Sunday 26 June 2016

Juice Review: Encore - An Isfahani Blend by Black Note

And please don't hesitate to send me any new creation you come up with... so far they only keep getting better and better. Thanks :)
These were the final words in my review of Black Notes' Quartet a couple of months ago. I'm happy to say they did send me a sample of their new creation, Encore. As I said, I've been mighty impressed by the Black Note range of N.E.T e-liquids so the bar is raised pretty damn high already.

Encore - An Isfahani Blend
Tested on Wismec Theorem (0.3 ohm notch coil @ 30-50 watts)
Encore mesmerizes the senses with a uniquely robust yet slightly sweet, honey-like flavor distinctive to the Ajami Tombac grown in Isfahan, Iran. The oriental environment gives rise to a complex, aromatic experience generated by the release of a rich bouquet of resins and ethereal oils. Ajami has been a delight of taste and aroma for centuries one you'll want to savor again and again.
Black Note really puts some effort into writing descriptions of their juices... as well as everything else they do to be honest. It is one of the things that have impressed me with this company, the effort they put into presenting their products and their very professional attitude shines through in a very informative an well designed web-page. I guess it is this passion and perfectionism that have enabled them to create some of the best tobacco e-juices I have tasted so far. The Encore, of course, is no exception. It is, as they say, a very robust tobacco flavour with quite a bit of sweetness to it. It's sweetness is not overpowering in any way though, and it has a pretty strong tobacco flavour but it has just enough hints of flowery honey in there to make it a quite smooth tobacco juice. It is indeed one of my favourites among the Black Note juices (and that says a lot). A must try for all tobacco lovers. Again, I'll have to encourage the people at Black Note to keep sending me samples of their new creations :)

Thanks a lot to Black Note for sending me this juice for review.
RDA

Disclosure:
  • All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
  • The juice was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
  • This review contains affiliate links.

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Review: Theorem by Wismec

Wismec is certainly one of the most innovative companies in the vaping industry. Many of their products, especially those designed by JayBo, have become immensely popular taking the vaping world by storm with a combination of new designs unlike anything we've seen before and very competitive pricing. People have praised the Indestructible atomizer, the Noisy Cricket mech mod and I don't think I can even get close to my local vapeshop without seeing someone using a Reuleux RX200. The subject of this review, the Theorem, is no exception to this. It's definitely an innovative product designed by JayBo and inspired by SuckMyMod and kind of a cross between a dripper and a genesis style tank atomizer ... or a Dripper Tank Hybrid as Wismec calls it.

In the box
  • The Theorem Atomizer
  • Single and Dual Airflow Control rings
  • Spare glass sleeve
  • Spare Stainless steel lined glass sleve
  • 2 NotchCoils with cotton
  • 3 spare o-rings
  • 4 spare screews 
  • Hex Key
  • User manual

    Specifications
        • Pyrex and Stainless steel
        • Top Filling
        • Diameter: 22mm
        • Length: 46.25mm
        • Dual or single airflow control rings
        • NotchCoils

        Look and feel

        The Theorem looks, well like no other tank or dripper out there to be honest. I really can't make up my mind whether I think it looks cool or not. It is a bit cool that you can actually see your coil all the time, maybe even more so for those who's into coil porn. I guess I'll end up on weird. It's weird looking. Feels pretty well built though. It doesn't have a gazillion parts and nothing that can really break save the glass sleeve. The o-rings, of course, comes in Wismec's signature color ... whether you like it or not :)

        In use


        Looks pretty cool with
        a driptip matching the o-rings.
        Even if the deck of the Theorem is kind of on top of the tank like on a good old genesis atomizer, building is pretty straight forward like a dripper. It's quite easy to build and mount your coils and you have a decent amount of space. Now I haven't really tried dual coils in it yet but from the looks of it there should be enough space to build dual vertical coils in there as well. When building single coil on it I prefer bending my leads before I attach the coil to make sure it's centered. You might be able to force it into center position after mounting as well, just make sure that your leads are long enough to do it. The pre-wicked NotchCoils that come with the Theorem (and can be bought separately as well I think) already have the leads bent so it will be centered.

        The wicks that they have put in the pre-wicked NotchCoils are in my opinion way to long though. When it comes to wicking the Theorem I prefer to cut the wick so it barely touches the base on each side, and enough cotton to fill the wicking slots on the side properly. You can use the pre-wicked coils as template to see how much cotton that is, but you can also manage with less in my experience. On the build I have now I use a 3mm diameter clapton coil and a pretty tightly rolled wick to be able to squeeze it through the coil. That seems to work very well for me at least.

        When you're happy with your wicks, just put some e-liquid on it to make sure it stays in the slots when you slide your glass tank over it. I like this solution as you don't need to push your wicks into tiny holes. The double o-rings at the bottom are tight enough to keep the glass tube in place and no leaking there.

