SmokTech Dual Coil XL Cartomizers - initial review

[kalvinf]

There are other reviews available but since these are new to the market, just adding a reveiw thread to start discussions on this cartomizer in the Canada forum.

Available in Canada at least through cdnvapor or Happy Vaper, these cartomizers are most noteable for the 2 coils inside of them. That's where the easy part ends. These cartos do give great vapor and TH and what low resistance grade atomizer/caromizer wouldn't, but there is a great technological twist not yet seen in the e-cig market. This is the use of the 2 coils - each 3 ohms - in parallel to arrive at a 1.5 ohms aggregate resitance. If anyone has wired up a home theater system you've probably come across the same idea of parallel chained speakers or serial chained speakers.

The great thing is that each individual coil is 3 ohms which has a low chance of burning e-juice but the vapor pulled off is definitely of the LR variety. However, the downside is the 1.5 ohms level of resistance that ideally needs 3.7 volts and above on the battery part to use effectively without chancing damage of the battery. eGo batts may be as low as 3.2 volts depending on the manufacturer. It is more than a mAh consideration and it pretty much goes to having a working voltmeter to test out any eGo/Riva/T-rex batt you are considering.

At this time I'm just reviewing the techological aspects of this cartomizer and welcome further posts on this or anything about these new cartos.

 

[BCman]

Ya, got some from cdnvapor and I love them. Flavor is great and tons of vapor. Been using over a week now and I'm sold. I will be using these for some time to come, probably as close to dripping on a lr as it's going to get.
After 4-5 fills I notices the juice inside is very dark so once that happens I vape it empty then blow like crazy to remove the darkened gunk and they come out pretty clean.
Although I don't believe the lifespan will be very long with these, if I get
2 weeks outta one I will be amazed, but for $3 each I won't be complaining.
Been reading from others about these and dissasembling one is not recommended as it's near impossible to keep the air passage lined up. But I'll defiantly be dissecting one once I've killed it to check it out.

 

[kalvinf]

Ok so going to add some more to this review of sorts.

The vapor is warm and has substancial TH and is consistent as long as there is sufficient juice inside. Given two coils giving lots of heat to juice, this works well with tobacco flavours and I don't know what it would do to fruit/sweets/cola flavours - the possibility of morphing flavour seems above average which has less affect on tobacco flavours.

It's been a couple days only of vaping via these smoktech cartos so I don't have long term impressions but I think they are marketed as longer life than other LR cartomizers.

Initial filling of 35-40 drops seemed to go dry very fast, like in about an hour, but subsequent re-fills lasted much longer which probably shows that time is needed to let the juice soak in at first - maybe longer than an hour (I'm guessing, I didn't wait).

My LR learning curve is at a start point so where I read that a Cisco LR atty of 1.5 ohms should have a battery only up 3.7 max volts and comparing that to Smoktech LR dual coil recommendation of 3.7 volt battery and up I'm left in a confused state. Since I don't have an extensive collection of PV's to draw from I'm left weighing out whether I should risk an eGo 1000 mAh batt that could be anywhere from 3.2 volts to 4.2 volts and plan ahead on replacement cost vs enjoyment of these great LR cartomizers.

Any insights on voltage requirements for LR atomizers/cartomizers?

 

[kalvinf]

Continuing this thread in hopes of finding/stimulating interest in the dual-coil cartomizer design.

Given my limited experience and short time vaping (2 1/2 months yay!) I've read over a small percent, 10-15% maybe, of the Smoktech dual-coil review found in the Electronic Cigerette Reviews -> Cartomizers -> SmokTech Dual-Coil Cartomizers and can at least give a summary of a few aspects covered there. That is a 67 page thread with alot of reviews/testing/personal use exper. - just be sure your oxygen tank is handy near by as you may experience dizzyness or lightheadedness with the huge dump of techincal details!

I guess the thing is that these are raved about and those vapers that are in vapor-nirvana search journeys have found this carto to be a "best find" to their search quest. I don't see much if anything at all in our Canada forum so, again, just seeing if any interest is out there.

To summarize juice taste related in this big thread: Electronic Cigerette Reviews -> Cartomizers -> SmokTech Dual-Coil Cartomizers, the thing that stands out is no burning under any conditions. The posters offering reviews have every type of PV and going end-to-end through their collections just could not burn any juice. This was attributed to the larger surface area of the dual coils even though the overall heat is LR quality.

There are warnings and concerns on stock batterys such as eGo/Riva but most vendors only have a warning about using a larger battery without mentioning volt requirements. Some vendors do mention volt requirements. Basically, I get the idea that the 1.5 ohms are not designed with eGo batts in mind but there seem to be alot of vapers that use eGos without damaged issues - so far - but this seems chancy.

