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SMOK: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
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This is a much bigger topic in my view than many folks realize and covers a lot of ground not even directly related to Smok. Human nature being a very huge one.
I'll start with a copy and paste from a discussion on Reddit a while back.
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I'm not going to get into a big thing about Smok right now, but this has been my impression too.
When some noob shows up asking what he/she should get, it's tough to recommend ___________ Smok product in the light of a market brimming with great choices, but I also have not seen the case made by actually compelling evidence that Smok is the grotesque hellspawn of Satan they are made out to be either.
My personal experience, which by itself proves no more than any other individual's personal experience, is that my 3 oldest and most beaten up mods are a T-Priv, a Procolor and an X-Priv and all three still work perfectly. In fact, my chewed up old Procolor is still my carry around beater device.
I also have 6 or 8 of their tanks which, while not the very best, are still perfectly usable decent tanks. Put the RBA decks in them and they become perty dern good indeed. Especially the BBB, which with the RBA is as good as a good RTA. Not as great as a great one, but as good as a good one.
I also have friends I do maintenance for who have Smok tanks and I haven't even seen all these horrible coils either.
And YES, we see a parade of broken and otherwise messed up stuff here, day in and day out from just about every company to some degree.
I just KNOW from dealing with people for 20 years as a computer support guy that a very large percentage of those are user error of some sort no matter which company were dealing with.
There are a dozen factors at play here and I really wish somebody with a lot more money than myself would finance a statistically meaningful study, based upon actually verifiable objective data, that would give us the unassailable truth about what percentage of devices fail for what reasons in what time frame.
I'm pretty sure we'll never see that
I'll start with a copy and paste from a discussion on Reddit a while back.
========================================
I'm not going to get into a big thing about Smok right now, but this has been my impression too.
When some noob shows up asking what he/she should get, it's tough to recommend ___________ Smok product in the light of a market brimming with great choices, but I also have not seen the case made by actually compelling evidence that Smok is the grotesque hellspawn of Satan they are made out to be either.
My personal experience, which by itself proves no more than any other individual's personal experience, is that my 3 oldest and most beaten up mods are a T-Priv, a Procolor and an X-Priv and all three still work perfectly. In fact, my chewed up old Procolor is still my carry around beater device.
I also have 6 or 8 of their tanks which, while not the very best, are still perfectly usable decent tanks. Put the RBA decks in them and they become perty dern good indeed. Especially the BBB, which with the RBA is as good as a good RTA. Not as great as a great one, but as good as a good one.
I also have friends I do maintenance for who have Smok tanks and I haven't even seen all these horrible coils either.
And YES, we see a parade of broken and otherwise messed up stuff here, day in and day out from just about every company to some degree.
I just KNOW from dealing with people for 20 years as a computer support guy that a very large percentage of those are user error of some sort no matter which company were dealing with.
There are a dozen factors at play here and I really wish somebody with a lot more money than myself would finance a statistically meaningful study, based upon actually verifiable objective data, that would give us the unassailable truth about what percentage of devices fail for what reasons in what time frame.
I'm pretty sure we'll never see that
SnapDragon NY
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As I wrote in my Smok Mag P3 Appreciation Thread: [The Smok Mag P3] is my very first bit of Smok kit. I haven't been avoiding Smok so much as I never saw anything from them that tripped my trigger before now. As I wrote in a reply to you: I see a lot of Smok in the local vape stores. Probably more Smok than anything else. I've always assumed that was because Smok is probably pretty reliable stuff, otherwise the vape stores wouldn't carry so much of it, and Smok probably garners a better margin than many other brands.
In retrospect, I suppose it may also be name recognition.
I was never even aware there was contention regarding the brand, until you, @gsmit1, brought it to my attention. From what I've seen, since then, this looks a lot like the contention that surrounds Bose.
In retrospect, I suppose it may also be name recognition.
I was never even aware there was contention regarding the brand, until you, @gsmit1, brought it to my attention. From what I've seen, since then, this looks a lot like the contention that surrounds Bose.
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I cant speak for anything recent they have made since I am a mech guy but historically their QC has been spotty. The Kooper Primus and the X-Cube are both great mods. The Aliens were garbage by and large and I think thats the beginning of the hate train for them.
I had 2 Smok products. The 80W TC kit and an Alien. Both were completely dependable and worked perfectly the entire time. I even PIFed them to friends.
In my PERSONAL experience they make a fine product. I have moved to mech squonking and that is the only reason I don't have one of their mods.
A lot of hate I see is from people who have not owned one yet repeat what they read or heard as if it were gospel. "Oh I would never own that piece of trash" gets thrown around a lot.
If you have not owned a Smok product (or any manufacture for that matter) don't hate on it just to be a part of the cool kids club.
In my PERSONAL experience they make a fine product. I have moved to mech squonking and that is the only reason I don't have one of their mods.
