Refilling w/syringe, take 2.

[Belletrist]

so, i was looking at cartos online elsewhere (don't worry, i wasn't gonna cheat. ) & saw a site (i forget which) that recommended refilling w/out taking the cap off--just angling a syringe to the side, past the o-ring, into the batting. just refilled an apple-cin-cran w/ clove (without washing out, and lemme say, yum) that way, and worked like a charm.

i'm sure there's room for user error/damaging the cart, but dang it was fast and easy.

(of course, being that i'm... me... i opened the cart after, anyways, to see if i moved anything around. looked fine, vapes good. did hafta blow out a lil overfill.)

 

[Taryn]

I think refilling like that is just fine the only issue would be overfilling and if you can find your touch to prevent that go for it!

 

[Belletrist]

i overfill no matter what, it seems... so i am just being very conservative. i think what i had wasn't so much overfill as just a lil leak into the airway? i find i have to basically "half" fill, but prob cause i'm being too cautious about when carts are dry?

 

[cr12]

i got some 18 ga syringes i crack them open and refill until it looks full the nice thing about a syringe is its easy to remove some juice from the cart if necessary i refilled em and tried to use taryns spin but it doesnt do anything..... so far i would say its worth it, i ordered mine from kvvet.com 18 ga 1.5 in needle. 5 ml syringe.

 

[sonnetjie]

I am loving refilling with a syringe. I overfill a lot less and if I fo I just suck a little back in. My last batch of refills I didn't have to blow out any. I do open them up so I can see what I'm doing. How much juice is needed seems to vary a lot between carts.

 

[Belletrist]

just did another, no blow-out necessary. i think, at the risk of a few cartastrophes here and there, this no-opening-the-cart method will be my usual.

 

[Adrenalynn]

Something to consider with the syringe if you're overfilling is the meniscus.

There seems to be a pretty strong attraction within the bottles, so a plastic syringe probably has a similarly strong attraction. The syringe's meniscus is likely not calibrated for such a strong attraction and therefore you're overfilling.

You can look up "capillary action" and "meniscus" if you're interested, but the upshot is that you can't trust the 1ml hash mark to be 1ml in the syringe. Also don't forget to hold the syringe at eye level when filling to avoid parallax errors in the reading.

Classical Mechanics FTW!

 

[Belletrist]

but the upshot is that you can't trust the 1ml hash mark to be 1ml in the syringe.

i will look all that up because i am a research addict, but that line alone is comforting. because i was wondering why the f my 1 ml measurements were like, overflowing carts when i was trying it with the cap off.

 

[FlipnOut]

I find that I can usually only get about 7/10ths ML into a cart upon refilling with a syringe.

 

[Adrenalynn]

Flip - if my theory of why that's the case holds true, that should change by altering the diameter of your syringe. The meniscus would be calculated likely as 2πrdσ, making it directly attributable to the radius. Of course, that won't mean much since that's the correction, but it'll be some derivative of that. 30% seems extreme unless the syringe is very large in diameter. But as always - experience trumps theory any day of the week! I just like to know the why-and-how. It's a personal failing. Are you consistently holding it at eye-level when drawing the fluid into the syringe? (That's direct at you too, Belle)

 

[Belletrist]

not while filling, but checked at eye level. :hmm:

 

[calla2]

Yesterday I got too lazy to pop the cap and o-ring out of a carto for refilling and just stuck the syringe in blindly. I was conservative so there was no overfill and it worked like a charm, although I probably could have added more juice and had a longer time before needing to refill. When I needed to refill today I did take of the cap and o-ring before refilling with my syringe because I wanted the carto to be as full as possible.

 

[FlipnOut]

Actually, the mixes that I've made all go into syringes for storage. They're easier for me to get than bottles. I have a few different sizes of syringes, and the rule seems to hold true on all sizes. Vape until flavor goes away, then fill with syringe, I check the hash marks then fill on the outside of the carto in 3 places 120 degrees (or thereabouts) apart, .3 .2 .2 drawing the needle out while filling. This generally leaves the top moist. If it doesn't, I squeeze in a bit more. Again, the nicest thing about syringe filling is that you can pull out anything that shouldn't be there. Almost without fail, I use .7 ml to fill a carto without overflowing. I read from the bottom of the meniscus, I think that's how we were taught in HS Chem, but can't remember for sure.

 

[antithesis]

so you are LESS inclined to overfill with a syringe? i'd think i'd be more apt to, cause i can't 'see' what i'm doing inside there. needless to say, i'm going to give it a whirl with some borrowed supplies from work, tonight.

 

[hueysds]

just did another, no blow-out necessary. i think, at the risk of a few cartastrophes here and there, this no-opening-the-cart method will be my usual.

Belle, you spinning them too? I think I might give this a try, sounds easy - I had kinda given up on refilling at the moment after a few bad refills and especially after my over compulsive V4L ordering (I'm up to my eyeballs in cartos these days, wifey just yelled at me for ordering an organizer for them - she thinks it means I'm planning for more 8-o)

 

[hueysds]

wonder if you syringe fill, spin, stick syringe straight in to the center and suck up any leftover if that would keep the gurgles away...

 

[Belletrist]

i didn't spin, and had no gurgles. (which, actually, i have a lot of, lol).

anti, i think it's just that when i can't see what i'm doing i'm less inclined to like... try to fit a lil more in and a lil more. i'm just like... better quit while i'm ahead.

it vapes better than my others have tho, i have no clue why!