When a small company from the United States puts their name on a Vaping product, it had better be good. Trust me, you don't put your name on something unless you know that it's a winner.
So today I'll be reviewing the EmpireMods Bridge Free LR510 1.5ohm Atomizer. Yes, that's a mouthful, but what I'm really hoping for is a mouthful of delicious, flavorful Vapor!
But allow me to tell you a little bit about my experience with them first...
I wanted to know a little more about their 901, 306 & 510 offerings, so I sent them a very nice email, asking for some clarification. Someone by the name of Keith replied to me within 48 hours (which I thought was a tad long, but acceptable by small company standards). He answered my question to my satisfaction and then I considered what to buy and settled on the LR510 product.
Ordering was straight forward, followed up by a confirmation email. I received my notice on the same day that the product was shipped and it arrived extremely fast via the US Postal Service.
I received a no frills manila envelope, with a presealed envelope containing the LR510, a small ziplock bag with my 510-510 adapter (I'll explain that in a bit) and a couple of their business cards. Perfect.
So I took everything out of the packaging and inspected everything, in order to make sure that everything was in good shape. I then took the atomizer and put it on my VAMO 3 (which is currently being tested) and checked the resistance. It tested out at 1.4Ω, which is perfect by my standards. Either it'll level off at 1.5Ω once I add eJuice and start Vaping or it'll stay at 1.4Ω, which is still fine for my needs.
Now, you'll notice that there are 2 distinct parts to this particular setup. First there's the Atomizer itself, which is 2 pieces (Atomizer base and Mouthpiece) and the small 510 to 510 adapter.
The 510 to 510 adapter is optional if you're using a drip-shield, but I don't want to use it that way. So I purchased their adapter, in order to use it as a straight dripper. The specific usefulness of the adapter, is that the positive pin of the 510 connector is sealed. Without the adapter, the eLiquid will just drip right out of your LR510 and right down into your eJuice well.
As you can clearly see, without the adapter, you'd be swimming in eLiquid. I didn't feel like playing clean-up, so I opted for the adapter.
Now if you've been following my Blog, you know that I've been searching for a couple of months now, for a good dripping device. I'm really looking this thing over closely and I really want to give it a fair shot too, so please understand why I'm being so detailed with this particular review. To date my RDA experience has been less than stellar. (yes, I know this is not an RDA, I'm just mentioning it)
The next thing I wanted to examine, was the "driptip"? Ummm, mouthpiece? Hmmm...
Look, I'm new to Bridgeless Atomizers. From what I know, you're supposed to be able to put the tip of your eLiquid bottle into the hole of your drip tip and drip a couple of drops of eJuice into the hole. This hole is so tiny that there's no way to use this mouthpiece as a driptip at all. Now don't misunderstand me here... I've got plenty of 510 driptips that I can grab and use, but why do they include something like this that you can't drip into? Are you maybe supposed to take it off, put a couple of drops in and then put the mouthpiece back on again? That isn't very convenient Is the tiny hole supposed to limit leakage out the top? I don't know. Personally, I'd rather see them sell the Atomizer without that mouthpiece and knock a few cents off the price. But I digress... What I don't know could fill a football field, so maybe this is just something else I need to learn... LOL! It's not a negative, but I think it's a more than fair question. One that I didn't know I'd be asking!
Next, I wanted to take a peek at the coil assembly on the LR510.
As you can see from my really closeup picture above, there are 10 coils of resistance wire, sitting inside of a ceramic well, which is nestled within some kind of heat-shield material. I don't know if this will cause a problem or not, but as you can see in the above picture, there's a tiny bit of heat-shield making contact with the coil. I'll go ahead and gently move it aside with a toothpick before I try to use it. And by the way, consider this a public service announcement to always, always, always inspect your devices before you use them. This has nothing to do with EmpireMods, it's just a really good idea, if for nothing else than your safety. Quick insert here: I tried to move the heat-shield out of the way with a toothpick, but it won't budge. I'm not inclined to use anything harder, so I'll do a couple of small test-fires before I try using it, in order to make sure that I don't short anything out. Again, this is no big deal.
So I went ahead and put it all back together and assembled it onto the adapter and then onto my Sigelei Mechanical Mod #19...
The only other thing I need to do now, is decide on a driptip to use!
So I tried the driptip from my CartoTank... NOPE
I tried the driptip from the SM2.0... UGGH
I tried the tall and thin from Steammonkey.com... NO
Tried the Heatsink from Steammonkey.com... Possibilities
Tried the Straightpipe from my KamryTech X10... Yep, that's the one!
Not to get off topic, but that X10 is the gift that keeps on giving! ;)
So I've got it all setup and now I have to figure out which eLiquid to throw at it first...
