Vapor4Life Gets New Batteries

Today Vapor4Life launched two new battery lines: the diamond series and the stealth series. The diamond series has a diamond cut tip, new switch and now boasts a 20 second cutoff. Airflow is purportedly much improved, which is great as some V4L automatic batteries really took a lot of pull to activate. The stealth series has no LED,  a camouflage design, 20 second cutoff and improved airflow. No LED is pretty interesting; I don't know of another e-cig that does this. I'm thinking the stealth won't lend itself well to new users as they won't know when the battery's in need of a charge, but it seems great for covert use in a movie theater. I've ordered one of each and I'll post more about them once I've used them a bit.

In addition to the batteries, a new coupon code was released granting a 25% discount. As always the coupon code can be found on the Coupon Codes page.

Manual or automatic?

Last night I brought my aunt a starter kit. I got her two regular sized automatic batteries from Vapor4Life. After explaining the basics and having her use them, she wasn't getting reliable hits from the auto. I let her try my manual extra long and she was able to get a huge hit with tons of vapor which sold her instantly on the manual battery. I thought she'd like the automatic more as it works exactly like an analog, but she said the manual satisfied her cravings a lot better. I left her house leaving one of my manuals behind.

A friend I told about e-cigs fared similarly. After using a Vapor4Life automatic, a blu (which is only automatic) and a V4L manual extra long while we were hanging out, he liked the V4L manual best. The thing really kicks ass and produces an absurd amount of vapor when combined with the "Wow" line of liquid and carts. I think it produces more vapor than an analog does smoke when exhaled. It's ridiculous. I'm going to be doing a video that goes more in-depth on Vapor4Life and teaches one to fill their own carts which makes vapor production even more insane.

Update

New coupon codes added. There are now two 10% discount codes for Frii e-cigs that give discounts on cartridges and starter kits. Vapor4Life continues to have constant discounts, the current one being 28% off of refill liquid. If you wanted to try either company now would be a good time.

The Frii review is going to take longer than I planned. Why? Well, the battery from the starter kit lasted one day. Frii's customer service was quick to respond, apologetic and are sending me out a new battery. The customer service rep I talked to made it sound like this occurence is unusual which is a good sign. Accidents happen, won't knock them for it. They're making it right which is all I can ask for. In the meantime I've been using blu which I'll review later on today or tomorrow. I feel I know enough about the product to give a fair opinion of it.

Stay tuned.

Reviews Coming

My starter kit from Frii arrived today. I ordered from blu a week ago and that should be delivered soon as well. From what I hear, ordering a black starter kit from blu basically guarantees long waiting times, so if you're interested in them you may want to consider going with a white kit.

In any event, I've been using my new Frii battery for a few hours and I'm extremely impressed. Don't want to elaborate too much just yet at the risk of posting a pseudo review. The actual review of Frii will be up "shortly," once I feel I've spent enough time with it to know it inside and out. I was planning on reviewing blu first, but given the potential shipping holdup, we'll just do Frii before it. This will also be the first video review I do. With this sort of content I think video will be really beneficial -- it'll allow you to see the product in action without having to lay out the money for it first.

There's lots of coupon codes flying around lately, all of which are posted on the Coupon Codes page. Vapor4Life seems to be on a mission to make sure no customer ever pays full price, so that's worthy of keeping an eye on. As of this posting, a 33% battery-only discount has ended and been replaced with a 28% discount on everything, which is nuts. These guys have had some sort of discount running steadily for the past few weeks. Also up is a new 15% discount for starter kits from South Beach Smoke.

As an aside, South Beach Smoke recently sent an offer for a free starter kit and a year's worth of cartridges to Miley Cyrus after the video of her smoking salvia from a bong was blasted everywhere courtesy of TMZ. "[...]it's a better option than smoking hallucinogenics from a bong," South Beach says.

Terms and Tips

I figured I'd explain some things for new users to help them ease into the e-cig world, like defining common terms. If you've ever heard the terms "batty," "atty," "condom" or "cart" in relation to e-cigs and were totally confused, this post is for you.

