Authentic .V. Clones, and are authentic's worth it?

[goddz]

Being new to Vaping I kind of think the word "clone" is a bit strange, why not call it what it is, a counterfeit?
It's someone's intellectual property stolen and replicated.

Of course it happens in every avenue in business , food, clothing, jewellery, fishing gear etc.
Sure everyone has their budgets and it is good those are catered for, no harm in shopping around at all.

It's not really the consumer I take issue with on this though it's the companies that do it. Calling something "styled" or a "clone" is dishonest in my mind, its a fake, a counterfeit, a rip off and that's that.
On the other hand it does force the genuine innovators to stay innovative and stay ahead of the parasites, which in turn keeps providing the consumer with forward thinking kit.

 

[Peeej]

Sometimes certain atties are so hard to get hold of clones are the only way for us mere mortals the UTA2 & nextGen being a prime examples

 

[sir_puffalot]

i have a small collection of gear now, and 90% of it is authentic. but i also have a few tobeco clones, the only reason i have them is some things are so hard to get a authentic of for example a Velocity RDA, i can not find one at all that i trust is authentic, so i have ordered a clone for now untill i can get an authentic (my bro in law is geting it from the usa for me). i feel that some very popular items just become hard to get so the clone makers cash in.

also some times clones can be very good, if a item is no longer made authentic it means we can still get them

 

[alwayslit]

i have a small collection of gear now, and 90% of it is authentic. but i also have a few tobeco clones, the only reason i have them is some things are so hard to get a authentic of for example a Velocity RDA, i can not find one at all that i trust is authentic, so i have ordered a clone for now untill i can get an authentic (my bro in law is geting it from the usa for me). i feel that some very popular items just become hard to get so the clone makers cash in.

also some times clones can be very good, if a item is no longer made authentic it means we can still get them

Order directly from Avid and it will be authentic.

 

[alwayslit]

You get what you pay for in most cases and I think this logic tends to favor authentics.....imho. The majority of my RDA's are authentic but I also like the tobeco clones and have found them to be pretty darn close to the original.

 

[danb]

I demand retesting using a double-blind experiment method!

This is essential if you ask me. Give something a more expensive price tag and it will be consistently rated better than the same thing with a cheaper price tag. This is a well established phenomenon. Granted some clones are shit quality, but some are decent, and I find it hard to believe there is a massive difference in performance between an original and a good clone. For many that difference is worth the price difference, for others it's not.

For me the problem is that the price difference is so huge that I can't see myself getting an original. Every clone I have has some feature I don't like that is also a feature of the original. I dislike the kayfun filling mechanism, KFv4 spring of despair precludes TC, SquapeRS has ugly triangles etc. I'm not shelling out £100+ for an atty unless it really ticks all the boxes - so far I've yet to find one.

 

[daz_app]

I've got a few cheapo ten pound clones of the KFL plus v2. I've also got a couple of originals as well and there is no difference at all for me. In fact I have to keep them on separate shelves as I can't tell the difference and would hate to get em mixed up!

 

[Moley]

I'll add my two penneth worth, which isn't worth much.
I have only owned genuine of the cheap end of the gear, kwngertecg, aspire, innokin etc, for all the other expensive gear Kayfun, Taifun, erlkonigen ive only owned clone.
I have to say that out of all the stuff I have the clone had the best flavour, the least leaks and pretty often the best build quality.
Now this doesn't of course mean. That the build will be much better on an original! But I doubt it.

 

[Chronic Screwdriver]

There are some very reasonably priced authentic RDAs about, Indulgence's Mutation X, the CLTs from Infinite, Various attys from CigGreen and Youde.

US designed RDAs like Compvape's Twisted messes can be found for around £45 from UK vendors, and while this isn't cheap, I would definitely pay that for such a well designed and built RDA.

At the top of the price range, it does get a bit silly. The genuine Velocity RDA is £120 , I'm sure the build quality and materials used are top notch, but for such a simple device, that's almost 10 times the price of the clone....

 

[heavencanwait]

The great thing about vaping is you can spend as much as you want, its personal choice. We know the originals have the time put in to create the design and, usually, iron out any faults hence the larger price tag. Usually original makers are small designers without access to 24/7 machines going churning out the gear and allowing 'budget' vaping. After all, is the purpose of vaping not to smoke?