ZNA vs. Vamo

I've been mulling over this post for a while now, and I wanted to get my thoughts out there on my new, high-end mod, the House of Hybrids ZNA, especially in comparison to my old, faithful KSD Vamo V3 that I've had almost since I started vaping.

As I said, I've had my Vamo V3 for a long time, about a year at this point. I saw the reviews on it, the features, the looks, it had all the goodies I could want in a mod, especially when I got the full kit for under $50. It was a phenomenal value, and I will never understand why I don't see more of them. The only downside to the thing was the shiny finish and how easily it can scratch and chip, but I knew that before I hit the "Purchase" button, and to this day I say it just gives it character. I have beaten and bruised this thing. It's been dropped, knocked over, gotten wet, covered in juice top to bottom, gone hiking with me, left in the sun and sub-zero temperatures, gone on roadtrips, everything. It has never once failed me. The Vamo has out-lived and out-performed everything I've bought to date. The only negatives I have to say for it are nitpicky little things, like how the 510 connection is slightly too high to flush mount anything, and that the threads are kinda squeaky. Overall, I absolutely love my Vamo, and when it inevitably dies, it will either be framed and hung on the wall or given a Viking funeral. Well done, KSD, this thing's almost a perfect 10.

Like most people that vape, I am always looking for the next best thing, so I got a ZNA last month as an early Fathers Day/One Year Smoke Free present. I'd wanted one ever since I first saw it. Zen talked of perfection, durability, engineering, and how it was painstakingly made from all American materials, etc. Lucky me, Sky Vapor in Everett had one when I went looking to get it. No resellers from eBay for me! I paid my $300+tax for it, plus new batteries since I didn't have any 18490s (I didn't like the extension tube purely because of aesthetics). I was happy, I was excited, I finally had a quality device (according to propaganda apparently)!

Cut to about a day later. I was taking a good look at my ZNA and I noticed that the battery meter looked a little weird on the screen. I pulled up a picture of the DNA30 display screen and sure enough, my screen had a row of dead pixels running across the battery meter. Well that's not the perfection I paid for... I came across a post somewhere that said that you can sometimes turn a device on and off quickly to try to reset the screen, but that didn't work. It did allow me to notice the scratch that my battery cap came with though. I didn't send it back to warranty at this point, I had a vape meet coming up in two weeks!

Two weeks went by, and I figured I should clean off the threads on my ZNA, I didn't want gunk on my precious before the meet. My battery tube was surprisingly hard to remove. After slowly putting it on and taking it off a few times, I discovered that the threading wasn't the problem, it was how the threads on the ZNA were pointing. It was off center just enough to rub up against the body. I was kind of hoping it was the tube, but alas, it was not. I tried my tube on a fellow vapers ZNA at the meet and there was no problem with it. But it was ok, right? Just a minor annoyance on a product touted for its attention to detail.

Another week goes by and I'm taking a break at work when I think hey, I'm gonna bump up the power half a watt and see how she goes. I went from 10.2 to 30 with a single press of the button. It stuck. What made it better was that I didn't notice and got an awful burned hit from my kayfun. I was hoping it was a fluke, but when I tried to turn it back down, no luck. I had to pull the battery out before it would let me turn it back down. After a day I just didn't even mess with it, and for whatever reason it was fine. Ok, weird, but better not happen again. Once again, I didn't sent it back to warranty at this point since the issue seemed to self resolve, and I did really enjoy using it.

Last Saturday is when the final straw came that seriously shook up my faith in buying high-end products. My friggen fire button got stuck, while I was driving in heavy traffic no less. What the hell? Why was I having all these problems with my ZNA? I pulled out the battery and put it back in, hoping it would be like the wattage button problem and kind of take care of itself, and it did, for about 5 minutes. I now had a very expensive stainless steel paper weight. Off to warranty!

I kept wondering if I had somehow managed to mistreat this thing. I knew I hadn't done anything harmful to it. I kept it on my desk at home, not even out in my garage like the rest of my gear. I never dropped it or knocked it over. I wiped it down with a dry cloth daily. At work driving around I kept it in a little bed I made out of a beanie and a cup holder. I only used my kayfun on it since my igo-w4 is built way too low, so I know I never got juice in the internals (which I understand aren't sealed at all) as only the slightest bit ever even got on the 510 connection. I used the recommended batteries. I babied the hell out of this thing, and it still quit working after less than a month. Overall, I regret purchasing this device. It has failed to live up to the promise that is a Zen product. I could have bought any other DNA30 powered device and got the same vape quality, not to mention nice things like USB charging and the ability to use batteries other than nipple-top AW IMRs. Perhaps my opinion of the ZNA will change once it gets back for repair, but if all the problems aren't addressed, you can be damn sure I'll be letting you all know about it.