A lot of hate I see is from people who have not owned one yet repeat what they read or heard as if it were gospel. "Oh I would never own that piece of trash" gets thrown around a lot.
If you have not owned a Smok product (or any manufacture for that matter) don't hate on it just to be a part of the cool kids club.
I've been vaping since 2012. The first few years there were a lot of really bad vape products on the market. I bought a few of those and avoided a lot of others by reading/watching reviews in forums and online in general. I did well enough with that to be able to switch to vaping after 37 years of smoking. These days I think a lot of our hardware is really pretty good. I still research any new for me product I am interested in, but it's a lot harder to find bad merchandise now than in the early years.
I don't feel the need to own a generally negatively reviewed product to make sure reviewers I trust got it right. I'm also not interested to be part of the cool kids club. Being 62 helps a bit in that I've outgrown that desire and some others over the years.
I've never owned a Smok product and from reading about people's experiences with them over the years they are not high on my list of preferred manufacturers. It may well be true they are better now and I'm just an old fart that remembers their not stellar early days, but for me they are not a company I will consider lightly to buy unless something they make is really interesting to me and turns out to be good for a bunch of people currently first
That is an entirely reasonable approach, IMO. I imagine that, had I been aware of Smok's history--at least as some (many?) relate it to be, maybe I'd have thought twice before pulling the trigger on my recent purchase. But I wasn't. Hopefully that won't come back to bite meI've never owned a Smok product and from reading about people's experiences with them over the years they are not high on my list of preferred manufacturers. It may well be true they are better now and I'm just an old fart that remembers their not stellar early days, but for me they are not a company I will consider lightly to buy unless something they make is really interesting to me and turns out to be good for a bunch of people currently first
. Although I'm not too awfully concerned, because much of what I'm reading suggests to me much of the negativity toward Smok is somewhat exaggerated.You pays your nickel and you takes your chances. None of the manufacturers are without flaws. E.g.: Possibly the most widely-praised dual-18650 regulated mod on the market right now is the GeekVape Aegis Legend. Yet, if you visit GeekVape's forums you'll find plenty of people really annoyed with them about recurring issues with that mod, and GeekVape's non-responsiveness.
My first "big" mod was a t-priv. It worked very well, stepped up to the tfv12 king and cranked up the watts. Definitely a cloud maker. Got "smok shamed" a bit on the other forum so i just quit talking about it. But 8 month in, it stopped working. I had bought a drag and parked the t-priv for a while and later when i went to put the t-priv back in rotation, it wouldnt read atomizer. So i was like maybe there is something to smok quality after all. The biggest complaint i heard was coil issues, they are consistent leakers. No they arent, if you install them correctly they wont leak. Screw one in so tight you need vise grip pliers to get them out they leak like a funnel. Fast forward a bit and i bought a nord. Decent pod mod which somehow vanished before my own eyes last week. Replaced it with a novo2 which i really like for its size and stealth vape ability and i can go with 50mg salt nic. I vape less now than i ever did in the 2 yrs since i made the switch. Im still working on a 15ml bottle i bought last week and will probably take me to this coming weekend. And my nic craving is totally satisfied with this arrangement. I still vape on my vaporesso switcher but im working on a 100ml bottle of 6mg i bought over a month ago. So i wont be bashing smok unless this novo2 turns out to be a turd. Yep, i said turd in public lol.
I don't know, I don't buy into hype trains. Somewhere along the way it became 'kewl' to be a smok basher. Not saying they may not have had issues, but no worse than wismec. Just about every company out there has had failures. What I notice are people making excuses for them though when it's a higher cost mod or 'elite' company. When smok has a faulty mod it's because they're cheap chinese pieces of shit. When something happens with a dna mod, oh well you know, that was a one off. It blows the fuse on the board by design, the batteries aren't meant to be put in that way. Oh well cause this or that. Bottom line, if it's broke it's broke. Period.
I have a smok alien, it's worked well enough. The paint came off it, but then the paint came off my vaporesso revenger, ipv eclipse, vandy vape swell - not one mod I own that the paint didn't flake off of. Smok's tc is shit. However so is voopoo's and people fall all over drags. Overall I'd give the smok alien a higher rating than the drag2. It's more ergonomic, smaller, feels more solid in the hand, the battery door doesn't flop around, the buttons don't rattle like the drag2. The drag2's tc is absolute fucking garbage. It's a wattage mod, which is to say it's basic bitch. Every mod at least puts out wattage. My alien's several years old, has over 100k puffs on it and still works well. Just funny how two mods so similar in performance, one is the spawn of satan, the other everyone's sucking their asshole inside out over. And people with smok mods are noobs? Ok. It's not about bashing voopoo, just being realistic.
