Starter Kit Reviews

DA One RE1 Kit with 50/50 Debonair E-Liquid kit

Stylish, simple, and perfect for switching from smoking, the DA ONE RE1 bundle might be the perfect answer if you are trying to quit the ciggies

by Michelle (Purplefowler)
Jul 29, 2024

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Vapoholic might just have cracked the perfect quit smoking set up, and they sent over the full bundle for us to try. This consists of the DA ONE RE1 kit which has been paired with a bottle of your choice from the Debonair range which I reviewed a little while ago and was very impressed. This is a great combination which will make the transition from smoking to vaping a smooth process. But let’s strip things back and start from the beginning!

The Basics

The DA One RE1 is a small pen style device which has an 800mAh battery fitted. It has no controls or complications; you just pick it up and vape. It may be small, but it feels good, with the right balance of weight and style. The branding is smart and really fits in well.

There is one light which glows as you inhale, and there is also a tiny light on the opposite side which is the battery indicator. It changes from white to blue to red, although I couldn’t see what this translates to when it comes to the actual levels, and it stays on long enough for you to actually be able to see it.

The battery will last your average vaper roughly half a day of solid use, depending on how much you vape, and it is more than you get with your average TPD compliant disposable vape. But the ace up the sleeve is that it comes with its own battery pack. This little powerhouse boasts a 2200mAh battery which will keep you going for a long time. When you are not using the main device, you just slide it into the power bank and that that will give things the boost it needs to just keep on going. The power bank itself looks just as sleek as the DA One RE1 pen, and despite the large capacity, it will still easily fit in a handbag. To fit the pen to charge, you need to line the main light up with the cut out in the bank, slide it down and it will clip into place. There are four lights in the base so you can see how much charge it has, and the RE1's light flashes to show it is charging. To remove it again, there is a soft pad on the base which you push in, and the kit just pops back out. It does make a few scratchy noises as you slide it out, so I am not how the paint finish is going to last long term.

The full kit comes with :

1 x RE1 Vape Pod Kit
1 x RE1 Powerbank
1 x 0.8 ohm R Pod coil
1 x 1.0 ohm R Pod Coil
1 x Rever Drip Tip
1 x Rever Classic Filter
1 x User Manual

You also get a bottle of Debonair e-liquid, which is 50PG/50VG so is perfect for this kit. It is a great fit as these are some great tobacco style juices so will add a sense of familiarity when quitting smoking. I was sent a bottle of the Apple Shisha which was my favourite of the range. We will get into the actual vape further on though.

Setting Up and First Impressions

The DA ONE RE1 kit comes pretty much preassembled, but you will need to remove the sticker on the base of the pod before you start to use it. I couldn’t see anywhere on the pod which one it was which so I had to judge it on the actual vape, the prefitted one was slightly cooler and produced slightly less vapour so I am fairly sure that is the 1.0ohm one and the clear one is the 0.8ohm one, but if I was a betting girl, I wouldn’t be risking my money. But it does make things slightly more confusing when it comes to reordering new pods. I did find both pods worked really well though so I am not sure it will matter too much which you go for.

Filling is easy, with a silicone tab covering the fill port. The darker tinted pod seemed to have a few issues with airlocks, and it was a little harder to see how much I had filled, but the clear one was a breeze to work with, and all of the replacement pods seem to be clear. Once filled, you will need to leave it for a few minutes to let the liquid really soak in, and then you are almost ready to vape.

There is one more choice you need to make, and this is what really makes this kit the perfect kit if you are trying to stop smoking. The preset kit comes with a standard plastic mouthpiece/drip tip which is a really nice tapered mouth to lung tip. I really like it; it is just the kind of profile that suits my style of vaping. But in the bottom of the box, you will also find a filter. They are easy to swap, just pull the plastic one out and slide the filter in, making sure the printed arrow is facing the right way. On the Vapoholic site, you can get boxes of 20 spare filters, and they come in a few different designs so you can give you vape a bit of a personal twist. If you are coming from smoking, I’d definitely recommend putting a box of them in your cart, but again, we will get into that more a bit later in this review.

The Vape

Now I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting anything special from the DA ONE RE1, I’ve had these style kits before and they are usually very good, but don’t really do anything that particularly stands out, other than the charging bank. But the combination of the tight draw and the filters gave me the most authentic recreation of smoking that I have had from a vape kit. You can literally vape it like you are puffing on a cigarette! Mind you, I haven’t smoked a ciggie since 2011, but as soon as the filter touched my lips, it all came flooding back. I tried to vape it like I would with any other kit, but the draw was too tight, and it didn’t feel right, but as soon as I switched to the most tradition way of taking a drag of a smoke, it just clicked. This really is the most authentic cigalike experience I think I have ever had.

Once you have got used to the basics of vaping and you want to move on, you can just change from the filter to the plastic tip which still gives you a really tight draw, but makes it feel more like an ecig, and this will make it easier to them progress to a more advanced kit if you feel you’d like a bit more control. I can see a lot of people will get all they need from the DA ONE RE1 though and won’t feel the need to swap to anything else.

The feel and familiarity will be a big part of why I think this kit is perfect for new vapers, but the other thing that can make or break any device is the flavour. Let’s be honest here, most dedicated starter kits are not the final word when it comes to taste and flavour reproduction, but the coils in the RE1 are definitely up to the job.

The DA ONE RE1 coils are made from nichrome mesh which means they can really pump out the flavour which I found to be rich and detailed, and was far more than I was expecting. I was getting every little nuance from the Debonair Apple Shisha, and the filter tip really enhanced the smoky feel. It really is a fabulous pairing.

Final Thoughts

We have tried a lot of very good starter kits here at POTV, but I think the DA One RE1 bundle offers the best way to transition gently from smoking to vaping in very easy steps. It looks great, is very straightforward to use, and feels so close to smoking whilst also tasting really good. The combination of the really tight draw and the use of a tradition filter tip works so well, the best I’ve tried from this sort of set up. I’ve tried other kits that use filter tips before, but they have all had a looser draw which just didn’t quite work, but this kit has nailed it. This is definitely one of the very best pure starter kits we’ve had in for review.

If you want to give the DA ONE RE1 kit a try, or of you have a friend or relative who wants to quit smoking, you can pick up the full kit from Vapoholic. The kit, including a big bottle of Debonair e-liquid, costs £35.98, but it is on offer at the moment so you can bag it for £32.99. A pack of twenty filter tips is just £2.99, and spare pods are a very reasonable £6.99 for three pods.

Many thanks to Vapoholic for sending the DA ONE RE1 bundle in for review.

Pros

One of the best starter kits for quitting smoking
Very authentic ciggie like draw
Filters or drip tip
Easy charging with the large power bank
Stylish
Very user friendly

Cons

Feels scratchy when removing from the charger
Smoked pod was harder to see through and got airlocks, but the other pod was perfect
Not clear to see which pod was which

Michelle (Purplefowler)

Reviewer at POTV

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When her usual forum closed, Michelle found herself in a brave new world full of excitement that something fresh and new was happening. A few days later she somehow found herself on the moderating team and is still not really sure how that happened. Even stranger, she slowly worked her way up to admin and now helps behind the scenes, liasing with vendors and coordinating social media but she can still be found making smutty comments on the forum. If all that wasn't enough, she also is a proud member of the Potv review team specialising in E-liquid reviews for the discerning vaper.