Well, I considered adding this to the ego mega dual coil thread when I saw the original thread for these was moderator deleted. But, this is indeed a different product and is indeed ego specific (which I'll get to in a moment). And, though some of my comments are going to be review-ish, this really isn't a review, so I'm not going to put it in reviews.
I am going to mention the vendors name because they advertize that they have an exclusive on these so there's only one place to get them. They're sold in 5 packs for 15 bucks which comes out to 3 bucks each and they come from vapingzone.com. As far as I can tell from their website, they do not sell these as individual units and you have to get a 5 pack. - I do not know who the manufacturer of this carto is, so I'm going to refer to it as "this carto" or the "vapingzone carto".
I got this in the mail at noon today, so I can't comment on longevity yet. But if it holds up for more than a few days with the juice I decided to use, I'll surely post about it because I picked the thickest, darkest juice I've ever seen. I am using AVE Maple Melody which is a 100% VG juice and is almost black.
Physical comparison to the smoke tech:
Similarity: Visually, they are nearly impossible to tell apart. They have the exact same rubber whistle tip. The 510 threads are indeed recessed in the skirt (which is why they are ego specific). They are exactly the same length. They are exactly the same diameter. They appear to have the exact same paint. I can't tell any difference in weight. And the filler is visually identical.
What is different: The color of the metal inside the skirt is visibly different than the smok tech. The smok tech has a slight gold-ish hue like there is a little brass in their alloy. These are shiny silver and actually look more aluminum than steel. - And there are some tool marks around the 510 connector on these where there are none on the smok tech. These were definitely not pressed with the same machine. -- Otherwise, there is no telling them apart with the naked eye.
510 connector: The biggest problem with the first run of smok techs was that the connector was pressed in a bit too far and they wouldn't make contact with the center post of some batteries without lifting the center pin in the cartos 510 connector or lifting the batteries center post a little. These don't have that problem - and, in fact, they feel like an ego-t or an ego-mega atty when you tighten them down. It's a little difficult to find the right words for that "feel" but it's the change in resistance while the threads snug down in the last half turn. You can feel these snug down and you still could tighten them a little bit if you wanted to risk overtightening... I don't have better words to describe it. Sorry.
Filler and Capacity: Though the filler looks identical, I don't think it is. I'll revisit this part after I've run this carto for a couple of days and see if the filler gets more absorbent. - For the moment, all I can say is this: I got about 3.6 ml in to the smok tech EMDCCs and after a couple of days of the filler breaking in, they ended up holding around 4.2 ml. I was able to get pretty much exactly 3 ml in this one initial fill and it vaped a little "gurgely" for a while with 3 ml in it.
Ohms: The smok techs are advertized as 1.6 ohms, and these are advertized as 1.5. The smok techs I metered were all almost exactly 1.7 ohms, and this carto metered 1.4 ohms.
Draw: This one has a little bit easier draw than any of the smok techs I used. I wouldn't necessarily call it "airy" but it is a little bit easier draw. I lack a scientific method to show what the difference is, so I can't put any sort of a number on it, but it is enough to notice a difference.
Vapor: This carto produces more vapor than the smok techs. I think that can be completely attributed to the fact that it is at 1.4 ohms of resistance and the smok techs are around 1.7 ohms. The vapor is noticeably warmer on the first draw. With the smok techs, I treated the first draw from a cold carto as a warm up draw and didn't expect too much from the very first pull. The second, third, fourth were fog machine sort of vapor, but not the very first (at least on an ego battery - with higher voltage, that's not true - at 4.0v and above, the first draw was big vapor). On a regular eGo battery, the first draw produces excellent vapor with this vapingzone carto. It's a big difference on the first draw, but less of a difference on subsequent draws. -- The warmer vapor might not be for everyone. A lot of people prefer a cooler vape. This carto definitely produces a warm vape.
Flavor: The vapingzone carto produces very good flavor and, at least with this juice, I'd say the smok tech and this carto are dead even. I don't like to say too much about flavor production when I haven't tried at least a couple of juices I use regularly. I only have one of these cartos, so I'm not going to be able to comment much further. What I will say is this: The flavor is good enough with this juice that I'm going to order a box of these.
Voltage handling: 100% VG does tend to handle higher voltages better and I only have one so I can't test with a PG juice. That said, this carto is just as amazing all the way to 5.0v as the smok techs are. I didn't go higher than 5.0v but it handled 5 perfectly. There was not even a hint of burnt flavor and vapor production was astounding.
If the vapingzone carto can even come close to the madvapes smoke techs for longevity, then they are keepers. Whether or not they are worth the extra 50 cents each might be entirely subjective and dependent on your vaping style. I personally intend to buy a box for further testing (other juices - and more voltage choices for sure). The first 12 hours has been good vaping experience.