People praised the drag as a 'dna killer'. Puhlease. I don't know what kind of fucked up shitty mods people were using until they got their drags to come to that conclusion but they're way off. My old revenger mod absolutely smokes the voopoo in terms of performance.
Some hate smok tanks, that I can't say. I've never used a subtank, just my personal opinion, they're all kind of shit. All basically use the same type coils, most are kanthal and I'm not a fan. So I have no dog in the subtank fight. Any mod has their issues, but so long as it's a roll of the dice on questionable quality control all the way around, I'd rather roll the dice on $30-40 than $80-90+. Just look at the lost vape drone bf or whatever it was, the one with the ultem door on it. So many found the door to fit like ass with the squonk bottle installed. Wismec had mods with 510's coming loose and had tanks like the exo that were literally melting and they still don't catch the hate smok does.
I also take people's 'reviews' (customers at the very least) with a fat grain of salt. This happened or that happened.. well they dropped it and now it's broke. I get shit happens, but a lot of people dropping things. $1000 smart phones, vape mods, you name it. Like everything needs to come with wrist straps like the old mittens so they hang onto their shit. Or people who have atomizers stuck on the 510 and it pulls the whole works out of the mod. How the fuck tight was it that they were using a wrench to get it off? No one said to ram it home with an impact wrench. I've seen similar customer reviews on other products so I know how people are. Well I was delidding my cpu, I had it clamped down into a vise and was tapping it with a screwdriver and a hammer.. and now it won't work. You did what??
I have a smok alien, it's worked well enough. The paint came off it, but then the paint came off my vaporesso revenger, ipv eclipse, vandy vape swell - not one mod I own that the paint didn't flake off of. Smok's tc is shit. However so is voopoo's and people fall all over drags. Overall I'd give the smok alien a higher rating than the drag2. It's more ergonomic, smaller, feels more solid in the hand, the battery door doesn't flop around, the buttons don't rattle like the drag2. The drag2's tc is absolute fucking garbage. It's a wattage mod, which is to say it's basic bitch. Every mod at least puts out wattage. My alien's several years old, has over 100k puffs on it and still works well. Just funny how two mods so similar in performance, one is the spawn of satan, the other everyone's sucking their asshole inside out over. And people with smok mods are noobs? Ok. It's not about bashing voopoo, just being realistic.
People praised the drag as a 'dna killer'. Puhlease. I don't know what kind of fucked up shitty mods people were using until they got their drags to come to that conclusion but they're way off. My old revenger mod absolutely smokes the voopoo in terms of performance.
Some hate smok tanks, that I can't say. I've never used a subtank, just my personal opinion, they're all kind of shit. All basically use the same type coils, most are kanthal and I'm not a fan. So I have no dog in the subtank fight. Any mod has their issues, but so long as it's a roll of the dice on questionable quality control all the way around, I'd rather roll the dice on $30-40 than $80-90+. Just look at the lost vape drone bf or whatever it was, the one with the ultem door on it. So many found the door to fit like ass with the squonk bottle installed. Wismec had mods with 510's coming loose and had tanks like the exo that were literally melting and they still don't catch the hate smok does.
I also take people's 'reviews' (customers at the very least) with a fat grain of salt. This happened or that happened.. well they dropped it and now it's broke. I get shit happens, but a lot of people dropping things. $1000 smart phones, vape mods, you name it. Like everything needs to come with wrist straps like the old mittens so they hang onto their shit. Or people who have atomizers stuck on the 510 and it pulls the whole works out of the mod. How the fuck tight was it that they were using a wrench to get it off? No one said to ram it home with an impact wrench. I've seen similar customer reviews on other products so I know how people are. Well I was delidding my cpu, I had it clamped down into a vise and was tapping it with a screwdriver and a hammer.. and now it won't work. You did what??
This was awesome on their part. All of the other companies who rely on our business as vapers should have donated too. :wth:
I hadn’t realized people who don’t even have their products bad mouth them. I bought about four of their kits when I first started vaping again, and most of them crapped out. But it could’ve been a wall charger that was running hotter than it should.
When they worked, I liked them. But I had problems with some of the tanks leaking, which when I replaced them with different brand tanks didn’t leak. So it can’t all be user error.
I've been vaping since 2012. The first few years there were a lot of really bad vape products on the market. I bought a few of those and avoided a lot of others by reading/watching reviews in forums and online in general. I did well enough with that to be able to switch to vaping after 37 years of smoking. These days I think a lot of our hardware is really pretty good. I still research any new for me product I am interested in, but it's a lot harder to find bad merchandise now than in the early years.
I don't feel the need to own a generally negatively reviewed product to make sure reviewers I trust got it right. I'm also not interested to be part of the cool kids club. Being 62 helps a bit in that I've outgrown that desire and some others over the years.