I know... I should pull out my steeping bottle of Boba's Bounty!
So I know I joke around a bit, but this is where I get down to business...
All the good natured gaffing aside, because if it doesn't pass the Vape test, then it's over.
Alright, so I was just about to start checking it out when I remembered reading something on the EM website, regarding what voltages to use this at. So I went back to the site and here's the note in the fine print, on the EmpireMods.com website: "Not to be used at any battery with a voltage higher than 3.7v".
So that rules out me testing this on my Sigelei #19. I'll have to use either my VAMO 3 or an eGo-C battery. Pretty weird for a "Mod" website to have that kind of restriction. Maybe this is a typo? Either way, I'm hedging my bets and I'm going to use my VAMO 3.
Or not. The 510 adapter does NOT screw in enough to make contact with the positive pin, so I'm left with no choice but to try my eGo-C battery. I screw in the adapter and fortunately, that screws all the way in. I screw in the LR510 and that mates up and I'm ready to go.
So I go ahead and remove the driptip and place a couple of drops of BB directly onto the coils. I go ahead and let that burn off and I go ahead and repeat that process 5 times. I go ahead and put a couple of more drops and then put the driptip back on and.... COUGH! OMG! There's NO AIRFLOW and I'm now choking non-stop. The combination between the adapter and the atomizer leave no room for airflow. Since I'm using an eGo-C battery, that isn't my issue.
So I go ahead and loosen the atomizer in order to let some air in and I get a GREAT VAPE. Full flavor BB, just like I remember it! I go in for a second hit and COUGH, BURNT HIT. What gives? One hit per 3 drops of eLiquid? So I go ahead and load and Vape about 3 more times and it's just okay now, nothing like I would have expected. Except now I have eLiquid leaking out the side of the atomizer, because I had to loosen it to get some AIR.
So now just because I'm curious, I go ahead and put the mouthpiece that came with it on, just to see how that works. I load up and take a Vape and get NOTHING. ZERO. Take it off and it's fine again. I really don't get this mouthpiece.
So I'm done.
As you can see, I went in to this very excited and now I'm left flat...
You shouldn't have to work this hard to get a GREAT and CONSISTENT VAPE. Fortunately, we have devices like the Kanger ProTank and the KamryTech X10 to get us through the day. I guess I'm just not supposed to use a dripper, so I give up.
So is it me? Is it something that I did wrong? I don't think so... Screw the adapter on, screw the atomizer on, no airflow, loosen adapter, it leaks. Use mouthpiece, no Vapor, use driptip it works. So I don't think it's me, but who knows.
I would like to make one additional positive comment. EmpireMods is a well respected company in the Vaping world. This review is in no way meant to disparage them as a company. From what I can tell, they have hundreds, if not thousands of tried and true products available for sale on their website at reasonable prices and their customer service is top notch. I paid retail price for this particular atomizer, I did not have a good experience with this one product and this has been my review of that experience.
As always, if you like something that I say is junk, PLEASE continue using it. All I can do is share my educated experiences with you and then you can make up your own minds. Remember, anything is better than Analog Cigarettes, so please do what you need to do in order to maintain a happy Vaping experience.
If you appreciate what I'm doing here, you know what to do....
Like it, Tweet it, Share it, +1 it, tell your dog about it, etc... ;)
(images used above are either mine or from www.empiremods.com)
So today I'll be reviewing the EmpireMods Bridge Free LR510 1.5ohm Atomizer. Yes, that's a mouthful, but what I'm really hoping for is a mouthful of delicious, flavorful Vapor!
But allow me to tell you a little bit about my experience with them first...
I wanted to know a little more about their 901, 306 & 510 offerings, so I sent them a very nice email, asking for some clarification. Someone by the name of Keith replied to me within 48 hours (which I thought was a tad long, but acceptable by small company standards). He answered my question to my satisfaction and then I considered what to buy and settled on the LR510 product.
Ordering was straight forward, followed up by a confirmation email. I received my notice on the same day that the product was shipped and it arrived extremely fast via the US Postal Service.
I received a no frills manila envelope, with a presealed envelope containing the LR510, a small ziplock bag with my 510-510 adapter (I'll explain that in a bit) and a couple of their business cards. Perfect.
So I took everything out of the packaging and inspected everything, in order to make sure that everything was in good shape. I then took the atomizer and put it on my VAMO 3 (which is currently being tested) and checked the resistance. It tested out at 1.4Ω, which is perfect by my standards. Either it'll level off at 1.5Ω once I add eJuice and start Vaping or it'll stay at 1.4Ω, which is still fine for my needs.
Now, you'll notice that there are 2 distinct parts to this particular setup. First there's the Atomizer itself, which is 2 pieces (Atomizer base and Mouthpiece) and the small 510 to 510 adapter.
