Sigelei Zmax V3 and V5 Telescopic: User's Group

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Gato del Jugo

ProVarinati
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I know you are kidding but I never claimed the sigelei was as good an APV as a Provari. If I ever buy a Provari it would be for the smaller size per battery. The sigelei Zmax Telescopics are more to my liking. The Sigelei in 18350 mode (100mm) is small enough for me, if fact most of time I use 18500. I like the VW and most of all the battery versatility the Provari doesn't have, either the Mini or Standard. My experience with Sigelei durability has been good enough that it makes sense to me to own one till it fails and just buy another rather than buy a Provari and pay for extended warranties or individual repairs. I also have the option of fixing a Sigelei myself as I'm fairly proficient with a soldering pencil and have electronics parts stores nearby. For $40 I can order a new Sigelei and get it in my mailbox a lot faster than if I took the Provari repair route.

Well, I think you're very fortunate that you haven't had any issues with your Sigs, as apparently quite a few have. If you had, you might be singing a slightly different tune, as many others from the start of this thread have done in the past 10 months now.

Vapers, regardless of their tinkering expertise & tool availability, shouldn't have to be repairing their devices numerous times, including those who have experienced up to 100% failure rates on multiple devices in short periods of time. It's good that you can easily fix your Sig, even though you've yet to have to. Does this mean you can't repair your own non-Sig? ;)


I'm not going to go t|t-for-tat on your points, as I believe they're easily debatable & I'm not here to do that. I'm also not here to plug ProVari or any other device, American-made or not. But I do think vapers should carefully weigh their options, and that a lower price-tag and/or more "features" does not always necessarily equate to a better value. I also think vapers in the market should be mindful of the overall quality, design & materials of many products coming from China, especially for an APV. I think that's a serious issue, as a new vaper could easily just get frustrated, give up & go back to analogs.


I'm glad I got the Sig. I'm using it right this moment, actually. If somebody had $50 to spend, I'd suggest it & relay my experiences with it, both negative & positive. I've put it through a lot of use, and hope to continue to do so for as long as possible. I'm also glad I have it because every experienced full-time vaper should have 2 decent working mods. And if I had gotten the ProVari 1st, a possibility which I had been toying with? I'd have to spend more money on my spare, because it most definitely would have been a 2nd ProVari. The Sig actually saved me some start-up cost & gave me some financial breathing room for other vaping components.


In my previous post, I stated: "Even though it's not perfect, I'd rather have 1 ProVari than 3 or 4 Sigs"

1.) I have acknowledged here & elsewhere that the ProVari not perfect. No PV is. I have a couple gripes about it, price-tag being one of them.

2.) I would rather have 1 of them than 3 or 4 Sigs; others would rather have the 3 or 4 Sigs. We all have our individual needs, wants, preferences & various limitations. Honestly, whatever gets us off & keeps us off analogs is the one thing that truly matters.


Now if you'll excuse me, I must go chain-vape my shifted Sig... :)
 

Gato del Jugo

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No, I can't say that we've had the best of luck unfortunately, but at least 4 of the 5 are operational and usable right now.

My first one (older version) was purchased from VaporHeads.net in April of 2013. I want to say that my Dad got his older version a week or two later from the same site but I'm not quite positive about that. The other 3 new version V3's came from DesertVapes and were purchased mid December in two separate orders.

I should say that I never had the impression that where I purchased them had anything to do with the final outcome and I'm not out to give these vendors a bad name. Realistically, all they likely did was order in bulk from Sigelei and then ship them out individually to customers. These V3's weren't mistreated in any way before I got them and there wasn't any damage or tampering that was evident in the packaging. Just the luck of the draw I guess (or bad luck of the draw I should probably say). :glare:

No, wasn't necessarily implying that it was a vendor issue. However, multiple orders from multiple vendors over a decent span of time suggests that it just isn't merely a case of a bad batch or two... Actually, this could arguably lead to impressions of a more widespread issue, if anything.
 

