Ozone Smoke has produced a good e cigarette, but it isn’t quite enough to beat the competition. The standard-size battery has a substantial lifespan and the vapor production and flavors are impressive, but the throat hit and nicotine levels could be better.
The Ozone Smoke e-cigarette is a solid product, with a variety of flavors and a more than adequate battery life. Tobacco smokers may feel it’s somewhat lacking in the vapor production department, though, and it lacks the throat hit of an authentic cigarette. The new Mini Kit battery functions a little better, but the short lifespan and the fact that you only get one lonely battery holds the kit back for serious vapers. Regardless of the kit, though, you get a smooth vapor, plenty of options for cutting down your nicotine intake and an intuitive two-piece design.
Update: Ozone Smoke has closed its doors and is no longer in operation. If you want to find products that are comparable to Ozone Smoke, see our updated list of the best electronic cigarette brands for this year. And if you're looking for new e-juice flavors to try, the new list of the top 10 e-juice brands is a good place to start.
With so many competing e-cigarette manufacturers, you have to consider all of the options to find a truly great product. Ozone Smoke is a relatively lesser known company, but their selection of flavors and reasonably-priced starter kits make them a serious consideration for those thinking of switching to vaping. If you've been considering your options for a while, the mystique of the marketing spiel will have long-disappeared; you know products have to be put to the test. It’s time to put Ozone Smoke under the microscope.
The company was founded in 2010, but aside from that there is precious little information around about who they are. Their own About Us page tells of medical professionals, engineers and scientists getting together (like some sort of e-cig R&D A-Team) to develop the product. The name Ozone Smoke hints at their environmental focus – selling themselves on the non-emission of carbon monoxide and the horrendous amount of cigarette butts littering our streets. This is all fine (if nothing more than a branding decision), but it still gives customers very little information to really set the manufacturer apart.
The Premium Starter Kit (on sale at $69.95 at time of writing – June 2013) comes with a long and short battery attachment, six flavor cartridges, USB charger, wall adapter and one year’s warranty. The new Mini Kit (currently reduced to $29.95) strips this down to a single short battery, USB charger, and two batteries, as well as a cool carrying case. We've put both kits to the test to give you a complete overview of the brand. Continue reading our Ozone Smoke review to find out if the kits stand up to the competition.
Packaging and Design
The two-tier Premium Starter Kit has elegant design, with silver and emerald lettering over a sleek black background. There’s a magnetic clasp to keep it closed, and the box is sturdy enough to protect your e-cigs. The upper level is padded, with spots for the long and short batteries as well as a cartridge. The bottom of the box contains the charger and wall adapter, with spots for five more cartridges. You get an instruction manual, but realistically it won’t be needed.
The Mini Kit changes things up – coming in a small (around 4 × 2 1/2 inch) black carry case. The design is simplistic yet effective, with the eco-green and vapor-grey logo the only adornment to speak of, aside from the pitted metallic belt wrapping around the center which houses the clasp system. It’s all fairly basic, with a push-clasp mechanism and the kit’s components housed in felt-lined plastic. The kit won’t blow you away, but the carry case is still a useful accessory in its own right, so I’ll forgive Ozone for the inauspicious style.
The e-cigarettes are the standard pen-size, with a green LED for the tip and two-piece construction. They use cartomizer-style cartridges, so you get the flavored nicotine solution along with a disposable atomizer. The two parts screw together easily, and the battery is automatic – just inhale to activate it and it’ll shut off automatically when you’re done. The green tip fades in as you inhale and back out when you stop, just like a real cigarette (with a slightly altered color scheme). The new battery for the Mini Kit is much the same, just equal in size to the “Short” battery that comes in the Premium kit. There are two small rectangular gaps in the band where the cartridge meets the battery attachment, which causes an anemic wheezing sound as you inhale unless you cover them with your fingers.
