Here's a personal anecdote to answer your question.
Two people above recommended Trident clones, but did not cite which vendor they've gotten them from, so I'm not sure which particular clone they've had success with. I've owned 3 Trident clones. Two that came from vaperoyalty.com, and one from kidneypuncher.com. The one that came from kidneypuncher.com had different sized holes drilled for adjustable air, but the delrin insulator in the center post cracked in half during the 3rd rebuild. Since it was only $14 I threw it away. The two from vaperoyalty.com came without different sized airholes. Just 3 holes, all drilled the same size. One of them works great and is a hell of a value for the $12 I paid, but the other was broken out of the box. The center post spins freely when trying to tighten or loosen the set screw. I emailed vaperoyalty and got no response. Threw the darn thing away.
I bought a Steamboy Storm Rider 2.1 2 months ago from my local B&M. $125. It's a gorgeous genesis-style atomizer. I learned very quickly that I suck at building gennies, so I set it aside. Since then, my wife has gotten into rebuilding. She's GREAT with gennies. So last week I asked her to build my Storm Rider for me. Vapes great, looks spectacular! But I noticed that it leaks slightly around the top of the PET tank section. I tried cleaning the threading, replacing the o-rings, lubricating the rings, everything I could think of. I still get a very small leak. Just enough to be annoying when I pick up the device.
I emailed SteamBoy about this problem less than 1 hour ago. I received a response inside of 30 minutes with an apology and a request for my home address so they can send me a replacement tank at no charge.
The difference between clones and originals? Support and service, for starters.
