SMOK SID Review

The SMOKTech SID Review – Spinfuel recently bought on a new staff member to join our Spinfuel e-Liquid Review Team. As such, we needed to equip our newest employee with vape gear that would provide an excellent ‘vape’ so that her participation in the reviews would be held to the same stringent standards as the other team members. Naturally, we turned to MyVaporStore, the official supplier of Spinfuel vape gear, to help with picking the right equipment.  The following hardware is what we decided upon for our newest team member. This review is co-authored by Tom McBride and Nicole Henderson.

SMOKTech SID – Silver – $46.95 at MyVaporStore

There were a few reasons we chose the SID as the APV for Nicole. Price is certainly a factor, but performance, features, and durability are also important. With a price point that is hard to beat for an APV with a huge number of features, the SID is amazingly affordable.

Here’s the long feature rundown: (from the MyVaporStore Product Page)

  • 510 Threaded
  • Wide drip well, fits most 510 and Ego Atomizers
  • Uses 18650 battery (18mm x 65mm): Batteries outside of the ones offered on this page may not fit in the SID. (Very true – Tom)
  • PCB with 4 Amperage output limit
  • User selectable Voltage or Wattage Control
  • Voltage Control Range: 3.0–6.0 V with 0.1 volt increments
  • Wattage Control Range: 3.0–15.0 watts with 0.5 watt increments
  • Improved 360° turning button
  • Short Circuit protection
  • Reverse battery protection
  • Battery Monitoring
  • Over-Discharge Protection
  • On/Off Mode
  • Vented tail cap
  • Oxidized aluminum body
  • Clear digital display OLED (Looks like the Anytime CLI interface)
  • Selectable Main Info Display: atomizer/cartomizer resistance, battery under-load voltage, atomizer/cartomizer Output voltage

One button-click menu system similar to the ZMAX

First, the 510 threading assures that all of the attachments we use every day will work right out the box with Nicole’s APV. In a short period of time she has taken a real shine to the SMOKTech Pyrex DCTanks (naturally).

Whether Nicole chooses to use the Variable Voltage feature or go with Variable Wattage the SID allows her to use either one…on the fly… and with a PCB of 4 Amps too boot. The “standard” voltage spread of 3v-6v via .1v incremental, the SID allows Nicole to go through the same range of volts that the rest of the team now feels are ‘second nature’ and with an APV that cost less than any of the others.

We were all very impressed with the SID’s wattage range as well, going from 3w all the way up to 15w, in .5w incremental. And, since Nicole is new to this kind of usage we can all appreciate the various safety features built into the SID, including short circuit protection, over discharge protection, and even the reverse battery insertion protection. All of these features give us the assurance that nothing dramatic will happen even during our intense vaping sessions when reviewing e-Liquids.

There are only two minor quibbles I have with the SID, and they aren’t really an issue with anyone else but me. The GUI, or the display, looks exactly like the Anytime CLI APV, so I suspect it’s the same electronics, and its not as though the electronics are bad, I just don’t like the fonts used on the display. I think they could have presented the settings with a more refined and sophisticated font. The other is how snug the battery tube is. We were able to use the Efest batteries we bought for the SID but the fit was tighter than I like to see it. The fit is so tight that I had to not only unscrew the bottom cap, but I also had to unscrew the head from the unit and then push the battery down through the end cap with my finger. Like I said, they are minor issues, but if you depend on this review as the deciding factor when buying one and you wind up having the fight with the battery I’d rather you hear it from me.

July is…

With the July is eJuice Celebration coming up soon we also needed something for Nicole that would hold up no matter how many hours, days, or weeks its being used to test out dozens of eLiquids. While we have spare devices lying around Nicole needs to make the SID her own, she needs to learn the intricacies of the unit, and do so without having to worry if it can take the punishment. We definitely feel the SMOKTech can stand up to the punishment.

Charger and Batteries

We had the opportunity to go with a charger of our choice so we opted for the Efest LUC charger ($30.95 when purchased with the SID). This fine looking charger has a large LCD readout that helps tremendously when charging up a pair of batteries. As soon as you slip in a battery the unit measures the amount of power left in it, displays it on the screen, and then as it charges the power indicator increases until its completely charged.

