Blu vs Volcano

[nerojrnde]

I love my blu. If you set aside their shipping and customer service and just look at the product, then you can be less biased. I got mine a week ago and it only took a week from the time I ordered online to get to California from the east coast. Not bad in my opinion. Yes the stock cartridges only last like 25-60 puffs for me. They are inconsistent for sure. However, when I refilled using my own eliquid the vapor was awesome and so was the taste..Ry4 is my favorite of all time.

 

[nerojrnde]

To tell you the truth I own the blu/volcano and the 510 manual..
And I use my blu/volcano more than my 510.. I've had both for about 4 weeks..

Initially I was dissapointed with the blu.. Inconsistant vapor/throat hit.. Less flavor etc...

But with proper mods.. You can make the blu/volcano an amazing ecig..

I don't bother with prefilled carts cuz quite frankly.. They suck..

I fill the inner cart with juice (I use striclyejuice and esmokey)
..and use the PTB mod in conjunction with the spring mod (or Auto dripper mod)

and I get GREAT and consistant vapor with good throat hit.. Everytime..
The only time I get little vapor is when the cart isnout of liquid or the batt is about to die.. (which I do admit is more often than I like but with the pcc it's not an issue)

I do love my 510, but I love my blu a lil more (maybe it's jus because the pcc and the actual ecig is sexier and more functional (pcc))

trust me.. Do the mods, buy juice and ull love your blu SO much more

I don't get why the blu/volcano is so looked down upon here.. It's a great unit if u give it a lil love and a boob job.. My guess is that the customer service/shipping is/was blus doom here in thus forum..

Anyway.. Good luck with ur blu, and give it a chance before u discard it

Everyone is biased because of Blu's past failings. I agree with you though..I too have a 510 and my blu is my everyday ecig.

 

[Blaze]

Give it some time. It takes the attys a little while to break in. Plus there are some pretty wide variances in vapor production depending on what kind of juice your using. Some brands of juice will fog up my car like a smoke bomb whereas others are barely a wisp (which is handy for stealth vaping).

What's a good estimate on that? I've been vaping with my blu for about 4 days now, and it's still kinda hit and miss (still new the entire experience, so I watcha call a super nOOb ...and BTW, first post here, Hello all )

And how does the ecopure stack up with the blu? Just realized I prolly should've asked the question before I ordered a bottle

 

[Synf]

I can't say I have been biased to Blu because of their past failings, but for the fact that i ordered my Blu two weeks ago, and after four days of in processing went to Volcano.

I don't like sugar coating things, but if you want great customer care, informed updates, new accessories etc then IMHO Volcano is the way to go.

Its kinda like saying, "Would you rather have a slab of gold, or silver?" Sure one might look more appealing to someone, but in the end the gold is going to be worth more then the silver. I would rather have the gold, and that is the Volcano.

Just my 2cents.

 

[electronicbeginner]

i got a blu, white pack because it said the black were on backorder for 3 weeks so i dont care about the color, it took 4 days to get to me, i live in PA. I like it, it works for me, im not seeing the problems others are getting? the thing you have to knwo is to buy liquid! and drip it into the carts! the carts suck! i bought halo juice which i highly recomend and im getting great throat hits with crazy amounts of vapor! and the blu is very cheap and worth your money. my friend got a e cig off of e cig national or something(it has a 7 on the battery) and his broke. My other buddy who got the blu before me still has his and is workin fine. plus you get double everything and a charging pack, the only bad thing is the battery life, which the charge pack compensates for. USE LIQUID!

 

[a30pkakeystone]

When i first got the Blu (the only ecig i have) i didnt know much about ecigs and refilling carts. Out of the carts they gave me i did think to myself that they were running out really quick. I read online that blu and volcano were the same thing and ordered 10 packs of volcano carts. I was on my last cart that i received with the blu and my volcano carts still didnt ship to my house but luckily i found online that eliquidplanet was only 25 mins from my house so i ran there and got some juice. They are good people and gave me like 7 free samples, and i only bought 2 bottles.

