Nazamataz's LoonGTotem Review

[Nazareth]

Ok folks, just got the Loongtotem, and not feeling real well today (Ate lobster for hte first time in over 15 years, got sick on it, still realing- not sure why I'm saying htis except that hte review will be a bit wonked today because my sense of taste which is usually not very good to begin with is especially wonked today- and htere you have it). This is actually a premature review as I wanted to give my first impressions before batteries are all charged up, so I'll keep this pre-review shorter

Ok- first impressions

Popped a cartridge straight away into a fresh out of hte package battery (Didn't bother to charge it yet- I do have my other battery on charge, I can tell this one htough is a bit weak and needs a charge, and is pooping out quick now, but couldn't wait, so this will also skew the review a bit- will have better review in my further posts)

Shipping Came htrough fine- Gave them my street address/house number, but it came ot my post office for some reason. I ordered last Friday, it arrived this Today- not great- but expected I guess- I might suggest orderign on a monday or Sunday, will then hopefulyl ship on Monday, hopefully you'll get it on a friday- that way you're not wating for a full 7 days

Vapor The vapor is incredible! Plain and simple! The battery that I popped in had enough of a charge to vape for a little bit, and this hting was bellowing out vapor like nobodie's business- honest.

Vapor Hit Ned was right, it is a bit weak especially after a few real cigg equivilents of smoking. Now, I'm hoping that with Johnson Creek 24 Mg juice, this will improve a bit, and perhaps a drop of Glycerin will help that situaiton as well, and I think it will because when I first popped a fresh cart in, I was getting somewhat of a back of throat hit and felt it in lungs a bit- not enough for my taste mind you, but again, I think I can improve this a bit without much fuss

Nic hit Not very good to be honest- but then again, niether was my penstyle or mini SF even with fresh batteries and fresh cartridge- they might have given better nic for a few ciggs, but htey quickly dropped off after that and smoked comparable to this Loong. I had MAYBE a cigg or two of ok nic hits when hte cart was fresh on this, but it dropped off quick.

Nic Hit b I will test in a day or two whether adding high nic liquid improves throat/lung hit and nic rush or not- If olks want me to try this sooner, I'll put off the 'full draw count' for a day- just let me know, but keep in mind, I'm not feeling well, and won't be able to give a good accurate opinion, so I'd rather wait till I feel better to test the nic rush throat/lung hit

Battery life I have no idea- quit bugging me will ya? J/K will have to wait on this till later tonight

Price of battery Sucks, pl;ain and simple! Someone find a solution to htis please please please lol- I will search the internet later today to see if I can't find batteries that will fit and cost less- neither of my SmartFixx batteries fit- my mini is the opposite- it's a male end battery & the loong needs female end

Flavor Hard for me to judge, my taste is shot today- I did get just a bit of juice on the lips and got a slight sweet taste (reminded me of the Glycerin sweetness taste- but hten again everythign is tasting wierd to me today- so hopefulyl this situation will improve as the day goes on and I'll be able to better tell later)

Cig Size Very impressed with hte size- was much smaller than I expected- which is what I really wanted in an E-cigg i nthe first place- My original order was the SmartFixx mini- but that product really dissappointed me because hte vapor was very weak and the cartridges only lasted for a few real ciggs worth of time. I see loongtotem has an even smaller battery now- when I ordered they only had 2 sizes- a couple days after I ordered, they announced the smaller size, which I might have gone with had I had hte choice or been informaed that htey were abotu to offer hte smaller size- Grrr! But maybe I'm better off with hte slightly larger one charge time wise- The size I have is only abotu 1 1/2- 1 3/4 inches bigger than a regular cigg, but not quite as long as a 100 cigg

Draw Very impressed. One of hte big complaints I had with my penstyle and mini was that I had to really work the atomizers when drawing, goign fish-faced in order to get any decent vapor. When new, the penstyle and mini didn't require quite that much effort, but it still was a bit rough on the jaw, and as the atomizers gummed up a bit, it just got worse and worse- then the atomizer woudl go through it's 'wonderful' self-cleaning gymnastics, and would leave an awful taste, but the draw would be easier for perhaps a day or two, then it would start goign downhill again- This was the one big issue I had with penstyles, and yes, I realize goign with a Janty would have solved that for me, but again, I really wanted a super mini right fro mthe start- one htta looked liek, felt as close to, a real cigg, and the Loong meets those for me

Weight A bit too heavy- doesn't quite feel like a real cigg due ot hte weight of hte battery, but it's not far off- not enough to be off-putting in my opinion. Would like a lighter cigg, but then the battery would suffer

