E-Cigarettes: Cigalikes Versus Vaporizers

This is a debate that has been going on for some time among the vaping community, with some people swearing by the older style of electronic cigarettes - the cigalikes. However, there are some people out there that think the tanks or vaporizer style ones are better, especially when you’re looking for battery power, or a completely customizable vaping experience.

There are pro’s and con’s for both, of course, so I decided to weigh out the options for you:

Battery Power

If you want an electronic cigarette with some serious battery power, you’re probably going to want to go for the bigger tank-style cigarettes. When you consider that the average cigalike gives you between 180 - 300mAh (if you’re lucky), you’re only going to get a couple of hours use out of them. Personal vaporizers or tanks will often come with much bigger batteries, usually between 400-1100mAh (and in some cases higher), which means you’ll go longer between charges.

I would normally say that 100mAh would give you roughly an hour’s worth of ‘regular’ usage. Therefore a 1100mAh battery would almost give you a full twelve-hour day.

For battery power, the vaporizer wins.

Flavors & Strengths

Although you can get a pretty decent selection of flavors AND strengths with the cartridges that often come with cigalikes, you are normally somewhat restricted to what you can get your hands on. With a tank, you are free to fill it with whatever liquid you like, and there is now a MASSIVE booming market for that.

Green Smoke (as one example) only has seven flavors on offer in their cartridges - Red Label Tobacco, Tobacco Gold, Regular Tobacco, Mountain Clove, Menthol Ice, Smooth Cream, and Mocha Mist. With the Halo Triton Tank on the other hand, you have 25 different flavors, all in varying strengths too.

Strengths seems to be pretty much the same across the board to be fair. Most brands have the same kind of structure going on, whether it’s in their e-liquids or pre-filled cartridges.

For flavor options, the vaporizer wins.

Strengths… We’ll call that a draw.

Size

It’s no big secret that vaporizers are usually quite a bit bigger than their smaller, cigalike counterparts. The Eversmoke cigalike (as you can see) is about 10cm long, but the Halo Triton Tank is 14cm long. That 4cm makes the world of difference sometimes. You know how awkward it is when you find yourself with one of those stupidly long cigarettes in your hand? It’s even worse with an electronic cigarette because it’s pretty weighted.

Cigalike ecigs vs personal vaporizers

If you want something that is the same size as a regular cigarette, that will fill the space in your hands just like a real cigarette, you are going to want to go for a cigalike. It makes the transition a lot easier, and every little helps when you are trying to stop smoking. There’s nothing to stop you from ‘upgrading’ to a personal vaporizer or bigger tank later on.

There is something of a compromise here these days too, in the form of the V2 Cigs Ex Series. This gives you a slightly longer cigalike-sized battery (more like a Superking cigarette) but with the option of either cartridges, or miniature tanks. It’s like having the best of both worlds! Plus, there’s always the Pro Series 3 or 7 to upgrade to later on.

When it comes to size, it’s a personal choice. I’ll leave that one down to you.

Appearance

Again, everyone likes a little something different but when it comes to electronic cigarettes, there really is something for everyone.

Let’s say you’re a really big, muscly guy that wants a masculine, beast of an e-cigarette to go with it. What about the V2 Cigs Pro Series 7? That thing is a beast and has some SERIOUS battery power behind it too. With a variable voltage, you can have as much or as little throat hit and vapor you can handle, and the option to completely customize your vaping experience.

If you’re a cute girlie on the other hand, with a penchant for everything pink and sparkly, there’s the Vapor Couture delights - all designed with appearance in mind with beautiful, slim-line finishes, and sweet and tasty cartridge flavors.

If you’re not really sure what you want, there are plenty to start with that sort of sit in the middle. Green Smoke is a great cigalike that actually looks like a regular cigarette if you want something to make the transition easier at first. On the other hand, Halo Triton G6 model gives you a really sleek, black matte finish that provides the cigalike but with a bit of style.

What if you don’t really care about the size, but you want a bit of color? The South Beach Smoke range has every single color and design you could imagine, and you even have the option of completely customizing your vaporizer and building it from scratch. Just like many of the other brands, you can get cigalikes to start with too, and they even offer disposables for those emergency moments.

Just like size, when it comes to appearance, it’s a personal choice. There really is something for everyone though - it’s just a case of shopping around. And reading the reviews of course.

Price

This is obviously an important factor for many of us. If you’re already looking into the idea of using electronic cigarettes to quit smoking, there’s a good chance you are looking to save some money, and this will have some bearing on what kind of electronic cigarette you want to buy.

You can pick up the cigalike starter kits for relatively cheap these days, and with the discount codes that you’ll find on the reviews, you’ll save even more. You can get your hands on a Green Smoke Express Kit for under $50. On the other hand, a good quality tank or personal vaporizer such as the VaporFi Pro II, you’re looking at one cent under $50, but you’re only getting one battery and one tank. You’d need to add on an additional battery to make it through the day, and what would happen if you were to break one…?

Another factor to take into account is that tanks let you refill with liquid, which is often cheaper than buying pre-filled cartridges. A 30ml bottle of e-liquid for VaporFi will set you back $15.99, but this will last you three weeks, and in some cases more than that. If you were to buy pre-filled cartridges to last for three weeks, basing it at a rate of one cartridge per day, it would cost you over $60.

If you want something that works out cheaper in the long run, you’re going to want to go with a personal vaporizer, but if you want something cheap to buy right here and now to try first, cigalikes are definitely your best friend.

Customization

If you want to be able to personalize your vaping experience to you, tanks are the way forward. Cigalikes come in very restrictive styles, colors, designs, etc. You will also find that the cartridges will come in a limited amount of flavors. Aside from having a manual or automatic option, with a button on the side (and this is pretty rare), there are limited ways to liven up a cigalike.

With vaporizers or tanks, you get so many more options. You can get bigger and better batteries such as 650mAh, 900mAh, 1100mAh, etc. This means that you will need fewer batteries (or fewer charges) to last the day.

You will also have variable voltage options with certain models, such as with VaporFi or the V2 Cigs Pro Series 7. This means that you can have heavier or lighter smokes whenever you feel like it, and can even make your e-cig more discreet for when you need that quality the most.

Generally, the vaporizers are a lot more customizable than the cigalikes, so if you want to be in complete control of your vaping experience, the tank is the way forward!

At the end of the day, there are positives and benefits to both sides of the coin, so the choice of whether you go for a cigalike or a personal vaporizer really is down to you and your needs. If you are ever in any doubt, I’d always suggest going for a cigalike and move up to the tanks at a later date. The latter can get confusing if you’ve never tried an electronic cigarette before, with coils and cartomizers and batteries, variable voltages, e-liquid, etc. The cigalikes are much simpler!

 

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