I've never owned a Smok product and from reading about people's experiences with them over the years they are not high on my list of preferred manufacturers. It may well be true they are better now and I'm just an old fart that remembers their not stellar early days, but for me they are not a company I will consider lightly to buy unless something they make is really interesting to me and turns out to be good for a bunch of people currently first
I’m not sure that their present days are that stellar either, though. I think it’s hit or miss in general with them.
I want to clarify that I didn't intend this thread as a one sided Smok praise and vindication festival. We have far more levelheaded (and older) veterans over here than on Reddit. I don't roll my eyes at honest well considered critique and criticism. I'm pretty sure Smok has had a historically higher failure RATE than other companies overall. Meaning units per 1000 or whatever number is used.
What I'm also pretty sure of though, is that it's not nearly as high as is often portrayed, especially in places like Reddit, or that the explanation is as simple as "Smok is crap you moron." I am further pretty sure that it can't ALL be explained away by high visibility and sheer volume of manufacturing as some other people try to say either, though I AM sure that's a significant part of it.
I just thought it might be an interesting discussion if people felt they could speak freely on this many times contentious subject.
A few things I am very glad to see is them release a mod with a screw anchored 510 AND stop releasing a new device every half hour which amounts to a different chassis with the same chip. The new chip is actually quite good.
What I'm also pretty sure of though, is that it's not nearly as high as is often portrayed, especially in places like Reddit, or that the explanation is as simple as "Smok is crap you moron." I am further pretty sure that it can't ALL be explained away by high visibility and sheer volume of manufacturing as some other people try to say either, though I AM sure that's a significant part of it.
I just thought it might be an interesting discussion if people felt they could speak freely on this many times contentious subject.
A few things I am very glad to see is them release a mod with a screw anchored 510 AND stop releasing a new device every half hour which amounts to a different chassis with the same chip. The new chip is actually quite good.
I can't even remember the last Smok mod I bought, only that it only lasted a few months. It was cheap though, so I wasn't really too stressed. Their tanks, on the other hand, are actually quite nice in my opinion, if one isn't looking to get into rebuilding. They're kind of on the larger side, but if that's not an issue, the flavor is fine and the coils are commonly available.
On Reddit at least, this is huge. I mean as in REALLY huge. I haven't been around ECF enough to see there.
What gets me the most is when some poor noob shows up all excited that this is the first time in years they've gone without a cigarette for even a day. They have made the horrendous mistake of posting a proud handcheck of their shiny new Smok setup and here comes the Smok derangement squad. At times I cannot help but push some of these people, and a couple times pretty hard.
I should dig this conversation up and paste it over here. I caught one guy in a flat out bold faced lie when he was derisively proclaiming all the failures with the TOUCHSCREEN ON THE MORPH
When challenged to explain how all these failures had escaped the Google crawlers, and apparently they still have months later, he disappeared.
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Don't tempt me
I don't post much, nor even read much, on Reddit. Far too many people that are far too convinced their's is the only Truth--in every subreddit I've visited.
Here' another thing that gets to me.
Somebody can post a problem with a product from ANY other company and most people assume they're doing it wrong and offer fixes.
If somebody posts a problem with ANY Smok product, Smok is doing it wrong. Before literally one single shred of additional information is known about the situation at all it's "throw that piece of garbage in the trash and get a real mod."
Somebody can post a problem with a product from ANY other company and most people assume they're doing it wrong and offer fixes.
If somebody posts a problem with ANY Smok product, Smok is doing it wrong. Before literally one single shred of additional information is known about the situation at all it's "throw that piece of garbage in the trash and get a real mod."
I have a Smok baby Alien and a Procolor. A few months after getting the Procolor it died. To be honest I think I may have dropped it a couple times. (I have narcolepsy and nod out without warning dropping whatever I'm holding) Smok had me send it back and sent me a new one without any hassle. The one they sent back was a different color but it's worked for almost 2 years now. The baby Alien was pifed to me and has survived dropping numerous times.
In addition I really enjoy Smoks bb and bbb tanks and the x-baby have never leaked. I have some newer tanks but my old Smok tanks are my go to tanks.
Basically I take Smok like any other brand. Its going to have problems but hopefully they'll fix them and if not at least you aren't out a lot of money.
In addition I really enjoy Smoks bb and bbb tanks and the x-baby have never leaked. I have some newer tanks but my old Smok tanks are my go to tanks.
Basically I take Smok like any other brand. Its going to have problems but hopefully they'll fix them and if not at least you aren't out a lot of money.
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nadalama
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I busted my son's chops once, he went dashing off to his local b&m and came out with a Smok Mag, right after they first came out. I said, omg, what did you buy? Within a week the battery door wouldn't stay on, he's trading devices with some friend of his and ended up with a Voopoo Too or something, which wasn't much better for fit and finish.
