If you are looking for the best electronic cigarette or cigar or pipe for that matter you have come to the wrong place! What do I mean by that? Well, there isn’t one size that fits all or a best-all-around. It doesn’t exist.
If there was a superior model there wouldn’t be such a huge selection out there and there would only be 1 or 2 to choose from.
Thank god for so many choices because variety is the spice of life!
The first goal of this post is to discuss some of the things you may want to consider when deciding which best manufacturer and model to buy. The bottom line is you have to make a decision which is the best electronic cigarette for YOU.
The second goal of this post is to discuss what features I will be reviewing for each manufacturer and device and what I have decided as a scoring system for the reviews on this site. Maybe this rating system can help you decide if there is a “best” in each category.
So, lets get started..
Once you have decided to take the plunge and invest your dough there are 5 areas to consider:
- The model that suits you
- Components
- Cartridges
- Atomizers
- Batteries & Chargers
- Construction / Quality
- Cost
- Style and Extra Features
Best Model for YOU
First, do you even want an electronic cigarette? Maybe a electric cigar or a pipe suits you better. Or, if you do want a cigarette style, do you want a ”pen-style” or a mini? The best electronic cigarette or cigar may be even one of the disposable styles that are now available.
Ratings will be based on comparisons to comparable models. For example: pen-styles will be compared to pen-styles, cigars will be compared to cigars and so on. It is important that comparisons are apples-to-apples!
The rating system for features that get a score will be as follows:
- Poor
- Below Average
- Average
- Above Average
- Excellent
Components
This area includes the three main components of electronic cigarettes starting with the battery and charger. You may want to consider how many times they can be charged, how long they hold a charge and if the starter kit comes with an extra battery.
Also, most batteries have an orange lighted tip on the end that glows while taking a drag on the device to more accurately simulate smoking. Some manufacturers / models offer now offer other tip colors such as blue. You may wan to consider this as some bars do not want to confuse other people into lighting up a real cigarette.
Batteries and chargers will be rated 1-5 for things like number of charges, lenth of charge and recharge time. I will probably have another field that indicates if non-standard tip colors are offered.
Atomizer
This component heats the air from the drag to a high temperature that vaporizes the liquid nicotine solution upon contact.
Since these components get very hot at times the atomizers from some manufacturers and models have been known to fail. Watch out! In some cases you will be covered by a warrenty if this happens in the first year. Most manufacturers do not sale spares separately though so you may have to buy a new starter kit when it is not covered.
Atomizers will be rated 1-5 for things like being covered by warranty, replaceable, and failure prone.
Cartridges
Electric cigarette cartridges get used up and replaced as needed. They come in various flavors and nicotine concentrations ranging from 0mg to about 18mg per cartridge.
In addition to listing the number of flavors offered I will also rate cartridges overall 1-5 for a particular model based on total number of flavors offered, number of nicotine levels, and rate higher for offerings of zero nicotine and higher nicotine levels above 18mg.
Construction
Do the individual components fit well together producing a final product that is sturdy and comfortably solid in the hand? Better individual components will probably result in a higher score in this area. The 1-5 rating system will be used to score construction and determine which is the best.
Cost
Prices fluctuate but I will try to list and keep the price of starter kits and cartridges up to date.
I will also rate cost on the 1-5 scale based on value or bang-for-your buck. Lets face it, you get what you pay for, or at least you should. So the best electronic cigarette in this catagory will have high ratings in every other category but at a lower cost than expected.
The best device in this category will need to avoid problems like chronic atomizer failure, batteries that need replaced too frequently and high cartridge prices.
Style and other Features
The best electronic cigarette in terms of style and other features will be a matter of opinion and preference among e cig smokers. There will be some editorial in each review discussing things like this but other than that and reading comments posted to each review, this is an area where you will have to decide what is best for you once again.
Wrapping Up
While there may not be a best electronic cigarette all around there will be some models that excel in one or more categories I have listed here. Once you have figured out which features are most important to you based on your smoking habits then pic a few models with high scores in those areas. Then buy what’s best for YOU!
Thanks for good post
No problem.
I have some updates planned because the more of these I review the more I learn about what should be considered in each score. Any suggestions you have are welcome.
