Vaepe is a UK-based electronic cigarette company that produces very sleek Scandinavian designed e-cigarettes. The company has a line of e-cigarettes with hip-sounding names like Studio and Club. The company has recently setup a US version of their site and lowered shipping to the states making this an option for US vapers. In this review, I’m going to take a look at their Lounge offering, which is their traditional-style e-cigarette that uses their unique Eliq cartomizers.
What’s in the Box
Each Lounge starter kit comes in a hard cardboard box with a magnetic closure with a little leatherette pillow inside to hold the batteries. In each box you’ll find:
- Two automatic batteries
- 1 Silicone cartomizer cover
- 1 USB charger
- 2 packs of cartomizers (5 ea) in choice of flavors and strengths
- Printed instruction manual
Design
I gushed about the cool chrome tip with the hidden white LED in my review of the Vaepe disposable. I’m pleased to see that the tip is consistent across all the company’s offerings, including the Club line (the company’s take on the eGo). That chrome tip is available on two battery color choices, blue and white.
Here’s a fun fact about the white version. It’s not white. It’s chrome. I’m not sure why they say white, maybe it’s a European thing, or they’re being clever. The combination of a chrome battery and chrome tip is a fantastically futuristic looking combo. Too bad nobody makes chrome cartridges.
The other color is a dark navy blue. Unlike the chrome white offering which is metallic, the blue has a rubberized finish. This provides for a nice grip and a more subdued look.
Like so many traditional electronic cigarettes, the Lounge uses the KR-808 thread pattern. The batteries are only available one size, which is the same as most standard sized ecigs. The battery capacity is most likely, therefore, around 180mAh (the company doesn’t publish the tech specs.)
Aquamizers
What is different about the Vaepe is the cartomizers the device uses. Most companies use a variation of the traditional cartomizer featuring liquid saturated filler around a heating coil. Vaepe claims to use a cartomizer that doesn’t use filler.
Curiosity got the best of me since I usually see occasional tweaks to the basic design but generally nothing radical out of electronic cigarette starter kit cartomizers. Thinking this may be some sort of CE2 setup I thought I’d take a look.
That required my trusty tube cutter because these cartomizers are definitely not designed to be opened and reused. Once I got the cartomizer opened up, I was kind of surprised at what I saw.
The Aquamizers actually were, as far as I could tell, a unique design. Instead of seeing a CE2 style cartomizer in there, what I saw had much more in common with a tank atomizer system like the eGo-C type A.
The outer tube of the cartomizer served more to hold everything in place than to hold any e-liquid. That’s because the cartomizer tube housed a clear plastic 1ml tank. A silicone cap sits on the tank with a small piece of filler that sits between the heating coil and the tank and serves to help wick e-liquid to the coils.
The coils are mounted on a little silicone housing, but are otherwise exposed. Essentially, Aquamizers are a hybrid tank atomizer in a cartomizer.
Performance
Perhaps a good question to raise is if going through all this trouble with cartomizer design paid off in the performance department.
The vapor profile of the Vaepe Lounge is a little unusual as compared to similar types of e-cigarettes. Devices that produce good vapor like V2’s e-cigarettes seem to run hot.
The Vaepe gear on the other hand also produce an excellent amount of vapor for this type of device, but run much cooler. Particularly the vapor itself. This can be credited to the bottom orientation of the heating element, but I found the vapor to be surprisingly cool.
I found that the e-cigarette and cartomizers physically do not very warm either. The cartomizer’s resistance is around 2.8 ohm, which might also help explain the cool vapor as well as show the cartomizer’s ability to efficiently make vapor.
Because these cartomizers are not refillable, flavor is sort of limited to what you can get from the company. I find the Vaepe flavors to be pleasant enough, but the flavors seem to be a little on the subdued side. This may be why I don’t find the tobacco flavors as unpalatable as most tobaccos.
In general, Vaepe’s performance is on the good side of typical performance for standard electronic cigarettes.
Too Long; Didn’t Read
Vaepe’s Lounge Kit combines a minimalistic style with a unique cartomizer design that differentiates it from so many other starter kits on the market. I suppose limited choice of styles and colors goes along with minimalistic, people who wish for purple ecigs with green lights will need to look elsewhere. However, if you want something that would be at home on the set of the Jetson’s version of Mad Men (how’s that for meta?) this one might just fit the bill. You can pick these up from Vaepe’s site.
Pros
- Simple and attractive design
- Good performance
- Nice packaging
Cons
- Kit does not include Wall charger
- Cartomizers are not refillable
- No manual battery option
- Ships from the UK
Details:
Product: Lounge Starter Kit (white or blue)
Available From: Vaepe
Price: $61.99
Threading: KR808D-1
Cartomizer capacity: 1ml
Battery capacity: 180mAh
Disclosure: Vaepe advertises on this site. This product was provided for review.
