You should always completely fill the carto before you insert it in the tank and then fill the tank. Personally I use a syringe to fill all my cartos, and I dont know how you fill yours, but if you use a syringe you dont have to let it sit at all before putting it in the tank and using it.
What is the PG/VG ratio of the juice your using. I ask bc the pre-punched hole is small and if your using a thicker VG juice, it most likely is too thick to feed well into the small pre-punched hole. I use a Smoktech 3.5ml tank too, and I use the Ressurector cartos in it. I find only my thin 80/20 juice feeds into the small pre-punched hole pretty well. Anything thicker and the hole needs to be made bigger. Even with the 80/20 juice I use, I still make the hole the slightest bit bigger using a finishing nail and hammer.
So depending on your juice ratio you might need to make the hole bigger. On another 3.5ml tank I have I use Bobas Bounty in it, which is 100%VG and very thick. I didnt even try to use the tank with the small pre-punched hole bc I knew it would never feed fast enough, if at all, to keep the carto wet. For that juice I make the pre-punched hole quite a bit bigger so it feeds a lot quicker. For thick juices you can even make a second hole on the other side, just remember that juice will feed twice as fast and if the holes are too big youll flood the carto and need to use a new one. When I first started using Bobas in the tank I was making a second hole in the carto, but I found that the second hole made it alot easier to flood the carto unless the holes were perfect, and even when they were the right size I could flood it with dry pulls.
So now I just only have the one punched hole, and just make it big enough to keep the carto wet, and I find it works alot better and doesnt flood.
Heres what my 3.5ml tank looks like with a punched Ressurector:
That carto was originally a pre-punched one with the small hole, but I used a hammer and finishing nail and made it quite a bit bigger. I know you cant tell exactly how big it is, but if you know how small the pre-punched hole is, you can obviously see that its considerably bigger so it properly feeds the 100%VG Bobas Bounty thats in the tank.
You also have to remember to do dry pulls. I know you said you did a few, but they need to be done right. Personally I think dry pulls are the single most important thing in continuing to make a tank work correctly, and their even more important if your using thicker VG juices. Even when the punched hole is the right size, sometimes the tank just wont feed the carto fast enough to continuously keep it wet. Dry pulls force juice into the carto and ensures it doesnt get dry.
I would bet that has a lot to do with why your getting a burnt taste. Either the punched hole is too small for the juice your using, or the hole is the right size but your vaping faster then the tank can feed the juice on its own.
When you do dry pulls you should see little airbubbles come out of the hole. When you first put a new carto in you wont see bubbles bc the carto is still full from you filling it, but once you use it for awhile and do a dry pull you should get some. If you dont get bubbles and you know the cartos not full, then the hole most likely needs to be made bigger. Make it slightly bigger and try again. Continue doing that till the holes the right size. Just remeber to go slow, you can always make it a tad bit bigger if needed, but as soon as you make it too big the carto will just flood and your screwed and need to start again.
With my 80/20 juice I do short hard pulls and get a bunch of tiny airbubbles. I do 4-5 dry pulls or until your not getting any or getting very little bubbles, and then I know the coils fully wet again.
For the 100% VG Bobas juice, I find that the short hard pulls do work, but doing a single longer pull basically as hard as you can works better. Instead of a bunch of little bubbles, I get a single fairly big bubble. Do that till you dont get any more or very few and your good to go again. I find that the less juice thats in the carto, the bigger the bubble is when I dry pull with Bobas. As I do them and juice is being fed into the carto, they get smaller bc the carto is taking less and less in with each dry pull. Once its a small bubble or non at all I know Im full.
Try doing this and I think youll have much better luck. Remember to do dry pulls periodically while your vaping and you shouldnt burn the carto
Just banging taste and thick clouds of goodness.
