The 510 – a Durable Yet Joyful Titan of an E-cig
Part 1 of 3
You’ve read about it; you’ve heard people rave about it … but what is it? What makes it so special? What do you need to order to make it work? And what do you do with it when it arrives at your doorstep?
Well, you’ve come to the right place; this is where all secrets will be revealed … with a little help from the three wise men – and woman – from the Electronic Cigarette Forum (ECF).
Background
This guide assumes that you know what the heck an electronic cigarette is (and are familiar with such terms as e-liquid, vapor, and throat hit) and why it is so wonderful. [If you don’t, see my Wonderful World of Vaping Illustrated Guide on ECF.] Perhaps you are in the process of deciding which of the scores of devices will become your first e-cig. Or maybe you already are a “vaper” and have been using a device that is not all you hoped it would be.
Since this is a “personal” guide, you need to know where I am coming from. I found my way to Drew’s* 510 via a more convoluted course than most.
* [Drew (one of those “wise men”) is the chap who owns and operates NHaler, one of the preeminent suppliers of e-cigarettes. His screen name on ECF is Drewsworld. But he’s a real friendly guy; you don’t have to call him Mr. Sworld.
In fact, he prefers ‘Drew.’]My first PV (i.e., personal vaporizer, yet another name for these gizmos) was the KR808D-1, another of the many great models to be found in NHaler’s little shop of wonders. It’s a bit larger (and heavier) than most e-cigs and the simplest – it takes longer to pronounce ‘kay-are-eight-oh-eight-dee-one’ than to put it together and begin vaping. But I didn’t particularly like the flavors that were available in the disposable cartomizers at that time and I was going through them at a rapid rate (more rapidly than my bank balance could handle) and I didn’t know how to refill them.
So I moved on to a much longer e-cig, the DSE801 penstyle (155 mm), which Drew carried at that time. I really liked it (and still do). It delivered the big three (vapor, flavor, and throat hit) very well and the length didn’t bother me. Then I heard about an even bigger (and much more expensive) e-cig, the Prodigy. I figured bigger is better and you get what you pay for (and it was our wedding anniversary, so my wife splurged on it for me). And I wasn’t wrong; that monster does knock the big three out of the ballpark. But it is clunky and awkward to carry around in my shirt pocket. And, for me, it often was too intense. You see, I like to vape … a lot. Most of the time, I want a smooth vaping experience with good vapor and flavor, but not with a throat hit that knocks me over. [I still use my Prodigy whenever I want to be hit hard and strong and/or don’t have much time to do it in.]
During this period, I was posting installments of my WWV Guide, which Drew saw and liked what he read. He asked me to write a similar guide for his 510 model and sent me a complimentary unit to check out.
[So know this upfront: unlike the WWV Guide, I have received an inducement (which also included some other NHaler e-cig goodies) to write this. However, my commission from Drew was to write the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the 510 from NHaler. So I have been compensated for my time, but not for my opinion. Yes, I will be emphasizing the positive and plugging NHaler (deservedly), but you will get accurate facts (to the best of my knowledge) and my actual opinion.]
As you might imagine, I was pretty excited when that box of early Christmas presents arrived. And when I opened the little white box inside (containing the 510), you know what my first reaction was? This thing is cute! [Remember where I was coming from.] And when I started using it: This is so smooth! Well we’ll talk more about that as we get into this.
So that’s how I got here.
What is a Five-Ten?
The 510 is a “Mini” class e-cig, i.e., smaller than a “Penstyle” (second from the top of this photo) but larger than an analog cigarette-sized “Super-Mini” (at the very bottom of the photo). It strikes what many of us find to be the perfect balance between performance and ease of handling.
A Rose by Any Other Name
For the dramaturgically deprived, this heading refers to a line from an obscure playwright’s theatre piece about adolescent infatuation: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” I think what the poet was struggling to say was: Some things with different names are, in fact, identical. And that is the case with this e-cig.
We can discover some of those other names by applying what I call the “DaBoomVape Code” to the secrets hidden deep within the subtitle of this guide: Durable Yet Joyful Titan. ‘Durable’: the Dura is the name Janty has given the 510. ‘Yet’: the Yeti is the name conferred by AltSmoke. ‘Joyful’: Joye510 is how the manufacturer, Joye Technology, distinguishes this model from their others. [Have you noticed how Asian (and German) companies, in this and other industries, tend to use numbers and a couple letters to name their products (e.g., DSE901, Lexus RX350, Mercedes E350, Nokia’s N95), while we English speakers use catchy metaphors (e.g., Silver Bullet, Malibu, Jaguar, Blackberry Bold).] ‘Titan,’ bestowed by TECC and Totally Wicked, is the most puzzling: titan is “a thing of enormous size,” but the 510 is fairly small.