        Filling the Theorem can be a bit of a hassle to be honest. To fill you need to remove the top cap with the plastic "regulating component", as Wismec calls it. This part serves two purposes actually. It has a plug at the bottom that will close the filling hole and it has an air-channel inside that will lead the air to the side of your coil (depends on how high you mount it of course) when you use the air inlet at that side of the Theorem. The problem is that the plastic tip of a typical juice bottle won't reach all the way down to the fill hole. You need to use a glass dropper bottle or a unicorn bottle with a long thin plastic tip to fill it.... or one of those horrible needle tip bottles that I hate cause the protective rubber thingy you put on the tip always breaks and you have needles sticking out of your pockets, backpack or whatever. Then again, if you have the right kind of bottle, it's no problem to fill this thing either.... the top cap comes off easily having just one o-ring keeping it in place. It actually feels a bit loose when you take it out and I was a bit nervous that it would keep coming off in my pocket, but I haven't had that happening even once. Since you don't have a lot of juice capacity in this tank you might as well invest in some suitable bottles straight away or this filling thing will make you mad.

        Cleaning the Theorem is very easy and once you have the glass tube off there is really no inaccessible corners you can't clean.

        Finally, some words about the airflow control system. The Theorem comes with two airflow control rings, one single and one double. This is used to control how air flows through the two air holes in the top cap, one on the same side as the coil that will blow air kind of downwards on the coil, and one on the opposite side that will make the air flow through the "regulating component" hitting the coil from the side. Using the single ring will of course block one of the holes completely, but you can choose which one. To adjust it you need to unscrew the top ring and twist the airflow control ring to align with the hole(s) in the top cap, and then tighten the top ring again. I've seen some complain about this system and I can agree that it's a bit fiddly. Then again, once you get the hang of keeping the airflow control ring in place with your thumb while tightening the top ring it's not a big problem in my opinion.

        Performance

        In my opinion the Theorem performs very well. It produces a lot of vapor if you like that and it tastes fabulous. All of this of course depends on how you set it up, and it's pretty versatile when it comes to this as well. With both air holes fully open you get a lot of air through it and you can set it up to produce huge clouds, but you can also limit the airflow and maybe get more flavour. Personally I like it best with a single clapton coil and the air flowing through the "regulation component". That gives me loads of flavour and decent vapor production and I don't have to hit it with that much power either. 30W is enough for me for this setup (like .45 Ohms on the Clapton) but it can handle and wick through a lot more and some might prefer even less that 30W.

        The NotchCoils are not bad tasting either. Some have complained about hot legs on them, and I have noticed that has happened as well, but not that often and they taste pretty good as long as this doesn't happen. Then again, put a clapton in this thing once and you probably won't go back to the NotchCoils to be honest. I don't think the NotchCoils is a bad idea, but I think some more research and development is needed to perfect them.


        Pros and cons

        ++ Great flavour
        + Great vapor production
        + Easy build and clean
        - Juice capacity
        - Fiddly filling and airflow control

        Conclusion

        The Theorem is in my opinion absolutely worth trying out. It performs very well and tastes just awesome if you set it up right. Some might find the airflow control and the filling a bit to fiddly, but in my opinion, once you get used to it and get hold of a bottle suited for the task, it's not really something I think a lot about. Which means the performance of the Theorem kind of makes me forget about it. A great, innovative product from Wismec that is absolutely worth the $20-30 you have to pay for it. Pricing varies quite a lot on it actually so it's worth checking out a few shops before you buy. For us Norwegians it's priced around NOK 300 before you use any discount codes (299,- at damping.no).

        Thanks a lot to Ramzy at damping.no for making this review possible.

        damping.no

        Disclosure:
        • All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
        • This review does not contain affiliate links.

        Wednesday 15 June 2016

        Juice Review: Juice Sauz, whole range

        Juice Sauz is a quite new UK juice manufacturer established in 2015. They're producing two different ranges; the Juice Sauz range which is all 30/70 PG/VG and the 888 Vapor Cloud range which is 20/80 and probably more aimed at the cloudchasers as the name also implies. Today I'll review three of the four juices in the Juice Sauz range. All the juices are available in 3 and 6 mg/ml nicotine.

        Cola Cubed
        Tested on: Steamcrave Supreme RDTA (Dual Horizontal Clapton @ 0.35 ohms, 60 watts)
         
        This juice is supposed to mimic the cola candy that many of us remember from our childhood. Well actually I have to admit it's not been long since I've had some cola candy... I mean you can't just let the kids eat all that candy all by themselves, that would be bad parenting, right? I can't say I've seen those cubed sweets they are referring to here in Norway though, but this juice pretty much tastes like those little cola bottles you can still buy. Pretty accurate to be honest, and a lovely juice that I for one can vape a lot. If you like cola candy I'd be very surprised if you don't like this one.

