Co-Op Update for July 23, 2013

Co-Op Update for July 23, 2013

Review: The Smok E-Pipe Mod

Review: The Smok E-Pipe Mod

Weekly Co-Op Update for June 19, 2013

Weekly Co-Op Update for June 19, 2013

Co-Op Update for June 4, 2013

Co-Op Update for June 4, 2013

Co-Op Update for May 28, 2013

Co-Op Update for May 28, 2013

Weekly Co-Op Update

Weekly Co-Op Update

King E-Pipe by Beautiful

We’ve had a few chances recently to pick up Chinese-made e-pipes at what looked like pretty good prices. First there was the Oakley X Cube, which you may remember we didn’t find particularly impressive.  Then there was the Fortunecome F-106, which also didn’t score very highly. Most recently, the King from Beautiful arrived. Is the third time the charm? Let’s find out.

King E-Pipe Unboxing

We received our King E-Pipe as part of a kit from Beautiful which contained the pipe itself, a plastic mouthpiece, an assembled carto tank with punched cartomizer, a battery charger, a spare 510-to-510 adapter, two 900 mAh 18350 batteries, and an instruction booklet. All of this came rather nicely presented in a foam-lined gold and black gift box.

The King E-Pipe supports a couple different configurations right out of the box. The first, and easiest to set up, is to use the included carto tank.  Since it already has a cartomizer in it from the factory, the only setup required for this configuration is to fill the tank, screw it onto the King’s 510 connector, and pop in the mouthpiece/drip tip.  Unscrew the brass top of the pipe, at the top of which is a small brass button used to fire the King, and drop in one of the included 18350 batteries, and you’re off and running.

King E-Pipe in XL Cartomizer Configuration

The second configuration, using an XL-length cartomizer is somewhat more complicated. In this configuration, the 510-to-510 adapter pre-installed into the pipe’s shank must be removed, and a cartomizer inserted in its place.  Then a black plastic ring is pushed over the top of the cartomizer, and the drip tip inserted.  While this may sound relatively simple, in practice it was a bit frustrating.  Most of the problem came from the black ring that extends the shank about an extra half-inch and hides the end of the cartomizer: it was very difficult to fit into the end of the pipe’s shank.  Of our two Kings, we were only successful at doing this with one of them.  On the other, the ring just would not fit into the shank, no matter how much we twisted and shoved. The other fit, but only after pushing really hard.  This, of course, leads to a second problem: if we decide to take that piece back out, it’s probably going to involve a pair of pliers, which probably won’t go well for that plastic ring.

King E-Pipe in Tank Configuration

Thankfully, given the size and shape of the King e-Pipe and the basic, flat 510 connection at the end of the shank in “tank” mode, the only reason to use the cartomizer configuration is if you really want the King to look just like an analog pipe (or at least an analog pipe with a big brass lid over the bowl). The included XL-length cartomizer tank work just fine and fits very well, but any 510-based atomizer device could be used on the King. The shank has a large enough diameter that we’ve seen photos of the King with atomizers as large as a SmokTech RSST looking right at home on the e-Pipe.

The King, however, is not without its flaws, some of which are fairly significant. We mentioned the issue with the carto adapter ring earlier, but we’ve also found that the drip tip connector on the mouthpiece fits very loosely on everything we’ve tried it with, including the tank and cartomizer provided with the King. While replacing the O-ring with one we had lying around has helped considerably, not everyone is going to have spare O-rings to do that with.

King E-Pipe Spring Collapse

A more serious issue, however, may be the battery and switch mechanism.  While we have had no trouble with our two test units, at least one other person who acquired his King E-Pipe in the same group buy as our reported shortly after receiving it that the unit would sometimes fire without pressing the button.  Not long after came a report that he later went to pick up the King and found it to be too hot to touch, and after it had cooled he opened it to find the spring had collapsed. This, obviously, is the last sort of thing you want to find a mod ever doing, as it’s the sort of thing that can lead to battery explosions.  That didn’t happen in this case, thankfully, and apparently the King in question is still operational, but it’s certainly got us keeping a close eye on ours.  We haven’t heard other reports yet of the same type of malfunction, but it’s certainly concerning.

One other cosmetic issue with the King E-Pipe: the black sandalwood ones have some inconsistencies in coloring.  Ours, for example, has a small patch of blonde-colored wood on the rim of the bowl, and a similar defect (though much larger than ours) is visible in the spring collapse photo above. However, many may not mind this at all, and see these blonde patches as adding a little extra character to their King E-Pipe.  However, if you’re not a fan, we suggest not choosing the black sandalwood unless you can get assurances from the vendor that the coloring is consistent.

The Scores

Build Quality: 3/10

While the individual parts of the King E-Pipe seem to be well-enough constructed, we did find a few quality issues with the King E-Pipe, including a loosely fitting mouthpiece, a cartomizer adapter that fits so tightly we couldn’t get it to connect on one of our two Kings (and may not be able to get it out of the other without damaging it), and inconsistencies with finish on the black sandalwood unit.

Perhaps most concerning was another owner’s experience with his King self-firing, leading to dangerous overheating and a spring collapse. While we can’t be sure how common this sort of malfunction might be with the King, it is a very serious one.

Looks: 8/10

The King E-Pipe has a very classy, clean look, both in the cartomizer and tank configurations. We did, however, experience a small gap between the tank and the head on one of our units, and the finish inconsistencies in the black unit as noted above.

The padded gift box puts the packaging of the King E-Pipe a cut above that of other units we’ve reviewed.

Flexibility: 8/10

The broad shank of the King and its use of a removable 510-to-510 connector present multiple configuration options for the King, and allow it to be used with any atomizer with a 510 connection (though some options, obviously, will look much better than others).

