J Well is a French e-cigarette company with a range of products that certainly catches the eye with that European cool design.
Working in conjunction with another Paris based company ‘Fiber Freaks’ – who are at the cutting edge of ‘coil wicking’ – and we could be looking at a vaping dream team.
Add to that the reputation the French have had in the past for making smoking ‘ultra-cool’ over the years and you would hope these guys will do the same for vaping.
The J Well Lumea certainly ticks the boxes as far as cool goes incorporating a vape pen / all-in-one design – but most importantly – how does it vape?
Is it a case of ‘oo la la’ or ‘non monsieur!’
Let’s cut out the schoolboy French and take a closer look – or ‘Regarde de plus près’ as they say over the Channel.
This product was received free of charge for the purposes of this review. As always, our views are our own.
In the Box
Inside you’ll find:
- X1 Luméa battery
- X1 clearomiser [BTC R 0.8 Ohm pre-installed]
- X1 USB cable
- Spare O rings
- User manual
For the price, I have to say a pretty sparse set of contents with once again a vaping company only adding one stock coil.
I say it in pretty much every review but I do think one coil in any kit is more than a little ‘naughty’ or should I say ‘stingy’ – but I digress.
Lumea by J Well Specs
- 1500mAh battery
- 4 volts
- 20 watts – there’s no screen this via Google ‘research’
- 116mm height, 19mm width
- 3ml tank top fill Pyrex tank
- ‘Metal’ build – the company’s own description
- Magnetic connection
More on that magnetic connection later 😉
Key Features
I guess the fact this is square ‘pen style’ vaping device is the key here as well as the magnetic connection.
The airflow control is I guess revolutionary as it involves pulling the tank by the mouthpiece away from the battery and re-inserting it back so your chosen air-hole in the tank matches the airflow hole in the body.
There are four settings – closed – tight – medium and airflow.
Closed and you still get a vape of kind and obviously fully open things are much easier and indeed the Lumea kind of kicks into life a bit.
Filling is as ‘simple’ as unscrewing the top cap and dripping your juice through the two tiny holes – I say simple as I have found it extremely tight to unscrew and even after a week of regular use it’s still stuck fast – so no chance of leaking from the top then lol.
Other than that there’s no screen or different settings to worry about and with pass through vaping it really is a case of charge – fill and vape.
Swapping the BTC R 0.8 Ohm
It’s a truly clean hands coil swap and as J Well only has one coil included in the kit I duly took mine out and put it back in.
OK and this is where the magnetic connection comes into play.
You need to remove the tank by pulling on the drip tip.
Turning the tank upside down you give a 60 degree twist to release the coil. It’s then a simple matter of screwing it back in to the rest of the tank.
It all seems pretty easy – but I am nothing if not a true vaping newbie prone to newbie errors [despite doing this for 5 years or so.]
I assumed as the base was tight to the tank all was good and indeed everything vaped as normal.
However.
The next time I pulled the tank out to fiddle with the airflow I was surprised to see e liquid everywhere.
Closer inspection showed I hadn’t screwed the base back on to the full 60 degrees.
This resulted in the base staying in place held by the magnet and the tank coming clean away emptying e-liquid everywhere.
Merde! I cried [Google it lol]
So DO make sure you tighten the base the full 60 degrees – I can only blame it on the fact I haven’t held a protractor since my schooldays [I failed technical drawing quite miserably].
J Well do sell spare coils which come in: 0.5ohm – 0.8ohm – 1.0 ohm and 1.6ohm.
Given the battery I have a feeling this might make a better MTL tank [Mouth To Lung – like smoking] than a DTL [Direct To Lung – sub ohm vaping] but without trying the coils I can’t comment.
Design and Build Quality
I love the squared off design – not only does it look good it certainly saves the device from making a break for it ready to jump to a smashing death off your desk like a suicidal lemming.
It feels nice in the hand too and given its compact size and lightness it could be classed as a stealth device.
The build quality is OK however, the drip tip is extremely tight when it comes to unscrewing to fill and that 60 degree turn to tighten the base can fool you into thinking it’s secure.
If like me you use reading glasses – there are two tiny arrows on the base and the word open.
Lining these up makes sure the base and tank ARE correctly connected.
Like I say ignore the instruction manual at your peril lol.
How Does the J Well Lumea Perform?
Straight out of the box – filled up and slotted together I thought wow ‘c’est magnifique!’ [that’s wonderful lol].
However with a 4:1 chance of me connecting the Lumea with the airflow set to ‘closed’ of course that’s what I did – remember like most blokes I ignore instruction manuals until much head scratching and muttering has gone on!
So my first vape was restricted – tasteless and with about as much vapour as the steam that comes from my body after a workout [I don’t work-out].
There followed a day or so [yes really] of mutterings – checking everything – moaning to Jonny – moaning to a few barmaids – moaning to a UKIP supporter no one else speaks to in the pub – until eventually I reached for the manual.
Aaaand…once I read the brief line about airflow settings I set my vape to wide open and voila!
Whilst not a taste and vapour sensation I at least got to vape on the Lumea properly!
Given it’s a 0.8ohm coil crafted by Fiber Freaks I was expecting an extremely good vape.
What I got and using the company’s All Saints signature e-liquid [review soon] – was a low profile flavour as in I could taste it but not quite if you get my drift.
Vapour production wise things were just OK.
Filling is indeed an easy process – once you get the drip tip off – but I can’t stress enough how tiny the two fill holes are.
Needle point tips are better as the larger glass drippers need to be pushed firmly in.
What I Like
I obviously like the design. Being squared means it doesn’t roll off your desk or table and it is actually quite nice to handle.
Whilst a bit fiddly the top fill is good as is the clean hands coil swap – but again remember to treble check your 60 degree turns!
The magnetic tank to battery connection is great so long as you have the base screwed in properly!
What I Don’t Like
Let me get this out of the way first!
I hate the red warning/safety sticker they’ve slapped over the tank. It’s one of those really sticky labels that comes away in bits leaving gum and sticky bits of paper behind.
As you can see from the pics it took a bloody age to get the remnants off an even now I find myself picking at them.
Whilst with the airflow fully open the Lumea produces a decent amount of vapour the flavour is not so good. I have a feeling the battery isn’t doing the coil justice at all.
I certainly don’t like the price – at all – and definitely don’t like the price given the meager contents of the box.
Final Review Verdict
Tricky one this.
I like the design but feel the Lumea could be a better starter kit for those quitting smoking than a sub ohm vaping device.
Adding a 0.8ohm coil to the kit suggest J Well thinks differently but as a sub ohm vaper AND a regular MTL vaper I know that battery is not doing justice to the stock coil at all.
Maybe if J Well added one of the MTL coils – the 1.0 ohm for instance – it might be a kit beginners would buy as it will switch between vaping styles.
And as for the price – very steep – yes it’s supposed to be a kit that will grow with you – MTL to DTL – but if it’s not doing the sub ohm coil justice then I think you’d be disappointed in shelling out your hard earned cash.
It’s certainly got the French style and if that’s important to you then go for it – or cest la vie as they say over there.
Soooo…
If, whilst sipping a Pernod on top of the Eiffel Tower the Lumea slipped from my grasp and plummeted to the earth below would I replace it?
To be honest I don’t think I’d have to because it’s a sturdy little device – but paying for another?
Non monsieur – unless it significantly came down in price.
Pros
- Cool design
- Compact
- Sub ohm and MTL vaping
- Sturdy
- Clean hands coil swap
- Top fill
- 3ml
- X4 airflow settings
Cons
- Expensive
- Not so flavoursome
- Medium amount of vapour
- Only one coil in kit
