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Before beginning my actual review of the Joyetech eCom-BT I would like to acknowledge something about Joyetech that I think goes largely unrecognized.
I know that some cynical readers will read what I have to say and think it’s all bullxxxx, that I am trying to ingratiate myself (or Spinfuel) into the good graces of Joyetech, but honestly, after dealing with so many companies recently, companies that blatantly rip off and copy other companies property, it’s nice to know that not all of them work that way. Companies like Joyetech deserve a little recognition for maintaining high standards.
We all know, or should know, that there are dozens upon dozens of manufactures of electronic cigarettes in China. Some are good, some not so good, and some are pretty awful. After more than two years of working with many of them I’ve come to believe that Joyetech is one of the very best companies producing electronic cigarettes today. Certainly not the only one, but that list is very short in any case.
They are, as my dad likes to say, “A class act”. Their products are nearly always excellent, always of superior quality, and feature extraordinary design and functionality. In an industry where so many companies cut so many corners in the name of profitability, not to mention 1:1 cloning running rampant, Joyetech stands out as maybe one of three, maybe four companies that will not sacrifice quality for the bottom line. Like all companies they seek to profit from their work, certainly, but when you buy a Joyetech product, whether you wind up liking it or not, you’re getting a quality product and if or anything like me, you recognize that. I wish more companies would follow Joyetech’s lead.
Well, enough of that, let’s get on with the review.
It feels like only yesterday I was enjoying my time with the new Joyetech eCom-C and eCom-C Twist for my review here in Spinfuel eMagazine. Time truly does fly, the first review was published back on May 28th and here it is July 24, 2014. I suppose two months is a long time in the ecigarette industry because today I’ve been tasked to tell you all about a new eCom ecigarette, the eCom-BT (BT stands for Bluetooth). Smokenjoey also did a video review in Spinfuel, very much worth a view.
I received the Joyetech eCom-BT about 8 days ago, and like the eCom-C and eCom-C Twist I reviewed in May, it is a pre-production model. The box it came in is the retail box for the eCom-C, and the box included an extra C2 atomizer head, a micro-USB cable, an additional mouthpiece, and a wall adapter.
While the eCom-BT will be available in black or stainless steel, the device I received is stainless steel, with a very slight textured finish that allows for a sure grip.
My preproduction Joyetech eCom-BT features a 510 thread, though it will be offered with an eGo threading as well. As I mentioned in my initial Joyetech eCom-C review, I still wonder which of the two threading options will prove more popular with vapers, the 510 or eGo, and if Joyetech will one day choose one over the other.
The eCom-BT is a 900mAh battery, and as far as I know, it will only be offered in 900mAh… until such time that it’s not. I have a feeling that should it prove to be widely successful we can expect to see it offered in other battery mAh levels. Since it is not yet available to vendors I can only tell you the Joyetech Suggested Retail price, which is $69(USD)
The Evolution of the eCom-C Product Line
The Joyetech eCom-BT is, naturally, based on the eCom-C, offering many of the same features along with some brand new ones, most notably Bluetooth 4 connectivity. I’ll cover the new features in depth, but to get a full understanding of the eCom family I highly recommend reading my initial review.
Joyetech MyVapors for Android and iOS 7 and above
The most important feature is, of course, the addition of Bluetooth 4. There have been a few articles that have passed my desk recently that talk about smartphone apps and electronic cigarettes and whether or not they make sense for the end-user or if they are just superfluous add-ons that don’t mean a whole lot.
In some cases I’m sure that’s true, it doesn’t mean much, but after using the Joyetech MyVapors for my iPhone 5s I am convinced that Joyetech is definitely on the right track when it comes to Bluetooth apps and there is one feature in particular that sold me instantly. Note* The MyVapors for Android and iPhone iOS is not the same software as Joyetech’s eVic MVR for Mac and PC. MyVapors is strictly a mobile device app.
Connectivity and App Features
Bluetooth 4’s main claim to fame is the speed of file transfers and the speed at which the Bluetooth device can ‘pair’ with another.
