The INSTEAD e-cig from smokeinstead.ca is an automatic battery model that, from what I've seen in pictures, is about the same as an NPRO from NJOY, or an M402. The INSTEAD was my first PV and the one that got me off of smoking. The combination of auto battery and analog-like appearance probably went a long way in helping me transit from smoking to vaping.
There are plenty of NPRO and M400 series reviews out there, so this review is going to be mostly about smokeinstead.ca. That said, I will speak a little on the product itself.
The INSTEAD is high quality as the M400s go. The parts have the company name on them, screw together nicely, and have a nice, durable feel to them. Battery life is around two hours of heavy vaping off a full charge, after which vapour production drops off significantly. Cutoff is at 11 seconds. Vapour production is on par with a 510. Of the three atties I rotate, all of them are still going strong after about a month of vaping. One atty died on me during a vodka/hot water wash, but I blame that on myself because it was my first experience with cleaning atties and I probably screwed up somewhere.
Smokeinstead.ca's customer service, thus far, has been excellent. Delivery is prompt. One of the atties I ordered died after half a day's use. I emailed the company and a replacement atty was in my mailbox two days later. Not bad at all.
The starter kit comes in a black metal tin stamped with the company's logo. The tin comes in a nylon drawstring gift bag which I personally considered to be cheesy, so I threw it out. Only later did I wonder if the nylon could be cut up into PTB mods. The starter kit comes with two automatic batteries, two atties, five blank carts, an ac/dc charging unit, a faux velvet drawstring pouch for spare batteries, and a next-to-useless instruction card. A full instruction manual is available online at the company's website.
Smokeinstead.ca only carries the one line of PVs, doesn't have any bells and whistles like PCCs or PTs, and only offers one flavour of juice (menthol) at one nic strength, zero. For a rookie vaper, this is actually ideal. If my first experience with PVs had been one of those companies that offers everything under the sun, I might have been overwhelmed and not ordered that first starting kit. However, the same thing that makes smokeinstead.ca great for rookies, makes it useless for the experienced vaper. And, now that I'm higher up the learning curve, I find smokeinstead.ca to be overpriced. Spare atties are $27.00 CAD, 15ml bottles of zero-nic menthol are $28.95, etc. The starter kit itself is $114.00, which is also a bit much considering the lack of a PCC or USB charger.
Also, the site is misleading when it comes to certain products. The juice, for example, is shown on the website as shipping in a handy bottle with a long, thin, neck--perfect for refilling M400 series carts with their tiny reservoirs at the bottom of the mouthpieces. However, the juice arrives in a standard drip bottle, so you'll still need to have a safety pin or paperclip with you at all times in order to refill the cart. Another violation of WYSIWYG is the charger. According to the the online manual, you get a USB charger that plugs into a wall charger. Very nice. However, the product shipped is a standard wall charger with no USB. Now, I can understand a company wanting to get rid of old stock like standard wall chargers and standard bottles, but IMO a company shouldn't advertise one thing and ship another. That's a little too bait 'n' switch for my liking.
Still, the INSTEAD e-cig got me off analogs, so it will always have a special place in my heart. My plan is to frame one and give the rest away to smokers.
Smokeinstead.ca is a good place to start vaping, both from the point of view of simplicity of the website and the quality of product. If you do order from there, use coupon code brian2010 for a 5% discount. Unfortunately, even with the 5% discount, there's better bang for your buck elsewhere, even in Canada.
TBL36
There are plenty of NPRO and M400 series reviews out there, so this review is going to be mostly about smokeinstead.ca. That said, I will speak a little on the product itself.
The INSTEAD is high quality as the M400s go. The parts have the company name on them, screw together nicely, and have a nice, durable feel to them. Battery life is around two hours of heavy vaping off a full charge, after which vapour production drops off significantly. Cutoff is at 11 seconds. Vapour production is on par with a 510. Of the three atties I rotate, all of them are still going strong after about a month of vaping. One atty died on me during a vodka/hot water wash, but I blame that on myself because it was my first experience with cleaning atties and I probably screwed up somewhere.
Smokeinstead.ca's customer service, thus far, has been excellent. Delivery is prompt. One of the atties I ordered died after half a day's use. I emailed the company and a replacement atty was in my mailbox two days later. Not bad at all.
The starter kit comes in a black metal tin stamped with the company's logo. The tin comes in a nylon drawstring gift bag which I personally considered to be cheesy, so I threw it out. Only later did I wonder if the nylon could be cut up into PTB mods. The starter kit comes with two automatic batteries, two atties, five blank carts, an ac/dc charging unit, a faux velvet drawstring pouch for spare batteries, and a next-to-useless instruction card. A full instruction manual is available online at the company's website.
Smokeinstead.ca only carries the one line of PVs, doesn't have any bells and whistles like PCCs or PTs, and only offers one flavour of juice (menthol) at one nic strength, zero. For a rookie vaper, this is actually ideal. If my first experience with PVs had been one of those companies that offers everything under the sun, I might have been overwhelmed and not ordered that first starting kit. However, the same thing that makes smokeinstead.ca great for rookies, makes it useless for the experienced vaper. And, now that I'm higher up the learning curve, I find smokeinstead.ca to be overpriced. Spare atties are $27.00 CAD, 15ml bottles of zero-nic menthol are $28.95, etc. The starter kit itself is $114.00, which is also a bit much considering the lack of a PCC or USB charger.
Also, the site is misleading when it comes to certain products. The juice, for example, is shown on the website as shipping in a handy bottle with a long, thin, neck--perfect for refilling M400 series carts with their tiny reservoirs at the bottom of the mouthpieces. However, the juice arrives in a standard drip bottle, so you'll still need to have a safety pin or paperclip with you at all times in order to refill the cart. Another violation of WYSIWYG is the charger. According to the the online manual, you get a USB charger that plugs into a wall charger. Very nice. However, the product shipped is a standard wall charger with no USB. Now, I can understand a company wanting to get rid of old stock like standard wall chargers and standard bottles, but IMO a company shouldn't advertise one thing and ship another. That's a little too bait 'n' switch for my liking.
Still, the INSTEAD e-cig got me off analogs, so it will always have a special place in my heart. My plan is to frame one and give the rest away to smokers.
Smokeinstead.ca is a good place to start vaping, both from the point of view of simplicity of the website and the quality of product. If you do order from there, use coupon code brian2010 for a 5% discount. Unfortunately, even with the 5% discount, there's better bang for your buck elsewhere, even in Canada.
TBL36
Last edited:
