I'm new to vaping - my sister introduced it to me less than a month ago when she bought her Green Smoke and I fell in love with the concept. By the way, her Green Smoke is now being returned - she loves my VK and just bought her own! I thought I’d drop by and post a review for the people who might be coming to investigate the who-and-where to buy.
After a bit of looking around, I decided on the KR808D for the ease of the cartomizers and availability, so I ordered the V4L Ultimate Automatic kit on Wednesday the 29th after 5pm. I was hoping that it would be sent out the next day (Thursday) because of the late hour; most of my mail-order experiences tend towards that as the best case, and a lot fall short. I’ve had a lot of shipments from other online vendors not even leave processing for two or three days, so their speed with processing and packing really impressed me. In-house Speed: A
I wanted specific colors for my batteries (one black, one lavender, and a purple pass-through), so I sent them a pre-order email asking if that was possible. I had an answer in 2-3 hours, telling me that I could indeed do that, so I put the request in the comment box during checkout. I’d also caught - after I submitted the order - that I’d chosen a black case where on my comments I’d asked for a pink one. I was extremely pleased to see that they followed my comment requests to the letter, right down to the pink case! Pick-packing: A+. Customer service: A I graded the pick packing as I did because I’m a horribly fussy person about having things exactly right. I’m very obsessive about that. Realistically,I know it’s not always possible to do such things, so I don’t ding companies for not being able to do that.
So my order was sent out to Elk Grove and scanned Thursday; I’d heard that Elk Grove could be hit or miss on their sort speed, so I was really happy to see that it didn’t get delayed there. I believe I had my tracking number Thursday sometime in the late morning. I again was thrilled to see that my order was being sent Priority Mail, which really surprised me. So many vendors offer it as a selectable option with the default being USPS First Class, so this made me really happy. It was sent in one of the Tyvek bags; not my first choice in packaging (I prefer boxes) but everything was in a bubble wrap bag inside and arrived safe and sound so I won’t ding them for that. It was in my mailbox Saturday, so that’s three days from sending out to arrival. Woot! Packaging: A Shipping: A+
Now, for the hardware. I’m a total noob when it comes to these things; I won’t grade on these since I don’t have a lot of experience but I will share observations. Your mileage may vary.
The colors are pretty much spot-on with what’s pictured on the site. There wasn’t a picture of the pink case that I’d requested, but it’s a really nice mid-toned bubblegum pink, not a fuschia. (Nice!) I love the gloss finish on the purple passthrough; the lavender battery is a good semi-dark matte finish, and the black is a good gloss black.
I tend to hit my batts with a light draw; it’s probably a habit of 15+ years at a pack a day. Between that and the learning curve, I’m hesitant to rate the vapor output yet. My sister’s Green Smoke seems to put out more vapor, but she uses prefilled and I’m running a diy with the V4L Nobacco juice, so honestly, there really isn’t a solid basis for comparison. I think part of it is that the cartos are a bit stiff, but I’ll go over that below.
I’d gotten one of each of the blank WOW cartomizer samplers. I love these things, honestly. The end caps aren’t glued in, which is a major improvement over my sister’s Green Smokes (what is that stuff they use? Latex caulking?) because they’re easy in and out, they stay in, and there’s no glue residue that has to be scraped out. They fill easy via drip with the fill soaking up the liquid quickly. (18 drips in each, no juice draw, bonus!)
Out of the ten blank cartos, only one was stiff for the whole screw-on, but all of them were stiff on the very last thread. I’m okay with that; they didn’t need to be forced at all, so in my opinion, the machining is good. They don’t want to thread all the way tight onto the passthrough, though. There’s enough of a gap to fit two pieces of paper into; despite that, it doesn’t seem to affect the vapor pull adversely. (I don’t remember if I saw this point mentioned or not in previous forum posts. Length issue? Would filing off 0.25mm fix this, or is that not a wise idea?)
I picked up five bottles of the 4mg Nobacco (Coconut, Cowboy, Green Tea, Margarita, and Mint). Being fresh off the stench sticks, I want to be fair and wait to review the tastes until I regain a better sense of taste/smell. The Margarita is a really juicy, full, pleasantly flavorful liquid - it’s a good mouthful. The other four seem to be more subtle, but there is flavor. It’s low-key, but satisfying. I’m curious as to how the lower mg liquids are made - is it flavor added directly to a unflavored base pre-cut to 4mg with the flavor added after, or is it a pre-flavored, higher mg that’s cut down to the lower nic content?
So, overall: I’m incredibly satisfied. I’ve already referred my brother and his fiancee; although I’m absolutely going to get into diy and mods and they’re the pick-up-and-smoke type, I think that both camps are going to end up happy. As a complete newcomer, I’d totally recommend a KR808D/cartomizer setup for those new to vaping. Pricing, customer service, packing precision, and processing speed are going to keep me coming back.
