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by ItsDarts
on Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:23 am |
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Newbie to this forum, but 9 month veteran of MYO smokes using the Premier Excel (springless). I was in my local tobacco store yesterday and saw a new machine they were offering for $375 freaking dollars. I asked the guy to demo it for me, and I was somewhat impressed. Its the Fresh Choice Electric Cigarette System
See video here freshchoicetobacco.com/patience.html
From the 1 minute demo the guy could give me, it seemed to work pretty well. There were a few buttons on this thing, and one called "Clean" used to (somehow) clean the tobacco. It also has a compaction level knob to adjust how tight you want your smoke. The machine is about the size of a toaster, has sensors to detect jamming and compaction levels. The only draw back I saw (besides the steap price) was the same one I saw with hand stuffers.... not always getting tobacco towards the filter end of the tube. I could live with this if I knew the machine had enough quality to last a long time. It has a 1 year or 30,000 cigarette warranty, which ever comes first. To buy it at their site, it sells for $449, but my local store was selling them for $375.00 Can't seem to find them anywhere online.
Has anyone here had any experience with this machine? I know there are a few (if not a lot) hard core hand stuffers on here, so please no eliteist comments LOL |
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ItsDarts
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by gilster
on Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:26 am |
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Hi ItsDarts, welcome to the board,
I checked out the video - I don't know if I'd pay that much for something that only takes away one step in the process - ---hand-cranking the tobacco into the tubes.
It is a pain hand-cranking but I don't know if I'd pay $300 more for that feature. ( unless I had athritis or something)
On the Premier machines, I first bought an Excel - broke after a month - went to the Premier Supermatic - so far so good. The Supermatic is metal and has more substance to it.
Opinion from a non-elitist RYO enthusiast -  |
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gilster
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by Tom
on Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:17 pm |
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| That is silly. It's electric, so it's going to have a lot more problems than a supermatic can ever have. I'll stick with my premier supermatic. |
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Tom
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Location: The Kingdom of New Jersey
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by sally
on Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:02 pm |
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Hi- I'm involved with selling the machine and I can clarify a few things:
-the machine is pricy because it makes a uniform cigarette each and every time. There is a microprocesser inside to make sure every cigarette is perfect
- the machine is fast- two minutes for a pack of perfect cigarettes!
- the tobacco, Fresh Choice, adds to the equation because it is all natural, premium tobacco. Combine Fresh Choice tobacco with the machine and you get a fresher, better smoke. |
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sally
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by JohnC
on Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:48 am |
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Sally,
First let me say WELCOME--
To touch on a few points
"the machine is pricy because it makes a uniform cigarette each and every time."
I'm pretty uniform myself -- must be the practice
"- the machine is fast- two minutes for a pack of perfect cigarettes!"
Mine run 4-5 min ---guess it depends on how many you're going to make a day.
"- the tobacco, Fresh Choice, adds to the equation because it is all natural, premium tobacco. Combine Fresh Choice tobacco with the machine and you get a fresher, better smoke"
No argument here --- do you have to buy the machine to try the tobacco?
-J.C.- |
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JohnC
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Joined: Dec 23, 2004
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by ItsDarts
on Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:41 pm |
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sally wrote: Hi- I'm involved with selling the machine and I can clarify a few things:
-the machine is pricy because it makes a uniform cigarette each and every time. There is a microprocesser inside to make sure every cigarette is perfect
- the machine is fast- two minutes for a pack of perfect cigarettes!
- the tobacco, Fresh Choice, adds to the equation because it is all natural, premium tobacco. Combine Fresh Choice tobacco with the machine and you get a fresher, better smoke.
Let me give an account of my experience so far with this machine. Yesterday (oddly enough the day you posted) I went to my local tobacco shop and asked the proprietor if I could try out the machine using my tobacco and papers... I use Peoples Choice (formerly Kentucky Smooth) Light Tobacco and Premere Menthol tubes. He said sure, give it a try... I expected to make a few booboos until I got the correct compaction setting for the tobacco I was using and got a procedure set for putting tobacco into the hopper.
I buy the tobacco in the 1 lbs bags and the good majority of it is rather stringy or course shredded, unlike what you'd see if you opened up a store bought cig, which is more finely chopped. I did not notice if my dealer sold your brand of tobacco, but I will check it out the next time i need tobacco. The first 5 or 10 smokes I made were so tight that I couldn't draw through them... No problem, adjust the compation setting. After getting the seeting all the way to the left (most loose setting) I was able to get smokes I could draw through. I even upped the seeting one notch and was able to make smokes pretty fast. This sold me on the machine, partly because I roll at least 2 packs a day and partly because I'm a gadget geek LOL.
