Table of Contents
Last Updated on March 29, 2016 by
The eRoll Cig-A-Like
When the Joyetech eRoll was released we (Spinfuel) had made the decision not to review it. The reason was that although it is a smartly designed e-cigarette with a beautiful charging case, it was, in the end, a 3-piece product. Battery, atomizer, cartridge… No thanks! But, after seeing SmokenJoey’s review we thought we might have made a mistake and that maybe it was worth taking a look at. So we did. Below is our review. – Tom
The Joyetech eRoll is the perfect mini-e-cigarette for Vapers that want the small size of mini-battery and all the sleek industrial design that made Apple Computer famous. It is, by any measure, a beautifully packaged, high-tech e-cigarette for new Vapers or veteran Vapers looking to pick up something to use in discreet setting. But, how well does it work? Will a 90mAh last long enough to enjoy a good vape? Will a 3-piece e-cigarette still find a home with some Vapers?
After spending almost two weeks with the Joyetech eRoll, generously sent to us by the legendary Mt Baker Vapor, where premium e-Liquid is offered in more than 150+ flavors, at prices so low you think you’re reading it wrong, I’m ready to provide the answers to the questions above, and more, in this review of this fascinating, though proprietary product.
Specs and Stuff
The Joyetech eRoll sells for just $62.99 at Mt Baker Vapor and comes with a complete starter kit. Included in the iPhone-like packaging are:
- 1 x eRoll atomizer cone
- 2 x eRoll atomizer heads (2.2ohm)
- 2 x eRoll batteries (90mAh)
- 3 x eRoll cartridges (tanks)
- 1 x eRoll USB charger
- 1 x eRoll USA wall charger
- 1 x eRoll portable charging case
- 1 x user manual.
- 1 x bottle of Baker Vapor e-Liquid
- 1 x Blunt Needle Lid for dropper bottle (makes filling the tanks super simple)
Offered in three colors: black, white, and silver. Our review model was black. The battery connection is proprietary, so using anything other than official eRoll atomizers, cartridges is not do-able. Additional batteries are under $10 each, which is an excellent price for mini-batteries.
Personal Charging Case – PCC
The batteries may sport just 90mAh but the PCC is a 1000mAh case, which means that you can charge both your batteries a few times without having to recharge the PCC. It works well, and it recharges the batteries quite fast. It’s also very cool looking, as you can see from the photos in this review.
PCC in action – Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to take Chelsey (our Chelsey of last year’s staff) to Sea World. She was here to help Julia and Keira pack up and get ready for Ron to fly down and pick them up, so since I’d never been to Sea World we visited the place together. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to try out the eRoll and its PCC away from the office and home since I would be gone all day and into the evening. We left about 7AM, arrived back home about 10PM and there was more than half a charge left in the charging case. The eRoll was the only e-cigarette I took with me. I wound up charging both batteries two times each, getting about 3-4 hours per charge. However, if I was at home and the office pacify vaping the length of time would have been no more than an hour.
Charging the eRoll batteries is straightforward, even simple. Just press the eRoll into the charging port, close the PCC and a blue LED will turn on to let you know the battery is charging. After a complete charge the LED turns off and you know its ready to use again.
Charging the PCC is just as easy. To charge the case attach the micro-USB cable into the USB port and plug it into the wall with the wall charger. The LED turns red to let you know the case is charging and then green to let you know the case is fully charged and ready to go.
On the negative side the PCC doesn’t hold anything other than the battery it’s charging. No atomizers, no cartridges, no extra battery …nothing. It is so thin and iPhone-like if you do use an iPhone you’re liable to confuse them if you slip them both into the same pocket.
The eRoll Battery – The battery itself is pretty short, measuring out at 54mm and 8mm round. If you have one of the short(er) Halo Cigs G6 batteries (64mm) you can see a noticeable difference in length. It’s also an automatic battery, which means you simply puff to activate it. I did notice that despite being an automatic battery I didn’t have to “prime” it (taking 2 or 3 puffs to get a good vape going), which was a nice bit of good tech. It’s has a 3.7v output, unregulated of course, and takes about 45-50 minutes to charge.
Despite its small size the 3.7v output provides a very decent vape, with more vapor than I thought possible with such a small thing. In addition, there is short-circuit protection, atomizer protection, and low-voltage protection. Indeed, Joyetech not only designed it to be sleek and high-tech looking, the guts of the product is equally high-tech.
