What causes a cartomizer to flood days into its life span?

[roasted]

After recent frustrations with other devices, I fired up a Smoktech XL laser punched carto into my IBTanked tank. It was operating absolutely fine. Then, out of no where, it began to flood. It's about 2 days into this cartomizer, but no matter what I do it floods, gurgles, and shoots liquid up the air passage.

Googling around didn't yield much results. Most links suggest that flooded cartomizers were thanks to overfilling it. But... it worked great for 2 days... I figure if I overfilled it from the get-go, it would have been an issue from the get-go, not days into it.

Something else I noticed is if I turn my mod so the laser air punch is upright and not submerged in my 1/4 full tank-worth of liquid, vape for 2-3 drags, it's fine and stops flooding. No issues. But of course, it's not taking in any liquid, so this is not a permanent fix. Once I re-angle the mod so the laser hole is within the liquid and begins wicking again, it floods immediately.

Any thoughts?

 

[Baditude]

Flooding can be due to a few different things:

• Vape technique. Proper technique with a cartotank is slow, gentle draws of 4 - 6 seconds length. Think of sucking on a straw in a milkshake, but not as hard of a draw. Hard short draws allow too much juice to enter the carto leading to flooding. As a carto is used, the filler material begins to collect particulate matter suspended in the juice and gradually becomes clogged, perhaps causing you to pull harder than with a new carto. Darker flavors and thicker juices tend to accelerate this.

• Smoktech cartos have a less dense filler than Boge and Ikenvape, so although Smoktechs are easier to fill, they are also more easy to flood. Although I personally don't care for them, you could try some Boges and see how they perform in your setup. I prefer Ikenvape cartos, but they are only available from one online vendor and are frequently out-of-stock.

• Thin juices. All Pg or mostly Pg juices are typically thin in viscosity. After some time in the carto, the pseudo fluid barrier in the carto can break down and allow juice to enter into the center air hole.

• If you do find it necessary to blow the carto out with juice still in the tank, blow it when it is upside down (drip tip to the floor), with the wick holes up in the air space at the top. This will prevent even more juice from entering the carto after it is already flooded.

• How many holes are in your carto? Try a one hole laser-drilled carto and see if that will slow down the flooding. If you need to find an online vendor, here's a large list with descriptions of what cartos the vendors carry - http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/baditude/3295-2-sample-list-vendors-selling-pre-punched-single-coil-cartomizers-cartotanks.html

Hope that helps some.

 

[bluehaze013]

This was happening to me until I realized after refilling my tanks I was putting my finger over the hole in the drip tip when sliding them back down on the cartomizer. Apparently this creates a vacuum which floods the carto. Easiest way to unflood them is to take the tank off the mod put your finger over the hole on the bottom of the carto and blow through it. This got me back to new in no time, the tilting turning upside down etc never worked for me carto would end up flooding again after a few pulls.

Good luck!