The 510 to 510 adapter is optional if you're using a drip-shield, but I don't want to use it that way. So I purchased their adapter, in order to use it as a straight dripper. The specific usefulness of the adapter, is that the positive pin of the 510 connector is sealed. Without the adapter, the eLiquid will just drip right out of your LR510 and right down into your eJuice well.
As you can clearly see, without the adapter, you'd be swimming in eLiquid. I didn't feel like playing clean-up, so I opted for the adapter.
Now if you've been following my Blog, you know that I've been searching for a couple of months now, for a good dripping device. I'm really looking this thing over closely and I really want to give it a fair shot too, so please understand why I'm being so detailed with this particular review. To date my RDA experience has been less than stellar. (yes, I know this is not an RDA, I'm just mentioning it)
The next thing I wanted to examine, was the "driptip"? Ummm, mouthpiece? Hmmm...
Look, I'm new to Bridgeless Atomizers. From what I know, you're supposed to be able to put the tip of your eLiquid bottle into the hole of your drip tip and drip a couple of drops of eJuice into the hole. This hole is so tiny that there's no way to use this mouthpiece as a driptip at all. Now don't misunderstand me here... I've got plenty of 510 driptips that I can grab and use, but why do they include something like this that you can't drip into? Are you maybe supposed to take it off, put a couple of drops in and then put the mouthpiece back on again? That isn't very convenient Is the tiny hole supposed to limit leakage out the top? I don't know. Personally, I'd rather see them sell the Atomizer without that mouthpiece and knock a few cents off the price. But I digress... What I don't know could fill a football field, so maybe this is just something else I need to learn... LOL! It's not a negative, but I think it's a more than fair question. One that I didn't know I'd be asking!
Next, I wanted to take a peek at the coil assembly on the LR510.
As you can see from my really closeup picture above, there are 10 coils of resistance wire, sitting inside of a ceramic well, which is nestled within some kind of heat-shield material. I don't know if this will cause a problem or not, but as you can see in the above picture, there's a tiny bit of heat-shield making contact with the coil. I'll go ahead and gently move it aside with a toothpick before I try to use it. And by the way, consider this a public service announcement to always, always, always inspect your devices before you use them. This has nothing to do with EmpireMods, it's just a really good idea, if for nothing else than your safety. Quick insert here: I tried to move the heat-shield out of the way with a toothpick, but it won't budge. I'm not inclined to use anything harder, so I'll do a couple of small test-fires before I try using it, in order to make sure that I don't short anything out. Again, this is no big deal.
So I went ahead and put it all back together and assembled it onto the adapter and then onto my Sigelei Mechanical Mod #19...
The only other thing I need to do now, is decide on a driptip to use!
So I tried the driptip from my CartoTank... NOPE
I tried the driptip from the SM2.0... UGGH
I tried the tall and thin from Steammonkey.com... NO
Tried the Heatsink from Steammonkey.com... Possibilities
Tried the Straightpipe from my KamryTech X10... Yep, that's the one!
Not to get off topic, but that X10 is the gift that keeps on giving! ;)
So I've got it all setup and now I have to figure out which eLiquid to throw at it first...
I know... I should pull out my steeping bottle of Boba's Bounty!
So I know I joke around a bit, but this is where I get down to business...
All the good natured gaffing aside, because if it doesn't pass the Vape test, then it's over.
Alright, so I was just about to start checking it out when I remembered reading something on the EM website, regarding what voltages to use this at. So I went back to the site and here's the note in the fine print, on the EmpireMods.com website: "Not to be used at any battery with a voltage higher than 3.7v".
So that rules out me testing this on my Sigelei #19. I'll have to use either my VAMO 3 or an eGo-C battery. Pretty weird for a "Mod" website to have that kind of restriction. Maybe this is a typo? Either way, I'm hedging my bets and I'm going to use my VAMO 3.
Or not. The 510 adapter does NOT screw in enough to make contact with the positive pin, so I'm left with no choice but to try my eGo-C battery. I screw in the adapter and fortunately, that screws all the way in. I screw in the LR510 and that mates up and I'm ready to go.
So I go ahead and remove the driptip and place a couple of drops of BB directly onto the coils. I go ahead and let that burn off and I go ahead and repeat that process 5 times. I go ahead and put a couple of more drops and then put the driptip back on and.... COUGH! OMG! There's NO AIRFLOW and I'm now choking non-stop. The combination between the adapter and the atomizer leave no room for airflow. Since I'm using an eGo-C battery, that isn't my issue.
