Steve K's Vaping World

What’s inside

In addition to the stuff in the box, the Volt e-cig kit is backed by a three month warranty.  You also get to pick and choose what comes in your kit.  You have a ton of options to mix and match colors (both LED and battery), size and manual or auto batteries.  If you can’t make up your mind, you can pick two different batteries.

Smokeless Image also gives you your choice of PCC (Personal Charging Case) options. My kit came with a small slimline case that charges one battery and holds another (or a couple of cartomizers). The other option is a bulkier case that isn’t nearly as attractive, but can hold the whole kit.  The XL case features a transparent blue lid that swings open.  XL batteries won’t fit in the slimline case.

Volt e-Cig Batteries

Along with the slimline PCC, I received one each of the black manual and automatic batteries.  Both electronic cigarette batteries were illuminated by orange LEDs, not my favorite, but there are plenty of other choices in the lighting department.  Cartomizers are available in any color you want, as long as it’s black.

The Volt lineup uses the KR808D-1 threading standard; a very popular standard for this class of e-cigarettes.  The Smokeless Image gear is a two-piece electronic cigarette using a cartomizer and battery instead of a separate atomizer and cartridge.  The components are solid, almost too solid, I couldn’t pull apart one of the cartomizers and eventually gave up, the e-cigarette remained unharmed.

Cartomizers

From a battery capacity standpoint, the regular battery is rated at 220mAh.  The XL version of the battery, which adds only a little bit of length gives you another 100mAh of battery life.  Either battery should give an average user a few good hours.  I’m a heavy vaper and I clocked well over two hours on the regular battery.

About the only noteworthy thing with this device is compatibility with other maker’s gear.  This really isn’t an issue about the Smokeless Image products, but about the standard itself.  I found that some of my third party cartomizers didn’t make good contact with the Volt e-cigarette battery.  Fortunately, using a bent paper clip I was able to pull the battery connector in the cartomizers out slightly (it only takes a millimeter or two, be gentle) and they worked fine.

Otherwise, the cartomizers were pretty straight forward.  While Smokeless Image doesn’t offer their flavors in stand alone e-liquid form, I had no problem refilling the Volt cartomizers, or as they call them, filter tips.  Just pop the soft silicone cap off and drip e-liquid directly onto the filler until its saturated and puff away.  The cartridges hold 1ml of e-liquid, the equivalent of 5-8 cigarettes depending on the user.

[edit: Smokeless Image does indeed sell refill liquid, thank you to Twitter user @camidaddy for keeping me honest. -SK]

Light up case

The Case

The real star of this show is Smokeless Image’s slimline Personal Charging Case.  The case is a glossy black and is adorned with a light-up Volt logo and power indicators. There is a little window on the front cover to view what’s stored inside.  I’m going to be dating myself here, but the whole case is roughly the size of a casette tape.

Status indicators

The case features a mini USB port on the side and a button on the front to cycle through the display and to activate charging.  The kit charges your e-cigarette on the go using a removable 1000mAh lithium battery.  Slide the top of the case downward to reveal the battery holder and charging compartment.

Notice I said slide the lid downward, not open it.  This is the first of two times I had to consult the manual because I couldn’t quite figure out how to work the thing.  It took me a little while (and a picture in the manual) to figure out the case slides and doesn’t flip open.  Hey it looked like it had hinges, alright?

Once the case is opened, hopefully without breaking the lid off, the interior compartment has two grooves.  One groove can be used to store an extra battery or a couple cartomizers.  The second groove has a flip-up connecter onto which you screw your battery for charging.

Closing the lid, there’s a nice sort of spring loaded action that closes the lid securely, a nice touch.  And here’s where my second visit to the owner’s manual came into play.  The case will not automatically just start charging your battery.  You have to press and hold the button on the front of the case for 4 seconds to start the charging process.

Inserting battery

When the button is successfully depressed for the allotted time, the battery tip will light up and stay lit until charged and the e-cigarette portion of the charge indicator screen will flash between 2 and 3 bars. I noticed a couple times that despite my thinking I pressed the button properly, for whatever reason, the charging cycle did not happen.  I believe one of these times was due to the case’s battery being too low to charge.

Figuring out how many charges the case is good for should be a matter of simple math.  At 220 mAh, a 1000mAh case should be able to get you through 4 charge cycles.  I found the case made it comfortably through 3 cycles, but didn’t always make it to number 4.  While I wouldn’t take the device to a desert island, it should be able to get most people through an average workday or night out without a hitch.

Little packages

Performance

The performance out of these little guys is pretty impressive.  Sure it’s not going to belt out vapor like a triple coil cartomizer on a high voltage mod setup.  But, an electronic cigarette like the Smokeless Image Volt isn’t supposed to be that kind of experience.

The Volt is supposed to be something roughly the size of a cigarette that’s easy to tote around and use.  At that task it is pretty successful featuring a nice balance of size and vapor production.  I’d say the flavor was maybe a tad muted when using my own e-liquid, but the flavor in the standard pre-filled cartomizers is quite strong.

Pre-filled cartomizers

I also found I wasn’t constantly angry at the automatic battery.  Normally, auto batteries just aren’t my favorite thing.  These however seemed to activate at just the right draw level where it felt natural.  They didn’t seem to require as much primer puffing to heat up the coils before taking a real drag either.

I actually found myself trying to puff on the manual battery without first hitting the button.  I think this was a combination of the button being fairly recessed (that allows it to work with a PCC) and the auto battery having a natural feel.  That being said, I still feel like the manual battery has a performance edge.  Being able to push the button a second before puffing produces a slightly warmer and thicker vapor.

The Volt Pro is a traditional style e-cigarette starter kit from Smokeless Image that can be customized with a wide variety of color choices including both battery and LED.  You can mix and match battery styles and sizes.  The real star of the show is the sleek personal charging case that lets you keep your e-cigarette charged while away from a power source.  The Volt has a nice balance between form factor and performance. You can shop for yours at Smokeless Image.

Pros:

• Fully customizable kit
• Attractive charging case
• Easily pocketable
• Good performance

• Case operation not entirely intuitive
• Charge cycle did not always engage
• Would have liked to see a regular USB charger as part of kit

Details:

Product: Volt Pro Starter Kit

Buy it at: Smokeless Image

Price: $64.95 (get 10% off with code SIVOLT88)

Threading: KR808D-1

Cartomizer Resistance: 2.8Ω

Battery Rating: 220mAh (standard) 320mAh (XL)