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From the twisted mind of me!

One of the things that really bothers me about my Provari is I am constantly changing batteries in it. Granted, I got a Provari Mini, which only takes button top 18350s (or 16350s) but I can go through 3 in a day pretty easy. For you full size Provari owners, you get to use an 18500, so it’s not quite as bad – maybe one battery change. Well, I started hunting around for a way to use a bigger battery in my Provari and came upon a couple solutions. The first is to buy the extended battery cap. This lets a Mini user like me use an 18500 and a full size user use an 18650. The problem with that is I just don’t like the look of it, and I still want more battery. More digging revealed that someone else thought of this and made a nifty little device called a Twins telescopic extension. Now THAT is a nifty idea! It’s a telescoping bottom for the Provari and Provari Mini to extend either device for 18650 use (and anything in between). This also has its issues though. It is *very* difficult to find them in stock anywhere except Europe and they are on the expensive end +-$40 here in the states +shipping.

Well, Just the other day I was following an ad for something and landed upon CigTechs website and beheld a wonderful thing! The have a extension ring for the Provari called the Tatroe Ring Provari, which not only will let a Mini user use an 18500 **and** their own bottom cap for a more (IMHO) finished Provari look, but it will bump a full sized Provari up to 18650. By that reasoning I figured I might just be able to use 2 of them in conjunction to be able to get an 18650 running in my Provari Mini! The killer part of this entire thing is these are extremely reasonably priced at only $15. That is not only 2.5 times less expensive than the Twins, but even less expensive than the Provari extended bottom cap.

Queue here to a couple days later and I am thrilled to let you know that you can, indeed, use 2 of them together to run an 18650 in your Provari Mini, and I think it looks darn nice to boot! The diameter of the rings are the same as the Provari body, so it feels right and solid. Beautiful threading. You keep your own bottom cap, and, like I said, they are inexpensive and IN STOCK! Fast shipping and good customer service from the CigTech folks as well, Just can’t beat this if you are a Provari owner!

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When most people think about customizing their e-cig / mod, most people think of J-Wraps, and for good reason!

J-Wraps was nice enough to send me some of their product to review, and I, and my wife had a lot of fun with it! J-Wraps is a company that makes adhesive backed covers for most popular e-cigs / mods. Most e-cig users get really attached to their e-cigs. Not only are many of them quite expensive, but they are also not quickly replaced. If you have a new mod, cover it up and protect it. If you have an old battle worn one, cover it up and make it like new again! Basically, think of these as something like a vinyl sticker in a large variety of designs and styles that you can use to personalize, customize and protect your e-cig.

The wraps are actually fairly easy to apply because they aren’t permanent, so you can pull and re-stick them to get them placed just right. It’s also possible to save and reuse them if you are really careful. If you pull too hard you may stretch them a bit, which makes them a little rumply You can also clean these – BOTH sides! One of the first wraps I tried to apply, I peeled off the backing board and then promptly dropped the wrap onto my carpet, sticky side down. It was absolutely covered with cat hair and fuzz. It turns out that you can clean gunk even off the sticky side with a little mild soap and warm water. I washed mine off and stuck it on my vanity mirror so it could dry, and once it was, I peeled it off and stuck it on my e-cig. No problems whatsoever!

Below you’ll see pics of those J-Wraps on a variety of mods. Some I received free from J-Wraps for review purposes and some I actually won at a local vape meetup. My favorites were the textured ones like the Carbon Fiber and the Ostrich. My wife really liked the Blue Hologram. J-Wraps has got something there for everyone and will even do custom jobs as well. Any non-custom wrap is available for less than $20 That’s a deal that is hard to beat on a great product! See for yourself!

A while back, when I was reviewing the eVic, AquaVaporCig also sent me one of their 100ml Sample Packs to check out as well. These are all “Premuinm USA Made” e-juices, and at 10ml a piece there were 10 of them to go through, so it took me a while Listed below are the flavors and what I thought of them:

Apple Pie

• Definitely apple pie. I can even taste the crust, with just a bit of cinnamon. Really delicious!

Ol Charlie

• This is a robust and nutty tobacco flavor. Think bold but not bitter, wholesome. It’s an odd description, I know, but if you try it I think you’ll see what I mean.

