Why a bad rap?

[Capslayer]

Why does Smok have such a bad rap?
I hear of warranty claims and faulty devices.
I started vaping 3 months ago and use the Novo. One Novo quit working finally after 3 months. Considering it’s a battery inside that gets drained and recharged almost daily that’s a pretty good life span.
The pods I buy are $1.50 each and last quite a while. 30 dollar bottle of juice lasts a long time. I figure monthly cost is maybe 40-50 dollars. Overall, I am very satisfied with this pod system.
Are the bad reviews from people who buy more expensive devices ?
Just thought I’d share my feelings after a few months of use.

I forgot to mention, the size of this device is what I love. It fits in my pocket and makes stealth vaping a breeze.

If there are similar size devices out there I’d be happy to try.

 

[mac-nutty]

for the price you pay for a smok mod you could buy a drag or a yihi chipped device

smok are well known to be a bad manufacturer

 

[Letitia]

Smok doesn't make bad products so much as they have terrible qc. Just so you know 3 months is a dismal life span.

 

[Baditude]

I can't speak for their tanks or pod mods, but the mods made by SMOK have had a notorious reputation for poor quality control, poor warranty service, poor expected lifetime usage for several years running.

Several years ago a whole model line of SMOK mods were recalled because they were auto-firing, literally smoking or catching on fire. Hardly a week passes on this forum that someone complains of a SMOK mod that won't turn on, loses its display screen, bursts into flames while charging, etc. I've read that SMOK doesn't honor their warranty. In 2014 I worked for a vape shop, and our store had more mod failures for SMOK than any other brand that we carried, to the point that we eventually stopped carrying them.

If SMOK invested as much money in their Quality Control and Warranty/Customer Service departments as they do in their Marketing and Product Distribution departments then they would probably be a much more reputable company. To me, the quality of a SMOK and a similarly priced Innokin or Geekvape battery device is night and day.

Rule of thumb: Don't buy batteries with the name fire; Trustfire, Sure Fire, Ultra Fire; don't buy mods made by SMOK. Their have bad mojo.

208 Smok Reviews and Complaints @ ...... Consumer
Smok

SMOK Stick Explodes While Charging While Family Sleeps Caught on Security Cam

 

[GOMuniEsq]

Yes, there is an avalanche of competing pod systems on the market right now, in a similar form factor to the one you are using.

There's a phenomenon we see all the time in the new members forum on ECF. It goes something like this:

N: "Hi I'm new to vaping and I have a problem. My coils fail early / my mod broke / my finish flaked off / my battery died / there's a piece rattling around inside / it leaks everywhere / et cetera."
V: "Hi! OK what are you using?
N: "A Smok."
V: "Why'd you buy one of those?"
N: "It was on sale and seemed good enough."

Smok are very popular with folks who haven't tried anything else yet and that is their audience. If you like buying a new one every three months then that is the brand for you. Just be sure to keep a spare on hand.

We build cheap.
You buy cheap.
It break?
You buy another!
—SMOK

 

[Vapedog]

Why does Smok have such a bad rap?
I hear of warranty claims and faulty devices.
I started vaping 3 months ago and use the Novo. One Novo quit working finally after 3 months. Considering it’s a battery inside that gets drained and recharged almost daily that’s a pretty good life span.
The pods I buy are $1.50 each and last quite a while. 30 dollar bottle of juice lasts a long time. I figure monthly cost is maybe 40-50 dollars. Overall, I am very satisfied with this pod system.
Are the bad reviews from people who buy more expensive devices ?
Just thought I’d share my feelings after a few months of use.

I forgot to mention, the size of this device is what I love. It fits in my pocket and makes stealth vaping a breeze.

If there are similar size devices out there I’d be happy to try.

Hi. I have a couple of devices that have probably been drained and charged, internal battery devices, equivalent to easy 12 months use. One of those, the misses owns is a Wismec that is 2 yrs old and shows no sign of letting up. 3 months is garbage. Smok are flip the coin devices, heads you get a good one and tails you get a bad.

 

[Rossum]

One Novo quit working finally after 3 months. Considering it’s a battery inside that gets drained and recharged almost daily that’s a pretty good life span.

I disagree with this assessment. A Li-ion battery should be "good" (retain 70-80% of its rated capacity) for at least 300 and generally more like 500 full cycles. So even if you drain it completely every day, it should last at least a year. You might notice a drop in capacity after a year, but there's no excuse at all for it to stop working after just three months.