When both devices share the same Bluetooth 4 connectivity, connecting, or pairing, takes no more than a second or two. When pairing an eCom-BT and an iPhone 5s (I don’t own an Android device so I cannot honestly tell you anything about it) for the first time the connection has to be manual, but once the app pairs the two devices it’s a simple matter of clicking the on/of button on the side of the eCom-BT while having Bluetooth active on the iPhone 5s, the pairing is lightening fast and there is no need to type in a series of numbers to secure the connection each time… it just happens.
MyVapors App Features
Joyetech must have done a huge amount of research into smartphone apps and how best to utilize the power of today’s modern smartphones. The number of features and the number of settings you have access to in order to customize the app to your vaping preferences disproves the critics that say electronic cigarettes have no business in the smartphone app area. MyVapors is truly useful to the vaper.
Customize Your Setting
Customize Your SettingThis is where every vaper should start when using MyVapors for the first time. It is in the settings where you can input the following information:
- The nicotine level of the eLiquid you have in the clearomizer.
- What YOU consider to be the number of puffs from an ecigarette that equals smoking one tobacco cigarette.
- The price you would pay for a pack of cigarettes.
- My Plan – Set the number of puffs you plan to take on any certain day.
- Sleep Mode – You can set the time in minutes that you want the eCom-BT to stay ‘awake’ before powering down.
Location
This feature of the app allows you to see a map of the area, with a radar pulsing indicator of your exact location. At first I wasn’t sure why you would want this feature, if you don’t know where you are at any point in time maybe you should take note of that before setting up your app. Although…
Looking more carefully at the Location screen I noticed a cool little drop down menu that read “Day View”. I touched it and in the drop down I saw “Week View”, “Month View”, and “Year View”. This was getting interesting.
Further investigation led me to understand that the app records your location so… say I had this app with me for a while now; I could take a look at one of the options and if I happened to be in Boston on a certain week or month I could go into the recorded information and see if by chance I happen to vape more while in Boston than say Port Saint Lucie. Definitely a cool feature, though not vital to my vape life.
Time
This next feature is absolutely amazing and extremely informative.
Like the Location setting, Time also has a drop down menu beginning with “Last 50 Puffs”, Then “200 Puffs” and finally “300 Puffs”. Each menu lists a minute-by-minute display informing you when, exactly, you were vaping, how long you vaped before stopping, and power setting you was vaping with.
This kind of information, once you’ve accumulated enough data, can tell you a lot about your vaping habits and can help you modify them, or at least allow you keep track of how much your vaping during certain parts of the day. I will find this feature very useful; do I vape more during meeting, or less at night, and so on.
Record
On this screen you will see a bar graph, and another drop down menu, actually two drop down menus. One for ‘Day’, ‘Week’, ‘Month’ and ‘Year’, while the other drop down menu shows “By Puff” and “By Time”. The first two hours of using the eCom-BT I vaped 33 puffs in Hour One and 35 puffs in Hour Two.
After a week of using the eCom-BT (about 60-70% of the time) I learned something important about my vaping habit… I vape A LOT. You never really even think about that until you see in front of you. “I took HOW MANY PUFFS this week???”
The idea of having all these data collection features is so you can control your vaping, not the other around. This is the first app that goes deeply into areas that can make a real difference.
The Home (Main) Screen
Once you’ve input your information into the Settings you click the “Done” button to return to the main screen. That screen contains the control wheel, the ohms resistance readout, the battery level indicator, the Puff count, the “equal to X cigarettes” indicator, and the “I plan to vape X number of Puffs” indicator. IN addition there is a 5-Heart line that, I’m guessing here, tells you how much good your vaping is doing against the alternative, smoking tobacco cigarettes.
At the bottom of the home screen you will see how much money you’ve saved based on the input you provided in the settings. But remember, garbage in, garbage out, so when you fill in the settings do so honestly or the data will mean nothing.
The only conclusion I could come to about the features and data collected is that MyVapors is an app absolutely worth using. Joyetech did one heck of a job putting it together and creating an app people could, and would, use.
For vapers who might be inexperienced with Bluetooth or smartphone applications it should also be noted that regardless of whether you have the MyVapors app up on the screen the puff count, battery level and resistance indicators, as well as all the data collectors, are functioning in the background.
