Clones Vs Authentic Products

This is a debate that really divides the vaping industry and I can see how.

First of all, what’s a clone? A clone is a ‘fake’ if you will. So the first thing we will look at is…

Why do clones exist?

Simple answer, because the authentics are too expensive!

A lot of mechanical tube mods are purely a tube with 2 holes in it. Yeah, ok, most of them have engraving or a pretty picture on it. But does that justify the £100+ price tag? Of course not. It really pisses me off that they charge so much, there’s no excuse!

RDA’s, on the other hand, seem to be cheaper than mods. Now, this really does baffle me. A good RDA has far more work put into it than a good tube mod. You have to think about airflow, post positioning and durability. So how the fuck can you charge so much more for a tube mod?! It makes me irate.

I will acknowledge that there is a certain amount of R&D that goes into mods and RDA’s, but once again, you don’t need a lot more research once you’ve made one good tube mod. Whereas you do need to keep looking into RDA’s to make the flavour better, make the vape smoother and make it more user-friendly.

I want to put out there, I’m censoring my language on this. The words I’m thinking are much stronger.

Build quality

Mods

It’s fair to say that most authentics are built better. The threads are smoother, they’re more sturdy and usually, the ‘artwork’ is better quality. However, this isn’t always the case.

RDA’s

This is where the clones fall down. It seems no clone can compete with the real deal. I have a clone ‘dead rabbit’ and an authentic one. The quality on the clone is fine, but the authentic walks all over it. This is usually down to the sub-par engineering of the clone.

What is the industry doing about the clone outbreak?

It seems in the past year, the industry has woken up and seen that no one is buying authentics. As said above, they charge too much and they’ve finally come to realize that their £200 mod isn’t a world away from that £20 one on the internet.

If we have a look at the ‘Drop’ RDA –

It’s made by Digiflavour, but in collaboration with Brian (The vapour chronicles.) It’s just £22 over here. Now about a year ago, you wouldn’t get a decent RDA for £20. But if you look out there, everyone is ranting and raving about this, even calling it “The best RDA”.

Conclusion

Vaping is here for you to help you stop smoking and that is does! So why are people making the gear so expensive? Don’t you want to save peoples lives? It’s an issue that needs addressing in the community.

I do think that if this trend of expensive gear doesn’t stop, the clone market will keep growing and eventually manufacturers will stop developing new products. Then we’ll have no new mods to play with. The only way for this to stop it to drop the price of mods and RDA’s.

There is a glimmer of hope with these new RDA’s being cheaper and good quality, but I haven’t seen much improvements on the side of mods.