Halo Element Review
“Whether you’re looking for a great 3-piece mini-eCig or a 2-piece mini-eCig, the Halo Element line is a great choice. I’ve been using this line for weeks and have had nothing but a great experience. Thanks Spinfuel, for turning me onto Halo!”
– Nolan (email)
Since the advent of the Cartomizer (a combination of atomizer and cartridge) the sales of 3-piece kits have plummeted. And why not? For most people a 2-piece eCig makes a lot of sense. With no atomizer to keep clean and no messy liquids dripped into cartridges drop by drop, vaping became as easy as pulling out an analog cigarette and lighting up. For the ex-smoker making the move to vaping for the first time a 2-piece kit is an optimal choice. But does it remain an optimal choice?
Evolution of the Vaper
While the majority of people switching from analogs to eCigs start with a simple 2-piece kit, most of them grow out of its simplicity, as well as it’s lack of choice, it’s added expense, and grow into something with more power and choice. The mini-eCig is replaced with PV’s (personal vaporizers) of varying size and shape.
We move on things like eGo’s and lavatubes, and a myriad of other devices. We love choosing among the hundreds of new products that come to market all the time. We love adding new hardware to our collections, always looking for that perfect vaping experience. It’s like chasing the dragon, you never catch it, but you love the chase.
It’s the evolution of the Vaper alright, but there is a basic truth to this evolution that I just don’t hear people talk about, or write about. And it is this:
When we’re in public we want to vape without drawing attention to ourselves. While we may have tossed our 2-piece kits in the drawer we pull them back out when we are in in public. It’s not something we like to talk about, but most of us do it.
We all know that most of us do not want to look like we’re sucking on a pipe bomb at the ballgame or in the mall, so we slap a cartomizer and on a mini-eCig battery and walk among the non-smokers. Even though it might just be a few hours at a time, we miss the power of a good atomizer, and the choice of our favorite eJuice, and we wind up looking forward to getting back home.
Public Vaping With Power
Over the past month I’ve been experimenting with a few 3-piece mini-eCigs, you might remember a recent review I did, and I learned a lot about them. I thought they were strictly yesterday’s news and that the need for them was left to a few ‘hangers on’ that resisted the newer technology. I was wrong, there are plenty of sound reasons for staying with the “good” 3-piece mini-eCig.
For one, I learned that the atomizer on a 3-piece mini-eCig can provide a much better vaping experience than any 2-piece eCig on the market. I might enjoy using a Halo G6, but I also find the Halo Element a great choice because it provides the best of both worlds. The Element is a great 3-piece eCig and a great 2-piece eCig.
Halo Element
As far as I’m concerned there is only one mini-eCig 3-piece kit on the market that still makes sense today. That kit is the Halo Element, a powerful combination of battery, atomizer, and cartridge. I fell head over heels over the G6 by Halo last month, and today I’m just as happy with their Element. In fact, in a few ways I’m even happier.
The 3-Piece Solution
While Halo Cigs’ G6 is a great 2-piece eCigarette, the fact remains that the Halo Element offers flexibility to the owner that the G6 cannot.
As with any 3-piece mini-eCig the components matter a great deal. Halo Cigs put together a system that is so much more powerful then something like ProSmoke or even South Beach Smoke’s 3-piece kit, that when compared “component to component” the Halo Element leaves them both in the dust.
Batteries Matter
The Halo Element battery is a powerful 510-compatible battery with the same rubberized exterior as the G6, and available in automatic or manual. The 510 battery was tested and found to be compatible with most 510 prefilled and blank cartomizers on the market, and in our own tests I can tell you with certainty that the 510 Halo battery can power every 510 cartomizer we have, as well as provide a much better experience with Blu Cigs cartomizers than a Blu Cig battery ever can.
Unlike the underpowered batteries in other 3-piece kits (ProSmoke’s battery put out a measly 90-ohm) the Halo battery is a powerful 180-mAh battery with an actual voltage of 3.3-4.2 volts! (The “rated” voltage is that magical 3.7 volts). This is a battery that can power a solid atomizer with ease.
Halo Cigs tells us that the average number of “puffs” for the manual battery on a full charge is 150 and the automatic is even higher at 180. In my real-world experience these numbers are very accurate from when you first charge the battery and more than a month later, and with more than a few charges! In other words, in 4-6 weeks that I’ve been using the Element battery it has not degraded a bit.
The only downside to the Element battery is the choice of colors. The Element comes in Jet Black, but the G6 comes in a variety of deep, luscious colors.
The Halo Atomizer
The second component that makes the Halo Element experience so good is the atomizer. Halo sells two different atomizers, a basic and a premium atomizer. Both are workhorses and will work in tandem with the high-powered battery to give you great flavor and great vapor.
Competitively priced at $7.99, the basic atomizer has a resistance of 2.5 ohms and is rated to last 100,000 puffs. I haven’t come close to 100,000 puffs yet, but I can tell you that I am still using my first atomizer.
The Premium Atomizer sells for $8.49 and the only difference seems to be the silver band that gives your eCig an upscale look. It has the same rating of 2.5-ohm and 100,000 puffs. For fifty cents more you can add that upscale look, but if money is an issue, the basic atomizer will do the same job. Personally, since these atomizers last so long I’d spend the extra 50 cents for that silver band just because it really does add a bit of “up-scale” look of the it. Superficial, I know, but worth it.