The eCom-BT in the Real World
Again I urge you to check out my review for the eCom-C and eCom-C Twist from May 28th for more, in-depth details on the eCom family. The intent of this review is to talk about the new features and how they work in the real world.
Vaping with the eCom-BT I learned that all three eCom batteries and clearomizers provide the same vape experience. Excellent vapor production and true fidelity flavor from each one. They are all superb electronic cigarettes. One thing you should note, however, is that like every electronic device with Bluetooth your battery will drain a bit faster. Bluetooth 4 does a wonderful job of limiting the power it needs, but it will still drain the 900mAh battery slightly faster than without it.
If you prefer a variable wattage dial on your battery than the eCom-C Twist is the one you should look at closely. If you want a Bluetooth ecigarette and a smartphone app to control the wattage, read the resistance, count your puffs and crunch the numbers into how many cigarettes you would have smoked and the money you’ve saved then the eCom-BT earns a serious look.
Which One?
Only by examining my vaping style, or vaping preferences, could I determine which of the eCom systems is right for me. Because I love technology and use my iPhone 5s more than I do my television, I think the eCom-BT would be the one I would choose, hands down. However, there is a nagging negative about the eCom-BT that I believe could wind up hurting the
overall sales. That negative is…
The Missing Dial
I have to wonder why Joyetech didn’t include the wattage dial at the end of the battery for times when reaching for the smartphone to make an adjustment in the power settings is either impossible or at the very least inconvenient.
The Bluetooth module sits almost an inch above the end cap of the battery, and while I am no engineer, I tend to think that if they wanted to add the wattage dial they could have. Perhaps they thought they would cannibalize sales of the eCom-C Twist, but I don’t think it would have…then again, what do I know?
eCom-BT Bottom Line
It is difficult to put myself into the shoes of other vapers that own one or two electronic cigarettes in order for me to determine whether or not I would buy the eCom-BT if I didn’t already own a million devices. Because of my job I’m sitting pretty flush with ecigarettes, especially my called of ZMAX’s.
So what I needed to do is think of myself as someone who didn’t work in the industry, and who had maybe an eGo or a Spinner, or something similar and wanted something ‘more’. It took a while to find that mindset, but when I did I thought to myself that the first thing I would do is decide if “wattage” vaping was where I wanted to go. Let’s face it, we still hear a lot more about variable voltage then we do about variable wattage.
Because you can only use one or the other, variable voltage or variable wattage, not both, it comes down to personal preference. Right now I switch between them all the time, depending on what device I am reviewing or using on my own time. Some people like the simplicity if variable wattage, and I understand that.
Set the device to 8w and go vaping. But like variable voltage, once you get used to it you begin to explore the settings. I can tell you I prefer variable wattage, but the truth is, for the better part of the past few months it’s been evenly split. Perhaps this article written by Tom McBride will help uncover the mysteries of VV and VW.
The standard configuration of the eCom-BT is as follows:
- *2× Mouthpiece
- *2× Mouthpiece Cover
- *1× Atomizer Tube
- *1× Atomizer Base
- *2× Atomizer C2 Head
- *1× USB Cable
- *1× Wall Adapter
- *1× Manual & Warranty Card
Naturally the Joyetech eCom-BT is a bit more money than the eCom-C and the eCom-C Twist, but with Bluetooth 4 and the advanced mobile app MyVapors, the cost is worth it.
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being a horrible electronic cigarette and 5 being the ultimate electronic I will happily admit that, in it’s class* the eCom-BT is very much a 5.
Julia Hartley-Barnes
*In it’s class – meaning that when considering a battery and clearomizer setup with variable wattage of 5w to 10w, outputting voltage with a 2.4ohm atomizer of 3.5v to 4.8v, it’s the best out there. Quality, advanced technology, and vape performance, nothing can beat it.
More on Spinfuel:
What Exactly is Vaping Anyway? How Does it Work?
‘Exploring the World of Vaping in 2023: A Flavorful Journey to Quit Smoking
20 Awesome Puff Bar Flavors for You to Vape in 2022!
