Hello ECF, been vaping for one day now. Just wondering if there are signs once a cart goes empty..burnt taste? no vapor? Total noob question....i know 
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
Signs that a cart is empty?
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It's actually a fairly complicated question...
Burnt taste is your big clue.
But there are various reasons that could happen.
The first thing you need to figure out is when is there not enough juice getting to the atomizer.
That could signal that your cartridge is dry, or that you have a wicking problem.
Only experience can help you figure it out, but check this out...
Dry atomizers, flooded atomizers, and wicking
Basically, you want to keep your atomizer happy with plenty of juice, but not too much as to flood it.
A good sign that it's flooded is that it gets a little harder to draw on and you get little or no vapor.
Flooding it, however, won't hurt it at all, and you can just blow out the extra juice.
Letting it get too dry, on the other hand, is not good for the atomizer supposedly.
But regardless of whether it is bad for the atomizer or not, you still don't want to do it.
You can tell it is too dry when it starts to taste like crap.
A nasty sort of burnt plastic type of taste.
One reason it might get too dry is if you burn through the juice faster than it can wick up more.
That is why people experiment with different kinds of filler materials to use in their cartridges.
If you take only a drag or two every now and then, you should be fine.
But if you use these like a cigarette, the wicking process will have trouble keeping up.
There are ways to deal with this, and people have different methods that work better for them.
And of course, when the cartridge is running low on juice, it needs topping off for this reason.
Burnt taste is your big clue.
But there are various reasons that could happen.
The first thing you need to figure out is when is there not enough juice getting to the atomizer.
That could signal that your cartridge is dry, or that you have a wicking problem.
Only experience can help you figure it out, but check this out...
Dry atomizers, flooded atomizers, and wicking
Basically, you want to keep your atomizer happy with plenty of juice, but not too much as to flood it.
A good sign that it's flooded is that it gets a little harder to draw on and you get little or no vapor.
Flooding it, however, won't hurt it at all, and you can just blow out the extra juice.
Letting it get too dry, on the other hand, is not good for the atomizer supposedly.
But regardless of whether it is bad for the atomizer or not, you still don't want to do it.
You can tell it is too dry when it starts to taste like crap.
A nasty sort of burnt plastic type of taste.
One reason it might get too dry is if you burn through the juice faster than it can wick up more.
That is why people experiment with different kinds of filler materials to use in their cartridges.
If you take only a drag or two every now and then, you should be fine.
But if you use these like a cigarette, the wicking process will have trouble keeping up.
There are ways to deal with this, and people have different methods that work better for them.
And of course, when the cartridge is running low on juice, it needs topping off for this reason.
less vapor and throat hit is the early sign. A burnt taste means you went too far.
I don't get less vapor or throat hit.
Maybe that's because I take 8 second drags.
I plow right through the warning signs, straight to burnt taste.
i've found that putting an extra drop or two in every 20-30 drags seems to work for me.
i am into my ninth day of e cigging and i must say it takes experience to know when to top off a cartomizer.
basically right now i am topping off with seven or so drops every twenty to thirty drags. i have gone through alot of burnt cartomizers.
basically with a fresh blank i use the condom method and fill the fresh empty blank with fifteen drops of e juice and then top off with five or seven drops every twenty to thirty puffs. it is basically a hit or miss thing with me so far.
basically right now i am topping off with seven or so drops every twenty to thirty drags. i have gone through alot of burnt cartomizers.
basically with a fresh blank i use the condom method and fill the fresh empty blank with fifteen drops of e juice and then top off with five or seven drops every twenty to thirty puffs. it is basically a hit or miss thing with me so far.
As DC2 said, burnt/metallic/plastic taste is your first clue that the cart is going dry. Good contact with the atomizer bridge is essential for juice transfer to the bridge and wicking. If the wicking is dry, no juice gets to the bowl that houses the coil, and you start to experience a funny taste. You are basically inhaling the weak vapor from a dry, starved coil that is overheating.
Another thing to check is the filler material in the cart. If the polyfill or whatever you are using as filler gets pushed too far back in the cart, it won't contact the bridge and wicking and you will get bad taste. When it first starts, you might still get vapor, especially with VG juices, but it won't taste right. The filler should be at the edge of the cart opening and not more than about 1/2mm recessed. I like to cut my filler off even with the edge and let the bridge push it back to where it needs to be. A bent paper clip is a good tool to retrieve and position a depressed filler.
Another thing to check is the filler material in the cart. If the polyfill or whatever you are using as filler gets pushed too far back in the cart, it won't contact the bridge and wicking and you will get bad taste. When it first starts, you might still get vapor, especially with VG juices, but it won't taste right. The filler should be at the edge of the cart opening and not more than about 1/2mm recessed. I like to cut my filler off even with the edge and let the bridge push it back to where it needs to be. A bent paper clip is a good tool to retrieve and position a depressed filler.
Thanks everyone for the responses. I have determined that my very first cart has been vaped!
Going to test the boiling method now to see if i can add a new flavor tomorrow.
Noob on da loose
Thanks again!
Going to test the boiling method now to see if i can add a new flavor tomorrow.
Noob on da loose
Thanks again!
Hold up a minute there... were you talking about cartridges or cartomizers?
You said cart, so I think we all assumed you meant cartridge, not cartomizer.
But since you are going to boil it, now I believe you must have been talking about cartomizers.
If you are talking about cartomizers my answer is very different.
The first clue, as Kent said, would be drop in flavor.
If you get to the point of getting any burnt taste, you went way too far.
At that point you are probably inhaling burnt filler material and you'll need to throw that one away.
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I'm doing my best to stop burning out my cartomizers also. I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject here recently and I think my biggest problem was that I was chain vaping and not giving the wick the proper time to rejoice itself. Today I am doing my best to take one or two hits and then put it down for at least a minute or two. Also I tend to always use my 808 passthrough which (from what i hear) can also contribute to premature burning due to higher voltage. So I hope by simply slowing down on my vaping - and of course making sure the filler is always moist - that I can have better luck with my Turbos.
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The first time you are vaping and your mind says *wait a sec, that tasted differently* vape it once more to confirm and it should be on its way. if you refill it at that point, the carto will not die. The dryer it gets, the worse it gets.
All IMO.
All IMO.
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