Carlos Juice Box CJB First Impressions Review
About me: Three month plus heavy vaper. Down to >1 analog per week. Have used std 510, dse 905, hv copper, hv xhaler, GGTS, mr puff and petercro mini juice box mk2. My experience with PV's so far is that I will initially love a unit, but later on find a flaw or shortcoming that will greatly diminish my love for it a month or so later. My love is intense, but fickle.
Disclaimer: I have no professional or financial relationship with Carlos, Porphy, or anyone else responsible for this mod. I am receiving no compensation of any kind for this review. I know of no personal relationship that would in any way bias my review or the opinions behind it.
After over two months of waiting, my custom made, plain jane (Black case, blue LED, no graphics) Carlos Juice Box arrived. Having kept up with the Juice Box phenomenon on ECF forums, I decided to order one; after asking Carlos three dozen questions and posting the same on the boards. Having further kept up with the issues on the boards concerning supply issues, communication, and supplier status, I stayed in communication with Carlos, Janice and Porphy, and-let's just say I was a total PITA. Carlos and Porphy both probably got drunk and wept with joy when they shipped my order; I'm grateful Carlos didn't prime my atty with arsenic. I haven't anticipated an object so much since I bought my first car.
Description: The Carlos Juice Box (CJB) is a handmade PV mod that uses a black project case containing a 3.7v 18650 battery and self contained juice bottle that feeds e-juice directly into a custom made atty. Juice is fed into the atty by squeezing on the enclosed bottle thorough a specially made hole in the case or by dripping it directly into the atty for a change of flavor. The device promises easy all day vaping, long battery life, long atty lifespan and a high intensity, flavorful, throat punching vape in an easy to transport package.
Opinions posted on the mod have been divisive: people either celebrate the device as the second coming of personal vaping or loudly complain and quickly sell their units. Many talk of a steep learning curve that has to be mastered to effectively use the device. Having used a roughly similar mod or two, I suspect this curve may be due to the atty having to be 'seasoned' or broken in, but more on this in a minute.
Received my CJB 3/27/2010. It has been used daily since I received it. So far, I have used it in with either a red Trustfire 18650 3000 mah battery and a new AW 'high drain' 18650 battery. The 18650 battery is the only standard configuration for the device. Other users have reported good results with two 3v cr123's for 6v vaping, but it is not recommended, Personally, I'm certainly not going to risk a custom device I've waited nine weeks for with high voltage vaping on an atomizer I can't replace myself.
So far, results are mixed. The boards are correct: this has the PhD of learning curves. Perhaps a more accurate description would be atty break in period. Like others, I have experienced the flooding/burnt atty problem others have reported: either the atty is flooded with no vape or has a harsh, dry taste with some glorious puffs of incredibly dense, flavorful vape in between. For those few puffs, this is an outright eight-inch caliber throat howitzer.
My solution so far is to keep the tiniest amount of normally unvapeable thick PG fluid in the bottle and alternate screwing the bottle in and out. When it starts to flood, I unscrew the bottle and vape until it starts to taste harsh. When it starts to flood with the bottle firmly attached, I unscrew it again. And repeat. Then repeat again. Thanks to a suggestion on the boards, I'm starting to keep the bottle unscrewed and drop at most two drops of vg liquid into the top of the atty.
The custom atty right now only needs a partial drop to fill a room with vape. Following a suggestion on the Juice Box Fans forum, I drained the tube after taking the bottle off, turned the tube upward, and exhaled into the mouthpiece while holding the button. The result was a constant stream of dense vape that didn't seem to ever quit, which is impressive in itself.
When trying to drain excess juice back into the bottle by exhaling on the mouthpiece and holding my finger on the hole in the side of the atty, after trying to vape, I almost burned my hand. This thing gets HOT. It will take repeated vapes and activation at temperatures that would fry any other mod out there. Say what you will about the mod as a whole, but this is one emmin' effin' tough little atty; I could believe reports that it will take months of repeated use without failure.
I like the button on this unit as well. It is essentially a simple spring design where pressing the button down forces a metal piece to come into contact with another metal piece to complete a circuit. Unlike other mods I have had, where I wonder how long the button will hold out when I'm pressing it, I have confidence that it will hold up to daily usage.
The feature of magnets holding the side of the box on is nice, but my box needs a little adjustment with a phillips screwdriver for everything to fit flush and tight. The two corners using magnets are higher than the other two, so the side is not flush and wobbles.
Overall, I'm satisfied if not impressed with the overall build quality and finish of the design. Yes, it is obviously a hand made box mod; don't expect it to have the fit and finish of a conventional aluminum and brass battery mod. But it has a maturity of design missing from the couple of proof of concept prototypes that I've tried. It's clear that carlos has been making these for a while now, and has had time to work some of the bugs out. It's also more attractive than I expected it to be.
That's it for now. The CJB has been relegated to armchair status while I put it through its paces; it will sit by my armchair where I will continue dripping a couple of drops at a time into the atty while an almost empty unscrewed bottle sits in it. It will sit there, waiting for my leisure hours, until it becomes a lot less labor intensive to consistently vape. The payoff of intense portable, one box fits all vaping promises to be worth the effort and wait; other users have reported 2 week to one month break in periods.
Don't expect to quickly get a juice box, fill a bottle halfway and take it on the town with you later the same day for easy vaping. But if you've got the patience to order a product, wait possibly two months or more for it to arrive, and then treat it as a project or part time job after that, the juice box MAY be for you.
That's it...for now. I'll continue to keep at it while harassing the old CJB hands and posting my progress on the forums. Expect to see a much more comprehensive review of all aspects of the CJB within the next month. Thanks for reading.