So i started using liquid. The one thing i didnt like is that i couldnt find caps for the blu carts, so without buying 5 attys i couldnt have carts ready to go in my pcc. I also started dripping which i thought was the best thing, as i got very big vapor hits. I also liked the flavors like strawberry, watermelon etc. I didnt really like the tobacco flavors i got though, and i got a few. I even got the legendary ry4 flavor, but wasnt really a fan. Then a few hours later i realized that every time i tried a new flavor, i still tasted an old flavor. It got to the point that every flavor just tasted like a crap mix of all flavors.

Two days later my carts from volcano came and i havent looked back. I know that blu and volcano are the same things, but for some reason i feel that i get a lot more out of the volcano carts. And i LOVE the regular tobacco flavor, and LOVE the vanilla flavor even more. I was a 2 pack a day smoker, costing me 17$ a day at 8.50 a pack. I am now going through one pack of 5 volcano carts a day, give or take. Ordering 10packs at a time you get them for $3/each. So thats $3 a day compaired to $17. The vapor hits are real good, and when they start getting weak i put on a new one. Even then i still use about 4-6 carts a day.

Obviously im not knocking most of you who use eliquid. If you like it and it works thats great. For me though the carts are working fine. I get good hits and only go through about $3/day worth of carts. Also, at first i was in love with the strawberry and watermelon type flavors, but at the end of the night they started making me sick. I was smoking 2 packs a day of marb blend 27s. I wasnt going to quit smoking them vaping candy lol. For the first 5 days or so i instantly went from 40 cigs a day to about 3-5 a day. Now today has been my 4th day in a row smoking 0 cigs. All i smoke is my 4-6 pre-filled carts from volcano.

And no i dont work for or endorse either volcano or blu. Im just bored and figured id share my story so fellow blu/volcano users can give the volcano prefilled carts one more try before giving up completely. Im sure that even though im only spending about $3/day on carts, using Eliquid could/would be even cheaper, but going from 17$-3/day is good enouph from me.

-Mike

 

[Synf]

Mike, good review! Im glad you are enjoying your L88B as some of us.

And to the part where you say work/endorse... Everyone seems to think that any fan/user of the L88B works for them because they just HAVE to be bad. Or at least thats what I have seen around these forums. IMHO Its just sour 510 users who didn't get the enjoyment/satisfaction we do.

 

[a30pkakeystone]

Thanks. People definitely have to see for themselves without reading biased reviews.

 

[hxj]

And how does the ecopure stack up with the blu? Just realized I prolly should've asked the question before I ordered a bottle

Don't worry, ECOpure is AMAZING in a blu. Since it's all-VG-based, it produces lots more vapour than PG-based liquids. And the blu is low-heat enough that the ECOpure flavours taste the way they should. ECOpure in my 510 works great, but the flavour is always both slightly milder and slightly burnt. (In my opinion, that's the one area in which the blu/Volcano wins hands down: flavour fidelity.)

The only liquid I've tried that works better than ECOpure in a blu is a couple of Decadent Vapours VG-based liquids, which aren't even available anymore. But ECOpure comes very close.

I have some of InnoVapor's ULTRApure on the way, which is an American-made "ECOpure 2.0," and that may be better still. I'll let you know next week.

 

[cheeto_1983]

So I read all of this, and here I am a NEWB...vaping for 3 weeks. I went with Blu...great reviews bottom line. They told me 3 weeks for the black starter kit or immediately for white. I felt it was worth the wait for black. I had been smoking analogs for years...a few weeks more ain't gonna kill me right? Also I was pleased that they had a back order...back orders are good right? That means the product is super popular and must be working! Got my black starter kit in a week and a half...thats pretty impressive considering I was quoted 3 weeks. I went in super confident, so I bought an extra carton of menthol carts knowing that the starter pack would go quick.

