If I wanted to yank the stuffing out of a yucky tasting prefilled carto, what could I replace it with? Can I tamp a wad of polyfill like the fluff used for pillow stuffing in there? Or maybe cotton?
Thanks.
Thanks.
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Really? Just buy some blank cartomizers for Pete's sake.I understand folks are on tight budgets nowadays. But if you were able to spend $5 - $6 a day on cigarettes, you can spend $2 on a cartomizer that should last you 1 - 3 weeks.
Lol, well I'm not cheap and I do have an array of cartos to pick from. It just seemed like an easy way to test new juices without having to purge my good cartos with pga and wait for them to dry out. I think I'll try some pillow stuffing and see what happens. All I can lose is a few drops of juice.
my recomendation is to get an atomizer to test juices. using cartos to test juices always failed for me. in a cost-effective way, that is.
putting pillow stuffing in a carto will likely not work. and if it did, youre risking burning the stuffing and who knows what kinds of chemicals would get released from a material thats not designed to be carto filler material. personally, i would not want to be inhaling that stuff.
IMO get yourself an atomizer and call it a day. joye is a good brand atty. theyre cheap, effective, and last forever.
putting pillow stuffing in a carto will likely not work. and if it did, youre risking burning the stuffing and who knows what kinds of chemicals would get released from a material thats not designed to be carto filler material. personally, i would not want to be inhaling that stuff.
IMO get yourself an atomizer and call it a day. joye is a good brand atty. theyre cheap, effective, and last forever.
I agree with this. You don't know what kind of toxic chemicals could be in the stuffing.
Pick up one or two atomizers. They last 3 - 4 times longer than a cartomizer, and are easily cleaned to prolong usage.
Why so?
My first experience with dripping in an atomizer was not a pleasant one. It was over a year ago when I got my first mod. I never fully understood the concept or the technique, and gave up after just a couple of tries.
I pulled out that same atomizer a few weeks ago out of curiosity. I had my first bottom feeder mod on the way and planned on using an atomizer in it. So I gave this same atomizer another go. Maybe it was just having a year's worth of vaping experience behind me, but this time vaping on a drip atomizer was pretty good. No wick material to clog up with thick or dark juices, or to mute or otherwise alter the flavor of the juice. Just pure flavor being vaporized by the heating coil.
Since getting my VMod bottom feeder box mod, most of my other mods are now collecting dust, including the Provari's and cartotanks. I'm now enjoying great full flavor in the atomizer and still have the convenience of a tank. Up to two days on the 18650 battery and three days between juice refills with the 9 ml capacity tank. It's lightweight, fits easily in a pocket, feels good in the hand....what else is there to want?
My first atomizer was from AltSmoke, a Yeti which I am assuming was a rebranded 510 Smoktech. The only other atomizer that I own is the one that comes with the VMod. It's been going strong for a few weeks; in that time I've only soaked it in hot water once to clean it.
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I dunno 'bout mods and such, I'm a noob. And perhaps, like you, my opinion of dripping will change with time.
I've tried 2 different drippers, both with the same result. The vapor is just too hot and intense for me even with the voltage turned way down. And the flavor of my juices is totally different than what it will be once I load it into another device. People claim that dripping is the real deal, but to me it's unvapable.
My preferred delivery device right now is a Boge carto. They give me a cool, smooth vape that I like a lot. The flavor is slightly subdued compared to my clearomizers but I'll take that over leaking and gurgling. So the point of this thread was about reusing old cartos for testing new juices that will taste the same once I fill up a Boge. Drippers won't give me that.
Think I'm gonna stuff some cotton down one of those tubes and see what happens...
It's quite possible that the atomizers that you used were a low resistance, or lower ohm atty. They will give a warmer vape than a standard resistance atty, maybe even harsh to some individuals like me. Perhaps a 2.0 or 2.5 ohm atty would suit you better for a cooler vape.
Another option would be a Nano clearomizer. They only hold 1 ml of juice, and are about the same price of a cartomizer if you look around for them. They can be easily cleaned and re-used.
Let us know how that works out.
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and the prob with prefilled cartomizers, say like the blu cartomizers...the filling is held in by thin little metal threads...I tried to pull the stuffing out once and killed the cartomizer because it is held/wrapped with thin metal wires that go to the atomizer.
