Guide To Vaping – 3 (more) Cig-A-Like Brands For Smokers

A new entry into Spinfuel’s Guide to Vaping – You know what I find absolutely hysterical? Imagining some big burly guy holding onto a 3 pound hunk of steel, sucking on the end of it like it was oxygen and he is standing on an alien planet, looking down on the millions of people that vape cig-a-like e-cigarettes like they were vermin just waiting to be put out of their misery. Out of his mouth and nose comes this huge pillowing cloud of vapor like a mad bull on a very cold day.

I can picture it in my head right now, “YOU ARE AN INFERIOR LIFEFORM! LEAVE THIS PLACE! YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!”… LOL, I’m sorry, but you wouldn’t believe how many people I run into that fit this description. The gall of some of these people is unfathomable.

So the next time you’re visiting a forum looking for some basic information and you’re treated badly because you use a cig-a-like, just bring up the image described above and laugh. And be proud that you’ve ditched tobacco cigarettes and found something that keeps you off them. That’s the important part. It’s certainly not how big your e-cigarette is.

In the my article in the Spinfuel Guide To Vaping I talked about three brands for new vapers that smoked the way I smoked…vigorously. Three brands that could stand up to the abuse of long, hard pulls (drags, puffs, etc.) and the choices were rather easy; Panda Evolve, Halo G6 w/Clearomizers, and the Triple 7 (777 eCigs) Bullet.

Seeing as how the Bullet by 777 eCigs consisted of a 320mAh battery, a 1.3ML screw-on drip tip clearomizer, and a lot less money than the Panda Evolve, it was easy to see how a vigorous smoker would benefit from the Bullet. Happily, many agreed.

But, not all smokers are hard smokers. In fact, I would venture to guess that most smokers were easier on their cigarettes than I was. For them the choice of the “right” e-cigarette is a lot harder to discern. But I’ve done the homework and I know from personal experience which brands are the best and which ones a gentler smoker would be happy with. No, I haven’t used ALL of them, but the differences in most are nonexistent. They all use the same basic handful of batteries and cartomizers, and use 3 or 4 e-Liquid manufactures in China who put out awful tasting crap.

Hundreds of Choices

Sadly, and yes I mean sadly, there are hundreds of e-cigarette brands in the cig-a-like category for sale in the US and UK marketplace. The overwhelming majority of these brands suck. They are worthless trash, and even worse, they cost more money than the cig-a-like e-cigarettes that ARE worth your time and money. Every day new brands are popping up, and old brands are disappearing. The problem for new Vapers lies in the fact that more new brands are popping up then old ones disappearing.

Throwaway Brands

These throwaway brands, made with the cheapest of the cheap e-cigarette batteries and e-liquids I could only best describe as “suspect”, are started by small venture capital or investment companies, or people that made some coin in the real estate market and are looking for a profitable side business, and even a few porn companies have gotten into the game. They hire a decent designer to come in and design the starter kit graphics, pay a Chinese outfit to stamp out 10,000 starter kits for under $5 a pop (with the print costs thrown in), launch a website and presto, a brand new #1 Brand is born. Such bullshit!

In The Visuals

As a visual species we like pretty things. We are visual. The con artists know this and often enough they create the most attractively designed starter kits you see, which also turn out to be some of the cheapest, foulest tasting brands on the market.

Liking pretty things is in our nature so when we see something pretty we react in a positive way. Don’t go blaming yourself if you’ve fallen for something that turned out to be garbage because it was attractive. Being able to look past the beauty of something is near impossible, and when it comes to e-cigarette starter kits the real thing is underneath the snazzy graphics.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that every attractive starter kit or battery is junk. Far from it. Take a look at the gorgeous Halo Triton and G6 battery and you’ll see what I mean. These are quality products built by people with an eye for design, so there are always exceptions.

Price

Most e-cigarette starter kits are overpriced. Oh, who am I kidding? The cost of even the best e-cigarette starter kit is inexpensive enough to manufacture that even the best starter kits could be sold for $15 and the company would still make a profit, maybe not much of one, but still a profit. I’m not saying that the good ones are too overpriced; I’m just saying that there is a fair price and then there is the price gouging con artist pricing. See SCAM ALERTS for plenty of examples.