Hey all,
So before I dive into this "overall experience" let me first give a little bit of background leading up to now.
I've been an avid smoker of Marlboro Ultra Lights for quite a while. On average I'd say a 1 pack a day smoker.
I research the crap out of everything, and try to buy things or try new things locally first before ordering things on-line, getting other people's feedback and reviews, and understanding the concepts of a new technology.
About a week ago, I started questioning my overall health, and if I really wanted to continue to worry about developing lung cancer some day, and impairing my ability to workout and excercise, etc.... I also wasn't a fan of the "dry throat" and "seasonal bronchitus" so I decided to research an alternative solution. I thought to myself... there's GOT to be something out there that's legal, delivers nicotine, and is healthier than an "analouge."
That's when I found this forum. Upon further investigation of the forum, I started piecing together the bits and pieces of information regarding the components of the e-smokes, I saw countless reviews and opinions of people, e-liquid vs. dispospal cartridges etc. I even found the IRC channel and chatted with some of the guys for a while.
The people I spoke with on IRC, suggested I try the DSE 901, which as I seem to have read, is made by a LARGE # of different vendors, some being knock offs, some being good makes, etc. As of "the time of this writing" I still have not decided if I should order one of these, where to order a "decent" one, and / or if it's the "right" PV for me.
Needless to say, the e-cig deffinately intrigued me to the point of asking myself the question... "What's the worst that could happen... it could kill me? Bah... on with the show!" Living in the western burbs of Chicagoland, I decided to give a few smoke shops a call, and see if they had any "PV's" just so I could try it, see if I like it etc.
Lucky for me, I found a shop, right by the local mall. When I called them on the phone, they said they had 4 models, none of which i had read about or heard about before. I decided to go and take a look.
The real intent here, was not to find an "AWESOME" PV at this point... it was more of a proof of concept experiment to myself, to ponder the question "Is this for me? Will this work? Can I make the leap?" I KNEW AHEAD OF TIME, that whatever products that this shop was carrying... were likely to be made of cheap shoddy materials, overpriced, and mechanically (or rather electronically) unsound.
So the lady showed me these 4 brands. 3 were of the "Pen Style," which immediately turned me off. Fact is, I don't want something that long hanging out of my mouth, and analouge look alikes are heavy enough. So the only option she had available, was this brand called "Health e-Cigarettes!" Of course the lady was like "Oh... this very good brand, you like much, you come back tomorrow buy 10 more cartridges... you be happy..." Yea yea yea... ok lady....
#1, I never heard of this brand. But I thought screw it, let's try this thing out. Essentially it is a paper flip-top Cigarette Box look-alike, with green / white labeling. The "starter kit" so to speak, was just that... the box with 6 "menthol" flavored (more on that in a min) NON-NICATINE disposable cartridges. 1 White w/ Orange LED Li-Ion Battery, and 1 atomizer. On the bottom of the box, a little lever you push over which releases the 2 wall socket prongs you can use to plug the entire box into the wall to recharge. The Batt you have to screw into the hole in the box before it will charge.
Since this is my first review, it's hard for me to base my judgement off of anything else, however.... that being said... from everything I've read and people I've talked to, I think I can form an honest opinion of how I THINK it should work.
The Battery - This battery absolutely blows in my opinion.... A Full-Charge (which the instructions say should take 3 hours) actually only allows you to charge it for 20 mins before the light goes green. As a regular smoker, I tend to take an outdoor smoke break every 1 to 2 hours, usually smoking 1 sometimes 2 Ultra Light Cigarettes at a time, and averaging around 15-20 puffs per smoke. So NOW let's consider this. Using the same sort of scheduleing technique. I'd walk outside, and "attempt" to take 15-20 puffs before heading back in. GRANTED, I couldn't get the thing to activate most of the time without REALLLY SUCKING on it HARD and even then, it didn't light sometimes... but I'll explain more on that later. At this type of useage.... the battery lasted me only 5 trips outside, before it blinked at me and said "Sorry bub... I'm outta power..." Terrible in my opinion
The Atomizer - The atomizer in my opinion again... absolutely blows. Compared to some of the other "pictures" I've seen of other PVs, it's about 1/3 the size of any other atomizer. It's literally less than 1" in height. It has a "V" shaped connection that makes contact with the cartridge. When I put all the pieces together, and tried to take puffs on this thing (and mind you... I tried different cartridges, blanks, and low level nicotine carts)... almost 75% of the time, I couldn't get the LED to glow, and thus I was sucking pure air. Even when I COULD get it to light all the way, I'd have to keep sucking for what seemed like forever (probably 5 to 6 seconds) just to get a "LITTLE BIT" of actual smoke / vapor.
