Eight months ago I started vaping with a Joye 510. I soon switched to a Janty Stick with an 801 atomizer. At that time cartomizers (2 piece e-cigs) were not well rated by many people here and I didn't try one.
Vapor4Life has gained many loyal fans with their 2 piece cartomizer e-cigs. I've now tried them and after a week of using them I want to share my opinion about how they compare with the 3 piece (atomizer) e-cigs I've used until now.
510 vs. 801
Before the comparison to V4L cartomizers, some notes about the atomizer devices I've used so far and what I liked about them.
I found both the 510 and the 801 unsatisfactory at first. With the shipped polyester fill they didn't last long before vapor production and taste deteriorated. I tried variations of the shredded PTB mod to address these problems and after some trial and error have used it ever since.
I didn't like the 510 as much as the 801 / Janty Stick. The 510 cartridges had 1/2 the juice capacity, the draw was a bit easier on the Janty Stick, I got more vapor from the Janty Stick, the 510 got quite hot when used for two puffs in a row, the 510 battery didn't last as long, and the 510 battery dropped off in power as its charge got lower.
So the 801 / Janty Stick became my e-cig of choice and I used it exclusively until last week. If you're interested in an article about my eventual day to day routine with the Stick see my post at http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tips-tricks/69830-settling-routine-long-term-vaping.html.
801 vs. V4L
Getting comfortable with the Vapor King was easy. It needed a slightly different draw to get maximum vapor from it - a short preheat (I'm using manual V4L batteries) followed by a drag a bit more like smoking (if I remember that correctly.) It did take a few days to learn to tell when a cartomizer was nearly empty. Learning to refill the cartomizers using the condom method was a snap. (See http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...tomizer-condom-filling-method-taryn-spin.html for details.)
I've now done a head-on comparison. I fully charged and filled a Janty Stick (801 with PTB) and a V4L cartomizer with my favorite juice, Dekang Winston 24mg PG boosted to 36mg with a bit of 100mg liquid. Then I used both devices till empty.
The result: I like the Vapor King more than my beloved Janty Stick!
The Vapor King produces a bit more vapor. (I.e. lots! I already got a good amount from the Stick.) It delivers a slightly better taste for the same juice. And the vapor is a bit warmer which gives me a more satisfying inhaling sensation.
Pros and Cons of Vapor King vs. Janty Stick
Pros:
Cost Comparison
I had worried that using cartomizers would cost significantly more than a 3 piece device. Here's my guess as to how the cost will work out after trying these e-cigs for a while. These calculations will of course vary for each person depending on how much one vapes, how much one smoked, how much cigarettes cost locally, how often one refills each cartomizer, how often one purchases (affects shipping costs), and how much one spends on extra goodies.
First, a comparison against cigarettes without any refilling of cartomizers. I've been using a little over two cartomizers per day and I used to smoke more than a pack a day. Two carts cost about $4. There's also overhead for equipment, shipping, wastage, and spending on extras (cases, lanyards, etc.) For me $1.50/day seems a reasonable allowance for that stuff, resulting in a total of $5.50/day for a simple use-and-discard approach. A pack of cigarettes costs over $8 where I live. So as a smoker converting to vaping using Vapor Kings I'd be saving money even if I didn't do any refilling.
Next, an estimate for a more frugal approach using cartomizer refilling. I've refilled one cartomizer four times now. On the Vapor4Life forum there are users reporting five, ten, or even more refills per cartomizer before discarding them. Using a figure of four 1ml refills (or five slightly smaller refills): when purchasing the juice from Vapor4Life at $13/30ml, and using 2ml per day, that's a cartomizer+juice cost of about $1.50/day. (7.5 cartomizers refilled 4 times each uses the 30ml, cost is 7.5*2 for cartomizers + 13 for juice = $28, 37.5ml of juice total lasts 18.75 days, 28/18.75 = $1.5) Adding the $1.50/day overhead for equipment, shipping, etc. the result is down to a total cost of $3.00/day.
With an atomizer e-cig the cost of juice for the same usage would be (still purchasing from Vapor4Life for comparison, though I think many people pay more for juice elsewhere) $13 per 15 days at 2ml/day, i.e. $0.85/day. There are small additional costs for atomizer users. People have reported a huge range of atomizer lifespans. Let's suppose a 1 month lifespan for atomizers ordered from China at $6 each. That's an added $0.20/day for atomizers. Then there's PTB (or whatever other material one uses as filler) and whatever one uses to clean attys. Let's say $0.05/day for that stuff, for a total of $1.10/day. Adding the $1.50/day overhead for equipment, shipping, etc. which is the same for both e-cigs the result is a total cost of $2.60/day.
