KR808D-1, Screwdriver MKII and Greensmoke - My thoughts on a month or two of vaping

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C3RTIF1ED

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Sep 6, 2010
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Hi everyone, this is probably going to be a long post! (Holy &*%$ I just did a word count and its 2700 words!!!) I thought I would share my experience in getting started on e-cigarettes. First things first … I’m loving it. I had been smoking for about 10+ years and had been wanting to quit for about 5 (with some success). Problem was that I enjoy the activity of smoking but not the other stuff that comes with it … so (I guess like everyone else) I tried e-cigarettes.

I’m going to tell you about the brands I have used, why I tried them, what I thought of them and the tips and tricks I have picked up from many places … including this forum. I thought in doing so I might help people who are at the stage I was about a month ago to get the best vaping experience.

I’m going to do this in 4 Sections:

E-Cigarette Devices – Just the devices (no e-liquid discussion – I have used each device with the same juice)

E-Liquid – A look at the juices I have used and how it totally changed my views on each device.

Tips, Tricks and Useful Info – Cartridge refilling and model compatibility

Conclusion – My current feelings about my e-cigs after all my discoveries

So … to begin … my final words as it’s a stupidly long post and no one should be expected to read all this drivel just to get to my conclusion!!!

Final Words

Having gone from GS to KR8 to SD back to GS then to SD and finally back to KR8 following discoveries about vaping, e-cig and liquids my current preference for daily vaping is as follows:

The KR808D-1 is a well made, cheap and easy to use e-cig but to get the best out of it I think that you will need to use VG E-Liquid and buy a PCC (actually the PCC is a definite must!!)

Greensmoke e-cigs are expensive but feel like quality items. They taste excellent and produce lots of vapour. The expense can be mitigated by refilling the cartridges but the batteries are still expensive. The big downside is the battery life and the length of time they take to recharge.

Screwdriver MKII is very very well made and is elegant in its simplicity and function. It is bulkier than other e-cigs but for this you get a greatly improved battery life. The three piece design also gives you greater flexibility in your vaping habits and helps with ease of filling. I would recommend using it with VG liquid.

For someone just starting out I would recommend a KR808D-1 over the Greensmoke as it is cheaper but does the same thing. When used with VG liquid the main advantage that Greensmoke has in terms of vapour production over the KR808D-1 is lost.

If, like me, you become fascinated by the range of different e-cigs out there and want to try something a little different or you just get fed up with batteries running out the Screwdriver MKII is an excellent machine. That said however, I am using a KR808D-1 as I type, not my Screwdriver, so make sure you don’t persuade yourself the grass is greener too easily!!! J

1. E-cigarette Devices

Greensmoke

My first e-cig was … A Greensmoke … (I know they get lots of bad press on here but do read on). The reason I tried Greensmoke was perhaps because I had not done enough research and I saw lots and lots of “reviews” saying how great they are. I figured that the higher price for a Greensmoke was an indication of higher quality. I wanted something that was like a real cigarette and they looked like cigarettes … so I bought a starter pack. Greensmoke are a cartomiser style e-cig which means that you just have a battery and a cartridge. The cartridge incorporates both the atomiser and e-liquid … screw on a battery and you’re ready to vape.

I have to say that I immediately liked it and raved on to my girlfriend about how she should try vaping. I went down from about 10-15 analogue cigs a day to 0 in a day and that to me was worth almost any price (I sometimes still pinch a real one from my girlfriend though J).

The greensmoke e-cig feels solid and definitely produces lots of satisfying vapour (I love the vanilla flavour). However, the life of the batteries is not so great and I found that the cartridges definitely did not last as long as the adverts said they would. I found I used a minimum of 2-3 cartridges a day.

I found it takes longer to charge a battery than it does to run it down so if, like me, you would want to puff away all day you will need at least 3 batteries with 2 on charge whilst you use the third. (this equals £90 in batteries already!!) This may sound really bad and it is the main reason I tried some other types of e-cig but I do want to stress that a brand new greensmoke battery and cartridge is wonderful.

KR808D-1

Having thoroughly got into vaping I began doing lots of research on the web. At this point I stumbled onto this forum. I found that experienced vapers were recommending people to use other e-cigs rather than greensmoke. As I was all excited in my new found hobby I did lots of reading and decided to buy a KR808D-1 (catchy name isn’t it!!!). This e-cig came highly recommended on this forum so I figured it must be lots better than a greensmoke.
I live in the UK and a place called Liberty Flights sells them here. Not sure on the forum rules about brands etc so I won’t paste a link just google it if you need to. Anyways, my KR8 (shortening) arrived and I was excited. Alongside the KR8 starter pack I had ordered some e-liquid (to be discussed later), blank cartridges and a PCC (Portable Charging Case).