Now let me vent my frustrations. Skip this last paragraph if you don't want to read hatred. Why in the holiest of fucks did my brand spanking new, highly sought after, and allegedly phenomenal device turn in to a massive piece of worthless SHIT after such a short time? How the hell did this thing get out of the fucking shop with all these flaws, when it comes straight from your mouth that you won't sell ANYTHING with the slightest defect? I call bullshit on you, House of Hybrids. Buying this device wasn't a frivolous purchase from a collector with a large disposable income that just wants it to display. I didn't buy it for bragging rights. I bought it to FUCKING USE IT! I had to save for it. I had to beg my wife to let me get it. I had to get extremely lucky just to find the god damn thing! It was a huge fucking deal to me. I don't buy things for myself very often, and usually put extravagant purchases off by the way-side so I can make my family happy. I sacrifice for them all the things I want so they can have the things they want. You can imagine my anger when, not even after full month, this thing that people treat like it was shat out by God Himself stopped working. You assholes had better fix it right, and all of it. If you're just gonna sell mods to people just so they can say they have real Zen shit, then maybe consider putting a disclaimer on everything saying it's not actually meant to be used and in fact isn't worth its weight in pig vomit. I would definitely go as far as to say you were outdone by China, Zen. My allegedly low quality, cheap piece that you elitist types look down your noses at has been by and far more reliable and trustworthy than the snake oil you're peddling. Sure, it's made of chromed brass. Sure, the chip is in about a thousand different mods and makes a weird sound when it fires. Sure, it's mass-produced on a large scale. But you know what else it does? It works right, which is more than I can say about my ZNA. I feel better now. Rant over.

My hardware collection slowly expands!

So I haven't done anything but the MBV reviews lately, so I figured I'd fill some people in on what I've been using hardware-wise. I keep picking up new toys, and I'm definitely not regretting any of them!

The most recent thing I've bought is a copper Nemesis clone that I'm in love with, even though it's only been in my hands since Memorial Day, where I picked it up at the Tobacco Joe's vape meet in Everett, WA. I'd been wanting a new mechanical, since my love-hate relationship has been a lot closer to hate lately with my Kamry K100-101. I picked up the Nemmy and loved it, and even more when I put the magnets in instead of the spring. It's got the lightest button press and always fires, which is a lot more than I could say about the crap K101 button. Its already starting to develop a nice patina. I haven't checked voltage drop on it yet, but I'm sure it's better than what I'd been using.

For my early Fathers Day gift I was allowed to go buy myself a House of Hybrids ZNA, which I picked up at Sky Vapor, also in Everett, WA. I love 90% of it. The only thing I have a gripe with is that the screen for the DNA chip has dead pixels that run right across the battery meter. Is it performance impacting? No. I did pay $300 for the damn thing though, so it's gonna be perfect once I get it shipped back for warranty repair. Other than that, it's solid, heavy, durable, and lets not forget beautiful. The dual-adjustable positive pin is fantastic and I've been able to flush mount absolutely everything I put on it. It does look like it might be uncomfortable to use, but the opposite is true. It fits in the hand very nicely, and the fire button has been very nice to use as well. Even though it uses an 18490 battery I still get almost a whole day of vaping in before needing to swap batteries. I could have got the extension tube, but I decided against it purely due to aesthetics.

As far as atomizers go, there are only two I use at the moment. On the ZNA I use a Kayfun Lite Plus "Black Edition" clone. It has adjustable airflow, SS construction, come with the extra metal tank section, so on and so forth. Cost me about $50, and worth every penny. I haven't had a single issue with it. I have it built with a 1.5 ohm microcoil and wicked with cotton, and I generally run it between 8 and 11 watts. On my mechanicals I've been using a Igo-W4 drip atty with a dual twisted 28ga microcoil setup that comes in at 0.34 ohms, so around 50 watts on a fresh battery. I was using regular microcoils, but the twisted wire gives me more vapor and flavor. I wick it with cotton. I run the wick over the top of the center post and through the coils, so when I drip in to it gravity works in my favor and keeps the liquid in the coils, and if the juice gets in to the well the little ends of the wick that stick out soak it up, so it's been very juice efficient. One of my friends changed from a cotton cloud to the setup I use, and he mentioned he was getting more flavor my way. I also drilled out the airflow to 2mm holes. For a cheap-ish atomizer it's kicking some ass.