Dave_in_OK

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I haven't been in the forum for awhile but I needed a question answered and knew I would find it here :D Was having a lot of misfires due to the board slipping a bit (my fault as I got lazy) found fairmana Post on repair and thanks to that I'm back up and everything is find and I'm still very happy with it.
btw I ordered my wife a Z3 for Christmas and she loves it. She hasn't had any problems with hers yet ( I showed her the right way to install the battery and unlike me she can follow directions :laugh:). I know that isn't the only reason for problems but it was mine.
 

yzer

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Good to hear from you, Dave. Glad your V3 is still working. I've never seen Sigelei or the vendors provide any information about how to tighten the battery tube without damaging the unit. We have all used flashlights that have battery springs in them but the threading on flashlight tubes will come to a stop before the tube is overtightened. It only works that way on the Sigelei when using the 18350 battery. Most flashlights I've seen don't compress the battery spring much more than half-way.

Providing a simple instruction booklet for the Sigelei would have done a lot to avoid this issue but the fact that printing is so expensive today is another oddity of our times. Weren't computers and printers supposed to make printing less expensive? Most people wouldn't bother to download an instruction booklet if a downloadable manual was provided. Then again, most people don't read instruction booklets even if they have them.

I'm afraid that we are all guinea pigs to some degree in this e-cig experiment.
 

justdoeit

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I think it's more the fact that it's telescopic to accept all sizes of batteries. So you can't have a "universal" stopping point for the threading.

I know I pushed up my board by over tightening (I was going tight as I could with 18650's before).. now I just tighten enough not to have any movement in the bottom

I bought a 2nd and am much more diligent in not over tightening
 

Dave_in_OK

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I've never seen Sigelei or the vendors provide any information about how to tighten the battery tube without damaging the unit.

The instructions I was referring to are the ones you provided here :toast: that I read and then got lazy and over tighten my unit lol. :facepalm: But thanks to this thread I was able to quickly find the answers to fix it.
 

gorech

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Feb 9, 2014
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I just got my V5 yesterday. WOW and outstanding is all I can say! After using the (many) e-go C twist this is real downtown.
I would like to say THANKS to yzer for all his work and time spent here.
And after weeks of reading, I am a slow reader; I got through the whole posting.

From Ebay $67
Sigelei Zmax V5 Telescopic Stainless Steel SI V2.0a (flat top)
Kit (Sigelei protank, batteries IRC 18350 & 18650, charger and 510-to-USB)
Sigellei logo under the metal fire button.
Both battery caps have "A991" engraved on the outside bottom.

From 101 Vape, fast shipping!!
E-fest IMR 18500 1100mAh (flat top) x2
E-fest IMR 18650 2000mAh (flat top) x2
Noalox from Lowes
Using in RMS mode

Nitecore IntelliCharger i4 from Amazon had a defective slot 4 so it went back, bad luck, no issue as i have the one that came with the Sigelei kit until replacement is in and Amazon is tops for returns.

Vaping since 09/13/2013. 33-year cigarette habit ended 09/14/2013.
I am now off to buy some Ekowool cotton core and Kanthal A1 wire! So happy I did not dispose of them “BAD” Kanger Protank 2 coil heads’. Being a pack rat has some benefits.:p
 
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yzer

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Welcome to the group, gorech! Looks like you are well-equipped. I really admire anyone with the patience to read all of this very long thread! If you get a chance to use the cell phone charger on the V5 let us know how you like it. I know that a lot of people buy the V5 for reasons other than the cell phone charger alone. That V5 display is nice.
 

yzer

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JeremyR

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Good call yzer... "Provari keeps reading e1, I can't send my provari back its brand new, at 200.00 it can't be bad (too)"

Sky I think you will find the atomizer is the trouble. You are possibly over tightening it. Welcome to the forum if you want a better vape experience dig in to ecf.
 
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MotherNatural

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It's mail man stalking time again. So happy with my Sigelei V3 that number two is on it's way. I opted for the V3 knowing I'll never use the phone charger feature and I really don't even want the ability to count # of puffs. If it's there…I'll look at it and I don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss. #2 will be my on the road vape with a 18350. Vapemail…makes me hate holidays!
 

yzer

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I wish I was stalking the mailbox again. I've got 250ml of 100mg nicotine base to dilute and bottle before I order the next goodie. I'm looking at new syringe bottles. I can certainly understand why people buy two V3s. I fell in love with the telescopic tube mods and the only other close choice for a backup is the SVD which really can't compete with the Sigelei.
 
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