 

[Opinionated]

One Novo quit working finally after 3 months. Considering it’s a battery inside that gets drained and recharged almost daily that’s a pretty good life span.

the very first vape battery I bought was an Ego. I bought two so I could have a back-up, and used both daily as I was a chain vaper back then..

thing was those things were cheap, I mean dirt cheap even for back then.. it was 11 dollars for both for goodness sakes.

those two batteries lasted a year. the main cost of vaping as far as equipment goes isn't the batteries, it's the coils or for you the pods with internal coil systems..

those need regular replacement, and it's part of the cost of vaping.. but batteries should last 1-2 years, not 3 months.

it's just more proof of what kind of quality Smok offers its customers.

the reason long term vapers like myself complain is simply because we know how vape gear is supposed to behave; we know poor quality from good..

Look into the Innokin Gala or the Innokin EQ (I really love these newest Innokin offerings myself) or possibly something along the lines of a GeekVape Flint or Vandy Vape Berserker MTL kit

those are small reasonably priced devices you change the coils in instead of the pod, and you should easily find a difference in quality...

and of course vaping is far less expensive than smoking... far far far less even with cheap Chinese batteries - but good is just nicer than poor quality.

 

[DaveP]

My first SMOK mod was a big 200W dual 18650 box mod with a magnetic cover. The magnets kept falling out and sticking to the cover. I reglued them with 2 part epoxy as that happened. No more magnets failed, but one day about 6 months later it just never fired a coil again. I still have it and it looks fine. I just had no desire to try troubleshooting it any more. I have a SMOK Alien that still works fine. Other bright and shiny mods have out-shined it so the Alien sits in a box in the closet.

SMOK has been around a long time. It's just been overshadowed by sexier tech in the marketplace, IMO.

 

[bombastinator]

Why does Smok have such a bad rap?
I hear of warranty claims and faulty devices.
I started vaping 3 months ago and use the Novo. One Novo quit working finally after 3 months. Considering it’s a battery inside that gets drained and recharged almost daily that’s a pretty good life span.

No. No it’s not. A battery should last about a year, give or take. You got 1/4 life out of it.

The pods I buy are $1.50 each and last quite a while.

define “quite a while”. SMOK is known to have decent performing coils with middling to low life expectancy

30 dollar bottle of juice lasts a long time. I figure monthly cost is maybe 40-50 dollars.

I use RTAs and squonkers with DIY juice. My monthly cost is maybe a quarter what yours is. I probably vape a lot more though. I vape big cloud DL generally, and can go through 15-20ml of juice a day. 95% or more of my cost is juice.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this pod system.

if you’re satisfied you’re satisfied.

Are the bad reviews from people who buy more expensive devices ?

. Sure. Also people that don’t though. And shop owners who stopped selling SMOK stuff because it broke so often they couldn’t make money selling it. And first time users who’ve never owned anything but SMOK and had it fall apart one them and come here looking for fixes. There are a whole lot of those. Occasionally SMOK stuff doesn’t break. There are SMOK devices around that are a year old or more. They’re rarer than they should be though.
SMOK stuff doesn’t actually vape badly. It’s not necessarily the best, but it’s by no means bad. The problem is manufacturing quality. The stuff is held together with press fittings and unsupported sloppy solder joints, and hot glue, and too thin wiring and basically anything that will make it cheaper to make with no thought to whether it will hold up in normal use.

Just thought I’d share my feelings after a few months of use.

hey they generally work fine for a few months. It’s how they work after a year that people have a problem with

I forgot to mention, the size of this device is what I love. It fits in my pocket and makes stealth vaping a breeze.

of small and stealthy is where it’s at for you that’s where it is. There’s a lot of small and stealthy though. Generally not exactly quite as cheap, but surprisingly close.

If there are similar size devices out there I’d be happy to try.

Hmmm... this is not my strong suit. I’ve been vaping for a long time so the stuff I was vaping when I vaped little stuff no longer exists. Now I’m old and don’t care and I kinda like big DL so I vape big mods.

Stuff that is small that I’ve heard about here if not actually vaped:

Geekvape flint:
It’s bigger than what you use now but will likely vape better

Eroll MAC:
This one is new and I haven’t heard much about performance quality, but the original eroll wasn’t too bad and the things are literally the same size as a cigarette. You can even get them in white so they actually look like a cigarette.