That's about all I got at the moment. In the next week I hope to write up some other things besides the juice reviews. If anyone has a specific suggestion, post in the comments, tweet me, or email me at vapifier@gmail.com.

The History of (My) Vaping Part 3

When I discovered that the Blu cartridges fit in my old Joytech 510 battery, I was vastly unaware how far the world of vaping had progressed in a scant 4 years. I didn't know it could get any better. Boy how wrong I was!

I craved more variety in my flavors than my local gas station could supply with Blu carts, as well as more flavor and vapor production. I was pretty much clueless where to go next. The Electronic Cigarette Forum had an endless depth of information, but I got lost in the talk of things like ohms, amp draw, mechanicals, and a whole slough of other over my head pieces of information. Eventually I decided the next logical step was an Ego battery, an atomizer of some sort, and of course, eliquid/ejuice.

After snooping around online seeing everything that there was that I understood, I stumbled upon http://vaporjoes.com/, which I still check out every day for the best deals in vaping. I forgot the exact post that was put up, I think it was about the Kanger ProTank, but most importantly it steered me to two places that jump started my vaping interests: http://www.fasttech.com/ and http://www.tasteyourjuice.com/.

Fasttech was significant because that's where I bought my next two devices that got me a lot more in to vaping. I ordered a 1100mAh eGo battery with a CE5 clearomizer and 4 juices for a mere $21. Later on I would order my trusty Vamo V3, and although she's a little beat up after 6 months of constant use, still works like the day I bought it. Nowadays I don't order from them much, if at all, but that's mostly due to personal preference to support USA vendors and my impatience (It took over 2 weeks to get my other orders, but I couldn't turn down the price).

TasteYourJuice is hands down my favorite vaping site in the whole wide world wide web. Phil Busardo has done the community a huge service in providing all of us reviews, advice, and knowledge. I personally have seen every single one of his many, many videos, from the first joke video about the vapor pen (I didn't get it then) to the Hurricane Juice review. I don't buy much of anything, hardware-wise, that hasn't been reviewed by Phil. Why did I buy my Vamo? It got a thumbs up. ProTank? Thumbs up. Aspire BDC? Thumbs up. The way he goes over everything is extraordinarily useful, if even just to see how something works hands on. If he didn't live on the opposite side of the country, I would seek him out and shake his hand.

Now back to me!

I was pretty happy with my CE5 and my eGo, but I'd read about how some juices can eat away at plastic tanks. That to me sounded like it could be terrible in every way, so I looked in to glass tanks and it seemed to me that the Kanger ProTank was the way to go. It had rave reviews, even if it did leak a little bit from time to time, and it was simple to change out the coil heads, even rebuild them for pennies. After convincing my wife it would last forever, I got my ProTank, and it's still my go-to clearo.

Now armed with a small amount of knowledge and a nigh-indestructible tank, I headed out with my new fancy (albeit top-heavy) setup, and confused my coworkers even further.

The History of (My) Vaping, Part 2

In 2009 I bought my first device, a Joytech 510 Manual. I shelved it after a month and went back to smoking a pack a day. I had left the vaping world behind and wasn't planning on ever returning to it. I was constantly trying to quit smoking. I tried cold turkey with horrifying results, I tried reducing how much I smoked gradually with limited success, and I went to the patch, I thought successfully. I completed the 3 steps they have you go through and, except for the occasional cigarette, finished the program. It only took about 3 months to relapse.

What happened? A mildly stressful day. Nothing world-breaking, just run-of-the-mill work stress. I was convinced I would never be able to ditch tobacco. I was smoking in the middle of the night so my family wouldn't see me doing it (they knew anyway), otherwise I wouldn't smoke at home. It was a dirty secret. I was ashamed, I was disgusted at myself, and I was unable to stop. It certainly didn't help that the state had upped their famous Sin-Taxes and I was spending about $8.25 daily when we were short on cash.