        Lush
        Tested on: C.O.V Defiant tank (0.8 ohm head, 40-45 watts)

        According to Juice Sauz this is a strawberry cream topped off with a sprinkle of fresh baked biscuit straight from the oven. Smelling it it sure smells like strawberries and mostly that. Vaping it I get a very creamy strawberry both on the inhale and the exhale. On the exhale I can notice a hint of the biscuit as well. Not very much but just enough to notice there is something there in addition to the cream and berries. Really nice sweet strawberry flavour and loads of cream.  Balancing cream and strawberries in a juice I guess is a matter of personal preference though, I can only assume that the balance is like this is how the guys at Juice Sauz likes it... and I wouldn't say I disagree with them. If anything I could have handled a little more strawberries, but again, people are different and I bet others might want it the other way around. Only one way to find out if this is the right balance for you I guess.


        Lemon Meringue Pie
        Tested on: Steamcrave Aromamizer V-RDA (0.8 Ohm dual coil, 45-55 watts)

        In their web-page Juice Sauz describes this juice like this: "The timeless desert classic. A smooth, zesty lemon custard filling on buttery short-crust pastry, topped with delicately whipped meringue and baked to perfection." Tempted? If so, I think this one is worth trying out. I think they've described their juice pretty well themselves so I won't elaborate much on that, other than say that it delivers all the flavours mentioned in their description in a well balanced and smooth way. Great all day vape as well.

        Dohnut Crema
        Tested on: C.O.V Defiant tank (0.8 ohm head, 45-55 watts)

        I haven't really tried many donut juices before... actually I think this might be the first one that actually aims for it. It both smells and tastes very sweet and feels very creamy. Maybe a bit too creamy for my liking. To be honest I would have liked a bit more donut flavour as I feel the sugar and cream kind of takes a bit over. Then again, this is a matter of personal preference and it's by no means a bad tasting juice. I also notice you get more donut flavor as you crank up the heat a bit, so keep that in mind if you're trying out this juice. Experiment a bit with the watts and see what hits your sweet spot.

        Thanks to George from Juice Sauz for sending me these juices for the purpose of this review.

        JuiceSauz


        Disclosure:
        • All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
        • The products in this review was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of the review.
        • This review contains affiliate links.

        Monday 13 June 2016

        New Norwegian Tobacco Act proposal based on lies and misinformation

        On Friday the Norwegian Government published their proposed changes to the Norwegian Tobacco Act. The proposal is available in Norwegian here and there are no big surprises here since Minister of Health, Bent Høie, presented the most important changes on a press conference the week before. I wrote about this last week here: Norway status update: Plain packaging and e-cigs regulated as tobacco

        As the title of the proposal says, this is the Norwegian Government implementing the TPD and plain packaging: Amendments to the Tobacco Act (implementing Directive 2014/40 / EU and standardized tobacco packaging).

        "The Government proposes that the current ban on the sale of e-cigarettes is repealed. We want to make e-cigarettes available to smokers who want a harm reduction alternative", said Minister of Health and Care Services Bent Høie.
        So why do you propose amendments to the law that will have the opposite effect then, Høie? I've been reading through the proposal and as I said, no big surprises. This is the TPD with the limitations on nicotine content, bottle and tank size, advertising ban, pre-market registration and also a ban on vaping wherever smoking is banned. The published proposal contains a walkthrough of all the proposed provisions where they also list some of the answers they got from the hearing that was held. Although a quite a few of the critical answers, mainly from SIRUS (The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research) and NDS (Norwegian union of vapers), are included it is pretty obvious that the Ministry of Health choose to ignore these. The Ministry puts forward claims of risks that are not proven at all and shows little understanding of how vaping works.

        The Ministry's justification of the tank and bottle size is based on a risk of poisoning that is totally blown out of proportions and of course they push the children in front of them as usual. They also refer to the "C-477/14 Pillbox"-case in the EU court of justice, which concluded that the size limits are justified because of the risk of poisoning, and list a bunch of numbers supposed to back this up. They even claim that leaking tanks may lead to a lot of poisoning, totally exaggerating the actual risks saying that "Nicotine is absorbed rapidly through the skin, and contact with skin can cause poisoning. There is thus a significant immediate risks associated with the use and handling of e-cigarettes". I'd be happy to empty one of my tanks, I think my biggest one is 7ml, on my skin to demonstrate that these risks are totally blown out of proportion. I've spilled a lot of e-liquid on myself without even noticing the effect. Of course you shouldn't do this on purpose, but the point is, you won't die if you accidentally spill some e-juice on yourself, even if it's 36 mg/ml, and you most definitely will not notice any terrible effects from a tank seeping liquid like the ministry seems to think. The justification for 10 ml bottles is also the poisoning risks, which makes no sense at all. There are a lot of household products that are immensely more dangerous than e-liquid and there are no bottle size cap on these now are there? You have to put a child-proof cap on them (I think), which is fine, but the rest of the responsibility for treating the product in a responsible, adult way is left to the user. There is no reason why e-liquid should be handled any different. Besides, there is no logic in thinking that smaller bottles will decrease the risk of children getting hold of it an accidentally getting poisoned. I'd say it will increase this risk as these bottles are much more likely to be left unattended, lost and so on.