Not much of a list but others will likely come up with a bajillion other options and possibly have experience to back it up.

GL

 

[Skunk!]

3 months?
I think you have answered your own question about why smok gets a bad rap. I have an Innokin itazte vv internal battery mod that still works. Ibought it in 2013. I don't really use it much anymore but it was my main device for almost a year. An internal battery mod should last a year or two at least.

 

[Skunk!]

I don't have a lot of experience with pods. I have heard good things about the aspire Breeze 2 I have an Aspire Cobble that I like. Very simple, draw activated. I really like the GeekVape Flint. You can get one of those for around $20.

 

[Skunk!]

for the price you pay for a smok mod you could buy a drag or a yihi chipped device

smok are well known to be a bad manufacturer

The coil on your avatar is sweet!

 

[bombastinator]

3 months?
I think you have answered your own question about why smok gets a bad rap. I have an Innokin itazte vv internal battery mod that still works. Ibought it in 2013. I don't really use it much anymore but it was my main device for almost a year. An internal battery mod should last a year or two at least.

Mmmm... depends on how much it is used. It’s much more about the number of times it is recharged. 300 recharges is sort of a minimum expectancy I have heard. Recharge it once a day that’s about a year, or a bit less.
They can go longer though. The new Tesla 21700s are supposed to go 4000. They’re not vapable though. Voltage and amp draw are both too low.

 

[Skunk!]

Mmmm... depends on how much it is used. It’s much more about the number of times it is recharged. 300 recharges is sort of a minimum expectancy I have heard. Recharge it once a day that’s about a year, or a bit less.
They can go longer though. The new Tesla 21700s are supposed to go 4000. They’re not vapable though. Voltage and amp draw are both too low.

I think I probably charged it at lesst that many times. The runtime on that one wasn't great. I often had to charge it more than once a day. Innokin has always been good to me.

 

[Frenchfry1942]

For me, reading good and bad "rap" keeps me up to date. It also lets all the new members/vapers know what is good or bad. Many, myself included, came here with no experience.

I appreciate the honesty about users' experiences.

 

[HigherStateD]

As I see it, Smok will design, market, then build a device, while designing the next device, and by the time the first batch has reached the customer, have started designing the NEXT model. They have so many *-stick and *-priv mods it's impossible to figure out which is which without a Smok rep... I hear they make decent tanks though, as long as you get one that doesn't leak, and you use an RBA or another brand coil.

 

[Electrodave]

I started with cigalikes a little over five years ago, and then, looking for something better, I stumbled across SMOK, and started using their Trophy Tanks with eGo style batteries. I thought they were great, but then I learned (here) that two days really isn't a very long coil life.

I tried the Kangertech Subtank Nano, because the coils weren't too expensive and they fit on my 19mm batteries. I still use the Subtank Mini's and Nano's today, even though both have long since been discontinued. No problem finding coils for them, and it's unusual for one of them to last less than a month.

In 2016, I stopped vaping and threw everything in a drawer. Three months ago, I took it all back out. I had stored it poorly, and it all needed to be cleaned up. None of the SMOK tanks fare very well after 2 years of sitting in juice, lots of corrosion on the metal. On the other hand, tanks by Aspire, Kangertech, House of Hybrids, and even clones thereof cleaned up great.

I've never used a pod, but I think a good beginner (or just stealth/light pocket rig) setup is Kangertech's TopEVOD. Top filling tank, easy to change coils, very well made and the price is very reasonable.

 

[bombastinator]

As I see it, Smok will design, market, then build a device, while designing the next device, and by the time the first batch has reached the customer, have started designing the NEXT model. They have so many *-stick and *-priv mods it's impossible to figure out which is which without a Smok rep... I hear they make decent tanks though, as long as you get one that doesn't leak, and you use an RBA or another brand coil.

It’s pretty hard to mess up an RBA manufacturing wise. They’re pretty simple. Biggest smok tank issue I’ve heard of is the slide lids on their top refillable tanks tend to be poorly manufactured and get loose. That would be the leaking though I guess.

 

[Mordacai]

Hello @Capslayer, one of the new pods just about to be released is the Smoant Pastio.
Smoant Pasito 25W - RBA POD

It's unusual as it's one of the first on the market that has a dedicated RBA (Rebuildable Atomiser coil), and it's from a reputable manufacturer.