So Far...Disappointed in M401! No Vapor!

[CJsKee]

I received my first M401 from absolutelyecigs on Wednesday. I decided on the M401 after much reading and video watching on this forum. I love the way it looks and feels...and all the videos showed it producing humongus amounts of vapor. Being new and somewhat clueless, I did not order any extra batteries or atomizers.

I was, of course, very excited and immeditely started charging the batteries. Charged the 1st one for 12 hrs, put on the atomizer and a Marlboro cartridge and took my first hit...NOTHING!

I have been messing with it for 2 days now and still am not getting good vapor. I have juice on order from Johnson Creek but have not received it yet, so I only have cartridges.

I can take a little primer puff and get some vapor, but when I take a full drag there is hardly any. I've tried long puffs, short puffs, hard, easy, and everything in between - still not much vapor...sometimes not any.

I've charged both batteries now and they both work the same. I've re-charged a couple of times...once about 3 hrs and once about 4. Still no diff in vapor.

I did blow the yuk stuff off the atomizer, but didn't have any juice to drip on it. Someone in a different thread said to put a cartridge on and stand it up so some juice would drip on the atomizer. I tried that and still not much vapor.

I've ordered another 401 from dietsmokes and am hoping to have better luck. I don't have the money to invest in e-cigs that don't work. I'm smoking more analogs than I want, but I'm just not having any luck with the 401 I have.

Can anyone share anything that might help? Is there a break-in period for these things? Will the juice make a difference? Are any of the components maybe bad? If I contact absolutelyecigs, what would I tell them?

I'm sure all of this has been addressed elsewhere in the forum, but I'm brain dead at this point and would appreciate any help ya'll can give me...I really think I would love vaping if I can get a good e-cig.

Thanks for any advice...

Kee

 

[Happy Jack]

Hey Kee!

Don't give up hope. You may just have to wait for your liquid to arrive. Often the carts you get prefilled from the manufacturer don't really cut it. Once you get your liquid, you can try topping off a cart and/or dripping on the atomizer. If it's still not enough vapour, you may want to try adding a bit of glycerin to your liquid.

Keep posting your progress here and there are a lot of good people that'll help you through it. Don't worry. Lots of happy people with M401 units...

 

[4myhealth]

Kee, get yourself some glycerine as Jack said. You can buy it at Walmart (in the craft part of the store under cake decorating, etc. AND you probably have a 24 hour Walmart near you somewhere - if not, they may still be open) or at Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc. It is CHEAP - $2.00 for more than you will need...The manufacturer is Wilton's - they also sell a few bottles that are flavored (butter flavor, almond, vanilla that have PG instead of VG). Also, Walmart sells some LorAnn's flavors for those that want to mix their own flavors (see the DIY section)..

Add a few drops to your cart and the vapor is AMAZING!! Sometimes I have to tilt the tip of the e-cig up or down, just depends, but I have had a ton of vapor since I began using the glycerin.

Don't give up!!! Good Luck!

p.s. if you don't have an eye dropper type device, be sure to pick one of those up as well. They can be found in the pharmacy section of the store. I just use one of my kids medicine droppers....

 

[CJsKee]

Thanks ya'll...I appreciate your help. People in this forum are so nice!! Hope I can return the favor some day I'll get the glycerine and give it a try.

 

[Christopher]

I received my first M401 from absolutelyecigs on Wednesday. I decided on the M401 after much reading and video watching on this forum. I love the way it looks and feels...and all the videos showed it producing humongus amounts of vapor. Being new and somewhat clueless, I did not order any extra batteries or atomizers.

I was, of course, very excited and immeditely started charging the batteries. Charged the 1st one for 12 hrs, put on the atomizer and a Marlboro cartridge and took my first hit...NOTHING!

I have been messing with it for 2 days now and still am not getting good vapor. I have juice on order from Johnson Creek but have not received it yet, so I only have cartridges.

I can take a little primer puff and get some vapor, but when I take a full drag there is hardly any. I've tried long puffs, short puffs, hard, easy, and everything in between - still not much vapor...sometimes not any.

I've charged both batteries now and they both work the same. I've re-charged a couple of times...once about 3 hrs and once about 4. Still no diff in vapor.

I did blow the yuk stuff off the atomizer, but didn't have any juice to drip on it. Someone in a different thread said to put a cartridge on and stand it up so some juice would drip on the atomizer. I tried that and still not much vapor.

I've ordered another 401 from dietsmokes and am hoping to have better luck. I don't have the money to invest in e-cigs that don't work. I'm smoking more analogs than I want, but I'm just not having any luck with the 401 I have.

Can anyone share anything that might help? Is there a break-in period for these things? Will the juice make a difference? Are any of the components maybe bad? If I contact absolutelyecigs, what would I tell them?

I'm sure all of this has been addressed elsewhere in the forum, but I'm brain dead at this point and would appreciate any help ya'll can give me...I really think I would love vaping if I can get a good e-cig.

Thanks for any advice...

Kee

You know what I had the very same problem. I fixed it by pulling the stuffing in the cart up even with the cup that's holding it. Problem was the wick was not getting good contact with the liquid. I use a paperclip to move the stuffing.