Puff Count I don't know yet, quit bothering me lol j/k- so far I've done 70 full draws (but again, the battery is startign to lose what little charge it had, but I will keep count of hte full draws for one Cart) I'm goign to really push the cartridge (I wouldn't recommend other do this, as it might start burning hte paper inside, but I'll do hte puff-count and push one full cartridge until I think it's not worth continuing- I'll also give the recommended cut-off point where vapor starts gettign weak, give hte point where I beleive the nic levels start dropping off, as well as give hte point where I've pushed it as far as I think it can go with vapor) This might take a few days, or it might crap out in tomorrow sometime- we'll see. I won't add any smoking juice during htis part of the test- I'll just smoke the cart with hte prefilled liquid till it begs for me for mercy

Noise I'm not hearign hte crackling and popping htat Ned hears, but hten again I've not tried refillign yet either, so this might crop up when I try to refill- we'll see. I do hear a slight 'hiss' as I draw in, but hten again both my penstyle and mini did the same- this Loong might even be a bit quieter to be honest- but htere's a lot of noise in room right now- so I mgiht be mistaken- will update tonight when it's quieter

I've been smoking htis for 1 1/2 hour now on a battery straight out of the package and the vapor is just pouring out of htis thing My full draw count is now 125, and no sign of slowing down vaporwise so far- I was a bit sceptical of Mixos' assessment at first to be honest (Sorry Mixos- no offense, but htought you might have been slightly overstating the amount of vapor and cart length time) but my goodness- He was spot on in his review. This IS the closest thing I've tried to a real cigg- Just as Mixos said- He wasn't overstatign hte situation. The only downside so far is the nic hit, and hte vapor doesn't give much of throat hit- I am goign to be experimenting with refilling- might just cook down some more tobacco from a cigar, to see if it improves the throat feel to hte vapor- that will be in a couple of days though

Well, that's about it for now- Not a great review, but I know people were anxious for soem kind of info- Sorry I feel crappy and can't give more info right now- but htere ya have it for now- will update later today, tonight after batteries charge up proper.

Quick brief update- I did just hear a pop- but meh- it certainly hasn't been doign it constantly or anything, and I didn't feel it spit any juice into mouth- but htis might change when I try refilling- will keep everyoen posted

 

[TropicalBob]

Congratulations Naz. Nice initial intro to the LT. You done good!

 

[Nazareth]

Thanks T.B- just popped the other battery in that only had a 2 hour charge- wow- this thing is smoking very very well. If I take a longer draw, it is giving a bit better hit to back of throatm but I almost get too much vapor, almost enough to choke me- I'm goign to have to fiddle with soem smoking juice dripping to adjust hte htroat hit- but will do so in a few days after hte initial review and tests.

I really like hte form factor, and hte amount of vapor for it being a mini- I can almost hold it in lips (like the James Dean picture- where it is dangling from the lips a bit), but it's just a wee bit too heavy to do so for too long- I've been doing it while writing hte review, but jaw is gettign a little tired trying to keep the cig in mouth while typing- if it were just a bit lighter, we could be like hte old reporters who constantly had cigg in mouth while clicking away on their typewriters - other htan htat- it feels real natural holding the cigg like I do with normal cigg- I know htese are not real big issues, but they do add up to create the smokign experience in my opinion

 

[Mr.Darcy]

nice one Naz...very interesting.
im sure youre gonna test it very thoroughly,knowing you.
i look forward to your reports over the next week or so...and get well soon.

 

[Nazareth]

Thanks Darcy- I'm beginning to feel better- though my stomach is gurgling the tune to "Nightmare on Elm Street" lol

im sure youre gonna test it very thoroughly

Yup- this first poor atomizer is goign to be begging me for mercy before I'm through I've already been smoking hte bejeebers out of it- one full- heavy drag after another, constant - practically nonstop since I got it 3 hours ago. i'm pushing hte batteries, and should probably fully charge them up before goign much further though. I stuck the first battery on the charger, and after noly 1 1/2 hour charge, the light was bright green, so I just took it off and started using it- but should have left it for at least 8 hours, just to be sure it had full charge, but oh well- I'm too impatient lol- I'll leave the other battery on for 8 though- see if there is any difference in vapor- but I can't imagine there will much more- not sure it would be possible to get more lol- I'll probably get htown out of hte house soon lol

 

[ned Zeppelin]

Nazareth try taking a new cartridge or the one that you are currently using.
Use a small electrical screwdriver gently pull off the rubber cap and drop three or four drops of liquid on to around the outer circle of the sponge let it sink in for a few minutes. If you wish you can take the paper off the tip because this will go tatty as you go on.


