Strike 3 - cartotanks out!

[PRIMER]

So a couple weeks ago I bought a cheapo DCT carto tank. It hit *GREAT* on the first day, and I was stoked.
On the second day, it started leaking all over thru the 510 connection. On my next vape store visit I got a replacement *NAME BRAND* 1.5 ohm carto for it, took it home and primed it well... It fried the crap out of my juice, I'm talking a choking burnt tasting vape that i could not abide. Today I was back at the vape store, they wrote it off as firing it unprimed (I PRIMED IT!), so I bought another 2.0 ohm carto, primed and filled it in the store...This time no burnet flavor, in fact hardly anything at all just a flooded carto, mouthful of juice and hardly any vapor. I chucked the tank, new carto, juice and all in the trash (kept the drip tip) and bought a vivi nova and dual coil clearo. I'm satisfied with both, but neither one hits like I remember that DCT hitting on the first day.

Hardware Heartache. This is all part of the journey to Vapeland, right?

 

[The Ocelot]

That's a drag. I use carto tanks almost exclusively and love them. My tanks are from IBTanked and Valley View Vapes. I hope you have better lucky with the vivi & clearo.

 

[iLovesRedBull]

In my opinion the one thing to spend good money on is a higher quality tank with a nice seal on the bottom so the carto doesn't slip out and pour all your juice down your battery/mod. I have 4 tanks that I will never use again because they did that, and I went and bought the nicest $50 tank my shop had and fell in love and now I have 4 of them. They never leak, consistent airflow and very durable. I would suggest buying a pretty decent tank if you can spare the money. Or if you dont mind using the flanged cartos, get a tank that has the locking feature and it wont ever slip out but you are limited to the flanged cartos on that tank. Just my .2

 

[MarchHare]

Don't give up on carto tanks. Try getting familiar with cartomizers first. Try boge and kangers and be patient when filling them. Use the condom method and let sit overnite. Once you become familiar with them tanks are great, just prep your prepunched carto like you did before inserting. Lots of good Youtube intsruction out there, PBusardo just did one. Get a good tank ( I like IBTanked) and take a look at Baditude's carto tank blog .

 

[PRIMER]

I'm liking the vivi nova alot, built like a tank and hitting like a champ!

 

[Baditude]

Knowing nothing about the way you vape, I'm wondering had you only adjusted your vaping techique would you have not flooded your carto and had a better experience.

One must allow the cartomizer time to receive more liquid from the tank each time you take puff. If you are a hard or impatient puffer, you could be pulling too much liquid into the cartomizer and flooding it, despite the effort you put into prepping the carto properly.

Slow, gentle, steady 4-6 second pulls work best for me. You can't puff on these as if they were an analog.

You didn't say how many holes were in the carto's you used, nor what consistancy the juice that you used, nor what voltage that you were using. It's possible you had too many holes for the consistancy of the juice that you were using. Using a low resistance cartomizer with certain flavors (ie fruit flavors) will most definitely result in burnt, fried juice, especially so if using high voltage.

Just chalk it up to inexperience. All of us went through a learning curve with cartotanks in the beginning, including myself. Instead of chucking everything in the garbage and coming here to complain, why not come here asking for advice instead?

There are plenty of vapors here who are successful using cartotanks that can offer advice based on their mistakes and successes.

 

[PRIMER]

LOL I'm that kinda guy...that cartotank had it's chance and blew it...maybe someday some other tank will step up, but not that $7 one.

 

[Uno mas]

That's a drag. I use carto tanks almost exclusively and love them. My tanks are from IBTanked and Valley View Vapes. I hope you have better lucky with the vivi & clearo.

+1, love both my IBT tanks, just ordered some IkenVape 510 Mega Fusion LR punched carto's, been waiting for a while for these to be back in stock, looking forward to trying them out

Primer glad the vivi nova seems to be working for you, many have had good luck with them, yes hardware troubles are part of the journey, good luck and enjoy

 

[Baditude]

LOL I'm that kinda guy...that cartotank had it's chance and blew it...maybe someday some other tank will step up, but not that $7 one.

