After having had the Cera liquid cart (hereafter 'ELC') running properly for 5 days, I thought I'd offer a more in-depth review. I dropped the snus and used this cart as my daily driver from the moment that I got it back. I used to go through about a pack of snus (with 20 portions) in 5 or 6 days, which is a not-insignificant amount of nicotine. I've been planning on lowering my nicotine concentration in the juice over time (more on that in a bit). For now it's been replacing the snus 1-for-1, so I feel like I've put it through its paces and gotten to know 'the new Cera' pretty well.
Power:
It's still running just as great as described in my first post. I should clarify that the glow that I saw, while impressive, is something that only happens when the cart is bone dry. Maybe it's a nice test to see how the cart is functioning after a cleaning and drying, maybe, but not something to look for in a loaded cart. It sure was a strong indicator of the performance that this cart is now capable of, though. It's really packing some quick, powerful heat.
I'm always attentive to the 'feeling' of using a vape, in terms of your relationship to the power of the heat application, on both a logical and a direct, muscular level. I'm thinking of the manual, technique-based feel of vapes like the Cera's loose leaf cart or the MFLB, here.
I envision it as being akin to the feel that a real car enthusiast might have when using a gas pedal, or turning at speed. You get a sense of becoming closer with the machinery, and in unique ways for different quality cars, as with different quality vapes. The tool can become an extension of yourself, and the power exerted by the tool may even come to feel as if it flows directly from you.
Continuing the analogy (this is dangerous; I am not actually a car enthusiast…), the ELC feels like a drag racer. High speed and high acceleration. Horse power, and torque? This newfound power has actually quickly made a certainty of my move toward less mg/ml in my next liquid purchase.
(Am I the only one who doesn't really like the term 'juice' here? Makes me think of steroids or something…)
Proper and Improper Dripping:
The performance has been consistent for the vast majority of the time. You do have to learn the optimal drip timing, as well as the optimal drip 'dosage', in order to get consistent maximum performance. This changed significantly from the timing/dosage that I'd used pre-rebuild, but I've already gotten a much better feel for it after a few days' experience.
Before the rebuild, I'd get gurgling after more than 2 or 3 drops. I believe this was due to clogged pores in the ceramic. The gurgling would significantly hamper vapor production, and eventually seemed to be 'fatal', necessitating a boiling to restore performance. I don't think I ever really went 5 days without boiling it to 'fix it' before.
I think that its prior inability to recover without a boiling was maybe due to oil baked onto the heating coil. I figure that could cause a potentially significant decrease in the amount of heat produced, meaning an inability to vape out the loose juice below the plate. At least, not without seriously long periods of heating… Now, I can easily add three drops at a time without any issue. Four drops
sometimes causes a little gurgle.
My original thought was that this gurgle was coming from air bubbling through excess juice at the bottom of the cart, under the ceramic plate. I now believe that it actually comes from excess juice being thick enough to end up pooling
above the ceramic plate, at the bottom of the 'tunnel' that is the inside of the mouth of the cart.
Besides impeding airflow, the gurgling can even splash juice all the way up the tunnel and out of the mouthpiece if you're pulling hard enough… Which you might easily end up doing after feeling the gurgle for the first time and instinctively pulling harder to get the airflow you're used to.
Recovering from an Over-fill:
With my now properly functioning cart, I've found that you can fully recover from 'the gurgle state' through a combination of keeping the vape flat/straight out from your mouth and occasionally 'dipping down' from horizontal. This maintains proper airflow (no gurgle) for the first (horizontal) part of your pull, and the occasional dips from horizontal let the excess juice soak down into the ceramic in small amounts, replacing what you're vaping in the first part of your hit…
After doing that a few times, the cart seems to clear up and return to normal performance after you get back to a proper dripping interval. I'm real pleased about this, as I hated having to boil the thing and then wait for it dry, and so often.
One time I did become a bit concerned when I took a slow pull and the vapor tasted really bitter. It didn't taste like a dry pull sort of bitter. My theory is that in this instance I might have actually ended up with juice below the ceramic plate, due to a combination of dripping too much and taking only one hit before putting it in my pocket and carrying it around, without clearing the excess juice right away. I'm guessing that this excess juice would end up real close to the coil and could maybe 'burn' a bit if you took a long, slow pull.
I decided to try recovering the cart from this state by taking small mouth pulls while very lightly pulsing the heat, only puffing and not pulling any of it into my lungs. That seemed to do the trick, and its performance and flavor is completely back to normal now. In fact, just before writing this post I had a really nice session with it; the kind where every pull is perfect, thick-and-flavorful, and I end up really pausing to marvel at how different the vape is now…
Drip Tips:
On the subject of drip tips, I should mention that I tried the two-piece SS/delrin drip tip mentioned earlier in the thread. It's called
the Rameses, by Smok-e Mountain. It's got a delrin bottom and a stainless steel top. I'd had high hopes for it as I'd been looking for a stainless steel drip tip to match the SS in the Cera, and the delrin bottom seemed like a great idea to keep heat from spreading (though the cart has never gotten hot like it used to pre-rebuild!).
It ended up not working out for me, unfortunately. I personally didn't like the stainless steel top-half. I found the mouth to be far too wide for my liking. I wasn't concerned about that, because I figured I could find another stainless tip and plug that into the delrin bit. Unfortunately that didn't work out either, because that delrin bit doesn't quite mate right in the cart. It sits a bit proud, and wiggles laterally. this makes it really easy to knock off in your pocket. The reason here, I think, is that the o-ring is a bit too large for a Cera cart. I tried replacing it with one of TET's o-rings, but the slot in the delrin is too deep and it ends up not gripping in the cart.
Fortunately,
this glass/stainless mouthpiece from ebay that was linked in the Luna thread, a clone of the "Stainless Steel Pyrex Silencer by Innovape", ended up being really great (Thanks
@ShayWhiteGrow). Here's an
image link in case the ebay listing goes down. I had it on-hand already when I got the vape back from TET, and I used it exclusively right from the start. It feels just great. Unfortunately I broke it after only 3 days of use…
I went back to the stock mouthpiece after that, and then really noticed how much better I liked that glass mouthpiece. It accentuates the feel of the vapor, and the airflow feels nicer, and the feel of the mouthpiece on your lips is of course excellent in comparison to delrin. So I upgraded it to mission critical status and ordered 2 more. Gotta have a backup for that sort of thing. I'll be more careful with them now…
Conclusion:
Back to the vape itself. I give the Cera liquid cart full marks. My only caveat in recommending it to just anyone looking for an e-cig would be that it is a dripping type system rather than a tank system.
Now, the 'ceramic reservoir' inside
is noticeable to me in this rebuilt cart. I can tell how sometimes I'll vape it so it's just a bit on the dry side, set it down for a bit, come back to it, and notice that it seems to have a bit more juice it. This gives the feeling of a large, hidden 'secondary wick' inside the cart that can both draw-from and feed-to the primary wick at the bottom. Which is, I think, how it works…
Still, it remains a dripper even though it probably doesn't have to be dripped as often as most. I'm fine with this; I'm fairly enamored with the thing. I like switching up flavors often, too, which I'm pretty sure would be harder with a tank system. It has to be mentioned, though, because I know there are all types of e-cigs out there, and I believe tanks or clearos are perhaps the most often recommended type for beginners? I don't have a deep knowledge of e-cigs in general, yet. This one, though, is great.
). So off they both went, along with the bodies and switches for a checkup.
I purchased mine at the above shop so I had a chance to try a few on before purchasing. I'm going to go in on one of those glass drip tips soon as I'm done with this post!