You will get clouds of vapour any way but without too much hit. So if you do what I have just suggested this will improve that but you might find the vapour decrease slightly as it tends then to be not as consistent but this should improve the hit.


When I first got mine I took three cartridges for testing. The one I stripped off the paper around the tip. This does not feel great around your lips like sucking on a stainless steel tube but the reason I did this is because after nibbling on it for a while it starts to peel off. Hence that's why I took it off.


You can leave the paper on but be gentle when taking the rubber cap Off not to damage the paper.
I have found by leaving the paper on when dripping or dripping then leaving it to stand for a day tends to leak into the paper so not too much liquid. But you will learn to know exactly how much to drop down their.
If its spitting in your mouth you've put too much in but sometimes it will split anyway this only happens on a juicy cartridge.
Marlborough liquid has worked quite well giving least some flavour.

 

[ned Zeppelin]

We contacted LoongTotem yesterday requesting battery replacements as I feel that they are both faulty and told them I did go through the correct procedure on doing the first initial charge for eight hours.

Rita from LoongTotem e-mail us back this morning and told us that the batteries would not function right saying they must have at least eight hours charge.



So she obviously doesn't understand me or trying to avoid the issue.

So it's another week of e-mails backwards and forwards.So by the looks of it they need to be on charge full least eight hours

 

[trog100]

nice down to earth review naz.. so far it seems to work.. he he

the leaving on after the green light comes on dosnt do anything dude.. there really is no need for it..

trog

 

[Nazareth]

Nazareth try taking a new cartridge or the one that you are currently using.
Use a small electrical screwdriver gently pull off the rubber cap and drop three or four drops of liquid on to around the outer circle of the sponge let it sink in for a few minutes. If you wish you can take the paper off the tip because this will go tatty as you go on.

Yup- the paper is already kaput- the glue underneat is quite tacky too- But I was thining of just either wrapping some tape around the very end where it sits in mouth, or making some kind of rubber reusable cover (this would help soften it when biting down a bit too)

en I first got mine I took three cartridges for testing. The one I stripped off the paper around the tip. This does not feel great around your lips like sucking on a stainless steel tube but the reason I did this is because after nibbling on it for a while it starts to peel off. Hence that's why I took it off.

Yeah I did too- you're right- it doesn't feel good- I gotta find a fat rubber band and make a cover for it I guess- or soemthign else

If its spitting in your mouth you've put too much in but sometimes it will split anyway this only happens on a juicy cartridge.

Haven't had a problem with htis yet, but haven't tried dripping yet- might just open up another cartridge and try this later tonight after I've givin htis first cart a good working over.

 

[Nazareth]

We contacted LoongTotem yesterday requesting battery replacements as I feel that they are both faulty and told them I did go through the correct procedure on doing the first initial charge for eight hours.

Rita from LoongTotem e-mail us back this morning and told us that the batteries would not function right saying they must have at least eight hours charge.



So she obviously doesn't understand me or trying to avoid the issue.

So it's another week of e-mails backwards and forwards.So by the looks of it they need to be on charge full least eight hours

Yup- that's rita- She understands just fine, but she's playing dumb hoping we'll quit askign her questions- shes did hte same hting to me when I ordered- she has a very well developped avoidance evasion chromosome I think

added: Just found a temporary fix to hte paper issue- I cut hole in the rubber caps that htey put on the cartridges when they are new, and am using that as a slip cover sortof- workign nicely, and a little more conmfortable between hte teeth too

 

[trog100]

these people probably read from a script.. battery problem make sure customer has charged the battery.. script say.. put battery on charge for at least eight hours.. even if customer stupid this should work.. if customer says they have.. repeat.. but battery on charge for at least eight hours..

or to put it bluntly feed customer stock bullsh-t and hope they go away.. the fact they are chinese speakers makes this process easier.

why i waste my time telling folks who quite clearly do not wish to believe the truth still amazes me..

the green light means off.. the rest is bullsh-t.. these chargers do not go into a trickle charge mode period..

its no wonder these dudes get away with selling products unsuitable for the purpose they are intended for is it.. basically when in china u can get away with anything.. customer who cant grasp this is fool.. he he he

nothing personal here no names mentioned just a general comment.. said with humour..

its bound to offend someone thow.. the truth often does..

trog

ps.. out of curiosity do they quote a run time for the battery.. if they have any sense they wont.. which means lasting only two hours is okay.. why assume otherwise..