I love the product...WOW. It's so cool to smoke in the house...partake in my favorite pastime without killing myself. Halfway through my first carton of multi flavors (I hated them all except menthol and cherry) I decided I was going to go all out with this, and needed more carts before I ran out. Well then my wife got on board and started using my extra battery, atty, and charger, and now carts were going fast, but no worries because I ordered a crap load more! 2 weeks later I got those carts. That was 5 days too late, and I had to go to some creepy kiosk store that had smoke juice with no label, so I could refill my carts.

This is a alternate smoking product...if my gas station made me wait 2 weeks for a pack of cigs.....well....it wouldn't be good. You have to be on point with these shipments.

So today I realize with my wife vaping too I need to get some back up parts in a hurry in case something happens (already having a glitchy battery). I found out that Volcano uses the same model l88b, and have heard they have excellent shipping and service.

I ordered 2 batteries, 2 attys, 2 car chargers, and I got my tracking number within a couple of hours. WOW WOW WOW.

I am a brand loyalist...I really am. I hear about all these mods and crap and they don't interest me. Blu hits the spot for me, but if I can get the same product with stellar shipping and service then I must consider defecting. So I may be a volcano user now based on this shipping turn around time.

A couple things about the l88b

1. How much money are you really saving refilling carts? That seems so stupid. I make decent money...I supported a pack a day habit for analogs, so to me buying pre filled carts makes sense, and supports these companies that are marketing these great products. The packs already break down to a $1.25 based on pre filled carts from what I have read...what do you want 50 cent packs? Seems greedy and dangerous...I am not keen on getting a dropper bottle with no labels or anything filled with a mystery liquid. At least with the pre filled carts I have some security knowing the companies Blu or Volcanor or whoever are overseeing some of the process in quality control.

2. Stop tight lipping your l88b's! Loose lip it and let it whistle a little with a slow steady drag. You will get tons of vapor. Remember it is not an analog! Think differently, and you will succeed!

 

[CartHeadMod]

Also I have found by using both ecigs at once, I got such a massive amount of vapor that I think some came out of my ears.

okay....I'm not ashamed to admit it.....I chuckled.....

 

[hxj]

How much money are you really saving refilling carts? That seems so stupid. I make decent money...I supported a pack a day habit for analogs, so to me buying pre filled carts makes sense, and supports these companies that are marketing these great products. The packs already break down to a $1.25 based on pre filled carts from what I have read...what do you want 50 cent packs? Seems greedy and dangerous...I am not keen on getting a dropper bottle with no labels or anything filled with a mystery liquid. At least with the pre filled carts I have some security knowing the companies Blu or Volcanor or whoever are overseeing some of the process in quality control.

No offense, but how can you know that? You say you're "not keen on getting a dropper bottle with no labels or anything filled with a mystery liquid," but I'm looking at a box of blu carts right now, and that's pretty much the situation-- no ingredients list, and nothing indicating the presence/absence/concentration of nicotine aside from a little sticker stuck on the box that says "NO"! Who's to say whoever packed these carts (and I seriously doubt it's anyone at Volcano or blu; they don't make the L88b, so I really don't think they're filling and sealing the carts either) didn't accidentally put a zero-nic sticker on a box of high-nic carts?

If anything, to me your argument seems to argue AGAINST buying the pre-filled carts. For me, buying liquid and refilling carts has nothing to do with the money, although that's a nice bonus. My reasons:

1) Considering that we're vapourizing and inhaling these substances, it's nice to at least have some indication of what's actually in them. Several companies are a bit better about telling you what's in their liquids and where they source their ingredients, such as Johnson Creek, Innovapor, and Intellicig. Of course the human error factor remains, but I can feel a little more comfortable having talked to the people at the above listed companies who actually mix and bottle their liquids instead of just reselling someone else's.

2) I, and many others, found the blu pre-filled carts to perform really poorly, and simply refilling with a better liquid makes a HUGE difference in performance (and replacing the filling with something that actually wicks helps tons, too).

