Unhappy Provari customer

[ukeman]

I disagree; if you mean by bells and whistles - regulated variable power.
A VV without that electronic chip tech is subject to the waning of the battery charge.
(i never could warm up to those first VV units.... big brother, ali'i etc.

These are well researched and warranteed units... (Provari and Darwin).

I'm rarpidly coming to the conclusion that in this changing environment buying a VV mod that has more bells and whistles than a voltage adjustment and maybe a voltmeter is a mistake.

 

[ChuckBell]

Hi Charles,

I would like to mention that we offered to repay you for shipping which was left out of the post and that all of your emails were promptly answered in a polite way. We asked that you send the unit in so we could check it out and we would cover the shipping costs and promptly return the unit. I don't feel we have been unreasonable in any of the emails in trying to help resolve the problem. From the last email we got it appears things were working good but if you are still having problems please let us know.

Yeah I cleaned it out and it works better for now. There must had been something on the circuit board that was making it so I was getting all the E errors. I didn't do anything that seemed out of the ordinary when I first started using it and was getting errors right from the start.

As far as these "oh snap" people and biased "my Provari works" people - It's people like you that kiss a company's ... because your unit happened to work the way you wanted. Well your Provari isn't my Provari nor have you dealt with the email based customer support that I wasn't happy with.

 

[progg]

Yeah I cleaned it out and it works better for now. There must had been something on the circuit board that was making it so I was getting all the E errors. I didn't do anything that seemed out of the ordinary when I first started using it and was getting errors right from the start.

As far as these "oh snap" people and biased "my Provari works" people - It's people like you that kiss a company's ... because your unit happened to work the way you wanted. Well your Provari isn't my Provari nor have you dealt with the email based customer support that I wasn't happy with.

I haven't seen excessive .... kissing on this sub. Maybe over exuberance?

I think people were shocked about your purported ProVape customer care response.

If you truly were treated poorly that would be an anomaly.
The evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.

Best of luck with your PV and future relations with ProVape. Unless they've suddenly morphed into the anti-ProVape, I'm sure you'll be satisfied.

 

[Credo]

Yeah I cleaned it out and it works better for now. There must had been something on the circuit board that was making it so I was getting all the E errors. I didn't do anything that seemed out of the ordinary when I first started using it and was getting errors right from the start.

As far as these "oh snap" people and biased "my Provari works" people - It's people like you that kiss a company's ... because your unit happened to work the way you wanted. Well your Provari isn't my Provari nor have you dealt with the email based customer support that I wasn't happy with.

I've read back over the thread and only see hints of one person that did not believe you had a bad experience of some sort. The rest of us were just saying it IS UNUSUSAL, and don't give up. Good folks over there, and a great product. It'll get sorted out. It's a high end unit with a high end price...coustomer satisfaction is a big deal to ProVape.

I don't have a ProVari, but I did get a 3.7v ProVape kit sent to one of my GFs and the company rocked at taking good care of her.

 

[VPJUNKIE510]

I just ordered a provari today and reading this makes me worried. Not because of the design or customer service but because I spent some dough on a Pv one month ago, yes that's right one month ago.

First problem I had lights didn't work so I sent it back second it arrived just straight up not working. So I sent it back again and oh yea I'm still waiting for my Pv that I spent 140 on last month. The customer service was and is good but sang twice.

Any way in the middle of all this a friend kept throwing his dang provari in my face. I uses it liked it, and well thought about it for weeks . And finally ordered my provari today.

I will keep my fingers crossed and pray I don't get a dud . I mainly vape mechanical and love having nothing to worrie about. But u can't beat checking ohms and dialing in what I want . Provari may just stop me from buying so many mods .

 

[ukeman]

no worries; the worst that can happen is customer service will take good care of you... if you let me assume, 99% of Vari's sent out have a glitch; if that. These are some of the most bulletproof I've seen.

Yep, you'll totally be getting bored; after spending hours with juices, attys, cartos, accessories, the least of your focus will be on the PV itself. It's like the Maytag commercial... you'll look and look, but there are only a few other PV's out there that do as much.
I don't need a collection of all the "smart PV's"... and a feeder (Eclipse, VVPV) locks me into one juice per pv.
I'm into so many juices that my dream would be about 4 or 5 ... some Vari's and Buzz Pro's, lined up for different juices and attys/carto's.

I just ordered a provari today and reading this makes me worried. Not because of the design or customer service but because I spent some dough on a Pv one month ago, yes that's right one month ago.

First problem I had lights didn't work so I sent it back second it arrived just straight up not working. So I sent it back again and oh yea I'm still waiting for my Pv that I spent 140 on last month. The customer service was and is good but sang twice.

Any way in the middle of all this a friend kept throwing his dang provari in my face. I uses it liked it, and well thought about it for weeks . And finally ordered my provari today.

I will keep my fingers crossed and pray I don't get a dud . I mainly vape mechanical and love having nothing to worrie about. But u can't beat checking ohms and dialing in what I want . Provari may just stop me from buying so many mods .

