Here's my official review of the Cisco 3.5ohm atomizer from, guess who, Cisco!
Right off the bat, I have to give some information about this atomizer - the atomizer I received is what I'd personally call bridged. It has the metal mesh "bridge" inside, with the mesh cage that circles the coil, which has silica if you look closely. From what I could tell, either by natural compression once vaped, or by actual build, the coil itself is rather micro-coiled, and my atomizer had a stray strand of silica that somehow seemed to sit on top of the coil itself in an awkward fashion.
Some background about Cisco as well, is that Cisco is a brand that builds their own atomizers right here in the USA. The shell casing, and possibly the bridge, is indeed from overseas, but the coil, wick, and individual pieces are assembled in Cisco's office, and with being one of the only companies in the US to do this, they seem to take great pride (and equally adamant return policies) in their atomizers, revealing to send out their atomizers using the cleanest methods they can. From what I read on their website, some of them are sent with some primer inside, and some are not. Not totally sure what my model specifically had.
First things second, like any dripping atomizer, I drip about 5 drops into the atomizer at first, to make sure it is soaked and ready to go. I let it sit a minute and absorb, and I go to vape. I was dripping Caramel Swirl by Velvet Cloud Vapors, %100 VG with Distilled Water, just to add.
Right away, something happened that had happened with no other atomizer or build which I had tried this juice on - the juice actually tasted sweet, and a little bit like caramel! All other devices would give this juice a salty or wicky taste. Right away, I know there's something better about this coil than the typical lot, so I then go to drip Velvet Cloud Vapors' Candy Bar, which also proves to vape better than any device it had been tried on - notes of chocolate and peanut butter where indeed coming through. Just to add as well, I had to turn up the voltage to 4.1V's for the 3.5ohm coil, which gave me tremendous vapor.
In my haste to vape, I did not follow the typical rules of blowing out each individual juice, vaping some unflavored PG between the mixes, and then dripping the flavor I wanted to dry. In all logic however, I personally did not envision where this would be a problem, because as long as juices are relatively clean, then you can mix them all day long - juice is virtually made that way, after all.
So I then go to vape a juice that has long evaded me in flavor, Captain Ron by Indigo, 70/30 PG/VG, 0mg. This particular juice, when I first tried it on a vendor's sample, was a strong, full, deep flavor of tropical plums, akin to what one would expect from a juice geared toward a pirate-carribbean themed blend. However, on no other atomizer - countless CE4's and 5's, or any tank whatsoever, did this juice ever shine through. At most, it would always taste like pink cotton candy.
Low and behold, on the Cisco, the flavor hit my tongue in a rich, deep, authentic, sweet, full, and thick vapor that matched the initial vendor's testing, and possibly even beyond. The flavor of the juicy, bag-of-fruit plums and tropical tinges were so full bodied, tasty, clean, and downright pleasurable that one could have truly mistaken themselves for eating the real thing. At this point, my jaw dropped, my eyes opened, and I smiled for one of the first times in this vaping journey - finally, a vape that vaped like a vape!
However, as always, the negatives start to creep in. As soon as I experience this astonishing cloud of pleasure, and the few puffs after that, I go to add more of this same juice, and the flavor starts to diminish rapidly. I become very confused actually, as this was only 30 minutes into testing, probably only 20 puffs out of the atomizer, and I had only used three juices, two that were clear as water and were known to me not to leave build-up. With not getting much of a result any longer out of dripping the Captain Ron, I go to drip Velvet Cloud Vapor's Burley Beard, seemingly a NET.
As soon as a drip this juice, more flavor pulls back into the mix. I experience Burley Beard like I haven't before - the juice presents itself as a herbal, oily blend that has the combusted notes of not particularly tobacco, but more as though I was vaping a herb meant for new-age healing. There were new traits added to this juice, and while all other devices merely caused the juice to taste like vegetable oil, the Cisco atomizer pumped up this juice to a combustion-tinged vaporized herb; I would actually say it's a possible candidate for anyone looking to replicate some of the tinges one gets when sampling a certain green herb. The give is very, very hippy-like, and reminds one of sitting next to a bearded art-lover who had been toking on some questionable plants hours before - it did not seem as deep as one would like, but it was interesting.
However, soon, I grow tired of that, and want to experience more of my juices - I then drip a generic Coffee flavor I had saved up, and right away, on the first hit, I experience a coffee juice like I only have in vendor CE4's - a rich, creamy, coffee that has no relation to burnt monkey ..... The exhale is amazing, and I hope to myself that the experience continues. However, with the very next hit, I immediately get the burning coffee taste that really vapes just like burned .... hair. Right away, the experience went down the drain, and I go to vape some of the juices I had dripped previously, and with this, I can tell the atomizer has gotten messed up in some sort of way - for example, the Caramel Swirl had an ashy taste.
