Wicking Issue

[Soulfly54]

So here's my problem. I've been using my Fluid Flask since Nov. or Dec. of last year and it's been great. Using 3 ohm prepunched Boges between 7-8.5 watts with a 70/30 juice (not a dark one either). Of course I'll get some bad cartos here & there, toss it and move on. But the last few weeks I've been having a severe wicking issue. I use the Toothpick method that I've seen Baditude recommend and it's always worked flawlessly. I put the carto in snap the top on, making sure the air pocket is over one of the carto holes. The first 2 or 3 pulls are great. Then it dries out aaaannd....garbage. Now- on the Fluid Flask, the drip tip & top cap are one piece. When you snap the top on it creates the pressure and you vape away. I've noticed that I get no (or minimal) bubbles when just taking a dry pull. And if I gently lift up the top cap, it will pull liquid in and i can take 5 or 6 nice hits before I have to rinse and repeat. This leads me to believe I don't have a carto problem, but a pressure problem. Is this something that is caused by worn out o rings?

 

[DreamWithin]

Is this something that is caused by worn out o rings?

I would suspect that's not the case. In theory, if the o-rings wear then they will let air come past them into the tank. I would think this would have the opposite effect and cause over-wicking. Maybe I'm wrong . . .

I punch my own cartos rather than buy pre-punched, but I've also had some wicking issues on my cartos lately (and I replace tank o-rings fairly regularly, about every month or two). Perhaps it's a batch of bad QC issues?

Wish I had some suggestion for you

 

[Soulfly54]

This afternoon I primed another carto and now this one is working fine.It's pretty irritating how many bad cartos I've come across lately. Once I'm done with these I'm switching to something other than Boges. They have become garbage. When I can only safely count on basically 1 out of every 4 or 5 to do its job, it's time to move on. What a joke.

 

[DreamWithin]

FWIW, the current box I'm on has been all good. My last few boxes had 2-3 out of the 5 in each that either wouldn't wick or flooded, usually the former. It's been a looooong time since I've had such a bad run with them, so hopefully I'm past all the bad ones now.

 

[Baditude]

This can happen with any manufacturer's cartos. I almost always use Ikenvape Platinum punched cartos; I had to use four cartos with my last tank setup because the first three tasted burnt from the get go. That's nearly 5 ml of good juice that I never got to vape because of bad cartos.

Isaac is allegedly getting some of his IKV cartos made in the US, so it should be interesting how the quality control of those will be compared to China's.

 

[Robinowitz]

This can happen with any manufacturer's cartos. I almost always use Ikenvape Platinum punched cartos; I had to use four cartos with my last tank setup because the first three tasted burnt from the get go. That's nearly 5 ml of good juice that I never got to vape because of bad cartos.

Isaac is allegedly getting some of his IKV cartos made in the US, so it should be interesting how the quality control of those will be compared to China's.

Thanks for mentioning that Bad. I've wondered if there are any tank cartos manufactured in the U.S. I tried many juice delivery systems over the last year but am a happy camper with my carto tank and Reo. 99% of my goodies are U.S. Made so it would be great to find the some cartos made here as well.

 

[N2rock]

Nice to hear I'm not the only one noticing this issue lately (sadly). I have tried so many different brand of cartos, and experience the same hit or miss issue repeatedly. Very annoying, not to mention the amount of wasted juice.

Playing around with the cartos, a couple observations I have made that I suspect are lending to these issues
1. Some of the Boge cartos, the filler is just too damn tight. Take a needle and stick it down into the filler, sometimes it just slides right thru, other times the filler is so tight that the needle won't go thru without a lot of force. If it's that tight, I can see the juice just no wicking properly
2. Some of the Boge cartos, the placement of the coil is up too high. Since it is up so high, it naturally burns off all the juice near the top. The juice in the lower half of the carto is untouched. So you have to keep the carto damn near flooded just to keep it hitting properly.

QC issues for sure.

I tried Ikenvape- an entire box of them was giving burnt taste after only 3 hits!

I tried Smoktech- these things the filler was so loose that it flooded after 2 hits. I bought 10 of these, and only used 3 because all 3 gave me a mouth full of juice on the 3rd hit.

I'm wasting too much time and money trying to find a good consistent carto. I've been using carto tanks for the past 3 years, and the past 3 months has been nothing but frustration over crap cartos. Would someone PLEASE make a quality carto that provides the same vape carto after carto?!?!?!

 

[rc3po]

I stopped using cart's & tanks that use heads. Even when they are working good, they pale in comparison to my R91.

 

[N2rock]

I stopped using cart's & tanks that use heads. Even when they are working good, they pale in comparison to my R91.

I'm too lazy (and not enough time) to fiddle with rebuild-ables. I just want/need something quick and simple.

 

[rc3po]

I'm too lazy (and not enough time) to fiddle with rebuild-ables. I just want/need something quick and simple.

They are a piece of cake. I can clean the coil, put in a fresh cotton wick, put it together and fill it up in less than 10 minutes. I only have to do that every 2 - 3 days. And the flavor is much better. You couldn't give me a carto or tank that uses heads - I would laugh at you.

 

[N2rock]

They are a piece of cake. I can clean the coil, put in a fresh cotton wick, put it together and fill it up in less than 10 minutes. I only have to do that every 2 - 3 days.

I'm sure you can. But starting out with one, too much fiddling involved to get it right and learn it.

3-4 years ago when I first started on ecigs, I was in the mood to experiment with everything. I've lost that desire. Now I just want to feed my habit with zero thought put into it LOL

Where in TX are you BTW?

 

[rc3po]

Ft Worth. It's a piece of cake to me. It wouldn't be a problem using clearomizers if replacement heads didn't suck so bad. My R91 is a lot easier than messing with my iClear XI.
But if it works for you and keeps you off of the analogs, go for it.