 

[Nazareth]

I haven't seen a run time quote o ntheir site- but hten again, I haven't checked the site thoroyghly

Well, had interestiung filure. Was up to 413 full draws, number 414 burnt my throat- literally burnt it- and the next draw did the same- the 416'th draw the atomizer died- but here's what I did- I wondered if shutting off the intake airholes might make more vapor, so I put the whole filter in mouth and drew- immediate scorching to throat, and terrible burnt taste- I am not sure if htis was just coincidental or what, but it's really strange it happened just as I tried this test- I say the atomizer died, but it does still heat up, but produces very little vapor- I tried refilling it thinking it might have just run dry, but it still isn't producing any vapor hardly- I'll work on it a bit more, see what's up there- if I can't get it working, I'll rip the cart apart and see if somethign inside got burnt- it sure tasted liek it did

Well, I was forced to start countign full draws all over again- on another one and up to 50 right now- sigh lol

if anyone has any questions, or somethign htey want me to try with hte loongtotem, lemme know- I might try 'cleaning' the burnt one, see what happens- not that I'm too concerned about losing the cart, but wil lbe interesting to see if it cleans up and works again- doubt it, but we'll see

 

[ned Zeppelin]

Nazareth I think the trick of keeping the cartridge a live and atomiser is not to try and let the cartridge get dried out. I think once its dried out its shot.

And as you can probably see the cartridge does get warm . so to keep dragging on it in the short amount of time which you have had it wouldn't surprise me that it's shot.
I think this because I am still using the same cartridge for over a week now and it's still going on.
But I am adding a few drops every three or four cigarettes.

 

[trog100]

pull a new one apart and try and see what the stuff that surrounds the little heater coil is made of.. if u feel rich enough.. does it look absorbent and how does it look after some use.. i recon its the coating that dies on these things..

trog

 

[Nazareth]

I'm going to pull the old one apart & rollout that cotton or paper- whatever it is, and see what went wrong- I also wanna get a look at just how the actual atomizer is constructed- I think, judging from Mixos' video, that it a straight wire, that goes fro mthe bottom to top, with some tubing surrounding it in secrtions, and the liquid is leached from the cotton into the tube and heated by the wire- I could be wrong, but w'ell see. Will also be interesting to see just which part burned out- I'll report back tomorrow on what I find- just goign ot concentrate on Draw count on the new cart for now- not goign to try the experiment that I tried earlier that mighta burned it out- just want to get htrough hte count as this will be htem ost tedious experiment- I'll post pictures of the old cart when I gt the chance tomorrow

 

[Nazareth]

Yeah Ned- that's goign to be my second test- to see how long I can keep an atomizer goign by keeping it refilled- It will by my only esmoking device, and I'll be smoking it all day long, so I'm not sure I'll get as long a tiem as you, but we'll see- I might be surprised- but for now, I want to get through the count for a standard fileld Cartridge, see how many full draws I can get to help people get an idea of how many eu\quivilent Ciggs they can expect vapor-wise- just to give a rough base figure/count to go by- Greencig claims 200-300 'puffs' (not sure if htey mean full draws like you'd take with a regular cigg or if htey mean short puffs or what) but my draws are full ones (if I have to double draw (drawing twice to point where led blinks) for a full deep draw, I count that as one draw, but usually I only have to draw once for about 4 seconds for a good strong vapor cloud so far

I'll concentrate on rough draw count number per battery charge in the next few days too- I guess I shoulda been counting that all along, but didn't think about it till just now- roughly thouhg, I'm getting abotu 3 hours of steady smoking per battery charge so far- that may drop as battery gets used heavily- which I fully expect

 

[Nazareth]

O.K- quick update on the full draw count.... I poppped a new cartridge in at 8:00, it is now 11:30, and I have really been workign this cartridge hard- smoking it steady, keeping count etc. I got to abotu 290 puffs, and started getting the burnt taste slightly that I mentioned in my previous post- I kept going, and got to 315, and got that scorching feelign in my htroat again, (this is a hot hot inhale- not the nice cool inhale when cart is not so spent), and the burnt taste is getting quite pronounced. I might maybe be able to keep goign a bit- but don't want to risk burnign this atomizer out completely.

now, I may be REALLY pushing the cartridge by keeping constant inhalations goign for 30-40 puffs, then taking a 15 minute break or so- and prematurely drying htem out by keeping them heated for such lengths of time, but it appears to me, that the prefilled liquid is only lastign the = of 3-4 packs of ciggs vapor wise. Now, would just casual smoking cause the carts to last longer even still? Probably, perhaps even most likely, as testified by Mixos, I can safely say, per my experience, that these things do indeed smoke like a 3 alarm fire for quite some time. Could I get 500? Maybe even 600 Draws by just doing normal draws and not pushing it as much as I did for this test? Perhaps, but I'll leave that to another day to test perhaps

