leaford

The Vapor Guys' Disposable M-401 E-Cigarette

YouTube - Leaford's Disposable M-401 E-cigarette Video Review and Demo, YouTube version.

Model: M-401
Category: Disposable
Website: <a href="http://www.vaporguys.com">www.VaporGuys.com</a>
Price: $9.99
10% off Coupon Code: LEAFORD
Warranty/Guarantee: One month.

Recommendation: Middle Shelf
What I Like: Cheap, disposable.
The Downside: Inconsistent performance, awful tasting cartridges.

Overall Performance Score: 2.8
1) Vapor Production: 3
2) Ease of Draw: 3
3) Battery Life: 4
4) Cartridge Life: 1
5) Reliability and Ease of Use: 3

Customer Service Experience: None; complimentary sample.

Contents: 1 atomizer, 1 battery, 1 mouthpiece, 4 cartridges.
Extras: None.

Battery charging times: Non-rechargeable.
Interchangeable with: Batteries interchangeable with M-401.

Narrative review: So, you’ve got an airplane ride coming up, and you are afraid your e-cig might not make it through security. Or you’re going rock climbing and are worried about your e-cig getting dropped or smashed. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cheap disposable for such an occasion?

Well, here ya go!

This is the disposable E-cigarette from The Vapor Guys. It doesn’t really have a brand name, but it says “Smoking Anywhere” on top.

Vapor guys seals the box with a nicotine warning label. They label all of their products, and that’s a nice step towards the kind of product labeling that will inevitably be required in the future.

Inside the box is the e-cig itself, with a blank mouthpiece, and a blister pack with the 4 cartridges. Now, shipping it with an empty mouthpiece, and no instructions to put a cartridge on first would be just begging someone to burn out the atomizer by smoking it dry. Especially someone like the sort of newbie who is likely to buy this. I pointed that out to Kurt, the owner of The Vapor Guys, who responded by printing and attaching just such a label. Big Kudos to Kurt for that.

Anyway, all you have to do is remove the dummy mouthpiece, pop on a cartridge, and start puffing. The e-cig is basically an m-401 copy. The wick is narrower, and the heating chamber isn’t as open as a real 401.

Performance varies a lot, ranging from excellent to awful. The first two I tried were really bad, and if I hadn’t tried a third, this review would have been very different. ;-) But I did try several, and most were OK. The vapor is decent, sometimes excellent. The draw isn’t too hard, or too light. Battery life is comparable to a penstyle. The cartridges and the liquid are the downsides. The cartridges only last for about 20 to 25 5-second puffs, and the pre-filled liquid tastes horrible. Simply awful. I suggest discarding the cartridges, and just dripping in the atomizer or using another brand of 401 cartridges.

The throat kick is mild, and it seems to work equally well with either direct inhaling or mouth inhaling.

The atomizer will not work with regular 401 batteries, but the disposable batteries will work with a real 401 atomizer. So the batteries can serve as emergency backups for your Gold Edition M-401 from LitecigUSA, or Pilot from Puresmoker.

As a cheap, single use e-cig for times you don’t want to risk your real one, or as an emergency backup e-cig for times something HAS happened to your real one, this is cheap enough and good enough to be useful. It’s still not good enough to recommend it, but it could serve a purpose, so I’d put it on the middle shelf.