 

[VPJUNKIE510]

Yea I'm excited about this purchase .

I bought it with the extension cup , the first thing that caught my eye, its not to big for the hand it was almost perfect . What are people using to carry it in. I am gonna look for something to hang it around the neck or belt clip .

 

[ukeman]

carry it in? I never got around to a case for it.
I stick it in my carry bag or a pocket... the Pyrex drip tips are valuable and some click off too easily... it's a good thing i try to just leave it home when i go out just to stop for a while.

I have so many of those velvet bags that come with different pv's...
I have Disney mug from my kid's trip to Disney World on my desk, the velvet bag in the cup, the string tied to the handle, an empty toilet paper roll in the bag; 2 Vari's slide in there easily... haha

Yea I'm excited about this purchase .

I bought it with the extension cup , the first thing that caught my eye, its not to big for the hand it was almost perfect . What are people using to carry it in. I am gonna look for something to hang it around the neck or belt clip .

 

[alexp843]

Wife made me a leather thingy and a ID badge strap for mine.

 

[Dalton63841]

Wife made me a leather thingy and a ID badge strap for mine.

Your wife made that? Very impressive. She should sell those on here.

 

[ScottinSoCal]

I'd buy one of those - but I'd like it to be a little longer and have a cut-out for the button. Too easy to accidentally press that thing if it was swinging around my neck, and the leather around it would make that less likely.

Is she looking for a small business opportunity? I bet there's more than just me that would like one. Say - $35? Custom fit to a ProVari, and protection for those little bumps and bruises. Totally worth it.

 

[VPJUNKIE510]

I recived my provari today. And it has had two different cartomizer and one atty so far so good. Actually very impressed with how easy it is to remember the clicks and really taking control of this wild beast of a PV

 

[tonyorion]

There is definitely something strange going on here that may have to do with the logic of the circuit. My ProVari worked fine, then the window popped and it was sent in for replacement. I only use 18650's with the extension, both the high drain 1600 mah's and the Trustfire 3000 mAh's.

I have no idea if i got the same unit back or ProVape did sent me another, but my feeling is that they sent me another unit since I have a completely new behavior.

1) As with all of you, I have noticed an extremely short battery duration with the second unit. With the first unit, the batteries would take at least 8 hours to charge. With the second, they were charged within an hour or two. That told me that the battery was not completely drained when I put it in the charger. Next time around, I compared the reading from a voltmeter to the Provari and the Provari showed about .3 volts less than read on the meter. The PV also put out less voltage than the meter indicated. I sent it back and received a new one. The same thing happened with the replacement.

2) I started frying SR attys (Joyetech 510) at a horrendous rate, and I was vaping at only 4.3 v. That is not high. Sent the unit back AGAIN, but same problem.

3) After frying my 4th within less than a week, I switched to HR attys and upped the voltage to 4.9.

Guess what!!! Battery life improved dramatically-now back up to the +1 day of heavy vaping and no more fried attys-at least for the time being.

I will give this a few more days.

ProVape definitely changed something in the circuit to pump out a lot more voltage with standard resistance attys between my first unit and this, which is now my fourth.

The service has been quick, admittedly, but I have already lost $18 in Postage and $20 in attys and am not prepared to put up with more costs.

I may be cutting my own throat on this since these types of posting do impact the resale, but I am in this to stay away from cigarettes and not for the joy of vaping.

 

[ukeman]

I have 2 Vari's...
They both work exactly the same, as i would expect from a PV designed the way this is.

THe batts take a couple hours to recharge, from when they reach 3.5 or so from 4.1 to 4.2 fresh.
They don't vape anywhere as long as a protected Li-ion 18650 but that's hi-drain normal.

As for your issues, I guess ProVape would know if those are substantial defects or user fault... i don't.
But why care about LR attys on a VV?
At 2.2 Ohm, the joye 510 has the widest application range of all the resistances... see their chart on site.
My units will not accept LR ... the Vari is "amp limited" to shut down when low resistance is detected. Otherwise one might expect burning out the attys and worse.
I use attys from 2.2 to 4.0 Ohm and there's a lot to play with there.
The Vari's voltages from 3.5 to 5.+ v is plenty of regulated power.

 

[tonyorion]

Ukeman may have hit the nail on the head: it is the atty resistance that may be causing the problems; however, I disagree strongly that it's up to the user to figure it out-especially when one is using a fairly standard atty: a standard resistance Joye 510.


I switched over to high resistance attys and the problems with battery duration, flashing lights, error messages, etc. seemed to have disappeared. Since my attys were fried by the ProVari, any measurement of them would be a moot point.

I just got in mixed batch of 25 attys (306's LR and SR for my Reo Mini, and 510 SR's for my Ikon which is my got to unit when in public) and none of the SR's measured less than 2.6 ohms.

