2stars

Smoant Campbel Review

Most of the vaping stuff I receive for review is pretty ordinary, but every once in a while I get something that makes me go “WTF did they come up with now?”, and the new Smoant Campbel is definitely one of those devices. First of all, it looks weird as hell with that extremely long shaft sticking out from the fairly rudimentary box mod, but then you read about what it’s used for and things get even weirder. This thing is supposed to be used with soft drinks, yes, the kind you usually ingest, to sort of combine the flavor of your e-juice with that of your preferred drinks. Let’s have a look:

A Look at the Contents

The Smoant Campbel vaporizer kit comes in a stylish blue cardboard box featuring a gold-etched Campbel Town logo on the front, and a list of contents, some technical specifications, an authenticity sticker and information about the manufacturer, on the back.

Inside the box, we have a black envelope which contains a very stylish-looking user manual that sadly doesn’t offer that much information about what is a very different device than most of us are used to, as well as a warranty card and battery safety card.

Remove the envelope and you’ll find a single-18650 Smoant Cambel box mod, a very long metal shaft that looks like a vape pen but is actually a combination of sub-ohm tank, a tank for soft-drinks, a metallic filtration system, all housed in a metallic sleeve and topped off with a proprietary drip tip. Also inside the box, you’ll find two replacement glass sections for both tanks, a replacement coil-head (0.2Ω) for the sub-ohm tank (another one comes pre-installed), as well as a micro-USB cable for on-board charging.

Design and Build Quality

The Smoant Campbel is one of those rare advanced vaping kits where the mod isn’t the centerpiece. It’s only included to power up that weird shaft I mentioned earlier, so there’s really not a lot to say about it. It’s a very basic device that outputs power directly from the 18650 battery (3.2V – 4.2V) and only features a single button used to activate the battery. There’s no variable wattage, temperature control or any other advanced features or bells&whistles, apart from an LED indicator embedded in the fire button.

In terms of design, it’s a very unusual-looking box mod with rounded edges and corners and an unusually narrow base that makes it look like the entire device could topple over at any time, especially with that extremely long shaft attached. It’s very comfortable in the hand, but tot particularly easy on the eye.

As for quality of materials and machining, this Campbel mod is definitely not Smoant’s best work to date. It’s decent, there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but compared to other Smoant mods I’ve tried in the past, like the Charon Mini or the Cylon 218, it feels kind of cheep. The plastic plate around the button doesn’t exactly scream quality, and the paint job looks sloppy, but as I said, the mod is basically just an accessory in this kit, so I can sort of understand why they didn’t put that much work into it.

Now, the “pièce de résistance” of the Campbel kit is that long shaft that goes on the mod. That’s where the magic happens.

So, you basically have a small sub-tank that holds up to 2ml of e-liquid, at the bottom, and that connects to a longer tank for your soft-drink of choice. This second tank also contains a complex-looking mechanical apparatus made up of a series of mesh sieves that keep the drink from going straight into your mouth when you vape. Both tanks are made of glass and protected by two metal sleeves with cutouts that allow you to check the level of both the e-liquid and the drink you put in it. At the top, we have a proprietary drip tip that screws on to the metallic sleeve and can be opened and closed to keep the soft drink from pouring out if the mod accidentally falls over.

This whole ensemble can be taken apart almost entirely, in fact, you will need to disassemble the tank for the soft drink regularly, unless you plan on using plain water (what’s the point of that?) as all other drinks, and especially sweetened ones, become a sticky mess after a while. There are quite a few small parts compared to regular vaping atomizers, so if you don’t have the patience to take the tank apart, wash and dry all the parts and then put them back together, this may not be the device for you.

So how does this thing work, exactly? Well, Smoant doesn’t really specify this anywhere, but as far as I can tell, you don’t actually vaporize whatever drink you put in that long tank. Instead, the coil in the small tank on the bottom vaporizes the e-juice and the resulting vapor passes through and aerates the drink, picking up some of its flavor (and whatever else is in it) as it travels upwards towards your mouth. And yes, it actually, works, although, since the vapor has to travel such a long distance before reaching your mouth, it loses most of its flavor along the way, so the taste of the drink is much stronger. It depends on how flavorful your juice is, obviously, but that long distance will definitely impact flavor.

A few things to keep in mind when first using this incredibly long atomizer are to always keep an eye on the ‘Max’ line on the metal apparatus when adding the soft-drink, making sure that all the metal parts are put back together in the original order after they’ve been washed (and you do want to give everything a good rinse before first use) and keeping in mind that the metallic sleeve on the small sub-ohm tank on the bottom of the shaft cannot be unscrewed. In order to remove it, attach the shaft to the mod and then simply yank it off to expose the tank, as it’s kept in place by an o-ring.

How It Vapes

First off, I have to disclose the fact that I only used the Smoant Campbel once, “for science”. It’s just not my kind of thing. It’s different, some might even go as far as calling it innovative, but inhaling soda, coffee or whatever else is really not something I’m willing to do on a regular basis.

What I can say about this bizarre-looking device is that it works as advertised. It really does allow you to combine two flavors, even if the taste of any e-juice you use will be seriously muted by the long distance it has to travel to your mouth. I used the Campbel system with some Strawberry Cannoli from Apollo DSRT e-liquid and orange Fanta. It wasn’t the best combination, but Fanta was the only soda I had in the house. The point is that the juice lost a lot of the flavor I knew it had in other atomizers, which, as I said, wasn’t surprising due to the distance.

Looking in a mirror as you vape on the Smoant Campbel, you can see the vapor passing through the soft-drink tank and aerating it, and you can also hear a gurgling sound. Surprisingly, I never got any of that Fanta juice in my mouth, apart from the flavor picked up by the vapor. So yeah, it works just like Smoant claims it does, but is it a good vaping experience? Well, it’s interesting, I will say that, but it’s not something that makes me go “OMG, I have to hit that again right now!”. But, again, this is my subjective opinion, you may feel otherwise after trying it.

But the main reason I’m not that excited about the Smoant Campbel is that I think it is dangerous for vaping. With the FDA and legislators around the world constantly on the lookout for evidence that vaping is dangerous, that it makes kids nicotine addicts with enticing flavors, or that people are doing it to inhale dangerous substances, is this thing really something we want to promote right now?

Kudos to Smoant for recommending only soft drinks to be used with the Campbel, but we all know that’s not all you can use it with. The principle is the same whether you use soda, alcohol, or any liquid for that matter, and while I’m not sure that you can get drunk using this system, I bet there are people out there willing to try.

Besides, you’re already putting vaporized e-liquid into your lungs, do you really want to add soda or whatever other fluid you can use the Cambpel with? Vaping e-liquid as an alternative to tobacco is one thing, but adding other stuff that’s supposed to ingested just for the hell of it? No, just no.

Conclusion

The Smoant Campbel is without a doubt the ugliest vaping device I have ever seen, which is fine, because you’re only going to be using this thing at home anyways. It sticks out of any pocket and it’s not something you want to be seen putting in your mouth in public, let’s say it like that… But it does feature an interesting flavor combining system that works as advertised.

Do I recommend using the Campbel? No, definitely not. I only used it once just to see how and if it works, and, for reasons I mentioned above, I will not be using it again. Luckily, judging by the design and the maintenance required, this was intended to be a niche product, so I doubt that it will ever become popular, which makes it less problematic for us regular vapers than it could have been.