Steve K's Vaping World

Cartomizer tanks had their moment in the sun. Lately, however, it seems that large clearomizers based loosely on the old CE2 design have taken the spotlight lately. Either way, you go, the old CE2 cartomizers have nearly been forgotten. Until now.  Someone got the bright idea to take the original filler-less carto and stick in a cartomizer tank. I present to you my review of the pre-punched CE2 tank cartomizer.

You can pick these cartos up at MadVapes.

About CE2s

CE2s were (and probably still are) quite popular before dual coil tanks and the Stardust style cartomizers hit the scene.  The cartomizers came in sizes of up to 1.2ml and the most popular versions had a clear plastic shell instead of a steel tube.

The cartomizers featured a heating element near the top with wicks that ran down to the bottom of the cartomizer to transfer e-liquid to the coils. This is basically how most of the new style clearomizers work as well.

However, the CE2 had a few issues, the tubes were prone to cracking and the wicks were often pinched, resulting in insufficient liquid getting to the coils causing “dry hits” which tasted like burning, no fun!

If you want to see more about CE2, check out some of my articles here or here.

Design

The CE2 Style Tank cartomizers pretty much look exactly like the pre-punched dual coil cartomizers. There is a flange for fitting into the recess of the Smoktech DCT and two holes in the side of the cartomizer to allow e-liquid flow.

There is one difference, however.  The holes are comparatively huge.  This is to allow the liquid to flow freely into the cartomizer.

Pulling the cartomizer apart reveals some interesting updates to the old CE2 technology. For the better. A few things were done to fix the things that used to annoy me as a CE2 user.

The first thing I noticed is the CE2 engine itself is very short.  Despite this being an XL cartomizer, the innards are about the same size as the original, tiny .8ml CE2s.

This is a good thing because less wick to travel up, means less problems with wicking.  Speaking of wicks, there sure is a lot of it.

It appears that this model uses a single, very thick wick that was then unbraided to provide a bunch of thinner strands to deliver e-liquid to the coils.

Something else interesting is going on where the coil meets the wicks.  The notches in the cup surrounding the coils are much deeper than found in the old school models. This allows the wicks to sit below the top edge of the coil cup.

Yes, the silicone gasket that sits on top of the cup has also been rebooted.  The most obvious is that the needle holes for filling aren’t there since these cartomizers don’t need to be filled that way (I’m sure nobody’s going to miss that!)

However, the notches were also redone.  The notches were round little affairs, notorious for being too small in the original version.  These have been replaced with larger, square notches designed to fit with the slots in the coil cup.

Oh yeah, and that annoying outer silicone ring that we all used to have to pull out and throw away.  It’s history, too.

If standalone CE2s were still a thing, this would probably make for a pretty nice version of that cartomizer.

CE2 Tank Replacement Performance

Ok, so you’re probably asking yourself if those changes actually make a difference or if it’s the same ‘ol CE2 complete with the same issues stuffed into a tank.

In short, no, these perform much better.  Since I’m known for my wordy reviews, allow me to elaborate just a touch.

I’ll stick with the theme of comparing this version to the original CE2 styles.

There were several issues with the original CE2 as I mentioned.  One of those issues was e-liquid managing to get into the air tube of the cartomizer causing gurgling and the occasional sucking of e-liquid by the hapless user.

I am happy to report that I haven’t had the cartomizer flood even once.  This is despite the larger openings for the wick.  Liquids seem to stay put.

However, the biggest issue with these cartomizers were dry hits that happened when the wicks couldn’t keep up with the heating coil. Here again, I found a night and day difference with this version. The new wick design and the fact that there isn’t a lot of travel room in the wicks seems to help immensely.

With the old CE2 versions, I’d generally have to keep the voltage down around 3.7v, even on higher resistance models or I would get dry hits pretty regularly. The current version I’m using is a 2.0 ohm version and I’ve been running it up to 4.2v.  At the higher voltage I’d occasionally get a slightly dry hit and would have to tip my PV upside down ala short wicked Visions to get wicking going again.

Running at below 4v, however, I don’t think I ran into a burnt taste at all.  However, I’ll note that I use pretty thin e-liquid, (80%PG) so users of thicker liquid may have differing results.

Ok, so back to speaking in general terms. The vapor production is fantastic from this cartomizer.  CE2s always did produce good vapor. However, they were also known for slightly muted flavor.  It may be my imagination, but I think that these also do a better job of reproducing flavor. I do know that throat hit is better with this model, in fact, it’s downright excellent.

These cartomizers also seem to be lasting me a lot longer than the standard dual coil and single coil SmokTech cartomizers do these days. Plus, if you’re very careful, these cartomizers can be cleaned and dry burned. In general, these CE2 tank cartos don’t give me a lot to be mad about.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

The new CE2 style tank cartomizers are a huge leap forward in performance from the original CE2 cartomizers. They are not only a new type of cartomizer to try out with your cartomizer tank, but are also all around good performers. As an added bonus, they promise to last longer than the standard dual and single coil pre-punched cartomizers as well.  You can pick these up for about the same price as regular replacement cartos from MadVapes.

Pros:

• Good performance
• As simple as regular DCC cartos
• Works in almost any tank
• Long-lasting

Cons:

• May not wick as well with thick e-liquids
• Steel tube makes disassembly for cleaning difficult
• Some people do not prefer the taste profile of CE2s

Details:

Product Name: CE2 Style Tank Replacement Single Coil Cartomizers, 2.0 Ohms, Dual Hole
Available From: MadVapes
Price: $2.29 each
Resistance: 2.0 ohm (also available in other resistances)
Threading: 510