        When it comes to the nicotine content cap of 20ml/mg, they also use poisoning risks as justification for this. They refer to the EU commission saying that the most used e-cigarettes have a nicotine content lower than this. This shows that they have not bothered listening to what vapers are saying... at all. The point here is that a lot of smokers wanting to switch starts out with higher content and then gradually lowers it. This means that the nicotine content in the majority of e-cigarettes will be lower and lower as time passes since we'll have more and more long-time vapers that are using a lot lower nicotine content, pulling this number down. Høie claims he wants to make e-cigarettes a harm reduction alternative to for smokers, but this limit will work strongly against this. The 20 mg/ml nicotine cap is a limit that most people that already vape today will be quite fine with. I usually vape 6 mg/ml. In other words, this limit will probably not drive many vapers back to smoking, but it will severely limit the number of smokers that are able to switch.

        I'm also sad to see the damage done by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) in this matter. Høie and his ministry puts a lot of faith in the report NIPH published a year ago on "Health risks associated with the use of electronic cigarettes". I wrote back then that this report will cause more harm than health. This report is actually a really strong documentation that there are very little harm in e-cigarettes, it basically concludes that harm from all substances in vapor are negligible... except nicotine. The report totally exaggerates the risks of nicotine, especially in second hand vapor, and now we see the damage done by this. This report and it's totally wrong conclusion on how the nicotine in second hand vapor affects people is now the justification that the Ministry of health uses for the ban on vaping wherever smoking is prohibited. The report concluded that the nicotine content in second hand vapor is about the same as in second hand smoke, which is true, and hence it will cause harm to bystanders... which of course is not true. It's a lie. Nicotine has never even been mentioned as a potential problem when second hand smoking. Dr. Farsalinos demanded that NIPH retracted these false statements, because "such a levels is not only harmless but has absolutely no biological effect, even according to the strictest regulatory definitions". When answering Farsalinos they just repeated that the levels of nicotine in second hand vapor was the same as in second hand smoking, totally missing the point, something that Farsalinos told them straight out here. It seems that NIPH just ignored this last request from Farsalinos and I think I remember them just dismissing this with some statement that this might be a questionable conclusion but that it was just a small part of it and so on and so on. Well now it turns out that the whole ban on vaping in Norway is resting on this misinformation by the NIPH. Ultimately, by refusing to retract a statement they know very well (or should know at least) is wrong, the NIPH is responsible for a lot of premature deaths. Being able to vape where you cannot smoke would have encouraged a lot of smokers to switch, or at least try e-cigarettes, which in turn might have turned them into accidental quitters.

        I could go on about the lies and misinformation that the government use as justification for the proposed changes to the law for quite a while. A lot though is based on the alleged risks of nicotine. It seems to me, even if there is some concerned expressed about other substances and they want a lot of reporting to monitor this, that nicotine is the main concern. And all of this is based on an old lie, that nicotine by itself is very addictive. This is one of the reasons that the gateway theory also lives and gives the government reason to protect the children from e-cigarettes that they still seem to believe can tempt our teens into a life long cigarette addiction.  
        It is the Ministry's opinion established knowledge that nicotine is among the most addictive substances contained...
        There is no evidence, or indication, that nicotine without tobacco is very addictive. I've discussed this with my friends Sanner and Grimsrud earlier and they could not come up with anything either... other than "this is well known" and a reference to the old lie. As you can see above, the Norwegian Ministry of Health didn't even bother to refer to science at all, it's just common knowledge. For some reason the evidence that nicotine by itself is not very addictive never seem to get much publicity, but try to do a google search and you'll get a lot of good hits. Today most real scientists agree on this as well, but still the old lie seems to be believed by most people. Sad but true.

        In addition to all this the government intend to registration and reporting systems to monitor and control the market. This means everyone wanting to put any e-cigarette product on the market in Norway, be it cross-border or not, will have to register the products 6 months in advance. Exactly how this will work and what will be needed to get their products approved is not quite clear, but what is clear is that the government intends to charge fees to get approved. Which of course will limit the availability, slow down innovation of safer products, drive costs through the roof and again, smokers are the ones that have to pay for this with their lives.

