Trouble with new cartos

[Endosidney]

I've been vaping for about 6 weeks now and have gone through lots of trial and error, equipment, juices, etc.

When using cartos it's been really hit and miss. When filling some of them, they will be perfect for a while, especially the smoke-tech duals. A few are very harsh, they pop, and produce very little vapor. I recently purchased a bunch of Boge LR 2.0's. The first 2 were wonderful especially with Mrs T's red hot cinnamon(talk about TH!!,very good and not overly sweet)! In the 3rd I placed some Mrs T's Tangerine which resulted in harshness, popping, heat, bad taste, and little vapor. I tried it on my egoXL and my Silver Bullet with no change. I'm quite certain there is enough juice in it. Is this what is considered a bad carto?

Sidney

 

[dormouse]

What resistance dual coils? The 1.5 or the 2.5? What are all of the models you are using them on, and the voltages of the models? I know Ego. What is Silver Bullet's voltage - 3.7 or VV? And what else did you use them on?

And what is the PG/VG of your juice, and how did you fill the cartos

How I fill Boge 510 and V4L KR8 cartos

Pop out the soft cap with an unbent paperclip in the mouth hole, very careful not to catch stuffing or the wire loop.
Shake and open the eliquid
Hold a bit of tissue on the threaded end hole, tilt the carto, and add 18+ drops per ml of capacity into the stuffing (Boges are about 1ml)
Clean up the threaded end, tilt open end down into tissue, puff into threaded end to clear air channel (Boges have a defined center air channel and I want to see light through that)
Sop up any loose juice above the stuffing
Cap and let it settle - I lay it on different sides for 15-20 minutes to make sure every bit of stuffing gets damp so I won't singe the carto. if you use thicker juice than me (I use 20% VG or less) then you may need to wait much longer.

While vaping, if the vapor gets a bit light or a bit dry or the carto is getting hotter than normal, I take the carto off the battery and add eliquid. I sometimes use a plastic or delrin drip tip as a mouthpiece on Boge cartos (not to drip into since the juice would head for the central air channel)

I get the best continued wicking and performance out of stuffing type cartos with thin clear juices - 20% or less VG and light clear juices since those are least likely to leave carto clogging residue. I also recommend you learn to use standard resistance cartos like Boge 3.0 and after you have practice at filling, cleaning, settling and sensing when they need more juice, then try hotter cartos.

If I had to guess at your problems without know anything more, maybe you are not filling them properly or fully, not letting them settle, using a thicker juice that doesn't wick/spread well. As I said, I have easy good results with 20% or less VG light color juices.

 

[hairball]

Make sure that after filling them, you let them sit for a minimum of 20 minutes. Roll them around also. This helps to disperse the juice. I've must be the only one that has never had this happen too. I've been using cartomizers for 7 months or so. Sorry to hear about your problem.

 

[tmcase]

I've had this happen with a new Boge 2.0 carto. I was positive I had enough juice in it because it was leaking out of the battery. It worked fine for a little while then bang, hot burnt taste. I think their was a pocket of filler that didn't get wet and I burned the filler material. You can see these dry pockets in clear cartos so it's a good idea to do what Hairball said and let them sit for awhile after filling. That carto is useless now. I tried to clean the carto but it still tasted burnt after a couple of puffs.

 

[Puffadder]

Whenever I get popping, heat, bad taste with little vapor it's usually because I overfilled them or got juice down the center tube. Take it off the battery and blow through it into a tissue. If juice is coming out without blowing very hard it's overfilled. give it one more blow, wipe off the threads, and try it again.

Follow dormouse's instructions next time you break out a new one or refill your current one.

 

[kgeiger002]

I'm not a carto guy but decided to give Alsmokes Yeti C 510 Low Resistance Cartomizers a try. Very Very good cartos!!

Huge amount of vapor and a great TH! These cartos have made me "rethink" the idea of using cartos.

...one more thing - I don't get that filler taste from them!!
...also I use a Siver Bullet.

 

[Anima]

I've had some of the same problems with cartos (including having them literally smoke). I think there is a learning curve. I back all of Dormouse's advice. An overfilled carto will gurgle and pop hot nic juice in your mouth and an under-filled one will burn. I'm also curious as to the PG/VG ratio of your liquid. A 50/50 dark-colored liquid was really gunking up my cartos.

When I'm in a hurry to try a new flavor or something, sometimes I will put in 3 drops, shake it like a thermometer and repeat 5 more times, blow it out and vape. It has worked fine.

 

[swedishfish]

If you ever use a clear carto, you can actually see the dry spots in a carto. Particularly with juice with VG. Great advice given, roll them around and let them sit if your using high VG juice.

 

[Caelius Felix]

I've been through a lot of trial and error, too, and agree that the clear cartos, while not as durable, are much easier to keep properly filled because of the visual feedback. Also I have noticed that there are just sometimes lapses in quality control and a carto may be DOA or otherwise defective from the start, in which case I just toss it and try another. As noted above, letting a newly filled carto sit a while will help ensure even distribution.