Initial thoughts on the Vladdin RE

[United States]

Three words with an asterisk: cig-a-like*.
* not your ordinary junky one.

My first vape device was in 2009 and geez Louise it left a lot to be desired. Thanks to a bunch of folks who knew it had potential and a few really smart people the idea has become pretty dawg gone impressive some ten years later. After trying a bunch of stuff trying to mimic my old junky cigarette shaped thingy I stopped using modular devices and stuck with pod systems. The fire button just didn't do it for me.

I noticed this Vladdin setup but for a number of reasons never bought one online. No vape stores I frequent carried them. Well not long ago I was a lucky winner of a contest here at ECF. Goody, goody, goody, goody!!!! Finally, I get to try one.

It arrived today with a nice carrying case. I did not know which I was more excited about, the device or the case. Well a fill of the supplied pod tank and a few minutes to soak the ceramic wick and I was enjoying a vape that reminds me of that old cig-a-like from so long ago in regards to that almost cigarette drag duplication but with my favorite flavor. I was greatly impressed from the first drag.

Now, unlike most commentors who open the box and show you in great detail the instruction manual and eventually get around to showing off how much jumbo cloud comes from it I'm not going to do that. Instead I'm going to use it for a couple of days and return with a typical users experience. Does it leak? Are the magnets strong enough to pluck the cap off without pulling out the tank? Did the wick go stale from getting clogged by my favorite sweet juice? Stuff like that.

It seems like a nice device to use at the local pub when dressed to the nines and trying to impress the ladies. But I'm a happily married get off my lawn crumudgen who considers going on errands exciting enough. So how will it fill the role of us old people? Drag-wise it's impressive. I'm using a 6 strength 70%vg juice and get a nice nic buzz with each light drag. See, I don't care how much vape leaves my lungs. Can it billow out clouds like an automobile somebody stuck tranny fluid into the carberatur? Well no. It's a pod. But for those with young fresh lungs it'll put out a nice cloud if that's your thing. What goes in matters to me. And this thing is just right at mimic-ing my favorite tobacco stick.

I've never seen a real life Juul. Heck, I just acquired my first blu ray player not long ago. So I suppose folks will think I've gone over the edge and joined the dark side. At least from 5+ feet away. I'll deal with that the same way as I dealt with "don't those things explode? " each time I whipped out a mod in public. And I'll sneak a puff on elevators and in public restrooms thanks to the silent operation. Yes it is silent if you MTL. Taking a light drag is flawless. No issue with speratic activation.

I can slide it into my trouser pocket and never know it is there versus a setup with a heavy tank or those so-called pods that are just micro-mods. I don't need a clock. What I do need is a nice, smooth temperature controlled drag from an electric cigarette and this thing delivers. A very good smoking cessation device without the torture of those awful flavored and expensive pre-filled pod tanks by big tobacco companies. Vladden apparently does off pre-filled pods for the ocasional vaper type folks or those who just don't want to bother with discovering which juice they prefer and end up with a gallon worth of 30-60ml setting around the house all nearly full.

I'll add another post in a few days with additional thoughts and some pix. We all like pix, right?

 

[United States]

So once upon a time if you wanted to pull a prank on someone you could put about a teaspoon of auto transmission fluid in a persons carberatur and man that car would put out major smoke. It only lasted a few minutes and some said it was actually a good way to clean exhaust valves.

Anyway, I carried the RE to Wal Mart with me and it disappeared into my pants pocket. Upon leaving the store I pulled it out and took a couple of drags. It completely crushed my urge to light that post-Wal Mart cigarette… afterall they's some crazy people in that place and I need nicotine badly when leaving. The RE was a very handy tool to have.

 

[sonicbomb]

I was in the market for a pod system for a while, which coincided nicely with winning two here on ECF. I'm happy with mine and so is the person I gave the other one two.
The amount of vapor it produces is sufficient if I use a high nic juice, and ergonomically it's great. The only design point I dislike is the lack of a battery level indicator.

 

[GOMuniEsq]

Right on. The Vladdin's minimalist design appeals to me too. Sleek lines, light weight, disappears into any pocket. It provides enough vapor without leaving a cloud and it does it silently. I went so far as to cover the LED with electrical tape for added discretion.

 

[United States]

^^^ stealth master right here folks.

