REVIEW: Revisiting the PRO DSE901 E-Cigarette

Review: Revisiting the AquaVapor PRO DSE901

By: Christopher “Synther” Wilson

It will be two years in February that I quit smoking.  But not just quit.  I was able to quit in three days flat.  This after having been a pack, to a pack and a half, a day smoker for 24 years.  This is after having tried patches, gums, lozenges, and a trial of Chantix.  Patches irritated my skin.  Gums taste terrible.  Lozenges taste terrible.  Chantix made me moody and depressed.  And none of them killed the urge to smoke.  But the AquaVapor PRO DSE901 and a 10ml bottle of 24mg strength AquaVMax Cocoa Mint eLiquid was able to get me off cigarettes in three days.

There were some white knuckle moments in those three days, no doubt.  Day three in particular seemed to be pure torture and there were times that I thought I was going to melt my e-cigarette from over use.  But it held up and things were actually exceptionally easy after that.  But it should be noted that e-cigarettes of any kind are not a smoking cessation device.  They are an alternate form of nicotine ingestion.  The biggest key to not smoking cigarettes anymore is to tell yourself, “I’m not quitting.  I’m simply doing this now instead of smoking.”

No doubt, getting involved with a fantastic local community, the support of friends, the support of my wife and family, and getting into bigger and better mods as a hobby has had its own effect on helping me too.  But two years ago I was a total noob to all this and doing research was difficult because it was really just coming out.

E-cigarettes have been around for almost eight years but they really busted out onto the scene about two and a half years ago when Blu started to flood the market with their kit.  I wanted something that felt like a cigarette and a pack that would recharge the batteries.  But after some research and cost analysis, I found that the Blu e-cigarette really wasn’t that great of a deal.  Instead I settled on the AquaVapor PRO DSE901.  The diameter of the PRO feels like a cigarette in the fingers, the drip tip is akin to a Swisher Sweet cigarillo, and the charging case feels like a pack of cigarettes.  Vapor production is an adequate recreation of an analog cigarette.  Don’t expect huge unrealistic clouds of vapor with this.  The entire package does an excellent job of recreating the smoking experience.

Over the course of these two years, I’ve upgraded a few times.  First it was to Ego style e-cigarettes with CE4/5/6 tanks.  Then it was to a variable wattage Ego style battery.  Then it was to a Smoktech SID variable wattage device with 18650 batteries.  And now my normal device is a Nemesis mechanical mod and rebuildable atomizers.  But every now and then I come back to my PRO DSE901.  It’s elegant, sleek, and small.  It fits inside a jacket pocket without feeling like two rolls of quarters.  And with the 2000mAh battery in the PCC (Personal Charging Case) pack, it does a pretty good job of lasting me throughout most of the day.  Two years later and I would call myself “an advanced vaper,” yet this kit that I started with still works just as well for me as any of my mods.

The standard PRO DSE901 is a three part device with the battery, atomizer, and drip tip cartridge.  What I didn’t know two years ago is that in its normal configuration, the PRO is really what we call a dripper.  This means you drip in e-liquid until the polyfill in the drip tip cartridge is saturated and wet, then put the tip on and vape for about eight to twelve puffs.  You then pull the drip tip off and drip in some more e-liquid to top it off and you’re ready to go again.  This is normal use.  The reason I didn’t know this two years ago is because there was, and still is, a lot of miscommunication on all sides of vaping.