This was after the same b&m ripped him off for over a hundred bucks on a Kanger Kiss with some Smok Beast that leaked like a sieve and went through coils like nobody's business. Some of those coils he got less than a dozen hits off them before they were burnt. I think the Kanger mod ended up not holding a charge after about a month, so that was trash too.
There was a lot he didn't know about vaping, and he didn't know how much he didn't know, which is TO BE EXPECTED of new vapers unless they have someone experienced hanging with them all day and night until they learn. The most unfortunate thing about the Smok debacle, in my mind, is that an overwhelming percentage of their gear seems to end up in the hands of new vapers, who will not know to handle it with kid gloves, and will not know all the ins and outs of hardware finicky-ness. Most of us here could do a pretty good job of figuring out idiosyncrasies; new vapers, not so much.
At that point I was convinced that anything he bought at the b&m was gonna be junk, and I told him that. He talked with some experienced friends after that and got himself some better gear online.
I've had a few pieces of Smok gear that were ok, and a few that were better than ok. I was not pleased with Prince tanks, but the X-Baby is quite good in my opinion. The Spirals and Spirals Plus are perhaps my favorite pieces of Smok gear, those are tanks that are just made for the way I vape and built like a brick shithouse. I have RBAs in all my Smok tanks because I am NOT buying those expensive coils. The one Smok mod I have now is a G80, a $15 kit from Breazy last Christmas, and it's done fine, but it's extremely basic. I have not tried TC on it, frankly don't remember if it has any bells and whistles. Would seem a little ridiculous to me to get upset because the TC doesn't work on a $15 mod.
My own experience with Smok(Tech) goes back to the metal-sleeved plastic and then glass clearomizers they made years ago to be used on eGo batteries. At one point Kanger and Smok coils were interchangeable, so I ran Smok in both Smok and Kanger clearos and then the early Protanks, when I could find the resistance I wanted. To say whether they were any good at the time, well, let's just say that vaping has come a long way since then. I would not fuck around so much with a piece of gear these days. It would hit the wall and I'd move on. Hell, now that I think about it, I think I ordered some Smok cartos even before the coils and clearos. Also used a ton of Smok Champion Vivi Novas in my day, and those were great for the time and cost.
I was beginning to hope, from things I have read recently around these boards, that they were making a turnaround with quality control. A few members have received some of Smok's new models and been very pleased. Then @MrMeowgi got a Smok mod from eightvape that was DOA until he showed it who was boss, and the air went out of my aspirations for Smok. They've got history, and to get over that history, they need to do everything right for a while. Sounds to me like they aren't there yet.
I also want to hear of someone who has bought a piece of Smok gear to actually GET HELP from their customer service people. Every company stands the chance of shipping the occasional dud, but the support needs to be in place to rectify that, PROMPTLY AND WITHOUT HASSLE, when it does happen.
ETA: ...and there's @Anibird who has received help from Smok customer support, so thank you for sharing that, it is good to hear and I haven't heard it often.
ETA2: One of the things Smok has done right in the last few years is release RBAs for (all?) their tanks. I have not thought to look at the 16 series that just came out, or the Baby Beast 2. Are RBAs available for those? Because if not, they have run into the ditch on those decisions and need to rethink it tout suite!
This was after the same b&m ripped him off for over a hundred bucks on a Kanger Kiss with some Smok Beast that leaked like a sieve and went through coils like nobody's business. Some of those coils he got less than a dozen hits off them before they were burnt. I think the Kanger mod ended up not holding a charge after about a month, so that was trash too.
There was a lot he didn't know about vaping, and he didn't know how much he didn't know, which is TO BE EXPECTED of new vapers unless they have someone experienced hanging with them all day and night until they learn. The most unfortunate thing about the Smok debacle, in my mind, is that an overwhelming percentage of their gear seems to end up in the hands of new vapers, who will not know to handle it with kid gloves, and will not know all the ins and outs of hardware finicky-ness. Most of us here could do a pretty good job of figuring out idiosyncrasies; new vapers, not so much.
At that point I was convinced that anything he bought at the b&m was gonna be junk, and I told him that. He talked with some experienced friends after that and got himself some better gear online.
I've had a few pieces of Smok gear that were ok, and a few that were better than ok. I was not pleased with Prince tanks, but the X-Baby is quite good in my opinion. The Spirals and Spirals Plus are perhaps my favorite pieces of Smok gear, those are tanks that are just made for the way I vape and built like a brick shithouse. I have RBAs in all my Smok tanks because I am NOT buying those expensive coils. The one Smok mod I have now is a G80, a $15 kit from Breazy last Christmas, and it's done fine, but it's extremely basic. I have not tried TC on it, frankly don't remember if it has any bells and whistles. Would seem a little ridiculous to me to get upset because the TC doesn't work on a $15 mod.