        When it comes to the advertising and sponsoring ban, things are a bit more fuzzy. I'm not an expert on reading these kind of texts thought, but what seems clear is that sponsoring, that's free giveaways, will be prohibited. Vending machines are also included in that paragraph for some reason. It also seems like advertising will be banned but a representative from governing party FRP said last week that e-cigarettes will not be affected by the display ban so vendors will be allowed to display their product in stores. Then the whole paragraph about advertising and sponsoring ends with this:
        Regarding the proposal for exceptions for e-cigarettes from the display ban and the ban on advertisingthe ministry aims to follow up this issue in the regulations.
        Again, I'm not an expert in reading this, but I think this means it will not end up in the law but rather as regulations in addition to the law which means it will be a lot easier to change later on. I think I'll just get back to that later on if I can figure out or get someone to explain what it will actually mean. (Any expert on Norwegian law, feel free to comment)

        I discussed in my post last week how the Norwegian government justify their plain packaging by referring to the lies of the Australian government. Their implementation of the TPD is mainly justified by the myth of nicotine addiction and grossly exaggerated risks of poisoning. Sadly, it seems like these lies are extremely hard to get rid of. To be honest I don't think that it matters much to Høie and the Ministry of health whether the myth is busted or not, cause to them they are just excuses. What this actually is all about isn't really the Norwegian government working to improve public health as much as possible, this is about the Norwegian government making the EU happy... nothing more. But that doesn't mean we will stop fighting to expose the lies ... and eventually they will regret this when the heads start rolling.

        Vapour UK

        Monday 6 June 2016

        Review: Bachelor Nano by EHPro

        EHPro is another well known manufacturer that I for some reason never got around to try out. I remember a lot of my fellow Norwegian vapers praising the Billow when it came out, and I see the Bachelor also has gained quite some popularity. Today I've got the nano-version of the Bachelor up for review. A single coil, post-less design, quite different from how I'm used to build as I have to admit I've fallen in love with dual coils on velocity style decks.

        In the box
        • The Bachelor Nano
        • Spare Glass
        • Spare (blue) o-rings
        • Spare screws 
        • User manual
        • Allen key
        • 0.5 ohm NiCr ROC coil with cotton (installed)
        • 0.2 ohm Ni200 ROC coil with cotton





          Specifications
              • Pyrex and Stainless steel
              • Top Filling
              • 2ml Juice Capacity
              • Bottom Airflow control
              • Juice flow control
              • Post-less build deck
              • 23 mm diameter, 62.5 mm height

              Look and feel

              The Bachelor Nano looks... well pretty ordinary to be honest. It has it's name
              written on the top-cap, indication of which way to turn to open and close juice-flow written at the bottom section and indication of which way to twist the top-cap to open written on top. Other than that it's just stainless steel, pyrex and black o-rings. Nothing too fancy, a lot of tanks look quite similar, but that doesn't mean it looks bad. I think it look nice. Simple and clean. Although the name would have been enough to be honest, you really don't need those arrows telling you which way to turn things as it's pretty obvious once you start using it. Decent weight so it feels quite solid.


              In use

              Using the Bachelor Nano is quite a pleasure. It's very well built and the solutions they've gone for is well thought out and well implemented. Let's just go through it from top to bottom:
              • The driptip that comes with it is a combined delrin and stainless steel wide
                bore tip. I guess the delrin at the bottom is there mainly to avoid the tip heating up... and that works well. You can also use your own favourite driptip if you prefer that.
              • The top filling is excellent if you ask me. You kind of just slide the top to the side, just as you'd do on the SMOK TFV tanks. Two fill holes that are big enough to fit the tip of a typical plastic juice bottle. Since there is two holes the air easily gets out when you fill so it's fast and careless.
              • The juice flow control is also very good and very smooth. When you screw your tank on a mod all the way it will naturally open (if you hold it in the top section of the tank at least). Twist the top slightly back again and it will close. This also means that it will naturally close when you unscrew the atty from the mod, or if you want to open it up and rebuild it or fix a problem (like a gunked up coil). You can actually refill this tank with the bottom section (with the build-deck and all) taken out. Great solution if you ask me.
              • The airflow control is nice and smooth as well. I can easily adjust it using just one finger, that's how smooth it is. Two slots of something like 2 mm times 10 mm on opposite sides gives you a lot of air if you want that and they can be closed as much as you like.
              • The build deck... is quite different from what I'm used to. It's a post-less design where you just stick the legs of your coil into two little holes in the deck and then tighten some screws in the side. This means that there is a limit to how thick your wire can be. I've tried it with at 26/32 clapton coil and that is about the maximum thickness it can handle. I find it easiest to cut the cotton to the right length after I've mounted the coil... just cut down along the side wall of the deck. I guess the first times you build on this deck you should keep the original coil that came with it as a template to see how long your legs need to be, but with time you'll probably just wing it, at least if you use the tank a lot.
              All in all I'd say this tank is very easy to use and an excellent first tank for people who wants to try out RTA. Building is very easy and you can also buy pre-built, pre-wicked coils. The Bachelor is designed for single coil, and I can't imagine how you'd be able to fit more in there. As for leaking issues, I haven't had any major problems. Actually I've had very little problems with this tank compared to some others. Fill it with the juice flow holes close and you're usually fine. As it is an RTA where you're kind of responsible for the amount of cotton in there yourself, it will never be completely leak proof though. If you put too little cotton in there (you might need more with thinner juices), or it for some reason is not covering the whole wick-slot, it will leak through the bottom, since... well juice will run down the airhole below the coil.