So I go ahead and loosen the atomizer in order to let some air in and I get a GREAT VAPE. Full flavor BB, just like I remember it! I go in for a second hit and COUGH, BURNT HIT. What gives? One hit per 3 drops of eLiquid? So I go ahead and load and Vape about 3 more times and it's just okay now, nothing like I would have expected. Except now I have eLiquid leaking out the side of the atomizer, because I had to loosen it to get some AIR.
So now just because I'm curious, I go ahead and put the mouthpiece that came with it on, just to see how that works. I load up and take a Vape and get NOTHING. ZERO. Take it off and it's fine again. I really don't get this mouthpiece.
So I'm done.
As you can see, I went in to this very excited and now I'm left flat...
You shouldn't have to work this hard to get a GREAT and CONSISTENT VAPE. Fortunately, we have devices like the Kanger ProTank and the KamryTech X10 to get us through the day. I guess I'm just not supposed to use a dripper, so I give up.
So is it me? Is it something that I did wrong? I don't think so... Screw the adapter on, screw the atomizer on, no airflow, loosen adapter, it leaks. Use mouthpiece, no Vapor, use driptip it works. So I don't think it's me, but who knows.
I would like to make one additional positive comment. EmpireMods is a well respected company in the Vaping world. This review is in no way meant to disparage them as a company. From what I can tell, they have hundreds, if not thousands of tried and true products available for sale on their website at reasonable prices and their customer service is top notch. I paid retail price for this particular atomizer, I did not have a good experience with this one product and this has been my review of that experience.
As always, if you like something that I say is junk, PLEASE continue using it. All I can do is share my educated experiences with you and then you can make up your own minds. Remember, anything is better than Analog Cigarettes, so please do what you need to do in order to maintain a happy Vaping experience.
If you appreciate what I'm doing here, you know what to do....
Like it, Tweet it, Share it, +1 it, tell your dog about it, etc... ;)
(images used above are either mine or from www.empiremods.com)
Bummer :(
ReplyDeleteI was so hoping this would work for you... I had a similar experience with the Cisco LR version of this atomizer in my first month of vaping.
It seemed to give me a burnt taste after a very few hits... And the flavor just never seemed 'right' after that. I was always waiting for the burnt taste to come. I really should pull it out and give it another shot now that I've had more experience.
I'm still enjoying my Ego-L with a super simple build... No loops... Just 5 wraps around a single 3mm wide silica of about an inch and a bit in length... Instead of cutting it down to fit, I coiled/pushed the excess ends down into the little 'well' so it would soak up juice.
I'm going to drill out the air hole a bit tonight to get rid of the tight draw. I LOVE the airy draw of the ProTank. (Later I'll up the ante with looped silica builds like you tried)
As always, a thoroughly thorough review heh heh
Thanks
Hey TrashCat,
DeleteYeah, it's a bummer, but what can you do?
The sad thing, is that even though I always remain humble and keep an open mind about things, I actually DO know what I'm doing. So when things don't work as expected, I'm left scratchin' my head.
Everyone reading this needs to remember one thing about these reviews. I *BUY* all of the stuff that I review with the specific intent TO WANT TO USE IT. I can assure you that I don't have an endless supply of money, to just buy things for the fun of it. A disappointing review is a disappointing review for the manufacturer of the product AND for me.
I really, Really, REALLY do want to love everything I buy!
I'm glad you're loving your dripper TrashCat...
Way to rub it in! :P
Heh heh... I hope you've been able to try the Trident (was it?) RDA's already... I went back to re-try my Cisco atomizer... Just horrible... Still :P
ReplyDeleteBut... I re-coiled the Igo-L that I've come to love... This time, I tried the figure 8 loop of silica with the kanthal wrapped around 4 cords of silica... It's a HUGE wick... With an even bigger kick!
The amazing flavor I got from the simple single silica with kanthal (say that a few times)was multiplied exponentially with the figure 8 experiment.
I never thought I would EVER say this... But it was too much! The flavor was so overwhelming, it actually completely changed it's profile... It just wasn't nearly as enjoyable. I'm at a loss for words to explain it better at the moment...
Looking forward to your review :)
TrashCat,
DeleteNice to hear from you...
The IGO-L and especially the IGO-W really have been getting rave reviews. I'm glad you're experimenting and having fun. Remember, you don't learn anything from your successes, you only learn from your failures...
As for the Trident, there's been a slight change in plans for that review, but I'll be reviewing it beginning this Friday.
As I understand it, my buddy who has a real one told me that it's not a clone, it's not a knockoff and it's not even a counterfeit! He said that whoever made this must have bribed someone for the CNC file, because it's IDENTICAL in every possible way, except for the serial number!
He's set it up for me and has been Vaping on it for 3 days now. He says it's PERFECT. So it'll be really interesting to see what happens when I put it into my hands... ;)
Thanks for dropping by!