The Smoke - Pure and simple... NOT ENOUGH! Even when I could get the thing to perform, the amount of vapor, or smoke produced was not enough to give an appropriate "throat hit" that I was really looking for. I've seen images and videos of people with these things who have PVs that produce what appears to be an ample and comparable amount of vapor smoke.... and this thing just doesn't cut it. You get a "tiny" bit of vapor, not much else.
The Taste - Both the Non-Nicotine and The Low Level Nicotine cartridges I had were both "menthol" flavored, because that's all the store had. Both of these carts, in my opinion, didn't really taste like Menthol.... they tasted like pure MINT extract! I don't mind mint, but it seemed to me like it was too much of a wintery minty taste... like too strong or something. It wasn't incredibly terrible, just too much.
Cartridges - Low Level Nicotine carts. To be honest, I have no basis for my thought here, only what I "expected" to be an appropriate outcome that ended up being completely wrong and left me wanting. When I would smoke a normal ultra light cig, I would always have at least a small buzz or that "nicotined" feeling for a short bit. When I smoked this e-cig with the low-level nicotine carts, EVEN if I TRIED to really inhale or "smoke it like I meant it"... it left me with nothing, no satisfied crave, no buzz, no nothing. It might just be me, but I thought one of the whole points of these things were also to satisfy that nicotine crave. Didn't happen.
Overall, I think this vendor is garbage. If it weren't for the fact that I pretty much knew I was going to get a junk product before I actually tried it... I probably would have said Screw the whole e-cig thing, I'm going back to the traditional method.
That being said, I'm still looking and needing opinions on a product I "SHOULD" consider getting with the following in mind: Should produce a good throat hit, should be the same size and closely resembles that of an actual cigarette, should produce AMPLE smoke, should have good quality parts and a decent lasting battery, should at least be able to satisfy a basic nicotine crave, should reliably "light" and be puffed on like a regular cigarette.
Cheers.
So before I dive into this "overall experience" let me first give a little bit of background leading up to now.
I've been an avid smoker of Marlboro Ultra Lights for quite a while. On average I'd say a 1 pack a day smoker.
I research the crap out of everything, and try to buy things or try new things locally first before ordering things on-line, getting other people's feedback and reviews, and understanding the concepts of a new technology.
About a week ago, I started questioning my overall health, and if I really wanted to continue to worry about developing lung cancer some day, and impairing my ability to workout and excercise, etc.... I also wasn't a fan of the "dry throat" and "seasonal bronchitus" so I decided to research an alternative solution. I thought to myself... there's GOT to be something out there that's legal, delivers nicotine, and is healthier than an "analouge."
That's when I found this forum. Upon further investigation of the forum, I started piecing together the bits and pieces of information regarding the components of the e-smokes, I saw countless reviews and opinions of people, e-liquid vs. dispospal cartridges etc. I even found the IRC channel and chatted with some of the guys for a while.
The people I spoke with on IRC, suggested I try the DSE 901, which as I seem to have read, is made by a LARGE # of different vendors, some being knock offs, some being good makes, etc. As of "the time of this writing" I still have not decided if I should order one of these, where to order a "decent" one, and / or if it's the "right" PV for me.
Needless to say, the e-cig deffinately intrigued me to the point of asking myself the question... "What's the worst that could happen... it could kill me? Bah... on with the show!" Living in the western burbs of Chicagoland, I decided to give a few smoke shops a call, and see if they had any "PV's" just so I could try it, see if I like it etc.
Lucky for me, I found a shop, right by the local mall. When I called them on the phone, they said they had 4 models, none of which i had read about or heard about before. I decided to go and take a look.
The real intent here, was not to find an "AWESOME" PV at this point... it was more of a proof of concept experiment to myself, to ponder the question "Is this for me? Will this work? Can I make the leap?" I KNEW AHEAD OF TIME, that whatever products that this shop was carrying... were likely to be made of cheap shoddy materials, overpriced, and mechanically (or rather electronically) unsound.
