blu Cigs Disposable e-cigarette – Impressions

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 at 7:36 am

Disposable electronic cigarettes are common fare these days. Brands tend to vary widely as do the locations disposable e-cigarettes show up for sale. blu Cigs is attempting to change that around by selling their blu Cigs disposable model nation wide at all Walgreens drug stores. You never know when this might come in handy, so perhaps a little blu Cigs disposable e-cigarette review may come in handy.

Uses for Disposable e-Cigarettes

These disposable e-cigs may be the first (and sometimes last) e-cigarettes people new to vaping try out. Regular vapers may not pay much attention to disposable e-cigarettes. However, during the holiday season, things happen. Perhaps you are out and about visiting family, or plain carousing (you know who you are) and your trusty ProVari falls into aunt Jackie’s spiked eggnog.

After you get over the initial crying fit, you realize you have 4 more hours of family scrapbooks to sit through before you can get home to your

Can you see the swoopiness?

backup Lavatube. You do have a backup, right? Perhaps you can sneak out to the Walgreens down the street and plop down around 7 bucks to pick up one of blu’s disposables.

Of course you don’t need an elaborate story, maybe it’s just handy to have disposables readily available for a number of reasons. And remember, lots of people might get their first e-cigarette experience from one of these devices since they’re so accessible. I’m guessing that’s what blu Cigs is hoping for. The question is, are they any good.

e-Cigarette Design

blu Cig’s disposable is naturally packaged in a small package designed to show well on a store shelf. The clear box showcases the glossy black e-cigarette contained inside. Closer inspection reveals there’s actually an elegant little swoopy kind of pattern to the finish. The box is full of the usual marketing stuff you’d expect on a retail package, including a Johnson Creek logo to let you know they use USA made e-liquid.

The marketing text on the pack brags that the e-cigarette is equal to over one pack. I’ll just come out and say that probably doesn’t hold true for everyone. It’s hard to tell exactly but the vape and toss blu probably has a payload of around 1.2-1.5ml. The battery as is typical in disposables is fairly long and is close in size to the 280mAh XL batteries a lot of e-cigarettes have.

I ran the device off and on for a few days, average users can easily get several good hours out of this device

Pictured with standard size e-cigarette

The battery is, of course, an automatic. I’ve never seen a manual disposable. The tip of the battery lights up with blu’s signature blue LED. The entire unit is a single, sealed tube. This isn’t one of those disposables that’s simply a regular battery that won’t hold more than a couple charges.

Cutting open the disposable e-cigarette, I found a somewhat interesting cartomizer design. The unit featured a horizontal coil located midway up the length of the cartomizer area. The coils had a wick as well as being surrounded by batting similar to regular cartomizer designs. It seems designed to soak up as much liquid as possible before burning out.

The blu Cigs Disposable Experience

Using the blu Cigs disposable is pretty simple. As an entry-level device it has to be dead easy. Remove the thing from the box (this is by far the hardest part). Take off the silicone end cap and pull off the little “remove before flight” sticker and start puffing. Simplicity achieved.

Puffing away on the device, I first noticed this little e-cigarette puts out quite a decent amount of vapor. Reading the ingredients label on the box, gives a clue as to why. Propylene Glycol is not listed as an ingredient. Therefore, the e-liquid on board must be of the 100% vegetable

Johnson Creek inside

glycerine variety. That would explain the vapor.

The blu Cigs e-cigarette had a moderate throat hit. This indicates to me that the liquid also has a fairly high nicotine content. Interestingly, I did not see the nicotine content listed on the box. I find that somewhat distressing, actually.

The vapor itself was also fairly warm. I’ve had hotter vapor from similar devices, but this vapor was not at all cold by any means. I’d say for a disposable the blu e-cigarette does an admirable job in the vapor department.

Flavor is of course the big sticking point with e-cigarettes, especially disposables where there’s not much choice. The blu Cigs disposable e-cigarette is certainly in that category, offering only tobacco and menthol despite Johnson Creek’s fairly robust repertoire.

I’ve talked to some people who despise the flavor of blu’s disposable. Flavor is definitely subjective here. I found the flavor to be somewhat subdued and not at all offensive (unlike the other disposable I tried in my UK e-cigarette shootout). The flavor was not unpleasant, there were some undertones going on, but nothing remarkable.

I’d say they sort of engineered the flavor to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. This is likely a key point, since the blu disposable is very clearly a product targeted at the mass market.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

blu Cig’s disposable e-cigarette is not a bad option to have available when the need for a disposable e-cigarette arises. Unlike some disposables I’ve tried, I don’t believe these would send too many people away from e-cigarettes nauseated and screaming. If anything, I’d say the tobacco flavor is a little too mild (and I’m not a big tobacco fan). The device performs well, however I would like to see more flavor choices, and labeling that indicates the nicotine content.

Performance
Vapor: Very good
Vapor temperature: Moderately warm
Throat hit: Moderate
Flavor: Mild
Draw: Slightly stiff

Pros:

Less expensive than some disposables
Attractive styling
Decent flavor
Good vapor performance

Cons:

Nicotine content not indicated on packaging
No flavor choices (regular and menthol)
Slightly stiff draw
Packaging a little tricky to open

Details:
Product: blu Cigs Disposable e-cigarette
Available from: Walgreens and other retail locations (also sold on blu Cigs’ website)
Price: 7.99