Two and half years ago, it was common advertising practice for companies to state that their e-cigarette cartridges were equal to a certain number of analog cigarettes.  When the Blu first came out, it was often stated that one cartridge was the same as an entire pack of cigarettes.  Later that changed to about a half a pack of cigarettes.  Then they started saying that each cartridge was equal to a certain number of puffs.  All of this is complete crap.  First, there’s no real mathematical way of calculating how many analogue cigarettes are in an e-cigarette cartridge.  It’s simply not possible.  Even if you calculated the amount of nicotine in a particular brand of analogue cigarette, multiplied that by 20 cigarettes in a pack, and then put that much into a cartridge, you still would not have an accurate reading of number of cigarettes per cartridge.  This is because of the second reason: puff counts.  The average vaper will take a five to six second puff on an e-cigarette.  A puff on an analogue cigarette is usually only around three seconds and that’s considered a pretty big drag.  The length of your puff directly relates to how much e-liquid is vaporized.  And last, there is the fact that your body is addicted to a lot more than just nicotine with analogue cigarettes.  There are close to 7000 chemicals involved between what is used in making the cigarette to what is released when you inhale.  An e-cigarette has only four or five and, other than the nicotine, they’re all food grade materials.  The end result is that you’re going to be puffing on that e-cigarette a lot more than you do on analogue cigarettes, at least initially. 

Companies have since given up on equating their cartridges to analogue cigarettes, unless you press them.  Unfortunately, the idea of this has stuck in the public’s mind and it still comes up with people that are either new to vaping or from the completely clueless.  On the vaper’s side of things, they tend to spread misinformation as well.  And they tend to do it with alarming regularity.  Usually this comes in the form of elitism.  “You’re not a real vaper because you’re using a cig-a-like and I’m using a mod.  Everyone knows that cig-a-likes are crap!  Get a real mod, noob.”  This kind of thing is pretty common, though totally incorrect and does nothing to help people that are new to vaping or to those that simply like the smaller size of a “standard” e-cigarette.  The last source of misinformation is from disreputable journalists from questionable “news” sources that say things like, “E-cigarettes Contain 10 Times More Carcinogens Than Regular Cigarettes.”  They post things like this with absolutely no links to the original research.  And if they did post links to the original research, the questions of A.) How was this research conducted?  B.) What eLiquids were used?  C.) Where were those e-liquids made?  D.) What generation of device did you use (using an e-cigarette designed and made in 2007 will yield radically different results than an e-cigarette designed and made in 2014)?  Claiming things like, “e-cigarette vapor was found to contain more formaldehyde than regular cigarettes,” makes one wonder where this imaginary formaldehyde could have come from.  Formaldehyde doesn’t just magically come into creation because you vaporized a mixture of Propylene Glycol, Vegetable Glycerin, Nicotine, and food grade flavor additives.  It is simply impossible.  So this one statement immediately brings into question how this research was conducted, since the statement makes it obvious that their testing lab was not setup as a clean environment or they were testing e-liquids of questionable make.

The end result of all this is that while there is more information available to people that want to start vaping, the problem hasn’t changed overall.  Two years ago, I found a lack of information and today the information is buried under a pile of virtual bullshit.  All of which the politicians are more than ready to weave into their particular agenda.  If it is about e-cigarettes and you heard it from a politician, it’s probably a lie.  We’re talking about people that can’t even explain how the internet works (it’s a series of tubes, right?) or are willing to block something like Net Neutrality and attempt to convince you that it hinders economic growth.  Can you really expect to believe them on this?  Of course not.

Since there seem to be a lot of self-proclaimed elitists on the internet, allow me to be the first to tell you that if you want an e-cigarette that is relatively close to the smoking experience, get the AquaVapor PRO DSE901.  As I stated, it’s a dripper but if you don’t like dripping there are upgrades available.  The first of these is in the form of cartomizers.  Cartomizers are basically the same as the cartridges you’ll find on Blu, NJoy, or any number of other e-cigarettes.  These are cartridges that contain a coil that is surrounded by polyfill.  You fill them until the polyfill is saturated, blow out the excess, and put it on the battery.  This effectively makes the PRO a two part device.  Personally, I find cartomizers to be a complete pain in the ass.  They’re messy, the way they vape is hit or miss (one is fantastic, another one out of the same box vapes like crap), they leak in the PCC pack out the air hole, etc.  However, there are those that absolutely love them.  They’re not expensive so I can only recommend that you try them out and see for yourself.  I can say that they do have a harsher throat hit, so if that is something you are looking for, cartomizers may be for you.