 

[Sumratio]

There does seem to be a short cook in period. Also on the videos of people vaping, a lot of them are dripping liquid right on the metal wick of the atomizer. I use the m401 have an EVO and a Pilot and hold my m401 parallel to the floor and put a little half drop on both sides of the wick to prime it. I see a lot of people dripping in right on top but worried about flooding atomizers and getting excessive residue ont the atomizer or worse getting it in the battery/switch compartment.

 

[snf]

401 was my first cig, very disappointed, moved on to the 901 and 801. WAY better xperience!

 

[Sumratio]

I thought about the 901 but it looks clunky to me and I was worried it would feel to foreign compared to an analog.

 

[Lorddrek]

I have had 2 Pilot starter kits for over a month now and they work fine. Yes there is a learning curve. Yes the cartridges can be a pain. If you want vapor add PG or VG. If you want throat hit get higher nicotine. You made a mistake not getting juice with your E-Cig. Sounds like your correcting that. Pull the cartridge out. Drip right on the metal wick. Little tiny drips. Not a whole drop cause it will make a mess. Watch it soak in like a sponge. I do 3-4 tiny driplets. 7-8 on a dry atomizer like I suspect you may have by now. You should get about 4-6 awesome hits off that before needing to drip again. Enjoy. I know I do.

Lorddrek

P.S. Search my posts in the new member forum. I wrote a nice little M401 tips guide you will find useful.

 

[Lorddrek]

My rechargable E-Cig experience is solely with the M401/402 Pilot Hybrid. I did struggle with it at first but have learned how to use it well enough to really enjoy the product. I will list my observations here in no real order.

Light slowly flashes-This seems to mean the atomizer "Thinks" it is dry and cuts power to avoid damage. Most of the time this is the case. I find my shorter batteries do this more often for some reason. One more than the other so sensitivity must vary.

Light quickly flashes-The battery needs to be recharged. It blinks about 10 times. Charging times take 3 hours for the long and 2 1/4 hours for the short.

Power cuts off after long drag-After at least a 5 second constant drag power shuts off for 2 minutes. Another safety feature. It takes about 2 minutes for it to work again. You can avoid this by taking a couple of smaller puffs.

Cartridge is dry-I notice an unpleasant plastic taste and often the light will slowly flash. I really find the whole cartridge thing to more trouble than it's worth and drip if at all possible. My wife on the other hand thinks I look like a drug addict and prefers the convienence of the cartridge. The cartridge wick can vary in size and performance. An understuffed one wicks great and is easy to fill but will leak a lot. More wick material holds the liquid better but seems slower to get fluid to the atomizer.

E-Cigarette gurgles-Too much fluid somewhere. I remove the atomizer and blow it out a few times. A good drop or two of fluid comes out around the metal wick. I wipe this off and screw it back on. The cartridge (if using) will also need to be cleaned. I push out the cartridge and swab the outside with a Q-Tip. Cartridge mouthpiece can hold a lot of loose juice. It has an inner stem inside to keep liquid from coming out of the mouthpiece hole. I take the tip of a Q-Tip and pull at it a bit so it can reach the very bottom. You know if you got it right because it will be soaked.

Not enough vapor -I started with Johnson Creek VG at 18mg strength and vapor was marginal. No real throat hit either. Found myself sucking at it like I was working a thick milkshake. So I bought some generic PG at 36mg and got massive vapor and throat hit. Very noticable nicotine flavor. Lighter puffs gave me a satisfactory hit. Headache too. Most recently I bought Cash PG at 24mg and this has a nice balance of vapor and throat hit with a more subdued nicotine flavor. Heavy vaping brings out a bit of headache. I plan on trying some 16mg next for this reason.

Too much vapor-Is this even a problem? Actually when dripping around the 4-5th hit I will get some serious vapor and a rather unpleasant tasting hit. More puffs will do the same. My theory is that all the good stuff has been inhaled and the residual liquid from over dripping is all thats left. I find smaller drips and eventual atomizer cleaning/swapping cures this.

Atomizer loose for improved airflow-I have not noticed any change by doing this. My wife bent hers so the atomizer does not seat squarely and leaves a good gap on one side. No improvement in airflow. Looking at all the the air passages the mouthpiece is by far the smallest so I would start there if more flow is your desire. I have not tried this yet.

Priming dry atomizer-After cleaning I am amazed at how much liquid I need to drip for it to start vaporizing. It takes me at least several small drips to get wet enough to work. Then just 2-3 after that gets me a few good puffs before repeating. Bear in mind I do not use full drops because it can't soak in fast enough and gets messy. I form a small droplet and let that soak in before dabbing again.

Battery drains fast-Because the switch is so sensitive most anything can set it off. Blow on the LED tip to see. When not in use I always remove the atomizer/cartridge section to keep it from heating. Just the LED will not drain the battery because it uses so little power. Find a good case to store your stuff safely. Batteries rolling around loose could short out and ruin them. Protect this by covering them with a pen cap at the very least.

In all I am very happy with my Pilot and am amazed at how well it works. There most certainly is a learning curve but I hope what I posted helps speed you thru it. While not perfect these things are far closer than I ever would have imagined. I think most anyone can use the Pilot with exellent results and would recommend them to anyone starting out.

