Reclaiming liquid from dead cartos

[Hypnophone]

Is it possible? Am I as crazy as the wife says I am?

When a cartomizer dies, there's always juice left in there.
I'm thinking about pulling the bottom out and squeezing the wicking material
over some aluminium foil folded into a funnel shape to get it into a bottle...

Whatcha'll think?

I don't like to waste liquid...

 

[Bozzlite]

LOL, to me, the juice that comes out of a cartomizer never looks the same as when it went in. It seems to have a darker tint to it. May have picked up some contaminants or something from the coils, or has become darkened from the heat. Dunno.

I think once it's in the carto, it is used juice and probably shouldn't be re-used. Especially shouldn't be put back in the bottle with the fresh juice. Unless, maybe if it was a brand new carto that was doa after filling it.

 

[Spazmelda]

I have done this when I've loaded up a flavor to try and then decided it needed some adjustment (like sweetening or something).

I put the carto in a 15 ml conical centrifuge tube battery side pointing *up*, tie a string around the tube, and do a reverse Taryn spin to spin the liquid out. Takes me a couple of spins to get it all, but it works.

 

[PhantomII]

What I do is yank the stuffing out of the dead carto and stuff it into a syringe.

Then I mash the plunger down HARD to squeeze the juice out.

 

[Spazmelda]

What I do is yank the stuffing out of the dead carto and stuff it into a syringe.

Then I mash the plunger down HARD to squeeze the juice out.

That's a good idea!

 

[Eddie.Willers]

Yeeeuch!
That's some NASTY juice in the bottom of a used carto - heated and cooled, exposed to air etc etc.

But then, I DIY juice at around 12 cents per mL so I don't worry too much about the cost.

 

[PhantomII]

Yeeeuch!
That's some NASTY juice in the bottom of a used carto - heated and cooled, exposed to air etc etc.

But then, I DIY juice at around 12 cents per mL so I don't worry too much about the cost.

True
If a carto is dying and getting gunky, I'll just vape it until it starts with the burnt filler taste then toss it, but when you start a new carto and it turns out to be DOA, it's a shame to waste all that fresh juice.

 

[Roach]

What I do is yank the stuffing out of the dead carto and stuff it into a syringe.

Then I mash the plunger down HARD to squeeze the juice out.

I bought a bunch of clearance sale cartos that didn't fit my batteries. You know those 808 cartos that don't have the slot for kr808 batteries. So I used your method to extract the juice. It worked well but the juice was nasty. Still have it in my tackle box but it's gonna be a really serious emergency before I vape that. I guess it was on clearance for a reason.

 

[NC_Fog]

I have done this when I've loaded up a flavor to try and then decided it needed some adjustment (like sweetening or something).

I put the carto in a 15 ml conical centrifuge tube battery side pointing *up*, tie a string around the tube, and do a reverse Taryn spin to spin the liquid out. Takes me a couple of spins to get it all, but it works.

This is what I do also. I then put the juice into a small ml bottle and drip it. That way if it has an off taste, I haven't contaminated a new carto.

Marty

 

[studio52]

Goooooooodness!!! I hope I am never in that kinda financial strife that I have to scrounge the last 3 drops of "used burnt" juice from a cart I have been using and refilling for a couple of days. I instead buy $10 of PG and VG and spend a couple bucks on flavorings and nic juice and make my own juice for about $00.14 a ml. Frugality is one thing, but eating from a dumpster is quite another.

 

[Spazmelda]

Goooooooodness!!! I hope I am never in that kinda financial strife that I have to scrounge the last 3 drops of "used burnt" juice from a cart I have been using and refilling for a couple of days. I instead buy $10 of PG and VG and spend a couple bucks on flavorings and nic juice and make my own juice for about $00.14 a ml. Frugality is one thing, but eating from a dumpster is quite another.

Nice...

I have been rebuilding cartos (they are horizontal coil and you can take the filler out and dry burn them to clean them). I'm still learning how to do this so sometimes I get the filler in wrong. My cartos hold 3 mls of liquid and don't work unless they are fairly full. I really hate to waste 3 ml of liquid (even DIY) when I mess up the filler of a carto and don't get it in right. I am not 'eating from a dumpster' I'm trying not to waste 3 ml of perfectly good liquid in a badly filled carto.

 

[DebiMax]

You can do that with horizontal cartos? And here I was giving them hot baths and then drying them out in the oven! I think you just saved me a ton of time, Spazmelda! Thanks!

 

[Spazmelda]

I hope you have better luck than me. I'm about 50% for getting the filler back in properly. Hence the need to reclaim juice. I'm about ready to give up and just chuck them after they lose taste.

 

[LauraBolyard]

Thanx, justaguy for "turning me on to this thread"!!
1). Sometimes after having cleaned a carto, it gets refilled ( in my xl case, 2 ml). We all know that it needs to be saturated. I then find out that it isn't performing right!! Aaarghh!! 2 ml GONE?? NO!! I need to go back to OUR thread "do you use carto's" in order to give credit ALSO to pulling and squeezing in a syringe!! I use xl dcc's, all I had to do was pull out with the tweezers and it fit right into the syringe, I didn't even have to touch it! It was obviously still clean, but I now have a bottle of "squeezed juice". Oh, let me clarify. CLEAN squeezed juice!!

2). I DO have another bottle for "not-so-clean" squeezed juice. A carto that I KNOW hasn't had much use, but not performing well. You can tell when you pull out the wtf ing whether it's keepable or not, and THAT will be subjective!!

With me it has little to do with (can't remember last posters exact words) being hard up, cheap, or financially strapped. Inam OBSESSIVE with waste!!!! Kind of an OCD!! I won't go to extremes, if it's ugly I'll toss it!!

 

[LauraBolyard]

wyojoe!! just had to give some credit too!! for the SQUEEZE!!

 

[washvap]

My advice is to just toss it. Not worth it IMO.

 

[LauraBolyard]

Really? A NEWLY-filled 2 ml carto? Not ME!!if out of ten, three have issues, that's almost 10 ml of fresh juice!! Im not tossing!!! Now if it's IFFY, you know when u pull it out and make your own decision.

 

[washvap]

It's really your choice on how you would go about saving it or if you wanna save it. To me, I only fill one carto at a time and if it dies when I try to fire it. I just simply toss it. 2ml isn't really a big loss to me.

Anyways, I was actually responding to Hypnophone who said he wanted to get the liquid out of his dead cartos that's been used for a while. To me, the juice has already been tainted and doesn't look or taste the same like it used to. So, tossing it is the only logical choice IMO.

 

[mostlyclassics]

Reusing juice from a kaput carto? Blech.

Brings to mind the joke about the Sgt. Major of the Regiment and the regimental condom . . . definitely not for a family discussion board.

PM me if you want it.

 

[LauraBolyard]

Touche'. Not dumpster diving, just trying to reclaim!!