UPDATE 2020! BEST RATED E-CIGARETTE company is Mig Cigs. Read our review here.
This was one of the first e-cigarettes for us. It was what kick-started the entire journey so for us, it holds good memories. Right from the word go, we should say that this actually isn’t a good choice for the ones looking to purchase their FIRST EVER e-cigarette, and certainly not for those that are looking for a long term solution.
Blu Cigs is the good substitute for a real cigarette, but once you get more involved in the e-cigarette industry, you’ll start looking for bigger and better things.
Contents
Celebrity Endorsements
We will have a little mention for the current celebrity endorsements of the company, which include Jenny MacCarthy and Stephen Dorff. “Freedom to have a cigarette, without the guilt”is Jenny’s tagline, and when you t hunk about it, it makes perfect sense. With an electronic cigarette, you can smoke wherever you want without worrying about anyone else breathing in your send hand smoke, or leaving everything smelling worse than a three-day old dirty diaper left in the sun. Smoking stinks and to those that don’t smoke, it don’t stink good!
Starter Kit
There’s a black and white Premium Starter Kit for $79.95, but we decided that we were going to go with the $89.95 Premium 100 Starter Kit. We just liked the name – Premium 100. Is that sad?
You’ll get quite a bit of bang for your buck with this e-cigarette starter kit and to be honest, for the price, you do get a lot. There’s the portable charging case with “social features”with two e-cigarette batteries, a USB and wall charger, plus five cartridges of your choice. It is simple and to the point – you can charge up one battery in the portable charging case, while puffing away on the other. You may want to consider adding a third Premium 100 Blu Cigs battery for peace of mind (we did!) and that will set you back just $8.95 which, when you compare with other brands that charge $25 plus for their batteries, you can see why you are on to a winner.
Looking a little closer into the pack, and there are a few things we want to talk about…
Portable Charging Case
Right, we loved this, don’t get us wrong, but the “social features”puzzled us slightly. The pack lights up and vibrates when you are near someone that also has a Blu Cigs starter kit in their pocket, and does the same when you are coming close to a stockiest, which is a good idea if you are running out of stuff and aren’t sure whether or not everything will be shipped to you in time.
The social features, to be honest, are a gimmick. I can think of nothing worse than someone coming up to me in a bar and saying “My pack vibrated, did yours? It’s almost leading the way for the cheesiest chat-up lines ever, isn’t it?
Stalkerish pack aside, and there is nothing better than being able to charge your e-cigarettes up on the go, so as long as you remember to keep your pack recharged, you’ll always have power for your e-cigarettes. This is great for people that travel a lot and can’t always get to a USB port or plug socket, and also for those that need something small and discreet. The portable charging case is around the same size as a pocket of cigarettes and you’d normally be carrying this around with you anyway…
There are lights on the side of the case which indicate the charging process of both the e-cigarettes within it, and the case itself. This ensures that you know how long is left before you can use that charging battery, and how much power is left in the case before you need to plug that back in again. Generally speaking, we got about four or five charges out of a fully charged case at first. Obviously, over time this will decrease with constant use, but you can replace it at a cost of a brand new starter kit.
Cartridges
The cartridges on offer could be chosen in terms of strength and flavor. Thankfully, there are a few varieties to make your choice from, which not only makes life interesting, but also helps you quit if you wanted to wean yourself from the nicotine.
They only offer seven flavors, which isn’t as many as the likes of Green Smoke or White Cloud e-cigarettes. You will find Classic Tobacco, Menthol, Peach Schnapps, Vivid Vanilla, Cherry Crush, Pina Colada, and Java Jolt, so at least there is something for everyone.
The strengths you will find include high, medium, low and none. If you want to know more information, such as the nicotine content itself, apparently you’ll need to go looking for it….
Sadly, the cartridges don’t last all that long which is a shame as this is the perfect cigarette if you are looking for a replica of a “real”one. We managed to get maybe three or four hours out of them before the flavors died. You probably could puff away for a bit more than that, but with no flavor comes no throat hit and it is almost like you are smoking nothing.
At first, when we bought the e-cigarette, we didn’t know any better, and when you consider that you can buy two packs of five cartridges for $10.80 each, with the more you buy making it even cheaper, it’s not a big deal replacing them. You can even refill your own cartridges with e-liduid when you get a bit braver, but this will void the warranty.