              The 2 ml capacity might be an issue for some people. You can build this tank in a way that makes it quite thirsty so you'll need to refill quite often. Then again, refilling is very easy, but if you're bothered by that you could also opt for the original non-nano version of the Bachelor that, from what I've read is basically a longer version with a 4 ml tank.


              Performance

              I think it performs great. Great flavour and great vapor production, also from the pre-built coils that came with it. In my opinion my 26/32 clapton tastes even better. Being a re-buildable, the performance of this tank depends a lot on how you build it, but the airflow and chamber-design is good so it's up to your builds to get the most out of this tank, but as I said, the pre-built ones are very good as well. I would however have liked to see more options when it comes to pre-built coils as it would make it more of an alternative to traditional sub-ohm tanks.


              Pros and cons

              + Great flavour
              + Easy to re-fill
              + Easy to re-wick
              - Juice capacity (for some people)
              - Could have had more options when it comes to pre-built coils, only 0.5 ohm NiCr and 0.2 ohm Ni200 available.


              Conclusion

              A great little RTA from EHPro I'd say. For beginners I'd say it's a great start if you'd like to try out an RTA for the first time, but more experienced users will also be happy with the great performance and ease of use. It's priced usually around $30 (299,- NOK at Damping.no here in Norway) which is not bad at all. A lot of flavour for your money if you compare it to most sub-ohm tanks available which would be comparable price-wise. The pre-built coils available are really cheap as well costing around $2.50 for 10, making it quite an economic choice indeed. Add to this that it tastes better than most sub-ohm tanks I'd highly recommend trying it out, even if you're not going to experiment with building your own coils.

              Thanks a lot to Ramzy at damping.no for sending me the Bachelor Nano for review.

              damping.no

              Disclosure:
              • All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
              • The product reviewed was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
              • This review contains affiliate links.

              Saturday 4 June 2016

              Review: iStick Pico by Eleaf

              Eleaf has been around for a while now, releasing nicely priced, powerful mods (among other stuff) that has been praised for performing really well. I never got around to try out the iStick 30W or the original iStick though. Was pretty close to buying a 30W once but I was in a hurry to get a small travel mod, but sadly my only local shop, dampoteket.no, was out at the time so I ended up with another one. But now I finally got my hands on the new iStick Pico, which looks pretty impressive, at least on paper. I was quite excited to see if they really could deliver all this functionality and power at this price.

              In the box
              • The mod
              • A USB charging cable
              • User Manual (English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Italian)
              Specifications
              • 45mm*23mm*70.5mm
              • 510 thread
              • Uses one 18650 battery (Continuous discharge current should be above 25A)
              • Output modes: VW/Bypass/TC(Ni,Ti,SS,TCR-M1,M2,M3) mode
              • Output wattage: 1-75W
              • Resistance range: 0.05-1.5ohm (TC modes)
                Resistance range: 0.1-3.5ohm (VW/Bypass mode)
              • Temperature range: 100-315℃/200-600℉ (TC modes)
              Look and feel

              I don't think you can make a single 18650 powered temp. control mod much smaller than this. Just 70,5mm in height it just adds 5.5 mm to you battery height. You could probably make it slimmer... if you really really wanted, but there is no point in that to be honest. Due to the design with the battery lid raised above the mod side by side with the 510 connection it is strictly limited to 23mm tanks (or smaller of course), you couldn't fit a wider tank on it if you wanted to (unless you use some kind of adapter that is). And that's ok. This mod was made for people who wants quite a small setup so no point messing it all up with a huge atomizer. Besides, there is a lot of options out there when it comes to 23mm tanks. I've been using the Steamcrave Aromamizer V2, the EHpro Bachelor and the Wismec Theorem and they all look awesome on the Pico.
              The mod itself also looks pretty good, has a good size display and feels very solidly built. It now comes in 7 different colors. It seems they've just added "full black" and "brushed silver" in addition to pink, silver, white, black and grey. I've got the silver version and I think it looks nice, although I can see it will get scratches pretty easily. I guess it has to do with the finish on it. I don't know if the other colors have the same kind of finish though. Personally, from the pictures, I think the black ones and the grey look the best. All in all I think it's a damn sexy little mod, although the silver finish I have honestly makes it look a bit cheap. But it doesn't feel that way at all. It has some rattle in the buttons, but I actually had to check for that just now, so it's not something that is going to bother you at all.

              In use


              Using this mod is pretty straight forward. The usual 5 clicks to turn it on and off. 3 clicks to go into the menu and + and - buttons that are placed under mod to adjust wattage, temperature and switch between vaping modes in the menu. You can lock the adjustment buttons by holding them both down for a while when the mod is on and there is a stealth mode that you can turn on and off by holding down fire and - for a while. When the mod is turned off you can hold the + and - button to rotate the screen 180 degrees and you can adjust the three manual TCR modes to your liking by pressing + and fire for 10 seconds.