3) If you aren't in love with the flavours you've tried, there are a lot more flavours out there than just the ones blu and Volcano sell.

If I were REALLY concerned with the money, I'd be mixing my own liquids, because the markup on pre-mixed liquids is insane.

If blu and Volcano's carts are working for you, great! I'm just not sure about your reasoning that the liquid in blu's carts is somehow more trustworthy than bottled liquids, since several of them come with ingredient labels and lab test results, and are made by people you can actually call up and talk to.

 

[cheeto_1983]

LOL no offense taken considering this is a forum haha your rebuttal was very proffesional....so I guess the line in my quote that stands out is "the secruity of blu or volcano overseeing the filling process" I know they don't fill them, but I hope they have some quality control person over these chinese factories making sure the factories are not filling the carts with liquid death....is there any US e liquid? That would probably be my most secure feeling....China has done some crazy stuff happening lead in toys, "midnight" fertilizer, and so on

 

[hxj]

is there any US e liquid? That would probably be my most secure feeling....China has done some crazy stuff happening lead in toys, "midnight" fertilizer, and so on

Johnson Creek is US-made and pretty transparent; they put ingredients lists on every bottle. The flavours are love-'em-or-hate-'em for most people, but they have the best return policy in the business (60 days money-back, even on opened bottles, and they pay shipping). I really like JC, but their long-awaited Red Oak line has so far disappointed me because it's just too thin to work properly. LOVE the flavours, though.

InnoVapor's ULTRApure is also US-made. It's new, and so far I like it but am not crazy about it-- the flavour is a bit too reminiscent of "artificial ashtray," but it's growing on me. The vapour production in a blu is PHENOMENAL, though.

ULTRApure is InnoVapor's answer to ECOPure, a UK-made liquid by Intellicig, one of my favourites. It isn't US-made, but Intellicig has downloadable lab reports, materials data safety sheets, etc. and does a good job of documenting how much care they put into quality control and safety.

There are other companies whose products are "US-mixed," but might source their ingredients from China, etc.

 

[memorysan]

Thanks for all the information!! I have a Blu starter kit and Volcano parts both on the way...so I can mix and match the parts to my liking. It seems that a lot of people don't like the Blu, but a lot do...I really hope I end up being one of the ones that do. Volcano seems to be getting better reviews (even though they are supposedly the same), so my mix might turn out pretty good. I am still optimistic!

 

[hxj]

(I've been MIA for a while but still duck my head in on occasion)

Thanks for all the information!! I have a Blu starter kit and Volcano parts both on the way...so I can mix and match the parts to my liking. It seems that a lot of people don't like the Blu, but a lot do...I really hope I end up being one of the ones that do. Volcano seems to be getting better reviews (even though they are supposedly the same), so my mix might turn out pretty good. I am still optimistic!

I've never had any real complaints about blu, but lately I've been getting all my parts from Volcano. They really seem to be making solid improvements, or maybe all the innovation is from the original manufacturer, I don't know. Regardless, I will say that Volcano's new V-Pack is just brilliant, better even than the Revolver Elite PCC which made me try to switch. (I eventually gave up on the Elite because while the PCC was much better than blu's, the actual vaping experience was far less pleasant.)

The new V-Pack is the same size as my blu Pack, but it has a backlit LCD indicator that shows how much power is left in the V-Pack's battery. It also cuts the charging power once the battery is charged-- no more "unscrew the battery when the light turns off or it'll drain the battery." It holds an assembled e-cig, which is important to me. And as a bonus there's even a flashlight mode with a bright red LED on the bottom, which has come in handy.

Meanwhile, the latest Volcano automatic batteries are AMAZING. They don't misfire, EVER. I've dropped them, blown on the tips, run a hair dryer on them, held them out the window of my car on the highway-- nothing. They also won't fire from loud sounds. And yet they activate on the lightest draw every time. I'm very impressed; this is the way an automatic battery should be. (Note that Volcano's only just switching to these new batteries, so I don't think it's certain you'll get them even when ordering right now.)