The burnt taste and hot hot vapor was quite pronounbced, and is probably signalling hte end of the cart- but I'm goign ot try to see if I can keep it going with soem dripping- see if I can't salvage it for a bit- but I've had two carts now crap out- one completely, one just starting to, around 350-400'ish (probably average out to about 350 perhaps- some goign longer, soem not quite as long etc) which is quite good in my book. I certainly wouldn't push the carts nearly that long when smoking htem normally, but it's good I think to at least get a maximum case scenario baseline to go by, and I think I've accomplished that (plus I'm sick of counting and my lungs are going to be quite upset at me I think lol)

One thing I've noticed both times now, is that when the cart is beginning to dry out, the very end of the cartridge starts to get quite hot on each draw- I'f I've got my lips right near the end of hte cartridge, it slihgtly burns them- The end will get warm fro mtime to time, but when the cart starts dryign out, it gets noticeably hotter

I just dripped about 10 drops, and the burnt taste is gone, and not getting the hot vapor- I'm not sure I should be continuing with htis same cartridge, probably inhaling toxic burnt filter material, but oh well, gonna continue the test to see how long I can keep the atomizer goign by dripping

Another little note on battery time. I changed out hte batteries at 8:00, and liek I said, I've been hitting this cartridge very heavy and steady, and the battery just started blinking indicating it's ready for charge at 11:45, I think it's lasted pretty good conciderign how hard I been drawing down hte cartridges this past 3 1/2 hours, but like I said, this performance will probably, most likely diminish in a week or so to more liek 2-3 hours of normal smoking use- we'll see.

I'm goign to keep postign my updates whether anyone reads em or not, and I know they are long and tedious, boring even, but at least my thoughts and experience/tests will be here if soemoen wants to look them up

 

[TheEmperorOfIceCream]

it appears to me, that the prefilled liquid is only lastign the = of 3-4 packs of ciggs vapor wise.

ooh mama, too hot, too spicy! (UK cable viewers might catch that reference)

Naz, you're crazy! Have you really done 3-4 packs of fags in three and a half hours? I know this stuff is weak but jeez - that's way above and beyond the call of duty. There's no deadline for filing copy, y'know?

 

[Nazareth]

Yup- sure did- The room was clouded over at times lol- Thought sure was gonna get kicked out of hte room- Yeah I know there's no deadline, but I'm wicked impatient- gotta know- gotta know right now kinda person Emp lol

The vapor past I would say abotu maybe 50 draws was really light inhaling (not that it was great to start with, but it did get pretty light after abotu 5 or so cigg worth's of vapor) but again, it was still producing good vapor- just real light hit- I've since been squeezing soem Carts I had for my penstyle out and refilling the loong, and htis has improved the hit quite a bit- when hte cart runs dry again, gonna try soem straight bickfords, just to see if it works, then I'm goign to try straight glycerin-see whqt happens- over hte next few days, gonna try a few different combos of juices to see what works well, what doesn't- the squeezed cartridge juice is workign quite well at moment- but stay tuned

Added- thinking back on when I tested the SmartFixx Carts for draw counts, I guess comparing hte two nicwise, I think the SmartFixx was a bit better for a bit logner, maybe morel iek 7 real ciggs worth or so, but that too did taper off pretty quick- don't remember gettign much of a rush then either & I probably smoked them almost as fast tryign to determine length of cartridges- Maybe I got a bit better nic hits in beginnign with hte SmartFixx Carts, but nothign really to write home abotu- hte only time I've really got hte Nic-Sweats was when testing homebrew smokin juyice- I'm not so sure the Mg claims are accurate- also don't forget, that it supposedly takes 5 draws of ecigg to = 1 draw of real cigg nicwise & I think perhaps hte nic evaporates fairly quick while Esmokin to be honest

Added: Sorry- keep thinking of htese thigns as I experience them- Ned is right, it seems to work better refilling if you allow a period of time to pass before using the cartridge again- not sure why- perhaps it needs to soak into hte whole roll of cotton or soemthign first- but whatever hte reason, I've foudn that tryign to vape the cart right after refilling it produces whimp vapor, then gets stronger and stronger as tiem goes by

 

[trog100]

is it impossible to get at the atomizer naz.. if this happens with a normal e cig a couple of drops straight in atomizers cures the delay problem.. its best not to let the thing right out before topping.. do it half way thru..

trog