My own experience with Smok(Tech) goes back to the metal-sleeved plastic and then glass clearomizers they made years ago to be used on eGo batteries. At one point Kanger and Smok coils were interchangeable, so I ran Smok in both Smok and Kanger clearos and then the early Protanks, when I could find the resistance I wanted. To say whether they were any good at the time, well, let's just say that vaping has come a long way since then. I would not fuck around so much with a piece of gear these days. It would hit the wall and I'd move on. Hell, now that I think about it, I think I ordered some Smok cartos even before the coils and clearos. Also used a ton of Smok Champion Vivi Novas in my day, and those were great for the time and cost.
I was beginning to hope, from things I have read recently around these boards, that they were making a turnaround with quality control. A few members have received some of Smok's new models and been very pleased. Then @MrMeowgi got a Smok mod from eightvape that was DOA until he showed it who was boss, and the air went out of my aspirations for Smok. They've got history, and to get over that history, they need to do everything right for a while. Sounds to me like they aren't there yet.
I also want to hear of someone who has bought a piece of Smok gear to actually GET HELP from their customer service people. Every company stands the chance of shipping the occasional dud, but the support needs to be in place to rectify that, PROMPTLY AND WITHOUT HASSLE, when it does happen.
ETA: ...and there's @Anibird who has received help from Smok customer support, so thank you for sharing that, it is good to hear and I haven't heard it often.
ETA2: One of the things Smok has done right in the last few years is release RBAs for (all?) their tanks. I have not thought to look at the 16 series that just came out, or the Baby Beast 2. Are RBAs available for those? Because if not, they have run into the ditch on those decisions and need to rethink it tout suite!
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Connecting the dots, I'm beginning to get this picture: Smok is, as I noted earlier, everywhere. I'll see some of <this> brand, <that> brand, and <another> brand in <this>, <that> or <the other> local vape store, but Smok I see literally everywhere. So what do n00bs buy? Why, Smok, of course. Then the n00bs, having the problems N00bs have, go looking for answers. Is it possible this is the effect that's leading Smok to appear to have a worse track record than deserved?
most of our mods are not meant to last forever, quit disposable in fact. and for most vapers(not those around here) that doesn't matter to much. because then they have a reason to go get a new one, and they like that = hey, i got a new mod ! check it out !
. i bet SMOK knows this and builds their mods accordingly = price point and bling = they know what they are doing. and this, i bet, is why they are the #1 mod maker(afaik). so, as many as they sell, and not built for reliablity so much, the failure # is going to be higher , just because they sell more. make 1000 of something, some of them are going to have problems, doesn't matter who makes em.
jmho, ymmv
. i bet SMOK knows this and builds their mods accordingly = price point and bling = they know what they are doing. and this, i bet, is why they are the #1 mod maker(afaik). so, as many as they sell, and not built for reliablity so much, the failure # is going to be higher , just because they sell more. make 1000 of something, some of them are going to have problems, doesn't matter who makes em.
jmho, ymmv
nadalama
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Well, and that just goes along with the theory I have that the reason Smok is in so many b&m shops is because the MARGIN on it is better than most other manufacturers. People who run vape businesses, and I'm not talking about vapeheads like @jwill , but rather the average owner who opens a vape shop as purely a money-making operation, they look at margin, at how many units they can afford to have in stock, how well they will sell, what the defective allowances are, etc etc. They also look at things like colors and bling. Smok has apparently learned over time how to get the inside track on a presence in the b&m market.
Whereas you or I might see a Squid Detonator for $85 in boring black, that comes with nothing but a charge cable, and get all excited about that, as opposed to a noob who would see a Smok kit that is all shiny and blue and silver and has a tank and coils and cables and blah blah blah for $60, and think omg, that's a no-brainer, I should buy the Smok kit! I'll have everything I need right there! And it's all made to work together! From that perspective, it's easy to see how the current situation came to be.
I don't get all the hate. People who don't even use their products just "know" they're aweful. I've read a thousands times about their horrible QC. It's just a cool thing to say for them I guess. It's like the haters just mimick each other and repeat the same old sayings.
I've bought and used a lot of Smok products. They're not my favorite brand or anything but I still get some of their stuff. One of my earliest kits was an Alien kit. I used the hell out of that thing for two years strait. When it died, it was my fault. That's the thing, I think people unintentionally wreck their own stuff and blame the company. Out of the dozens of products I've got made by Smok none have mysteriously died.
Their coils have been fine too. I've been using Smok tanks for years and have RARELY had problems. That mysterious QC department must have checked all of my coils and nobody else's. Their newer tanks coils look flawless to me. The TFV16 I own hasn't leaked and has top tier flavor.
I beat the hell out of my Smok stuff and haven't had durability issues ever.
