E Cigarette Reviews – The Safe Cigs Electronic Cigarette Review
If you have a look around the internet at all, of the other electronic cigarette reviews you will probably see that the Safe Cig Electronic Cigarette gets a pretty good write up by everyone that uses it. They seem to be one of the more popular smokeless cigarettes around, certainly on par with Green Smoke. It is for this reason that I decide to give them a shot. I actually bought this after I got my Green Smoke, which if you have read my other reviews you will know that I really like the GS and to be honest I didn’t think the Safe Cig would be any better, though from what I had read I didn’t think it would be much, if any, worse than the GreenSmoke either. For $90 I wasn’t really bothered if it was worse, I just wanted to give it a try.
Back in 2006 Safe Cigs were one of the first, if not the first company to start bringing the electronic smokeless cigarette into the United States. And because of this and their continued quest to improve their products they are one of the biggest companies around.
On Arrival
When my Safe Cig arrived I noticed that is was a fairly simple box design. Apparently they had changed the style of their boxes but hadn’t got round to changing the photographs on the site. Though I just had a quick look at their site again before I wrote this and it looks like they have changed their shop around, so the new photographs are up. The box might look simple but it is still nice and of a decent quality, I suppose that is the way things are these days, clean and simple. It works really well, with the company name embossed on the box. Simple but effective.
As well as changing the style of their boxes, they have also now changed the names of their starter kits, so if you go to their site now the one I have is the “Starter Kit Pro”, the middle of the road option which will cost you $89.95.
In The Box
In this starter kit you will find your obligatory Quick Start guide, which kindly tells you “Start Here”, this tells you all you need to know about assembling your Safe Cig and getting under way. There is also the full manual, which has a bit of a more in depth look at the cigarette and its parts. Once you have the paper work out of the way you will see that all the parts are really nicely packaged, they have used foam to fill the boxes and cut out the space needed to store all the parts, so that they don’t move around in transit and wont get damaged. Very nice. Also included in the “Starter Kit Pro” you will find two batteries, these look fairly similar to the Green Smoke ones, just like cigarette paper. There is also a USB charger and a wall socket charger, these are pretty simple looking, and are easy to work, and there is also your 5 pack of nicotine cartridges.
If you go for the “Starter Kit Deluxe” then you will also find included another battery, a nice charger for your car, another 5 cartridges and also the Safe Case. Which is a great little carry case for your Safe Cig. This kits costs $137.95, for the extra money it really is worth getting, if you will be using this smokeless cigarette all the time then the carry case is great to have, and so is the extra battery. To be honest I wish I had just went ahead and bought the deluxe kit. Never mind, we live and learn.
Once you have got everything out of the box it super easy to get “smoking”, the batteries were pre charged and ready to use. The Safe Cigs construction is in two pieces, just like the Green Smoke, so all you have to do is screw the cartridge onto the battery and you ready to go. These two piece designs are great for getting good vapor out. Because the atomiser is changed every time you change the cartridge you are always getting the best vapor possible. When you take a draw of the Safe Cig you will be amazed by the vapor that it produces, it is for sure in the same league as the Green Smoke, which is without doubt the “vapor monster” of the smokeless cigarette world and should be the standard that all others are compared to. Not only do you get great vapor from the Safe Cig, you get a great feel on the back of your throat when you take a drag, just like a regular tobacco cigarette, which I really like. And unlike many other cigarettes with automatic batteries, there isn’t a lot of need to use a “primer puff” before your main drag, the atomizer seems to be really quick to warm up so you get good vapor right off the bat, though if you do give it a little primer you get even more vapor as you would expect.
Cartridges
The cartridges look just like many of the others on the market, like a cigarette filter. As I just said, these cartridges give off a great deal of vapor, that’s their strong point. But sadly they have a weak point as well. Which is that they only come in three different flavors, Classic Tobacco, Traditional and Menthol. When all of the other big players are bringing out weird and wonderful flavors it leaves Safe Cigs lagging behind a bit. That’s not to say that they don’t taste good, they do, I would go as far as saying that they taste more like real tobacco cigarettes than any other E cigarette on the market, that’s quite an achievement. But I’m so used to having different flavors to use through the day that I feel like I’m missing something when I use the Safe Cig.
They might not have a lot of flavors to choose from, but they do have a nice selection of nicotine strengths for us. Which are Full Flavored 24mg, High 18mg, Medium 14mg, Ultra Light 6mg and Nicotine-Free 0mg ideal if you are trying to stop smoking or cut down on your nicotine reliance.
As with most smokeless cigarettes the refill cartridges are great value. A single refill will give you around about the same amount of smoking time as a pack of tobacco cigarettes. I suppose it depends how often you use your E cigarette, and how heavily you use it, but they do last a good length of time. When you buy the refills they come in boxes of 5, which cost $12.50, so if we take it that one cartridge lasts about the same time as a pack of cigarettes, you will be paying $2.50 for a pack of cigarettes. That’s insanely cheap!
Batteries
The batteries that you get with the Safe Cig are really very much the same as every other battery on the market, it is a ion lithium battery which cuts out pretty much as soon as you stop taking a drag from it, to conserve energy. This means that the batteries will last about four or five hours of smoking time before need recharged. So if you are not that heavy a smoker (10 a day) the battery could last you about 2 days, on the other hand, if you are a heavy smoker (20 or more a day) you may want to keep some spare batteries with you, in my experience the battery will last about the same length of time as a single refill. This is where the “Starter Kit Deluxe” comes in handy with its carry case and the three batteries you get with it. They should keep you going for some time.
Spares And Refills
On the Safe Cig website there are plenty of spares for you buy if you were ever to need them. As I mentioned above, for a pack of 5 refill cartridges it will cost you $12.50. If you need a new, or spare, battery it will cost you $29.95, which is a fair price to be honest. If you need a new charger, the car charger and the wall socket charger will cost you $19.95 each, plus they also come with a USB charger included as well. If you need a new USB charger on its own it will cost $15.95. I think the chargers might be a little overpriced if I’m honest, they aren’t really all that great looking and they look a bit cheap. But they do work, but you pay a premium for them. If you decide that you want to get a case for your Safe Cig then it will cost you $12.95.
Last Word
When it comes to using the Safe Cig I don’t really have too many complaints, the initial price of buying it is really fair and it works perfectly, creating a great vapor. If I was going to buy the starter kit again I would go for the “Deluxe” model, so that I had the handy little case and that extra battery. The only real downsides are the lack of alternative cartridge flavors, I really want some fruity ones in the future, and also the slightly overpriced spare parts. If they sort out the flavor situation then I see the Safe Cig as being a real challenger to the Green Smokes crown as being the best electronic cigarette. In fact, since the Safe Cig is so much cheaper than the Green Smoke, it wont just challenge for the crown, it’ll grab it with both hands. If you have used cheaper smokeless cigarettes in the past then stepping up to the Safe Cig is going to be a huge improvement. I really like it!
To visit the Safe Cigs website please Click Here.