 

[United States]

Day 2 with the RE:
So far the cartridge has been free of leaks and ooze into the body where left over vape drains back into the air intake.

Now one thing I noticed is the cartridge touches protruding pins inside the body to make contact. So if a bit of juice ends up oozing backwards the contact should remain stable.

I have been using another device for several months now and it is slightly plagued with ooze reaching the contacts. It's no big deal to pull out the cartridge and wipe it off once a day but can be an issue with spuratic contact at times. Especially if it occurs while driving. Not such a convenient time to wipe off contacts.

This one uses the magnets for contact points. It greatly reduces the potential for the cartridge to pop out when dropped but also has the drawback of potential contact issues.

Vladden has seemingly addressed the potential pop out issue with stronger magnets. Nicely done.


With pocket carry in a pocket with a knife, coins etc the finish has remained ding-free thus far. I have my brain trying to figure out how to make a pocket clip for it. No easy task given the shape of the body.

Frankly I've forgotten all about my other pod devices since using this device.

 

[Vladdinvapor_Alisa]

I'm using a 6 strength 70%vg juice

Warming reminder: We recommend 50/50 PG/VG ratio nicsalt e-liquilds.
And even though it is a refillable pod system, but for the best vape experience, we recommend refill no more than three times.

 

[United States]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[United States]

Day 6(?)

Today was the kind of day you travel to a place via google maps, get near the place you were looking for and find out the streets are not the names google maps say they are. So you go to call the chap you are to meet and discover your iPhone had deleted 80% of your contacts (including the one I needed).

So suffice to say it was also the kind of day I dropped my RE at least 20 times. Slid into a shirt pocket, every time I bent over to tie my boots that kept coming untied "blam".… dropsees again. Drop keys, bend over to get keys and "blam".

Well one good thing resulted. The RE is pretty drop friendly. It landed on its side, tip down, bottom down a bunch of times on carpet, wood, concrete and asphalt and never flinched.

 

[United States]

Realizing Vladdin designed the RE around a 50/50 juice, I'm finding the 70%vg juice in mine is still doing well. Three refills and the flavor is still pretty good. I expect that to wain with additional refills but a couple of weeks on a $4 pod tank is certainly a better bargain than $5 a day for cigarettes.

Now to be fair, I do not put mine to heavy use where a daily refill is required. More like 2-3 days between refills. No long 3-5 second draws that involves plooms of cloudy exhale. Just a tiny whisp of vaper (if any) comes out of my lungs.

I still smoke. I have not chosen to stop smoking completely. Yet there are numerous times a day when I only want a couple of drags from a cigarette. The RE is about as close to the perfect substitute as possible. Plus instead of nasty, yucky taste I get the wonderful flavor of a lifesaver candy. Using a 6 strength nicotine juice is actually stronger than I need to curb the urge to smoke.

Again, realizing Vladdin reccomends nic salts for best results I have found the near perfect drag along with the hand hold and other habits from a cigarette are easily fulfilled by the RE. And without the need for a lot of nicotine. It's easy to understand why that giant name smoking cessation device available at gas stations is so popular when using a Vladdin RE. But with the RE you choose how much nicotine you want in a tank full. For the heavy chain smoker who wants to stop, by all means use higher amounts of nicotine at first. But I switched to low nicotine cigarettes a long time ago. So curbing the other habits was the biggest issue for this user.

With a cigarette, once you light it, you tend to take drags until it's gone. The RE allows you to take a drag or two and set it asside. No eye hits during teeth hold while both hands tinker with a task like with a burning tobacco stick. No worries of setting the house on fire if you fall asleep with it in your hand. And unlike the junky cig-a-like with its hard round tip, the RE is more natural feeling thanks to a fine tobacco pipe shaped duck bill-esque tip. Instead of being completely flat like the duck bill tip it has enough round to mimic the softness of a filter on a cigarette, yet the outside diameter of the roundness does not feel foreign against the lips.

My job is mainly outdoors where nobody gets offended by smoking. I grew up in a period where hospital rooms had ash trays. I saw smoking cigarettes go from nearly every adult partaking to society frowning on smoking. That was a good thing. I saw the novetly vape device become a tremendous industry as well. I have the freedom to choose either way, but as I get older I see the virtue of stopping harmful habits as time takes toll but not so healthy behaviors. I do not subscribe to the vaping is bad notion. Rather I'm in the too soon to know camp. I can say that the Vladdin RE is a great smoking cessation device, whether it be for completely stopping or reducing the daily number. This week alone my smoking was cut in half due to the RE.

