Forgive me if this is old news here. I found no method here for this, so I wanted to share.
I have really taken to Boge cartos. I regularly use 3.2 ohm and 2.4 ohm, and have an order of 2.0 ohm on the way. What I like about them is the filler is essentially tasteless to me, they wick well as long as the juice is on the thinner side, give great vapor and true flavor, and are not prone to burning as long as you keep them wet. I use them with a drip tip, and top off as needed, like dripping in an atty.
In general, the major issue with them is NOT that they die easily, but they can clog after a while. Cleaning (vodka soak, hot water flush, 250 deg oven dry) gets rid of residual flavors, but it does not solve the clog. This is because the clogs are most often NOT gunky juice residue, but a mechanical block in the air flow: the hole up through the center is blocked.
The easiest way to describe the insides of these cartos is to imagine a roll of paper towels, but instead of the center cardboard tube extending through the entire roll, it extends only about 1/3 of the way from the top. The rest of the roll is still a roll, with a center hole, just no cardboard tube.
In the Boge carto, the filler corresponds with the paper towels, and there is a cloth center-hole tube which corresponds to the truncated cardboard tube described above. The coil starts at the base, extends up through the center hole of the filler roll, loops up and over the cloth tube at the top, and then extends back down the outside of the cloth tube through the center hole and back to the base.
Air is pulled in through the two air holes just above the battery threading, and up through the center hole of the filler roll. In a healthy breathing carto, and removing the rubber cap, one should be able to see light through center hole of the filler-roll all the way out the center hole of the threaded end. Using the paper towel roll analogy, it is like putting your mouth to one end and blowing through the center tube, even if the cardboard tube doesn't extend through the whole roll.
Crush the paper towel roll enough and you can't blow air through it. Same is true with the carto filler. Through swelling from hot juice plus hard draws, blowing excess juice out, the filler/cloth tube structure gets crushed or distorted enough to cause air blockage.
In general, THIS IS THE CLOG. Obviously cleaning cannot open a clog like this. The center air hole has to be reopened mechanically. I have tried to carefully do this with a paperclip, a wire, a blunt syringe needle, by sticking it carefully up into the threading center hole, and easing it up through until it sticks out the top through the center of the cloth center tube. About 75% of the time I inadvertently disconnect the coil, killing the carto completely. This is because the ends of these poking devices are blunt, and often either get stuck on the coil wire, pulling it out or breaking it, or the bottom of the center cloth tube, also pulling the coil out to much and breaking it.
So I decided I needed a sharp needle, and thus would not as easily get stuck on anything in its path. I used a sharp 18 gauge hypodermic needle I had gotten from a pet medical supply house a while back for DIY. One could, it seems, use a large sewing needle or large safety pin...has to be sharp and long enough to extend all the way through the center and stick out a few mm, and thick enough to remake a reasonable center channel. I use small tweezers to grab and pull up the filler, being careful to not grab the coil wire. Some fillers (my hard-tip Boge 3.2 ohms) are glued to the wall of the carto housiing, and cannot be pulled up, but my soft tips have unglued filler, and it can be pulled up.
Then I carefully ease the needle up through the center hole, and if I encounter blockage in the path I turn the needle and gently push until I feel the needle penetrate further. Eventually the sharp end will emerge from the top of the filler. If it does not come out through the center of the cloth tube I pull the needle back and try again, maybe use the tweezers to carefully move the cloth tube too, so eventually the needle emerges from the center of it. Then I hold onto the base of the needle and work it around in the hole, like I want to make the center channel wider, which I do. If the filler is not glued to the wall, I use the tweezers again to pull the filler up a little, or push the cloth tube back down into the filler roll, or both. Then remove the needle, test with a multimeter to make sure I didn't break the fragile coil wire, fill with juice and vape.
I had about 30 cartos (~$50 worth) which were still correct resistance, but quite clogged. I saved them for when I would figure out how to resurrect them. Other than the ones I killed with blunt devices, they are all vaping like new now, and some are MANY months old.
Some will say "Why bother?? They are disposable!" I like to make things last. I like not throwing out any vaping hardware. Why spend more when you don't have to, and not everyone has the $ to buy 100s of cartos all the time. I sure don't.
Other brands of cartos might be different. Only referring to Boge, and in general the soft tip kind. I have resurrected both 510 and kr808d-1 Boge cartos this way. I'm vaping right now on a 3.2 ohm carto that I know is at least 8 months old, probably was at its 7th or 8th cleaning, and was seriously clogged. For the life of me I cannot tell it from a freshly unwrapped carto. Great vapor, flavor, and perfect air flow.
BTW, people have asked about burnt taste even if the carto is full of juice. I had this too, and it was because the coil was sticking up above the filler, and that part was dry. Gently pushing it back or pulling the filler up so the coil is more flush with the top of the filler solved this for me. I do this with a needle inserted so I don't create a blockage by pushing the cloth tube or coil down.
Hope this method works for people!! I now have no idea how long these cartos will last. All coils will die eventually, or increase resistance until they are useless, but I would rather have the rest of the carto fully functional right up to the end. This method seems to help make that a reality.