(1) Cart: Cartridge or cartomizer. A cartridge is different from a cartomizer in one way: the latter also houses the atomizer, whereas the former is separate from it. "Cart" refers to both styles.
(2) Batty: Pretty straightforward, a "batty" is the battery, or the part that has the LED and screws into the atomizer/cart.
(3) Atty: Atomizer, the part that heats up the nicotine liquid inside of the cart.
(4) Condom: My favorite e-cig term, the condom is the plastic sheath that goes over the top and bottom of carts

PCC: Portable/Personal Charging Case. Above are two examples of PCCs from leading companies blu and Vapor4Life. A PCC allows the user to screw a battery into it which charges it on the go. They usually have space to hold a few spare carts as well. After charging a dead battery a few times, the PCC itself will need to be plugged in and charged. The PCC is a lifesaver for those who are away from home most of the day.

With definitions out of the way, there are a few tips that can really help a new user have success with e-cigs. My first tip is this: get a cart sampler pack from whichever manufacturer you choose. Vapor4Life offers a lot of sampler packs of various themes (smoke shop, menthol, etc), and blu offers a sampler pack as well. Why do this? You may buy a set of carts in one flavor and end up disliking the flavor, which could lead to you reverting to analogs for the time being. This is common when first transitioning, but it's common because new users don't know to try multiple flavors at once.

Along those same lines, I recommend you get carts in various nicotine strengths at first. You may decide to be conservative and get, say, 8mg carts, then find yourself craving analogs. If this happens, you need to up the nicotine strength. Get the strength you think is right for you, then get one strength higher as well. You can primarily vape with the average strength carts, and if you have strong analog cravings, screw in the high nicotine carts to get through the rough patch. This will be a lifesaver and keep you from lighting up an analog.

What's in Store

I've ordered starter kits from both blu and Frii which should, hopefully, arrive soon. Given that we're in the middle of two major holidays the delivery will likely be a bit delayed, but rest assured that reviews for both brands are coming as quick as possible.

I want to spend time using both products and really learn about them before passing any kind of judgment; to rush an incomplete and ill-informed review out the door would be antithetical to my goal with this project. Since I couldn't decide which to do first, I'm going alphabetically, so the review for blu will be first, followed by Frii. As promised, I'll use video this time around to more accurately convey information about the products. Reading about them and seeing them in action are two very different things.

In addition to the reviews of blu and Frii, I've added a Coupon Codes section. Here you'll find, as the name implies, coupon codes for the various manufacturers I'm going to be reviewing. Once I receive the codes they'll be posted, and I'll update them often to ensure there's none that are extremely out of date. If there are some that are out of date it'll mean I haven't found any newer coupon codes. These coupon codes can be ridiculous; for example, Vapor4Life recently offered 30% off of everything with no order minimum. They aren't the only ones either, so be sure to check often.

Belated Mission Statement & Upcoming Content

I figured I'd take this time to explain the point of this blog clearly and to outline my goals for it. Having started vaping almost two years ago, I initially found it pretty confusing. At the time I didn't know anyone who used anything similar, so I had to find all the information on my own. It was confusing and sometimes infuriating, and so I thought I'd help those who are new to vaping ease into it instead of pouring over various forums to glean information as I had to do.

My first review was text only, but I plan on using video from here on out in order to save users time and perhaps provide extra help to those who are more visual learners. With the videos I'll be able to start posting about various tips and tricks, such as the "Taryn spin" method of cartomizer filling. Sounds like pure gibberish now, but once the video is released, you'll become very familiar with the technique, and will learn to love it as it can save you money each month.

On the topic of saving money, I'll also be posting coupon codes for the vapor companies I review. I hope to review as many e-cig brands as my wallet will allow in a timely manner to make sure users end up with the company that meets all of their needs. If you end up liking one of these companies, you can click the banner at the bottom of the review to check out their products.

So, in a nutshell, I want to provide new users with comprehensive information that eases the learning curve, and I'm going to provide honest, unbiased reviews of the various top companies in the field. I hope you find it useful in getting you to your new, healthy, cigarette-free lifestyle.

