Sounds right. Have put four or five drops from a half gram vial and have what looks to be half the vial left.
You have to be careful about putting too much PG in. .25g (half of a half gram vial) is way more than I ever put in at once. I generally put in two drops, and
once in while, when I'm about to immediately start vaping, particularly when a friend is involved, I'll put three drops in. Even after I clean the core (ISO bath and boiling in water, then let it completely dry) I generally only put two drops in, and then add another drop after a few hits. Too much PG winds up being a little wasteful and the core doesn't seem to work as well (thinner hits, though you get plenty of them).
Have a question about where the drops go, or can go, once in the DART tube. The reason I'm asking is because after learning it was safe to go ahead and load full drops I did so(3 drops) and seemed like it almost wasn't enough, of that the drops might not have made it to the ceramic. But I couldn't see any PG on the inside tube leading down to the ceramic. What also seemed weird, like I might have a problem, is that trying to vape those drops made the DART "tube" very hot and I figured if I missed and the PG was on the side wall(if you will) of the tube then it would have melted down onto the ceramic. So is there any place else it could have gone, any vents or anything? Just curious. I since added 2 more drops and seems like it's producing vape within a few seconds.
The drops went to the land of lost socks. Read below to find out how to get one of them back.
Well, actually, if you couldn't see any PG coating the insides of the tube, they probably were absorbed into the top ceramic piece, and into the actual core beneath it. The Revo/DART/AVA core seems to require a little "priming" when it's new or just after a thorough cleaning. Two drops of PG seem to do the trick. These two drops aren't really lost, they just keep the core primed. Without realizing it, it appears that you've already found that out for yourself. Just before you clean the core, you can have a final session where it takes appreciably longer, and the vapor will be appreciably thinner, and you can "reclaim" at least one of the two drops worth of PG you used to prime things in the beginning. Cleaning is an infrequent event, by the way, not a daily or even weekly task if you're using PG in there, as the "P" stands for pure, and there is little residue buildup. Waxes and less pure oils will "clog" the ceramic disk after a while, and the performance goes down until you clean it. I think I recall that OF mentioned once that "Supermelts" worked pretty well, as an alternative to PG.
While I'm thinking about it, is there an agreed on method for heating this PG without "boiling it" in effect... normally I go with 3-5 second bursts, let off for a couple seconds, then another. Perhaps it's better and more effective to do 8-10 second bursts, or does that tend to boil the precious? :gollum:
I don't know about "agreed on", but I can tell you how I do it. First of all,
you need to learn how long it takes for your "device" to heat up. I have both a 6V T1 based, SV DART core rig, and an Alpha UltraLite 3.7V LV DART core rig. Their warmup times are completely different, and the draw times are completely different. When cold, with a freshly charged battery, remove the DART/mouthpiece and look down the tube at the little piece of ceramic on the bottom, covering the core. If you look closely, you'll note that ceramic piece is NOT round, and can move around
a little in the frame that's holding it in place. When centered, on either side of the ceramic is a little gap that opens directly into the core below. Anyway, while looking down at the ceramic piece, turn your DART on, and count how long it takes until you see the orange glow of the core below the ceramic piece. If your ceramic piece is really black, it may be easier to see the core glow through the open edges of the ceramic piece that I described above. If you happen to have some PG loaded while you're doing this, you can also watch for the wisp of vapor, which will start just before the glowing core gets to full orange. On my LV UltraLite, it takes about 15-20 seconds to get to that point. On my 6V T1 based setup, it takes 5-10 seconds. So however many seconds it takes YOURS, turn your rig on, wait that many seconds, add another three or four seconds for anticipation mistiming, and then start taking your hit. I let go of the power switch when I'm about halfway through the hit. Once your DART is warmed up, it won't take nearly as long to warm up for the second (or third, etc.) hit. Usually 5-10 seconds is plenty, but use your eyes and check YOUR rig out for yourself. Note also that it takes longer to warm up on a half used battery than a freshly charged battery. The times I mentioned above are for a fully charged battery. How you "work" the power switch once you've gotten your first hit depends entirely on how big a hit you take, and how much time you allow between hits. If you're only holding your hit in for five seconds, and taking the next hit immediately, then modulating the power switch on and off may be the best way. If it's more like holding in the hit for 15 seconds, and then waiting another 15 seconds before taking the next hit, then turning off the power halfway into taking a hit, and turning it back on 10 seconds before taking the next hit may be the best way. Once you remove the DART extension, and just use the mouthpiece (see below), you can easily keep an eye on when the core is glowing and when vapor is being produced.
I can separate the extender(the piece that is the dart) and use only the rest as a mouthpiece only for a better experience? Please someone tell me how to separate and I will.
You're going to
when you realize this. The mouthpiece just pulls out of the top of the DART extension. It's a snug fit, so you may find it easier to "unscrew" it, but it's just good tolerances and a rubber O-Ring holding it into the DART. So just hold the DART extension metal body in one hand, and the mouthpiece in the other hand, and have at it. My experience with the DART extension and PG is that it does no good, and mucks things up considerably. With waxes and more solid concentrates, maybe, but for me, it's been a bad idea to involve the DART extension with the use of PG. If you start using your rig without the DART extension, you may find it worth your while to get a longer mouthpiece from TV, as your mouth is pretty close to the metal tube with the short mouthpiece. Pictures of the DART extension, with and without the mouthpiece, below:
More in the next message (first time I had over 10K characters in a reply!)