My first impressions of the KR8 were … okay, nothing special. Not as much vapour as the GS and the flavour wasn’t as nice. However, battery life was much better and with the PCC I never had to worry about batteries running out. Added to this the KR8 is much much cheaper than the GS both in terms of the device and the cartridges etc. The KR8 became my daily vaping device mostly because of the better batteries and charging options. … but I was still on the hunt for my ‘perfect’ e-cig.

Screwdriver MKII

After more browsing of the web and salivating over numerous different vaping toys I decided to go for a Screwdriver MKII. Again, this was well reviewed on this forum. The main attraction about the screwdriver was battery life … it really will last all day … maybe even two but I tend to change the battery every night anyway. In the UK SDs are sold by Totally Wicked.

The SD is a 3 part e-cig (which means that the battery, atomiser and cartridge are all separate). This makes it easier to refill as the cartridges are not sealed and once you take the cartridge off the atomiser can you drop e-liquid directly onto the filler material without having to take the cartridge cap off.

As a ‘big battery’ e-cig the SD does not look like a cigarette but rather like a screwdriver! As a result it may not suit those who definitely want a cigarette replacement.

As I said, the battery life on this thing is immense!! Also the ease of refilling cartridges is less fiddly than on the KR8. If you have more than one atomiser you can fill up a cartridge put it on an atomiser and then when you need to change cartridge you can just change both atomiser and cartridge just like a cartomiser.

The SD creates more vapour than the KR8 but less than the GS and easily outlasts both in battery life so in many ways it feels like the middle ground between the two at the price of small size.

Summary

Before I go on to talk about E-Liquids (that have totally changed the game for me) I think a short direct comparison between the three models would be useful.

> = better than

Battery Life: SD>KR8>GS

Battery Charging: SD+KR8>GS

Charging Convenience: KR8>SD>GS (The KR8 PCC is very useful but you don’t have to charge the SD battery during the day so they score equally)

Vapour Production with standard E-Liquid (i.e. PG – see E-Liquid Section): GS>SD>KR8

Vapour Enjoyment (taste, throat hit etc) with standard E-Liquid (as above): GS>SD>KR8

Cost: KR8>SD>GS

Overall (only my opinion though): SD>KR8>GS – This will change in the next two sections!!!

2. E-Liquid

Here I am not going to review different flavours (though I may mention ones I have tried). Instead I am focussing on the way the different liquids have affected the performance of each device and my enjoyment of it. I.E. Assume that you are using a flavour that you like.

I have used the following different liquids and delivery methods (I was going to discuss in more detail but figured the post is too long!):

Greensmoke pre-filled cartomisers
Liberty Flights pre-filled KR808D-1 cartomisers
Liberty Flights blank cartomisers (then filled)
Liberty Flights PG E-Liquid
Liberty Flights VG E-Liquid
Liberty Flights DSE-901 cartridges (used in Screwdriver)
Totally Wicked Red Label E-Liquid (PG)
Totally Wicked Decadent Vapour E-Liquid (PG)

Pre-filled Cartomisers

As said earlier GS pre-filled cartomisers taste wonderful and produce lots of vapour – but do not last long at all.

Liberty Flights KR8 pre-filled cartomisers taste ok, last a decent time but didn’t taste so great

PG vs VG
As I said above; the SD did produce more vapour than the KR8 but I still felt like I wanted more. Basically, I wanted the same vapour as I got from a GS but with much better battery life. It was at this point I started to investigate different types of E-Liquid.

For those of you that don’t know there are different types of ‘base’ used in E-Liquid. The most common of which are PG and VG (that’s enough information for this post – to find out more do some searching on this forum as there are some very good and informative posts).

From reading up on the subject I discovered that the differences between PG and VG E-Liquids centre on the following:

PG – Thinner liquid, vapes longer, bigger flavour, produces less vapour
VG – Thicker liquid, vapes more quickly, slightly less flavour, produces much more vapour.

At the time I was using Liberty Flights PG, Totally Wicked Red Label E-Liquid (PG) and Totally Wicked Decadent Vapour E-Liquid (PG). I decided to try some VG liquid to see if it really did produce more vapour. I bought some from Liberty Flights as Totally Wicked do not sell it.