That might have been the problem right there. You get what you pay for.

 

[PRIMER]

That might have been the problem right there. You get what you pay for.

Well after replacing the carto twice it was $13, about all I could afford for a test run.

 

[PRIMER]

Vivi nova = $14 with spare parts.
Live and learn.

 

[TH0MAS CR0WN]

It's most likely the carto, not the tank. Your first situation, it was probably a cheap china carto that came with the tank. I agree, those suck and should be tossed.

In the 2nd situation, I suspect that the hole/punch might have been too big (or there were one too many).

You really can't blame it on the tanks, afterall, tanks are pretty much just a tool used to not have to refill cartos all the time. Like someone suggested, try getting better cartos and punch it once. Fill the carto right. I'd suggest boge cartos. and if you're using VV, start with the lowest voltage setting and work your way up till you get the production you desire.

 

[The Ocelot]

Vivi nova = $14 with spare parts.
Live and learn.

Keep your eyes open for sales. $14 is on the high side.

 

[kiwivap]

Hi Primer,
yeah, some people have issues with carto tanks. The vivi novas work well - get the Vision vivi novas. Heads can be cleaned and dryburned too. I'll put a video below which shows how to clean and dryburn them. Second half of the video is on how to rebuild - for tinkerers. Phil Busardo, the guy in the video uses them a lot. I do too.

 

[hunterbio15]

do not give up on carto tanks till you try the texas tanks from vapedudes. i promise

 

[Trick]

It's most likely the carto, not the tank. Your first situation, it was probably a cheap china carto that came with the tank. I agree, those suck and should be tossed.

In the 2nd situation, I suspect that the hole/punch might have been too big (or there were one too many).

You really can't blame it on the tanks, afterall, tanks are pretty much just a tool used to not have to refill cartos all the time. Like someone suggested, try getting better cartos and punch it once. Fill the carto right. I'd suggest boge cartos. and if you're using VV, start with the lowest voltage setting and work your way up till you get the production you desire.

The leaking could easily have been the tank, especially if it was a really cheap one. I've had some with bad seals that leaked like crazy... hell, I have a $50 one here that I'd put up in the classifieds so I never have to use it again, but I just can't do that to anyone else.

The rest -- well, the burning sounds like too much voltage on a low-resistance carto, and the flooding could be the carto, the punch, or it could just be bad filling technique. Not enough detail to tell.

Vivi's are OK. A lot of people love them. I'm not one of them, but if they work for you, great.

 

[LV SuzyQ]

Don't give up yet. I'm still having trouble but I'm determined to master this! I'm like a little pitbull ( don't know how to give up) and think how you'll feel once you've mastered it. But most important keep vaping.

 

[PRIMER]

My big issue was getting a hig hit - big vapor, I'm getting it from DC clearo right now. I'm just using EGO 650s - nothing special, but trying to get em to hit hard. The vivi hits pretty hard too, but...do they have em in dual-coil?

 

[TH0MAS CR0WN]

I understand the whole leaking due to weak O-rings from the tank, but in the OP he said it was leaking through the 510 connection, which is due to the carto being flooded by either too big a punch or too many punches. Doubt the tank itself caused the carto to flood. But juice leaking from the tank due to bad O-rings is def possible.

The leaking could easily have been the tank, especially if it was a really cheap one. I've had some with bad seals that leaked like crazy... hell, I have a $50 one here that I'd put up in the classifieds so I never have to use it again, but I just can't do that to anyone else.

The rest -- well, the burning sounds like too much voltage on a low-resistance carto, and the flooding could be the carto, the punch, or it could just be bad filling technique. Not enough detail to tell.

Vivi's are OK. A lot of people love them. I'm not one of them, but if they work for you, great.

 

[kiwivap]

My big issue was getting a hig hit - big vapor, I'm getting it from DC clearo right now. I'm just using EGO 650s - nothing special, but trying to get em to hit hard. The vivi hits pretty hard too, but...do they have em in dual-coil?

No, the vivis don't come in dual coil. You could try the 1.8 ohm vivi head though, if you haven't.