There are higher ohm smoktech dual coils available now from nhaler (US vendor) but for Canada its the 1.5 ohms that cdnvapor carries and at this time I haven't asked Jack what ohms his offered smoktech cartos are (I think this went to a Yoda sentence??).

Depending on whether you have a PV that can easily handle these cartomizers, like a silverbullet, you may be saddled with a decision on risking your eGo battery to get the phenomenal vaper and TH these cartomizers have. This case is like finding a great set of tires then having to buy a car to match the tires. Ordering higher ohm versions of the Smoktech dual-coils from the US - Nhaler at least - vendors would be the safest route for eGo/Riva/Torch users.

 

[muleygirl]

I was on the fence about ordering these but thought I would give them a try. I'm glad I did, the vapour production is great and a great th as well. I like the nice warm vapour they produce. I was kinda worried about there not being as good of flavour, I worried for nothing. The flavour comes alive with these. I really enjoy my tobacco flavours now, which I didn't before with the CE2. They also work good with the sweet juices as well. I have been using them on my Leo the only thing is the batt. charge doesn't last as long, but I guess that shouldn't be a surprise they do take more power. All in all I will be ordering somemore.

 

[Firechief2]

I just ordered some from CDN Vapor. I will try them on my ProdigyV3 and ProVari and post my findings. I ordered both the clear and the metal ------ has any-one had problems with the clear's leaking ? or cracking ?

 

[BCman]

havent had one leak yet but i have noticed on a few that there are some hairline cracks right where it is connected to the battery, but there not spreading and only maybe 1/8" long, time will tell....

 

[kalvinf]

Cleaned out the one SmokTech I'm on atm with blowing hard on each end to clear out left over juice. Did have a tobacco flavour, on the sweet side, and filled up with blueberry (the cdnvapor blueberry) and was able to get a nice clear blueberry tasting vape. This cleaning was a tryout of BCman's post suggestion and it does seem to clean out decently.

I did notice that when initially filling these, that it takes a second fill to get longer term flavour time. Filled once, it seems to loose flavour after 5-6 puffs, but doing a top off (first fill of 20 drops, second fill of 10 drops) gets the flavour good ongoing for hours.

I have the stainless steel version and it may not be necessary to go with the clear types using Boge carto filling method. Anthing clear seems to crack and I hope yours hang in there bcman. What is your hardware btw?

Still on the search to isolate safe use with eGo/Riva/etc batts - sent an email to a SmokTech sales rep asking about testing with eGo stock batteries, may or may not get anything back there. Sent an email to Jack at Happy Vaper. The HV web site doesn't say anything beyond just using with larger batteries. Maybe if Jack is browsing posts we could get an answer in this thread?

 

[tmac1981]

I talked with smk and the cartomizers are safe to use on all 510 batterys , ego , Trex , riva
with lower mah batterys they will drain the battery faster than a normal cartomizer

 

[kalvinf]

Ok, have an answer back from SmokTech on use with eGo batteries. This question wasn't really addressed completely on the Ecigartte Reviews -> Cartomizers -> SmokTech Dual Coil Cartomizers thread.
The smoktech web site is geared for suppliers and immediately puts a chat window up, but it was great to just be able to enter chat and ask questions. Also received an email reply.
The email was:

Dear Kalvin:

Yes, we have performed the tests for the dual coil cartomizers and the 1.5ohm dual coil cartomizers can be used on eGo .

Please advise your Skype ID if you have.

Warm Regards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter Wan

Shenzhen Smok Technology Co.,Ltd

Address: 5/F,10#Building,Changxing Industry Zone,Changzhen Village Gongming Town, Baoan District
Shenzhen city Guangdong province, China (Mainland) 518106

Telephone:+ 86 755 27559593
Fax: + 86 755 27179961

Mobile:86-134-1860-3284

Skype: smoketechsales08

Website: Smoktech Electronic Cigarette Manufacturer China|E-Liquid|Disposable Electronic Cigarette|E-Cigarettes|E-Cigs|Electronic Cigarettes

and the chat was:

Welcome ! If you have any questions or suggestions about our products and services, please feel free to tell us anytime!
Our operators will help your through the live chat or email.

sales08 06-08 23:00:35
welcome to our website, this is Peter

You 06-08 23:00:43
hi Peter

sales08 06-08 23:00:52
May I have your name and your email address, so I will send you the price list immediately

sales08 06-08 23:01:13
please go ahead with your question

sales08 06-08 23:01:23
yeap,I got your question by email a

You 06-08 23:01:27
I believe you have sent that to me already - I have a question on the dual-coil cartomizers

sales08 06-08 23:03:07
I have answered your question ,the dual coil cartomizers can be used upon the eGo

You 06-08 23:03:45
They have been tested with eGo batteries?

sales08 06-08 23:04:12
yes

You 06-08 23:05:06
Maybe just one more detail on the volts requirement is it a steady 3.7 volts for the dual-coils? or can it vary up and down?

sales08 06-08 23:05:18
it is strongly recommend that the dual coil 510 shall be used upon Ego

sales08 06-08 23:06:01
let me check

sales08 06-08 23:07:53
it is up to the PCB .usually, the voltage can be bigger than 3.7v

sales08 06-08 23:08:00
but it can not be smaller than 3.7v

You 06-08 23:08:19
Ok thanks for your great answers Peter.