Nicotine Levels
The Ozone Smoke cartridges come in four different nicotine strengths, Full (16mg), Medium (11mg), Light (8mg) and Zero. This gives you plenty of options for reducing your nicotine intake, although some ex-smokers may wish there was a stronger option available too. That said, the Full or Medium cartridges will be more than adequate for most users.
Flavors and Vapor
This is arguably the most important area for e-cigarettes, because they’re almost entirely responsible for the quality of the vaping experience. You get a significant amount of vapor from an Ozone Smoke e-cig, but not as much as with some other brands such as V2 eCigs and Green Smoke. It falls a little shy of the amount you’d expect from a tobacco cigarette, but it’s easy to adjust because it isn’t far removed from the genuine experience. It’s a really smooth smoke, but as a result some users may be left looking for a more significant throat-hit. The feeling is more like smoking a hookah than a tobacco cigarette.
The new battery included in the Mini Kit is comparable in terms of vapor, but still doesn't pose a serious challenge to the big boys of the industry. The new battery packs a bit more of a punch and the vapor production seems to pip the old models slightly, but it hasn't improved too significantly. The throat hit is still pretty minor, though, creating an undeniably smooth draw, but one that would leave a hardened smoker puffing desperately in an attempt to satisfy his sensory cravings. The higher nicotine levels are better, but you’ll still experience nothing other than a minor dryness after you take a few drags.
Ozone Smoke offer a pretty comprehensive flavor package, with Tobacco, Menthol, Cherry, Green Apple, Blueberry, Strawberry, Coffee, Peach, Energy and Vanilla cartridges available. The tobacco flavor has an authentic, cigarette-like taste tinged with a pleasant sweetness. Most of the flavors, such as the coffee, strawberry, cherry and peach, are full-bodied and really capture the essence of the genuine taste. The blueberry is similar, but tastes a little more synthetic (reminiscent of a low-cost blueberry soft drink), and the energy drink flavor is well-executed but it’s a somewhat unusual choice which I didn't personally take to. Vanilla and peach are the stand-out flavors for me, with the former managing to be both subtle and instantly recognizable.
The Ozone Smoke cartridges are approximately 10%-20% larger than many other brands in the industry, which makes them a better value for the user.
Battery
The battery-life on the Ozone Smoke Premium e-cig is more than adequate for the majority of users. The documentation claims you get around 400 puffs from the regular battery – and whilst I haven’t counted it seems like this can only apply under ideal conditions (potentially if you take pretty short drags). However, if you take a fully charged Regular-size battery to work and use the e-cig as you ordinarily would it’s unlikely to die on you. Plus, you can take the spare with you just in case. The LED flashes ten times when the battery is low, then you simply screw the battery into the USB charger and plug it in. The red light on it switches to green when it’s charged.
For the new Mini Kit battery, the lifespan is expectedly shorter. The slight improvements in performance definitely serve as a plus-point, but if you’re a full-time vaper you’ll undoubtedly drain it within a workday. This wouldn't be such a problem – since it’s the Achilles’ heel of all short batteries – but with the Mini Kit you only get one battery. In practice, this means that heavier vapers will feel like they’re charging almost as much as they’re vaping, and there is nothing to satiate the cravings in the down-time. It takes around 3 hours to power up the Short battery, and the longer ones take closer to 4.
One plus-point (although a slightly perplexing one) is that you can buy an Extended battery individually for the same price ($19.95) as the Short or Regular ones. This would put the cost of the entire purchase at around $50, though, so your initial saving through buying the Mini Kit would vaporize before your eyes – especially when you drain the two cartridges that come with it.
Manufacturing and Warranty
The manufacturing quality of the Ozone Smoke e-cig is unquestionable. Everything screws together snugly and functions as expected, without tossing as much as a single unresponsive puff my way throughout the duration of testing. The warranty is accordingly strong, covering you for manufacturing defects in the batteries or chargers for a full year as long as you don’t tamper with them or otherwise misuse them. You also get a 30 day money back guarantee, so you’re covered if you’re not impressed with the product at all.