With the parameters above the result is $3.00/day for V4L cartomizers vs. $2.60/day for the atomizer approach. Though some people might disagree, the 0.40/day increase in cost for the cartomizer approach doesn't seem substantial to me, neither in relation to the resulting daily cost nor in relation to what we would otherwise spend on cigarettes. And one might all but eliminate that cost difference by refilling cartomizers more times before discarding them.
Vapor4Life Nobacco Juice
One can buy empty cartomizers and fill them with any juice so this isn't necessarily part of the V4L Vapor King vs. Janty Stick comparison. Nonetheless, with cartomizers the prefilled flavors which are available from the vendor are more a part of the overall package. And thanks to the sampler packs available at Vapor4Life and the easy flavor switching with cartomizers I've already tried a number of flavors and a comment on the juice seems appropriate.
I've tried eight tobacco flavors now, all 36mg strength, and they're outstanding. Though I don't like some of them that's to be expected. I like four of them (Parlament, Kant, Dunhall, Hilton) as much or more than my previous favorite Dekang Winston. Vapor production is good in all of them and the price is great. I think that even people who aren't using Vapor Kings would do well to try V4L's juices. The availability of 36mg juice is an added bonus for those who want it.
Summary
Although I'll keep my Janty Sticks as backup and perhaps for an occasional change of pace, V4L's Vapor King is now my main e-cig.
And these are the e-cig I'll be recommending to new vapers from now on. They're a hands down winner for new vapers because they both provide a great vape (one I'm switching to) and they greatly reduce the e-cig learning curve.
Vapor4Life has gained many loyal fans with their 2 piece cartomizer e-cigs. I've now tried them and after a week of using them I want to share my opinion about how they compare with the 3 piece (atomizer) e-cigs I've used until now.
510 vs. 801
Before the comparison to V4L cartomizers, some notes about the atomizer devices I've used so far and what I liked about them.
I found both the 510 and the 801 unsatisfactory at first. With the shipped polyester fill they didn't last long before vapor production and taste deteriorated. I tried variations of the shredded PTB mod to address these problems and after some trial and error have used it ever since.
I didn't like the 510 as much as the 801 / Janty Stick. The 510 cartridges had 1/2 the juice capacity, the draw was a bit easier on the Janty Stick, I got more vapor from the Janty Stick, the 510 got quite hot when used for two puffs in a row, the 510 battery didn't last as long, and the 510 battery dropped off in power as its charge got lower.
So the 801 / Janty Stick became my e-cig of choice and I used it exclusively until last week. If you're interested in an article about my eventual day to day routine with the Stick see my post at http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tips-tricks/69830-settling-routine-long-term-vaping.html.
801 vs. V4L
Getting comfortable with the Vapor King was easy. It needed a slightly different draw to get maximum vapor from it - a short preheat (I'm using manual V4L batteries) followed by a drag a bit more like smoking (if I remember that correctly.) It did take a few days to learn to tell when a cartomizer was nearly empty. Learning to refill the cartomizers using the condom method was a snap. (See http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...tomizer-condom-filling-method-taryn-spin.html for details.)
I've now done a head-on comparison. I fully charged and filled a Janty Stick (801 with PTB) and a V4L cartomizer with my favorite juice, Dekang Winston 24mg PG boosted to 36mg with a bit of 100mg liquid. Then I used both devices till empty.
The result: I like the Vapor King more than my beloved Janty Stick!
The Vapor King produces a bit more vapor. (I.e. lots! I already got a good amount from the Stick.) It delivers a slightly better taste for the same juice. And the vapor is a bit warmer which gives me a more satisfying inhaling sensation.
Pros and Cons of Vapor King vs. Janty Stick
Pros:
- Slightly better vapor production and flavor. And that's saying something - I thought my Janty Sticks with PTB mod were nicely tweaked.
- Slightly easier draw, which I prefer. (Though I should note that I found a slightly harder draw necessary on the V4L to get its best vapor production. Not a negative since the result when done that way is more vapor in one draw, which I like. The net result is a more flexible device I think, one which I think gives more options with different drawing approaches. Me, I like big hits.)
- Much simpler. No messing with cartridge mods (a must in my opinion with three piece devices), good liquid capacity, no need to clean atomizers. And no need to learn to refill at first. Or ever if cost isn't an issue.
- Trivial flavor switching. Easy to try new flavors, both because of the easy switching and because V4L has many sampler packs available.