I try to salvage what I can from the vape for the longest of time, but it finally gets to a point where I have to decide to soak it in distilled water, and hope for the best. I soak the atomizer in distilled water for a little while, and let it generally dry, and then I dry burn it with a few low-powered fires, all while blowing on the the coil. I again soak it in distilled water for a minute to see if it'll help rid any residue, and again, I let it dry. During all these steps, I blow out the atomizer, but I do it in the way Phil does - through the mouthpiece, and not the 510 connection, as blowing in the 510 connection gets juice in my mouth.
After awhile, I go to vape, and to my surprise, I get hardly any vapor, just a whisp! The flavor is also funky as all getout, quite silica-like, yet I keep at it to see if the atomizer just needs some breaking in. Minutes go by however, and nothing is working - the atomizer refuses to give out but a whisp of vapor, and what is there simply taste like burned silica. Without a doubt, I ruined the atomizer somehow, and for that, I'm very mad at myself.
Overall, I personally, don't have a clue what happened, and I don't think I really pushed this atty farther than it was supposed to go - in all reality, mixing a few juices in it shouldn't have burned it out in 30 minutes, nor should a few dry burns at 3.3V's with a 3.5ohm coil. Alas, however, I have to admit that something about this atty indeed worked great when it did, so no matter what, it does seem I contributed to its downfall.
In the end, what I recommend doing, is if you buy this atty, don't follow my steps - do as Cisco instruct, and with every juice change, or when you taste the same juice getting a little flat, run some flavorless PG through it, and either vape that, or blow the excess loose from the 510 connection. If the atty becomes unuseable, don't use distilled water, use their recommendation of vodka, and don't dry burn unless you feel there's absolutely no other way to get it to work. I simply still had bad luck with this atty and I do feel that the atty went out severely before my expectations would have expected. I got less than an hour of use from it, and I wouldn't think even the worst abuse would cause that experience.
This atomizer gave me the best tastes I have ever gotten in my own home from vaping (though it only matched the flavors that I got out of clean but cheap tanks at the vendor themselves), yet its performance seems to require either extremely meticulous procedure. I wouldn't recommend this product to a newbie by far, and hopefully, others can share their tips and tricks to getting this atty to last for weeks!
Right off the bat, I have to give some information about this atomizer - the atomizer I received is what I'd personally call bridged. It has the metal mesh "bridge" inside, with the mesh cage that circles the coil, which has silica if you look closely. From what I could tell, either by natural compression once vaped, or by actual build, the coil itself is rather micro-coiled, and my atomizer had a stray strand of silica that somehow seemed to sit on top of the coil itself in an awkward fashion.
Some background about Cisco as well, is that Cisco is a brand that builds their own atomizers right here in the USA. The shell casing, and possibly the bridge, is indeed from overseas, but the coil, wick, and individual pieces are assembled in Cisco's office, and with being one of the only companies in the US to do this, they seem to take great pride (and equally adamant return policies) in their atomizers, revealing to send out their atomizers using the cleanest methods they can. From what I read on their website, some of them are sent with some primer inside, and some are not. Not totally sure what my model specifically had.
First things second, like any dripping atomizer, I drip about 5 drops into the atomizer at first, to make sure it is soaked and ready to go. I let it sit a minute and absorb, and I go to vape. I was dripping Caramel Swirl by Velvet Cloud Vapors, %100 VG with Distilled Water, just to add.
Right away, something happened that had happened with no other atomizer or build which I had tried this juice on - the juice actually tasted sweet, and a little bit like caramel! All other devices would give this juice a salty or wicky taste. Right away, I know there's something better about this coil than the typical lot, so I then go to drip Velvet Cloud Vapors' Candy Bar, which also proves to vape better than any device it had been tried on - notes of chocolate and peanut butter where indeed coming through. Just to add as well, I had to turn up the voltage to 4.1V's for the 3.5ohm coil, which gave me tremendous vapor.
In my haste to vape, I did not follow the typical rules of blowing out each individual juice, vaping some unflavored PG between the mixes, and then dripping the flavor I wanted to dry. In all logic however, I personally did not envision where this would be a problem, because as long as juices are relatively clean, then you can mix them all day long - juice is virtually made that way, after all.
So I then go to vape a juice that has long evaded me in flavor, Captain Ron by Indigo, 70/30 PG/VG, 0mg. This particular juice, when I first tried it on a vendor's sample, was a strong, full, deep flavor of tropical plums, akin to what one would expect from a juice geared toward a pirate-carribbean themed blend. However, on no other atomizer - countless CE4's and 5's, or any tank whatsoever, did this juice ever shine through. At most, it would always taste like pink cotton candy.