Advantages: (From the MyVaporStore product page)

  • Mini LCD screen displays precise voltage and battery capacity level
  • Each charging channel has independent display of charge status
  • Automatically adjust discharge current to charge batteries of different sizes
  • Over-discharge Protection
  • Over-voltage Protection
  • Short-circuit Protection
  • Reverse Polarity Protection.
  • Automatically stops when batteries are fully charged
  • DC Wide Voltage (12-24V) Charging Mode

Dual battery bays can charge 10440, 16340, 14500, 14650, 17500, 17670, 18350, 18490, 18500, 18650, 18700, 22650, 26500 and 26650 lithium batteries (no spacers needed)

Two reasons why we love this charger and plan to buy more of them to replace the ones we’re using now; the fact that you cannot over-charge the batteries, and the reverse polarity protection. I can’t begin to tell you how often we’ve accidentally slipped the battery in facing the wrong way, as well as the number of times we’ve left batteries in chargers overnight because we forgot to remove them when we closed for the day.

As far as the Efest IMR batteries go, this was simply a combination of price (2x $15.30) and past experience. While some of us prefer Panasonics or Samsung the fact is the Panasonics were too thick to fit the tube, and the Samsung’s were more money. The Efest is a solid performer and priced right.

Real World Experience

We haven’t officially announced Nicole’s presence as a member of the Spinfuel staff, but she’s been here for more than a month. We had her set up with this kit for 3 weeks now and she has been using it several hours a day. Nicole wrote the following for this review.

When I joined the Spinfuel team I was a very happy Vaper with a couple of Spinners and a handful of clearomizers. I’ve been vaping for 2 years and have gone through the gamut of hardware, even having owned a Lambo and a ZMAX along the way. After a while though I got tired of playing the game of “upgrades” and because I always had a great ‘vape’ with the Vision Spinners I ditched the rest of the gear and stocked up on a few Spinners and a bunch of clearomizers. As far as I was concerned, my shopping for hardware was done and I could now spend my vaping budget on e-Liquids.

I knew that coming aboard Spinfuel meant that I was going to have to vape a lot more than I had been, at a lower nicotine level though, and I would need the flexibility that a true APV allows. When Tom showed me the SMOKTech SID I jumped in with both feet. Unfortunately MyVaporStore didn’t have a white one at the time. Had the white one been available I would have told Tom that that was the one I wanted. But the silver one is still a very cool, very feature-rich APV.

The SMOKTech SID works extremely well.  Changing voltage setting, going from Volts to Wattage, and everything else is a breeze. It works a lot like a ZMAX in fact, and I loved my ZMAX.

The only negative, which to many people is a positive, is that the SID is very light. Without a battery it’s almost too light. At first, when I took it out of the box, I got the feeling that the SID was sort of a cheap knock-off of a ZMAX or something. I don’t know why, but I like to know I have a quality device in my hand and somewhere along the way I’ve connected “heft” with “quality”, as silly as that sounds. After inserting one of the 18650 batteries it all came together nicely. The battery has a really snug fit so it added weight but it also seemed to solidify the device, if that makes any sense. I know, sounds weird. If you own one I’d love to know if you thought the same thing. (Probably not – Tom)

Like Tom said, I’ve really grown to love the SMOKTech Pyrex DCTank and I use them all the time with the SID. The Pyrex glass gives me the assurance that no matter what e-Liquid I want to vape the Pyrex is going to be able to handle it without a problem. I vape a lot of hot cinnamon juice, like Mountain Oak Vapors “Blister” and Ginger’s eJuice “Atomic Fireball”, and these DCTanks handle them easily. The only problem with vaping these types of e-Liquids are the cartomizers. I can’t refill them more than once before having to throw it out and use another one. I haven’t used a carto-tank in quite a while, and these are terrific!

The “starter kit” consisting of the SMOKTech SID, the Efest LUC charger, and the pair of 18650 batteries is a great buy, only $93.20 (plus tax) and by putting together the starter kit you save a few bucks over buying them separately. The SID/Charger/Batteries kit is now my primary vape gear, even during off hours. – Nicole

Buying Advice

If you’re in the market for a new APV it pays to keep an eye on the latest developments. While many of the features on the SID are now common on most advanced devices its still pretty difficult to find this many advanced features on a device for under $50.

SMOKTech is a good company and we’ve not had any problems with any product made by them. Well, their cartomizers aren’t as good as Boge’s, and the new Boge F16 is a great replacement cartomizer for the SMOKTech Pyrex DCTank, but other than that we have a lot of SMOKTech products here and no one ever complains about any of them.

The SMOKTech SID is loaded with advanced features but priced lower than any similarly equipped APV. At this price point the SID makes a great primary APV and an awesome backup. With one-button control it makes changing your settings fast and easy. It comes in white, blue, red, pink, black, and silver.

The SMOKTech SID will include a 30-day Limited Warranty against any manufacturing defects from the date of delivery. See MyVaporStore for more on the warranty and returns.