used carto's... different juice

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440BB

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Drip it full of vodka through the mouth end and blow it through a couple of times until it's clear, then do the same with hot water. Shake it like a thermometer to remove excess water. Set it battery end down on a light bulb for 15-20 minutes to completely dry. Let it cool, fill and enjoy!
 

dormouse

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Smoktek.com sells a carto cleaning syringe thing. The tougher part is drying them. They need to be very dry to work well again. And the results of cleaning can be inconsistent so I never use cartos to test juices. I generally only put my 2 main vapes and a few extra flavors in cartos. The rest I drip on a sealed manual w/ and atomizer. But sometimes I do switch flavors - I just put a compatible flavor in - the flavor will morph from mostly the first flavor to mostly the second as the carto is used.
 

Running Wolf

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Thanks for the tips. I ordered my first bit of juice today (hopefully here for the weekend, errr to a holiday). Vodka is something I tend to usually have on hand.

But boiling them? Put the used cartos in the water before setting it on the stove? Pop the end caps as described and put them in the water to boil? Sorry I'm just getting my feet wet in Vaping.
 

mynameisrob

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You can clean cartos and a lot of people do it, but I dont clean them. I use the Ressurector cartos on an EPower. I figure that if I can get a few weeks out of each carto, then their cheap enough to just throw them away and not clean them. Also, Some flavors of distinct juices do not leave a carto easily. Even after a cleaning, you can still taste some juices. Also I find that their never as good as a new one. A cleaned carto never seems to wick as well and they don't seem to hold as much juice as a new one either. Some cartos take a cleaning better than others.
If you fill your cartos correctly, you can get quite a few weeks out of a carto then you wouldnt necessarily need to clean them. I use a syringe to fill my Ressurectors and on average get about 2 weeks out of a carto, with my longest being 6 and a half for one. And I designate one carto for each juice I vape and never put another juice in it. Doing that you can easily get your money's worth and never clean a carto once.
 

Running Wolf

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I'm boiling the pre-filled cartridges for the Mistic (I knwo gas station fodder) I have. The freaking battery on the suckers are nuclear powered from the way they last!

The juice I ordered from BreezEsmoke shipped out today, with the holiday will most likely be here saturday so gives me time to boil and dry them and try them out with some juice.
 

Balthezar

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I put a coffee cup of water in the micro for a couple of minutes then put the carto in that till the water cools, blow it out as much as I can and let it dry overnight. They don't always come out like new, but they are still pretty good. If I don't like the taste/performance after that, well, they only cost a couple of bucks so I already got my $$ worth. I've only lost 1 out of 5 in a month, so I'm still doing ok I think.

Balth
 

bnrkwest

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I wash my cartos out by soaking in hot water at least 20-30 min, then I fill a cleaned out dish detergent squeeze bottle full of hot water. I squeeze the hot water thru the carto until it smells fresh and clean and no color is left from old juices. I used these cleaned cartos for testing new juices, works great. I also let mine dry at least 3 days and blow thru them to remove any water each day. I usually let them dry for a week just to be sure they are really dry. bnrk
 

mynameisrob

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If you dont want to have to pay for shipping for that carto cleaner syringe thing you can pretty much just make your own for only a few bucks. Go to a pharmacy and buy an baby's oral syringe. It wont have a needle, just a dull plastic point. It comes with a rubber top that you put onto the end of the syringe. The rubber part is really made do be used as like a small funnel that you put into a babys mouth and then administer the medicine, but it actually works really well to clean a carto. The top of the rubber part where the liquid would come out has a pretty big hole. It happens to fit a 510 carto perfectly. It will be alittle tight putting one on the first time, but once you get a carto on it will stretch a tiny bit and they will go on easier. You stick it on the mouthpiece side. (make sure the rubber or plastic white cap is removed). Once a carto is on there you can hold the rubber part on the syringe and get some really hot water is a cup or bowl. Then carefully suck some hot water up thru the battery end with the syringe and push it out into the sink or another cup. The rubber part will stay on the tip of the syringe without holding it but I find if you are pushing the water out of the carto quickly the rubber part can fly off so I just hold it with one hand and push and pull the syringe plunger with the other. You can do this a bunch and bits of juice gunk will come out and open up the airhole. You can also use some PGA or vodka as well to help clean it. Then take them out and give um plenty of time to dry. If your impatient and want them to dry faster, with the carto still on the syringe, push and pull the plunger in and out very quicky into a sink. This will force air in and out and will get a lot of the water out. If you really do it well I have actully filled a carto right after doing that and vaped it and it worked absouletly fine, but I would recommend you still let it dry for a few hours at least. If you do that make sure you def hold the rubber part thats holding the carto onto the syringe bc when you force air in and out quickly it will prob shoot off. I only recommend doing the quick dry part if your REALLY deperate or something. Doing that can potentially break a coil or something and ruin the carto. Ive done it with a few just to try it and they were fine but my buddy has broken a coil doing it, so be careful. It safer just to let them sit and let them dry normally.
Its a cheap way to clean them and it works pretty well, and you can get those little kid oral medicine syringes many places. Its basically the exact same thing as that carto cleaner from Smoktek, but the cleaner comes with 2 different size tube parts that come with it that can hold a few different size cartos. If you use 510 cartos though the oral syringe holds them perfectly so this work just as well, and its cheaper and you wont have to pay for shipping.
If you go onto SmokTek's website, and look up that cleaning syringe, they give you instructions on what to do. Its basically what I just said above but its alittle more detailed so you can follow those instructions exactly and achieve the same results.

Hope this helps!
Goodluck!
 

mynameisrob

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carto cleaner 1.jpg carto cleaner.jpg carto cleaner 2.jpg

This is what it looks like, and thats how it will be with a carto on.
Any normal size carto will work, like the Boges. The fat ones wont fit. I dont know if a clear carto would fit since they have a slightly bigger diameter. I never tried to put one on but you prob could get it on there. There is a Ressurector attached to it in the picture
 
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I'm boiling the pre-filled cartridges for the Mistic (I knwo gas station fodder) I have. The freaking battery on the suckers are nuclear powered from the way they last!

The juice I ordered from BreezEsmoke shipped out today, with the holiday will most likely be here saturday so gives me time to boil and dry them and try them out with some juice.

I'd look at the packing in the Mistic cartos. I don't think it is polyfill like the ones we use. I'd experiment with one first and see how it goes.
 

Running Wolf

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I'd look at the packing in the Mistic cartos. I don't think it is polyfill like the ones we use. I'd experiment with one first and see how it goes.

Brain farting cause I haven't had my full cup of coffee yet. On one of the two Mistic threads we were talking about the pre filled carto costs. I have a bunch cleaned and waiting for the juice. Someone else said they have been refilling them for a while and have had no problems. :)

---------- 11.27.11 ----------

I have refilled 6 of the Mistic cartridges so far and only had one crap out. I think the one that crapped out was the coil went bad when I was cleaning it in the boiling water.
 
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