Bearyluscious

• This is kind of like an everything berry flavor. It’s good on it’s own but I found out accidentally that is goes well with the Menthandy as well

Carolina Leaf

• I probably should have listed this one after the FluCured, but stuck to the order they were listed on the website to help you with your selection. That being said, this is a lot like the FluCured tobacco but with a slightly stronger/brighter flavor. Any tobacco smoker should enjoy this.

CinnaTwist

• This probably sounds odd, but I have occasionally had these cinnamon twists from Taco Bell that I absolutely love, and this tastes *just* like that.

Cocoa Mint

• This one really reminded me of a Mint Chocolate Chip icecream flavor. Once I mentioned that to my daughter, she confiscated the entire rest of my bottle and I have not seen it since.

Cubana

• Tobacco and banana. I hate bananas.

FlueCured

• The flu cured taste in this is something I really enjoyed. It’s a very smooth tasting tobacco flavor, and *almost* sweet.

Mello Fruitello

• I had a really hard time with this one. Perhaps I am one of those anti-tasters, but on the inhale I got absolutely nothing. On the exhale, there was a faint fruity taste, something akin to a Juicyfruit gum, perhaps.

Menthandy

• This one is *very* mentholy (is that a word?) with this spearmint finish to it that is reminiscent of some of those more powerful chewing gums out there. I quite liked this *and* it really goes well with the Bearyluscious e-juice that I accidentally mixed some with in my clearomizer while doing a refill

OK, ok, so I have been a bit absent lately. I have been mind blowingly busy at work. That aside, I *have* still been vaping and occasionally even answering my emails. SO, that brings me to this:

I have some things I want to review and I thought I’d post a little teaser to know what to watch for. I still have some e-juice flavors to review that AquaVaporCig sent me (delicious stuff by the way). J-Wraps sent me some really cool e-cig wraps to review as well. PaktPub just sent me an e-copy of the CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook, which I am really anxious to delve into (loves me some CentOS, I do). I also bought a few e-cig mods like the Vamo, the CCTS, the Draw Tube, Silver Bullet, Provari Mini, Segelei ZMax, Innokin SVD and a couple more on the way. Then there are the accessories like the Kanger Pro Tank, the iClear 30, a Cobra clone and the Kick, by Evolv. Hints and tips along the way, and even a review on Drip Tips! Stay Tuned!

The LinuxLink TechShow celebrates its 500th weekly episode, tonight, 4/10/2013 at 8:30pm EDT. Join us LIVE by tuning into http://stream.tlltsarchive.org:8000/tllts and on IRC at thelinuxlink.net:6667/techshow!

That’s it! I can no longer keep silent!

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be included in a very select review group by Vapor4Life to review a new and still as yet unreleased product, the Vapor Zeus! The Vapor Zeus is a 5 volt, 900mAh automatic or automatic/manual combo passthrough battery with Vapor4Life’s standard 808 connector. This means, of course, that it is compatible with all their standard cartomizers and tanks, etc..

The battery comes in 2 colors, black and cigar, which is sort of a bronzish color with a faux cigar leaf wrap pattern, which I think is very smart looking. Both models are remarkably cigar looking and, for you cigar aficionados out there, depending on the chart you use, these sport about a 38-44ish ring size and they are about 7 inches long for the full auto battery and about 7.25 inches long for the auto/manual version.

The automatic version of the battery works just how you would expect it to. If you suck through the cartomizer, it activates the battery. You can expect much the same great auto switch performance from this device as you get from the Vapor4Life Auto Dial-a-volt. It just works, and it works every time. The auto/manual version is really interesting because there is a little square button on the back of the unit and with 5 quick clicks you can change the device from being fully automatic to being switch activated.

Performance? Well, just look at the pictures I included. These things are complete vapor chimneys. I LOVE the vapor production! As a former smoker, one of the things that really made vaping work for me was rich thick vapor, and you get that in spades from the Zeus, even with thinner, mostly PG based juices.

The reason for a lot of this fantastic vapor and also the reason I decided not to hold out on this review any longer is the Smileomizer. This is a gigantic cartomizer with a very comfortable rubberized tip and it was designed to go with and to complete the Vapor Zeus. These things hold 3 to 3.5 ml of your favorite juice and just work fantastic.

