So I have put about 2.5g through my 5 ohm cart and now it just gets really hot quickly and dosnt produce much vapor. Do I just need to keep trying to work the wax down? It had some in it and I added a little more to try to fix the situation but still no good.
If the ouside gets "really hot" but you only get wisps, you may well have reached the state where the furnace hearer is shot, but the bulk heater still warms the load. If it gets "really hot", I doubt you have a priming problem - sounds like the wick is shot/clogged.
The best test for if I'm correct would be an Ohm meter, if you have one.
On the higher powered carts, if you "lay on" the button, they don't last as long as 2.4's. I usually figure 3-5g with care and clean concentrate, so your 2.5g is already in the ballpark (especially if you hold the button a long time and/or don't cool between hits).
Having two or more Omicron carts available and at hand can help with the waiting to cool part
Hmm I dont have the batteries. How can you tell if the carts have gone bad? Do they just burn out or degrade over time?
Yes, they both degrade and often (sometimes with the "death puff of smoke" from the bottom) just die - usually the furnace (there are two heaters). One easy way to tell if a heater died is with a meter.. If the wick has clogged and it has just degraded over time or clogged right away with some "new" (and probably "dirty") concentrate, it is harder to tell, but still time to move on - cartridges are disposable and the stated usage is only one gram, though many (most?) of us get more use.
-NDA