Since I have not been getting more than 2 days from a standard atty, it remains to be seen how long I will get out of these HR ones. And no, I do not mix them since I mark all of my attys with an engraving tool when i get them to avoid confusion.

Regardless, this is not a very satisfactory situation

 

[ukeman]

tony, I don't have a clue what SR is... I thought it was a typo for LR... but seems i'm wrong.

If your attys are regular and none less than 2.6 (btw it's interesting about reg. joye 510 resistance - i have been getting them from somewhere that the spec is 2.2. yet some are higher ? - you say 2.6 Ohm), and they are frying, it's obviously something wrong with the unit/s.

thanks for the details; it certainly is interesting; sorry for your troubles... i'd hate to be in that situation.

what is troubling is that the second unit did the same?

you are right ... not satisfactory. this is the first i've seen of that problem, and i would hope Provape would let you, and us know what the issue is; for their sake too.

you have gone through 4 Provari's ? or did you mean 4 attys?

 

[PKZap27]

SR = Standard Resistance

 

[Vape360]

There is definitely something strange going on here that may have to do with the logic of the circuit. My ProVari worked fine, then the window popped and it was sent in for replacement. I only use 18650's with the extension, both the high drain 1600 mah's and the Trustfire 3000 mAh's.

I have no idea if i got the same unit back or ProVape did sent me another, but my feeling is that they sent me another unit since I have a completely new behavior.

1) As with all of you, I have noticed an extremely short battery duration with the second unit. With the first unit, the batteries would take at least 8 hours to charge. With the second, they were charged within an hour or two. That told me that the battery was not completely drained when I put it in the charger. Next time around, I compared the reading from a voltmeter to the Provari and the Provari showed about .3 volts less than read on the meter. The PV also put out less voltage than the meter indicated. I sent it back and received a new one. The same thing happened with the replacement.

2) I started frying SR attys (Joyetech 510) at a horrendous rate, and I was vaping at only 4.3 v. That is not high. Sent the unit back AGAIN, but same problem.

3) After frying my 4th within less than a week, I switched to HR attys and upped the voltage to 4.9.

Guess what!!! Battery life improved dramatically-now back up to the +1 day of heavy vaping and no more fried attys-at least for the time being.

I will give this a few more days.

ProVape definitely changed something in the circuit to pump out a lot more voltage with standard resistance attys between my first unit and this, which is now my fourth.

The service has been quick, admittedly, but I have already lost $18 in Postage and $20 in attys and am not prepared to put up with more costs.

I may be cutting my own throat on this since these types of posting do impact the resale, but I am in this to stay away from cigarettes and not for the joy of vaping.

Hey Tonyorion,

We are certainly sorry to hear about all the trouble. Definitely let us know if the problem continues. Hopefully the new window is holding up better as there was an improvement to that process. As far as changes to the circuit or code, there have not been any changes in a long time, so well need to investigate why you’re not getting good results if it continues. We do recommend using the higher resistance attys and it seems like this has helped.

The lower resistance attys. when they heat up, the resistance drops even more which can result in errors as the device is shutting down to try and protect it from frying, but there is a lot of power being pushed into that element and it can still damage the atomizer. The difference in the meter readings can be from load vs. no load and wire resistance on the meter, this can account for different readings.

Overall we have had a very low failure rate with the volume of units shipping and each one is tested several times throughout the assembly process. They are all individually calibrated and tested with good lab equipment to verify they are outputting the correct voltage and operating normally. While this helps cut down on problems, things can still come up and we always try to rapidly take care of the issue.

If it continues to not behave, please let us know and we can investigate your setup with atomizers to see what could be causing these problems.

Hopefully things improve with the higher res atty

 

[Stonemull]

I did some quick tests against a good meter and can verify that for mine both the atty resistance check and the battery voltage tests are accurate, bear in mind that these are both tests done under load. Unscrew the atty if you want an unloaded battery reading.
If you get a change of 0.3v from loaded to unloaded then you either have crap batterys or dirty contacts or very low resistance attys, any of those things will cause errors.

The device is current limited to something like 2.6A or so .. put that into 1.5Ω and you are limited to ego voltages and low powers, put that into 2.8Ω and the device really pumps. its no big secret. If you want lots of watts, then even though 2.2Ω to 2.4Ω is probably going to give the max power, its drawing serious current from the battery and it all needs to be pristine with a fully charged battery. I use mine quite a bit with a 306LR .. but leave it on 3.3v or maybe peak it at 3.7v on occasions while the battery is charged.

Currently using a boge carto with a homemade tank on it (ego B atty body cut down, slot cut carto, o rings) 3.1Ω and its pumping out the vape at 4.2v .. I could up the voltage I guess. You need to know the limits of the batterys and the electronics in general.

an analogy may help .. think of the atty resistance as a hill and the voltage as speed. It just isn't gonna go up a steep hill at speed. (LR on high volts), even trying is gonna use lots of fuel (battery) , flatten the hill and cruise and the battery lasts ages. E2 is .. you stalled it..