Severely Reduced Performance after boiling out cartos?

[MX5]

I have tried almost all of the methods here and it's just too much work but I can't throw away something that might still be useful.

Since January I have bought about 1500 cartos and have tossed about 100. Currently, I have about 900 used cartos collected and am planning to try this method:

Soak in hot water 15 minutes, rinse and resoak.
Soak in PGA if I can find some, rinse and resoak in water.
Boil to get rid of any remaining alcohol
Place battery end up on paper towels and leave them there for a week.
Take a drag off of the dried ones and if they are difficult to drag off, toss them, otherwise save for the next refill session.

I probably won't do this too soon because I like fresh cartos and hate dripping. I'm a little on the lazy side and it's easier to go to the 7-11 and buy a pack of cigarettes if I get that desperate.

For PGA what about using Everclear, is that what it's called? It's pretty high proof stuff. I think we use to drink that in College mixed in Punch, we called it Trash Can Punch 'cause we mixed it in a dorm room trash can, yes we did use a trash bag liner! A couple of these and you were done for the night!

BTW Loner, what's your Fav Vapes since you have tried so many??

Why smoke when You Can vape!!

 

[Adrenalynn]

He doesn't live in Texas.

 

[dale1962]

For PGA what about using Everclear, is that what it's called? It's pretty high proof stuff. I think we use to drink that in College mixed in Punch, we called it Trash Can Punch 'cause we mixed it in a dorm room trash can, yes we did use a trash bag liner! A couple of these and you were done for the night!

BTW Loner, what's your Fav Vapes since you have tried so many??

Why smoke when You Can VAPE!!

We use to do that at parties also the everclear and hawaian punch and also soaked fruit in it by the end of the nite everything was red.We called it a p.j. party

 

[MX5]

He doesn't live in Texas.

Not sure what living in Texas has to do with using Everclear?

We used the same Punch too Dale!

BTW, I went to college in Iowa, Go Hawkeyes!

Why smoke when You Can VAPE!!

 

[Adrenalynn]

Numerous states, including Florida (and California), limit the purity (ie. alcohol content limited by law) of "Everclear".

 

[lonercom]

@MX5, thanks for the suggestion but as adrenalynn said, everclear is not sold in Florida and I'm probably going to be stuck with a strong Vodka soak.

As far as favorite vapes, I tend to prefer variety and switch 5 or 6 different flavors every day. I do prefer the fruits over everything else. I especially like the Peach, Pear, Blueberry, Strawberry and Reapberry. I can't wait for the WoW cartos for these.

BTW I AM considering tossing all of the blanks when all of my Juice is gone and sticking with prefilleds. When WOWcarts drop to about $6.00 a box (Someday, I hope) They will be truly disposable and not worth the effort to clean them.

 

[bones25]

WOW! Loner, I think I have seen a pic of your stash somewhere...it is awesome!

 

[lonercom]

See! This always happens. Since I talked about doing it, I had to get it done.

I Soaked 350 Cartos in hot water Sunday. It took 5 rinses to get the water clear.

I found Everclear 75% alcohol at a liquor store for $20.00 (WOW) and soaked them for half an hour Monday.

Rinsed in hot water 2 more times and boiled to cook off any remaining alcohol. (I hope my sponsor doesn't find out

Set them to dry battery side down. After 24 hours I wnt back and blew through 25 of them and drowned my counter. Left them to sit for another 24 hours.

Tonight I'll check the rest and turn them battery side up but they are no where near dry and probably won't be for at least a week.

Let ya know what happens next..

 

[krazie_Kid]

I do not boil, I have a good vid of how to clean cartos tho.

YouTube - How to clean cartos

 

[RippleInStillWater]

We use to do that at parties also the everclear and hawaian punch and also soaked fruit in it by the end of the nite everything was red.We called it a p.j. party

We used to play 'Drink Bob', then 'Drink 5-0', and then ' Drink Whomever' show came after as it didn't seem to matter as much

Back to the subject, drying is the tricky part in my eyes (I oven-dry like I saw in some thread), I worry about the wick and its stability/flavor as I think the wire rusts up a little........

