It became cover religion for me to make sure I was charging my batteries whenever I have a chance. I also ended up buying seven batteries for my favorite electronic cigarette before I found BluCigs. When I finally discovered BluCigs and the carrying case that also charges your batteries for you I thought right away this could change my life. I know it sounds a little crazy, but keeping your batteries charged is a serious concern when you’re trying to quit tobacco cigarettes by switching to electronic cigarettes.

So, BluCigs is now my favorite electronic cigarette, not necessarily because it tastes the best or it produces the most vapor or has the harshest throat hit, but mostly because it’s just so damn convenient having that carrying case that is able to recharge her batteries a full six times (roughly) without ever needing to plug into a wall outlet or USB port. Now don’t get me wrong, BluCigs taste great, I’m especially partial to the menthol flavor, and they produce a decent amount of vapor and have a moderate throat hit, but I have several electronic cigarettes that each do one of these things a little bit better than the Blu.

What my other electronic cigarettes don’t have, however, is the best complete package. I have one that has incredible throat hit, another one tastes phenomenal, yet another one that creates an insane amount of vapor, and finally I have one that’s about the same size as my Blu. That said, none of them have a carrying case that also functions as a battery charger, which I found to be the single most important accessory you could possibly have with an electronic cigarette. And none of them are as well rounded as the blue.

Check out a full Blu Cigs Review here.

BluCigs offers to atomizers for $9.95, and I recommend purchasing this along with your starter kit, or at least soon after you decide you like the device.

The atomizer is really the heart of the electronic cigarette. Powered by the battery, it heats the nicotine solution until it vaporizes, which you then inhale. Obviously, without the atomizer you don’t have an electronic cigarette.

If and when your atomizer go South replacement is very simple. All you have to do is slide the cartridge off the end of the atomizer and then unscrew the atomizer from the battery. Take your new atomizer, screw it into the battery, and slide the open end of the cartridge over it and you’re ready to start using your electronic cigarette again.

So why do atomizers burnout after six months or so? I’m really not sure; I’m no electronics expert, but it seems to me that they just haven’t perfected the manufacturing process of these devices yet, although I could be completely wrong about that. It seems like they should last a little bit longer than they usually do, but as long as I’m saving $600 a year over tobacco cigarettes and I’m not getting all that nasty tarring chemicals in my lungs I’m happy. Could I use longer-lasting atomizers? Sure, but it’s definitely not a deal breaker.

If you’re unfamiliar with electronic cigarettes, most of them have some sort of LED at the tip of the battery that lights up when you take a drag. Different manufacturers put different color LEDs on their batteries for a variety of reasons which I won’t get into here.

The battery life is pretty standard when compared with other electronic cigarette brands. I’ve found, in my two-year smoking electronic cigarettes, that the average battery life among mini electronic cigarette models is around 4 – 8 hours depending on use. Although there are models out there that last significantly longer than this, they generally require much larger batteries and because of this are about the size of a large cigar. In my experience with BluCigs I found the batteries to last about half a day each, so the two batteries that come with your starter kit should easily get you through a full day.

The good news is that even if you forget to charge a battery overnight, you won’t have to go back to smoking traditional smokes because the BluCigs carrying case will save you. If you wake up in the morning and notice, on your way to work, that you forgot to charge your batteries, just use the remaining juice in one and plug the other into the carrying case and it’ll be ready for use in less than an hour and fully charged in under two.

When it comes to electronic devices you never know what may happen, so it’s always good to know how much replacement parts cost. The BluCigs batteries are about average amongst is different electronic cigarette replacement batteries out there. I found most companies charge about $10 for a battery, so the more expensive companies charging upwards of 25 or $30. BluCigs charges $9.95 for replacement batteries, so you don’t have to worry about breaking the bank when you miss place a battery or drop in a puddle or something like that.

Still, with each cartridge equating to six cigarettes, the cost savings are dramatic over traditional tobacco cigarettes. I save roughly $600 in the first year as a pack a day smoker and I haven’t cut back at all.

Cartridge flavors

BluCigs offers five different flavors, each in four different strengths. They include Classic Tobacco, Magnificent Menthol, Java Jolt, Vivid Vanilla and Cherry Crush. The four different strengths are: Full Flavored, which contains 16 mg of nicotine; Light, with 12 mg nicotine; Ultra Light, with 8 mg nicotine, and Non-nicotine, with 0 mg nicotine.

Although the classic tobacco flavor was good, it certainly wasn’t the best tobacco flavored substitute solution that I’ve ever tasted. My own personal favorite of all the BluCigs flavors was magnificent menthol, which didn’t really taste at all like a menthol cigarette. Nonetheless, this is actually a good thing because I don’t like menthol cigarettes nor have I ever smoke them, so it really was kind of surprised that I like the menthol the best. I wasn’t too fond of the Java jolt, although I think my experience with the flavors was really quite a personal one because I had my wife try all of them as well in her favor actually was the Java jolt.