Vapor-wise, and there’s plenty from the Blu Cigs e-cigarette. Its virtually the same as what would would have gotten from a regular cigarette, so for the initial switch from regular to electronic, at a point where you won’t know any difference, this e-cig offers the perfect solution.
Batteries
Now for the important bit – the batteries. As we have already mentioned, the batteries feel like a regular cigarette. They are a bit heavier, of course, but size-wise, these are almost spot on.
You’ll get about four or five hours worth of use out of the Blu Cigs electronic cigarette when you first get it. Sadly, a down point that needs to make about them was that they rarely lasted over two or three months before we needed to replace them. This is why we suggest them as beginner e-cigarette kits, and not for those further down the line.
They offer a cheap starter kit that works well and is comparable to a “real”cigarette, with batteries and cartridges that can be bought fairly cheaply too. All nicely packaged in something that looks like a cigarette box. It’s the perfect compromise really.
Added Extras
The one year warranty entails you filling out an online RMA, and then allowing one to two weeks for processing. Firstly, this is ridiculous because it means that you’ll need to buy a new e-cigarette battery in order to see you through the one to two weeks it will take them to replace your battery in the first place. We ended up just buying new batteries and then because we weren’t using the warranty, refilling our own cartridges. This is easily done by popping the end (with the hole) off the cartridge and then dripping around 15 drops of the e-liquid in there. Simple, really! 🙂
Order checking was something we quite liked about Blu Cigs – you could see where your order was at every step of the journey. This is perfect for a newbie that might be worried about running our to cartridges, or waiting for their new kit! With the free shipping and a loyalty program that means you get points earned for every purchase you make, it’s not a bad e-cigarette brand to use at all. Is it the best e-cigarette though…?
In Conclusion
Blu Cigs are a OK beginner’s e-cigarette that foes pretty much what you want it to do. It is only when you get a bit more experienced at using e-cigarettes, and also a bit more adventurous, that you might start to look around for new strengths and flavors in the cartridges, and also higher capacity batteries that will last you longer. On the other hand, you could already get yourself a cheaper and more reliable brand as a your first e-cig (EverSmoke for example), and it will last for years.
Though, for a beginner, it offers everything that the average cigarette will offer you – something that looks and feels like a cigarette, that smokes like a cigarette, and gives you the nicotine hit that you need.
When bearing everything in mind, the cartridges didn’t quite last long enough, and neither did the batteries. When you consider that we were replacing the batteries every couple of months ourselves too, we feel that they can only earn themselves two and half stars out of five. Some very good features but some important things they need to work on!
This product is a rip off. They taste terrible (all flavors) and the battery doesn’t last long at all. I read they are no longer privately owned but is now a part of RJ Reynolds. Big industry is in it only for profit so the consumer will always be ripped off. NO MORE BLU!
This product is GARBAGE!! The tanks leak, usually onto your tongue for that wonderful taste you expect from garbage but a few times into the battery!! Today I sent my 4th email to blu because they ignored the first three. Screw them, I am going to learn how to hack their web site and we’ll see how long they continue to ignore me.
I’ve been using Blu’s disposables for a long time, and while they’re kind of pricey, I found a local wholesaler who sold them at a discount so I bought them a box at a time (12 disposables). I’ve racked up almost 10,000 Blu Nation points, in-fact I’m just 410 points from Pack Leader status, whatever that means. One thing it means is that I’ve purchased at least two hundred of their products, considering that some did not include a rewards code. You might think I’m a customer they’d want to retain, but my recent experience shows just the opposite. I decided to try their rechargeable ecigs so I bought the blu PLUS+ Rechargeable Kit, but unfortunately the charger was defective so I called and they happily sent out a replacement charger. Unfortunately, when I tried to charge the two batteries that came with the original kit, they too were defective and would not accept a charge. When placed in the charger the light immediately changed from red to blue indicating a full charge, but when I tried to use them, they died after one puff and flashed repeatedly. The second puff produced no vapor and no blue light at the tip because they were depleted. After repeating this cycle several times it became apparent that they were either old stock or a manufacturing defect. For a second time I called customer service and they apologized and cheerfully sent out replacement batteries. The replacements were just like the first ones, DOA, so I called a third time and went through the same process again. At this point it had been weeks since I ordered the kit and I still hadn’t been able to try the cartridges, so I bought some compatible batteries on Amazon and found the “tanks” as Blu calls them were okay. Not great, but good enough. When the fourth set of replacement batteries arrived DOA I called and asked for a supervisor. I explained the situation for the fourth time, and indicated that I would not accept any more replacement shipments. I wanted a refund or credit equivalent to the price of two batteries. I was told that refunds were only given during the first 30 days, despite the fact that that entire time was taken by repeated defective shipments. The best they could do was offer me 500 points. When I told them that was not adequate because it was only worth five dollars, their excuse was that they are in a regulated industry. Really Blu? Do they regulate your refund policy as well? So I told them that after all the frustration and wasted time and inadequate compensation, I would have to find another brand. You’d think that would matter to them considering what a loyal customer I’d been, but all they could do was offer more apologies. The fact that their warehouse was clearly continuing to ship defective products didn’t create much of a stir, as each time I reported the issue it received the same response. I even sympathized with the CS reps on a couple of the calls about having to take all the calls from unhappy customers who got dead batteries, but they always acted as though I was the only customer having this problem. Frankly that strains credibility to the limit. So it’s goodbye Blu, and hello to another brand. I’m thinking of trying Green Smoke which I’ve heard good things about. To those of you still smoking Blu, if you get a defective product return it for an immediate refund. Do not accept a replacement. Hopefully you’ll never have an experience like mine.