Now for the HOME experience..... I unpacked and read the directions, ran the cleaning cycle a couple times to rid the machine of the factory debris left in it. Noted that the tobacco can't be too moist and it suggested to leave it out for 15 mins or so before using. I did this and broke up the clumps of stringy tobacco while putting it into the hopper. Every now and then I'd get a smoke that felt like it had hard spots within the cig, notably it was packed to tight. Now this all could be because the machine doesn't like my tobacco and I will check this out when I need more. For the most part I was not able to produce 20 "perfect cigs" in 2 mins. My normal hand packing routine includes getting just the right amount of tobacco into the hand machines hopper, inserting a tube, pulling the handle, then hand packing (tapping the butt on the table) to get the tobacco into the back end of the tube. All this take almost a minute, thus taking me 15 to 20 mins to hand stuff 20 tubes. The machine safely saved me about 1/2 of that time, which is still pretty good, but far from the claimed 2 mins. Again, a perfect cig may be obtainable with your tobacco, but I don't think it's realistic to require just your tobacco. It took me about 2 hours(roughly) to make a carton of usable smokes. I had about 6 or 7 that didn't turn out usable either because the hopper got low, but accepted its own compaction or after refilling the hopper, it put more than enough in.
Your site sells this for $449.00, luckily my dealer is selling them for $375... but in my opinion, is still too high (live and learn I always say). It took me a few months to get the hang of hand packing many tubes without failure, so I'm hoping that this is the case with this machine or I'm hoping my dealer sells your tobacco and that I like it. At $375, I'm going to learn how to use this even if it kills me LOL.
Right now, for me it's a trade off... Time vs perfect hand packed smokes, and time is winning.
Could you describe the consitency of the Fresh Choice tobacco compared to either my brand or say RAVE or Gamblers? I've enjoyed these brands as well, but didn't care for the amount of shake in these brands that I wound up tossing. |
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ItsDarts
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by ItsDarts
on Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:43 pm |
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JohnC wrote: Sally,
First let me say WELCOME--
To touch on a few points
"the machine is pricy because it makes a uniform cigarette each and every time."
I'm pretty uniform myself -- must be the practice
"- the machine is fast- two minutes for a pack of perfect cigarettes!"
Mine run 4-5 min ---guess it depends on how many you're going to make a day.
"- the tobacco, Fresh Choice, adds to the equation because it is all natural, premium tobacco. Combine Fresh Choice tobacco with the machine and you get a fresher, better smoke"
No argument here --- do you have to buy the machine to try the tobacco?
-J.C.- |
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ItsDarts
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Joined: Oct 09, 2006
Posts: 6
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by ItsDarts
on Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:58 pm |
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On a more possitive note on this machine....
1. It seems very durable and solid.
2. The insertion Motor/mechanism seems sturdy and can pack a smoke so tight that you can't draw from it and it doesn't seem to bog down much at all. Trying to pack a smoke this tight in the Premere Exell (even by accident) would have broken the hand packer.
3. The "load" button has memory, while the machine is compacting tobacco in the chamber, you can insert a tube, hit the load button and it will fill the tube when it's donw compacting, this gives you time to prepare another tube. Ok, so this maybe saves 2 seconds, but after many many cigs, it adds up.
Some things I'd like to see
1. Some kind of pick or tweezers to remove tobacco from the area where the tube attaches, its difficult to get in there with that added "Safety" shield. This tool could be used to clean inside the hopper as well.
2. The option to remove that Safety shield without breaking it, for us MYO'ers who aren't cluttsy.
3. A little less tension on the button to open the tube holderoner, after 200 cigs, my thumb was starting to get sore.
4. A little less tension on the load button (see #3)
This machine does have promise. |
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ItsDarts
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by sally
on Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:12 pm |
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Hi John:
I would be happy to let you sample the tobacco- my number is 707 751 5915 or you can reach me at sbaldwin@napanet.net
Thanks- we are proud of the all natural, premium tobacco we put in this brand!
Sally
JohnC wrote: Sally,
First let me say WELCOME--
To touch on a few points
"the machine is pricy because it makes a uniform cigarette each and every time."
I'm pretty uniform myself -- must be the practice
"- the machine is fast- two minutes for a pack of perfect cigarettes!"
