Blu Cigs

“Your freedom to cape is under attack. Fight back!”

The thing is they do have a point. All these non-smokers wanted a way for the smokers to stop smoking. They didn’t like the smell or the dangerous secondhand smoke. They didn’t like the ash or the fire risk. We managed to eliminate all of this with electronic cigarettes but still people complain. Sometimes you just win!

Let’s start with the most important stuff…

Starter Kits

There are a couple of starter kits available from Blu Cigs. There’s the Blu Premium Pack that comes in black or white and gives you 5 cartridges, 2 batteries, a USB charger, wall adapter and premium e-cigarette case that charges and offers social features. I will get to these social features in just a moment.

This kit will set you back $79.95 and you can choose the strength and flavors of your cartridges.

The Premium 100 Starter Kit gives you the same as the Blu Original Starter Kit but with the new Premium100 batteries and charging case for them. It’s $10 more and you’ll find out whether or not it is worth it in just a moment.

The Original Starter Kit gives you 5 cartridges in a mix of flavors but in high strength only, a wall charger and USB charger, the charging kit and two batteries – all for just $69.95.

There are a few starter kits available but they all seem a bit… similar to me. There is nothing really that different about them. Unless the batteries are important…

Batteries

The Premium 100 battery will cost you $13.95 to replace, which makes them a lot cheaper than other starter kits and batteries that I have come across. The smaller, original batteries cost a bit less at $12.95. Surely for the extra $1, it’s better to just go for the Premium 100 battery? Maybe they are going to phase out the original one over time?

To be honest, there wasn’t a lot of difference between the two batteries. The longer length one did last for a little bit longer but they both died fairly quickly; something I’m not a big fan of. They are light and compact and the size of them is very comparable to what a “real|” cigarette feels like. I found that I could get about four hours use out of the smaller battery, and around five hours out of the longer one. After a couple of months of using the same battery, the length decreased considerably which again, was something I wasn’t a major fan of.

The redeeming feature is the portable charging case which meant I could easily charge the battery when it had run out but because I found myself using it a lot, I wasn’t surprised that the batteries themselves don’t last that long.

Cartridges

The liquids used to pre fill the Blu Cigs cartridges are made exclusively in the states so those patriotic among us will love that fact! There are only four strengths available which was a bit of a letdown – high, medium, low and zero nicotine which contain the following nicotine levels respectively – 13-16mg, 9-12mg, 6-8mg and 0mg. It seemed a bit vague to me. 13-16mg? Wouldn’t it be better to give us an exact figure? With Vapor Couture, yo9u can even enter your batch number into the website to find out the exact ingredients and report of the batch but Blu Cigs can’t even give me a definitive amount of nicotine in the liquid?

The Premium 100 cartridges are better than the original because they are said to last 100 more puffs taking it to 350 puffs per cartridge. This should be the same as about cigarettes but I can honestly say that I didn’t get anywhere near 20 cigarettes worth of puffs out of each cartridge. I was finding myself going through two or three cartridges at least per day. If you are refilling your own cartridges, this isn’t such a big deal but if you are buying pre-filled cartridges, things are going to get expensive.

There are only seven flavors available but they do have a redeeming feature – the flavors were actually pretty strong and very enjoyable to smoke. You can make your pick from:

• Vivid Vanilla
• Cherry Crush
• Magnificent Menthol
• Classic Tobacco
• Java Jolt
• Pina Colada
• Peach Schnapps

There aren’t a wide variety of flavors but as I already stated, the flavors were stronger than other brands which I quite liked, and the flavor didn’t run out towards the end of the cartridge like a lot of the others. That’s probably because the cartridges don’t last long…

As with most of the e-cigarette companies out there, the more cartridges you buy, the cheaper things will be. One five pack of cartridges will set you back $12 which is a lot higher than other brands, but if you buy 4 packs at once, you’ll get them for $9.60 each. That’s still a lot higher than some of the higher rated brands I’ve come across.

Accessories

Maybe it’s just me, but I think this brand is more suitable for girls (like Vapor Couture). There are all kinds of shining and blinking widgets that I really don’t have any interest in. But there was something that caught my eye on the Blu Cigs accessories page… The Ashless Tray. For $5.95, you can get your hands on a holder for your electronic cigarette. This may seem frivolous but it actually comes in handy. I was always putting my e-cig on the computer table and losing it as it rolled off the edge. It got banged up and I even broke a couple because of my clumsiness. This holder was something I actually found myself using. Is it worth $6? Probably not but it is worth it.

Of course, one of the other redeeming features of Blu Cigs is the portable charging cases available for both the original and Premium 100 batteries. At $12.95 and $35, they are well worth the money that you spend on them and I personally guarantee that you WILL use it a lot! With the usual charging bits and pieces on the accessories page as well, Blu Cigs has pretty much everything you need to get yourself kicked off in the world of e-cigarettes.

Warranty

There’s no fluff and frills when it comes to Blu Cigs warranty and they don’t cover everything with the “Lifetime Warranty” that you rarely find actually lasts for a lifetime. If you buy the Blu Cigs electrical stuff from the website or from a proper US retailer and it breaks down, get the RMA from the customer services team, send it back and they will replace it as long as it was bought less than a year previously. They do warn you that this can take a couple of weeks so it might be worth ordering yourself a new battery while you wait… It’ll probably be quicker.

The good thing about Blu Cigs is that the warranty is actually pretty good in comparison. There are no complicated terms and conditions and everything is fairly straightforward to understand.

Added Extras

So what else do Blu Cigs have up their sleeves to wow us? Well there’s the pretty fast shipping with all new orders packed up shipped within two days or less. There is a guide given to you when the order is placed as to how long it might take for the order to arrive. There are free shipping options available but speed will often mean paying for it!

You can track your order with the tracking number they give you when the order is all sorted out. It’s quite exciting really because you can see exactly where it is rather than waiting and hoping it turns up soon. It certainly allows you to plan for unexpected surprised such as snow messing the postal rounds up and things turning up later than expected.

You will earn points as you shop with Blu Cigs so the more loyal you are, the higher the chances of reaping some pretty impressive benefits. A starter kit will give you 350 points, and for every pack of cartridges that you order, you will get 50 points. You can order a new pack of cartridges for 165 points so as you can imagine, things soon start mounting up!

In Conclusion

Blu Cigs could be suitable for those that are brand new to the world of electronic cigarettes. It’s a midway brand with midway prices and although there are a few things that I didn’t like about them, these were only things that I had picked up along the way. It’s not too much that you don’t understand it, but it’s not too basic that you fast lose interest. I have decided to give Blu Cigs a mid-range 3 stars out of 5!