When my new PG liquid arrived I immediately took a fresh cartridge for my SD and filled it up … OH MY GOD … clouds!!!! I had a big smile on my face all day!!!! This was what I had been looking for!!

After a weekend vaping on my SD I suddenly thought … ‘maybe I should try this in my KR8?’ When I got home I did just that … again WOW!!! Vapour was just like a GS.

My advice – for those who like lots of vapour try some VG E-Liquid … I have found what I am looking for! J

That’s as much as I am going to say about E-Liquid as I don’t feel like doing a flavour or brand review. I will be doing a summing up comparison of how VG vapour has changed my view of my e-cigs at the end.

3. Tips, Tricks and Useful Info

Cartridge Refilling – Including Greensmoke

In a word … YES. Definitely fill your own cartridges, it is much cheaper and gives you more flexibility in taste plus if you use VG liquid you can dramatically improve the performance of your c-cig.

To find out how to refill your cartridges just search on google/youtube and you will find video guides. There is however one thing I want to mention … you can refill GS cartridges but make sure you do so before you get the burnt taste. If you refill them before they burn then they produce good results with PG liquid (I haven’t tried with VG).

One thing to remember is not to overfill. If you do its not a disaster but you will end up wasting liquid by; sucking into you mouth and spitting it out (not nice); it leaking out of the end of the cartridge; intentionally blowing it out of the cartridge to clear the atomiser. My advice is to put in about 5-6 drops of liquid into a brand new cartridge and when topping up a cartridge just do a drop at a time (you will get a feel for how much is enough).

I started out refilling (both KR8 and GS cartridges) using the condom method in which you put liquid into the protective cap that cartridges come with and then push the cart into the liquid to force it inside. It works but I found it a trifle messy and kept on overfilling. I now just pop the end cap off and drop the liquid directly onto the filler material – it is less messy and lets you have greater control over volumes.

Compatibility

This assumes no adaptors are used (if you want an adaptor my advice is search google … again!!)

Greensmoke is not compatible with any of my other e-cigs.

KR808D-1 & Screwdriver seem to be interchangeable … although a KR8 cart of an SD battery will not work due to airflow issues. It was very pleasant to use the 901 atomiser and cart from my SD on my KR8 battery.

4. Conclusion

This post is too long so I’ll make this short. The below is my updated comparison of my e-cigs considering the fact that I have learnt the following:

1. VG Liquid rocks
2. Don’t overfill cartridges (even though its not the end of the world)
3. You can refill Greensmoke cartridges
4. I love the strawberry flavoured VG Liquid from Liberty Flights

Battery Life: SD>KR8>GS

Battery Charging: SD+KR8>GS

Charging Convenience: KR8>SD>GS (The KR8 PCC is very useful but you don’t have to charge the SD battery during the day so they score equally)

Vapour Production: KR8>GS >SD

Vapour Enjoyment (taste, throat hit etc): KR8>SD>GS (This was a very close call)

Cost: KR8>SD>GS

Overall (only my opinion though): KR8>SD>GS

Final Words

Having gone from GS to KR8 to SD back to GS then to SD and finally back to KR8 following discoveries about vaping, e-cig and liquids my current preference for daily vaping is as follows:

The KR808D-1 is a well made, cheap and easy to use e-cig but to get the best out of it I think that you will need to use VG E-Liquid and buy a PCC (actually the PCC is a definite must!!)

Greensmoke e-cigs are expensive but feel like quality items. They taste excellent and produce lots of vapour. The expense can be mitigated by refilling the cartridges but the batteries are still expensive. The big downside is the battery life and the length of time they take to recharge.

Screwdriver MKII is very very well made and is elegant in its simplicity and function. It is bulkier than other e-cigs but for this you get a greatly improved battery life. The three price design also gives you greater flexibility in your vaping habits and helps with ease of filling. I would recommend using it with VG liquid.

For someone just starting out I would recommend a KR808D-1 over the Greensmoke as it is cheaper but does the same thing. When used with VG liquid the main advantage that Greensmoke has in terms of vapour production over the KR808D-1 is lost.

If, like me, you become fascinated by the range of different e-cigs out there and want to try something a little different or you just get fed up with batteries running out the Screwdriver MKII is an excellent machine. That said however, I am using a KR808D-1 as I type, not my Screwdriver, so make sure you don’t persuade yourself the grass is greener too easily!!! J

Well thats that hope it helps someone!! :)
 
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