Archive for January 25th, 2009

Smoke 51
Model: Loong Totem v9
Websites: www.smoke51.com, www.smokeeverywhere.com, www.smokeverywhere.com
Price: $104.95 (one battery), $149.95 (two batteries)
Discount Coupon code: DSC-240 (30% off)
Warranty/Guarantee: One year on batteries.

What I Like: HUGE vapor producer, long lasting cartridge, fresh atomizer every time.
The Downsides: Poor battery performance, short battery life, poor selection of strengths and flavors.

My Recommendation: Get the starter kit and extra batteries elsewhere, but get the cartridges from them, using Discount Code DSC-240 for 30% off.

Total Score: 3.4

Atomizer Performance: 4
1- Smoke; 5
2- Draw; 3
Battery Performance: 2.75
1- Switch; 3
2- Battery life; 2.5
Overall reliability and performance: 4
Appearance: 3

Customer Service Experience: None; complimentary review copy.

Contents: 2 long batteries, one charger, one power cord, 2 cartridges.
Extras: none.
Battery charging times: 8 hours initial, 3-4 hours recharge.
Interchangeability: ePuffer Eaze Magnum, e-Cig.com New MiniCig

Narrative review:
Smoke 51 is the exclusive Loong Totem v9 distributor for the US. The LTv9 is a departure from the usual e-cig design, and it’s big feature is the disposable combination atomizer and cartridge. Not only does this promise to solve the problem of atomizer failures, and eliminate the mess of refilling and dripping, the cartridges are claimed to last as long as two packs, and the vapor is supposed to be just amazing.

You pay for all those promises, at $150 for the full, 2-battery, starter kit, and $50 each for replacement batteries. But are all the claims true?

Well, the last one is definitely true, the vapor is amazing. Awesome, really! The most vapor I have seen any e-cig produce, with the possible exception of Trog’s Screwdriver, or a similar mod. And while it is true that cartridge changes are no muss and no fuss, the cartridge life in my estimation is only one pack, not two. Of course, that is still more than any other mini or penstyle. The promise of absolute atomizer reliability, though is the real disappointment, as I found there was a lot of variability in cartridge performance, and a high failure rate, about 20% that were just bad out of the box.

In terms of my usual ratings system, the score is very mixed. I give it a full 5 points for vapor production, and like the e-pipe it is really off the chart. 5-plus. The draw is fairly hard, though, and I give it a 3. It does vary a lot between cartridges, though, and in fairness, the hard draw is due as much to the batteries as the atomizers, but for consistencies sake I am not going to rearrange my system. That averages to 4 for the atomizer.

The battery performance and durability were very poor on the batteries I received. One of the two died after only a week. On the other, the LED began to fail to activate just recently, after about 3-4 weeks use. Battery life is acceptable, about what you’d expect from a mini, 70 5-second puffs or so, which scores a 2.5 out of 5. But the switch performance is very slow; unless you do a primer puff first, the switch takes as long as two seconds to respond. Furthermore, the switch fades out consistently after only 2 or 3 seconds, then fades back in, so you can’t take a long drag. For my puff counts, for example, I had to take my 5-second inhalation in two pieces. I can only give it a 3 out of 5.

In fairness, with the amount of vapor these produce, you don’t need a long inhalation. One hard sharp primer puff, followed by just a second or two long drag, is actually plenty. Using that technique, the poor switch performance is not much of an issue, otherwise I would have rated it even lower. Still, a better performing battery delivers a much more satisfying experience, as I will get to shortly.

I only did a couple of puff counts because, as I said I couldn’t really get a good 5-second inhalation anyway. But I got about 70 puffs per battery, and about 120 puffs per cartridge. Using the double puff method, I got around 140-150 puffs per battery, and 225-250 per cartridge. That’s about one pack per cartridge, and about 2 batteries per cartridge. Typically a battery would last from 2-3 hours of heavy use, to 5 or 6 hours of moderate use, and a cartridge from 6 to 12 hours. I was using 1 ½ to 2 cartridges most days, some days 3.

Overall reliability, as I mentioned before, was a bit of a disappointment to me. Out of the 57 cartridges I tried, several, at least 8 to 10, were bad out of the box. I didn’t keep exact count, but a couple would do nothing but spit liquid, a couple did nothing at all, a couple died after only 20 puffs or so, and a couple had a foul, burnt fabric taste right from the start. And a few more would spit a small amount of liquid along with the vapor, enough to leave a bad aftertaste. Defective cartridges can be returned for exchange, though.

Besides bad cartridges, qualities like ease of draw and how well the battery responds would vary, and these variations would be consistent by flavors. The Menthol had the hardest draw, the Coffee the easiest, for example. I presume that means the variations are due to different production batches.

Nonetheless, most cartridges, at least 4 out of 5, are good, and do deliver that perfect tons o vapor performance, so I give it a 4 for overall reliability.

And appearance, well, it is a basic fake cigarette look, and that’s only a 3, average.

That all averages out to an overall score of 3.4. The score would have been better with better batteries, and again, in fairness, with a quick hard primer puff and a short inhalation, the battery performance is acceptable, and the vapor production and short drags make it a great e-smoke.

I don’t normally mention flavors, because you can normally use any liquid you want. But here you’re kinda locked in. Smoke 51 has only 5 flavors, Tobacco, Menthol, Vanilla, Coffee, and Chocolate. More variety than real cigs, but very limiting compared to other e-cig models.

And they have only 4 strengths; zero nicotine, 4mg, 6mg, and 8mg. I am not sure whether that’s per 1ml or per cartridge. I think one cartridge is 1ml, so it may be the same thing, but I’m not sure.

So, some cartridges fail, performance varies, batteries are poor, and they have limited flavors and strengths. But on the positive side, it’s an amazing vapor producer, it’s the only e-cig that will allow a short drag like a real cig, and it’s a very satisfying e-smoking experience.

So can I recommend it? Yes, but not wholeheartedly.

Despite all its weaknesses, on the whole I like the Smoke 51, and enjoyed using it. So, I do want to recommend it. But I can’t give it a whole hearted recommendation, I do have to give it the caveat that I would recommend it more if the batteries were better.

[EDIT 3-9-09: Just before my computer crashed, I received a new set of batteries which were a big improvement over the first set I based this review on. They have a lighter draw, and don't need such a hard primer puff, but the switch is slow to start and slow to cut off after the puff. All in all, they aren't perfect, but are much better than the old ones. I can recommend them more highly now, and will re-do my review when I can.]