Saturday, November 3, 2012

The Blu Disposable Electronic Cigarette

During a routine visit to my local Hess gas station, I stumbled upon the Blu Disposable Electronic Cigarette - Classic Tobacco flavor. Back when I started vaping, these were what got me started. While I was there the Lorrilard Tobacco rep was there, and gave me a free Blu Disposable. I decided to take this opportunity to throw a fresh review from a veteran vaper up here.

After opening, the first thing I noticed was the size of the cartomizer and battery had grown from when I experienced them a ways back. I also noticed that Blu now has their juice made by Johnson Creek. I had had Johnson Creek when I first started and hated it, and thought "This should be interesting...".

When I took my first drag, I was quite surprised. The flavor wasn't all that bad for a tobacco flavor, and the vapor was pretty decent. At that point I whipped out my phone, and grabbed up a click counter app, and started to count away the drags, with each drag to the cut off of the device, which was 6 seconds. I puffed away on the Blu until the vapor was starting to taste burned, which was in total about 3 hours. In those 3 hours, I was able to cram in 72 puffs.
Battery and Cartomizer Sleeve, and innards.


After those 72 puffs, I still had battery life left, but not much in the way of e-liquid. So, being the curious tinkerer that I am, I decided to rip apart this Blu e-cigarette. The tear down started with ripping the battery sticker wrapper off to reveal a single metal sleeve. Once unwrapped, I proceeded to pop off the fake cherry that lights up blue when a drag is taken to find a small circuit board that houses the blue light and sensor for the automatic battery. I was able to use a small flat head screwdriver to pry out the innards that revealed a 1.00 Wh battery and the cheap plastic that contained the coil assembly and wick material for the juice.




























At this point that you see in the photo, I fully expected to open the wicking material up and see a standard vertical coil, or a horizontal coil at the bottom of the tube. Upon opening I did find a horizontal coil, but it was in a different position than the traditional horizontal coils, it was well.. in the middle of the air tube, surrounded by a wrap of silica wick, and the wicking material.

Yes, that is the coil in the middle of the air tube.
I won't bore you all with more tear down photos, but will conclude with this: The Blu Disposable Electronic Cigarette is over priced a bit considering the make up of parts at $9.99 for 72 puffs. I will give it credit for battery life, e-liquid flavor, and vapor! This may be the gateway for many vapers, but my advice is this: If you are a smoker, and are interested in harm reduction, please go to CASSA.org , and explore the options of harm reduction. In my experience, electronic cigarettes are NOT a smoking cessation method, but a healthier alternative. Do your research, get a good kit, and get support from the many e-cigarette forums on the web.

That's all for now from NH... Live Free and Vape!