this is my first shatter but it melts to my finger so it should be possible.
Just got my carts today. What do you mean prime? Saturating the wick like TCat is mentioning? Do I need to run a liquid concentrate in the cart first to prime or can I just start with straight bho? Can The Clear go straight in? It is pretty runny.
Straight BHO works, the consistency (when warmed, not room temp) will determine how well it feeds into the wick. Some of the thicker BHO's (shatters, typically, but not always - i've had very good waxes feed slow as well) will "vape" off the coil quicker than it feeds. You have only one button, so in order to build up heat inside (on the warming coil to feed the wick) without much dry burning (no oil on the main coil that vapes), you have to basically tap (geez there's lots of parentheses) the button without holding (like morse code) so the inside can heat up without the main coil getting too hot.
That sounds complicated! Alternatively, you can modify your "burn" cycle by shorting it and pulsing. Instead of jamming the button down until the wick runs out of oil to feed the main coil (which then start glowing red which means it's really really really hot and bad things start happening really quick), try holding the button just for a few seconds at a time. The higher the voltage / lower the cart ohm-age the quicker you'll be tapping. Taps at 3.6v on a 2.4 cart are about 3-4 seconds for me while at 7.2v with a 5ohm cart it's less than a second.
The Nibbler X is a great tool for learning this, or a clear tube added between the cartridge and the drip tip so that you can see the vapor coming out. You'll learn that you want to hold it on just long enough for the thick white to come out, THEN GET OFF THAT BUTTON. This keeps the main coil from heating more than necessary and really preserves the taste of your oil!
You can press it again a second or two later (higher voltage, wait the extra second), so chain a few of these sequences together (put in mouth, start sucking, press a couple seconds [you'll have to find the sweet spot which varies from oil to oil and cart to cart - there is no "right" way!], let go a second or two, press a couple seconds, let go, press, let go, press, let go, etc., LET GO AND KEEP SUCKING to cool that cart back down.
Some oils don't necessarily need the cycle (like the CO2 I just loaded - it just keeps going!), but you'll still want to cycle the button to keep the main coil from getting too hot (giving a bad burnt taste that will stick around for the next few pulses) and keep the warming coil from getting the inside of the cart too hot (i.e. turn to runny juice that starts pooling out the bottom).
Just.. keep calm and vape!
Thanks to OF for the pdf explanation. I need to look that over some more and guess I should hit a couple youtubes before I start filling.
Do I need to weigh these carts for filling? I have a triple beam but don't really want to pull it out lol
It is important to not run it dry though, right? Leave at least 0.2 g when refilling?
You'll want to weight the cart dry so you have a reference. The 0.2g is a buffer that you can't help but leave - it gets "stuck" in a part it's neigh impossible to get the wick to pull it, but it is important that it is there (so someone said a while ago). I think Vitolo, Ataxian and perhaps others have a few posts on how to recover that oil, but it will destroy the cartridge (so might as well use it until it goes or starts tasting bad or not feeding well).
These carts don't cleaned with iso like the eskillet types, right? I have a liquid wax that has a bad taste. If I use it first will that contaminate the taste for anything subsequent? I am thinking I should use it as the last gram before the cart is retired. And these carts are getting toward the end of useful life when taste starts getting poor?
White plastic piece goes on top after filling?
They're disposable so they're not supposed to be re-used after a gram. But... I've cleaned a couple with iso, got some decent reclaim but it wasn't near the quality of the original oil and the cart was kinda funky afterwards.. I wouldn't recommend but others may have had more success.
To anyone: is there any reason to use gentlemen's carts now that I have these 2.4 omicrons? I got their new 1.5 g cart, smaller traditional cart, and tincture tank. Haven't used them and plan to return unless somebody thinks they are useful. Do they really waste your wax like you get less effect per gram? Looks easy to load and I like the simplicity but wasting product is not going to work. Could it be that it just give a huge hit?
They had a similar cartridge for a while but I believe it was filled with cotton, similar to the quad-coil cartomizer that W9 sells for ejuice.