I believe a lot of people start out with Smok products. It's everywhere in shops. New vapers who don't know what they're doing, or have any experience on how things are supposed to be. They make mistakes and shit gets wrecked. Get out your pitch forks!!! It's Smok's fault! They burn their coils and claim Smok did that too.
Hating Smok is the "in" thing to do on the internet. They're rarely the best out there but they're still pretty good. You just have to know WTF you're doing.
I've bought and used a lot of Smok products. They're not my favorite brand or anything but I still get some of their stuff. One of my earliest kits was an Alien kit. I used the hell out of that thing for two years strait. When it died, it was my fault. That's the thing, I think people unintentionally wreck their own stuff and blame the company. Out of the dozens of products I've got made by Smok none have mysteriously died.
Their coils have been fine too. I've been using Smok tanks for years and have RARELY had problems. That mysterious QC department must have checked all of my coils and nobody else's. Their newer tanks coils look flawless to me. The TFV16 I own hasn't leaked and has top tier flavor.
I beat the hell out of my Smok stuff and haven't had durability issues ever.
I believe a lot of people start out with Smok products. It's everywhere in shops. New vapers who don't know what they're doing, or have any experience on how things are supposed to be. They make mistakes and shit gets wrecked. Get out your pitch forks!!! It's Smok's fault! They burn their coils and claim Smok did that too.
Hating Smok is the "in" thing to do on the internet. They're rarely the best out there but they're still pretty good. You just have to know WTF you're doing.
I think most subohm tank makers have given up on offering RBAs. They'll make them for pods because that's in right now. There's no Smok tank RBA since the Prince RBAs. They skipped the Baby V2 types, TF(2019), and TFV16 tanks so far. I think all the companies have gotten greedy. 3 coils for around ten bucks are more sound better to them. Nobody's making a fuss either. Premade tank coils have gotten so much better in the last couple of years due to mesh. When I see company reps posting I always ask about them though. I like to collect them for the tanks I have. Kind of makes them future proof in the troubling times we've been having. If coils ever dry up you have that to fallback on. I use them too of course.
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Miracle? Never heard that before. Poor QC and customer care is reportedly far greater than any 'good'.
I just googled 1 page (30 results pr pg) of issues for mods > Smok, Voopoo, DNA. Smok won with 10 different mods. I didn't delve into whether they were user error or not, thinking all 3 would be equal in that regard altho a newby is more likely to buy a Smok than one of the other 2.
Sound like I'm bashing Smok? I'm not. Not overall. Just for the bad products they've put out and imo there has been many. Newbies make mistakes. Other than that there are too many better products, QC, and CC/CS in or about the same price range. But if there's a smok design you can't live without, have at it.
Yihi can be had from several different mod makers at varying prices.
DNA is more but so are the chips functions, reliability, and Evolv's CS to tops. Mod makers for DNA's make consistently better enclosures.
If a newby has bought smok and needs help to get off cigs I'll try to help them with their smok and generally advise something different on their next purchase, usually in the form of a backup second device if they don't already have one.
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I own a smok v9 max. Has had no issues. 4000 mah internal batt still holds a good charge ev er n after a year. Tbh i dont use it much unless i somehow dont have any readily charged batts for another device. I dont call smok crap. It isnt at the top of my list but also isnt at the bottom either.
jwill
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I have used quite a few smok products over the years and still regularly use a handful of different Cloud Beast Kings and still have the Koopers and the X-Cube II. Every Alien mod I have ever had was a piece of shit and failed except one that I gave away and I do not know the outcome, and a brand new one I never opened and sold. I'm not speaking hyperbolically, it's from my own experience.
The Ugly- a lot of the tanks I've got from them have had bad paint or color jobs. It started with a few of the Baby, and Big Baby tanks I've had. Certain colors, the finish will just flake off. Historically Smok has done Black, Gold, Rainbow, and ofcourse Stainless colors well. Their regular Blue tanks have also been good, and they're my favorite.
I noticed it the most with my Red Prince tank. The color started coming off really soon. It was weird because I have a Red X-Baby and the color held up fine. I have 5 TFV8s (Cloud Beasts) and every color has been fine too including Red.
Some have actual paint like the White or Camo versions. Those will chip off (opposed to flake) if banged around. Most of the "Auto _____" colors can chip off too.
I'm scared to get a "Prism Blue" tank.. I usually don't give a shit what my tanks look like. But that doesn't mean I want them speckled either. I'm not saying the Prism color tanks will go to shit though. I've just avoided them. I know the regular Blue tanks will be done right so I get them. Sometimes the only way is in a kit like the TF-2019. It's available for purchase as Prism Blue. But in the Stick 80W kit it comes as regular blue.
I do like that a lot of their tanks can use the same o-rings. That's pretty cool.
