the life of a cartomizer?

[ontheroadtoquitting]

Hi all!

Still a noob and probably forever will be. Every time I think I got it, I think of another question or realize I have a long road ahead of me learning everything.

I LOVE having cartomizers and refilling them. Great idea. I put a few drops in after so many puffs to keep the wick wet, so it doesn't burn up.

Okay.

Here's the questions I have:

What is the true life of a cartomizer, such as:
How many puffs should I get out of a full one?
How many times can I refill it before I throw it away?

I'm always afraid I'm gonna burn it out. Because I looked at some threads where the filler inside starting burning up and a lot of people were questioning what exactly they we're inhaling when it does that...I don't want to let it get to that point.

I also noticed that through a pass through, it heats up A LOT. Is that normal?

It just never ends, does it?

Thanks for all the help again, really! It helps sooooo much!

 

[enoonmai]

Welcome on the road. My experience with carts and a pass through is that if it gets hot, put it down for a min or two. As far as how long they last, out of the 50 or so I have gone through, some can be refilled for days and others can be refilled only once and others not at all. Some hold 20 drops and some only 10. I guess what I am trying to say is that they seem to be constructed inconsistently. A learning curve you will figure out as time goes on. Just make sure that you refill when they are still slightly moist, it seems to keep them alive longer.

 

[ontheroadtoquitting]

As far as how long they last, out of the 50 or so I have gone through, some can be refilled for days and others can be refilled only once and others not at all. .

But how can you tell, I guess, would be a better question to ask? funny smell? funny taste? what should I be looking for?

 

[Madame Psychosis]

I sometimes top-up rather than wait until I get close to burning, so I can't answer the number of puffs, but in terms of refills, I find a wide variation.

It seems a few will last me up to 15 refills, many will last me 5-7, and a couple will just taste weird or perform terribly after the first one or two. (I still don't know how others diagnose cartomizer death. But really I think it's just a question of how much you can tolerate any declines in performance over time - because it will start to wick poorly or not vaporize as well.)

(About those few that last 15 refills: Someone should start a cartomizer breeding program to isolate and strengthen longevity in the species. )

The burning is a real problem for me at 5/6v which is how I use my cartomizers. Sometimes even with 2 second drags, well spaced, on a full cartomizer, I'll get a burned taste and don't know why. I get paranoid and if the burned taste is more than faint, I feel I have to toss the carto...inhaling burned polyfill would not be good. So I guess I still have some issues to work out in my cartomizer maintenance.

 

[juicy97]

I refill mine until the quit working. I have been using the cartos for about a month now and change them out frequently to change flavors. I have only had 1 die out completely on me.

The reason the cartos get hotter with the passthrough is because your vaping at a higher voltage than a regular battery. Never had any filler start getting burned though.

 

[enoonmai]

As too when to refill? In my experience it took awhile off analogs to get my taste buds working again, when that happens you will know. Untill then, when they start to taste like carp, refill. If they taste like carp right away, change juice and await the return of your taste buds.

 

[natura]

I refill mine until the quit working. I have been using the cartos for about a month now and change them out frequently to change flavors. I have only had 1 die out completely on me.

The reason the cartos get hotter with the passthrough is because your vaping at a higher voltage than a regular battery. Never had any filler start getting burned though.

Juicy, Have you ever took the filler out to actually check if they got burned some? I've read many don't even know it's happening and some report after looking they were shocked. Just a fyi

BTW Hoping to see my Bloogs today!!!

 

[d00dmiked00d]

I'm still a n00b as well and I was wondering the same thing. I got my kit this past Saturday and have been using it since. I've already thrown out 2 cartomizers that started to taste burnt. I thought maybe I was overusing it and burned something inside the cartomizer but i figured it was best to toss them rather than keep using them. If anyone has any suggestions or any help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mrjaguar]

I've noticed the E9 carto's seem to last a shorter amount of time than kr8 cartos do. the draw on the E9's get very hard after 3 or 4 refills, while I've got kr8 carts that I've refilled 7 or 8 times that still draw great.

 

[sonnetjie]

How to tell when you need to refill... First I start loosing flavor and then I get a strange flavor. As soon as I get my first taste or smell of that very distinctive flavor I stop. Almost like burnt marshmellows. After a few times, you'll know exactly what your tasting. Seems to be working OK for me.

 

[Madame Psychosis]

I'm still a n00b as well and I was wondering the same thing. I got my kit this past Saturday and have been using it since. I've already thrown out 2 cartomizers that started to taste burnt. I thought maybe I was overusing it and burned something inside the cartomizer but i figured it was best to toss them rather than keep using them. If anyone has any suggestions or any help it would be greatly appreciated.

Sometimes it just means you've been vaping them too hard (taking really frequent, long drags) and not giving the juice enough time to settle down the wick. If the atomizer component gets hot but there's not enough juice left around it, it'll burn the surrounding material.
(I switch off among 3-4 cartomizers when I'm in chain vaping mode to avoid this.)

If that isn't the case, though, then it's a good (and economical) idea to learn to top up/refill your cartomizers with more juice. There are tons of refilling tricks and tips around, and videos on YouTube about different techniques for refilling.

Some people say the key to preventing it from burning is to stop as soon as you start to lose flavor (even if there's still vapor) and top up then. I started watching out for that today and yesterday, and didn't lose any cartos to burning even at 5v. Hope it keeps working.

 

[ontheroadtoquitting]

thanks for all the info....i just keep topping off my carto's after so many puffs anyways, but when you're on the go..can't really do that. I was looking for an answer and yinz got it down. Thanks!!

 

[theBike45]

As we can see from these posts, cartomizers, while infinitely better than dripping or cartidges, are not quite there yet, technologically. We need heating elements that don't burn as easily and/or a system that will not allow vaping when they get too hot, and also a better desing that will automatically feed any remaining liquid to the heating element. I see this as the last obstacle on the path to a really convenient vaping.