Eleaf Istick

[Poeia]

Nope, filler is staying wet. Especially with Boge slotted cartos and 60/40, although Nitro single hole cartos feed even 50/50 very well. The threads are poor quality compared to the stainless threads in my Sigeleis, I guaranty it. I really, really just wish the output actually correlated with the setting. I do enjoy using this thing...If they had a bucking capability (like they should) I'd be extremely happy with it.

No idea what "bucking capability" is but I do know that each thing they add would increase a) the cost and b) possibly the size (if they'd need bigger chips, etc.)

As it is now, the iStick can jump through more hoops than I am interested in. If the price went to $70 so it could include sub-oHm, bucking capability and whatnot, I and a lot of people who just want something small and lightweight with great battery life wouldn't buy it.

But, if this design has any legs (and I think it will), similar, more expensive, sticks that can do everything except change the wick on your tank for you, will no doubt hit the proverbial shelves soon.

 

[op22222]

DaveOno ;That would be great. Will be interesting to see the readings.

 

[Katya]

Hey, I have one, an old needle meter. I'll test it out tomorrow.

That would be great. Will be interesting to see the readings.

Indeed!

 

[PaulBHC]

Except that the Innokin VV V3 does buck and boost, VV/VW, ohm reader, usb charging and passthrough and is around $25-30 online. MVP does all that, almost as well as a Provari, 2600mah battery and is around $40. Granted both are 11 watt/5 volt limit.

 

[dwg64]

Let's face it.....I've seen countless users here buying more than one and that says a LOT about this device. I've been severely "content" ever since it arrived Thursday. My poor Hana just sits there looking sad now. Honestly I don't even want to use it anymore after the iStick arrived. It's only 3 weeks young and I'm ready to sell/trade it for an iStick backup. Ohhhhhhh technology. Got to love it!!

Vape On[emoji1]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KODIAK (TM)]

Hi all!

Just to tell you that the iStick hit the European markets yesterday. It was on-sale in a known seller here in Spain.....and it flew-off the shelves in just some hours....

Luckily, I ordered mine which is expected to arrive next Wednesday, tops....(slow inexpensive courier). As usual, it costed 36€. Usually the USD to Euro change for this things is 1:1, regardless the real change rate, something related to customs and taxes, you know......

Regarding the so-callled 'new-PWM-gate', I'm curious.... In the past, I solved some issues with other VW devices just measuring the voltage output with a voltmeter, over an open dripper. Somebody did that in this manner but it seems that the results weren't conclusive enough.... It seems to me that you're expecting some oscilloscope readings from a trusted technician, namely Phil Busardo.

Well, there is a cheap and easier roundabout strategy: just using an old-fashioned, old-school voltmeter, those with squared coils and a needle pointing to the reading, usually with a mirror behind the needle tip, on the reading chart, to improve the reading and the accuracy. A Pure Analog V-meter. they should read voltage in root mean squared terms, they have to, because of its innards and the foundations of measuring in that way.

I've got one, and I'll get my iStick soon, but in the meantime, just put it (if you have one) over the posts of a dripper, preferrally without wick (the vapours can burn), and get a proper V_rms reading.

It appears that the iStick do not offer V_rms, but V_ave or whatsoever.... and it shows that odd parameter on display. Even worse, it uses it for its own internal application of the Ohm's law, according to what I've seen on the net... If that is the case, the power won't be accurate enough (to say it mildly). Power is proportional to the square of V_rms, because of the very definition of the statistics involved, and also the generation of energy (power is energy over time) from the Coulomb's effect....

So if the iStick is using other voltage different than V_rms to calculate power..... bad, their bad! It will fail to adress correct reading of voltage and power in lower settings (when the PWM pulse hits harder with wider gaps) and it will be just correct only on the higher settings (when the PWM is incidental, because at 100 % of output the wave it shows is a plain, flat, DC current. or almost). Using averages instead of cuadratic averages renders higher real wattages because power (and energy unfolded) is proportional to that cuadratic power of voltage, averages for a squared wave have this disadvantage...

And it's a really easy patch from software to fix it......I wonder if the first batch could be fixed over the net....

Yeah... err, what he said. ^^^^^^

 

[scaredmice]

Hey Scaredmice! Welcome to forum! Make yourself at home.

Nice 8th post.

Thanks!