Of course, it's entirely possible that blu has been making similiar improvements and I just haven't heard. I haven't been keeping up with them, other than knowing that they've switched to Johnson Creek liquids (a nice step, in my opinion). My aunt just ordered a blu kit, and I'm visiting her next week, so if she happens to have gotten it already I'll be interested to see what blu's state-of-the-art is these days.

 

[TheMiamiWay]

I've had the Blu only a short while and for me it's okay. I'm not a heavy smoker and I do like the flavors. One thing I don't like is the idea of refilling my own cartridges. I want something I can take out in public that will be convenient and attractive. I have found that the carts don't last long, maybe6 or 7 cigarettes worth, which makes an equivilent pack worth about $3.00. Better, but not great. I really want to like the Blu and hope it keeps working well for me.

 

[tko]

I just joined to resurrect this old thread with my opinion on this.

First, I've been vaping for about five years using a lot of different equipment. I always ultimately ended up back on analogs.
About two months ago I decided to give it another try and went with the blucig after trying one of their disposables from the drugstore. I liked the idea of a small cigarette sized ecig and the PCC takes care of the battery life issue.

I've since learned from the forums that blucig has a bad reputation for customer service. My kit came quickly and subsequent carto orders also came quickly. One of my two batteries failed immediately and I was required to pay to send it back, but they replaced it quickly as well, so I can't complain about their customer service. While I was waiting for the replacement I was still able to vape because their disposables are available at Walgreens.

I like their original tobacco flavor, and I'm still deciding if I like their coffee, vanilla and menthol.

Later I heard about volcano, and that their gear is compatible with blucig. I went ahead and ordered a couple batteries from them - white with a red LED for when I want to look like I'm actually smoking and skip the questions. I got their tankomizer and some tanks - this is a brilliant set up. I also got some blank cartos, a drip tip, some juice and some cart caps that don't seem to be what they say they are. After 20 minutes on hold after asking about the cart caps I finally hung up. So I can't say that their customer service is good, but their shipping is fast.

I've been able to charge my volcano batteries with the blucig chargers, and mix and match components with no issues at all. So this is my comparison:

Blucig has a very clean product with restricted choices in equipment and flavors. I like their tobacco flavor and will order carts from them again. I also like the look of their PCC better than volcano's, so will continue to use it. It is expensive to buy stand alone, though, so if it ever fails I'll probably go with the volcano.

Volcano is trying to provide every possible equipment and flavor for this form factor of ecig. I really like the ease of use with the tankomizer. Quickly fill five tanks, put them in the PCC and I'm good for a couple of days of vaping. I'll go back to them for more accessories like the pass-through battery, more tanks and some clearimizers when they're back in stock. I'll buy any future batteries from them as they give more choices on color for both the battery and LEDs. I'm trying their Tobacco Pure flavor, and its okay. I can't really sample a bunch of their flavors as the smallest size they sell is 15ml and its not cheap. There are lots of liquid providers who will sell sampler packs out there though so I'll find someplace I like.

My verdict as to which is better? Both.

 

[deach]

Thanks for the latest update, the rest were pretty old. I too love my blu. I started with a 510 and got the blu for an early Christmas present. I'm looking for an analog replacement, not a cigar replacement. I do sometimes put my aty and cart from the 510 on the blu battery if my carto's run low. You've convinced me to get the volcano stuff next go around. Wouldn't mind trying the PCC from them (got the old style from blu) and also some of the liquids from them look pretty good. I will say I LOVE the blu tobacco flavor. (JC domestic is the closest I've found to duplicating that BTW). I may eventually get something more "home bound" for sitting here on my surf-a thons, but, for now the blue sized keeps me just fine. I charge one and by the time the one I'm using goes dead the other one is charged (or is in a few minutes). Anyway again, thanks for the update.Deach