As I previously mentioned Smok at one point became the
better/best affordable/economy vaping gear. I'm sure many recall the universal Pro-Tank coil assemblies. You had short chimney ones and long chimney ones.
These coils also fit the Smok "ARO", "TDux" (and probably a host more) clearomizers. They sold rampantly too for roughly $1 a unit and sometimes you could find them for half that if you found a source. I started out rebuilding trying to rebuild the coils in these. They were a curse worthy pain to use. We thought it might be smart to use ReadyX as wick, sure it was, if we didn't mind the aggravation of wicking with it.
You can see the silicone grommet on the positive pin to the lower left here. You always had to put one leg outside and the other leg inside. Then, you would push the positive pin with silicone insulator back up into "head" base/firebox unit.
You needed to position the coil so the wick fit through the slots on the side of the head. Finally you mashed the "chimney" unit back down into the head unit. Weather you added the extra silicone on the chimney often was preference based. It allegedly acted as a stop gap to let the juice flow around the head to saturate the wick ends you'd trim right up next to the head.
I think the wire used was something like 36 awg, very thin and tiny stuff. It would short quick, burn through. *sighs* It was just a mess in a pretty dress and I write/say that without any misogyny intended. I've been around plenty drag queens, transvestites, trans gender folk (people in general) to know anyone can be a mess in a dress. It is simply an expression, an illustrative one used to summarize and be evocative of the frustration building these things used to be. And yet, ... everybody loved 'em. Go figure that and while at it sell it for a buck.
So this is part of what cemented Smok into the position of being a 'standard barer' for the industry, for better or worse. Another part of it was their clever design sense. I'll save the goose and simply let you see some of their designs below.
The ARO:
The TDux:
No there was not much difference at all in the two lines, and there was actually a third and I'm thinking i recall a fourth that was as similar. They would alter out the coil head builds a bit and market something "new and improved". It almost reminded me of some old Volkswagen beetle commercials.
"Last year we you gave the dash board hula girl. This year we had to top ourselves, it took us all of the year to figure out how. Finally, we give you fuzzy dice to hang from your mirror."
All the while the 1978 beetle was the same exact 1976 beetle and the 1974, '72, 70, ... '42.
They found a product that worked, worked well and didn't see a need for errant changing. Until they finally broke and put out the TDux 4 which delved them more into an RDTA type of design, or so it was meant to "seem" to most of the customer base.
"Oh look, Smok is going into making tanks. How cool is that?!"
Well, Smok is part of an umbrella group of companies which includes Kanger, Innokin, Ealeaf, possibly Aspire. None of the individual company reps will outright say this publicly. They'd risk loss of jobs if they did, as to broach the American market such a "family" of companies all in the same industry "seems" to present a monopoly and impropriety. Whereas to them it is nothing of the sort, merely business doing business as most efficent and direct as it can and being socially responsible too. They can all pool resources, less waste, quicker manufacturing, better quality control or at least theoretically so.
Now I've offered a view with a little peak behind the scenes maybe. This view offers my own humble and honorable opinion on why Smok might seem the dominate leader of vaping gear. I'm not going to say they are that, nor say they aren't. This is something left for individuals to decide for themselves. This author can see how such a perception has played out over at least the last decade. Love them or hate them, I submit it's my view Smok will stay around. Now, for a shop to sell only their gear, well that's another horse.
I think I'd rather sell various gear from various companies of all differing quality. I'd like a well trained, friendly staff of clerks to help customers too. Then again, I don't run a vape shop or work in one. Thanks for reading.
Now go on!