So the lady showed me these 4 brands. 3 were of the "Pen Style," which immediately turned me off. Fact is, I don't want something that long hanging out of my mouth, and analouge look alikes are heavy enough. So the only option she had available, was this brand called "Health e-Cigarettes!" Of course the lady was like "Oh... this very good brand, you like much, you come back tomorrow buy 10 more cartridges... you be happy..." Yea yea yea... ok lady....
#1, I never heard of this brand. But I thought screw it, let's try this thing out. Essentially it is a paper flip-top Cigarette Box look-alike, with green / white labeling. The "starter kit" so to speak, was just that... the box with 6 "menthol" flavored (more on that in a min) NON-NICATINE disposable cartridges. 1 White w/ Orange LED Li-Ion Battery, and 1 atomizer. On the bottom of the box, a little lever you push over which releases the 2 wall socket prongs you can use to plug the entire box into the wall to recharge. The Batt you have to screw into the hole in the box before it will charge.
Since this is my first review, it's hard for me to base my judgement off of anything else, however.... that being said... from everything I've read and people I've talked to, I think I can form an honest opinion of how I THINK it should work.
The Battery - This battery absolutely blows in my opinion.... A Full-Charge (which the instructions say should take 3 hours) actually only allows you to charge it for 20 mins before the light goes green. As a regular smoker, I tend to take an outdoor smoke break every 1 to 2 hours, usually smoking 1 sometimes 2 Ultra Light Cigarettes at a time, and averaging around 15-20 puffs per smoke. So NOW let's consider this. Using the same sort of scheduleing technique. I'd walk outside, and "attempt" to take 15-20 puffs before heading back in. GRANTED, I couldn't get the thing to activate most of the time without REALLLY SUCKING on it HARD and even then, it didn't light sometimes... but I'll explain more on that later. At this type of useage.... the battery lasted me only 5 trips outside, before it blinked at me and said "Sorry bub... I'm outta power..." Terrible in my opinion
The Atomizer - The atomizer in my opinion again... absolutely blows. Compared to some of the other "pictures" I've seen of other PVs, it's about 1/3 the size of any other atomizer. It's literally less than 1" in height. It has a "V" shaped connection that makes contact with the cartridge. When I put all the pieces together, and tried to take puffs on this thing (and mind you... I tried different cartridges, blanks, and low level nicotine carts)... almost 75% of the time, I couldn't get the LED to glow, and thus I was sucking pure air. Even when I COULD get it to light all the way, I'd have to keep sucking for what seemed like forever (probably 5 to 6 seconds) just to get a "LITTLE BIT" of actual smoke / vapor.
The Smoke - Pure and simple... NOT ENOUGH! Even when I could get the thing to perform, the amount of vapor, or smoke produced was not enough to give an appropriate "throat hit" that I was really looking for. I've seen images and videos of people with these things who have PVs that produce what appears to be an ample and comparable amount of vapor smoke.... and this thing just doesn't cut it. You get a "tiny" bit of vapor, not much else.
The Taste - Both the Non-Nicotine and The Low Level Nicotine cartridges I had were both "menthol" flavored, because that's all the store had. Both of these carts, in my opinion, didn't really taste like Menthol.... they tasted like pure MINT extract! I don't mind mint, but it seemed to me like it was too much of a wintery minty taste... like too strong or something. It wasn't incredibly terrible, just too much.
Cartridges - Low Level Nicotine carts. To be honest, I have no basis for my thought here, only what I "expected" to be an appropriate outcome that ended up being completely wrong and left me wanting. When I would smoke a normal ultra light cig, I would always have at least a small buzz or that "nicotined" feeling for a short bit. When I smoked this e-cig with the low-level nicotine carts, EVEN if I TRIED to really inhale or "smoke it like I meant it"... it left me with nothing, no satisfied crave, no buzz, no nothing. It might just be me, but I thought one of the whole points of these things were also to satisfy that nicotine crave. Didn't happen.
Overall, I think this vendor is garbage. If it weren't for the fact that I pretty much knew I was going to get a junk product before I actually tried it... I probably would have said Screw the whole e-cig thing, I'm going back to the traditional method.
That being said, I'm still looking and needing opinions on a product I "SHOULD" consider getting with the following in mind: Should produce a good throat hit, should be the same size and closely resembles that of an actual cigarette, should produce AMPLE smoke, should have good quality parts and a decent lasting battery, should at least be able to satisfy a basic nicotine crave, should reliably "light" and be puffed on like a regular cigarette.
Cheers.