Fast forward to mid-March of 2013. I was working out in the Sultan, WA area and my pack had run empty, so I swung in to the local smoke shop. Since I had been out there last they had put up a new sign. A Blu sign. I was intrigued. I had seen the Steven Dorff commercials, and I figured hell, if the bad guy from Blade likes them, I might as well give it a try. I bought two disposables for about $16 (still the lowest I've seen those things around here) and right there in the shop the clerk had me test them to make sure they worked. And boy did they work!

You've probably heard a lot of people bad-mouth Blu for various reasons, be it they didn't like the flavor or they didn't like the gimmicky Social Cases or whatever they are, but the simple fact is that the disposable that I bought was light-years better than the previous experience I'd had, and I was impressed with it. It was warm, tasted like hazelnuts, and had a very smooth feel to the vape. This was the catalyst to reintroduce the world of vaping to me.

After a good two week stretch of largely using the Blu disposables, I had an epiphany. What if my old Joy 510 worked with their cartomizers? I wasn't sure, being that there was a 4 year separation between them and that there was no such thing as a carto when I had tried vaping before. To my delight they fit, and I was fairly satisfied.

That was April 15th, the last day I was a smoker, and the first day I was a vaper.

The History of (My) Vaping, Part 1

Back in the days of 2009, the internet rumored of a newfangled device called an "Electronic Cigarette." (This is a term that I now hate, I will explain that in a later post). I, being a new father of a baby girl, was very interested in an alternative to cigarettes, not only to keep her safe, but to ensure I would be around for her as long as possible. After justifying the ridiculously high price of $85 to my wife, I made an order for my first device, a Joytech 510 manual starter kit, from some vendor who is probably long out of business.

For those that are unfamiliar with this ancient piece of history, the Joytech 510 manual was a battery, roughly the size of a 100mm cigarette, with the little light on the end to simulate the ember cherry. It had an amazing 150mAh battery and could go almost a whole 3 hours without needing to recharge. Luckily the kit came with 2 batteries, and for people that were really fancy you could get a personal charge case, which was basically a bigger battery to charge your smaller battery. You could be good for almost an entire day on the go! (This is where you see BluCigs technology at today)

After patiently waiting what seemed like forever for my new gadget to arrive, the kindly UPS guy dropped it off and I started playing with it almost immediately. After figuring out how to prime the atomizer and fill the cartridge I gave it a go. I was impressed with the flavor (at the time). It was a sweet tobacco, nutty with a touch of caramel. I also got mango. I thought to myself "I can live with this, I can't see how I wouldn't like it!"

And then...

Dry hit. The worst dry hit EVER. After a whole 20 minutes or so of puffing on the thing, my throat caught on fire and my eyes watered. What the hell happened? Isn't a cartridge supposed to be the same as a pack of cigarettes? I took the cart off and it was bone dry. Oh well. I filled it back up and kept a close eye on it, putting in a drop or two every 10 minutes or so. I can live with this, I say.

The next day I take my new toy to work to show my curious smoker-buddies. Most of them laugh at it, one commends me for trying it out. The guy that chewed though it was sweet, go figure. He rode with me in my rig for the next few days since he was just back from a long disability leave and got a good idea for how well it did (and didn't) work.

At home my 510 was great, not so much on the road. On a long drive from one place to another I could easily need to refill on the run, but luckily I had a passenger to do it for me for a few days. The flavor of a burned filler is pretty damn annoying when you're trying to drive. Eventually I learned when the thing was about to go empty by taste, and it wasn't too bad if I paid attention.

Between the constant refilling and getting juice on my hands all the time I was getting pretty annoyed with my new savior of a gadget. I was doing my best to keep with it, I hadn't had a real cigarette for a week. Then I ran out of my tobacco flavor and switched over to my bottle of mango. Holy crap was it bad. It tasted like ashes and sugar. It was a demoralizing blow to my psyche.

Getting more and more angry with my 510, I decided to see what help I could find online and discovered the Electronic Cigarette Forum. After coming across a lot of things I didn't understand, I found the post that put the nail in my vaporizers coffin (temporarily). The tea-bag mod for cartridges. Long story short, there was a thread that explained how to fold a Liptons tea bag a certain way to hold more juice and feed the atomizer better. Then I found the one for using blue aquarium foam for filler. At that point, between the leaking, constant dripping, bad flavor, and the fact the damn thing didn't work as well as it could out of the box without learning origami, I shelved my brand new toy, picked up my Camels and my Bic, and had a smoke.

To Be Continued...