The Smileomizer was recently released from Vapor4Life for a $9.95 price point, and with that kind of vapor production and the ability to reuse it a dozen times or more, it’s worth it. I know I am ordering a few more because not only do they work well with the Vapor Zeus, but they also shine with the Dial-a-volts and rock right along with the Handle as well. In fact, if you pull off the rubber outer covering of the tip you are left with what resembles a drip tip and makes the whole outfit look pretty slick. Check out the full sized pic to see what I mean!

I still haven’t received word yet from Vapor4Life exactly what the pricing will be or when the release date for the Vapor Zeus will be, but I hope it’s soon. This is a product many people are going to want and one that former cigar smokers should really enjoy. In the mean time, if you are looking to get a really close preview, grab one or more of those Smileomizers and throw them on your favorite Dial-a-volt or OMG Handle and vape like a master!

It seems like I always enjoy checking new things out from Vapor4Life. They always have had a high quality product, really good support and stellar communication, which is SO important for an online business. All that being said, I really wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. When I first started vaping I did a review on a regular old eGo twist and, while I was initially happy with these, I soon became disenchanted because I was constantly changing my settings on accident and it was very difficult to actually see what voltage you were at. Combine that with the possible problems of having an automatic switch and you can understand my hesitation.

I am SO happy to report that all my worries were completely unfounded, and, honestly, I probably should have known that V4L would never send me a stinky product in the first place!

What I received was an 1100 mAh Automatic Dial-A-Volt E-Cig battery. This is an approximately 4.5″ long by 1/2″ wide black rubberized coated battery with an 808D connector on one end (compatible with all the V4l cartos and tanks and goodies) and a voltage selector dial on the other end. The voltage here can range from 3.2 to 4.8 volts on the fly with a simple twist of the bottom dial. What makes the voltage selector so wonderful compared to other similar devices is it not only is stiff enough to hold its setting when being pocketed, but the dial is knurled/grippy and the voltages are CLEARLY marked, even for crappy diabetic eyes like mine.

I was a little worried about the automatic function as well, for a couple reasons. Firstly, I have had auto switches (from other vendors) that tended to stick on, which is never a good thing, and secondly, the size of this device sort of lends itself to using it with things other than cartomizers. Auto switch devices traditionally don’t do well with tanks or anything that might drip juice into the works. The automatic switch here suffers none of those issues. It has worked flawlessly for me day in and out and I am a heavy vaper. Aside from testing a couple cartomizers on the DAV I used it almost the entire time with a small tank and that worked fantastic as well! I think the reason the tank works so well with this auto switch, other than V4L’s obvious quality testing, is that the 808D is a really robust and smart connector choice that doesn’t lend itself easily to clogging, etc..

1100 mAh or MilliAmp Hours means that this battery should last you a good long time. I have seen people report that it lasts approximately 14 hours of vape time. I, personally, used it all day per charge and then just threw it on a charger at night before bed. It is definitely worth noting that this battery takes a LONG time to charge. In fact, when it was brand new it took a few complete charging cycles before it seemed to take a complete charge. That may sound a bit odd, but if your battery doesn’t look like it charges completely over night, let it cycle through a couple times and it should after that. Worked for me

Practical usage? Well, lets just say I have a couple vaping devices to choose from and since I started using this, it has seldom left my hand, or pocket as the case may be. As you can see from my pics, I ran this thing from the moment I got my morning coffee all day long, even through my hour long commutes. It never skipped a beat. It is comfortable to hold and carry in your shirt pocket. It works all day without a recharge, carto after carto and tank after tank. Lastly, I think it looks pretty spiffy, especially with a smaller size tank, although it’s not at all bad looking with a cartomizer + drip tip (although I think it’s odd looking without the drip tip).

This one is definitely a keeper, folks. On sale right now for $58 exclusively at Vapor4Life, you can put one in your own pocket and vape all day long in comfort and style, and at whatever voltage your juice/carto/tank works best at, just like me!

