Cartomizers: Use Only For 3-4 Days!?

[genieangel]

In the Vapor Talk store it says that "Cartomizers disposable and each one should be used only for 3-4 days."

Why would it only be able to be used for 3-4 days when regular carts can be used again and again?

[BirdDog]

All parts made for the ecig are disposable. They are not meant to last a life time. The 3-4 days is mostly a recommendation for the cartomizers. Some members will use them longer. After so many refills the flavor will drop off and the filler might start to burn. Same goes with cartridges, you can only refill them so many times before the flavor starts to get weak or the filler gets worn out. You can go through the steps of cleaning or rinsing, but it is just easier to start with a new one IHMO.

[easilyamused]

many people just use and reuse them until they die a natural death, and even then some people try to resuscitate them, i hear most often that people will toss them out when they begin to taste burnt

[mcquinn]

Depending on what liquid I am using 2 to 5 days and then the flavor and vapor fall off.I look forward to the taste of a fresh carto.Depending on what liquid you use it may not be as economical as atties .I have had some really good liquid ruin an atty in a day.

[Beans]

Yikes mcquinn, What kind of juice ruins attys? I want to avoid those.

[mcquinn]

I don't like to name names as a lot of people in these forums really like them,that is why I tried them.They were domestic brands and as I said they were good .Just not good enough for me to buy a lot of atties.

[Beans]

Gotch ya

[juliery]

I have been using the same cartos till they die. But not all at once. When you use them and they get yucky, I toss them into a container,...when I accumulate a pile of them (I have hundreds of them and am currently rotating 70) I use an electric hot pot and boil them...(take end caps off first and toss them in an old pill bottle to rinse off with a drop of dish soap).. an electric hot pot goes from cold to boiling in under a minute....so I boil them for about 15 mins, change the water, boil again for another 15 mins or so and keep doing this until there is NO odor in the water and no discoloration. If you are only cleaning a few cartos obviously you would really probably only need to boil twice, once for the really dirty water, once for a clean water. I usually boil around 25, sometimes as many as 50. While they are boiling I watch tv or do some other thing since the water doesn't need my help to boil. Once I am done I run the pot full of cold water to cool them off....then I blog the excess water out of them and set them out to dry for a day or two or whenever. (I use a plastic insert tray that came with my cell phone to do this, so if anything falls over I don't have cartos flying all over). Every second time I do this process I do the whole boiling thing...then set them in a container of everclear/cheap vodka (high alcohol content,no flavor or sugar. I don't use rubbing alcohol or any other thing not meant to be ingested)....I have left them in the everclear anywhere from 1 hour to 36 hours if I forget, or just don't feel like taking them out, etc. After I take them out of the alcohol I do the boiling process again to make sure all the alcohol is out of them....probably a good 3-4 boils with changing the water when I am doing a bunch of them. Then the blowing out and drying. There is NO way any bacteria can survive in boiling something repeatedly for that length of time.....the alcohol will kill anything too. I have cartos I have used many, many, many times....I was keeping track of one, but after 15 bolings, I figured why bother. In the last year we have lost maybe 10 cartos. This is not as complicated of a process as it may sound. You are only actually DOING anything for maybe 10 minutes, most of the time the cartos are boiling, soaking or drying which doesn't require any effort on my part. Of course the people making and marketing them say they are disposable....I would love if someone would use something once and toss it. Well when you can easily smoke 8 prefilled cartos a day, it would get awfully expensive to just toss them, which is why I don't and I won't. No one using an atty would throw away a working atty, so why should I throw away mine just because it happens to have filler on top of it? As long as it is kept clean and germ free and the atty is working, I see no reason to toss it. I am very meticulous about cleaning them as I already have a compromised immune system and don't need more problems. I have even talked to my doctor about this whole thing and he said there is no way that doing all that we will be having a problem as far as bacteria, etc. When you sterilize baby bottles, etc....it is basically the same process....boiling, but for a much shorter time. But of course part of this is the getting out old flavor, etc. Anyway, it works great, we have had NO problems at all. I just do other things when the water is boiling and with using the electric hot pot I do the whole thing in my master bath while I am on my laptop, or watching tv, etc. If I ever start doing it and then get tired I just leave them sit in the hot water, not boiling and then resume when I feel like it. Do not just walk away with them boiling....the water will evaporate eventually, and you want them always covered in water.

[mcquinn]

After three or four days of use the paper starts peeling off.The ones I dissected the filler was scorched in the vicinity of the element .