I received a Lavatube a few days ago - it's my first time vaping anything bigger than my Egos. I thought I'd share my impressions.
The shipping was a bit of a surprise - one layer of bubble wrap, a plastic bag, and an envelope. Maybe I'm a pessimist, since the device came out of it's cacoon in pristine condition, but I don't think I'd ship anything that costs more than 10 bucks in so little packaging.
I didn't have some of the QC issues that some people are reporting - the 510 connector was straight and seems firmly mounted, the LED is perfectly centered in its little window, and it doesn't reset its voltage back to 3.0 unless I remove the battery.
It's a bit smaller than I expected, and aside from a few issues I'll get to, it seems pretty sturdy and feels good in my hands.
It rattles. The +, -, and power buttons are kind of loose, so if I give it a good jiggle I can hear them rattling. They all work fine, but it makes me wonder when one of them is going to get stuck or begin to fail.
The activation button occassionally gets stuck in the on position. It happened about 6 or 7 times in a day of heavy vaping (and I do mean heavy vaping - I'm enjoying playing with my new toy and have managed to dizzy up my cranium a couple times). A quick tap at it unstuck it every time it has happened. I've tried to reproduce it intentionally, by pressing it off-center, pressing it extra hard, and pressing it then putting sideways pressure on it, and have been unable to cause it to stick intentionally. It really is not an issue at present, but again it makes me wonder whether I'll start to have a real issue with it 6 months from now.
Performance drops off as the battery drains, which I was under the impression was not supposed to happen. This isn't a drop off a cliff when the battery gets low, but is instead a slow, steady decline throughout a day of using the device. It's most noticable with one particular juice I have that at first, just didn't taste right above about 4.2v. Slowly over time, I was dialing the voltage up for that juice until it was up over 5v when the battery was near empty. When I changed to a fresh battery and vaped it, leaving it at the 5.2v it had been set at, I got a disgusting burnt taste, and immediately had to drop it back down. This slow, steady decline happens with both batteries that I have for it, so I don't believe it is a battery issue.
The good news is, I'm enjoying the heck out of this thing. I now completely understand the attraction of vaping at higher voltages - juices that used to have little-to-no flavor on the inhale and good flavor on the exhale now have a good taste on the inhale and excellent flavor on the giant, steamy exhale. I'm finding the sweet spots for all of my favorite juices, and they definitely aren't all best at the same settings. I am definitely hooked on vv vaping. (Heh, just stopped to take a drag and the activation button stuck again briefly.) Some of the nit-picky issues make me wonder what problems might crop up as this device ages, but until then I predict that I'm going to get a lot of good, satisying use from the Lavatube. It has definitely peaked my interest in vv devices, and in fact I just ordered a Buzz Pro.
The shipping was a bit of a surprise - one layer of bubble wrap, a plastic bag, and an envelope. Maybe I'm a pessimist, since the device came out of it's cacoon in pristine condition, but I don't think I'd ship anything that costs more than 10 bucks in so little packaging.
I didn't have some of the QC issues that some people are reporting - the 510 connector was straight and seems firmly mounted, the LED is perfectly centered in its little window, and it doesn't reset its voltage back to 3.0 unless I remove the battery.
It's a bit smaller than I expected, and aside from a few issues I'll get to, it seems pretty sturdy and feels good in my hands.
It rattles. The +, -, and power buttons are kind of loose, so if I give it a good jiggle I can hear them rattling. They all work fine, but it makes me wonder when one of them is going to get stuck or begin to fail.
The activation button occassionally gets stuck in the on position. It happened about 6 or 7 times in a day of heavy vaping (and I do mean heavy vaping - I'm enjoying playing with my new toy and have managed to dizzy up my cranium a couple times). A quick tap at it unstuck it every time it has happened. I've tried to reproduce it intentionally, by pressing it off-center, pressing it extra hard, and pressing it then putting sideways pressure on it, and have been unable to cause it to stick intentionally. It really is not an issue at present, but again it makes me wonder whether I'll start to have a real issue with it 6 months from now.
Performance drops off as the battery drains, which I was under the impression was not supposed to happen. This isn't a drop off a cliff when the battery gets low, but is instead a slow, steady decline throughout a day of using the device. It's most noticable with one particular juice I have that at first, just didn't taste right above about 4.2v. Slowly over time, I was dialing the voltage up for that juice until it was up over 5v when the battery was near empty. When I changed to a fresh battery and vaped it, leaving it at the 5.2v it had been set at, I got a disgusting burnt taste, and immediately had to drop it back down. This slow, steady decline happens with both batteries that I have for it, so I don't believe it is a battery issue.
The good news is, I'm enjoying the heck out of this thing. I now completely understand the attraction of vaping at higher voltages - juices that used to have little-to-no flavor on the inhale and good flavor on the exhale now have a good taste on the inhale and excellent flavor on the giant, steamy exhale. I'm finding the sweet spots for all of my favorite juices, and they definitely aren't all best at the same settings. I am definitely hooked on vv vaping. (Heh, just stopped to take a drag and the activation button stuck again briefly.) Some of the nit-picky issues make me wonder what problems might crop up as this device ages, but until then I predict that I'm going to get a lot of good, satisying use from the Lavatube. It has definitely peaked my interest in vv devices, and in fact I just ordered a Buzz Pro.