The only coils that have given me trouble consistently is the Prince x-clapton or whatever, and the Baby Prince Q4. The clapton ones I just don't like. I got random burnt taste with the 3pack I got. The Q4s acted like hotspot city. No thanks, the Q2s were my favorite for a long time. Those are way better.
All of the other coils I've used have functioned like they should. Some of them have been leaky but I think it was due to my installation. I'd reseat them after the initial leak and they'd be fine. TFV12 CBK (Huge) coils were the worst at this. But some of the early Prince coils I tried did it too.
I noticed it the most with my Red Prince tank. The color started coming off really soon. It was weird because I have a Red X-Baby and the color held up fine. I have 5 TFV8s (Cloud Beasts) and every color has been fine too including Red.
Some have actual paint like the White or Camo versions. Those will chip off (opposed to flake) if banged around. Most of the "Auto _____" colors can chip off too.
I'm scared to get a "Prism Blue" tank.. I usually don't give a shit what my tanks look like. But that doesn't mean I want them speckled either. I'm not saying the Prism color tanks will go to shit though. I've just avoided them. I know the regular Blue tanks will be done right so I get them. Sometimes the only way is in a kit like the TF-2019. It's available for purchase as Prism Blue. But in the Stick 80W kit it comes as regular blue.
I do like that a lot of their tanks can use the same o-rings. That's pretty cool.
The only coils that have given me trouble consistently is the Prince x-clapton or whatever, and the Baby Prince Q4. The clapton ones I just don't like. I got random burnt taste with the 3pack I got. The Q4s acted like hotspot city. No thanks, the Q2s were my favorite for a long time. Those are way better.
All of the other coils I've used have functioned like they should. Some of them have been leaky but I think it was due to my installation. I'd reseat them after the initial leak and they'd be fine. TFV12 CBK (Huge) coils were the worst at this. But some of the early Prince coils I tried did it too.
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Well, that didn't take long: Smok TFV16?
I'm gonna reach out to Smok and see if they'll be interested in sending me a replacement part. See what their customer service is like.
I sure hope the mod this tank came with fares a helluva lot better than this!
I'm gonna reach out to Smok and see if they'll be interested in sending me a replacement part. See what their customer service is like.
I sure hope the mod this tank came with fares a helluva lot better than this!
I HATE people who get down on noobs like that. Sheesh, those folks are thrilled that they quit! Why rain on them like that?
Good for you for calling these a@@holes out!
You see it on YT also, but I think some of it comes from non vapers.
I love people that post reviews or comments and if the slightest thing is wrong, they go “so, I threw that (whatever) in the trash”. I didn’t realize people had so much money nowadays that they can afford to just chuck things in the trash like that!!
I remember when they were Smok Tech, too. They had decent stuff back then. It’s why 6 years later, I bought Smok from my ciggie guy!
Which AIO did you get? The Nord?
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i got it at my local, and pretty good, vape shop. not the greatest, but not bad either. it'l put out small clouds.
I bought one of those, too. But the drip tip got really hot if you used it for more than 10 minutes!
I got mine from Vapor Fi, which really caters to the newly quit vaper!
i never noticed that.
This is the kinda discussion I was hoping for. A lot of catching up to do.
For now, lemme just say that one piece of information I found a good while back, which did look credible, not just some guy making an assertion, was that Smok has sold WELL over 3 million units worldwide of the Alien alone. That can mean a bunch of things.
For now, lemme just say that one piece of information I found a good while back, which did look credible, not just some guy making an assertion, was that Smok has sold WELL over 3 million units worldwide of the Alien alone. That can mean a bunch of things.
Very possible.
I have never used any SMOK product. When I started vaping I started getting educated, which meant I started reading forums and reviews. The SMOK gear was kind of getting slammed a lot so I have just always avoided it. I have nothing against it. I have seen a lot of folks using it so it is, at the very least, popular.
l was thinking more along the lines what that massive proliferation might mean for failure rates and reports of problems. In the vaping world, millions sold doesn't necessarily mean quality. That wasn't my point.
I thought it was awesome. The first batches I've read had bad paint problems.
I got the blue/red kit and the paint held up okay. I beat the crap out of that thing and it kept on trucking. It wasn't until it took a bad fall that it finally died. I replaced it with one that has the same colors, and got a white/red too. I've used those two quite a bit but they stay in the house. Zero problems and they're still one of the nicest feeling (dual 18650) mods in my hand.
The X-Priv is also nice to hold but not the same as an Alien. When my first Alien died, my X-Priv became one of my main workhorses. I've used it a ton and it's still fine after a year and a half atleast. I also got one of the first Mag mods, no problems. I thought it would be nicer to hold. I don't use it much. My brother has a T-Priv that looks like it's been through warfare. The D-Barrel I gave him has started to act up I guess.
Maybe it was just mine. Or that I needed to chain vape for maximum nic.
On Tappy, hit cancel and it will give you a few options in a menu.