My buddy tried to take the polyfil out of a single coil MINI cartomizer to see if it would effectively turn it into a 510 atty, it didn't work 
In his defense, I was totally enabling him to do it! Keep your enemies close but your friends closer because they don't just raid your fridge, they can also destroy your cartos!
RHP
In his defense, I was totally enabling him to do it! Keep your enemies close but your friends closer because they don't just raid your fridge, they can also destroy your cartos!RHP
That would be so... wrong.
First, "pillow stuffing" polyfill as you call it, is chemically treated to be fire ......ant. You do not want to be sucking on fire ......ant chemicals. You can get polyfill in craft stores that is not treated with fire ......ants but double and triple check the packaging to make sure you get the non fire ......ant stuff.
That whole yanking thing: Can't do that either. Filler in a carto is wrapped around the wires and heating coil(s). If it wasn't the filler would stop transferring liquid to coil in very short order. You need to learn how to disassemble a carto - which is more involved than you may think.: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/cartridge-mods/133525-refurbishing-working-but-real-old-nasty-510-cartomizer-pt-1-5-a.html
Agreed. This video made me think of trying it out but you're right - it's just more involved than it appears on the surface.
RHP
I have a Smoktek mini RDA, don't know the coil resistance, and a 510 dual coil 3 ohm atty that I bought from a local B&M. They both work fine, but the vapor simply doesn't taste the same as when the juice is oaded into something else. Kinda defeats the purpose to me.
I've had 3 of those. They work great until they dont. All 3 of them spewed their contents all over my PV stand without warning. Ugh.
Roger that.
Mine are Nuvo brand. I reached in with tweezers and pulled out the stuffing from one, it came out as a small roll of what looks like fiberfill.
Dripping on my stainless steel Smoktech mini rda (squid) 3.0 ohm @ 4.7 volts on my provari produces the finest, cleanest, smoothest vape I've had to date. Blows even my hh.357 hybrid long barrel out of the water. Not to mention, any kind of carto/clearo on the market.
pre-assembled smoktech coils here http://www.madvapes.com/replacement-coils-for-the-octopus-and-squid-rda.html
RHP
Depends on the carto you are using. This can't be done with Boge or Smoktech - at least not easily. But I regularly clean out Kanger 510 or 808d horizontal coil cartos. It is easy. Pull out polyfil with tweezers then rinse it off in the sink. Dry burn the coil. Blot dry the poly in some paper towels and then reinsert using the coffee stirrer trick. I've got Kangers going for over 4 months with just cleaning and dry burning once a week.
I also use boges and smoketech cartos but when they get plugged after a few days I just save them in a baggie. I can tear them apart and just use their polyfil when the Kangers won't hold liquid very well. t
First things first... make absolutely 900% certain that whatever you're going to try a restuff of the carto with is "safe". Fire ......ant is NOT something you wanna inhale, nor is melted plastic. There's a significantly high chance that a non ......ant filler is made from a plastic and can and will melt if you have a mishap with the restuffed carto. Inhaling melted plastic likely has MORE toxins than analogue smoke. This kinda defeats the purpose of the entire exercise of vaping. You said it wasn't a matter of the price, so I ask this... would you risk losing a lung over restuffing a carto? I don't want to sound all gloom and doom here, but the severity of what might happen is (at least imho) certainly outweighs the miniscule benefits.
You mentioned having a Mini RDA (I'm assuming its a squid/ octopus type of rebuildable), but you don't know the resistance on it? Do you have a means to test your resistances? Without such a method, dripping is going to be "meh" at best, because you need to dial in the voltage/ wattage for your juice/ resistance. I've got both a Bully and an IGO-L I use for dripping (I tend to rebuild at 2.0 ohms.... seems to grant the best variance for different liquids I vape).
Yes, the flavors will be slightly different, but not overly so much that a dripper (the kinds with wicks in them) will taste that much off from a carto (at least in my experience, anyhow). I've rebuilt coil/ wicks using all sorts of wicks from silica, SS mesh (blech!) Cotton, and my personal favorite being the nextel (mostly because if you get a dry hit, you aren't hacking up a hairball, and you can abuse the ever loving crap outta the stuff!). I'd say 98% of the juices I've dripped to test taste pretty close in a carto (for me.)
