A Sampling of Views: Tanks vs. Clearomizers

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tunafish

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Aug 25, 2012
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I tried a 510 tank and it sucked, leaked all ovr the place, quick burnt taste, but it looked cool.

I use some kinda clearomizer thing from mvs, other places call it a stardust. It worked bad ... the first day, then leaks all ovr the battry all the time and sometimes (no homo) i get a little juice in my mouth, but i still use evryday cause it works decent. When i chain vape it starts to get the burnt taste though.

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Baditude

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Apr 8, 2012
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Each device is designed and work a little differently, a little knowledge and experience with each goes a long way with getting things to work well.

On the other side of the coin is this fact. 99% of vaping devices come from China. The quality control leaves something to be desired. Nearly everything made is made by hand. I believe that the number of people that are vaping has jumped by leaps and bounds, and that the Chinese manufacturers are having issues keeping up quantity, and quality suffers. Just my :2c:

Tanks are actually fairly simple devices and all work basically the same despite some variety in appearances. The chief components are a plastic or glass tube has plastic or metal endcaps on either end. These endcaps have inner and outer rubber o-rings which by fit and pressure holds the tube in place. This contraption acts as a reservoir to hold the juice.

The two endcaps have holes in their center just large enough for a cartomizer to fit thru. The cartomizer needs a way to receive the juice in the right amount, to avoid flooding the carto or avoid too little flow which leads to "dry hits" or burnt taste. So holes need to be put in the side of the carto. These holes may come pre-drilled by the manufacturer, or the user may choose to make his own holes with a carto punch tool. How many holes to use depends a lot on how thick the juice the user is using.

A drip tip, or mouth piece, is placed on the carto end after both the carto and the tank have been filled with juice.

90% of issues concerning tanks are from user errors or lack of knowledge on how to fill them or the carto. I'd advise you watch a couple different videos to see the proper method of filling a tank to see if this might be for you. There are also a few tank accessory tools, or tank filling tools, which greatly aid in filling and assembling a tank.

You can find info on the above if you go to the tanks section on this forum. Good luck.
 
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bcalvanese

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Jun 16, 2012
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If you only vape standing on your head, then clearomizers would probably work better...:)

The problem with clearomizers is gravity. The juice needs to go up the wick to get to the coil, so when the tank starts getting low, and you forget to tip, you start getting dry hits.

A tank/carto combination works with gravity, and in my experience (which is still limited), is much more consistant. If you shell out enough for a quality tank, and get good cartos, you will have a very consistant vape.

I also think the tank/carto route is more cost effective in that... clearomizer heads are 2 to 3 bucks a pop, where cartos are a buck to a buck and a half a pop and seem to last longer.

Another reason I prefer cartos is that they filter some of the gunk out of the juice. Any gunk I see in my carto is gunk that I know is not in my lung's...:)
 

msblkb

Full Member
Aug 15, 2012
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Texas
I started out using the cartomizers/with a KR808... I am a heavy smoker, 3 pad, and they helped me reduce down to about a half pack a day. As much as I smoke(d), now mostly vape, I was refilling the cartomizers constantly... I bought a 1 Turbo 11 from Mountain Vapor and I love it! Matter of fact, I ordered 2 more! One for my passthrough for the computer and a couple extra for my other batteries. I am very new to this so I can not give you any advice at all, but I can tell you that my cartomizers get very little use now! :)
 

recidivus

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Jun 20, 2012
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Keep in mind this is all personal opinion, we all have different desires from our PVs. Some people will swear by their choice, but I'll try to be objective.

I've moved from claero's to carto-tanks. Cost is one thing, I prefer the "look". I need more than 1.6mL (1.4 really if you don't want a possible flood) of juice per fill. The juice thickening at 1/2 mark was a bit aggravating, I am on 100%VG and that meant I had to empty and clean quite often, maybe I could get away with a top up or two but that's about it. When I was using 50/50 I got a more mileage before this happened, but it still was enough of a problem that I looked at other options. Clearo's are definitely more "user friendly" from the get go.

If you've used a cartomizer then you know how a tank will perform, it just gets rid of the need to keep saturating the filler. They could have leaking problems (none here yet but watch: A PBusardo Review - Smoktech Tanks - YouTube I love this video and use it often when discussing tank issues). Filling them is similar to clearos. Punching/slotting cartos can be a bother, leading to flooding and a useless carto. Torn o-rings and loose fittings are a potential problem. Depending on juice thickness primer puffs are needed, or you'll burn the filler. Baditude got it right, 90% user error (most PV issues tend to be from user I think, at least mine mostly have).

All in all, they have their ups n downs, the lot of em. I'd suggest picking up a decent tank and cartos. Brand of tank I can't really say, if it's sealed it will "work", smoketek, jtank, boge, there's plenty of reviews and videos to compare. Cartos, I'm using boge LR's, with 2 holes pre-punched and they're working just fine so far. Again, there's reviews everywhere so take a bit and see what the options are. I'm sure there's others who have more opinions, but keep in mind that a lot of it is opinion and personal.
 

vsummer1

Vaping Master
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Aug 3, 2012
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Since you already like the clearos, give the Vivi Nova tank a try. It isn't a regular tank/carto set up, it has a wick like the clearo does so it is super easy to use and gets you introduced to tanks. Plus they come with replacement head/wicks that screw right on so no hassle. No filling issues (fills like the clearo), no replacing cartos through O rings.

My personal experience was that I loved the clearos - until I tried the vivi. On my eGo I like the look of the equinox-stardust clearo (whatever you want to call it) and on my ProVari I like the vivi. Neither have leaked unless operator error.

If I go all out and get a "real" tank with carto's, I will be getting a glass one so as to alleviate any issues with the plastic degrading with certain juices.

I hope you find the one you love!
 
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