The next upgrade option is to get a DSE901-T tank atomizer.  These keep the three part design of the PRO, but the atomizer is built with a small spike in the center of it rather than the stainless steel mesh bridge of the standard atomizer.  The spike pushes into the tank cartridge, which contains about 0.8ml of liquid, and feeds the liquid directly to the coil.  If you want less fiddling and you don’t want to drip to top off your e-cig, these work fantastic.  I recommend the low resistance (1.7 ohm) version from Value Vapor.

https://www.valuevapor.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=73&products_id=495&zenid=mf345mvsjcto5ko7gh9qnfmll5

The most recent creation is the Kanger T4 clearomizer.  These turn your PRO DSE901 into a two piece design and hold 1ml of e-liquid.  AquaVapor has these available in 5-packs in low resistance (1.8 ohm).

http://www.aquavaporcig.com/DSE901-T4-Clearomizer.html

For flavor and vapor production, I still prefer the standard DSE901 atomizer and drip tip cartridge.  I don’t mind dripping and I’m used to it.  And if I had known that this was the proper way of using the PRO, I’d have had a much easier time.  One thing that I can suggest is replacing the polyfill in the DSE901 cartridges with organic cotton.  It’s a simple process and a single cotton ball will likely fill all five cartridges in a pack.  I find that the vapor production is a bit better and your cartridges will last longer because you just replace the cotton when it gets worn out.  Aside from the cotton ball, you’ll need some tweezers and about five minutes of time.

You can purchase the PRO DSE901 PCC kit from AquaVapor for $59.99 plus shipping.  Tell them that I recommended it to you and write your own review for them if you like it.  I do suggest getting the kit with manual batteries instead of the automatic batteries.  Manual batteries are sealed and will last you much longer, while automatic batteries allow activation when inhaled but are unsealed and subject to damage from leaks.

For e-liquid flavors it is hard for me to make too many recommendations because it is all about your subjective taste.  But there are a few brands that I like and I can highly recommend.  There are some rather general flavors that I can offer, as well.

Mt. Baker Vapor

http://www.mtbakervapor.com/

These guys offer some of the best e-liquids around with the best flavors I’ve found and with the best prices anywhere.  You can specify the mixture of Propylene Glycol (PG) and Vegetable Glycerin (VG), the Nicotine strength, and add up to five additional flavor shots (beware…5 extra shots is usually way too much).   I’ve found that a 50/50 mix of PG/VG produces good vapor with excellent flavor, two extra shots of flavor is about right for me, and 12mg strength keeps me pretty satisfied.  Recommended flavors: Thug Juice, Hawk Sauce (the official flavor of Seahawks fans), Afternoon Delight, Peach Rings, Butterscotch, Candy Cane, Grappler.

Northwest Vapors

http://www.nwvapors.com/

Yet another company that offers excellent flavor and fair prices.  I usually get Regular (Medium VG) mixture, 12mg strength.  Recommended flavors: DAKool Menthol, True Tobacco, Gummy Peach, Peppermint, Vanilla Smokey, Strawberry Overdose.

AquaVMax

http://www.aquavaporcig.com/aquavmax-usa-eliquid.html

These e-liquids tend to be a little stronger in nicotine and are a little more expensive but are excellent.  All of these e-liquids are a 50/50 PG/VG mixture and I usually order them in the 18mg strength, since there is no 12mg option.  Recommended flavors: Cocoa Mint, Cinna Twist, Apple Pie, Cubana, Carolina Leaf, Georgia Special, Menthandy (which is good when mixed with Georgia Special for a very pleasant menthol cigarette…menthol hack!).

Almost two years running and I can go from my Nemesis mech mod with a sub-ohm build Patriot RDA, pick up my PRO DSE901, and be perfectly happy.  It is an excellent device that is well built and continues to operate as if it were brand new.  If that doesn’t state how highly recommended this kit is, I’m not sure what else I can say about it.