Cartridge refills

BluCigs offers refill cartridges at a very reasonable price. Not quite as cheap as manual refills, but then who wants to deal with the hassle anyway, and quite a bit cheaper than most of the other prefilled cartridges available.

If you decide you like electronic cigarettes and want to stick with BluCigs, I’d recommend purchasing your cartridges in bulk once you figure out which flavor you prefer. The reason being that you can save about $.20 per cartridge if you buy 100 cartridges vs. buying 25 cartridges. The 25 cartridge pack will set you back $25 and 100 cartridge back set you back $80, so obviously the more you buy at a time the more you’ll save.

First and foremost, the BluCigs starter kit includes a charge on the go carrying case, which functions as a battery charger that holds up to six full charges in the event that your caught away from a wall outlet when your batteries die. The pack has room for two batteries, both of which can charge, as well is five cartridges to take with you wherever you go. The pack is a very sleek design, all black, with the blu logo on the front, and is not much bigger than a standard pack of smokes.

Pretty standard among electronic cigarette makers is to include two batteries with a starter kit; BluCigs is no exception to this, what you do have a choice between black or white colors.

Also standard amongst electronic cigarette makers is to include one atomizer with the starter kit. Again, this is the case with BluCigs.

In addition to be carrying case, BluCigs includes two types of battery chargers. The first is a USB charger that plugs directly into a USB port so you can charge your electronic cigarette using your laptop or desktop PC. The other is the standard wall wart plug-in charger that allows you to charge your batteries in any standard wall outlet. The BluCigs pack is charged by plugging it directly into the wall wart charger or the USB charger.

In addition to the carrying case, BluCigs stands out from its competitors by offering a 25 cartridge sampler pack in the nicotine strength of your choice. BluCigs cartridges come in four different strengths: full flavored, which contains 16 mg of nicotine; white, which contains 12 mg of nicotine; ultralight, which contains 8 mg of nicotine; and nicotine free or non-nicotine, which, as the name suggests, contains no nicotine.

In addition to the accessories included in the BluCigs starter kit the company also offers a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee as well is a one-year warranty.

BluCigs claims their cartridges last for about the equivalent of six cigarettes. They’ve actually adjusted that number as they started out saying it was somewhere around 15 cigarettes per cartridge, which was grossly over exaggerated. The new number of one cartridge equaling six cigarettes I found to be pretty accurate. They must’ve gotten a lot of flak for advertising the cartridges in this way, which is probably why they adjusted them to a more accurate number.

The battery life I found to be about average among the different brands of electronic cigarettes I tried in the past two years. Sure, some of the larger models can run all day on a single battery, but who wants to carry around a big fat cigar looking thing everywhere you go? When it comes to the cigarette-sized models, BluCigs is about right in the middle of the pack with battery life being around half the day for the standard smoker.

The good news about BluCigs battery life is that, in contrast to other brands, even if you’re battery runs out, you just switch it with a fully charged battery from your carrying case and you’re ready to go. In a few hours, your carrying case will fully charger dead battery and you’ll be ready to swap them again if need be.

What comes with the BluCigs starter kit

The BluCigs starter kit is one of the less expensive starter kits out there, costing $59.95 at the time of this writing. The starter kit comes with a bit more than most other electronic cigarettes, and one item really sets BluCigs apart, the charge-on-the-go carrying case. The starter kit includes two rechargeable, lithium-polymer batteries, a wall-wart style battery charger, a USB battery charger, a 5-pack cartridge sampler, each with 5 cartridges and each a different flavor, and a carrying case that also functions as a mobile battery charger.

The Batteries

Similar to most brands, BluCigs starter kit comes with two rechargeable lithium-polymer batteries. Available in white or black, both colors come with a blue LED at the tip of the battery. If you’re unfamiliar with electronic cigarettes, most have an LED at the tip of the battery that lights up when taking a drag. The blue LED on the BluCigs battery is meant to distinguish the electronic cigarette from a real cigarette. The idea is that is that, for those looking to smoke indoors in areas covered by smoking bans, the blue LED makes it easier to explain the fact that you’re not smoking a real cigarette to anyone with questions. And it works. I’ve tested a number of different brands in restaurants and bars and the blue LED does, in fact, make it clear that you’re not smoking a real cigarette and its been very simple explaining the fact that I’m smoking an electronic cigarette, as opposed to a tobacco cigarette, to anyone interested.

The small size of the batteries means that, when completely assembled, the BluCig is just barely larger than a standard tobacco cigarette. This is a big improvement over earlier electronic cigarette models that were the size of a ball point pen.

