Archive for August, 2009

I originally wrote this intending to use it as a vid-blog post, but I have a badly infected wisdom tooth which swelled up last night, so I’m in still pain and a bit woozy from the vicodin. So a written post will have to do, and I’ll try to write up something else tomorrow, too.

Viewer Clownmaster writes:

So, i checked ecigarettemall (eastmall), epuffer, and litecigusa (happened to be under maintenance atm), and I couldn’t find any resourceful location for a dealer selling the Loong Totem V1.

In January, you said e-cig.com had it as their “new mini cig”, but flash forward 7 months and I can’t even find it on the site. :/

So I have a few questions for you.

1. Are the cartridges for the Loong Totem V1 refillable by liquid, or are they combination carts?

1a. If they happen to be combination carts, is there any viable way I could purchase an atomizer from another e-cig to attach to it that way I could refill it via liquid? (and what would you suggest)

2. Where would I find a link to buy this particular ecigarette?

And thank you for having an “Ask Leaford” section.

Clownmaster,

Thanks for bringing this up, as the E9s have gone through some changes since I last posted videos on them, as I mentioned in my New(est) 5 Faves vid-blog post, and I’d already intended to cover this in more detail.

It was actually called the LTv9, not v1, which likely caused some of the confusion. And E-cig.com renamed it from New Mini-Cig to the E9, which is the model name I now use for all compatible clone models, for brevity and simplicity’s sake. Also, of those three retailers you tried, only ePuffer carried it (with the brand name Magnum), and theirs was a clone model, not an actual LTv9, just identical. But that’s water under the bridge, since ePuffer changed over from that LTv9 clone to a different but similar model, the KR808D/D1, or possibly a clone of that, too.

(BTW, see my recent vid-blog post, New(est) 5 Faves I BRIEFLY cover the quality of the latest cartomizers and batteries I’ve received. This will also be getting more detailed video treatment soon, as soon as I can buy new example batteries from Smoke 51, Greensmoke, and ePuffer to demo.)

Anyway, moving on to your questions:
1. Although they are combination atomizer/cartridges (which I call “Cartomizers”) and aren’t designed to be refilled, they can be. They have a soft rubber cap which can be pried off, then you drip liquid onto the coil of fabric inside. You never get as much vapor as with a fresh cartomizer, however, and the vapor dwindles the more often you refill it. And there’s a learning curve involved; I ruined a LOT of cartridges before I started to get it to work consistently.

1a. No, and it would be cheaper to just get a battery for the other type of atomizer, anyway. For some reason the batteries for cartomizer e-cigs are always twice or even three times more expensive than basically identical 3-piece e-cig batteries.

2. Before saying where TO get them, first let me warn you that Smoke 51, ePuffer, and Bloog, three of my former recommended retailers for E9 cartomizers, NO LONGER CARRY the E9 cartomizers. They carry Kanger KR808D/D1 cartomizers made with E9 compatible threads. Smoke 51 and Bloog batteries still seem to be the same manufacturers as before, but as I said before, they’ve gotten much better quality wise. EPuffer’s batteries are now Kanger KR808D/D1, but they and their cartomizers are still E9 compatibly threaded.

My top recommendation for E9 cartomizers off the top of my head is Greensmoke. With my 30% discount code (leaford30-204 [30% off on orders over $99])carts are about $2 each. http://greensmoke.com/204.html.

Red Dragon, Vapure, and Esmoke.net are a bit more expensive, even figuring discounts (which you can find on my discount code page).

And Nhaler.com is about the same price as Greensmoke, but I have never received exactly what I’ve ordered; once with a note to explain, once without. And, substituting one strength or flavor for another is bad enough, but this last time they substituted E9 cartomizers for E8. Worst, and the deal breaker, was that 10 boxes out of 15 on the second order, were bad, only giving about 50 or so good puffs before developing that nasty burnt taste (just like a bad bunch of ePuffer carts I had once). I think they have some bad old stock, probably unloaded on them by their supplier. I’ll try them again after a few months, see if their stock has improved by then.

They do ship same day, though, and always include a decorative box with your order, and an assortment of cute, although sometimes bewildering, extras (Tweezers make sense; but a dental pick??). This, too, nearly deserves a vid-blog post of it’s own.

In the past the E9 type’s battery and switch performance had been the E9’s major flaw, but performance has seemed to improve significantly across the board the past several times I’ve ordered them, and they are now just as good as any other e-cig batteries. The E9 has long and short batteries, but only Smoke51 and eSmoke.net seem to have the long ones, the rest only carry the short batteries.

A heavily caveatted half-hearted recommendation also goes ePuffer’s kanger made E9 threaded batteries. They performed terrifically, and the longer size is penstyle length and duration, which means about 80, or even up to 100 5-second puffs. A nice boost over even the long E9 batteries, let alone the short ones.

But I can’t really recommend ePuffer without warning you that they do have a long record of numerous customer service complaints on the forums, many allegedly never resolved.

And, I don’t have working models to display currently, anyway, because I wore them out. But I will be getting to reordering and demonstrating them soon.

I’ll come back to this post when I’m feeling up to it and add all my links and discount codes, for your convenience. In the meantime, just check my discount codes page for discount codes and links to nearly all the above referenced retailers.