Low and behold, on the Cisco, the flavor hit my tongue in a rich, deep, authentic, sweet, full, and thick vapor that matched the initial vendor's testing, and possibly even beyond. The flavor of the juicy, bag-of-fruit plums and tropical tinges were so full bodied, tasty, clean, and downright pleasurable that one could have truly mistaken themselves for eating the real thing. At this point, my jaw dropped, my eyes opened, and I smiled for one of the first times in this vaping journey - finally, a vape that vaped like a vape!
However, as always, the negatives start to creep in. As soon as I experience this astonishing cloud of pleasure, and the few puffs after that, I go to add more of this same juice, and the flavor starts to diminish rapidly. I become very confused actually, as this was only 30 minutes into testing, probably only 20 puffs out of the atomizer, and I had only used three juices, two that were clear as water and were known to me not to leave build-up. With not getting much of a result any longer out of dripping the Captain Ron, I go to drip Velvet Cloud Vapor's Burley Beard, seemingly a NET.
As soon as a drip this juice, more flavor pulls back into the mix. I experience Burley Beard like I haven't before - the juice presents itself as a herbal, oily blend that has the combusted notes of not particularly tobacco, but more as though I was vaping a herb meant for new-age healing. There were new traits added to this juice, and while all other devices merely caused the juice to taste like vegetable oil, the Cisco atomizer pumped up this juice to a combustion-tinged vaporized herb; I would actually say it's a possible candidate for anyone looking to replicate some of the tinges one gets when sampling a certain green herb. The give is very, very hippy-like, and reminds one of sitting next to a bearded art-lover who had been toking on some questionable plants hours before - it did not seem as deep as one would like, but it was interesting.
However, soon, I grow tired of that, and want to experience more of my juices - I then drip a generic Coffee flavor I had saved up, and right away, on the first hit, I experience a coffee juice like I only have in vendor CE4's - a rich, creamy, coffee that has no relation to burnt monkey ..... The exhale is amazing, and I hope to myself that the experience continues. However, with the very next hit, I immediately get the burning coffee taste that really vapes just like burned .... hair. Right away, the experience went down the drain, and I go to vape some of the juices I had dripped previously, and with this, I can tell the atomizer has gotten messed up in some sort of way - for example, the Caramel Swirl had an ashy taste.
I try to salvage what I can from the vape for the longest of time, but it finally gets to a point where I have to decide to soak it in distilled water, and hope for the best. I soak the atomizer in distilled water for a little while, and let it generally dry, and then I dry burn it with a few low-powered fires, all while blowing on the the coil. I again soak it in distilled water for a minute to see if it'll help rid any residue, and again, I let it dry. During all these steps, I blow out the atomizer, but I do it in the way Phil does - through the mouthpiece, and not the 510 connection, as blowing in the 510 connection gets juice in my mouth.
After awhile, I go to vape, and to my surprise, I get hardly any vapor, just a whisp! The flavor is also funky as all getout, quite silica-like, yet I keep at it to see if the atomizer just needs some breaking in. Minutes go by however, and nothing is working - the atomizer refuses to give out but a whisp of vapor, and what is there simply taste like burned silica. Without a doubt, I ruined the atomizer somehow, and for that, I'm very mad at myself.
Overall, I personally, don't have a clue what happened, and I don't think I really pushed this atty farther than it was supposed to go - in all reality, mixing a few juices in it shouldn't have burned it out in 30 minutes, nor should a few dry burns at 3.3V's with a 3.5ohm coil. Alas, however, I have to admit that something about this atty indeed worked great when it did, so no matter what, it does seem I contributed to its downfall.
In the end, what I recommend doing, is if you buy this atty, don't follow my steps - do as Cisco instruct, and with every juice change, or when you taste the same juice getting a little flat, run some flavorless PG through it, and either vape that, or blow the excess loose from the 510 connection. If the atty becomes unuseable, don't use distilled water, use their recommendation of vodka, and don't dry burn unless you feel there's absolutely no other way to get it to work. I simply still had bad luck with this atty and I do feel that the atty went out severely before my expectations would have expected. I got less than an hour of use from it, and I wouldn't think even the worst abuse would cause that experience.
This atomizer gave me the best tastes I have ever gotten in my own home from vaping (though it only matched the flavors that I got out of clean but cheap tanks at the vendor themselves), yet its performance seems to require either extremely meticulous procedure. I wouldn't recommend this product to a newbie by far, and hopefully, others can share their tips and tricks to getting this atty to last for weeks!