Review: Vapor4Life

Home of the Vapor King battery. Featured on MSNBC. Are they any good?

In a word, yes. Vapor4Life was the company that got me into vaping to begin with nearly two years ago, and in that short span of time, they've really made some huge strides. This post will detail my opinion of them and their products.

First, the batteries. These are called Vapor King for a reason, capable of producing huge plumes of vapor. Their batteries come in shorty, regular and extra long sizes, in addition to being either automatic or manual. Having used every battery, I prefer manual extra-longs for the hard hits and longer battery life. Automatics are very good for transitioning from analogs to e-cigs, but for me, after the transition was complete, I was left a bit wanting. I had an automatic drop only a few feet off the ground onto concrete rendering it useless, whereas I have a manual battery I've dropped plenty of times on various surfaces that's over a year old  and STILL functions to this day, which is incredible. To put it into perspective, a friend of mine buys NJoy e-cigs from a local 7-11 and is lucky to get a few weeks of use out of it. And they cost MORE than a V4L battery!

V4L has quite possibly the best customer service I've dealt with in any field before. They were extremely quick to fix any wrong and were very apologetic, once sending me lots of freebies in addition to a handwritten letter of apology for sending me the wrong flavor of cartomizers. Mistakes don't happen too often, but they do sometimes, and this is an area in which V4L really shines. After dealing with their customer service you'll be wishing other companies were this caring.

Vapor4Life's cartomizers are something unique. The atomizer part of e-cigs are notoriously touchy and can die rather quickly. V4L's response to this is to put the atomizer into the cartridge, effectively eliminating the problem. Despite the atomizer in these cartridges being made for limited use, I've had cartridges I've reused and refilled with liquid for over a month without issue. They recently introduced the "Wow" line of cartomizers (in addition to the "Premium" line), and these are amazing, producing huge plumes of vapor and packing one hell of a flavor punch. And speaking of flavors, they've got TONS. They seemingly have a hundred flavors, whereas most other e-cig companies have five to ten generic kinds (menthol, tobacco, etc).

V4L has a slim portable charger that's included with the starter kits that can house two spare cartomizers and charge one battery up to three times before needing to be charged itself. For someone who's on the go constantly, this is a godsend. The charger is rather small and fits well into your pocket, occupying the now-vacant space that used to be reserved for your cigarettes and lighter.

The best part about V4L for me has been their sales. In the nearly two years I've been using V4L products, I think I paid full price once. They frequently send you emails with coupon codes, most of them granting at least 15% off orders with no minimum price required. Around the holidays they start to go nuts, selling products for up to 30% off. You won't need to wait long to get your products either, as their standard shipping is really speedy. I've never had to wait more than a few business days for an order in almost two years.

In addition to pre-filled cartomizers, V4L also sells empty cartomizers and varying sizes of flavored nicotine liquid. This allows you to fill the cartomizers yourself the way you want and decreases the price. Starter kits are reasonably priced, some of the lowest I've seen, with the basic kit clocking in at only $49.95. After the initial investment for the starter kit, I pay around $15 a month to vape with V4L. $15. I was paying around $200 a month to support my pack-a-day habit in New Jersey where cigarettes are around $7 and increasing fast.

Verdict

+ Innovative cartridge design;
amazing customer service;
lots of flavors; low upkeep

- Quality can be spotty;
nicotine liquid made in
China (an issue for some)

How it Works

An e-cig is made up of several different components, with different brands having differing designs.

The first component is the cartridge, AKA the mouthpiece. The cartridge contains the flavored nicotine liquid, and it's the part you take the hit from. Nicotine liquid comes in varying strengths, from 24mg down to 0mg, depending on the manufacturer. The cartridge and atomizer are the parts where manufacturers vary on design. Some companies, like blu, have the three components separate, where you need to push the cartridge down onto the atomizer then screw the atomizer to the battery. Others, like Vapor4Life, have the cartridge and atomizer combined (which is known as a cartomizer), which results in a two-piece design.

