Alrighty, my first "real" review as a newby to vaping. Be gentle 
First, I've been smoking cigarettes, pipes, cigars, and cigarellos for almost 20 years. two weeks ago I stopped.
My first ever vaping expeirence was with something called "Randy's Electronic Cigarette" it was.. to be honest complete trash. Was a tiny cigarette look alike that was actually slightly smaller than a normal cigarette. It produced airy hot vapor that burned my throat and tasted like burnt urine. Needless to say I put it down and picked my cigarellos back up, that was maybe a year ago.
My second vaping experience was with a "Smoke Relief". One of those generic kits you see that comes with a black plastic Cig Pack looking PCC and resembles a phat slightly long cigarette. This is the new breed of generics and it has cartomizers. The taste was pleasant actually and vapor production was a million times better than the randy's so I wasn't displeased. I was however displeased with the price of the cartomizers and after fiddling around I found this forum.
Today I recieved my Riva 510 batteries, a LR atty, a drip tip, a pack of SmokTech dual coil cartos and some 0 nic juice. I also found out the Smoke Relief uses the 510 thread which means I'll be making my first mod by gutting that little guy as soon as possible But onto the actual review.
I'd bought some "Carmanilla" juice, 18mg nic from the same smoke shop I got my smoke relief hoping I could refill my cartos. I could but the flavor was lacking and the vapor production was poor with this new juice in them. I used this juice in one of the dual coil cartos and the difference was night and day. The vape is a bit hotter and the production is still a little lower than I'd like but I'm not entirely sure what 'good' production is. It is however a huge improvement over the SR (smoke relief) in that the vapor is more consistent, less scratchy and there is a lot more of it. I don't feel like I'm just breathing hot air, theres more of a fullness to the inhalation. So using the same juice between the SR and the Riva the riva is a much, much better experience.
I used two other fluids. both 90/10 pv/vg from Liberty Flights.com one in "Mtn Dew" flavor and the other in "Waffle" The mtn dew actually tastes a lot like mtn dew once you get past the heat, I once boiled Mtn Dew to reduce it for a syrup to put on a special desert Iw as making and the fumes that came off of it smelled exactly like this, it's pleasant. Almost 0 throat hit and less vapor than the carmanilla from sinless smoke. I dripped and filled a carto with this juice, dripping produced a much hotter and slightly more noticeable flavor but less vapor and was almost uncomfortable to inhale, no throat hit just too hot. The carto (again, smoktech dual coil) produced more vapor, less overall taste but I was able to enjoy it more because it was cooler and more full feeling.
The second flavor I tried was the Waffle. This tastes like exhaling breakfast. I can think of no other way to describe it. Imagine taking a big wiff of a plate of buttery maple syrup coated waffles but you can't smell it, then exhaling and suddenly you can taste and smell the syrup and butter. Not really a lot of 'waffle' but my brain could almost smell bacon even though I know the flavor isnt in there
Same results between dripping and carto for the vapor and taste as the Mtn Dew.
So far the sinless smoke carmanilla has the strongest flavor, TH, and vapor production which strikes me as odd since I'm pretty sure it's pure PG. I'm going to be going with some other vendors for a few more liquids and see what I think in the future, I'll write more about that later.
Now, as for the actual device. fully assembled with the carto, drip tip, and battery it's a little longer than a 100 type cigarette. not a whole lot but it's noticeable. the diameter of the battery is about the size of a lipstick or maybe 4 cigaretts bundled, or a standard real cigar (not a philly or swisher) whichever is the best point of reference for you
The button lights up and stays lit a second after you release it. the bat bodies I got are in titanium and steel. they look great, very clean, very smooth. I'm a little concerned by the fact that there's no battery vent hole but I'm sure that's been accomodated elsewhere on the device and I'm just not seeing it.
The batteries are sealed according to the website so you can safely direct drip. The cone I got with it seems to be mostly cosmetic but I havn't tried using it much without it on so I can't speak from expeirence just yet. I'll post a follow up in a few weeks after I've "lived" with the device. I got the 750mAh batteries so we'll see how they stack up. The one I have was fully charged at 407 and I'll probably be using it pretty heavy. I have a learning curve on filling up cartos so I'm not going to comment on how long they last filled just yet because I may have underfilled it.
I'll post back soon.
In summary if you're using a look alike e-cig I'd whole heartedly recommend upgrading and you can't do bad with a riva 510. I took it out of the box and with very little research was able to hook it up, put it together, fill it up, and use it in a matter of minutes (less if you drip).
That said if I hadn't been so hasty in getting my Riva I may have ordered the e-power kit instead. That kit uses a replaceable battery and from everythign I've read elsewhere it performs exactly like the riva with the right battery in it and it's only slightly larger in diameter. This would give you all of what I've said above + the ability to buy replacement batteries for the 'case' and have a 'mod lite' type of experience, I've got two Riva batteries, for the same cost I could have had 1 chassis and 3 total batteries with equal or longer duration. So, my end recommendation would be to go with an e-power as your first 'upgrade' from a look alike e-cig.
Disclaimer: I'm a newb who's done a lot of reading and has little practical experience other than what's listed in this review so take what you read here at face value only, I'm by no means a pro or long time vaper but I did do quite a bit of research and still am. Thanks for reading and enjoy not sucking in all those horrible chemicals!
