Steve K's Vaping World

Well, you have to give credit to  Buy an eCig credit for being direct. The store name tells you exactly why you’re there. Update: Buy an eCig is now called Rogue Vaping – SK I have here one of their eGo-V kits, or as they like to call it, the Space Needle kit. This kit pairs an eGo-V variable voltage battery with the ever-popular Vivi Nova tank. I’ll review this eGo-V kit and find out how this pairing stacks up.

Details

What’s in the box

eGo-V Kit Design

The products that go into this kit aren’t unique. Rather, it’s in the pairing of the gear inside the roomy eGo case that makes the kit. The folks over at Rogue Vaping wanted to put together what they thought were the best components for a variable voltage e-cigarette starter kit.

As such, the company did a good job with the kit, particularly with the small touches. First is the inclusion of the eGo tank collar. This is a simple doodad that screws on the eGo cone connector and has a taper and a flat surface at the end.

This dresses up the normally exposed eGo threads when a tank is attached. The collar provides perhaps a little airflow restriction, but otherwise no actual physical function. I’ve never used one previously, but the addition of the collar does something to the overall appearance making it seem more intentional and finished.

Choice is the other nice thing about this kit. Not only are there three colors of tanks to choose from, but you can also select the resistance of each head that goes into the kit.

Typically, Vivi Novas come with three heads each at a different resistance. Many vapers have their favorite resistances making the extra heads less than optimal. With this kit, you can select the resistance of each of the heads.

If you don’t need an entire kit, the company also sells their Vivi Novas the same way, so kudos for that. You can also add the eGo-V battery for an additional $30 when buying a Vivi Nova. This may be a more cost-effective option if you don’t need the extras that come with the kit.

The battery is the star attraction of this kit. It’s the eGo-V which is a variable voltage take on the venerable eGo style of electronic cigarettes. This model is very similar to the pass-through variable voltage eGo I reviewed some time ago.

Just in case you haven’t actually read every single thing I’ve written and committed it to memory (why not!) I’ll start with the basics here.

The eGo-V only comes in a sort of matte grey finish. It’s a 650 mAh battery, but the addition of the variable voltage circuitry and display add a considerable amount of length. This model is closer to size to the larger 1100 mAh eGo batteries.

The display is a small blue backlit LCD screen that displays the current voltage and battery charge levels when either the + or – buttons immediately next to the screen are pressed. The buttons themselves are rubber and a little easier to press than the other version I mentioned.

Pressing both buttons at once will lock the setting so you don’t accidentally turn the thing up to toast when you put it in your pocket. The voltage can be set from 3 to 6 volts in .1v increments.

At the end of the battery is the USB connector. While it’s not as common as micro USB-B as used in Android devices, it’s still a connector I’ve seen around. Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know this type of connector is a UC-E6 connector.

Pass-through charging is supported with the eGo-V. That’s a good thing as I’m using it tethered right now after killing the battery using this device fairly heavily earlier today.

At the other end of the battery, you’ll find a typical eGo connector.  Under that is the fire button which, like the adjustment buttons, is also rubber. The other unusual thing is that the button is covered by a silicone ring for reasons I don’t get.

I suppose it gives things a low-profile look. It’s easy enough to just pull the band off if it’s not to your tastes.

Naturally, the Vivi Nova tank goes on top of the battery with, or without, the eGo collar which gives it a dressy look. I mentioned way back in the top of the review that this Nova isn’t made by Vision.

Rogue Vaping went with this brand because they feel it’s not as prone to leaking. That seems to be my experience as well (more in the performance section). The basic design seems to be the same with just a couple minor changes to the head and top end-cap.

The head sports 4 medium-length wicks, and the top silicone gasket is sealed with a small spike that protrudes from the top. That matches up with the indent on the bottom of the top cap. Together that seems to make a good enough seal to prevent any major gurgles.

Before I jump into performance, there’s one more thing that is worth mention. Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly good thing.

Each kit comes with a 30ml bottle of e-liquid. Tobacco flavored in my case, but since I’m not a tobacco fan I sort of ignored the liquid. But I noticed one thing about the bottle. Instead of a printed label, it had a piece of tape on the bottle with the flavor and nicotine level handwritten on it.

I wrote that off as this being a review kit, they probably just tossed whatever was lying around into the kit. Then I noticed the images on their site also show no labels on the bottle.

Granted, handwriting the information on the bottles conveys the necessary information. But, with as much competition in the e-liquid market, and the increasing scrutiny e-liquid is getting, this seems to be a pretty amateur move.

Now this could all be a misunderstanding, but if not, I highly recommend the company start printing out labels and not hand writing them.

Edit: After talking to the company, I’ve been informed they do in fact use laser printed labels, and the one I got was just in error.

Using the eGo-V

Since I sort of ignored the e-liquid bundled with the kit, I’ll be focusing on just the hardware. We’ll start with the eGo-V battery first.

To be honest I don’t have a lot to say about the battery. Not that it’s a bad thing. It works very well and is pretty straight forward to use. There’s nothing difficult about it.

The only thing close to that is sometimes I have to feel around for the button behind that silicone band. Otherwise, the button action has a nice tactile feel to it. The battery does a good job of providing voltage in the same neighborhood as the setting. I found it to be within .3v when it was under load. That’s better than some variable voltage e-cigarettes I’ve tested in the past.

The V also has the same amperage limitations that similar devices have, around 2.5v. Like the others, it simply outputs the maximum voltage it can if you set it too high.

In general, the eGo-V is a very competent eGo-style variable voltage device.

That leaves the Vivi Nova tank in this kit. As I mentioned early in the review, the people at Rogue Vaping felt that this wasn’t as prone to leaking as the Vision units.

I agree with that assessment. There’s no secret gasket, everything just fits together. It’s a solid unit and hasn’t been at all prone to leaking.

I did, however, find that despite it having 4 wicks, it wasn’t as good at higher voltages as other versions of this popular tank. It wasn’t terrible, you can comfortably cruise at around 7 watts, which is likely OK for many users.  I prefer things a bit hotter so found the stock configuration of this tank to be a little lacking as compared to some other tanks out there.

Even at the lower wattage, vapor production was pretty good if a little on the cool side. Flavor reproduction was about average and throat hit was also not bad. I’d say this particular variety of the popular Nova style is acceptable.

The eGo-V battery in combination with the Vivi Nova tank is a good pairing, especially with the collar piece. It seems that the company did a good job assembling this kit.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

The eGo-V Kit pairs off-the-shelf components including an eGo-V, Vivi Nova and an eGo tank collar. The kit even lets you pick the resistance of your nova heads, which is a great touch. Everything other than the e-liquid packaging shows a great eye for detail in this kit. You can pick one up at Rogue Vaping.

Pros

Cons

Disclosure: I received this product for review from Rogue Vaping. This review features affiliate links.