I've been vaping for over a year and until the folks at Vladdin sent me an RE kit it was a futile attempt at smoking reduction. A long time ago a Fuma had my smoking cut from a carton a week to a month. But it was short lived due to reliability issues. A decade later this Vladdin is seemingly working as well as that early device that was plagued with bursting cartridges with who knows what was in the liquid or sudden failure issues. Today for example, I've walked past an open pack of cigarettes numerous times without lighting up.

Another virtue is the ability to switch flavors. Typically I prefer a fruity taste, but my wife has a bottle of sweet mint gum flavored juice and a spare tank filled with that stored in the Vladdin case means opting for a minty lifesaver taste is as easy as swapping out the cartridge.

Edit: A backup device in titanium ordered along with spare pods.
End edit.

 

[United States]

Who wants to use their tastey vape stick until it runs completely out of fuel?
I'm raising my hand here.

Agreed that a changing color for battery life would be nice, but it don't. So instead of topping mine up from time to time in order to not run out of fuel, I opted to use it until it signaled the low fuel flashing.

Like other devices with only one color auto draw light, this one gives you clues it is running out of juice. It begins to vape weakly. For me it was noticeable at about 25 drags before. Output required a stronger drag. Not a lot but definitely some. About ten drags later it seemed like it was clogged or coil was giving out. With about 5 to go I'm thinking "what's wrong with the Vladdin?" Then #'24 and 25 were very weak and the light began rapidly flashing. "oh it's out of fuel, duh?"

Now I know what to watch for. Some 30 minutes later it was flashing again saying it was charged. First drag was like it had a new cartridge installed.

 

[stols001]

I am glad you are liking it @United States .

Anna

 

[United States]

Had another person ask me "is that a Juul?" today.

Walking from the office to my car used to involve lighting up a smoke within 5 feet of the building. Today was another day of whipping out the RE and taking a couple of drags and curbing that urge. The fellow walking with me has never smoked or vaped. We drove to lunch together and he complimented the aroma of my sour apple juice when I took a couple more puffs.

A typical day of 20-30 cigarettes is now about 5-8. And I'm not even trying to quit. The 5th refill with a 6 strength 70vg and flavor has begun to wane. It looks like I'll get about 2 weeks from a cartridge.

My backup is slated to arrive tomorrow so I'll swap in a new cartridge then.

 

[GOMuniEsq]

A typical day of 20-30 cigarettes is now about 5-8. And I'm not even trying to quit

If that isn't a testament to its effectiveness as a smoking cessation aid, I don't know what would be. Love the Vladdin. Its simplicity and similarity to a cig makes it so accessible to whip out and use as a substitute. I remember back when I smoked, I used to only want half a cigarette but I couldn't stand keeping a half smoked one around due to the smell. Vaping allowed me have just as much as I wanted without any hassle that way.

 

[United States]

Another testament GO is how well it performed today.

Arrive at office with phone ringing off the hook and forget my RE in a truck with the windows rolled up. Well I had a Vape Ants E8 with me I was good until lunch time. Again, no cigarette break before lunch.

At lunch I took a few tastey puffs and noted no spit back, so I plucked out the cartridge and saw the magnets were dry. It was about 85 in the shade when I forgot it. Truck in the sun in a parking lot with new sealer so at lunch time it was at least 130 in there.

So I eat my lunch in the truck (windows down of course). A new guy walks up and asks some questions like a new employee would and before I knew it lunch time was over and I forgot my RE again. It hit 100 in the shade today. I parked where by 3:00 my truck is in the shade. But at 3:30 when I left work I checked the inside of my truck and it was 176 inside. (As a roadway inspector I carry tools like temperature guns.)

The RE was not spit back free that time nor were the magnets dry but on my second drag the spit back was gone. Bottom line my RE stayed in over 125 degrees for several hours and barely leaked. By far the closest to leak free device I've used to date and I've tried quite a few. So bravo Vladdin.

Speaking of bravo my titanium color version showed up today. I really like the darkened chrome look of it. Like pewter figurines but shiney. Finger print magnet? Surprisingly no. Slippery? Nope. Actually a bit more grippy than the matte black one. Will it stop folks from asking "is that a Juul?" Hope so.