- Excellent supplier. V4L's reputation on these forums is one of the very best.
- I'm finding vapor production not quite as consistent from the start of using a cartomizer to the end as I can get with a perfectly created PTB filled 801 cartridge. Production drops off a little as a cartomizer approaches empty.
- One cartomizer I tried ran quite hot.
- The Vapor King is slightly noisier, i.e. a bit more of the occasional crackling and popping sounds.
- No whistle tip. I've come to prefer these tips with e-cigs. But I expect I'll either adapt or will find a whistle tip which I can fit over cartomizers.
- Good cartridge capacity. I'm getting 15 to 20 drops per refill, just a tad less than I get with the 801/PTB.
Cost Comparison
I had worried that using cartomizers would cost significantly more than a 3 piece device. Here's my guess as to how the cost will work out after trying these e-cigs for a while. These calculations will of course vary for each person depending on how much one vapes, how much one smoked, how much cigarettes cost locally, how often one refills each cartomizer, how often one purchases (affects shipping costs), and how much one spends on extra goodies.
First, a comparison against cigarettes without any refilling of cartomizers. I've been using a little over two cartomizers per day and I used to smoke more than a pack a day. Two carts cost about $4. There's also overhead for equipment, shipping, wastage, and spending on extras (cases, lanyards, etc.) For me $1.50/day seems a reasonable allowance for that stuff, resulting in a total of $5.50/day for a simple use-and-discard approach. A pack of cigarettes costs over $8 where I live. So as a smoker converting to vaping using Vapor Kings I'd be saving money even if I didn't do any refilling.
Next, an estimate for a more frugal approach using cartomizer refilling. I've refilled one cartomizer four times now. On the Vapor4Life forum there are users reporting five, ten, or even more refills per cartomizer before discarding them. Using a figure of four 1ml refills (or five slightly smaller refills): when purchasing the juice from Vapor4Life at $13/30ml, and using 2ml per day, that's a cartomizer+juice cost of about $1.50/day. (7.5 cartomizers refilled 4 times each uses the 30ml, cost is 7.5*2 for cartomizers + 13 for juice = $28, 37.5ml of juice total lasts 18.75 days, 28/18.75 = $1.5) Adding the $1.50/day overhead for equipment, shipping, etc. the result is down to a total cost of $3.00/day.
With an atomizer e-cig the cost of juice for the same usage would be (still purchasing from Vapor4Life for comparison, though I think many people pay more for juice elsewhere) $13 per 15 days at 2ml/day, i.e. $0.85/day. There are small additional costs for atomizer users. People have reported a huge range of atomizer lifespans. Let's suppose a 1 month lifespan for atomizers ordered from China at $6 each. That's an added $0.20/day for atomizers. Then there's PTB (or whatever other material one uses as filler) and whatever one uses to clean attys. Let's say $0.05/day for that stuff, for a total of $1.10/day. Adding the $1.50/day overhead for equipment, shipping, etc. which is the same for both e-cigs the result is a total cost of $2.60/day.
With the parameters above the result is $3.00/day for V4L cartomizers vs. $2.60/day for the atomizer approach. Though some people might disagree, the 0.40/day increase in cost for the cartomizer approach doesn't seem substantial to me, neither in relation to the resulting daily cost nor in relation to what we would otherwise spend on cigarettes. And one might all but eliminate that cost difference by refilling cartomizers more times before discarding them.
Vapor4Life Nobacco Juice
One can buy empty cartomizers and fill them with any juice so this isn't necessarily part of the V4L Vapor King vs. Janty Stick comparison. Nonetheless, with cartomizers the prefilled flavors which are available from the vendor are more a part of the overall package. And thanks to the sampler packs available at Vapor4Life and the easy flavor switching with cartomizers I've already tried a number of flavors and a comment on the juice seems appropriate.
I've tried eight tobacco flavors now, all 36mg strength, and they're outstanding. Though I don't like some of them that's to be expected. I like four of them (Parlament, Kant, Dunhall, Hilton) as much or more than my previous favorite Dekang Winston. Vapor production is good in all of them and the price is great. I think that even people who aren't using Vapor Kings would do well to try V4L's juices. The availability of 36mg juice is an added bonus for those who want it.
Summary
Although I'll keep my Janty Sticks as backup and perhaps for an occasional change of pace, V4L's Vapor King is now my main e-cig.
And these are the e-cig I'll be recommending to new vapers from now on. They're a hands down winner for new vapers because they both provide a great vape (one I'm switching to) and they greatly reduce the e-cig learning curve.
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