Re: Super Cigarette

**katink** · 06-07-2008, 01:22 AM

Could it be possible that you are, or were, smoking with a too dry atomizer? That does lead to trouble; among others it is possible that way that a bit off the bottom part of a cartridge melted. And once that went it's way into the steel around the atomizer... I don't know if you would ever get that out again. Maybe, if it is still visible, lying on top; but hard even then.

Another possible cause: those fibres from the cartridge aren't the only fibres in those cigarettes. At the bottom of the atomizer-bowl, so under the steelwool, there are also fibres of some kind, that are used (I assume) to let the liquid flow around in there (and to/from the steel wool on top and around the bowl). Some also think it are fibres just used in the factory to hold things in the right place during assembly. Whatever, those fibres in some atomizers are larger or more then in others; and it happens that these come loose, partly. They more or less come popping out of the bowl and/or steel wool then.
If this happens, they give a burnt taste too.
Some have managed to very carefully extract these fibres; but it's very delicate, you can easily disrupt the steel wool bridge by trying this. (Use thin sharp-ended tweezers and magnifying glass, and pull very gently and as much as possible along the length of the fibre). Try to first locate any thicker (perhaps melted/burnt) ends of the fibre: that will be the end you need to pull, because you can't pull the thicker part back through the steel-wool without damage. Perhaps, with a surgical thin/long blade, you could cut off that thicker part before doing any pulling...

It's a risky business though; so I myself would only try this if the atomizer was useless as it is now.
(Edit: those that have managed to do this successfully, see normal action after that, no lesser smoke or anything; so they don't seem to be important really in keeping the device working well.)

**jarvis** · 06-07-2008, 04:19 AM

Thanks for the reply katink.
Well it seems the Super Cigarette is not so super. After a little more than a month of good smoking, a burnt taste began to get gradually stronger, until the point where it coated my mouth with a foul taste. I decided to investigate. After repeated cleanings in alcohol, and picking out what appeared to be burnt crumbs in the coil of the atomizer, with no improvement I decided to dissect the atomizer and find out what had caused the problem. Well I thought you fellow e-smokers might like to see what's inside the not so Super Cigarette.

A. steel wool which was wrapped around the entire ceramic vessel (C) holding it in the tube (E).
B. A plastic disc with holes that the atomizer wire fed through that was behind the steel wool wrapped ceramic vessel.
C. Ceramic Vessel that the two wires run up through connecting to the coil that does the vaporizing.
D. Metal hoop that was wrapped in the steel wool that leeches the e-liquid out of the cartridge.
E. Empty metal tube that everything sits in, the two wires run the length of it and are soldered to the battery end.
F. The "atomizer" which is just a coil of wire wrapped around a length of fiber(the black crumbs under the coil). The coil is soldered to two wires (red and green, the red wire is still in the tube in this picture) that are in turn soldered to the back of the metal tube that screws into the batteries.

As you can see there is not much to the "atomizer" or vaporizer, it's just a coil that heats up like a light bulb filament and then vaporizes the liquid from the cartridges. I have no Idea why they chose to coil the "atomizer" around a piece of fiber, but as you can see here the fiber(the black chunks under F) has melted into a solid black mass, which was causing the terrible burnt smell/taste. I'm not sure If I should go ahead and get that the fiber out of the coil in my new backup atomizer before it burns as well. Does anyone know if this fiber that the atomizer coil is intertwined with is standard in other e-cigs?

**katink** · 06-07-2008, 12:06 PM

When it was new the fibre probably would have gone downward (and outward) on both ends too: being the fibres I mentioned. That part probably allready burnt away. Possibly because of a too dry atomizer: the fibre needs to stay soaked to keep from burning, so it seems. I haven't heard of e-cigs not having this construction, so far.
Nice pic to illustrate!

**TropicalBob** · 06-07-2008, 03:48 PM

Nice post, Jarvis. Now, what do you think the labor cost is to make this super-sophisticated device?

Exactly. An argument, I'd say, for disposables.

And I wonder how much unknown material you inhaled to your lungs while experiencing the burnt taste. That can't be good.

**bill** · 06-07-2008, 04:42 PM

Hi,
I'm new here, having only found this forum site a few days ago (which was unfortunately AFTER I had ordered my first e-cig), and have been reading all the posts with great interest.

After spending a few days looking around online at all the various e-cigs out there, I decided to go for the "Super e-cig" from a new UK based online store called, strangely, "The Electronic Cigarette Store"...

http://www.theelectroniccigarette.co...r_(10cm)_E.Cig

I also ordered a few carts, spare battery, and spare atomizer (as I had read they aren't that reliable), which is basically enough to actually build a second spare e-cig.