NHaler eschews glitzy and confusing brand names (which misleadingly imply uniqueness), preferring clarity and minimalism, and calls this model simply: the 510. “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” – a twentieth century American update of that seventeenth century British phrase.
So got it now? They’re all the same; what varies is the cost, availability of colors, and the personalized service and support provided. [NHaler carries copper, titanium, metallic blue, white, stainless steel, black, and pink. Drew’s prices are among the lowest … and his personalized service is second to none.]
A Three-Piece E-cig
Like most electronic cigarettes, the 510 has three components, illustrated in this photo:
a. The cartridge (or cart) contains the porous material that absorbs the e-liquid. In the 510, the cartridge and mouthpiece are integrated and can be either flat (“whistle-tip”) or round, both of which are sold by NHaler.
b. The single most important component of the 510 is its atomizer. This is what takes the juice from the cartridge and magically transforms it into the vapor, flavor, and throat hit described in the next section; and it does so more effectively than almost every other e-cig. As shown in the photo on the right, the 510 atomizer is unexposed, sitting inside a tube, enabling non-messy dripping (an alternative to refilling carts) and delivery of a smooth inhalation experience.
c. The battery, of course, powers the atomizer. Just how reliably it does we’ll describe shortly. Notice that button on the side. That means it is a manual switch battery, putting control of the vaping experience in your hands (to your finger actually).
Why the Five-Ten is Fabulous
The first generation 510 had a lot going for it, but its automatic battery had its problems: if you looked at it the wrong way, it would activate. [It wasn’t quite that bad; sight wouldn’t turn it on, but sound and movement would.] You’d take it clubbing and people would ask you: What’s that flashing thing in your pocket?
So Joye came out with the manual battery version, one of the first e-cigs to do so; and it was (and continues to be) an instant hit. This is the version that everyone thinks of (and that Drew sells) when you talk about the 510. And this takes us to the first of…
The Pros
1. This manual switch, and how well it is implemented, is one of the 510’s outstanding attributes. The button on the side of the unit puts you (rather than random forces) in control. It’s placed in just the right position for pressing with your thumb (or forefinger if you prefer) when holding the ecig between your thumb and your forefinger and/or middle finger. And that button sticks out (about 1/8”) just the right amount for easy pressing – engaging and disengaging the battery without guesswork – each and every time.
[You’d have to have tried the buttons (as I have) on the manual switch batteries of other models (e.g., DSE801, DSE901, and KR808D-1) that came out after the 510 manual to really appreciate this. Some of them are simply terrible and get stuck inside the battery housing, others are so recessed you’re not really sure if the battery is engaged. Only one of the two versions of the KR808D-1 manuals I’ve used (the one sold by Drew) works fairly well, i.e., elevated a bit more than the others (but not as much as the 510) and engages fairly reliably, but with somewhat more effort than the 510.]
2. Since the battery is activated by the press of a button rather than drawing air through the atomizer, the battery can be sealed. This prevents e-liquid from leaking into the battery and damaging it – a dripper’s paradise!
[NOTE: If you look carefully at the previous picture of the 510 and 801 manual batteries, you’ll see that the version of the 510 battery shown was unsealed. NHaler only sells the sealed version, shown immediately above.]
3. The size and light weight are just about perfect for me … and for the thousands of others who have fallen in love with the 510. At 112 mm, the 510 is not that much longer than a 100s analog cigarette (and a lot shorter than a 155 mm penstyle), but it is long enough to hold securely when pressing the manual switch button. It is appreciably lighter in weight than some of the other units in the mini class, e.g., the KR808D-1 or DSE901. The more I use it, the more I appreciate its comfort between my fingers. [I almost wrote: “comfort in my hand” – which is how I hold the Prodigy.]
[This is a patchwork picture. All but the first model are courtesy of Nikko Daniels.]
4. The vapor production is outstanding! I was shocked by this (pleasantly so). Remember, I’m used to huge vapor churners, like the penstyle and Prodigy. I’m not sure how Joye does it in a device this size. But I don’t need to; I can just savor and appreciate it.
