Current estimated lead time

40-45 business days from payment. See the FAQ for details on how the lead time works.

Protovapor out of office

We will be out of office the week of 5/5 and return about the middle of the following week. No mod or service shipments will be made during this time, but online support will continue to function. Lead times did take into account this out of office period, so we expect to remain on schedule.

XPV ordering throttling

XPV ordering will be shut down during the time we are out of office, and thereafter we will work out a policy of order throttling with the goal of reducing our lead times. This will mean ordering will be less available for a period of time, either through dark days, daily order limits, or some other method.

New blog efforts

We will make an effort to make additional posts to the blog here at Protovapor. Our plans are are to post more images of the mods being produced, so as to show different color combinations, and to link reviews and other media featuring Protovapor.

Hawaii legislation fails

As of the end of this week, Hawaii’s misguided anti-vaping legislation has died in conference. There will be no restricting of vaping in Hawaii by law this year! We thank everyone who supported our efforts to oppose these laws.

Current estimated lead time

35-40 business days from payment. See the FAQ for details on how the lead time works.

Restocked, new colors

We have restocked existing colors and have added 3 new colors to the lineup: gold, green and red. Right now quantities are limited as we gauge response. People with existing orders that have not received shipping notices can submit a support request to change colors; please try to do that within the next 48 hours as it will help greatly with stock management. Changes are subject to availability.

The new blue

We have restocked with a larger quantity of blue based on previous response, however the new blue is a slightly different color from the original. While the original was more teal/aqua, the new is more a royal blue. It is a very handsome color, but the aqua button no longer really matches it. We are looking into a few new blue button options, but just be aware for the time being. If you ordered aqua/blue and want to change, send a support request.

Sony VTC5 batteries

We are expecting to get a shipment of Sony US18650VTC5 2600 mAh 30A batteries sometime this coming week. At that time, we will switch all production from VTC4 batteries to VTC5. All orders with Sony batteries specified will be changed to the VTC5 battery automatically. You do not need to request this.

We are shutting down!

… ordering

… for a day or two

… to restock 🙂

We are receiving a new shipment of cases on or about 4/1, at which time we will take a day or two to reconcile all orders with available cases, then post the remainder up as available for ordering. At that time we will adjust lead time if possible. Current estimated lead time as of today remains 35-40 business days.

Thanks for your continued patience and support!

Current lead time estimate

35-40 business days from payment

How does the lead time work?

We have received some inquiries about how the lead time for XPV mods works, so we would like to clarify here. XPV mods are made to order. A production lead time, or delay between order and shipment, applies to all XPV orders. The lead time estimate posted at the time the order is placed is the one that applies to the order.

When we change the lead time, it is for new orders going forward. Orders will ship in general numerical order. There may be small order changes among local batches of mods (5-10 units) but generally all will ship close to each other.

Note that we will operate under the order acceptance policy posted on 3/10 until announced otherwise.

Current estimated lead time

30-35 business days from payment

Hawaii anti-vaping legislation SB2495 SD3

Anyone wishing to submit testimony in opposition to Hawaii’s anti-vaping legislation can do so here: SB2495. Simply registering opposition, personal testimonies, etc. would be the best. No need to mention Protovapor or your patronage of us; that will likely be seen as self-interest and not compelling.

Current estimated lead time

30-35 business days from payment

Ongoing ordering plans

We have decided to keep ordering ongoing regardless of how long the lead time gets, and simply report the estimated lead time as accurately as we can. We have decided this because of potential upcoming legislation in our state that could apply a large excise tax to future orders. Orders already paid for represent completed purchases, so the pricing would be locked in.

This means that lead time is likely to get longer and longer, possibly into what we could consider excessive numbers. But doing things this way will mean that, should legislation hit us hard, we will be able to continue operating for some time should demand drop precipitously.

Should the legislation fail, or settle upon a level of regulation that should not threaten our future demand, we will likely shut down ordering for a time to catch up on orders and reduce the lead time.

Colors update

We have put black, blue, and grey cases back up as options for purchase for full-size XPVs. Grey cases are back as an option for minis. If you have a mod currently on order, you can change the color one time within the next 48 hours. Please use the Support form and include your Order number on the request. We have a small number of red and green cases coming but we cannot put them up for sale until we have them in hand and see whether they will stand up to our build process.

Introductory sale ends :/

All good things must come to an end, and after a rather extended introductory period, the introductory sale is over. Thanks to all early adopters for your patronage and support!

Current estimated lead time

21-28 business days from payment

Status inquiries

The post from a few days back needs to be reiterated: please do not send status inquiries before 48 hours after the end of the lead time window that was in place at the time you ordered your mod. We are literally working night and day to get through the demand surge from the new site opening, and the time it takes to research and respond to inquiries eats into production time.