It all arrived 2 days later, and I have to say they were extremely quick to reply to any queries I had.

Value-wise I think they are pretty good, maybe not as cheap as some ebayers, but I wanted to use a store instead.

The first of the 2 e-cigs I tried was disappointing, with not much vapour, dropping off to hardly anything after a few draws. I tried a few of the tips for cleaning it out that are posted here, and put in a new cart, but nothing really makes much difference, so I can only assume it is faulty.

I then tried the second of the 2 e-cigs, and JEEZE!!! It nearly took my head off! After the first one I was expecting to have to put some real effort in to get a dribble of vapour, but even fairly gentle dragging results in stacks of it, and to be fair, not far off that of a real ciggie.

Granted I have only been using it for a couple of days, but battery performance, cartridge consumption, and most importantly, consistency, are all spot on. In fact the only fault I could pick would be the taste, which isn't so great, but after a couple of days have started to get used to it, and I am going to buy a couple of bottles of e-liquid, in some better flavours.

Does anyone have any suggestions for the best tasting flavours? I.e. most realistic cig taste or one that simply tastes really nice?

As for the reliability, well only time will tell, so I will get back to you on that one, but if it carries on like this I will be very happy!

(If you are still awake, sorry for the long post, just thought it might be useful for people considering buying this one, especially if the live in the UK)

**Mr.Darcy** · 06-07-2008, 05:11 PM

this site is owned by pillbox38 from ebay...same products,same person.which two cigs did you get,and which one worked better than the other?just curious...as for flavours,well i personally havnt found anything that tastes like a normal cig-but a lot of people like flue cured tobacco flavour from ...........there are few other suppliers of other liquid out there..freesmoke.eu and partysmoker.nl are the only other two i know of right now,both based in europe.they are more expensive than e-cig,but the liquid may be kinder to our atomisers...taste is personal,so its trial and error until you find one you like-some prefer the fruity flavours and some the tobacco flavours.im sure if you contact the site you bought it from he will replace the faulty part.you actually made a good choice of supplier and products for your first e-cigs in my opinion.

**bill** · 06-07-2008, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by Mr.Darcy

this site is owned by pillbox38 from ebay...same products,same person.which two cigs did you get,and which one worked better than the other?just curious...as for flavours,well i personally havnt found anything that tastes like a normal cig-but a lot of people like flue cured tobacco flavour from ...........there are few other suppliers of other liquid out there..freesmoke.eu and partysmoker.nl are the only other two i know of right now,both based in europe.they are more expensive than e-cig,but the liquid may be kinder to our atomisers...taste is personal,so its trial and error until you find one you like-some prefer the fruity flavours and some the tobacco flavours.im sure if you contact the site you bought it from he will replace the faulty part.you actually made a good choice of supplier and products for your first e-cigs in my opinion.

The 2 cigs i got were the same, both "Super e-cig" as per the photo at the beginning of this topic, it's just one of the atomizers worked really well, and the other is faulty. However i still have every confidence in the seller, as the service up to now has been spot on, i simply haven't got round to asking for a replacement yet.

As for the flavours i think i'll give the Cherry a go. I was just going to use my existing cartridges when they are dry, and fill those, unless anybody knows where i can get suitable empty ones for the RN4081 ?

**jarvis** · 06-07-2008, 07:42 PM

Nice post, Jarvis. Now, what do you think the labor cost is to make this super-sophisticated device?

Exactly. An argument, I'd say, for disposables.

And I wonder how much unknown material you inhaled to your lungs while experiencing the burnt taste. That can't be good.

Yeah Tropicalbob, I tried to not inhale the burnt smoke, but I probably got a years worth of carcinogens from the few burnt puffs I did inhale. As for disposable atomizer e-cigs I am also leaning towards that idea as the logical future of e-cigs, as long as this fiber that can burn up is still part of the product design, better to use them for a limited amount of time and toss them than to start sucking burning particles if your cartridge runs dry. They can't cost even as much to produce as those cheap laser pointers they sell in some capsule machines for 75 cents. So one that lasts the equivalent of a carton of smokes would be just fine in my book. Oh well, I guess until they perfect a decent disposable e-cig, I'll keep buying these little atomizers at nine bucks and hope they last a month or two. Thanks for reading and replying everybody.