 

[K24A3]

Anyone tried drying the cartoz in a Clothes Dryer for say 15-30 minutes?

I imagine they would come out super dry and all warm'n'fluffy lol

 

[lonercom]

Found a few in a pocket after the laundry. They were clean and vaped nicely. Considering putting 10 or 15 in a knotted sock.

Wednesday Drying update: Blew through the cartos that I blew through Tues. and once again drowned the paper towel. I'm missing my air pump and thinking it may be time to replace it but then again I might try the fryer thing first.

 

[bones25]

Re clothes dryer....someone used it with them in a sock I think and the cartos
?sharp edges cut each others labels up tumbling around.....maybe use the shelf for drying tennis shoes and stand them up packed tightly like *sardines* in a box of some kind on that shelf

 

[HBAndrew]

I don't see why people go to so much trouble, I just run mine under a slow running hot tap, blow from mouth end because it gets more out, repeat a few times, taryn spin any excess out the mouth end, and refill instantly. Sometimes I get very little vapor for a while but thats probably because there is still a little water in them, but after a couple minutes of vaping the water away they are back to full performance again

Perhaps once they have gotten wet, letting them dry just makes all the filler stick and clog up causing a harder vape, but when I tried boiling and drying it was awful and all the labels started to peel.

 

[nightsong]

Has anyone tried to clean them with a steamer?

 

[TrashcanCandy]

Sorry to bring back an old topic, but in response to the OP, I was having the same problem after boiling the old cartos I had gotten on sale (the Premiums I didn't have a problem with...I'm talking the old ones with the hard caps). I found that taking the end cap off and poking around in the filler gently with a safety pin fixed it. I think the filler got kind of compacted during the boiling and drying and wasn't as porous anymore.

 

[doots]

I still dont understand where ppl think boiling attys helps..
It usually ruins them quickly.

Hot water is all you need to rinse out old flavors.

 

[TrashcanCandy]

I think it would have taken more than just rinsing with hot water to get that Nuport crap out completely...

 

[doots]

I think it would have taken more than just rinsing with hot water to get that Nuport crap out completely...

If you are trying to get out menthol use PGA or maybe try a new carto if that doesnt work. Boiling might get your menthol out but does other damage to a 1.75 carto.. toss it and start fresh.

 

[Mabbo]

Ok, thought I would add my 2 cents on this.

I tried the boiling method and found it to be.. well kind of silly. My thinking is this. Putting cartos in boiling water does get them hot sure, but it does not flow water through the carto to clean them out. Least thats how I look at it. I found that with repeated boilings, I still could not get them very clean.

The method I found that seems to work the best is using a turkey baster. I boil water in my electric tea pot and use a full baster 2 times per cart, pushing water from the open end through the battery end. This always seems to get all the juice and flavor out of it completely. I use this method all the time and I have never had a flavor overlap. I then blow through the cart to get the remaining bit of water out, then just stand them up on a paper towl and leave them for 3-5 days, then i fill them with about 20 drops, no spin or nothing. I then let them sit for another 24 hours just to make sure all the juice is saoked in, and poof they all work fine. Now sometimes I will have to take a paper clip and push it all the way through the cart (carefully) and spin it around to reshape the hole, but not to often.

To add another thing to this, before I even consider cleaning a cart, I always take the cap off and inspect the inside batting, if I see a browning color in the middle, I just toss the cart, becouse normally for me that means I burned the darn thing using it the first time, and no matter how well you clean it, i still taste the slight burnt taste.

Anyway, like everyone else, I just try to get a little more life out of the cartos, even if I only can use it 1 more time, it still saves me a few bucks, some I have been using for over a month already, and some I only get a few times out of.

What I have recently began doing is just buying the juice and the coolcarts, since I seem to be unable to burn them like the regular carts, I get far more use out of them so far, plus I dont have to deal with some of the bad batches of prefilled cartos, that i for some reason get.

Have fun and keep vaping

Mabbo