About me: Three month plus heavy vaper. Down to >1 analog per week. Have used std 510, dse 905, hv copper, hv xhaler, GGTS, mr puff and petercro mini juice box mk2. My experience with PV's so far is that I will initially love a unit, but later on find a flaw or shortcoming that will greatly diminish my love for it a month or so later. My love is intense, but fickle.
Disclaimer: I have no professional or financial relationship with Carlos, Porphy, or anyone else responsible for this mod. I am receiving no compensation of any kind for this review. I know of no personal relationship that would in any way bias my review or the opinions behind it.
After over two months of waiting, my custom made, plain jane (Black case, blue LED, no graphics) Carlos Juice Box arrived. Having kept up with the Juice Box phenomenon on ECF forums, I decided to order one; after asking Carlos three dozen questions and posting the same on the boards. Having further kept up with the issues on the boards concerning supply issues, communication, and supplier status, I stayed in communication with Carlos, Janice and Porphy, and-let's just say I was a total PITA. Carlos and Porphy both probably got drunk and wept with joy when they shipped my order; I'm grateful Carlos didn't prime my atty with arsenic. I haven't anticipated an object so much since I bought my first car.
Description: The Carlos Juice Box (CJB) is a handmade PV mod that uses a black project case containing a 3.7v 18650 battery and self contained juice bottle that feeds e-juice directly into a custom made atty. Juice is fed into the atty by squeezing on the enclosed bottle thorough a specially made hole in the case or by dripping it directly into the atty for a change of flavor. The device promises easy all day vaping, long battery life, long atty lifespan and a high intensity, flavorful, throat punching vape in an easy to transport package.
Opinions posted on the mod have been divisive: people either celebrate the device as the second coming of personal vaping or loudly complain and quickly sell their units. Many talk of a steep learning curve that has to be mastered to effectively use the device. Having used a roughly similar mod or two, I suspect this curve may be due to the atty having to be 'seasoned' or broken in, but more on this in a minute.
Received my CJB 3/27/2010. It has been used daily since I received it. So far, I have used it in with either a red Trustfire 18650 3000 mah battery and a new AW 'high drain' 18650 battery. The 18650 battery is the only standard configuration for the device. Other users have reported good results with two 3v cr123's for 6v vaping, but it is not recommended, Personally, I'm certainly not going to risk a custom device I've waited nine weeks for with high voltage vaping on an atomizer I can't replace myself.
So far, results are mixed. The boards are correct: this has the PhD of learning curves. Perhaps a more accurate description would be atty break in period. Like others, I have experienced the flooding/burnt atty problem others have reported: either the atty is flooded with no vape or has a harsh, dry taste with some glorious puffs of incredibly dense, flavorful vape in between. For those few puffs, this is an outright eight-inch caliber throat howitzer.
My solution so far is to keep the tiniest amount of normally unvapeable thick PG fluid in the bottle and alternate screwing the bottle in and out. When it starts to flood, I unscrew the bottle and vape until it starts to taste harsh. When it starts to flood with the bottle firmly attached, I unscrew it again. And repeat. Then repeat again. Thanks to a suggestion on the boards, I'm starting to keep the bottle unscrewed and drop at most two drops of vg liquid into the top of the atty.
The custom atty right now only needs a partial drop to fill a room with vape. Following a suggestion on the Juice Box Fans forum, I drained the tube after taking the bottle off, turned the tube upward, and exhaled into the mouthpiece while holding the button. The result was a constant stream of dense vape that didn't seem to ever quit, which is impressive in itself.
When trying to drain excess juice back into the bottle by exhaling on the mouthpiece and holding my finger on the hole in the side of the atty, after trying to vape, I almost burned my hand. This thing gets HOT. It will take repeated vapes and activation at temperatures that would fry any other mod out there. Say what you will about the mod as a whole, but this is one emmin' effin' tough little atty; I could believe reports that it will take months of repeated use without failure.
I like the button on this unit as well. It is essentially a simple spring design where pressing the button down forces a metal piece to come into contact with another metal piece to complete a circuit. Unlike other mods I have had, where I wonder how long the button will hold out when I'm pressing it, I have confidence that it will hold up to daily usage.
The feature of magnets holding the side of the box on is nice, but my box needs a little adjustment with a phillips screwdriver for everything to fit flush and tight. The two corners using magnets are higher than the other two, so the side is not flush and wobbles.
Overall, I'm satisfied if not impressed with the overall build quality and finish of the design. Yes, it is obviously a hand made box mod; don't expect it to have the fit and finish of a conventional aluminum and brass battery mod. But it has a maturity of design missing from the couple of proof of concept prototypes that I've tried. It's clear that carlos has been making these for a while now, and has had time to work some of the bugs out. It's also more attractive than I expected it to be.
That's it for now. The CJB has been relegated to armchair status while I put it through its paces; it will sit by my armchair where I will continue dripping a couple of drops at a time into the atty while an almost empty unscrewed bottle sits in it. It will sit there, waiting for my leisure hours, until it becomes a lot less labor intensive to consistently vape. The payoff of intense portable, one box fits all vaping promises to be worth the effort and wait; other users have reported 2 week to one month break in periods.
Don't expect to quickly get a juice box, fill a bottle halfway and take it on the town with you later the same day for easy vaping. But if you've got the patience to order a product, wait possibly two months or more for it to arrive, and then treat it as a project or part time job after that, the juice box MAY be for you.
That's it...for now. I'll continue to keep at it while harassing the old CJB hands and posting my progress on the forums. Expect to see a much more comprehensive review of all aspects of the CJB within the next month. Thanks for reading.