I guess I've been what you'd call a 'lurker' for the last four or five months..... It's because English is not my first language. I read it as easily as I read Spanish (my mother language), up to the point of not noticing sometimes in which one is written something....

But proper writing is another stuff..... and I care much about proper writing, in any language....stubborn on this as I am, it rendered a shyness-like complex over time in foreign forums....

But nothing as good to cure it as to throw yourself to the bonfire to get some results!.....

 

[Katya]

Thanks!


I guess I've been what you'd call a 'lurker' for the last four or five months..... It's because English is not my first language. I read it as easily as I read Spanish (my mother language), up to the point of not noticing sometimes in which one is written something....

But proper writing is another stuff..... and I care much about proper writing, in any language....stubborn on this as I am, it rendered a shyness-like complex over time in foreign forums....

But nothing as good to cure it as to throw yourself to the bonfire to get some results!.....

Hola!

Your English is just fine! Besides, there are many posters here who are not native English speakers, including yours truly.

Glad to have you on board!

 

[op22222]

Thanks!


I guess I've been what you'd call a 'lurker' for the last four or five months..... It's because English is not my first language. I read it as easily as I read Spanish (my mother language), up to the point of not noticing sometimes in which one is written something....

But proper writing is another stuff..... and I care much about proper writing, in any language....stubborn on this as I am, it rendered a shyness-like complex over time in foreign forums....

But nothing as good to cure it as to throw yourself to the bonfire to get some results!.....

Your English is very good. Is vaping popular in Spain?

 

[Poeia]

Thanks!


I guess I've been what you'd call a 'lurker' for the last four or five months..... It's because English is not my first language. I read it as easily as I read Spanish (my mother language), up to the point of not noticing sometimes in which one is written something....

But proper writing is another stuff..... and I care much about proper writing, in any language....stubborn on this as I am, it rendered a shyness-like complex over time in foreign forums....

But nothing as good to cure it as to throw yourself to the bonfire to get some results!.....

In my time in forums and the like, I have found that Europeans who are not native-speakers of English write (and especially spell) English far better than many who are. The purpose of language is to communicate with others and your posts do that excellently.

Hola!

Your English is just fine! Besides, there are many posters here who are not native English speakers, including yours truly.

Glad to have you on board!

What is your native language?

 

[Katya]

What is your native language?

Polish.

English is my fourth language, actually.

 

[scaredmice]

Your English is very good. Is vaping popular in Spain?

That's a hard one!

There are some devoted forums, much like this one. Factoring the difference in population, and the widespread use of English as natural language for the Internet, which makes easier for an English-written forum to get non-English speakers, I think that vaping is starting to rise up to the point to become apparent to the authorities and media.... but it is far from an accepted activity if you read between lines in those media reports.

As in any other place, it's becoming cruelly actual that vaping is a life-saving strategy, the cruel part is that it is not really supported, but discouraged by opinion-formers and journalists, and there are some EU initiatives (from the European government) that cause some concerns, much like the recent WHO statement or the FDA issues on this matter. There is even an popular initiative, the EFVI, to counteract this, which is running smoothly on Spain, according to the figures obtained from people who signed it....

On the street level is rare to find another vaper, it's easier on restaurants and pubs, bars, taverns....but we became highly visible when we ask for our activity and raise up our toys. Vaping in indoors is not banned, yet, it depends on the site: public and government sites are banned, but in others it depends on the owner, and the presence or absence of hesitant non-smokers, non-vapers.

Another different thing is the hardware. Apart form reputed European vendors, most of the high quality hardware (mods, and so on) comes from USA, and that's a little problem because of customs and taxes. Chinese hardware, usually not so high-regarded, is far cheaper not only because it is cheaper in origin, it can go over our customs (if it's not labelled as high-priced merchandise) untouched and untainted. So there is an unexpected competition in prices which European an American hardware cannot cope with. I really do not understand why and how it happens, but it is happening.... for the benefit of our pockets, if you know what to buy and what not.

We have even an emerging in-site market for Spanish modders who are developing their own pieces, and it's working, even if it's a small market indeed.

So overall, it is not so dark....but it could be far brighter......

 

[Poeia]

It's the VAT that gets you. A few years ago a Dutch friend's husband was coming to New York on business. While here, he wanted to buy some electronics so she asked us for good stores. After we gave her a few, I thought to mention that the prices were before tax which was about 8.5% in NYC at the time. That ended the savings.