With a solid, powerful battery and an excellent atomizer, the Element eCig has the ability to vaporize the eJuice in a way that doesn’t burn the juice, yet provides the maximum amount of flavor and vapor. Now the only thing we’re missing is the cartridge.
Halo Cigs Cartridges
At $4.99 for a 5-pck of these 510-compatible cartridges this is an excellent price point. They are round-tipped, which I prefer in any eCigarette, and are perfectly fitted to the Halo Atomizer.
Halo cartridges hold .7ML of juice. When you buy cartridges you always have the choice of buying blank cartridges for any eJuice you want to put in them, whether it’s the amazing juice made by Halo Cigs, or any other juice you might want to use.
I’ve used a variety of cartridges this year, from the cheapie Chinese carts I use in a generic eGo to the expensive carts I use in a Storm 2.0, and these cartridges feel like a high quality cartridge. And the cheapie Chinese generics sell for $1.25 a piece, which makes the Halo cartridges an even better deal at 80 cents a piece or so.
The Halo Element 2-piece solution
Turning the 3-piece into a 2-piece
Here’s where Halo Cigs gets it just right. I’ve spent the last 1000 words telling you all about how the Halo battery, atomizer and cartridge work together to bring you a great 3-piece eCigarette. But Halo Cigs Element goes beyond that. Because the battery is a 510-compatible battery it makes sense to be able to offer your customers Halo branded 510 cartomizers.
Blank and prefilled Cartos
If you enjoy both the 3-piece and 2-piece vaping experience Halo Cigs offers you both blank and prefilled cartomizers for those times that you feel like leaving the house with a simple battery/cartomizer setup.
All of Halo Cigs Cartomizers for the Element line have a 2.8-ohm resistance, use a high quality polyfill for the juice to absorb into, and have a capacity of 1ML. Blank Cartomizers sell for $8.99 for a pack of 5. Prefilled Cartomizers are only $1 more, at $9.99 for 5 cartos. Compare that price to just about any branded prefilled eCigarette at about 50% more.
Prefilled and Blank Cartomizers are shipped with these really great plastic cases that fit 5 cartomizers perfectly. (This same case is used for the Cartridges as well, and fit 5 cartridges and 2 atomizers.) I love these little cases that I ordered a bunch of these for storing some Boge cartomizers I have. I just fill the Cartomizers with whatever eJuice I want, store them in the cases and label them. They are made of a hard plastic with a snap down lid and will last forever.
Choice of eJuice for the Prefilled Cartomizers
Halo eCigs eJuice are some of the best on the market. Their Torque 56 is quickly becoming one of the best selling flavors in all of the eCig-Kingdom because it has such a deep, rich, and smooth “unfiltered” tobacco flavor. The Halo Tribeca, Menthol Ice, and Malibu Menthol (a pina colada/menthol base juice) are also available as prefilled cartomizers.
I’ve heard a couple of people ask why doesn’t Halo Cigs offer their entire line of eJuice as prefilled Cartomizers and Cartridges, and when they ask that I realize I haven’t quite made the point on how Halo Cigs is different than the rest of the eCig market. So, it’s worth taking a moment and give you “my” take on why they offer only 4 prefilled cartridges.
Halo Cigs is, foremost, an eJuice company. Their selection of high quality juice came first. These eJuice flavors are some of the very best on the market (see our review later in the week) and only after Halo Cigs became a successful eJuice company did they make the decision to branch out into the hardware side. In doing so, they provided the best quality components, and left as much “choice” for the customer than any other branded eCigarette.
Becoming a customer of Halo Cigs will give you the freedom to choose between a 2-piece kit like the G6, with powerful batteries in a range of gorgeous colors, all with that beautiful rubberized paint, or a 3-piece Element line where you can choose between the atomizer/cartridge setup and a 510 Cartomizer.
You can buy prefilled cartomizers for the G6 line in their top 6 flavors, or choose blank cartomizers if you want the freedom to fill them yourself. I have reused both the G6 and Element Cartomizers up to 5 times (so far) without any degradation in the built in atomizer.
Owning the Element series means being able to go from 3-piece to 2-piece eCigarette by simply unscrewing the atomizer/cartridge and screwing in the cartomizer. The Element series gives you the most flexibility for the money, and is less expensive than 99% of all the other branded eCigarettes on the market.
Sometimes I do leave the house with an Element battery and a couple of cartomizers for the sake of simplicity. At other times I’ll grab an atomizer and a box of filled cartridges and head out the door.
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning again that for Halo Cigs it’s about quality in the hardware and their juice line, and it’s about the freedom to choose between a cartomizer driven eCig or a 3-piece setup. This is a great company, and one I can proudly recommend to anyone. Hey, even if you are the type of person to shy away from a mini-eCigarette battery, their 510 atomizers and cartridges work great on any 510 unit, including my ProVari. So, ya know, there’s something for everybody.
Halo Cigs Element Starter Kit is just $59.99. It includes the following items:
(2) Batteries (2) Cartomizers
(1) USB Adapter (2) Premium Atomizers
(1) Wall Charger (5) Empty Cartridges
(1) 7ml Bottle of E-Liquid (1) Cartridge Carry Case
(1) E-Cigarette Storage Tin (1) Instruction Manual
John Manzione / Editor
