Blackcat eCig Review

Blackcat Premium Vaporizer • Disposable eCigarette • Disposable eCigar

INTRO

Several times a week vendors inquiring about getting their product(s) reviewed by Spinfuel contact us. We always look into each inquiry just in case we find a company that we should tell our readers about, and if we discover the company is offering what looks to be quality products at fair prices and a liberal return policy, we will reach back to get a dialog going. That’s exactly what happened with Blackcat eCig.

In early March Blackcat contacted us about doing a review and after vetting them some and seeing what looked like some pretty cool products on their website we let them know we were open to doing a review. A couple of weeks later Blackcat eCig sent along a variety of products, including a disposable eCigarette, a few bottles of eLiquid, an eCigar, and their flagship product, the Blackcat Premium Vaporizer.

Premium Vaporizer review by Tom McBride

•  650mAh 510/eGo-threaded Variable Voltage battery
• ProTank 2 Glassomizer
• 6x 2.0ohm coil replacements
• USB cable Charger
• Wall Charger
• Removable Beauty Ring
• Manual
  
• PRICE: $49.90

Review- I approached this eCigarette as a ‘step up’ product. A ‘step up’ product is a product for Vapers who have been using cig-a-likes and have grown weary of them. They want to move up to a ecigarette/vaporizer that can last longer, taste better, and produce a lot more vapor. This “premium vaporizer” by Blackcat fits the bill and the price is certainly attractive enough.

My only concern about the Blackcat Premium Vaporizer is the same concern I have with all batteries of this caliber, and its that they are sold as individual batteries, and not in pairs. A starter kit that consists of a single battery is often enough to be deal breaker for me, and its not something I can recommend, except on rare occasions.

What in the world is a vaper, especially a new vaper, supposed to do when the battery is recharging? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, vendors need to package two batteries in every kit, period. Because of the price of an additional battery doesn’t add that much to the overall cost of the kit, offering two batteries solves the problem for the end user, and the vaper, and it shows that the company understands the dilemma single battery kits can cause. But, sometimes there are more important considerations going on.

Here’s a good example: The Halo Cigs Triton kit consists of two NON-Variable Voltage 650mAh batteries and two clearomizers, plus the wall charger and USB charger, and the price is $64.99. That’s a fair price actually, and it beats the price of some of starter kits on the market. So, adding an additional VV battery to the Blackcat Premium Vaporizer would easily price out less than $64.99, making it even more attractive than the Triton kit, especially as a ‘starter kit’. But, Blackcat doesn’t offer a dual battery starter kit and the result is a single battery, variable voltage, kit that costs $15 less than the affordable Triton kit. We can work with that.

The Kit: The Blackcat Premium Vaporizer is a 650mAh variable voltage battery with a 510-eGo-thread connector and a Kanger ProTank 2. Yes, its top heavy, but you have to admit that it looks good. I may have some negative feelings about the ProTank in general but a lot of vapers love them. The kit, when assembled, is unique, attractive, and well put together.

Performance

I was worried about the performance of the ProTank 2 being powered by a 650mAh battery at an unregulated 3.7v. Worried that the coil head was going to be upward of 2+ ohms, meaning it would have been a bit of a struggle to get the ProTank 2 moving along nicely.You see, on the Blackcat website product page for the Premium Vaporizer there is no mention at all that the battery is a variable voltage battery, ranging from 3.2v to 4.8v, and that makes a huge difference.

Being fully charged, the VV-battery/ProTank 2 loaded with Ginger’s eJuice Gingerbread Chai produced flavor and vapor that were excellent. The clean flavor of gingerbread Chai, plus plenty of vapor from this 50/50 PG/VG juice, and a decent enough throat hit, turned out to be a great choice. Granted, using the ProTank 2 I pushed the voltage up to 4.1v before finding the sweet spot, but it was there and the results were excellent.

ProTank 2: The ProTank 2 has a removable metal drip tip so for vapers who cannot stand to vape metal tips they can replace it with just about any plastic or wood drip tip they have hanging around. The custom fit beauty ring creates the illusion of the ProTank and battery as one solid unit. Remove the beauty ring and you can use any eGo clearomizer with the battery. I took turns with the ProTank and an EVOD2 and both performed exactly as expected.

The 650mAh VV-battery lasts about the same as any other 650mAh VV-battery I’ve encountered. Blackcat includes 5 extra coil heads in the kit, as well as the wall adapter and USB cable, and all for $49.90. (Sorry, but that is such a great price)

Who would buy the Blackcat Premium Vaporizer? For starters, anyone looking to make a minimum investment into a larger battery with variable voltage and large tank that will certainly out perform anything the cig-a-like can offer. Vapers looking to pick up an additional device and like the idea of getting a ProTank 2 with a VV-battery will also like this kit.