There is no national sales tax here. Each state decides on their own. Some have none, some exempt books or clothes or certain foods. And cities can charge taxes on top of that although only the really big cities like NY or Chicago usually do.

Internet stores are only required to collect taxes in states where they have a physical presence. Big places like Amazon have the software to charge everyone his or her local tax rate. Little places, like e-cig vendors, don't have the capability. The buyers are supposed to pay those taxes themselves. (New York State income tax forms ask if you made any out-of-state purchases. If you did, they add a few dollars to your taxes.)

With VAT, it's the same final price wherever in the country you live so the quoted price includes taxes.

 

[Katya]

With VAT, it's the same final price wherever in the country you live so the quoted price includes taxes.

If you're a foreign visitor, however, you can ask for a refund of this tax, usually at the airport, while leaving the country. It's a total PITA, though.

 

[scaredmice]

Yes, that's the situation inside most European countries.

Up to the fact that most sellers do not advertise their goddies with price tags 'without taxes', but with 'VAT inc.' This depends on the country and the merchandise, but here in Spain, out of industrial and business supplies, everybody expects their price tags including the VAT (which is now a general 21 %, with some merchandise and first-needed articles down to 10 % and 4 %). We also lack, generally speaking, of any culture of tipping, regardless that some activities could expect some tipping (restaurant staff, and other services).

And that's what makes the Chinese sellers even more competitive.... they do not charge VAT, of course.... and the customs normative do not expect so low price tags in hardware, so it pass over customs without serious problems, most of the time.

From time to time, some high prized-tagged item gets held back at customs and the result could be similar to an 20 % rise-up in final price, mostly because of the equivalent of VAT. But the same always happens with USA imports, because they are fully screened or because the couriers always declare all their shipments, regardless of their prices. This, coupled with the usual and expected higher price of American hardware, brings up a disaster in terms of financial accountability......that was the 'they cannot cope with' in my former message.

But I assure you, we have the utmost regard about American vaping hardware.... so high that sometimes we purchase it, because we like it and we want it, yesterday! A tenth of Spanish experienced vapers are expecting the launching and stabilization of price tags for a newly presented Provape product.... you know which one it is, don't you?....

It could be just a numerical coincidence, but once you convert USD to euros, and apply VAT and another taxes, usually you get the same number, or really close to it, in Euros, like the iStick nowadays we're buying.... this has happened for at least ten years, up to the point of becoming a non-written rule for marketing merchandise which is priced in US dollars in origin...

 

[AnsonJames]

The PWM has really put me off buying one of these, kind of Ironic considering I started this thread and I can get an Istick within a day now.

Glad you folks are loving your Isticks though, maybe the next version will be better for me!

In fairness I've probably got too many regulated mods as it is.

 

[AnsonJames]

Yes, that's the situation inside most European countries.

Up to the fact that most sellers do not advertise their goddies with price tags 'without taxes', but with 'VAT inc.' This depends on the country and the merchandise, but here in Spain, out of industrial and business supplies, everybody expects their price tags including the VAT (which is now a general 21 %, with some merchandise and first-needed articles down to 10 % and 4 %). We also lack, generally speaking, of any culture of tipping, regardless that some activities could expect some tipping (restaurant staff, and other services).

And that's what makes the Chinese sellers even more competitive.... they do not charge VAT, of course.... and the customs normative do not expect so low price tags in hardware, so it pass over customs without serious problems, most of the time.

From time to time, some high prized-tagged item gets held back at customs and the result could be similar to an 20 % rise-up in final price, mostly because of the equivalent of VAT. But the same always happens with USA imports, because they are fully screened or because the couriers always declare all their shipments, regardless of their prices. This, coupled with the usual and expected higher price of American hardware, brings up a disaster in terms of financial accountability......that was the 'they cannot cope with' in my former message.

But I assure you, we have the utmost regard about American vaping hardware.... so high that sometimes we purchase it, because we like it and we want it, yesterday! A tenth of Spanish experienced vapers are expecting the launching and stabilization of price tags for a newly presented Provape product.... you know which one it is, don't you?....

It could be just a numerical coincidence, but once you convert USD to euros, and apply VAT and another taxes, usually you get the same number, or really close to it, in Euros, like the iStick nowadays we're buying.... this has happened for at least ten years, up to the point of becoming a non-written rule for marketing merchandise which is priced in US dollars in origin...