Lorddrek

 

[Vapor]

When i got my EVO, i hated it.

But once i got the hang of it, it really is a pretty reliable piece of hardware.

My MAIN problem was that i kept on getting juice in my mouth for every single drag that i took. I learned to only drop around 5 drops to refill cartridge so as to not get a shot of juice in my mouth. I still think the whole process of refilling carts for the EVO/M401 a pain in the .... But once you refill the cartridges the right way, i hardly get any juice in my mouth anymore.

I will give a thumbs up for the EVO/M401 that it consumes less liquid than the 901's.

Now your problem is vapor production. You might have faulty atomizers if you are only getting negligible vapor after 2 days of messing with it. I suggest to contact absolutelyecigs and get a replacement.

 

[ceejay]

your atomizer wick may be too dry. once you get liquid and drip, the atomizer should kick in.

 

[calligal]

I have an 801 and to be honest I was lucky my vendor included some juice with my starter kit. I too suffered from lack of vapor until the atomizer broke in and I became less cautious in dripping on my atomizer.
I can't find any pg liquid but as other mentioned I found vg at Michael's craft store (Stupid Johann didn't have any or any Loranns flavoring here in California)
I quickly made a mixture of almond, vanilla, and cherry with some vg and distilled water using Jaax's program and while the taste is virually undetectable (but so it was in the juice) I noticed that the vapor was more pronounced.

I am totally new to vaping but my experience tells me that the previous advise is accurate. You need juice (even if zero nicotine) and the atomizer does take time to cure.

I had an atomizer which started off okay but around day 6 the cart filler kept pulling out of the cart and sticking to the atomizer (occured 3 times and I only looked because the vap had become so thin), then the vap seemed to stop but when I looked it was resting up where the atomizer was and so thick I could not even see the mesh, finally the juice I had dripped started leaking out where the battery and atomizer met. (Pretty much screwed up the battery and that is when I contacted the vendor who replaced both the battery and atomizer.)

As newbs we can read all we want but we have so little knowledge. I just found out today the the juice I have been using is not know for being strong in the flavor department. Which is a relief as I was beginning to think my tastebuds were defective.

Frack..don't you just hate it when the light blinks 25 times? and has anyone actually counted them? It seems like more to me but I don't think I should have to count if someone else already has.

 

[Closet Toker]

Practice WILL make perfect.

I Love my Pilot M-401!

Tobacco Free 22 Days

 

[CJsKee]

I just received my juice from Johnson Creek...I got the sample deal and what a nice little kit it is...all kinds of good stuff in it and a neat plastic box to keep it in.

Anyway, I have now dripped two small drops on the atomizer and three drops in the cartridge. Still not billows of vapor, but I think I'm getting there. As most of you have suggested, I think the problem was no juice to start with. And a BIG learning curve...

I've got another 401 coming from dietsmokes. If it works better than this one, I'm going to contact absolutelyecigs about it.

Thanks again for all the good advice...you guys are great!

 

[K-Sound Krew]

Did you season the batteries?
(8-12hr charge, then use it a while and charge for another 3hrs, then use the battery till it's completely drained, then give it a full 4hr charge)

Carts are useless on a supa mini, they are more for dripping directly on the atom


But i just got a 401 and I don't like it, the mini fogger is the best supa mini I think, it gives great hits

Just got a lady pipe, now that's awesome

 

[Alanae]

I'm new myself but I also ordered 2 of the M401 kits from absolutely ecigs. The first day my husband was billowing smoke and I couldn't seem to make it to anything! I was getting so incredibly frustrated with the whole process. It took me a few days to get the hang of it and now i LOVE it! We did however get the sample pack of juice from PureSmoker and were dripping the atomizer which made quite a difference. Just be careful about mixing flavors. My husband mixed the 555 cart and dripped a different flavor on the atomizer and swore it tasted like camel poo (no idea how he knows what camel poo tastes like but i'm not asking!).

 

[CJsKee]

LOL Alanae

Yes, I charged the batteries for 12 hours when I received them. Since have charged 2-3-4 hours each several times. Can a battery be over-charged? The charger light is worthless...goes green as soon as battery is inserted, then flashes green-red-green, etc. The charger can be used in usb port, but it's now plugged into wall socket.

OK...I have just now dripped 5 (FIVE) drops of JC vanilla on atomizer and 2 drops into cartridge...NO VAPOR! I am really getting bummed.

Someone earlier suggested dripping plain glycerine...would this work any different than the JC juice?

Kee

 

[K-Sound Krew]

That's way too much
2 drops on the atomiser, that's it

It won't smoke if it's too wet, take out the atomiser, blow it out using a paper towel, then put 1 drop of liquid on the wire mesh

 

[Vapor]

I still stand by that the atomizers you got are no good and should contact wherever you bought it from for replacements.

Its already been more than 2 days and you are still getting almost no vapor.

When i got my EVO it did take a break in period but i would say no more than a day or two of really light vaping cuz i hated it at first.

I would suggest you, if you had the money to spare, to get the 901 instead.