Put them into a clearo (or a protank, because I consider that a clearo, uses a bottom coil just like the other kanger clearos) and the taste will be different.
Main points:
Make absolutely 900% certain that whatever you're going to try a restuff of the carto with is "safe"
Have a way to check your ohms!
Just because it didn't work right away, try it again later... it might surprise you!
You mentioned having a Mini RDA (I'm assuming its a squid/ octopus type of rebuildable), but you don't know the resistance on it? Do you have a means to test your resistances? Without such a method, dripping is going to be "meh" at best, because you need to dial in the voltage/ wattage for your juice/ resistance. I've got both a Bully and an IGO-L I use for dripping (I tend to rebuild at 2.0 ohms.... seems to grant the best variance for different liquids I vape).
Yes, the flavors will be slightly different, but not overly so much that a dripper (the kinds with wicks in them) will taste that much off from a carto (at least in my experience, anyhow). I've rebuilt coil/ wicks using all sorts of wicks from silica, SS mesh (blech!) Cotton, and my personal favorite being the nextel (mostly because if you get a dry hit, you aren't hacking up a hairball, and you can abuse the ever loving crap outta the stuff!). I'd say 98% of the juices I've dripped to test taste pretty close in a carto (for me.)
Put them into a clearo (or a protank, because I consider that a clearo, uses a bottom coil just like the other kanger clearos) and the taste will be different.
Main points:
Make absolutely 900% certain that whatever you're going to try a restuff of the carto with is "safe"
Have a way to check your ohms!
Just because it didn't work right away, try it again later... it might surprise you!
Well, thanks to all who replied and especially for the notice of possible chemicals in the stuffing. I hadn't thought of that.
So, I popped the cap off one of these prefilled jobs and used tweezers to remove the roll of filler. Looking down the tube reveals a couple of wicks at the bottom. I decided to stuff it with cotton yarn that I use for rewicking T3's (white cotton, boiled first... totally safe). Stuffed it loosely down the tube -
Put in some juice and... nothing. Apparently removing the old stuffing must have damaged the atty coil. I'm reading 13.5 ohms at the connector, not enough heat to get vapor.
Oh well, it was worth a shot.
So, I popped the cap off one of these prefilled jobs and used tweezers to remove the roll of filler. Looking down the tube reveals a couple of wicks at the bottom. I decided to stuff it with cotton yarn that I use for rewicking T3's (white cotton, boiled first... totally safe). Stuffed it loosely down the tube -
Put in some juice and... nothing. Apparently removing the old stuffing must have damaged the atty coil. I'm reading 13.5 ohms at the connector, not enough heat to get vapor.
Oh well, it was worth a shot.
Wow...you actually tried...I bet the time, effort, and supplies was more than a $2 replacement cartomizer...
But nice try though...
If you're set on re-using cartomizers I would suggest you read up on guides on how to clean them. There's a few posts on here that I've seen that shows guides on re-using/cleaning cartomizers. Or you can look into getting a new kind of cartomizer - smoktech came out with a new one that has a nickel-mesh, instead of polyfill, so maybe it can handle the constant flavor switching. I don't know if it does since I haven't used one, but one can assume flavor-switching with a nickel mesh instead of polyfill would be more efficient. (someone correct me...)
But nice try though...
If you're set on re-using cartomizers I would suggest you read up on guides on how to clean them. There's a few posts on here that I've seen that shows guides on re-using/cleaning cartomizers. Or you can look into getting a new kind of cartomizer - smoktech came out with a new one that has a nickel-mesh, instead of polyfill, so maybe it can handle the constant flavor switching. I don't know if it does since I haven't used one, but one can assume flavor-switching with a nickel mesh instead of polyfill would be more efficient. (someone correct me...)
Roger that. Thanks.
It wasn't in the specs, but it measures right at 2 ohms. I use eGo batteries, one of which is a VV twist. Even at 3.2 volts the vapor is too intense for me. I just don't like it.
My experience is different. The flavors seem close to a clearo but the carts I use "mellow" the vapor a bit and are cooler. That's just a personal observation. It matters to me at this stage of my vaping journey because I have a real hard time inhaling the vapor, and anything that cools it a bit makes a big difference to me.
Odd that my experience is different from that.
But thanks very much - everybody - for the comments and concerns.
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