Replacing a useless istick clone with another clone or not?

[snow]

I own 3 isticks an original 1st generation Eleaf istick 20w,  a 20w EARL clone and a Smart 30  - the original is 6 months old has been used every day since I got it and has been my primary mod from the moment it arrived, its been dropped multiple times and has never refused to fire or given me any problem.  The EARL is just barely 2 months old also used daily has also been dropped once or twice (though not today) and this afternoon mid vape suddenly decided to stop working altogether, its as dead as a dodo, it will neither turn on nor charge - well I assume it hasn't charged but as the display isn't working & it won't turn on its impossible to tell. I've tried lifting the center pin but no change, and it was firing perfectly well right up until the moment it stopped. I've only had the Smart 30 for a week so cant really judge how reliable or not its going to be though it's working fine at the moment and seems to charge up much faster than my original istick. 

I want to replace the dead one - and it has to be with a Blue one but I'm undecided what to go for, the Eleaf 30w on fasttech appears to be the wrong shade of blue (yes I am that fussy I have drip tips in that exact shade which match it perfectly lol) www.fasttech.com/products/0/10012619/2232101-eleaf-istick-30w-styled-2200mah-variable-voltage  and is cheaper than the Smart 30 www.fasttech.com/product/2168302  which makes me suspicious about whether it is genuine or not even though the photo shows the eleaf branding on it, but they have a Smart 30 for £4 more whilst on the other hand they also have an Eleaf istick 50w for only £5 more than the Smart 30. www.fasttech.com/products/3032/10012619/2249101 

I don't really care about the higher watts but it seems sensible to go for the floating pin version in a replacement. 

Are the Smart 30's likely to be more reliable than the Earls? or are they all much of a muchness - even the eleaf ones? 

[Perpetua]

I didn't buy any of the Earl's so have no experience of them snow . . . . mainly I've stuck with Eleaf genuine products, which have all been good for me. The couple of ' Smarts ' I've bought, have also so far been fine, that's in the 20/30 watt versions.

But that's just my experience, I guess with any device ( clone or otherwise ) which has been sold and produced so widely, there's going to be a mixture of experiences and longevity.

My own thinking is that's whilst it is disappointing when something fails, considering the price these are being knocked out for, it does make them a semi-disposable device almost.

[Greg]

Not had an earl but have 3 20w eke ads and one 30w. All the 20,s died due to the shoddy 510. I wouldn't consider another 20. If you like the form factor get another 30wstt even if you don't Vape above 20 watt. I know some have had 20s a long time without failure but by design the 20 is far more likely to fail.

[snow]

I think I'm going to get the 30w eleaf even though the colour seems off - hoping that its just the way they took the photo it looks like that on the main eleaf website too but everywhere else it is the same deeper blue that I want. At £15 it is pretty much a disposable price and if it ends up being the "wrong" blue then I'll just get another one

[babs]

The 30w eleaf you linked to is a clone eleaf styled in the title snow so colour may be different to what you want.

[snow]

Apr 24, 2015 7:42:29 GMT babs said:

The 30w eleaf you linked to is a clone eleaf styled in the title snow so colour may be different to what you want.

Yeah I saw that babs however it is showing the Eleaf branding on the photo of the device and the authentic Eleaf box 

[Bob]

They clone everything even the boxes, instructions and photos - to be honest for anything that is under £100 is it really worth buying a clone, better to save up and buy the original, now when it comes to the likes of atomizers that cost over £200 then it is well worth looking at the clones, but check the reviews first.

[Bobsbeer]

My latest Smart 30 doesn't have any branding on it. But it looks and works fine. I don't know who is making these things but they must be being churned out in their thousands, so it stands to reason there will be a failure rate. Even with Eleaf originals there will be the occasional failure. The same probably goes for Earl, and you were unlucky. I would take it apart as it sounds like a solder failure. Resoldered and it may be up and running just fine.