I am going to mention the vendors name because they advertize that they have an exclusive on these so there's only one place to get them. They're sold in 5 packs for 15 bucks which comes out to 3 bucks each and they come from vapingzone.com. As far as I can tell from their website, they do not sell these as individual units and you have to get a 5 pack. - I do not know who the manufacturer of this carto is, so I'm going to refer to it as "this carto" or the "vapingzone carto".
I got this in the mail at noon today, so I can't comment on longevity yet. But if it holds up for more than a few days with the juice I decided to use, I'll surely post about it because I picked the thickest, darkest juice I've ever seen. I am using AVE Maple Melody which is a 100% VG juice and is almost black.
Physical comparison to the smoke tech:
Similarity: Visually, they are nearly impossible to tell apart. They have the exact same rubber whistle tip. The 510 threads are indeed recessed in the skirt (which is why they are ego specific). They are exactly the same length. They are exactly the same diameter. They appear to have the exact same paint. I can't tell any difference in weight. And the filler is visually identical.
What is different: The color of the metal inside the skirt is visibly different than the smok tech. The smok tech has a slight gold-ish hue like there is a little brass in their alloy. These are shiny silver and actually look more aluminum than steel. - And there are some tool marks around the 510 connector on these where there are none on the smok tech. These were definitely not pressed with the same machine. -- Otherwise, there is no telling them apart with the naked eye.
510 connector: The biggest problem with the first run of smok techs was that the connector was pressed in a bit too far and they wouldn't make contact with the center post of some batteries without lifting the center pin in the cartos 510 connector or lifting the batteries center post a little. These don't have that problem - and, in fact, they feel like an ego-t or an ego-mega atty when you tighten them down. It's a little difficult to find the right words for that "feel" but it's the change in resistance while the threads snug down in the last half turn. You can feel these snug down and you still could tighten them a little bit if you wanted to risk overtightening... I don't have better words to describe it. Sorry.
Filler and Capacity: Though the filler looks identical, I don't think it is. I'll revisit this part after I've run this carto for a couple of days and see if the filler gets more absorbent. - For the moment, all I can say is this: I got about 3.6 ml in to the smok tech EMDCCs and after a couple of days of the filler breaking in, they ended up holding around 4.2 ml. I was able to get pretty much exactly 3 ml in this one initial fill and it vaped a little "gurgely" for a while with 3 ml in it.
Ohms: The smok techs are advertized as 1.6 ohms, and these are advertized as 1.5. The smok techs I metered were all almost exactly 1.7 ohms, and this carto metered 1.4 ohms.
Draw: This one has a little bit easier draw than any of the smok techs I used. I wouldn't necessarily call it "airy" but it is a little bit easier draw. I lack a scientific method to show what the difference is, so I can't put any sort of a number on it, but it is enough to notice a difference.
Vapor: This carto produces more vapor than the smok techs. I think that can be completely attributed to the fact that it is at 1.4 ohms of resistance and the smok techs are around 1.7 ohms. The vapor is noticeably warmer on the first draw. With the smok techs, I treated the first draw from a cold carto as a warm up draw and didn't expect too much from the very first pull. The second, third, fourth were fog machine sort of vapor, but not the very first (at least on an ego battery - with higher voltage, that's not true - at 4.0v and above, the first draw was big vapor). On a regular eGo battery, the first draw produces excellent vapor with this vapingzone carto. It's a big difference on the first draw, but less of a difference on subsequent draws. -- The warmer vapor might not be for everyone. A lot of people prefer a cooler vape. This carto definitely produces a warm vape.
Flavor: The vapingzone carto produces very good flavor and, at least with this juice, I'd say the smok tech and this carto are dead even. I don't like to say too much about flavor production when I haven't tried at least a couple of juices I use regularly. I only have one of these cartos, so I'm not going to be able to comment much further. What I will say is this: The flavor is good enough with this juice that I'm going to order a box of these.
Voltage handling: 100% VG does tend to handle higher voltages better and I only have one so I can't test with a PG juice. That said, this carto is just as amazing all the way to 5.0v as the smok techs are. I didn't go higher than 5.0v but it handled 5 perfectly. There was not even a hint of burnt flavor and vapor production was astounding.
If the vapingzone carto can even come close to the madvapes smoke techs for longevity, then they are keepers. Whether or not they are worth the extra 50 cents each might be entirely subjective and dependent on your vaping style. I personally intend to buy a box for further testing (other juices - and more voltage choices for sure). The first 12 hours has been good vaping experience.