The bottom line for me was this: I loved the look of the assembled device. It looked like a solid piece of stainless steel with a glass tank at the top. The stainless steel battery, beauty ring and ProTank make a great looking setup for anyone.

Performance, as I said, is as good as any other VV-battery pushing a ProTank. If I needed a new device I’d buy one, or if I were a cig-a-like vaper looking to move up I’d definitely have to get one. Where else are you going to be able to buy a variable voltage eGo battery and a ProTank 2, and the USB cable and wall adapter, for less than fifty bucks?

Of course, if I did buy one I would need to pick up another battery if I didn’t have one; fortunately Blackcat sells a battery/clearomizer in various colors, called the BC Series for just $14.99. (not variable voltage) It looks to be the same battery, with the 510-eGo threads, without the variable voltage option, and comes complete with a CE-4 clearomizer. The price is certainly attractive, $14.99 for a 650mAh eGo battery and a CE4 Clearomizer thrown in. It’s like getting a clearomizer for free.

Grade: A- Recommended

Blackcat Disposable eCigarette & eCigar – by Dave Foster

Blackcat eCig offers a few different flavors in their disposable line. The one I was given to review was their Classic Tobacco. The price of this disposable is a very attractive $6.99. While I totally enjoyed the disposable there is one negative thing about it that I have to mention, though it has to do with their marketing rather than the product itself.

Blackcat tells their customers that their disposable is good for 700 puffs, a claim that isn’t even close to being true, unless of course there is some fine print I missed somewhere that indicated the 700 puffs are attributed to a field mouse.

Perhaps the tiny lungs of a field mouse would get 700 puffs, but the average vaper will get more like 220-230 puffs. I don’t understand why any brand would need to push numbers that are outright impossible to achieve with today’s technology when 220-230 puffs for a disposable that’s about 60% of the length of a Blu Cig disposable (claimed to deliver 400 puffs and sells $10.99) is downright respectable. I would think that dealing with irate customers who complain that they just spent $7 for a disposable, thinking they are going to get 700 puffs from it would be more than enough to back off a claim like that. Any disposable that gets 230 puffs or so, by a “real” vaper is producing a good disposable.

With that off my chest, let me say that this disposable is really one of the best I’ve had. The flavor of Classic Tobacco, and the abundant vapor reminds me of the same Johnson Creek-made Blu Cigs Classic Tobacco. The eLiquid is USA-made, and it tastes great. Along with a huge amount of vapor for a disposable it delivers a solid kick of the throat hit too. What more could you want from a disposable?

Unlike most other disposables I’ve tried, I was able to vape this one for 10-15 minutes, come back a couple of hours later, vape for 10-15 minutes again, and repeat the process for nearly 4 days before the disposable died out. Considering the $6.99 price this definitely one of the best performing disposables on the market, and its also affordable. I plan on picking some of these up as travel companions or when I want to stealth vape and need something that takes up a small footprint.

Disposable eCigar by Blackcat

I can’t say that much about the Disposable eCigar other than the flavor of the vapor was very “cigar” tasting, the vapor clouds were heavy and smelled like a cigar, only not that heavy or long lasting. I spent a few minutes with it basically to see if the quality was up there with the disposable eCigarette, and it was. For eCigar vapers I think this one could be huge. Not so much for myself though. I just don’t like cigar flavors. Blackcat eCig sells the “Cuban Cigar” for $15.99 and claims 1100 puffs. Based on the disposable ecigarette I wouldn’t hold tight on that 1100 puff number, but I can’t swear to it because there is no way I was going to try and puff away on a cigar. Having said that, if you’re the type of vaper that likes eCigars I’m betting that you would really like this one, it tasted exactly like a cigar.

Conclusion

We were both impressed with the quality of the products we received, and even more impressed by the prices. Their disposable ecigarette comes highly recommended by Dave, and the Premium Vaporizer, basically a 510-eGo stainless steel VV-battery with a ProTank 2, and USB cable/Wall adapter, is also a quality product at a very inviting price of just $49.90. If you priced out each item in the kit separately you would pay a lot more than $50.

We received a couple of eLiquids with the package of goodies and we’ll offer a review in the next couple of weeks. Julia is preparing some single-flavor eLiquid reviews and she’ll include them there.

Blackcat eCig, from the products we received for review, looks to be a good company to do business with. That’s nice to see, and the people behind the company should feel good for putting out quality products at an affordable price. There are so many others out there trying to charge outrageous prices for crappy products, when you find one that doesn’t, they deserve to be talked about and written about. Let’s hope we see Blackcat eCig continue on this path.

Written by Dave Foster and Tom McBride