Carts v Cartos – Explained!

Cartridges, atomisers or cartomisers (pre-filled or empty), direct dripping, drip tips or dipping, syringes or the condom method…..

As a newbie, I found that determining the best way of getting e-liquid onto an atomiser is not as simple as I first thought, and that it can all be a bit confusing, with nothing approaching consensus amongst experienced vapers on forums.

This article shares my understanding of all of these terms and methods, and what I’ve found works for me, for now at least.

Now, it has to be said that I don’t consider myself to be an expert on any of this stuff or even close, but by now I have tried a few methods and have settled on a setup and method that works for me. I welcome any comments or advice, and indeed any corrections if I’m way off the mark!

Let’s start with a Glossary of common terms that I’ve come across:

I decided very quickly that I would standardise all of my kit as far as possible around the 510 format, the rationale being that all of my batteries, atomisers and cartridges are interchangeable so I shouldn’t need to worry about compatibility. So far I think that’s been a sensible choice, given that just about every new mod or technology coming onto the market offer 510 compatibility or at very least adapters.

My Riva starter kit arrived with 10 empty cartridges, one standard atomiser and one LR atomiser included, and on reflection I think this was an ideal starter kit. For the first week or so, I filled my carts each morning with a few flavours before the drive to work, along with a couple of 5ml bottles of liquid for topping up and this worked just fine. Prof Beard over at UK Vapers has compiled a great tutorial for cart refilling here which is definitely worth a look.

After a while though, I started to find that a few things were beginning to irritate me about cartridges, mostly related to the degradation of the polyester filling. Of course, cartridges are technically supposed to be bought filled (i.e. with e-liquid already in them) and binned when empty, and they’re cheap, so it’s difficult to be too critical of them as a concept. They work, and work well, for a period. As the filler became depleted, and started annoyingly sticking to the atomiser, I tried washing it and even replacing it with blue foam. Both of these processes helped a bit, but I found that I couldn’t recreate the performance of the cartridges as they were when they were new. They didn’t wick as well (i.e. transfer the liquid to the atomiser), or they wicked a bit too well causing atomisers to become dirty and flooded, they didn’t last as long, and my continued efforts to revive them lead me to consider other options.

I had by this stage discovered the delights of the LR atomiser and decided I needed to order some, so after reading a few forum posts and reviews, I ordered a packet of LR cartomisers from Cloud 9 Vaping, along with a couple of anodised aluminium drip tips. Now, it wasn’t all plain sailing to begin with, and the first two cartomisers I tried lasted only for a day before dying. This was, on reflection due to two things:

1. Continual flooding. It takes a bit of practice and experimentation to arrive at the right amount of liquid to put into a cartomiser. Too little and the carto will give a very “burnt” taste and will enjoy a very short life. Too much and liquid will leak everywhere, into the electrics, battery etc, meaning that the coil has to work overtime to vapourise the excess. Other annoying side effects include a gurgling sound and the ejection of hot liquid into your mouth – not pleasant at all 😉
2. Viscosity of the e-liquid. I had recently started to mix my own e-liquid from a VG base which was very thick. Whilst I was enjoying the great vapour production and flavour these liquids produced, they were not good for the cartomiser performance, blocking air holes etc. I now make a much thinner mix by cutting my liquids with PG, and these problems have gone away.

After all of the trial and error, I have now arrived at a set up that seems to be the best of all world’s and for me at least is generally the cleanest and most convenient.

On my Riva, Halo and Screwdriver devices, I now exclusively use LR cartomisers with metal drip tips, in the following way:

1. I fill the new cartomisers using the condom method with about 10 drops of e-liquid. As the cartos I use have the white “soft” caps, it’s easy to pop them off whilst doing this, to ensure that the white filler at the top of the carto is moist, or whether there is flooding (pools of liquid on top).
2. If the liquid has pooled, remove some! I find the easiest way to do this is to blow into the top of the carto, whilst holding tissue paper around the battery connector, then wiping away any excess before connecting to a battery or device.
3. If the filler looks to be still white and dry, I drop from the bottle directly into the carto with the cap removed, ensuring that the drops are distributed evenly around the centre (don’t drip down the central hole as this will produce the geyser effect mentioned previously)!
4. Let the carto stand on it’s end for 5 minutes, to allow the e-liquid to be absorbed properly.
5. Insert drip tip, and vape away.
6. Whenever I think about it, or if the amount of vapour produced lessens, or of the taste starts to fade, I add a few drops through the drip tip – simple. I find that tilting the device so that the drops run down the inside of  the tip and cartomiser helps to avoid the liquid finding it’s way into the central hole.

This method works exceptionally well for me, but as with all things vaping, you may not agree, but I hope this article is useful to someone at least.