5. The draw and inhalation are smoother than any other device I’ve tried. It feels so light entering my mouth and throat.
Here’s how Chris and Sean summarize these qualities (in their inimitable way):
The Five-Ten May Not Be For Everyone: The CONS
However, there is no “perfect” e-cigarette (at least for everyone). Some people might prefer a different model (e.g., NHaler’s KR808D-1 or GreenCig line: G220, G300, cigar, or pipe). Or you may be like me – enjoying the 510 as one of my personal vaporizers. The following are attributes you might not like:
1. For me, the throat hit is mild.* But remember again that I’m used to the intense kick of a high-voltage device like the Prodigy. The 510 has become my “go to” device for my pacifier vaping, i.e., the mellow or non-nicotine vaping between nicotine-hit breaks. Therefore, I’ve been spending more time vaping the 510 than my KR808D-1, penstyle, or Prodigy. So this attribute may not even belong in a list of “cons.”
2. Compared to what I am used to, the flavor is subdued.* However, I’ve come to realize that I like a greater flavor intensity than most vapers. For example, vanilla and banana (and a very mild tobacco I tried recently) do nothing for me. In contrast, the intense TAB (Turkish American Blend) – a flavor that many dislike – is among my favorites.
* [NOTE: I have just discovered that the throat hit and flavor are not quite as ‘mild’ or ‘subdued’ as I first thought! It appears that the second of the two atomizers that came with my starter kit is more effective than the first. I now would describe the throat hit and flavor as good. ‘Great’ I reserve for the KR808-1 and penstyle (with or without 5V enhancement of the Prodigy). The 510’s vapor remains excellent!]
3. There is a price to pay for the relatively small size: frequent recharging of the battery. 510 batteries are 150 mAh (milliamp hours), which, as a non-techie, I don’t try to analyze. I use those ratings comparatively, e.g., that’s 50% more than the 100 mAh rating of a super-mini like the M702 … and about half of the KR808D-1’s 280 mAh. You’ll get more puffs between battery recharges on the 510 than you would on a super-mini, but significantly less than the KR808D-1 or a penstyle (the battery for which is the same size as the KR808D-1). However…
More Reasons the Five-Ten is Fabulous: Additional PROS
6. Unlike most, the 510 battery doesn’t gradually peter out, delivering less and less vapor and flavor … it stays strong until it runs out of power and then just stops. Believe me, that is a real advantage. I recharge my KR808D-1 and penstyle batteries when their performance starts becoming mediocre – winding up to be almost as frequently as my 510 batts.
7. The 510 battery recharges very quickly: about a half hour – long before your other battery has fainted (or higher mAh batteries have regained their strength).
8. The 510 was one of the first electronic cigarettes to have a PCC (personal charging case), which charges one of your batteries (and holds an additional atty and three cartridges) while you’re vaping another one. So when that one poops out, you just swap it for the freshly recharged one – even when you are out and about (and away from the battery charger plugged into a USB port or electrical outlet). So every hour or three (depending on how heavily you vape), you open the PCC in your shirt pocket or purse and swap batteries. [Quite similar to removing an analog cigarette from a pack and lighting it.]
Edifred2007 reviews and demonstrates the 510’s PCC (as branded by TECC) here:
YouTube - The Electronic Cigarette Company's PCC Charge Case for the Titan 510
9. And, when you are sitting at your computer, you can use a USB Passthrough, which provides a constant charge to the atomizer, so no recharging is required. It looks and feels just like a portable 510, just with a slender cord coming out the end plugged into a USB port on your computer.
Here is terraphon’s review of the 510’s USB Passthrough:
[You could even use this with one of the portable power packs (a PPP?) that Drew sells, even when you are not at your computer.]
10. And you could make your 510 longer (in millimeters and in time between recharges) with a 90 mm, 280 mAh mega battery. However, it does not fit into the PCC and NHaler doesn’t carry it. [I’ve noticed that Drew is (commendably) conservative about stocking brand new products. He likes to make sure that they are effective and will meet his customers’ needs before offering them for sale. For example, he only sells the improved version of the manual KR808D-1 battery.]
This is what MoobyGhost (the second of our three wise men) has to say about the 510:
It all sounds pretty good, right?
In Parts 2 and 3, we’ll discuss what you need to order to make it work … and what to do with it when it arrives at your doorstep.
See you then!
See you then!
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