Performance: 5/10

The performance of the King has been moderate to low with the included components. Much of this is probably due to the use of a single 18350 battery and the high resistance of the included cartomizer (ours measured as high as 2.9 ohms).  While Beautiful suggests not using cartomizers lower than 1.7 ohms, 2.9 is high enough to severely limit vapor production and flavor, and we suggest using lower resistance cartomizers than the ones provided.

Price: 5/10

While not easy to find at retailers, the King E-Pipe kits we have seen out there seem to be selling in the $90-$110 range.  While the kit does include a pair of batteries and a charger, as well as a couple spare parts, we’re not sure those justify the relatively steep price of this pipe, particularly when its rather significant flaws are factored in.

We purchased ours through a co-op at $52 for the black sandalwood, and $47 for the red. At those prices we’re relatively pleased with the purchases, but had we paid retail prices we would probably not be quite so happy.

Overall Score: 5.8

Spring collapse photo by Craig Marino

King E-Pipe by Beautiful

Fortunecome F-106 E-Pipe

As anyone who has bought more than one of them already knows, not all PVs are created equal.  The same goes for e-pipes.

This classy, some might say pretentious, arm of the mod family includes a wide variety of colors and styles, at a broad range of prices.  Somewhere near the middle of the scale comes the F-106 e-pipe from Fortunecome of China, a somewhat hefty-sized pipe powered by an 18350 battery which is inserted into the bowl of the pipe.

The F-106: Big and Bold, and Maybe Too Much of Both

The F-106 takes the classic approach to pipe styling, with a large, rounded wooden bowl.  Fortunecome doesn’t specify the type of wood used, but it is a darker wood… possibly walnut. On the side of the bowl is mounted a small rhinestone-like firing switch, which has the common eGo-like 5-press on/off function. A blue LED lights up the tiny switch when fired, and will flash three times when the e-pipe is turned on or off.

A Questionable Choice of Threading

Now that we’ve covered the basics, here’s where things start to go downhill with the F-106. Let’s start with the threading on the stem.  While it’s somewhat typical to find eGo threading on an e-pipe, you’ll usually find that the stem has both the internal and external threads common to eGo devices.  In the F-106′s case, it only has the internal threads. This greatly limits the number of atomizers you’ll be able to use with it.  We were able to use an Innokin iClear 16 and a Bauway CE8, for example, but not a Kanger EVOD, as the EVOD does not have internal eGo threads. Unless you’ve got a very thorough knowledge of the atomizer you want to use with the F-106, and how that atomizer is threaded, whether it will work with it or not may be a real crap shoot.

I’d Swear I Charged that Battery…

Our second major gripe about the F-106 is the internal battery contacts.  The bottom of the e-pipe has a spring, which works well enough, but the top positive contact consists of a thin, flimsy-looking arm that swings out to make contact with the top of the battery. It doesn’t fit particularly snugly, and we couldn’t get the F-106 to work at all with our flat-top 18350s. The only way we could coax it into firing was to attach a small magnet to the top of the battery to raise the contact point enough for the arm to connect to it.  It may work better with button-top 18350s, but we didn’t have any lying around to test with.

Attack of the Giant Mutant Bedazzler

The last of our major gripes would be the huge plastic faux-ruby attached to the top of the cap that fits over the bowl, covering the battery.  It is, in a word, tacky as hell. OK, that’s three words, but “tacky” alone doesn’t quite cover it. Maybe it’s supposed to simulate the red glow of an analog pipe as it is fired, but if that’s the intent, it’s a dismal failure.  Rather than looking like a glowing analog pipe, the giant ultra-fake gem just makes the F-106 look cheap. A simple metal cap, or a wood insert, would have looked much better, and probably would have allowed us to take the F-106 out in public without being embarrassed by it.

The Scores

Build Quality: 5/10

The wood bowl of the F-106 e-pipe is admittedly rather nice.  The wood finish of our test unit as clean and scratch-free, with a nice grain to it.  However, that wasn’t enough to make up for what we consider to be a rather shoddy mechanism for making contact with the 18350 battery. The F-105 will not work with an unmodified flat-top 18350 battery, and we can’t even be sure it’ll work correctly with a button-top.

We’re also not particularly happy with the switch.  If it stuck out a bit more, the pipe could be held more like an analog pipe, but it’s very small and doesn’t stick out far enough to really be pressed with anything but a fingertip.

Looks: 4/10

We love the look of the bowl of the F-106, but that’s really all we like about this e-pipes looks. The small rhinestone switch alone probably wouldn’t have given the F-106 an air of “oh my God that looks ridiculous,” but the humungous plastic red monstrosity covering the bowl certainly does. The cheap plastic pipe stand included with the F-106, which looks a bit like a plastic folding chair and has problems holding the pipe upright, doesn’t help much.

Flexibility: 3/10

The internal-only eGo threading of the F-106 is an unusual choice that severely limits what you’ll be able to attach to it. Only a few of our eGo-based clearomizers had the type of threading required to be used with the F-106.

The battery issues mentioned above also limit what sort of 18350s you’ll be able to use with the F-105 e-pipe. Unless, like us, you happen to have a small stockpile of magnets lying around, your best shot at a working battery will be a button-top.

Performance: 4/10

We can’t say we were particularly impressed with the F-106′s performance.  Vapor production and flavor were very weak with all but our lowest-resistance atomizers.  Even then, performance was nothing to write home about.

Price: 3/10

While we haven’t found any U.S. retailers selling the F-106 e-pipe, the wholesale price from Fortunecome is around $26-$30, which would probably put it at $50-$60 retail.  Frankly, considering the low performance, cheap looks, and questionable engineering of the F-106, we find it hard to justify paying anywhere near that much for it.

Overall Score: 3.8

Fortunecome F-106 E-Pipe