An Honest Review of The USonicig Rhythm

Innovation doesn’t come easily to any  industry, but with how new vaping is to the whole of humanity we can expect new and innovative ways to approach atomizers utilizing different techniques as vaping technology develops. Ultrasonic vaping seems to be the next logical step in the industry. We’ve had ultrasonic vaporizers around for a while now, in the form of cool mist humidifiers and nebulizers, but the USonicig Rhythm marks the first time ultrasonic technology has been utilized in an electronic cigarette. It’s a bold step in an innovative direction, but how well does it actually work?

The Technology Behind the Machine

As I mentioned in the previous section, ultrasonic vaporizing technology has been utilized for years in nebulizers and humidifiers. To understand how the Ultrasonic vaporizer system works in the USonicig Rhythm we’ll need a little science lesson from wikipedia first.

Basically an ultrasonic humidifier uses a ceramic diaphragm vibrating at an ultrasonic frequency to create water droplets that silently exit the humidifier in the form of cool fog. Ultrasonic humidifiers use a piezoelectric transducer to create a high frequency mechanical oscillation in a thin film of liquid. This forms an extremely fine mist composed of droplets about one micron in diameter, that is quickly evaporated into the air flow.

The Rhythm from USonicig functions similarly to ultrasonic humidifiers, but without any added water to diffuse the vapor. In this cutaway of the Rhythm’s Tank section you can see a similar diaphragm in place which vibrates E-Liquid at an ultrasonic frequency to produce vapor. It’s a novel concept to be sure, and because of the ultrasonic technology there's no need for a heating element or coil to heat the E-Liquid.

Theoretically, using ultrasonic technology to produce inhalable vapor is the healthiest way to consume said vapor. Because of the lack of metal heating elements the chances of ingesting carcinogens is greatly diminished.  

Now that’s all well and good in theory, but in order to create the amount of oscillations in the frequency required to produce vapor these devices require a massive amount of power, much more so than traditional heating elements. To keep up with that increased power draw you’d think the USonicig Rhythm would be packing a strong built-in battery with plenty of power right?

Well you’d be wrong, they put a 1500mAh battery in it. 1500mAh. I’ve been using this device for a few days and when I’m using it (or trying to use it) as a regular vaporizer the battery life is abysmal. I can vape the Rhythm from full power down to 20% in less than 2 hours. That is absolutely unacceptable from a device that takes about 2 hours to reach full charge. There’s a ring of battery life indicator lights on the side of the device and after just 5 strong puffs one of indicator lights went out.

Ultrasonic Vaping in the Real World

Now that we know how it works, let's find    out how well it works. I really like the style of this device, it features a modern minimalistic design and the finish on it is very chic. The firing button is probably one of my favorite features on the Rhythm.  Inspired by the shape of a musical note, the firing button is activated by pressing down on a lever, how fun is that?

 

 

 

 

 

But at the end of the day, this is a vaporizer and it needs to function as one. So what’s the verdict from a real vaper? Welp, it’s a great effort but I feel like the technology just isn’t where it needs to be for this device to replace traditional E-Cigarettes.

In order to get a decent sized cloud from the Rhythm you have to take a very very long pull, I was averaging about 5 to 7 seconds per puff of holding down the firing button just to get a halfway decent cloud. Firing the device for that long just to get one decent puff out of it is decimating the battery life. As I mentioned in the previous section, the battery life is pretty poor so when you have to fire the device for that long every time you use it that tends to exacerbate the battery problems.

In terms of flavor production, the flavor is there but it’s extremely muted. I’m not sure if it’s an issue with too much airflow compared to vapor production or if it’s more of an issue with whatever wicking element they use, but the flavor just isn’t there. I’ve been using DVNK from Cookie King to test the Rhythm and I’m just not getting the flavors out of it that I should. It’s normally a very sweet dessert flavor with notes of cinnamon, vanilla, and graham cracker. But with the Rhythm I’m only getting a subtle hint of sweetness with no discernible flavors that stand out.

The vapor produced by the Rhythm is very smooth, they did a great job with that. It tastes like, because there’s no heating element, the vapor that you inhale is quite cool and less harsh than most standard vaporizers. But that’s about it in terms of the benefits with this particular ultrasonic device.

The Verdict

Ultrasonic vaping technology has the inherent ability to change the way we as vapers approach vaping. A complete lack of coil heating elements makes this one of the safest devices on the market to use regularly. But with the USonicig Rhythm the technology just isn’t at the point that it needs to be for this to be a viable vaping device. The battery life dies out way too quickly, even when using this as an MTL device with high concentration Nicotine Salt E-Liquids. It also blows through E-Liquid like you wouldn’t believe. I mean you’re getting barely any vapor out of each puff, how on earth does it use that much E-Liquid to deliver that tiny amount of vapor? It runs through vapor almost as fast as it runs through it’s battery life.

Look I’m all for technological innovations, I remember back when the first iPhone came out and it was such a gigantic leap in what was possible for a person to do, I am still amazed to even have that level of technology available in the same time period that I’m alive. But, it was buggy, it had all sorts of issues that made it hard to justify spending more for it than a regular flip phone. Now, just a decade later, we have smartphones and tablets that are so advanced they utilize things like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning, everybody and their grandmother knows how to use a smartphone these days.

I think we’re going to see a similar pattern of technological advancement with Ultrasonic Vaporizers. I have to give credit to USonicig for taking that first step and being a punching bag for all the critics like myself, it takes guts to release a brand new technology that’s relatively untested by the general population and try to sell it. Unfortunately they didn’t take into account the amount of power draw required to actually vaporize a usable amount of E-Liquid and utilized a battery that is far too underpowered.  

Hold off on buying the Rhythm unless you really REALLY want to try ultrasonic vaping, I recommend saving your money until a better version of Ultrasonic Vaporizers hit the market.