First, I've been smoking cigarettes, pipes, cigars, and cigarellos for almost 20 years. two weeks ago I stopped.
My first ever vaping expeirence was with something called "Randy's Electronic Cigarette" it was.. to be honest complete trash. Was a tiny cigarette look alike that was actually slightly smaller than a normal cigarette. It produced airy hot vapor that burned my throat and tasted like burnt urine. Needless to say I put it down and picked my cigarellos back up, that was maybe a year ago.
My second vaping experience was with a "Smoke Relief". One of those generic kits you see that comes with a black plastic Cig Pack looking PCC and resembles a phat slightly long cigarette. This is the new breed of generics and it has cartomizers. The taste was pleasant actually and vapor production was a million times better than the randy's so I wasn't displeased. I was however displeased with the price of the cartomizers and after fiddling around I found this forum.
Today I recieved my Riva 510 batteries, a LR atty, a drip tip, a pack of SmokTech dual coil cartos and some 0 nic juice. I also found out the Smoke Relief uses the 510 thread which means I'll be making my first mod by gutting that little guy as soon as possible
But onto the actual review. I'd bought some "Carmanilla" juice, 18mg nic from the same smoke shop I got my smoke relief hoping I could refill my cartos. I could but the flavor was lacking and the vapor production was poor with this new juice in them. I used this juice in one of the dual coil cartos and the difference was night and day. The vape is a bit hotter and the production is still a little lower than I'd like but I'm not entirely sure what 'good' production is. It is however a huge improvement over the SR (smoke relief) in that the vapor is more consistent, less scratchy and there is a lot more of it. I don't feel like I'm just breathing hot air, theres more of a fullness to the inhalation. So using the same juice between the SR and the Riva the riva is a much, much better experience.
I used two other fluids. both 90/10 pv/vg from Liberty Flights.com one in "Mtn Dew" flavor and the other in "Waffle" The mtn dew actually tastes a lot like mtn dew once you get past the heat, I once boiled Mtn Dew to reduce it for a syrup to put on a special desert Iw as making and the fumes that came off of it smelled exactly like this, it's pleasant. Almost 0 throat hit and less vapor than the carmanilla from sinless smoke. I dripped and filled a carto with this juice, dripping produced a much hotter and slightly more noticeable flavor but less vapor and was almost uncomfortable to inhale, no throat hit just too hot. The carto (again, smoktech dual coil) produced more vapor, less overall taste but I was able to enjoy it more because it was cooler and more full feeling.
The second flavor I tried was the Waffle. This tastes like exhaling breakfast. I can think of no other way to describe it. Imagine taking a big wiff of a plate of buttery maple syrup coated waffles but you can't smell it, then exhaling and suddenly you can taste and smell the syrup and butter. Not really a lot of 'waffle' but my brain could almost smell bacon even though I know the flavor isnt in there
Same results between dripping and carto for the vapor and taste as the Mtn Dew.
So far the sinless smoke carmanilla has the strongest flavor, TH, and vapor production which strikes me as odd since I'm pretty sure it's pure PG. I'm going to be going with some other vendors for a few more liquids and see what I think in the future, I'll write more about that later.
Now, as for the actual device. fully assembled with the carto, drip tip, and battery it's a little longer than a 100 type cigarette. not a whole lot but it's noticeable. the diameter of the battery is about the size of a lipstick or maybe 4 cigaretts bundled, or a standard real cigar (not a philly or swisher) whichever is the best point of reference for you
The button lights up and stays lit a second after you release it. the bat bodies I got are in titanium and steel. they look great, very clean, very smooth. I'm a little concerned by the fact that there's no battery vent hole but I'm sure that's been accomodated elsewhere on the device and I'm just not seeing it.
The batteries are sealed according to the website so you can safely direct drip. The cone I got with it seems to be mostly cosmetic but I havn't tried using it much without it on so I can't speak from expeirence just yet. I'll post a follow up in a few weeks after I've "lived" with the device. I got the 750mAh batteries so we'll see how they stack up. The one I have was fully charged at 407 and I'll probably be using it pretty heavy. I have a learning curve on filling up cartos so I'm not going to comment on how long they last filled just yet because I may have underfilled it.
I'll post back soon.
In summary if you're using a look alike e-cig I'd whole heartedly recommend upgrading and you can't do bad with a riva 510. I took it out of the box and with very little research was able to hook it up, put it together, fill it up, and use it in a matter of minutes (less if you drip).
That said if I hadn't been so hasty in getting my Riva I may have ordered the e-power kit instead. That kit uses a replaceable battery and from everythign I've read elsewhere it performs exactly like the riva with the right battery in it and it's only slightly larger in diameter. This would give you all of what I've said above + the ability to buy replacement batteries for the 'case' and have a 'mod lite' type of experience, I've got two Riva batteries, for the same cost I could have had 1 chassis and 3 total batteries with equal or longer duration. So, my end recommendation would be to go with an e-power as your first 'upgrade' from a look alike e-cig.
Disclaimer: I'm a newb who's done a lot of reading and has little practical experience other than what's listed in this review so take what you read here at face value only, I'm by no means a pro or long time vaper but I did do quite a bit of research and still am. Thanks for reading and enjoy not sucking in all those horrible chemicals!