If you are a vaper and have never yet been to Sun-Vapers, you are definitely missing out. The proprietor there, Edward, is not only a helluva nice guy, but he runs a good business and seems to even have the ear of the manufaturers! Sun-Vapers sent me a few different kinds of clearomizers to check out a few weeks ago and this is what I think…

The first item on the list here, and definitely a hot new item is the Kanger eVod. This is a rebuildable bottom coil clearomizer. It has a dual window metal sheath with a velvety finish and comes in a variety of beautiful colors. This is sort of like the designer version of the Kanger T3 or MT3. This thing works fantastic. I ran both 100% VG and 100% PG juices through it with hardly an issue. The only issue was a *slight* gurgle at the very bottom of the tank (PG only) and that is completely remedied by just keeping your tank topped off. One last sniggly thing is this has a clear mouthpiece, so when the inevitable happens and you collect some condensation there, you can actually see it (see pic). Just to be clear, all tips do this, but you can actually see it on clear ones. It in no way effects function, taste, etc.. Right now, Sun-Vapers has these on sale for $4.50 a piece, which is, in my opinion, a steal. I use this *constantly* it works so well!

Next up, the Baby T3. You can’t find these anywhere. I mentioned before that Edward seems to have the ear of the manufacturer and this is proof. This is a mini Kanger T3 with all its functionality, just in a smaller form factor and emblazened with the Sun-Vapers logo. These are really neat and, for me at least, have a high aesthetic value. Let’s be honest here, in an industry where most devices perform comparably, aesthetics are the difference between a $40 setup and a $400 setup. This may be just the piece that completes your mini-mod look? I dig it, and for $6, you can check it out on your own mod!

This one kind of falls under the category of “I wish I knew”. I mean, I sort of figured that the manufacturer numbered their products in order but it really never occurred to me to actually check out their previous products to see what they were like. The Kanger T2 fits that pretty well. This is a top coil rebuildable clearomizer with really short wicks. Honestly when I first saw it I thought it must be a dud for sure. Boy was I mistaken! It may look a little odd (to me anyway) but this thing vapes really nice – surprisingly so even compared to other more popular top coil clearos. This has an interesting metal top cap that when unscrewed reveals this top coil which sticks up over the top rim – obviously meant to touch the inside of the mouthpiece to seal the juice in. It really seems to do the job, and that is a good thing because those short wicks mean this is NOT a vertical vaping device. You really need to tip this bad boy up on its side when you are vaping to give the wicks a chance to get into the juice! The aesthetics are pretty good because with those short top wicks, it really does put the “clear” into clearomizer. Several tanks through and no leaking juice into my mouth or anywhere else and no dry hits either, so they really did this one right! $4.70 for this gem that’ll hold a respectable 2.5 ml of juice at a clip and $7 more gets you a pack of 5 replaceable heads to go with it!

Before I forget, it is worth re-mentioning that Sun-Vapers really does carry the best products and they are well vetted and tested and, for all practical purposes, brought to you sooner than other vendors. Case in point is the newest hot product that is all a buzz now, which is the Kanger Protank. This is a seemingly beautiful bottom coil tank (yes tank) and something I have been wishing for for months. Well, it’s finally here and if you want one before your neighbor has one, you either need to have bought from the manufacturer last month or you can get one at Sun-Vapers now (I just ordered mine this morning btw). When will anyone else have them? It’ll probably be a week or three is my guess. By that time I’ll have mine and be able to tell you what you have been missing!

Wow, this review was hard to get through. Not because this particular ecig mod is hard to use, but because it is particularly featurefull. It is, hands down, the most complicated one I have looked at so far. And I *like* it

The eVic, by Joyetech, is a 4 piece advanced personal vaporizer or ecig, consisting of a bottom cap, 18650 sized tube (18350 tubes are available though), a control head and a top cap. The tubes and caps appear to be made from aluminum, and altogether the mod is extremely light. So much so that I have heard other reviewers initial impressions that it was cheap feeling. Mind you, this was only their initial impression The finish on this thing is textured aluminum which sort of mimics a brushed aluminum look. It is wonderfully scratch resistant, at least while banging around in my briefcase and pockets, and particularly fingerprint resistant as well, which is a great change of pace from many of my other ecigs.

The control head is black in color – sort of a smoky or tinted cylinder with an OLED display on one side, an elongated slim silver colored (clicky) button on the reverse, a mini USB plug on the side, a chrome twist ring on the bottom, and it’s topped off with a full eGo style conector. The controller boasts not only variable voltage settings from 3 to 5 volts in .1 volt increments, variable wattage in .1 watt increments, but a host of other settings like puff counters, power, sleep and screen time settings, ohm info, editable user/owner info and more, but 1 super important feature which is the ability to actually upgrade the firmware to improve and extend the devices functionality!

