Todd vs. Amerivape: What we failed to learn

A short summary of events, in case you missed it.

Todd, of www.toddsreviews.com was putting together a video review of the Amerivape Manhattan.
He had a concern about venting. In short, it appeared to Todd that the Manhattan didn't vent.
He contacted Amerivape.
Amerivape responded that the Manhattan was designed to vent “at 35 psi or when the button is pressed.”
Todd got back to Amerivape after check the venting with the button pressed… it appeared to Todd that the Manhatten didn't vent.

This is where things started to get unpleasant.

Todd posted his review and Amerivape got angry... they threatened legal action
… and then accused Todd of threatening them.

All of this resulted in a bit of a shit storm on social media. (read more here if you're interested)

The thing is, even after things have started to cool down, Amerivape has a lingering problem.

It’s not threatening to sue a reviewer, it’s not deplorable customer relations, it’s something that few people seem to be saying anything about. It’s consumer confidence in the consistency of Americape products.

Todds video showed the Manhattan not venting when he blew into it, both with and without the button pressed. This is a reasonable concern. And Amerivapes explanation about venting at 35 psi is a reasonable response… but then youtube user Craig Cosby posts a video titled “Ameravape Manhattan video showing no venting issues” in it we see a water leaking from a Manhattan….
Think about that for a second.
Fill the tube with water and watch it leak out… at what? 35 psi? not even close. Maybe 14.7 psi. Add another video  by youtube user chuff aluffigus showing airflow through the vents at 5 psi… and now we see the problem that Amerivape is facing.

3 Manhattan mods
3 videos
3 different venting behaviors

What Amerivape has is consistency problem… a quality control problem.

If every unit doesn't perform to the published specification, then those specifications are meaningless. And we, the consumers have no way of knowing if our mod will vent at 5 psi, or 14.7 psi, or 35 psi, or any pressure level at all. Think about it, let it really sink in, then consider what happens in the event of a battery failure… a thermal runaway… With full venting this could be unpleasant with hot flaming gasses shooting out… at higher psi it could be very unpleasant with the mod potentially resembling a small rocket. And with no venting… well, with no venting the mod is really just a short pipe. Pipe plus explosive thermal failure equals…

Now, I’m not saying that the Amerivape Manhattan is a pipe bomb waiting to happen. What I am saying is that any mod that lacks venting is a pipe bomb waiting to happen. I’m also saying that any manufacturer that lacks the ability to ship products that are consistently within target specifications may be selling you a mod with unknown venting…
They may be selling you a mod with adequate venting.
They may be selling you a pipe rocket.
And they may be selling you a pipe bomb.

What we, the consumers, should be learning from this is that we need to insist that the manufacturers of our hardware and liquids have both quality assurance and quality control practices in place. Or we need to take our money elsewhere.