              It also has a built in charger, and I'm happy to see that it's on the side so you can charge it standing up avoiding leakages. I see some people complaining that the adjustment buttons are on the bottom of the mod, but honestly I've had no problems with that. They need enough force to be pushed so in my opinion this is actually a good placement as it makes the mod pretty pocket friendly.

              On a daily basis most of us will probably only need to adjust wattage or temperature and maybe switch modes from time to time and all this is really easy and straight forward to do. Same goes for entering stealth mode for those of you who need to do that. So all in all, very easy to use and I haven't really had any problems with it.

              Performance

              There is really not much to say about the performance of this mod. It is just really really good. It packs a hell of a punch, on par with other mods I have that costs 5 times as much. Some of the cheaper mods I've tried seems to output less power when compared side by side with for DNA200 and SX350 mods with the same setting, but not this one. It feels about the same. I've been using it in wattage mode, tried out the bypass mode (which basically turns it into a mech mod and I've tried the Ni temp. control (a material I absolutely hate working with but my EHPro bachelor came with a pre-made Ni200 coil so...). All works really well. It doesn't seem to waste your battery time either. I've been vaping at around 50W with a 0.5 Kanthal coil and charged it about once a day. Then again I do use other mods in between, so if I was to use this exclusively I'd estimate I'd use approximately two batteries a day with those numbers. All depends on how much you vape and your style really.

              Again, this is a really great little mod when it comes to performance and has quickly become one of my preferred ones when I'm going out because of it's size and ease of use. Seems to deliver really stable power as well, and it doesn't "slack off" when your battery is low.

              Pros and cons 

              + Size and design
              + Stable power
              + Powerful
              + Build quality
              + Charge port on the side

              - Scratches easily (at least the silver version)

              Conclusion

              Great performance, great design and ease of use makes it one of the best buys out there if you need a powerful, pocket friendly mod. Here in Norway it's priced at only around 400 NOK (395,- at dampoteket.no) which makes this a no brainer really. You can get it at around $30 elsewhere without battery and shipping I guess. Even if you really don't need another mod, this is cheap enough to just try it out... who knows, maybe you'll end up needing it after all, like me.

              Thanks a lot to Birger at dampoteket.no for giving me this mod for review.



              Disclosure:
              • All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product. 
              • This product was given to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.
              • This review does not contain affiliate links.

              Wednesday 1 June 2016

              Norway status update: Plain packaging and e-cigs regulated as tobacco

              Norwegian Minister of Health, Bent Høie,
              showing his standardized tobacco packaging
              During the first half of June, the Norwegian government will propose a revised Tobacco directive here in Norway. On a press conference yesterday, on the world no tobacco day, Health Minister Bent Høie talked about some of the changes that will be made. Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reported from the press conference held at the Cancer Society yesterday. Plain cigarette packages is one of the changes to be made, something that Høie claims have been working very well in Australia. He plays the "Think about the children"-card pretty early on and his plain packaging, that also affects snus-packages, is his way of doing this:
              "We must protect children and adolescents. The goal is a tobacco-free generation. We will do this using standardized packaging and remove the advertising effect"
              The suggested changes seems to have support in the parliament and is expected to be passed into law before Christmas. Høie brags about the effects of the policy measures taken giving them credit for the fact that Norway has lower smoking rates than ever:
              "The policy measures have worked, says health minister. In 1955, the proportion of daily smoking men 65 percent. In 2015 only four percent of youth 16-24 smoked on a daily basis, 30 percent smoke occasionally."
              But Høie is worried about the fact that the use of Snus has dramatically increased the last 10 years:
              "Snus use has increased dramatically the last decades. 30 percent of men and 18 percent women use snus. It is necessary to reduce."
              Ok, so before Høie has even gotten to the topic of e-cigarettes he has proven himself completely unable to critically review statistics and analyse the success of plain packaging, to see the blindingly obvious connection between increased snus and e-cigarette use and decreased cigarette consumption, and to grasp the concept of harm reduction... at all.

              First of all, Høie's belief that plain packaging has worked in Australia is a result of lies, lies and even more lies by Australian politicians that will not admit it has been an utter failure. Dick Puddlecote is just one of the people who have written about this. Another one from Christopher Snowdon can be found here. The reality, however, is that is that More Australian Kids Smoke After Plain Packaging. Of course I don't believe that plain packaging will make more kids smoke, but it's pretty obvious that it is indeed a total waste of time, energy and money, and the only possible effect seems to be that Høie and his colleagues will sleep a bit better thinking they've really made a difference.