Since I've mentioned the atomizer, I should explain it more thoroughly. The atomizer is the heating element, and it's what makes the entire process possible. The atomizer is the part that keeps the e-cig from being operated by flame like a traditional cigarette. The job of the atomizer is to heat up the flavored nicotine liquid in the cartridge, resulting in the vapor that the user inhales. Power is needed to allow the atomizer to heat up, which is where the battery comes in.

The battery has an LED at one end that serves two purposes: it'll blink rapidly to show that the device needs charging, and second it lights up when you take a hit to provide visual confirmation that it's working. These vary in color (pink, green, purple, blue, etc) though the most common is red to simulate the look of an actual cigarette. Batteries can be either automatic or manual. An automatic battery works just like a traditional or analog cigarette -- take a drag, inhale, exhale. Automatic batteries have a sensor inside that detects suction, and once detected it kicks the atomizer into action. Manual batteries vary slightly -- there's a button that you hold down which starts the atomizer, allowing you to take a hit. Some prefer automatics as their operation is very similar to analogs, while some (including myself) prefer manuals as they seem to hit harder. Automatic or manual is really up to the user's preference and doesn't make a lasting impact. For a new user, automatics are a good suggestion since it'll be more familiar to someone who's been smoking for a long time.

 Batteries sustain life for various periods of time. The length of time before needing a recharge varies wildly depending on the manufacturer, whether it's a short, medium or long battery, and how often the battery is used. Batteries are typically charged by screwing the part that connects to the atomizer into a port that terminates in a USB plug. That USB plug then can go directly into your computer or it can go into an adapter for wall charging or even charging in the car. There are also portable charging cases, or PCCs, which usually house a battery and some spare cartridges for when you're on the go. And for those who are in the car or on the computer a lot, there's devices called a "passthrough" which has the battery permanently tethered to a USB cord on the end that normally has the LED. These are great for long car trips or when vegging out at home. Convenient, eh?

The Dangers of Analogs

According to the National Cancer Institute, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death among Americans. Its use is responsible for respiratory issues like emphysema and cardiovascular issues like heart disease. Smoking results in cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix and more. Among those suffering from lung cancer, an average of 85% are due to cigarette smoking. Around 445,000 people die every year from issues related to cigarette smoking, with an estimated 50,000 dying from secondhand smoke. If you're a smoker, you're at six times greater risk of having a heart attack than a nonsmoker.

But quitting sucks. Trying to quit cold turkey makes you extremely irritable and no fun to be around, and smokeless methods like the gum and patch still leave you craving a cigarette. Sometimes if you do manage to quit, it's almost like a temporary truce, but once an ugly situation rears its head, it's back to the ol' cancer stick.

There's more to cigarette use than mere nicotine addiction. A large part of it is habitual. It may seem small and insignificant, but there's just something about actually puffing on something and exhaling something visible that makes smokeless alternatives difficult to stick with. Sure, you're getting nicotine while you have that gum parked in your cheek, but the space between your index finger and middle finger feels extremely naked at certain times, like when driving.

This is where the e-cig comes in. It's a smokeless alternative, but the way in which you ingest it is entirely similar to smoking the real deal. You hold a tube-shaped object between your fingers, you put it to your lips to puff on it, you inhale and can even get a nice throat hit, and when you exhale there's actually something resembling smoke. Except now you aren't inhaling the 10,000+ harmful chemicals that inhabit traditional cigarettes. It satisfies you the same way a traditional cigarette does, but without the use of flame and without all the smell, ash, smoker's breath, etc. You end up smelling better and saving tons of money. Sweet deal.

E-cig? What?

An "e-cig," or electronic cigarette, is an alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes. Its appearance is a small elongated tube, most usually in the same general shape of a real cigarette, that delivers a dose of nicotine when inhaled. When exhaled, "smoke" is visible, though the smoke is actually just water vapor. For this reason, the use of e-cigs is allowed nearly everywhere, which is one of the many reasons it's greatly preferable to traditional or "analog" cigarettes. As water vapor is exhaled, and not actual smoke, there's no smell left over to stink up your clothes, house or car. No more smoker's breath, no more social stigma, and no ash. Best of all, no matter what brand of e-cig you end up using, it costs waaaay less than traditional cigarettes.