LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Leaford's Smoke 51 Video Review and Demo
YouTube - Leaford's Smoke 51 Video Review and Demo
Name: Smoke 51
Model: Loong Totem v9
Website: Electronic Cigarette by Fifty-One | electric cigarette, e-cigarette, e-cig
Price: $104.95 to $149.95
Discount Coupon code: DSE141 (33% off)
Warranty/Guarantee: One year on batteries.
Overall Rating: 3.4
Pros: HUGE vapor producer, long lasting cartridge, fresh atomizer every time.
Cons: Poor battery performance, short battery life, poor selection of strengths and flavors.
Atomizer Performance: 4
1- Smoke; 5
2- Draw; 3
Battery Performance: 2.75
1- Switch; 3
2- Battery life; 2.5
Overall reliability and performance: 4
Appearance: 3
Customer Service Experience: None; complimentary review copy.
Contents: 2 long batteries, one charger, one power cord, 2 cartridges.
Extras: none.
Battery charging times: 8 hours initial, 3-4 hours recharge.
Interchangeability: ePuffer Eaze Magnum, .......... New MiniCig
Narrative review:
Smoke 51 is the exclusive Loong Totem v9 distributer for the US. The LTv9 is a departure from the usual e-cig design, and it’s big feature is the disposable combination atomizer and cartridge. Not only does this promise to solve the problem of atomizer failures, and eliminate the mess of refilling and dripping, the cartridges are claimed to last as long as two packs, and the vapor is supposed to be just amazing.
You pay for all those promises, at $150 for the full, 2-battery, starter kit, and $50 each for replacement batteries. But are all the claims true?
Well, the last one is definitely true, the vapor is amazing. Awesome, really! The most vapor I have seen any e-cig produce, with the possible exception of Trog’s Screwdriver, or a similar mod. And while it is true that cartridge changes are no muss and no fuss, the cartridge life in my estimation is only one pack, not two. Of course, that is still more than any other mini or penstyle. The promise of absolute atomizer reliability, though is the real disappointment, as I found there was a lot of variability in cartridge performance, and a high failure rate, about 20% that were just bad out of the box.
In terms of my usual ratings system, the score is very mixed. I give it a full 5 points for vapor production, and like the e-pipe it is really off the chart. 5-plus. The draw is fairly hard, though, and I give it a 3. It does vary a lot between cartridges, though, and in fairness, the hard draw is due as much to the batteries as the atomizers, but for consistencies sake I am not going to rearrange my system. That averages to 4 for the atomizer.
The battery performance and durability were very poor on the batteries I received. One of the two died after only a week. On the other, the LED began to fail to activate just recently, after about 3-4 weeks use. Battery life is acceptable, about what you’d expect from a mini, 70 5-second puffs or so, which scores a 2.5 out of 5. But the switch performance is very slow; unless you do a primer puff first, the switch takes as long as two seconds to respond. Furthermore, the switch fades out consistently after only 2 or 3 seconds, then fades back in, so you can’t take a long drag. For my puff counts, for example, I had to take my 5-second inhalation in two pieces. I can only give it a 3 out of 5.
In fairness, with the amount of vapor these produce, you don’t need a long inhalation. One hard sharp primer puff, followed by just a second or two long drag, is actually plenty. Using that technique, the poor switch performance is not much of an issue, otherwise I would have rated it even lower. Still, a better performing battery delivers a much more satisfying experience, as I will get to shortly.
I only did a couple of puff counts because, as I said I couldn’t really get a good 5-second inhalation anyway. But I got about 70 puffs per battery, and about 120 puffs per cartridge. Using the double puff method, I got around 140-150 puffs per battery, and 225-250 per cartridge. That’s about one pack per cartridge, and about 2 batteries per cartridge. Typically a battery would last from 2-3 hours of heavy use, to 5 or 6 hours of moderate use, and a cartridge from 6 to 12 hours. I was using 1 ½ to 2 cartridges most days, some days 3.
Overall reliability, as I mentioned before, was a bit of a disappointment to me. Out of the 57 cartridges I tried, several, at least 8 to 10, were bad out of the box. I didn’t keep exact count, but a couple would do nothing but spit liquid, a couple did nothing at all, a couple died after only 20 puffs or so, and a couple had a foul, burnt fabric taste right from the start. And a few more would spit a small amount of liquid along with the vapor, enough to leave a bad aftertaste. Defective cartridges can be returned for exchange, though.
Besides bad cartridges, qualities like ease of draw and how well the battery responds would vary, and these variations would be consistant by flavors. The Menthol had the hardest draw, the Coffee the easiest, for example. I presume that means the variations are due to different production batches.
Nonetheless, most cartridges, at least 4 out of 5, are good, and do deliver that perfect tons o vapor performance, so I give it a 4 for overall reliability.
And appearance, well, it is a basic fake cigarette look, and that’s only a 3, average.
That all averages out to an overall score of 3.4. The score would have been better with better batteries, and again, in fairness, with a quick hard primer puff and a short inhalation, the battery performance is acceptable, and the vapor production and short drags make it a great e-smoke.
I don’t normally mention flavors, because you can normally use any liquid you want. But here you’re kinda locked in. Smoke 51 has only 5 flavors, Tobacco, Menthol, Vanilla, Coffee, and Chocolate. More variety than real cigs, but very limiting compared to other e-cig models. The flavors are ok, but not very strong. There's not a lot of throat kick, but the menthol has the most, while the vanilla is the smoothest.
And they have only 4 strengths; zero nicotine, 4mg, 6mg, and 8mg. I am not sure whether that’s per 1ml or per cartridge. I think one cartridge is 1ml, so it may be the same thing, but I’m not sure.
So, some cartridges fail, performance varies, batteries are poor, and they have limited flavors and strengths. But on the positive side, it’s an amazing vapor producer, it’s the only e-cig that will allow a short drag like a real cig, and it’s a very satisfying e-smoking experience.
So can I recommend it? Yes, but not whole heartedly.
Despite all its weaknesses, on the whole I like the Smoke 51, and enjoyed using it. So, I do want to recommend it. But I can’t give it a whole hearted recommendation, I do have to give it the caveat that I would recommend it more if the batteries were better.
Refilling: I tried refilling sporadically, but never had very good results. Others have had better luck, but I couldn't get it to work reliably. It can be done by prying off the rubber tip and dripping a few drops at a time onto the coiled fabric, then letting it soak in. It works best if you top off a live cartridge instead of refilling a dead one.
Charging: The batteries do definitely need a 3 to 4 hour charge. The green light on the charger will come on after around an hour to an hour and a half, but if you pull it off then you will get weak performance and the charge will only last half as long as usual. I have done this many many times, the green light is not reliable.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by dc2k08
Bookmarks