One of the reasons this review took so long to complete is due to that firmware. You see, I got the device preloaded with the 1.1 firmware and found out shortly thereafter that v 1.2 was available. Well, this was a boon for me because I do not run windows if I can help it, and the MVR software for 1.1 is windows only. It just so happens, though, the 1.2 also was released for Mac, which I have access to. So, that gave me an incentive to try out the MVR software while upgrading the firmware to 1.2, and then checking out all the new/changed/improved features available with that release. I do want to mention here that while this has been a geeks paradise for me, for those less geeky people, I did run this completely out of the box, with its preloaded config and no tinkering, just fine, for over a week. Just charged the battery and vaped it like it was, and it worked quite nicely at that!

I mentioned the MVR software and that is important because not only does it give you the ability to upgrade the firmware, it gives you access to plenty of interesting charts and graphs about your vaping habits. You also have access there to change the current configuration on your mod and set things like your user info, which you cannot otherwise set. It’s kind of novel to have this information so readily available to you without you having to manually keep track of it. For people who are interested in adjusting their vaping habits, this kind of tool would be invaluable. In my first few revisions of this review I had set my mind on going through all the options you actually have with both the control head and the MVR software, however, after seeing the changes after upgrading the firmware I decided that would just make the review seem dated. Instead let me tell you that I find both the functionality in the control head and the software to be not only useful but potentially very important and quite innovative.

The device was comfortable to use and carry, although I personally found the button placement odd. It sort of lends itself to having either your thumb or finger over top of the OLED display while you are using it. I think that sort of defeats the purpose of having a timed second counter running while the button is pressed. Then again, you could use it with your thumb or finger more extended so you do not cover the display, but that to me does not feel as natural.

No missfires here at all. Each press results in a nice even vape power. The power never felt anemic even when vaping the battery down to nothing. Speaking of power, this mod is pretty unique in that you can charge the internal 18650 via the usb cable! I tested a variety of equipment on the top of this mod including Vivi Novas, Evods, Cartomizers, Clearomizers and various tanks. Everything worked whether it had a standard 510 or eGo connection, without tweaking or adapters. In fact, one thing I was particularly pleased with is a couple times I screwed an eGo style device on a little too tight (Kanger T3) and when unscrewing I noticed I was actually unscrewing the base of the T3 from the tank. I was able to unscrew the top cap of the eVic to gain access to the bottom of the T3 and get everything removed without making a mess. That really came in handy! Speaking of the top cap, you can flush mount your tanks because it also has vent slots in the top.

An interesting note on the aesthetics of this device is that, as far as I am able to find, the original configuration of 18650 sized tube is only available in the brushed aluminum look, however, the 18350 tubes comes in silver or black. There is also a chrome 18650 tube available separately. I have seen other people with various different colored 18650 tubes on their eVics and, as it turns out, the tube from the Joyetech eGo-T 18650 mod, fits the eVic perfectly, and comes in a variety of colors (and it’s usually found for under $20).

Now for the kit. The kit comes with the eVic, a Vivi Nova tank with extra heads, an 18650 battery, a usb cable, a mains adapter, a 10ml bottle of ejuice of your choosing and user manuals, all for $104.25. Again, this is arguably the single most advanced ecig on the market. Top of the line stuff here, and you get absolutely everything you need to go from nothing to vaping in complete style all in this one kit. It’s a deal that is certainly hard to beat, especially considering the great service and swift shipping I always get when ordering from AquaVapor (they have great prices on their DCT cartos btw.)

I love this thing, and it has rarely left my hand since it arrived. I cannot wait to see what the next revision of firmware will release. Will it be extending the voltage limits? Will it be more and different home screen configurations? Extra and innovative menu items I didn’t even know I needed yet? I don’t know but I am excited to find out! In the mean time this thing will, I am sure, still deliver a nice controlled and consistent vape no matter what I have stuck on the end of it, and that is something that matters to everyone.

I should also mention as an aside that AV sent me a pile of juices to review as well – samples of their AquaVMAX American Made juices. I haven’t yet had time to try them all out and this review is already a bit long in the tooth, so I am going to do a juice review later on. What I have tried is nice though, and they all smell fantastic, if that is any incentive Check them out while you are over there ordering your eVic today!