however, if I inhale I find that there is almost no flavour or at least greatly diminished flavour and next to no vapour on the exhale. What am I doing wrong?

Also, when popping off a couple of the end caps prior to boiling, I managed to destroy about 3 of them (they tore apart) and was wondering if there is somewhere where I could get replacement end caps or if there is another fix? I'd really like to try a flat tip but have no idea if that is even a possible modification for these cartos or where I could get some. Can anyone help?

Thanks!

 

[rshields]

SmokeTip was my first e-cig purchase, too. I have been very happy with it and with the company. But you are right that their flavor selction is disappointing (but I am very happy with the quality of the few flavors they do have). The SmokeTip e-cig is a model KR808d-1 and there are numerious sites that sell cartomizers for that model. For example, I have purchased some cartomizers from Lite Cig USA in flavors not available from SmokeTip.

But you are really asking about refilling your cartos. When you say it was working at first, do you mean that a single carto that you refilled worked at first and then its performance dropped off? Or do you mean that you have filled several cartos and the early ones worked but the more recent one don't?

One thing that comes to mind is that these cartomizers are actually marketed as being disposable. They won't last too long. If you are seeing an individual cartomizer that has been filled several times drop off in performance, it might just be time to trash that one. Some people argue that boiling them decreases their life even more (I do not yet have enough experience to form my own opinion about that). I do know that I only boil if I am planning to refill with a very different flavor.

Also, I have found that overfilling the carto can lead to performance similar to what you describe as far as the getting vapor but no TH, but they usually improve if I just let them sit around a day or two. (I am guessing the liquid eventually gets more evenly distributed over time).

Hopefully some more experienced vapers than I will pipe up and offer more/better suggestions.

 

[cactusgirl]

Hi there, thanks for the response. I only filled 3 of them. I figured I would rotate them 3 at a time until they 'burn out' rather than refilling the whole lot.

I am thinking that the problem may possibly be that they are over-filled...the one I've been using all morning (that seemed to have stopped working) is now, after vaping it for a bit, producing nice vapour, but again, the flavour seems to really subdued and almost 'watery' tasting and the throat hit is very mild/smooth. Maybe it's the juice, I don't know - although, this juice is 14mg and the TH seems much less than the previous prefilled 11mg flavour. On a side note, my 8 year old son had no problem identifying the flavour I was using when he came up to me an hour ago..."that must be raspberry" "what makes you say that?" "I can smell it"........

I guess I will just continue my path on this learning curve, lol.

 

[Nikkita6]

Hi there! ... I also use KR8 ecig and cartos and have also washed and refilled them .... one issue may be that the poly fill inside the cart is not 100% dry. any residual water in the poly fill will dilute and diminish the flavor and vapor of the newly addded juice. Don't know how long you dried them for, usually 24 hours is enough time for mine to dry however, I also spend a significant amount of time blowing them out after washing to try and force as much water out as possible.

Also, I noticed that some carts don't come back to life after cleaning/washing, and some do ...

Usually if a cart is really overfilled it will leak out the bottom, so be careful of this with auto batteries as the excess liquid will kill your battery. If my cart is slightly too full, with excess fluid still lingering above the poly fill, I will get some gurgling and reduced vapor ... but that normally resolves itself in a few puffs, if not I suck the excess off the top with a syringe.