Hey folks, been tackling this issue for a minute but figured that I would ask around and see if anyone has ideas. We have been running into a not insignificant increase in the number of our carts that are leaking out of the bottom.
We are using a combination of distillate made from co2 crude and pure cannabis terpenes that we extract from our flower. We were filling in the past with a Fifty-shot, but have since swapped to a cart farmer 250. Our increase in number of leaks happened prior to the change over in filling apparatus, so I donât believe that is the problem. We keep our reservoir at 70C, and typically only fill 20 or 30 before loosely capping. Finish capping using an arbor press one at a time.
Anyone have any ideas or thoughts as to what could be causing the leaks? Hardware is an acrylic ccell clone from coastal vape co. Test results show most of our carts around 5-6% total terpene content. I know this is a typical issue to run into with carts (been making them for years) but I cannot for the life of me figure out what changed to cause this increase. Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated.
I had a few people who were leaving vapes in their cars, and wondering why it was leaking out. It was only 100â° outside. Are they leaking in packages or after its used?
A combination of carts leaking in house before they go into the clamshells, some on the shelf in the packaging, and some as partially finished returned items.
My first thought is always âdumb consumer left it in their car on a hot dayâ but it has been a little more than the usual summer leak bump from ambient temps lol.
Itâs interesting, I chose the lower end of the temp range that he uses to fill carts so I figured it should be fine. Our cart manufacturer is telling me that they shouldnât be filled any higher than 100F (38C), 120F at the very most (49C). That sounds very low unless you are using ejuice or something heavily diluted/cut. Am I off the mark there or not?
It sounded crazy low to me too, glad to know Iâm not just off my rocker here. No we donât preheat our carts, I found when we preheated them to around 100f on a clone heating mat it increased our rate of leakage.
Definitely hasnât been a change in our distillate or terps, thatâs why my thought is that we got a different batch/bad batch of carts potentially?
In their defense, coastal vape co has been nothing but professional and proactive in dealing with the issue, and have comped us significantly for the issues we are experiencing. Problem still isnât fixed though so trying to figure out a solution that doesnât involve tossing 7 or 8 thousand cartsâŚ
I have a feeling the manufacturer changed something inside the cart, if you have an older one where you did not have an issue with I would rip it apart and new one you are having the issues with and see if something changed, my money says they changed the cart up a little, or coastal started buying from someone else
Since the start of COVID, there have been QC issues with almost every product I have purchased across the board. I canât even get damn cat litter that is consistent anymore, let alone technical consumer bits! My money is on QC more than an unadvertised change to the hardware.
Thanks for the input everyone. Iâm going to see if we can get our oil into the carts at a lower temp per the manufacturer instructions and see how that goes. I have a feeling we will run into some viscosity issues but a boy can dreamâŚ
I would first look into your filling/capping procedure. Leaving the cartridges uncapped for too long will allow oil to leak into the core area. Capping the cartridge essentially creates a vacuum inside the headspace of the cartridge, like when you put your thumb on a straw in a drink and pull the straw out and liquid is trapped inside the straw. Try filling a few and capping each one immediately after you fill and see if your problems persist. Itâs more of a pain in the ass to fill 1 and cap 1, but it leads to fewer issues with leakage if your viscosity/aperture hole size are properly paired.
Itâs also possible that there is a QC issue with the ceramic from the hardware manufacturer. Spend a little extra and go with a quality manufacturer and youâll have fewer issues.
This is something I am keenly aware of and make sure to let my fillers know. We quickly fill two to three rows (20-30 units depending on the person running it), then immediately cap those before filling more. I donât think thatâs the weak link in the chain.
my hope is by using a well crimped syringe tip we can have the gun almost down into the bottom of the cart, then pull the syringe up as you fill the cart. Worked well for us in the past when we were carting thicker, chunky oil.