Dear ECR Blogger/Sparky,
Your review(s) and information on ECR are a good start and provide useful material for people looking for an alternative to the “real thing” (like me). However, the text you’ve posted (at least in “Best Electronic Cigarette”) would really benefit from more careful editing. There are a plethora of badly misspelled words or typos (”catagory”,”replaceble”, “nictine” just for starters)that detract from the quality and professionalism of your formal material. (By “formal material”, I refer only to the main informational postings or reviews and not comments or “Tweets”, etc.)
You are providing a helpful service and making what appears to be a sincere effort towards careful crafting of the visual aspects of the material presented. I think that your site should more fully reflect those aspects in things like spelling where appropriate.
Sincerely,
–Carrol
Thanks for the feedback. There really is no excuse for this in the age of computers. I corrected this post and will keep a closer eye on spelling and grammar in the future on all the other posts.
This article promises a lot but – where the heck is the actual review?
You can find the reviews on the electronic cigarette here.
I don’t see the review either. Or where you say it is. here? where? thanks
All the reviews on this site can be found at:
http://www.electroniccigarettereview.com/reviews/
SORRY, …E-CIGARETTES ARE A RIP-OFF, …WITHOUT A DOUBT. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT IT WORKS EXCEPT FOR CHERRY-PICKED TESTIMONIALS. PLEASE, TO THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT TO QUIT SMOKING, DO NOT TRY WITH E-CIGARETTES!
The fake cigarette is often offered as “free”, BUT THEN YOU FIND OUT THAT THE CARTRIDGES COST $70!
GO FOR A SYSTEMATIC PROGRAM WHERE YOU GRADUALLY REDUCE SMOKING OVER TIME AND SITUATIONS.
GOOD LUCK!
You are entitled to your opinion regarding e-cigs even if it is wrong… in my opinion. Not everyone is able to switch fully, but I no longer smoke and I have dozens of friends, family and acquaintances that haven’t smoked for over a year thanks to electronic cigarettes. Many of them told me, “I have tried everything before this and nothing worked.”
The biggest mass media outlets focus on any piece of negative information they can find simply because there IS evidence proving that negative media attracts more viewers, readers, ratings and money than the positive.
CAN YOU SUGGEST THE “BEST”/MOST POPULAR??…
WHICH IS THE BEST?!…I really appreciate your thorough review/compilation, but I’m still lost/confused about what brand to buy! I’m not a smoker & don’t have time or enough info to research all of the options on various brands–I want to get this for my younger brother as a Christmas present. He’s been smoking for 10 years, & really wants to quit. I think this would be a great option. I’m looking something that has variable nicotine levels (so that he can ease down to a low-level of nicotine as he “weans” himself off), is easy to use, sturdy, long-lasting, good drag, cheap, easy to get refills delivered, etc, etc…I’ve been looking at reviews online for HOURS now & can’t seem to come to any conclusion about the BEST option…Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!
That is really sweet of you to be so considerate of your brother!
I have 2 suggestions for you:
1. Consider a disposable e cig as a gift for someone else. My latest post includes 30% off coupon. The reason why is because smoking is highly personal. A person has to choose for themselves to use e cigs so unless they specifically asked for a starter kit I think disposables are a good gift to get someone to try out.
2. If you are certain you want to buy a starter for someone go to the reviews section of this website and pick one from the 2 or 3 with the highest overall rating. I intend to rank the highest rated on this page within the next month or 2 after I finish with another batch of reviews, but I realize that doesn’t help you right now.
Try the Green Smoke or Elites which have a chargable case, both good and choices aplenty. Green Smoke is far more expensive though
Your reviews helped me decide which brand and type to try, thanks!
is it possible to put rating info in some sort of table or method that would let us see the brands side by side? This is good info but difficult to decide when having to flip back and forth between pages and try to remember which is which. What about Lux brand??
I have a backlog of other products to review right now, but I figured if I can clear that out next month then I will have lots of good info on more products that will create an excellent reference table that you have described.
Has anyone tried or heard any reviews of a brand called “smoke tip”. Ordered the product and was wondering if anyone had any info. Thanks
I’ve heard of them. If they send me a sample I will review it.