Get yer Boge back on and vape!
I have really taken to Boge cartos. I regularly use 3.2 ohm and 2.4 ohm, and have an order of 2.0 ohm on the way. What I like about them is the filler is essentially tasteless to me, they wick well as long as the juice is on the thinner side, give great vapor and true flavor, and are not prone to burning as long as you keep them wet. I use them with a drip tip, and top off as needed, like dripping in an atty.
In general, the major issue with them is NOT that they die easily, but they can clog after a while. Cleaning (vodka soak, hot water flush, 250 deg oven dry) gets rid of residual flavors, but it does not solve the clog. This is because the clogs are most often NOT gunky juice residue, but a mechanical block in the air flow: the hole up through the center is blocked.
The easiest way to describe the insides of these cartos is to imagine a roll of paper towels, but instead of the center cardboard tube extending through the entire roll, it extends only about 1/3 of the way from the top. The rest of the roll is still a roll, with a center hole, just no cardboard tube.
In the Boge carto, the filler corresponds with the paper towels, and there is a cloth center-hole tube which corresponds to the truncated cardboard tube described above. The coil starts at the base, extends up through the center hole of the filler roll, loops up and over the cloth tube at the top, and then extends back down the outside of the cloth tube through the center hole and back to the base.
Air is pulled in through the two air holes just above the battery threading, and up through the center hole of the filler roll. In a healthy breathing carto, and removing the rubber cap, one should be able to see light through center hole of the filler-roll all the way out the center hole of the threaded end. Using the paper towel roll analogy, it is like putting your mouth to one end and blowing through the center tube, even if the cardboard tube doesn't extend through the whole roll.
Crush the paper towel roll enough and you can't blow air through it. Same is true with the carto filler. Through swelling from hot juice plus hard draws, blowing excess juice out, the filler/cloth tube structure gets crushed or distorted enough to cause air blockage.
In general, THIS IS THE CLOG. Obviously cleaning cannot open a clog like this. The center air hole has to be reopened mechanically. I have tried to carefully do this with a paperclip, a wire, a blunt syringe needle, by sticking it carefully up into the threading center hole, and easing it up through until it sticks out the top through the center of the cloth center tube. About 75% of the time I inadvertently disconnect the coil, killing the carto completely. This is because the ends of these poking devices are blunt, and often either get stuck on the coil wire, pulling it out or breaking it, or the bottom of the center cloth tube, also pulling the coil out to much and breaking it.
So I decided I needed a sharp needle, and thus would not as easily get stuck on anything in its path. I used a sharp 18 gauge hypodermic needle I had gotten from a pet medical supply house a while back for DIY. One could, it seems, use a large sewing needle or large safety pin...has to be sharp and long enough to extend all the way through the center and stick out a few mm, and thick enough to remake a reasonable center channel. I use small tweezers to grab and pull up the filler, being careful to not grab the coil wire. Some fillers (my hard-tip Boge 3.2 ohms) are glued to the wall of the carto housiing, and cannot be pulled up, but my soft tips have unglued filler, and it can be pulled up.
Then I carefully ease the needle up through the center hole, and if I encounter blockage in the path I turn the needle and gently push until I feel the needle penetrate further. Eventually the sharp end will emerge from the top of the filler. If it does not come out through the center of the cloth tube I pull the needle back and try again, maybe use the tweezers to carefully move the cloth tube too, so eventually the needle emerges from the center of it. Then I hold onto the base of the needle and work it around in the hole, like I want to make the center channel wider, which I do. If the filler is not glued to the wall, I use the tweezers again to pull the filler up a little, or push the cloth tube back down into the filler roll, or both. Then remove the needle, test with a multimeter to make sure I didn't break the fragile coil wire, fill with juice and vape.
I had about 30 cartos (~$50 worth) which were still correct resistance, but quite clogged. I saved them for when I would figure out how to resurrect them. Other than the ones I killed with blunt devices, they are all vaping like new now, and some are MANY months old.
Some will say "Why bother?? They are disposable!" I like to make things last. I like not throwing out any vaping hardware. Why spend more when you don't have to, and not everyone has the $ to buy 100s of cartos all the time. I sure don't.
Other brands of cartos might be different. Only referring to Boge, and in general the soft tip kind. I have resurrected both 510 and kr808d-1 Boge cartos this way. I'm vaping right now on a 3.2 ohm carto that I know is at least 8 months old, probably was at its 7th or 8th cleaning, and was seriously clogged. For the life of me I cannot tell it from a freshly unwrapped carto. Great vapor, flavor, and perfect air flow.
BTW, people have asked about burnt taste even if the carto is full of juice. I had this too, and it was because the coil was sticking up above the filler, and that part was dry. Gently pushing it back or pulling the filler up so the coil is more flush with the top of the filler solved this for me. I do this with a needle inserted so I don't create a blockage by pushing the cloth tube or coil down.
Hope this method works for people!! I now have no idea how long these cartos will last. All coils will die eventually, or increase resistance until they are useless, but I would rather have the rest of the carto fully functional right up to the end. This method seems to help make that a reality.
Get yer Boge back on and vape!
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