Suggestions: For the kit ordering pages, add some flexibility into the drop-down menus? I’d like to see them revamped to where you have options to select the color of your passthroughs and singly for both the batteries along with case color. I don’t know if this is possible due to stock packaging, though; I don’t know how you guys get your components, and if it ends up that you had to open two kits to give me my different color batteries... wow! Either way, working with me on the colors indicates real dedication to making a customer happy, and I really appreciate that you’d take the time as well as being willing to open stock like that. <3
Mad props and thanks to the V4L team! <3
Shadzi
After a bit of looking around, I decided on the KR808D for the ease of the cartomizers and availability, so I ordered the V4L Ultimate Automatic kit on Wednesday the 29th after 5pm. I was hoping that it would be sent out the next day (Thursday) because of the late hour; most of my mail-order experiences tend towards that as the best case, and a lot fall short. I’ve had a lot of shipments from other online vendors not even leave processing for two or three days, so their speed with processing and packing really impressed me. In-house Speed: A
I wanted specific colors for my batteries (one black, one lavender, and a purple pass-through), so I sent them a pre-order email asking if that was possible. I had an answer in 2-3 hours, telling me that I could indeed do that, so I put the request in the comment box during checkout. I’d also caught - after I submitted the order - that I’d chosen a black case where on my comments I’d asked for a pink one. I was extremely pleased to see that they followed my comment requests to the letter, right down to the pink case! Pick-packing: A+. Customer service: A I graded the pick packing as I did because I’m a horribly fussy person about having things exactly right. I’m very obsessive about that. Realistically,I know it’s not always possible to do such things, so I don’t ding companies for not being able to do that.
So my order was sent out to Elk Grove and scanned Thursday; I’d heard that Elk Grove could be hit or miss on their sort speed, so I was really happy to see that it didn’t get delayed there. I believe I had my tracking number Thursday sometime in the late morning. I again was thrilled to see that my order was being sent Priority Mail, which really surprised me. So many vendors offer it as a selectable option with the default being USPS First Class, so this made me really happy. It was sent in one of the Tyvek bags; not my first choice in packaging (I prefer boxes) but everything was in a bubble wrap bag inside and arrived safe and sound so I won’t ding them for that. It was in my mailbox Saturday, so that’s three days from sending out to arrival. Woot! Packaging: A Shipping: A+
Now, for the hardware. I’m a total noob when it comes to these things; I won’t grade on these since I don’t have a lot of experience but I will share observations. Your mileage may vary.
The colors are pretty much spot-on with what’s pictured on the site. There wasn’t a picture of the pink case that I’d requested, but it’s a really nice mid-toned bubblegum pink, not a fuschia. (Nice!) I love the gloss finish on the purple passthrough; the lavender battery is a good semi-dark matte finish, and the black is a good gloss black.
I tend to hit my batts with a light draw; it’s probably a habit of 15+ years at a pack a day. Between that and the learning curve, I’m hesitant to rate the vapor output yet. My sister’s Green Smoke seems to put out more vapor, but she uses prefilled and I’m running a diy with the V4L Nobacco juice, so honestly, there really isn’t a solid basis for comparison. I think part of it is that the cartos are a bit stiff, but I’ll go over that below.
I’d gotten one of each of the blank WOW cartomizer samplers. I love these things, honestly. The end caps aren’t glued in, which is a major improvement over my sister’s Green Smokes (what is that stuff they use? Latex caulking?) because they’re easy in and out, they stay in, and there’s no glue residue that has to be scraped out. They fill easy via drip with the fill soaking up the liquid quickly. (18 drips in each, no juice draw, bonus!)
Out of the ten blank cartos, only one was stiff for the whole screw-on, but all of them were stiff on the very last thread. I’m okay with that; they didn’t need to be forced at all, so in my opinion, the machining is good. They don’t want to thread all the way tight onto the passthrough, though. There’s enough of a gap to fit two pieces of paper into; despite that, it doesn’t seem to affect the vapor pull adversely. (I don’t remember if I saw this point mentioned or not in previous forum posts. Length issue? Would filing off 0.25mm fix this, or is that not a wise idea?)
I picked up five bottles of the 4mg Nobacco (Coconut, Cowboy, Green Tea, Margarita, and Mint). Being fresh off the stench sticks, I want to be fair and wait to review the tastes until I regain a better sense of taste/smell. The Margarita is a really juicy, full, pleasantly flavorful liquid - it’s a good mouthful. The other four seem to be more subtle, but there is flavor. It’s low-key, but satisfying. I’m curious as to how the lower mg liquids are made - is it flavor added directly to a unflavored base pre-cut to 4mg with the flavor added after, or is it a pre-flavored, higher mg that’s cut down to the lower nic content?
So, overall: I’m incredibly satisfied. I’ve already referred my brother and his fiancee; although I’m absolutely going to get into diy and mods and they’re the pick-up-and-smoke type, I think that both camps are going to end up happy. As a complete newcomer, I’d totally recommend a KR808D/cartomizer setup for those new to vaping. Pricing, customer service, packing precision, and processing speed are going to keep me coming back.
Suggestions: For the kit ordering pages, add some flexibility into the drop-down menus? I’d like to see them revamped to where you have options to select the color of your passthroughs and singly for both the batteries along with case color. I don’t know if this is possible due to stock packaging, though; I don’t know how you guys get your components, and if it ends up that you had to open two kits to give me my different color batteries... wow! Either way, working with me on the colors indicates real dedication to making a customer happy, and I really appreciate that you’d take the time as well as being willing to open stock like that. <3
Mad props and thanks to the V4L team! <3
Shadzi