Mine run 4-5 min ---guess it depends on how many you're going to make a day.
"- the tobacco, Fresh Choice, adds to the equation because it is all natural, premium tobacco. Combine Fresh Choice tobacco with the machine and you get a fresher, better smoke"
No argument here --- do you have to buy the machine to try the tobacco?
-J.C.- |
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sally
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Joined: Oct 15, 2006
Posts: 3
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by sally
on Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:18 pm |
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Hello- I think I can help you with your machine- sounds like it is not working right because of your tobacco- would like to speak with you , if possible. The machine should be simple: dump the tobacco in, add a tube, press load and get a cigarette. If your cigarette isn't 100% perfect I want to know about it because we want you to be 100% happy. $375 is a lot of money - you should be happy- 100%- contact me (see above) and we will make sure you are enjoying perfect cigarettes. THanks
Sally
ItsDarts wrote: sally wrote: Hi- I'm involved with selling the machine and I can clarify a few things:
-the machine is pricy because it makes a uniform cigarette each and every time. There is a microprocesser inside to make sure every cigarette is perfect
- the machine is fast- two minutes for a pack of perfect cigarettes!
- the tobacco, Fresh Choice, adds to the equation because it is all natural, premium tobacco. Combine Fresh Choice tobacco with the machine and you get a fresher, better smoke. Welcome Sally, I saw your name mentioned on the Freshchoice web site.
Let me give an account of my experience so far with this machine. Yesterday (oddly enough the day you posted) I went to my local tobacco shop and asked the proprietor if I could try out the machine using my tobacco and papers... I use Peoples Choice (formerly Kentucky Smooth) Light Tobacco and Premere Menthol tubes. He said sure, give it a try... I expected to make a few booboos until I got the correct compaction setting for the tobacco I was using and got a procedure set for putting tobacco into the hopper.
I buy the tobacco in the 1 lbs bags and the good majority of it is rather stringy or course shredded, unlike what you'd see if you opened up a store bought cig, which is more finely chopped. I did not notice if my dealer sold your brand of tobacco, but I will check it out the next time i need tobacco. The first 5 or 10 smokes I made were so tight that I couldn't draw through them... No problem, adjust the compation setting. After getting the seeting all the way to the left (most loose setting) I was able to get smokes I could draw through. I even upped the seeting one notch and was able to make smokes pretty fast. This sold me on the machine, partly because I roll at least 2 packs a day and partly because I'm a gadget geek LOL.
Now for the HOME experience..... I unpacked and read the directions, ran the cleaning cycle a couple times to rid the machine of the factory debris left in it. Noted that the tobacco can't be too moist and it suggested to leave it out for 15 mins or so before using. I did this and broke up the clumps of stringy tobacco while putting it into the hopper. Every now and then I'd get a smoke that felt like it had hard spots within the cig, notably it was packed to tight. Now this all could be because the machine doesn't like my tobacco and I will check this out when I need more. For the most part I was not able to produce 20 "perfect cigs" in 2 mins. My normal hand packing routine includes getting just the right amount of tobacco into the hand machines hopper, inserting a tube, pulling the handle, then hand packing (tapping the butt on the table) to get the tobacco into the back end of the tube. All this take almost a minute, thus taking me 15 to 20 mins to hand stuff 20 tubes. The machine safely saved me about 1/2 of that time, which is still pretty good, but far from the claimed 2 mins. Again, a perfect cig may be obtainable with your tobacco, but I don't think it's realistic to require just your tobacco. It took me about 2 hours(roughly) to make a carton of usable smokes. I had about 6 or 7 that didn't turn out usable either because the hopper got low, but accepted its own compaction or after refilling the hopper, it put more than enough in.
Your site sells this for $449.00, luckily my dealer is selling them for $375... but in my opinion, is still too high (live and learn I always say). It took me a few months to get the hang of hand packing many tubes without failure, so I'm hoping that this is the case with this machine or I'm hoping my dealer sells your tobacco and that I like it. At $375, I'm going to learn how to use this even if it kills me LOL.
Right now, for me it's a trade off... Time vs perfect hand packed smokes, and time is winning.
Could you describe the consitency of the Fresh Choice tobacco compared to either my brand or say RAVE or Gamblers? I've enjoyed these brands as well, but didn't care for the amount of shake in these brands that I wound up tossing. |
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sally
Newbie
Joined: Oct 15, 2006
Posts: 3
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