I gave this product six months before formulating a final opinion.
Pros:
1.) Pleasant flavor when the tanks do not emit liquid (see Cons #1).
2.) A viable alternative to smoking while traveling.
Cons:
1.) The tanks leak – Leaking tanks make a mess of the inside of the case, which cannot be adequately cleaned.
2.) The tanks leak – When the tanks leak onto clothing or furniture, the stain is permanent.
3.) The tanks leak – The tanks leak while in use at times. The taste and texture of the liquid is vomit-inspiring, and a leaking tank must be discarded at a cost of $5.00 each.
4.) The tanks are inconsistent – I’ve had them last for over two weeks; in other instances the tanks had become exhausted within a matter of hours.
5.) The customer service is lousy – I returned an unopened product in December of 2015 and was promised a refund. I have yet to receive said refund as of June, 2016.
I do not recommend this product.
They make you LOOK stupid. If you are going to quite smoking then stop wasting your money and do it!!!!!
I too am having trouble with the blu tanks. There i as a leakage problem and it is happening more often than not. Everytime you inhale you get a squirt of the liquid into your mouth which burns your tongue and lips and it is not a pleasant experience.
I have contacted Blu on several occasions and they have kindly replaced the tanks. However the PROBLEM still exists. I have asked for some kind of explanation or maybe a “how to care or store” the tanks but never got an answer.This last call I made to them (Jan 21,2016) ended with “my supervisor will get back to you”. Today is the 28th and I have had no reply.
I have asked if there were other reports of leakage and the reply was
” no, not that I know of”. I questioned if they only printed positive reviews vs. negative on their website. You should know the answer I got
from them at this point.
This leakage problem has been going on shortly after it was introduced on the market. Has anyone else contacted Blu and experienced the same kind of replies or I’ll call them excuses? Does anyone have a recommendation on a different brand that can replace Blu?
Yep, not too big fans of Blu here too… Go for Green Smoke, it’s a great product with great customer service 🙂
I bought the new blu plus xpress twice plus a few of the replacement tanks and all of them have leaked out of the back. No matter how I take a drag I eventually get a shot of liquid nicotine. This is a horrible product. I usually use the classic tobacco, but I tried the cherry and it was so strong it was almost unusable. Save your money and try a different brand, but stay away from Blu.
I bought one of these (blu cig disposable cherry flavour) once.
Initially it seemed pretty good (nice flavour, good vapour volume), but, it lasted about 3 hours and gave up.
I never bought another one.
Disposables, in general, seem a waste to me, of both my money, and materials (thus environmentally a poor practice), but if I’m out and my evod battery dies, or something, I will occasionally pick up some disposable, since they’re widely available now at gas stations, pharmacies, and convenience stores.
Battery died after just 2 weeks use. Retailer refused to exchange and manufacturer imposed so many conditions for an exchange that I gave up and bought a different brand. Will never buy this product again! Totally disappointed.
Starter kits tanks leaked after awhile
Terrible product. I used mistic e-cigs, however they stopped making a 0 nicotine refill. So, I tried this product. 1/2 of the cartridges i bought had nothing in them. The cigarettes are difficult to charge, and don’t hold a charge very long. Very disappointed in the product.