The Vladdin RE is the refillable version of Vladdin’s original device. Get it here (affiliate). It’s basically the same thing as the original, just that the RE comes with refillable pods. The original Vladdin can also use the newer refillable pods, so if you have one those, now you can refill it with your own liquid.
It’s a sleek, compact, stick device that caters to high-nicotine e-juice, especially salt-nic, which is really popular right now. Interestingly, Vladdin also mentions that their device is great for THC and CBD e-juice. I haven’t tried it like that, but anyway, let’s take a look at it!
Specs
- Colors: Black, Gold, Rainbow, Titanium, Red, and Blue
- $31.90 for the kit, $22 for the base device
In The Box
- Vladdin device
- One refillable pod
- A really nice micro USB charging cable
Design
The design is really nice and has a great form factor to it.
It’s just under 4 and 1/2 inches long, a 1/2 inch thick, and about 3/4 inches wide.
Top Fill Pod
The pod is unique because it has a top fill design, rather than the usual bottom fill design. To fill it up, you pull the mouthpiece off, pull out the little rubber seal, and fill it up.
There are two fill holes on the top, and this is nice because it lets you fill it up in one hole while air can come out of the other. When you fill up a new pod, you’ll want to let it sit for 10-20 minutes to make sure it really saturates the wick.
I wouldn’t say that this top fill method is any better than bottom fill, but it might appeal to some people since you don’t have to pull the pod out to fill it. But it’s also a little messy when refilling after it has already had liquid in it because you need to pull that plug out and put it somewhere. So pros and cons.
The pods can hold 1.5ml of liquid, and that’s pretty typical of small pod devices. That should be plenty for people using high-nicotine e-liquid. Once it’s full, it clicks right into place and is held in place with some nice strong magnets. It’s not loose and sits in there really well.
The pod’s life will vary depending on your use, but they seem to last about 4 refills before they start to lose flavor. And I haven’t had any problems with leaking.
The refillable pods come in packs of four and cost $15.90
Pre-Filled Pods
And the RE model is still compatible with Vladdin’s pre-filled pods, so you can still use those too. I didn’t get any of those to try but I see on their site that they have nine flavors to pick from like…
- Several tobaccos
- Menthol
- Blue raspberry
- Lychee
- Watermelon
And you can also buy variety packs that come with four different flavors. All of the flavors, including the variety packs, come in packs of four and sell for $26.90
The Kush Pod
And for the THC and CBD users out there, Vladdin makes a special Kush Pod (affiliate). I don’t know a ton about it, but from what I see on their website, it’s designed specifically for that type of vape. It has a 0.5ml capacity, and has an operating temperature between -10 to +60 Celsius. It also has an operating humidity of 10% to 90%. I don’t know anything about these things, but it sounds like it would be useful to THC and CBD users.
The Kush pods come in packs of two and cost $15.90
Ceramic Coil
The coil inside the Vladdin pods are patented ceramic coils. So that, to me, sounds like they went through a lot of research and development work to fine tune the coils to work perfectly in their pods. At least I would assume so if they felt it was worth patenting. And these are built at a resistance of around 1.2 to 1.5ohm.
These days, if you’re not using mesh, then the next best thing is probably ceramic since ceramic tends to deliver better flavor, so I think it’s a good choice.
Power
Vladdin says that the device delivers consistent and efficient power delivery. I would assume that means that you always get a certain amount of wattage, even when the battery is low on charge. And that’s true in my experience. You’ll get a great hit all the way up until you need to charge it. I always like that.
Battery
The battery inside the Vladdin is 350mAh battery, so it’s pretty typical. It should get you through a full day before having to charge it.
To charge the battery, you just plug a micro-USB cable into the port in the bottom. It’ll take about 45 to fully charge a dead battery. And you can/can’t vape while it’s charging.
Safety Protections:
- Short Circuit
- Low Voltage
- Overheat
Flavor and Performance
The one complaint I’ve heard about this one is that it doesn’t have a good throat hit. And for a lot of people using these types of devices, throat hit plays a big part of the satisfaction. Personally, I think it has good throat hit. I’ve been using 24mg salt Nic and I think the throat hit is pretty much how I would expect 24mg to being any device.
The Vladdin RE is draw-activated, so you take a draw and it activates. The responsiveness of the Vladdin RE is one of the best things about it. It hits fast and immediately. A lot of pod systems require really tight suction and strong draws to get a good hit, but this just works all the time no matter how light you hit it.
The airflow is smooth and tight. You can’t really get a lung hit with this. And that’s what I like with pod devices. So for me, the airflow is perfect. The wicking is amazing. I’ve never gotten a dry hit, even after taking hit after hit. It’s designed really well.
The flavor isn’t all that great at first, but I’ve found that it actually gets better over time. This part really caught me off-guard because I was about to write this one off as the flavor being sub-par, but then as I was hitting it one day, the flavor just came out like a switch was flipped in the pod. It was just out of the blue. So if you’re using a Vladdin and you think the flavor isn’t there, give it a chance. Vape the pod halfway through, maybe even more for some pods, and then the coil just breaks in and starts to taste way better.
Final Thoughts
So that’s it for the Vladdin RE. The biggest drawback is how long it takes for the pods to break in, but once the pod starts putting out that flavor, everything about the device is pretty damn good.
The Vladdin is a really nice pod system and I think it’s probably the best alternative to the Juul (better than the Juul even).
I also see that they have offer free DHL shipping for orders over $50, so if you buy a device and some extra pods, you can get free shipping and have it delivered really fast. So that’s a nice plus.
This was sent to me from Vladdin for the purpose of this review. You can get one from vladdinvapor.com for $31.90 (affiliate) for the full kit.