Hi guys. Years ago when NJoy first came to market I jumped on it. This must have been 2006 or 2007. I had smoked rather heavily since 2000. Being a heavy smoker, all they did was make me want to smoke more. The vapor was low and the taste unimpressive. Expensive, too. Easily over $100 for the starter pack. I gave up on it and resumed smoking as normal. Fast forward to fall 2011 and I'm smoking at least a pack and a half a day of very strong $10/pack cigarettes. I managed to snag a nasty case of bronchitis; doc said it was one of the worst he had seen. I was standing out on the rain coughing my brains out trying to smoke. I always smoked regardless of how I felt health-wise. I could be one-foot-in-the-grave sick and I'd smoke just as much as I would when I wasn't sick. I realized what a sad sight this must be and decided to quit.
I remembered back to my early vaping days and decided to look into whether these things ever caught on. Not only had they, but there were so many vendors selling them. The first thing I noticed was the NJoy was still around and had signed a retail deal with 7-11. On my way home that night I bought one of their express starter kits. Much less expensive this time. One battery, one charger, and some cartomizers. I think the experience was like the last one but I was still not very thrilled with the whole NJoy experience. I started researching online and came across Blu.
I looked at other sites such as TW but was pretty confused by all the options. I took the easy road and spent a bunch of money with Blu. For the next couple of months I used Blu exclusively and came to have some complaints. Battery life, that was the first thing. I could vape a battery dry in under 30 minutes. Aside from that, I got several batteries that wouldn't hold a charge past a few puffs at all. The flavors were strange also. Any time I exhaled through my nose the vapor tasted pretty bad, like how a band-aid smells. I ended up carrying around four or five batteries, constantly charging and replacing cartos.
Let me be clear about my experience with Blu. I wouldn't venture to trash this company as much as it's trashed on this forum. Yes, they're overly expensive, battery life sucks, and the flavors are pretty lousy. However, I, like many, would never have gotten into vaping if not for first trying products like NJoy or Blu. It's like when you buy a prefab computer and realize, wow, I could probably build one myself with more features and power.
I don't remember how I came across TW, but I eventually bought a Tornado Tank. In all fairness, it wasn't the smoothest transition. At this point in time, Tornado Tanks were shipping with the plastic top. This thing leaked bad. Kind of freaked me out, too. Nicotine juice spilling out onto my hand, getting into my mouth. This issue was quickly solved by using the silicone caps. Problem solved. Great vapor, GREAT battery life; I can go almost all day before swapping batteries. The only issue here seemed to be the tank. Even though it would have to be filled much less frequently than something like Blu, I still found myself going through three or four tanks per day.
Then came the Dual Coil Tank. Impressive, a solution that would require much less frequent refilling. The 6mL was a real sight but a bit large so I went with the 3.5mL. Upon receiving it, here's the only thing I noticed that could be improved: the aluminum drip tip fits too loosely onto the tank. Not loose enough that it would fall off, but it can move side to side pretty easily. Perhaps in the future TW will use a larger gasket that will ensure a more snug fit. Other than that, totally happy. Big clouds of vapor, a tank that lasts all day and a battery that does the same.
So here I am, months off and I have very little to complain about. Recently, the only thing to raise concern is the report of a man having his battery blow up in his face. We've all known for quite some time that lithium ion batteries, all lithium ion batteries, have a very remote possibility of exploding. From what I've read, Joyetech batteries are among the safest, highest quality batteries out there. What I have not read on TW, however, is detailed information on the batteries branded as TW. As can be seen on youtube, there are a LOT of clones out there. I'd love a statement from TW assuring that every Tornado battery is a genuine Joyetech and not a clone. For the last few years of being a smoker I was no stranger to paying upwards of $10 per pack so I have no objections to paying a premium for a premium battery.
So all in all, I'm very satisfied with my TW experience and will continue to use it as a source of my hardware purchases. Liquids, they could be more reasonable with the pricing; so I end up sourcing about 1/3 of my liquid from TW and the rest from other, less costly made in the USA juice. So thanks for all the great products and great discussion. Maybe a lounge in the Hamptons will open some day!
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