[Greg]

Apr 24, 2015 9:44:08 GMT Bobsbeer said:

My latest Smart 30 doesn't have any branding on it. But it looks and works fine. I don't know who is making these things but they must be being churned out in their thousands, so it stands to reason there will be a failure rate. Even with Eleaf originals there will be the occasional failure. The same probably goes for Earl, and you were unlucky. I would take it apart as it sounds like a solder failure. Resoldered and it may be up and running just fine.

I disagree on the originals, IMO they are likely to fail due to very poor design of the 510.
Check out the 20w repair guide in my sig or if you have one and it does fail take it apart and see what poor quality it is.

[snow]

It appears I have done the EARL a disservice I ordered a genuine ELEAF iStick 30 as a replacement and have been impatiently waiting for it to arrive - every now and again I have had a fiddle with the EARL just to see if I could get it to go again, and I have even had it on charge but it remained dead as a dodo. I have just received my istick 30 and got it out of the box ready to use, and there was an instruction card with it which I glanced at just in case anything was different, and I saw a line about locking it - so I thought I wonder if...... and yup thats exactly what I'd done to the EARL      it's working perfectly again. I now have 6 flipping box mods 

[prr]

May 22, 2015 12:00:19 GMT snow said:

It appears I have done the EARL a disservice I ordered a genuine ELEAF iStick 30 as a replacement and have been impatiently waiting for it to arrive - every now and again I have had a fiddle with the EARL just to see if I could get it to go again, and I have even had it on charge but it remained dead as a dodo. I have just received my istick 30 and got it out of the box ready to use, and there was an instruction card with it which I glanced at just in case anything was different, and I saw a line about locking it - so I thought I wonder if...... and yup thats exactly what I'd done to the EARL      it's working perfectly again. I now have 6 flipping box mods 

Perhaps you could put up the instruction re locking and unlocking in case other peeps have the same problem. At least you've now got back ups for backups 

[snow]

May 22, 2015 12:13:00 GMT prr said:

May 22, 2015 12:00:19 GMT snow said:

It appears I have done the EARL a disservice I ordered a genuine ELEAF iStick 30 as a replacement and have been impatiently waiting for it to arrive - every now and again I have had a fiddle with the EARL just to see if I could get it to go again, and I have even had it on charge but it remained dead as a dodo. I have just received my istick 30 and got it out of the box ready to use, and there was an instruction card with it which I glanced at just in case anything was different, and I saw a line about locking it - so I thought I wonder if...... and yup thats exactly what I'd done to the EARL      it's working perfectly again. I now have 6 flipping box mods 

Perhaps you could put up the instruction re locking and unlocking in case other peeps have the same problem. At least you've now got back ups for backups 

Good idea - it says " Button Lock Functionality: Keep pressing up-arrow button and down-arrow button simultaneously for 2 seconds when the battery is on, then they will be locked and the screen will reflect "Lock". Still keep pressing simultaneously for 2 seconds to unlock them and the screen will reflect "Unlock".  However on the EARL the screen did NOT display "Lock" nor "Unlock" which is why I had no idea what had happened as far as I knew it was completely dead nothing on the screen whatsoever. Obviously I must have somehow pressed the 2 arrow buttons at the same time and as it only takes 2 seconds to lock I had no clue that it was locking itself. 

[DiscoDes]

May 22, 2015 12:00:19 GMT snow said:

I now have 6 flipping box mods 

Is that ALL? you have a long way to go!

[charon]

May 22, 2015 12:00:19 GMT snow said:

It appears I have done the EARL a disservice I ordered a genuine ELEAF iStick 30 as a replacement and have been impatiently waiting for it to arrive - every now and again I have had a fiddle with the EARL just to see if I could get it to go again, and I have even had it on charge but it remained dead as a dodo. I have just received my istick 30 and got it out of the box ready to use, and there was an instruction card with it which I glanced at just in case anything was different, and I saw a line about locking it - so I thought I wonder if...... and yup thats exactly what I'd done to the EARL      it's working perfectly again. I now have 6 flipping box mods 

oh dear  as i so often had to tell clients when i was working..................R.T.D.M.         (read the damm manual)

Glad all is OK now anddont worry about having 6 mods, spares for spares for spares etc