On the drive up to Orlando and Sea World I was able to get some accurate counts on the number of puffs I could get from a fully charged battery, as well as the number of puffs from an eRoll cartridge. This is where the rubber meets the road. For its high voltage output the vapor production is amazing, but with the small capacity of the cartridges (.4ml) the number of puffs you can get before having to add e-Liquid was rather small. On the drive up I vaped with long, slow draws and was able to get about 40 puffs in before having to refill the tank. Since I vape a lot I had to hand off the cartridges to Chelsey a couple of times before we even got to Sea World. I was definitely regretted having taken the eRoll as the only device I bought with me; especially since Chelsey doesn’t smoke or vape any longer.
When it comes to how long the battery lasted you can figure on a fully charged battery lasting no more than an hour…at that point it will be time to switch them out. Luckily, the charge times are short enough that you really don’t have to worry about running out of battery power and the PCC can handle several recharges. I took along a 10ML needle bottle of juice so between that and the batteries and PCC I was able to vape the entire trip. My only issue was having to refill the cartridges more often than I wanted to, but to be fair the 0.4ml capacity was the smallest I’d ever used.
Putting It All Together
We mustn’t forget that buying an eRoll means having to deal with a battery, atomizer, cone, and cartridge. It is a full-blown 3-piece e-cigarette. For that reason I would never be happy with it as my primary e-cigarette. Having said that it is worth talking about the actual vaping experience. For some people it might be enough to make it worthwhile.
Vapor – Throat Hit – Flavor
Because the e-Liquid doesn’t sit inside some wadding of absorbent material you will get the full, true flavor of whatever e-Liquid you vape. In that sense the cartridge is a good thing. But the small capacity makes it a constant concern of how much juice you have left before you need to refill it. In addition, keeping the atomizer clean and debris free also makes a difference.
The 3.7v output of the battery, along with the tip-top shape atomizer and the right e-liquid you’re going to be able to get a sizable throat hit from this tiny e-cigarette. I use a 70/30 or 80/20 PG/VG mix most of the time now and I wouldn’t complain about the throat hit. Certainly there are better ones with a larger battery and a higher ohm atomizer, but for this small e-cigarette I can’t complain.
Vapor is where the eRoll really shines. For such a small thing it can put out an amazing amount of vapor. The combination of the 2.2ohms of the standard atomizer that comes with the starter kit and the 3.7v battery they really work well together and produce a vape that really is unmatched when you compare physical sizes of the components.
Conclusion – Buying Advice – Where To Buy
The Joyetech eRoll is an excellent product. Very high quality Industrial design* features make it one of the more elegant and sophisticated e-cigarettes on the market. I think it’s fair to say that there is no other 3-piece mini-e-cigarette that comes close to the eRoll.
So, great, right? Go out and buy one, right? Well, not so fast. I just can’t recommend the eRoll to new Vapers because despite being a good product that delivers a great vapor and a clean taste, it’s a complicated product. Refilling cartridges all the time, replacing atomizers, hell, cleaning atomizers, and constantly recharging batteries and the PCC case (if you are a heavy Vaper), there are much better e-cigarettes out there in VapeLandia.
If you don’t mind the idea of getting about an hour’s worth of vaping before having to refill and recharge, and you are in love with the design and the small footprint of the battery and the case, then by all means pick up one and enjoy it. You WILL enjoy using it if those things do not bother you.
The fully equipped starter kit for the eRoll is right around $60 so the investment is decently small. Considering a Blu Cigs starter kit is $69.99 to $89.99, and about half the quality, the eRoll knocks it, and others like it, out of the ballpark.
Still, if someone came to me, who was new to vaping and didn’t know his or her way around all the products that are available, and asked me if the eRoll is the way to go I would have to say no. Again, that’s just me; there are plenty of people enjoying their eRoll tremendously. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the eRoll; it’s a great e-cigarette for what it is. It’s just not something I would put somebody in.
Ratings:
- Quality – 5 Stars
- The Vape – 5 Stars
- Battery Life – 3 Stars
- 3-Piece Tech – 2 Stars
- Price – 5 Stars
As always, your comments are highly appreciated.
Tom McBride
FOOTER:
Industrial Design is the use of both applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, functionality, and/or usability of a product, and it may also be used to improve the product’s marketability and even production.