It's the same color top to bottom. Depending on what angle you view from and amount of light, it looks like the top portion in the photo (a nice silver) but in shade it looks like the bottom half (a nice shiney charcoal-esque color) so I like that too.

I will put in a new cartridge at the end of the week just to see how it does for another few days. I'm also going to change juices and use a more berry flavor at 60 percent VG instead of sour apple at 70 percent. Still 6 strength.

 

[United States]

Walked around in 95 degree (in the shade) heat for 8 hours today with the RE in a shirt pocket 90% of the time. 10% of the time I was vaping it. I was not in the shade so it was probably upwards of 110+ at times.

No leak at all using a 60vg juice. Now I did smoke more than lately but not because the RE is lacking.

I was training a new kid who asked question after question while I was trying to focus on hectic things……all day long. "why do they use that kind of shovel?" "is that dirt going to be used to fill up that hole there?" Basic, good questions but geez louise, enough already. I could barely answer one before two more came my way.

Outdoors I have the freedom to smoke. So stand still facing the onslaught of question after question or walk 50 yards to the truck with my smokes in it for a 1 minute respise from the kid. I walked a lot today.

I will say this though, not one person asked if my titanium RE was a Juul. Approximately 20 people saw it and a few even complimented on it.

At one point the kid asked "why do you keep going to your truck for a cigarette when you have that vape stick with you?" I replied "I like the excersize."……

 

[United States]

Welp, since the only other voice I hear is mine echoing off the back wall I'll make this the last one.

The Valddin RE is a winner r r r r.

 

[SP013]

I have also been using the Vladdin RE for a couple of weeks now, my pro's and cons:

Pro's:
- Flavor wise the best pod system I've had so far
- True MTL vape and throat hit, for me spot on
- Easy filling, just don't lose the rubber seal!
- Ultra light weight and no issues carrying
- love the design
- the pods last pretty damn long, got 2 weeks out of one of them and one week out of the other, the flavor drops a little but its still good.

Cons:
- Battery life, it does not last me the whole day, most of the time around half a day or so. Charging takes around 1 hour. Good thing is that you can always carry additional batteries.
- No battery life indicator, there is no way to know if soon your battery runs out.
- Some pods might leak, just to be on the safe side I always take out the pod when not using, don't want them to leak into the device! Had this only with 1 pod so far, but am only using my 3rd now, the other 2 had no leaking issues.

Overall I love my vladdin RE and the cons are really things that Vladdin can easily improve. If you look for a tiny lightweight device that delivers a proper mtl vape, this one is for you.

thanks a lot @Vladdinvapor_Alisa for providing me with the Vladdin RE through the contest I won, I will keep an eye out for future Vladdin products as I am excited to see the coming pod systems!

 

[United States]

Today was a real test for a couple of reasons.

First was a 2 hour drive each way to work on a boring roadway. I carry a pack of smokes and before the Vladdin there would be 8 or so gone when I arrived. Today it was two. Since the RE arrived I spent most of the day in the office so it was a choice between a tastey stealth in the A/C or smoke in 95 degree pea soup outdoors.
Today I had freedom and chose the RE the majority of the times.

Next, when I arrived my time was spent in the bright sunshine with the RE in my sweaty shirt pocket. At the end of the day the tank had not leaked a drop. Nor had the sweat caused any issues either. Again I had freedom and chose the RE. A day that used to be 25-30 cigarettes was about 8. Again, I'm not even trying to stop smoking. Just cut back.

So the days spent in the office the RE is a great way to stay calm when surrounded by turd brains in cubicles. When outdoors it becomes a great way to stay satisfied without carbon monoxide loaded blood vessels becoming taxed by extreme weather like cigarettes do.

I charge it every other day and refill about every third day.

 

[United States]

After at least 10 refills, the pod still puts out vape and still tastes pretty good.

It's the same pod since July 5th when it arrived. See, I bought a titanium one and use that every day and the black one sent by Vladdin is a backup. I used the new pod in the new titanium one for a couple of days to break it in then swapped it over to the backup and started using the original pod again.

If it sets a while the first drag is like new almost. Chain vaping causes flavor to be easily muted but I'm ok with that as it still beats burning tobacco flavor. So I just wanted to report in that the same pod using the same 80/20vg/pg freebase at a 6 strength is still going.

For my use it gets refilled about twice a week and charged every other evening.