Steve K's Vaping World

 

Revolution Vapor is a relatively new entrant offering traditional style e-cigarette starter kits.  The company offers attractive, two piece traditional style e-cigarette starter kits in a number of glossy and attractive finishes.  The e-cigarettes feature a unique white light at the tip, along with a few other things to help them stand out in this segment of the electronic cigarette market traditionally dominated by some of the biggest companies in the industry.

Update: Revolution Vapor has given SKVW readers a special discount! Don’t forget to check the end of the article for a  20%  e-cigarette starter kit coupon code! -sk

Design
According to Revolution Vapor’s website, the white light is not only there to make their kits unique, but to  intentionally keep them from being mistaken for actual cigarettes.  This is a move I applaud as I have an unnatural fear of being run out of some local establishment by security officials thinking that I’m smoking.  As the person using the device, the light doesn’t actually have to be orange or red to recreate that hand to mouth smoking sensation.

Most cigarettes don’t shine

It would also be hard to mistake what you’re vaping if it is metallic blue and glows white.  The kits are available in a number of colors including chrome and yes, even plain white.  Another nice option with these kits is they come in your choice of automatic or manual battery.

Automatic batteries much closer to smoking because the device simply turns on when you take a puff.  I however, prefer manual batteries.  They do add a step to the process and there is a small adjustment period, but I feel it’s worth it.  You get much more flexibility with a manual button and in general a better vaping experience.

Some battery choices

The reason the experience is better with manual batteries is because the heating element inside the e-cigarette works best if it’s already warm (see here for more details).  With a manual battery, you simply push the button for a second before taking your puff and everything is nice and heated giving you a much better cloud of vapor.  You can sort of accomplish this with an automatic battery by taking one or two short “primer” puffs before your regular puff to get things going.

Whichever battery you choose, it will be fitted to a cartomizer (even though the company confusingly refers to it as a cartridge).  A cartomizer is a single unit that contains both the eliquid and the heating element in a single unit.   Fortunately black goes with everything, because that is the only color choice available.
[update: I’ve been informed that certain color starter kits come with white cartomizers instead of black -Steve K]

In contrast to the outside of the cartomizers, there is a lot of choice when it comes to what is inside them.  Revolution Vapor offers their cartridges in 15 different flavors and a few different nicotine levels.  While there are e-liquid companies out there with hundreds of flavors, it’s sort of rare to see companies specializing in traditional starter kits offer more than a handful of flavors.  The company also makes their own e-liquid in the US as opposed to buying bulk liquid from China.

Choice is good

Refill cartridges are reasonably priced, and the company also offers its flavors in the form of refill e-liquid which can also save some money.  Thanks to a standards-based cartomizer, refilling the cartomizers is a simple as removing the little rubber end cap and then dripping liquid from the bottle into the filler material until the material is saturated.

Using this method, you can reuse the cartridges a number of times before they have to be tossed out.  The trick is to refill the liquid before the cartomizer dries out completely, otherwise the filler may scorch, rendering the cartomizer useless.  As I mentioned, this kit and its cartomizers uses an industry standard thread pattern, which means you’re free to explore other types of cartomizers, or even atomizers.

What’s in the box
Ok so I’m a little out of order this time, normally this part goes first.  I received my kit as a review sample, so it actually came with a mashup of different product offerings so I could get a feel for their different products. The kits are available in either protégé or Elite, the difference being the size of the battery (more on this later).

The presentation

The standard starter kit gets you:

• 2 rechargeable (KR808-D1threaded) batteries
• 10 cartomizers (1x pack of 5 of your choice and 1x 5 piece sampler pack)
• 1 USB charger
• 1 AC to USB wall adapter
• Printed instruction manual

Nice and cozy

The draw on my device was moderate.  Not like sucking a golfball through a straw or anything, but since I was only sent automatic batteries, this meant that it did take a slight bit of effort on my part to get the atomizer running steadily.  I could make another pro-manual battery jab here, but I won’t.

That’s a pretty long e-cigarette

There is some subjectivity to battery life as well.  Mainly the amount of vaping you do has a direct correlation to how long the battery lasts.  I used both the standard and the Elite battery at what I consider a moderate rate.  I got almost 3 hours out of the standard battery.  The Elite battery which offers about 25% more battery life (at the cost of being longer than the regular battery) added a little over an hour to that figure.

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