The Isticks are retailing for around €40 over here, about $51 in US currency.
I've heard that Totally Wicked in the UK have the sole license to import the Istick in the UK - they're going to charge £100 apparently.

scaredmice, do you ever get anything from Spain Cigar?
They're one of the most reasonably priced vape stores I've encountered in Europe - bought from them a couple of times, great store.

 

[scaredmice]

The Isticks are retailing for around €40 over here, about $51 in US currency.
I've heard that Totally Wicked in the UK have the sole license to import the Istick in the UK - they're going to charge £100 apparently.

scaredmice, do you ever get anything from Spain Cigar?
They're one of the most reasonably priced vape stores I've encountered in Europe - bought from them a couple of times, great store.

Yes, Spain Cigar is a very competitive seller, even for Chinese items. Sometimes is not worthwhile to seek for anything at the usual suspects (Fasttech, Angelcigar, Focalecig, to name some...).

The iStick, so far, is sold by the usual eLeaf wholesaler here in Spain, which is ivapeo.com, a not so competitive one, but with fair prices, and it works eLeaf/iSmoka really well. They had the devoted-to
-dripping (Drip Kit) mod at 25€ (mod and atomiser), and the basic iStick at 36€ (with eGo adaptor, but without charger).

For being almost the exclusive seller for eLeaf, they are pretty adjusted in their price tags... I do not expect strange manoeuvres in the dark as the demand outpaces the availability of the eStick.

We'll see it, though...[emoji4]

Vía relé hiperespacial fuera de la discontinuidad...

 

[Bahiaboy]

The Isticks are retailing for around €40 over here, about $51 in US currency.
I've heard that Totally Wicked in the UK have the sole license to import the Istick in the UK - they're going to charge £100 apparently.

scaredmice, do you ever get anything from Spain Cigar?
They're one of the most reasonably priced vape stores I've encountered in Europe - bought from them a couple of times, great store.

Quite a few Vendors in UK selling the IStick ? Ivapour,esmokeireland to name a few ! I oedered mine from Heavens Gift in China posted Monday arrived last Wednesday TW are well behind the curve if they are putting that statement out lol

Got some great Vendors here in Spain the main one being Pink Mule who sell a massive range of Mods and lots of Premium Eliquid !
Always get next day delivery as well !

Its very easy to get anything here with the Plethora of Online Vendors ! Plus there must be a Dozen Shops here where I live !

At the moment we are fortunate that we seem to be able to Vape in most places lol

 

[Krashman Von Stinkputin]

I try to learn as much as I can about my juice purveyors and how they handle their product and what they put in it. I try to buy from the good ones. I follow Dr. Farsalinos's studies (and Kurt's posts on any subject related to e-liquids) and try to avoid the bad stuff as much as I can--like Diacetyl, for example.



I try to avoid as the plague those who might sell me 88 mg/ml e-liquid. Really. There was one, once, that came close--I'll never buy from them.



I don't wind my own coils yet, so all I have to worry about for now is the nichrome wire. But I'm reading and trying to educate myself. Hopefully Dr, Farsalinos will do a study in the future.



I'm pretty sure that issue has been resolved to my satisfaction, so I don't worry about PG and VG anymore.





This is why I love this forum and the people who post here. So much information! The more you know...

Appreciate your post.
My point was that we really just don't know much at this point.
For the most part we trust based on (as you said) educating ourselves or our past experiences.

We trust when a vendor states the juice is 18 mg--that he really hasn't diluted it down to increase his GM.
We trust that the incredients/components are quality and handled and/or tested properly.
And we trust that vaping is truly a safer alternative to smoking.
My education and "gut feeling" tell me that most manufacturers are in it for the long haul & strive to make quality products that are safe for their customers.
Oh and that vaping is safer.

In this world of unregulated, unstandardized vaping bliss we live in (for at least a while longer)---trust is all we have to go on. Other than if we pay for something and don't receive it (which would constitute theft) we have no other recourses at our disposal if a manufacturer errors (intentionally or not).
If there are NO rules, how can you break one? And how can a consumer claim you did?

I trust that when Aspire says their wicking material is a bioceramic material that it is just that; it's non-hazardous....and that it's not fiberglass, which is.
If you're "spider sense" is tingling about those BVC coils, trust it and consider something else.