Steve K's Vaping World

There has been a lot of movement and progress in the world of e-cigarette clear cartomizers.  Everyone seems to be racing to the bottom, the bottom coil that is.  Even the makers of the CE2 are rolling out the CE3 which will be a bottom coil design.  Bauway has decided to march to a different beat and produce their own take on the original CE2 top-coil clearomizer.

Design

The guts with thin wicks

Bauway’s take seems to be inspired more by some of the older revisions of the CE2 than the latest versions.  The most noticable trait of these clearomizers is the fact it uses the old-style thin wicks.  The original CE2s went to a single, thicker wick in their fourth incarnation.  That move was to improve the rate at which the wicks could deliver e-liquid to the coils as the earlier models were plagued with dry hit issues.

Other portions of the Bauway design seem to be improvements on the CE2.  They’ve changed the cup cover from a disc with notches to a sleeve that fits over the coil cup and the wicks.  This means the cover can be put in without worrying about orienting the cover.  Of course that can be problematic, the first one I tried had the filler holes placed directly over the wicks, making it impossible to insert a syringe for filling.

The inner gasket

Eventually I figured out I could just move the whole cover.  I found it easier to just pull out the whole gasket and fill by just dripping juice directly in before replacing the cap.  The Bauway also has an outer gasket like the CE2s, which I promptly lost, also just like the CE2s.

Another departure from the CE2 design is the use of glue rather than an O-ring to seal the tube to the interior of the cartomizer.  I’m not sure that’s an improvement since reassembly means finding more glue.  The tubes are of the thicker variety.  This should serve to make them a little stronger, but at the cost of using drip tips.

I always try to use drip tips in my cartomizers to theoretically help me color code them based on what juice I have going.  Or sometimes, I just like the way a certain tip feels.  The only thing I could fit into the Bauway model was the rubber tips that come with the original CE2s.  The Bauway comes with no tip at all.

Performance

Fitted with the original rubber tip

Performance-wise the Bauway CE2s are also a sort of mixed bag.  Vapor production is fantastic. The carto produces a nice, weighty vapor and plenty of it.  The temperature is kind of middle of the road, very similar to the normal CE2s

Since the comparison to the original CE2 is pretty obvious, wicking is an area of concern for me.  CE2s were sort of notorious for dry hits, although they progressively got better throughout their various revisions.  The Bauway clone performs pretty well in that department, for about the first half of a fill.

Once the liquid level is below half way, about 1/3 empty, dry spots begin manifesting.  This is partly a result of my heavy back-to-back vaping style. Turning the e-cigarette upside down or waiting about 15 seconds will rectify the situation.  To me, it appears that the multi-wick system isn’t quite efficient, stealing the fat wick idea might have been a decent plan in this case.

That’s right, blame the wick

When the wick is well saturated flavor production is pretty commendable and consistant.  Unfortunately, I detect a rather odd aftertaste using these Bauways.  It’s hard to describe, it’s kind of a plastic or rubber taste and it leaves a dry sensation in the mouth.  I’ve experienced the taste with and without the CE2 rubber tip, and it seems to linger even after half a dozen refills of the cartomizer. Cleaning with an alcohol or vinegar solution may help clear some of that weird flavor out.

If cleaning it with alcohol won’t work, perhaps drinking some while you vape may make you forget about the flavor.  It mars what is otherwise a pretty enjoyable vape.  I hope that they make a few tweaks to this design as there are some superior traits over the regular CE2, and I think there is still a place in the vaping world for top-coil designs.

Too Long; Didn’t Read
The Bauway CE2 is pretty much a direct knock off of the CE2s produced by Royal Smoker.  There are a couple of improvements to the design such as an omni-directional inner gasket.  It looks like they got a good start as the vapor production and quality is pretty good.  Unfortunately, a few other issues with occasional dry burns and an odd aftertaste make me want to wait it out for another revision or two.

Performance at-a-glance
Vapor Production: Very good
Vapor temperature: moderate to slightly warm
Throat hit: average to good
Flavor: poor (flavor is good but the aftertaste detracts heavily)
Draw: moderate

Pros:

• Redesigned cup works well
• Thicker tube seems more crack resistant (though they will still crack)
• Juice condensation in mouthpiece isn’t as prolific as the original CE2s