Gamucci Nicovap

Gamucci Nicovap – Electronic Cigarette Review

Gamucci Nicovap

Gamucci was one of the first brands of electronic cigarettes that I came across and the Nicovap caught my eye due to it’s addition of vitamins in the nicotine cartridges. This seemed like a good idea, replacing the harmful chemicals found in smoke with a vapour that would not only satisfy my nicotine cravings but also supply me with added vitamins.

So I went online and bought myself a Gamucci Nicovap starter kit, but was it a wise investment and am I still using it? You’ll have to read on to find out.

The Gamucci Nicovap Starter Pack

The Nicovap electronic cigarette arrives in a neat little presentation box, about 11cm x 11cm x 4cm in size, which, as you would expect, contains everything you need to get you started.

The Kit contains:

• 1 x Rechargeable Battery
• 1 x Atomiser
• 5 x Regular (16mg) Nicotine Cartridges
• 1x Carry Case
• 1 x USB Charger
• 1 x Mains Charger
• 1 x User Manual

Assembling the Gamucci Nicovap

The first thing you need to do before assembling the Nicovap is charge the battery, which is simply a matter of screwing the battery into the socket on the USB charger and plugging the other end into the USB socket on your computer, or if you don’t have a computer to hand the the USB cable can be plugged directly into the 3 pin mains charger.

Once charged which took approximately 2 hours with my battery, you can begin the assembly which is a simple process of screwing the atomiser gently into the battery (don’t over tighten). Next remove a nicotine cartridge from the packaging, remove the white bung from the cartridge, and simply slide the cartridge over the atomiser. You should now have a fully assembled Nicovap electronic cigarette.

Using The Gamucci Nicovap

If you have never used an electronic cigarette before then you will find that they operate in a slightly different way to tobacco cigarettes, in that you need to inhale for longer in order to produce a decent amount of vapour and nicotine fix. With a tobacco cigarette you take quick puffs but with the electronic cigarette you’ll have to get used to inhaling for 3 or 4 seconds. At first this may feel odd at first but after a while it becomes second nature.

Depending on the brand of cigarette you smoke the size of the Nicovap may also take a little getting used to as well, as it’s about 10.4 cm in length, including the led, which makes it slightly loner than a Superking.

Nicovap Battery

Battery life isn’t quite as good on the Gamucci Nicovap as some other models and you’ll probably find that it will need charging at least once during the day, or at least my one did. This is a little awkward, as the starter kit only contains 1 battery, so at some point you are going to be without it for about 2 hours while it is being recharged.

The battery also features a safety device that disable the cigarette for 10 seconds should the user inhale consecutively 15 times or more within one minute. or take one long inhalation over 8 seconds, This is to prevent any chance of accidental misuse, but in practice it is just annoying. I wouldn’t say I used it excessively and on average my inhalations were only about 5 seconds in length, but the battery seemed to go into safety mode way to often.

The led indicator light on the end of the battery glows blue when inhaled on. When it flashes slowly and consecutively 20 times you know that the battery is in need of a charge. It also flashes 10 times if used 5 times or more within one minute.

The length of the battery is 6.6cm with an additional 0.3cm for the led, taking the overall length to 6.9cm.

Nicotine Cartridges

The first thing you’ll notice about the Gamucci Nicovap nicotine cartridges are that they are pastel shade of blue. This and the matching blue led makes it easily distinguishable from a tobacco cigarette which helps to avoid any confusion as to what it is.

The inclusion of the vitamins is in theory a good idea, but in practice I’m not sure how many and how much of the vitamins are actually absorbed by your body though, so I wouldn’t use it as a strict vitamin supplement.

They are available in a choice of 4 nicotine strengths: Regular 16mg, Light 11mg, Ultra Light 6mg and JustVit 0mg.

The flavour of the cartridges wasn’t to my tastes and seemed to have a bit of a sweetness to it, I’m not sure if the inclusion of the vitamins was the cause of the sweetness or not, but either way the taste wasn’t to my liking. The throat hit wasn’t all that strong, but it did produce a decent amount of vapour, and is probably the equivalent of a milder brand of tobacco cigarette.

Another thing that was disappointing was how long a single cartridge lasted. On some sites I’ve seen it stated that they are equivalent to 20 tobacco cigarettes, other sites state a more realistic 10-12 , but I’d personally say it was more like 8-10 tobacco cigarettes. It’s a little awkward to judge, especially as I had been used to hand rolled cigarettes, but I tended to change the cartridge once or twice a day.

Conclusion

So overall how did I rate the Gamucci Nicovap electronic cigarette?

Well it’s not a bad electronic cigarette, it produces a decent amount of vapour, looks stylish and is a nice size, but if asked if I would recommend it I’d have to say no.

The main problem I have with the Nicovap, apart from the taste which is just a personal thing and the safety feature on the battery, is that the starter pack only comes with one battery and atomiser. This in-itself whilst annoying shouldn’t be a real problem, as you can always buy an additional battery and atomiser can’t you?

Now that’s where the problem comes in, trying to find replacement parts for the Nicovap, or most of the other models under the Gamucci brand, is a bit of a problem. The kits and cartridges can be bought in a number of places but batteries and atomisers are another thing altogether. About the only way to get an official spare is to buy another starter kit which at over £30 is rather an expensive way of doing it.

To my mind the Gamucci Nicovap is over priced, the product works but you tend to be paying for the Gamucci name, and I’m not overly sure as to how much benefit you’ll receive from the added vitamins. There are plenty of other products out there that work just as well but at a cheaper price.

Pros and Cons

Additional Information Added 1st August 2010

I recently purchased a TECC Super Mini electronic cigarette, reviewed here, and noticed that it uses almost identical parts, the only difference is in the size of the tread on the atomiser where it screws into the battery, so a Nicovap battery won’t fit a TECC Super atomiser. The cartridges of the 2 models will happily interchange so that a Nicovap cartridge will happily work on the TECC Super Mini.

So If you want to try the Nicovap cartridges but don’t want to spend over £30 on the starter kit, then head over to TECC and grab a Super Mini starter kit at just £27.99 which includes 2 batteries. If you don’t mind the instruction manual being in Greek then you can the same kit for just £15.99 while stocks last.

Right Now TECC are having a massive 50% Sale so if you buy before 1st September 2010 can halve the above prices making the Super Mini Starter Kit just £14.00. But you must order before 1st October 2010.

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