Day 1
I won this pod system called the Zip in a contest by Usonicig. @Usonicig_Cecily was very good about shipping it quickly and helping me handle the Customs bureaucracy, so I'm going to review it.
The company name is pronounced yoo-saw-ni-cig and is portmanteau of UltraSONIc e-CIGarette. The unique feature of their Zip is that instead of having a coil that heats up to vaporize the e-juice like every other vape ever made, the pod contains ultrasonic plates that vibrate imperceptibly at 3MHz to nebulize the e-juice into vapor. (3MHz is well beyond the range of human or animal hearing.) As a result it produces a cool vape and the pods last significantly longer since there's no cotton to singe or get clogged. They say it lasts 5000 puffs, or about twice as long as coil-based pods, and can't hit dry.
I'll be comparing the Zip to the Vladdin RE, since that the only other pod system I've used. (The Vladdin RE is a lot like a Juul.)
The Zip is about twice as wide and twice as thick as the Vladdin. It's about the size of my first two fingers together down to the third knuckle—kinda chunky.
The Zip is 70g compared to the Vladdin's 20g—pretty hefty but not hard to carry around.
The Zip holds 2mL compared to the Vladdin's 1.5mL.
The Zip has a 1200mAh battery compared to the Vladdin's 350mAh battery.
I filled my new Zip with a custom batch of DIY 30mg 30/70vg nic-salt-b e-juice, and left it to saturate for ten minutes. My Vladdin takes 50mg 50/50.
The Zip produces moderately more vapor than the Vladdin.
The draw is airy compared to the Vladdin, so the vapor density ends up being similar.
The flavor is very pure, superior to that of the Vladdin.
Seems good for chain-vaping—no noticeable reduction in flavor quality, unlike the Vladdin.
The pod and its airflow are isolated from the battery unit so it seems unlikely to leak into it.
The pod is held firmly in place by impressively strong magnets.
It uses manual fire rather than draw activation (white light).
There is a low battery warning at 20% (red light).
It has a safety feature that prevents it from firing if the plates are too dry (blue light).
It reportedly works best with thicker e-juices between 50% and 70% VG.
It is advertised to also work with Cannabidiol (CBD), which we are now allowed to talk about on our forum.
I'm impressed with the Zip from a technological perspective. I wish it was smaller. The taste and vapor are superior to the Vladdin. I'm a bit worried that I have no idea where I'm going to buy replacement pods when the time comes. And I have one problem that I'm not going to discuss until I've had a chance to test it further.
I will post status updates both as separate comments and as addenda to this post.
Day 2
The problem I was encountering seems to persist. With regular use, the unit seems to flood occasionally which causes vapor production to dramatically drop off. I have to shake it upside down to clear out the excess e-liquid and then it immediately works normally again. Perhaps this is what @SP013 meant and I just need to draw more gently.
This thing is pretty easy to carry around in a shirt pocket and the weight is not too noticeable. I do need to remember to lock it (standard 5-taps). The small clouds it makes do not linger in an enclosed space.
The battery life seems to be about as long as a Vladdin: recharging daily is enough.
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