If I can figure out how to get this threaded part off of the cylinder I may try and re-solder the coil to it and reassemble it just for fun. Maybe coil the wire around a little piece of steel wool instead of the thread that burns up. It looks like the threaded part is held on by some type of epoxy, anyone ever tried this?

Welcome aboard Bill, As for flavors of e-liquid, I have only tried cherry and vanilla other than the "Marlboro" flavor cartridges. I would recommend the vanilla, as it is fine by itself, and would be a great mixer with other flavors. I plan on buying some more when .......... gets it's stuff together, or a decent ebay reseller pops up here in the states.

**Evirgin** · 06-08-2008, 04:41 AM

Originally Posted by bill

Hi,
I'm new here, having only found this forum site a few days ago (which was unfortunately AFTER I had ordered my first e-cig), and have been reading all the posts with great interest.

After spending a few days looking around online at all the various e-cigs out there, I decided to go for the "Super e-cig" from a new UK based online store called, strangely, "The Electronic Cigarette Store"...

http://www.theelectroniccigarette.co...r_(10cm)_E.Cig

I also ordered a few carts, spare battery, and spare atomizer (as I had read they aren't that reliable), which is basically enough to actually build a second spare e-cig.

It all arrived 2 days later, and I have to say they were extremely quick to reply to any queries I had.

Value-wise I think they are pretty good, maybe not as cheap as some ebayers, but I wanted to use a store instead.

The first of the 2 e-cigs I tried was disappointing, with not much vapour, dropping off to hardly anything after a few draws. I tried a few of the tips for cleaning it out that are posted here, and put in a new cart, but nothing really makes much difference, so I can only assume it is faulty.

I then tried the second of the 2 e-cigs, and JEEZE!!! It nearly took my head off! After the first one I was expecting to have to put some real effort in to get a dribble of vapour, but even fairly gentle dragging results in stacks of it, and to be fair, not far off that of a real ciggie.

Granted I have only been using it for a couple of days, but battery performance, cartridge consumption, and most importantly, consistency, are all spot on. In fact the only fault I could pick would be the taste, which isn't so great, but after a couple of days have started to get used to it, and I am going to buy a couple of bottles of e-liquid, in some better flavours.

Does anyone have any suggestions for the best tasting flavours? I.e. most realistic cig taste or one that simply tastes really nice?

As for the reliability, well only time will tell, so I will get back to you on that one, but if it carries on like this I will be very happy!

(If you are still awake, sorry for the long post, just thought it might be useful for people considering buying this one, especially if the live in the UK)

Hi Bill,

This is Pillbox38's website - yes?

Anyway, I'm just about to order from him - so may I ask which model of the ecigs that you bought from him worked well?

Jane

**bill** · 06-08-2008, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by Evirgin

Hi Bill,

This is Pillbox38's website - yes?

Anyway, I'm just about to order from him - so may I ask which model of the ecigs that you bought from him worked well?

Jane

Hi Jane, yeah I believe that it is one and the same Pillbox38, I just found his website much easier, and I am pretty sure the prices are about the same as his eBay store.

As for the one I bought, I got the "Super (10cm) e-cig"

http://www.theelectroniccigarette.co...r_(10cm)_E.Cig

As I said, because I bought an extra atomizer (only £4.99), I effectively ended up with 2 x ecigs, because the starter kit comes with 2 batteries, and the filter part is made up by the cartridges (of which I bought 50). This means that for an extra £4.99 you can have 2 complete cigs, which was just as well because one of my atomizers is faulty, so will need a replacement, but the one that works REALLY works!

The reason I went for this one is because it looks at a glance like you are just smoking a normal cig, which on the down-side will probably cause problems when trying to use it in any No Smoking areas, as it will attract some stares! According to this site, I think the general consensus is that the longer the e-cig the better the vapour, but being male, I thought they could look a bit camp, so went with this one.

Overall I am really happy with the super-mini, tons of vapour, easy to use, well priced, good battery life, nice size, and pretty realistic looking. BUT GET AN EXTRA ATOMIZER JUST IN CASE.

The only negative, is that the taste isn't so great, but after a few days I have pretty much got used to it. However when I thought about it, I don't really care how "real cigarette" it tastes, because you get the feel of smoke, the ritual, the hand-to-mouth, and the nicotine hit, and on balance I would rather it taste nice, than realistic. I have just ordered a bottle of cherry flavour (which seems to prove popular) from "freesmoke", which I can use to re-fill my spent cartridges, so hopefully that will taste better.

Hope that helps?