We do not have any news about the production of mods other than what we post, and the specifics of your mod’s production are not known until it’s just about ready to produce, at which time it will be done and shipped within 24-48 hours. Shipping deadlines are often tight, so an unnecessary inquiry could easily cause a package to miss the shipping cutoff.

In the end, it’s not fair to others waiting in line when status inquiries take up production time. So please keep inquiries to after the 48-hour period.

Supporting the fight against anti-vaping legislation

Several people have inquired about ways they could help support us in the fight against anti-vaping legislation. We will post information on how to submit testimony when the time comes. We really appreciate it!

Current lead time

Estimated lead time for new XPV orders is 21-28 business days from date of payment. Production is running normally.

Update on colors

We have reordered cases in colors. We should be adding them back into stock at some point over the next week.

LG batteries now available

LG 18650HE2 2500mAh batteries are now available as an option on all full-size XPV mods.

Order volume

We are experiencing high interest in the XPV mods. For now we have decided, rather than shutting down ordering, to allow ongoing ordering and keep updating lead time. However this could change in the future depending on just how high volume stays. We are sensitive to wait times vs. purchasing availability, and will continue to re-evaluate and adjust into the future.

Anti-vaping legislation

Like in many jurisdictions around the nation, vaping in Hawaii is under major attack. There were several bills in the legislature, the last one standing is SB2495, which is a comprehensive, extremely damaging bill, that regulates ecigarettes as tobacco and forces vaping businesses to become tobacco businesses. It imposes an unspecified tax on businesses as well. This bill threatens to destroy the local industry and will likely put us out of business.

As a result, we are spending a good amount of time trying to fight this legislation, which is using up some of our valuable time resources that we should be using to do our regular business operations. We apologize for any ongoing delays this may cause, however we feel we must spend this time as this legislation threatens our very existence.

Current lead time

Estimated lead time for new XPV orders is 14-21 business days from date of payment. Production is running normally.

Status inquiries

Please try not to send status inquiries. When an XPV order is placed, the lead time most recently posted applies. Please make note of this lead time at the time you place the order. Also please note this timeframe is an estimate; we do not and cannot provide a specific shipping date. We ask that you refrain from submitting status inquiries until at least 48 hours past the end of your lead time window. Generally if we fall behind we will announce it via a Site News post, otherwise you can assume that your mod will most likely ship during that window. A shipping notification is sent and the order is updated here on the site when shipment goes out.

There is really no other news to report during the lead time period, so status inquiries usually only receive a reiteration of the lead time. But as we are a small operation, the time it takes to research a specific inquiry does cut into production time and delays production for everyone. So we ask that you remain patient.

Credit card holds

When you initiate a credit card transaction, your issuing bank puts a temporary hold on the amount of the transaction. This amount is held for a period of time even if the transaction fails, then it automatically clears. You may be able to contact your bank to have that hold cleared if you need immediate access to the held amount. There is nothing we can do on our end to clear that hold, it is your bank that is holding it.

LG batteries available soon now available!

Edit 3/3: LG 18650HE2 2500mAh 20A batteries are now available in all full-size DNA mods! We expect to have LG ICR18650HE2 2500Ah 20A batteries available early next week. If you have a mod on order and have not yet received a shipping notification, you can opt for the LG battery. Just send us a message via the Contact Us form, and include your order number in the subject. These will be available for both DNA 20D and DNA 30D versions of the full size XPV.

 Case colors!

We will be getting more case color options in about 3-4 weeks. We are restocking blue, and adding gold, red, and possibly green. At this time we do not have plans to do a preorder, however if you are interested in preordering, send us a message so we can gauge interest. If enough people are interested we will set up a preorder. Also, if you are still in the queue when the colors become available, you will have the option to pick a color at that time.

As always we appreciate your support and patience. We are working very hard to provide you with the best products we can, and it’s rewarding to see people enjoy them.

Black cases note

Late edit: As of right now, all black cases on hand have been ordered. However cases should be restocked in within the lead time period. We will be updating the stock shortly but we want to make the situation known.

Updated lead times

Here are the current lead time estimates on orders, based on situation:

• Orders that were ordered on the old site using the form, that have been paid via the new payment gateway: 5-7 business days from payment.
• Orders that are ordered and paid entirely on the new site via the new payment gateway: 10-20 business days from payment.

Lead time changes apply to orders going forward. There was a pretty huge spike of orders with the launch of the new site, which we believe is a clearing of a demand backlog, rather than an ongoing increase in daily demand. Hopefully we will not continue to see ever-lengthening lead times, and they will reduce as we work through this initial order boom. If it appears as though lead times will get longer again, we will likely begin some method of throttling the ordering rate in order to keep lead times reasonable.

Weekly operation

In order to set the expectation of responsiveness and support, please keep the following in mind. Our business week is Monday through Friday, so these would be our business days mentioned in the lead time estimates. Generally we respond to inquiries between late Monday and late Friday HST.