The battery life is about average amongst the different brands I’ve tested. They all leave something to be desired, but you can expect, with heavy usage, about half a day before you’ll need to swap batteries. For some brands, this means you have to carry extra batteries with you, but the charge-on-the-go carrying case included in the BluCigs starter kit means that when your battery inevitably dies at work or out at the bar, you can quickly swap it with the other battery, fully charged, from the carrying case and plug your dead battery into the case to fully recharge in a couple of hours.

The Carrying Case

I cannot stress enough the convenience of the carrying case. Not only is it small, just a bit larger than a pack of traditional smokes, but it’s able to carry a full 6 battery charges, which means you’ll rarely, if ever, get caught without a fully charged battery. And when it comes to replacing traditional cigarettes, never running out of batteries means never being forced to go back to tobacco cigarettes.

The case can hold and charge two batteries simultaneously, and provides space enough for 5 cartridges in addition to the batteries.

The Battery Chargers

In addition to the carrying case, BluCigs comes with two other battery chargers: a USB charger and a standard wall charger. Both will charge the batteries from zero to full in about two hours. The USB charger is particularly useful if you always have your laptop with you. I keep mine in my laptop case and use it whenever my laptop is plugged in so that I can save my Blu case for emergencies.

The BluCigs cartridges

The cartridges included with the BluCigs starter kit include 5 packs (25 cartridges total) of your choice. This is a real benefit over other electronic cigarette brands. First of all, most brands come with only a few cartridges, maybe 5 in the starter kit. Second, they don’t let you choose which cartridges your starter kit comes with. BluCigs on the other hand gives you full choice over which 5 packs come with your starter kit. Any of the following flavors are available to choose from: Classic Tobacco, Magnificent Menthol, Java Jolt, Vivid Vanilla and Cherry Crush. Each cartridge comes in your choice of 4 nicotine levels: Full flavored (16mg), Light (12mg), Ultra Light (8mg) and Non-nicotine (0mg).

It can be hard deciding what strength of nicotine cartridge to start off with. The answer really depends on your current smoking habit. If you’re a heavy smoker, I’d definitely go with the full-flavored cartridge with 16mg nicotine content. If you’re not a heavy smoker, you can generally match your cartridges up using the following guidelines. If you smoke lights, go with the Light cartridges with 12mg nicotine content, if you smoke ultra lights, go with the Ultra Light cartridges with 8mg nicotine content, and if you’re not a regular smoker at all and are just looking for a substitute to help you quit completely, try the non-nicotine cartridges. That said, you can’t go wrong with the Full Flavored cartridges (16mg nicotine content) because you can always smoke a little less or take lighter hits if it turns out to be too strong for you.

The atomizers

The atomizer is the device that makes electronic cigarettes do what they do, vaporize the nicotine solution. Most starter kits only come with one atomizer and, if experience is a teacher, no matter which brand you purchase you’ll end up replacing atomizers about once every 3 – 4 months. So, it’s really convenient that BluCigs comes with two atomizers so you’re not left out in the cold when your first one inevitably dies. The atomizers are high quality and generate a good amount of vapor.

Replacement parts

Eventually, you’ll have atomizers die or your batteries won’t hold a charge anymore. This is something you’ll find no matter which brand you go with, so it’s important to consider the cost of replacement parts for your electronic cigarette. I found the BluCigs replacement parts to be about average price when compared to other brands. As of this writing, replacement batteries are $9.95 each, replacement atomizers are $9.95 for a two-pack, new USB and wall chargers can be had for $9.95 for both, and a replacement blu charging pack will also be $9.95.

Cost of ownership

You can save a significant amount of money over tobacco smokes by switching to electronic cigarettes. I was a pack-a-day smoker and I calculated I’d save $600 over the course of one year, even factoring in replacement parts. Compared with other electronic cigarette brands, the cost of owning BluCigs is on the lower side. The starter kit is relatively inexpensive and, because of the charge-on-the-go carrying case, you don’t have to purchase a whole handful of batteries to carry around with you to avoid getting caught without a full charge. Also, new cartridges can be had for as little as $0.80 each, and at the equivalent of about 6 tobacco cigarettes, represent significant savings over the life of ownership.

All in all, BluCigs is a very good electronic cigarette and certainly one of the best for those looking to try electronic cigarettes for the first time. If you’re not sure about which flavor cartridges to go with I can tell you that they’re all good, so it won’t hurt to give them all a shot. However, even though I never smoked menthol cigarettes in my tobacco days, the Menthol flavor really stood out above the rest and I thought the Vanilla was another good one. Classic tobacco was pretty good, although I’m partial to the sweeter flavors. Replacement cartridges are inexpensive, so you won’t regret trying all the flavors to make sure you get one you really like and will stick with for the long term.

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