              Then there is the fact that Høie does not seem to see that the connection between increase in snus use and e-cigarettes and decrease in smoking prevalence and onset. In December I wrote that Smoking prevalence in Norway dropping faster than ever, and the accelerated decrease coincides with increased use of snus and later on e-cigarettes. A couple of days ago I also read in another Norwegian online newspaper, hegnar.no about a new nationwide survey showing that the use of snus in Norway reduces the cigarette consumption by 10 million cigarettes... every week! In this context, what the teens themselves say about why smoking isn't very popular any more might be interesting as well. But anyway, convincing Høie that snus in fact is one of the main reasons that Sweden and Norway has the lowest rates of smoking (and lung cancer) in Europe wouldn't necessarily help a lot. Cause Høie doesn't seem to understand the concept of harm reduction very well:
              Snus is not as harmful as smoking, but snus is also harmful. We keep getting new documentation on it, at the latest now from Sweden showed that snus during pregnancy increased the risk of stillbirth by 50 percent. It says pretty much.
              Yes, Høie, you are right about one thing... this really says a lot: To justify your plain snus packages you have to resort to shady scare tactics, this time using the unborn children. I don't know what documentation he is talking about, but 50% sounds like a lot right? I found this though, from 2010, which shows an increase of 0.2% from 0.3% for non-users to 0.5% for snus users. Granted, this is a 50% increase (actually more) but in my opinion it makes more sense to publish the actual increase of 0.2 percentage points in these cases, because in reality it's not a big increase in risk. 50% sounds like a lot, but in reality 50% of a very small number is ... well an even smaller number. In addition to this the study I linked to has limitations, and one thing I don't see mentioned at all is whether the snus using mothers to be were primarily former smokers. Then again, putting forth a 0.2 percentage point increase when publishing the study probably wouldn't raise many eyebrows... All of the above, however, doesn't really matter. In fact, even if you could prove there was a 50% real chance of stillbirth if you use snus while pregnant, that wouldn't justify putting snus in the same harm category as smoking. There are several things you shouldn't eat, drink or do (google it and you'll end up with a long list) when you're pregnant, but that doesn't mean that non-pregnant people shouldn't.

              In addition to plain packaging Høie plans to repeal the ban on e-cigarettes in Norway. But that sounds like great news you say? Well...
              We are going to open for the sale of E-cigarettes. Although E-cigarettes also are harmful, it may be an opportunity for people who want to quit with regular tobacco and move to a less harmful product. Opening for sale gives us a completely different opportunity to inform about E-cigarettes. I think many people who are using E-cigarettes believe it is only water vapor coming out, but the nicotine content in the vapor is as high as in normal cigarette smoke. It is not harmless to vape at home when the children are present.
              As you can see, Høie is remarkably misinformed about potential harm from e-cigarettes and vaping for a man in his position. What he doesn't mention, but it has been talked about earlier this week in Norwegian media, is how vaping going to be regulated. What this is, of course, is Norway implementing the EU TPD. Again, we see several players in the media, trying to score political points here. Both the Cancer Society and government party FRP has been in the news, trying to make it look like they're the ones that got rid of the e-cigarette ban. The Cancer Society has been very negative to e-cigarettes all along, but now they see that there is really no way that the ban will remain in place, so they've written a letter to the health authorities urging them to repeal the ban. They know very well that this ban will be gone anyway, and now they'll focus on strict regulations. The populists from FRP fronts this as happy news for anyone wanting to quit or reduce smoking.
              "This is happy news for the many who want to reduce or stop the use of tobacco. We're repealing a silly ban", says Morten Wold (from FRP)
              What FRP and the government is doing is the same thing they did last year, trying to twist the facts and score political points among vapers, while implementing a directive that will limit the number of smokers moving to a less harmful alternative. It is also a directive that they in fact do not have to implement as Norway has a reservation right since we are not an EU member state. They simply don't have the balls to stand up to the EU.

              On the positive side, at least it looks like stores will be allowed to display e-cigarettes and do not have to hide them away with the plain tobacco packages. This certainly will save some lives if it lasts.

              So, status here in Norway right now: While politicians in the UK and now Italy are forming cross party parliamentary groups to create a reality based debate and work for reasonable regulations of vaping, standing up to the corrupt forces of the EU parliament, Norwegian politicians are either too clueless, careless or stupid to do so. Instead they just jump whenever the EU and Big Pharma says so.

              But that does not mean our pro-vaping forces have given up the fight. There are strong forces here, constantly working to counter the attacks on vaping and educate both politicians and the public. Karl Erik Lund is one of them and together with Erik Nord (both from the Institute of Public Health) they strongly criticize Høie's wish to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco in today's edition of Aftenposten asking "Does Bent Høie care less about smokers' lives than the lives of others?". They claim that 8000 people can avoid premature death if e-cigarettes are not regulated as tobacco and finishes their article with some questions directed to Health Minister Høie (after referring to the RPC report): 
              • Is he informed about the material from England? 
              • Will he in case reconsider the appropriateness of regulating e-cigarettes as if they were tobacco products? 
              • If not, how can we then not believe that the Minister of Health care less about smokers' lives than the lives of others?
              As you can see, we have people here in Norway that has the guts to stand up and tell the truth, and that has the knowledge and position to get this into the media. What makes this quite exceptional from Lund and Nord is that they they publish this despite the fact that their employer supports Høies wish for tobacco regulation. Fantastic if you ask me :)
               
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