Still not sure what would happen if an eGo drops below 3.7 volts but possibly this doesn't happen until the battery goes somewhere below 1/2 charge.

Just passing information along, not saying this is a recommendation to use eGo's but it's a good indicator.

 

[kalvinf]

I talked with smk and the cartomizers are safe to use on all 510 batterys , ego , Trex , riva
with lower mah batterys they will drain the battery faster than a normal cartomizer

Thanks Al, this would be the final Ok then from you!

 

[tmac1981]

i have used the dual coils for 4 weeks on all my battery's with no issues i prefer the higher voltage riva style battery but they work fine on my joye and trex ego batterys also i have used them on the smk 510 280 mah battery's

 

[TallGrass]

I've been vaping on the smoktech DC carto's all day now....... not really impressed so far, but give me a few days to really judge it. (I keep wanting to go back to my bloog but I'll tough it out.)

 

[kalvinf]

i have used the dual coils for 4 weeks on all my battery's with no issues i prefer the higher voltage riva style battery but they work fine on my joye and trex ego batterys also i have used them on the smk 510 280 mah battery's

Yeah these cartos are at their finest with higher voltage from I read, personally my limited PV collection doesn't include those.
But even still great vapor, great TH, consistent, easy filling, no burning I'll take on an eGo.

 

[TallGrass]

Higher voltage.. I would agree with that. Once I get another 510 adapter I'll definitely be using these on a 5v mod.

 

[manc2000]

Its just great that the technology continues to evolve and it will be interesting to see where it will be one year from now. My wife and son are 3 months without analogs and have been using carto/clearo. ego battery conbination. My son however, weakened yesterday having purchased a packet of analogs. He has been suffering with really bad toothache for 2 days and went to the dentist yesterday and was told that he needs quite a bit of work done, including at least 4 teeth to be removed. They gave him an appointment for June 13th. He came out of the dentist and immediately went to the store and purchased a packet of analogs. He smoked 3 of them yesterday and said he really enjoyed them, and he is still using his ecig in between. Apparently he has not been getting the TH he enjoyed with analogs. To-day I will order some dual coils and see if they will help get him back on course. BTW I do the ordering for both my wife and son, and they do the paying. If the duals give my son a better TH it looks as though my wife will have enough regular cartos to last her a couple of years. (we have been stocking up due to the postal strike and HC problems.
I have one question. Is it common for ecig users to revert to analogs when they are stressed out?

 

[kalvinf]

If the duals give my son a better TH it looks as though my wife will have enough regular cartos to last her a couple of years. (we have been stocking up due to the postal strike and HC problems.
I have one question. Is it common for ecig users to revert to analogs when they are stressed out?

It's always nice to hear about a vaping family, sorry about your son's dental problems.
My personal test for TH is to go outside in a good breeze/wind and vape and if I'm not checking the battery LED to see if it's blinking because I didn't taste anything on a puff then the TH is excellent. These dual coils definitely give that good TH outside in any weather.

As for reverting to analogs being common, it probably happens enough. There are some forum members here who are doing both vaping and analogs with a long term phasing out of analogs.

To get a best response on the reverting to analogs question you may get more focused responses if you started a thread on just that here in the Canada sub-forum and in the General E-Cigarette General Discussion sub-forum.

 

[manc2000]

It's always nice to hear about a vaping family, sorry about your son's dental problems.
My personal test for TH is to go outside in a good breeze/wind and vape and if I'm not checking the battery LED to see if it's blinking because I didn't taste anything on a puff then the TH is excellent. These dual coils definitely give that good TH outside in any weather.

As for reverting to analogs being common, it probably happens enough. There are some forum members here who are doing both vaping and analogs with a long term phasing out of analogs.

To get a best response on the reverting to analogs question you may get more focused responses if you started a thread on just that here in the Canada sub-forum and in the General E-Cigarette General Discussion sub-forum.

Kalvin thanks for the response to my question, and the report on the dual coil carto. Your right, I should start another thread on the subject of vapers who fall off the wagon.

 

[TallGrass]

I just cracked open another and filled it with juice... this one is performing much better. Multimeter shows the same resistance as the first... *shrug*

 

[Vanisle]

I have been using one of these thanks to Allen for about 3 days now. I love them. Great TH and flavour. I have 2 brand new atties that will be collecting dust as I have no intention of using a atty again.

Thanks a ton Allen.