SirRichardRear
AKA Anthony Vapes on Youtube
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Diamond Contributor
Member For 3 Years
Reviewer
Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the Kangertech Gem Pod Kit, please see the bottom for disclaimers and links. Note this is not marked as a sample version.
Introduction:
The Kangertech Gem Pod kit is the latest Pod Kit from long time vape manufacturer Kangertech. They have been around for a long time but really haven’t made much worth mentioning in the past years so have kind of fallen out of the spotlight in vaping. The Gem is a simple style AIO Pod with refillable pods and a built in 500mah battery and is inhale to fire. It’s available in 6 colors Silver, Black, Green, Blue, Rainbow, and Hot Pink. Looking around online it’s available on pre-order only and I could only find it for 21-25 USD out of china.
Manufacturer's Specs:
album
Kit Rundown
The Kanger Gem is a simple rounded rectangle-ish styled AIO (all in one) Pod kit, meaning there isn’t a separate mod or tank that can be used with anything else. It does have replaceable pods so you can carry spares, but those are sold separately and the coils are built into the pods so you replace the whole pod like a renova zero or innokin EQ. It’s a good size all things considered not super small but not large. It’s pretty close in size and design to a renova zero or aspire AVP. There is no adjustable air as well like most pods. Not a big deal but it is cool when pods have adjustable air but not really the standard these days yet so just a bonus when it has that. It has an average capacity of 2ml (so TPD compliant). The battery is listed at 500mah so a little on the small side for its size but not bad. Slightly behind the renovca zero and aspire AVP by about 150-200mah. It features built in USB charging, but sadly they don’t list it publically anywhere, however in the manual they list it at .5A. I tested this 3 times with an inline USB meter and for the charge rate it charges at .48A max so good rating there. It charges full in about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Battery size wise my 3 tests had results between 492 and 517 mah so close enough to the 500mah listed. Nothing way overstated from what they list it as, which is all i’m looking for so good ratings. It does not have passthrough however. The drip tip is proprietary and part of the pod itself. The Kanger Gem is very nicely built, and pretty light. The coloring is also nice. I got the green one which like all of them is mostly black anyway but has a nice dark green frame. There is no wearing on the paint on mine so far.
The pods attach to the battery via a magnet system and are easy to get in and out and fit really well so good job there and fit it nicely with no wiggle or play. However i found the magnets to be pretty weak, Would have liked better magnets. They don’t really snap into place like most pods. To remove the pod just pull it out. The filling is a standard plug on the bottom of the pod. The fill hole is a good size for any fine tip bottle. I was able to easily fill this device with no issues.
Usage is pretty easy. It’s an inhale to fire only device with no buttons or modes. The inhale to fire worked great with no misfires or anything. One thing to note though is that after a few minutes of not using it, the device goes into a “sleep” mode so your first attempt to inhale will wake it up instead of vaping. On one hand I like it because it saves battery, on the other hand, it’s kind of annoying. There are 4 little white round LED lights on the front bottom. A set of 3 and a solo one under that. When vaping the solo LED is active. After you finish the inhale the set of 3 lights up for a few seconds so you can see the battery charge. I like that a lot as it makes it easy to look at the battery level without having to do it the same time as inhaling. 3 lights means 65% or more, 2 lights means 30-65% and 1 light means under 30% battery. Good enough battery meter, not great but not bad. A 4th step would have been nice though. The pod is almost fully exposed so seeing your juice level is mostly easy. You don’t need to remove it or turn upside down to see until it’s really low. The only thing making it not 100% easy is the tinting. The pod is tinted way too dark. Not sure how many times i have to point this out in reviews, but it makes it way too hard to see your juice level. Clear pods would have been better.
Coil Performance and details
The Kanger Gem Kit comes with 1 Pod only sadly. All kits should always include 2 coils/pods. There is only 1 coil option which is a 1.2 ohm ceramic coil. They did send me a spare so i got to use 2 pods in total. I used all 50/50 and 60/40 nic salt juices 20-25 mg nicotine. With that said flavorwise it’s a Tier 2 meaning it’s not one of the best, but it’s good enough for a pod system. It chain vapes great too with no issues. Lifewise however I didn’t have much luck. The 1st pod lasted only 4ml while the 2nd pod lasted only 6ml so a 5ml average between the 2 pods. I typically look for at least 10 ml from a pod system coil like this so it fails that sadly. Overall the coils are just ok flavorwise and subpar for life.
Pros:
So with all that said, do I recommend this POD kit or not? I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, but this one leans towards the no. It’s not a bad pod system by any means, I've had many of those, but it’s not a good one either. If the coil life was better i'd’ probably lean a little towards the yes, but i really think they need to have better coils and make a few tweaks on the device itself before I can recommend one. Maybe on the next system. I won’t be adding this to my spreadsheet of recs which is linked below. Feel free to check that out if you are in the market for anything new as i keep it up to date with the latest and greatest products I've reviewed.
This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and I'll catch you on my next review.
Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from Kangertech
Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.
Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done over 400 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.
Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here
Spreadsheet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 list here
Best of 2017 list here
Introduction:
The Kangertech Gem Pod kit is the latest Pod Kit from long time vape manufacturer Kangertech. They have been around for a long time but really haven’t made much worth mentioning in the past years so have kind of fallen out of the spotlight in vaping. The Gem is a simple style AIO Pod with refillable pods and a built in 500mah battery and is inhale to fire. It’s available in 6 colors Silver, Black, Green, Blue, Rainbow, and Hot Pink. Looking around online it’s available on pre-order only and I could only find it for 21-25 USD out of china.
Manufacturer's Specs:
- Length: 32 mm
- Width: 14 mm
- Height: 80 mm
- Capacity: 2mL
- Kit Weight: 37g
- Battery Capacity: 500mAh
- 1x GEM Device
- 1x GEM Pod
- 1x USB Charging Cable
- 1x Manual
- Coil: Ceramic 1.2Ohm
album
Kit Rundown
The Kanger Gem is a simple rounded rectangle-ish styled AIO (all in one) Pod kit, meaning there isn’t a separate mod or tank that can be used with anything else. It does have replaceable pods so you can carry spares, but those are sold separately and the coils are built into the pods so you replace the whole pod like a renova zero or innokin EQ. It’s a good size all things considered not super small but not large. It’s pretty close in size and design to a renova zero or aspire AVP. There is no adjustable air as well like most pods. Not a big deal but it is cool when pods have adjustable air but not really the standard these days yet so just a bonus when it has that. It has an average capacity of 2ml (so TPD compliant). The battery is listed at 500mah so a little on the small side for its size but not bad. Slightly behind the renovca zero and aspire AVP by about 150-200mah. It features built in USB charging, but sadly they don’t list it publically anywhere, however in the manual they list it at .5A. I tested this 3 times with an inline USB meter and for the charge rate it charges at .48A max so good rating there. It charges full in about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Battery size wise my 3 tests had results between 492 and 517 mah so close enough to the 500mah listed. Nothing way overstated from what they list it as, which is all i’m looking for so good ratings. It does not have passthrough however. The drip tip is proprietary and part of the pod itself. The Kanger Gem is very nicely built, and pretty light. The coloring is also nice. I got the green one which like all of them is mostly black anyway but has a nice dark green frame. There is no wearing on the paint on mine so far.
The pods attach to the battery via a magnet system and are easy to get in and out and fit really well so good job there and fit it nicely with no wiggle or play. However i found the magnets to be pretty weak, Would have liked better magnets. They don’t really snap into place like most pods. To remove the pod just pull it out. The filling is a standard plug on the bottom of the pod. The fill hole is a good size for any fine tip bottle. I was able to easily fill this device with no issues.
Usage is pretty easy. It’s an inhale to fire only device with no buttons or modes. The inhale to fire worked great with no misfires or anything. One thing to note though is that after a few minutes of not using it, the device goes into a “sleep” mode so your first attempt to inhale will wake it up instead of vaping. On one hand I like it because it saves battery, on the other hand, it’s kind of annoying. There are 4 little white round LED lights on the front bottom. A set of 3 and a solo one under that. When vaping the solo LED is active. After you finish the inhale the set of 3 lights up for a few seconds so you can see the battery charge. I like that a lot as it makes it easy to look at the battery level without having to do it the same time as inhaling. 3 lights means 65% or more, 2 lights means 30-65% and 1 light means under 30% battery. Good enough battery meter, not great but not bad. A 4th step would have been nice though. The pod is almost fully exposed so seeing your juice level is mostly easy. You don’t need to remove it or turn upside down to see until it’s really low. The only thing making it not 100% easy is the tinting. The pod is tinted way too dark. Not sure how many times i have to point this out in reviews, but it makes it way too hard to see your juice level. Clear pods would have been better.
Coil Performance and details
The Kanger Gem Kit comes with 1 Pod only sadly. All kits should always include 2 coils/pods. There is only 1 coil option which is a 1.2 ohm ceramic coil. They did send me a spare so i got to use 2 pods in total. I used all 50/50 and 60/40 nic salt juices 20-25 mg nicotine. With that said flavorwise it’s a Tier 2 meaning it’s not one of the best, but it’s good enough for a pod system. It chain vapes great too with no issues. Lifewise however I didn’t have much luck. The 1st pod lasted only 4ml while the 2nd pod lasted only 6ml so a 5ml average between the 2 pods. I typically look for at least 10 ml from a pod system coil like this so it fails that sadly. Overall the coils are just ok flavorwise and subpar for life.
Pros:
- color options (6 total)
- Good 2 ml capacity
- Good build quality on battery
- nice simple looks
- Good LEDs
- nice paint job
- good size for easy portability
- good ratings for battery size and charge rate
- charges fast enough (1 hour and 20 mins)
- easy to fill
- pods are easy to remove and install
- good enough battery meter
- price point for device
- inhale to fire worked great every time
- Pods are tinted too dark (makes it harder to see juice level)
- flavor is acceptable but could be better
- poor coil life
- battery size should be a little bigger
- 1A charging would have been nice
- no passthrough vaping
- comes with 1 pod only
So with all that said, do I recommend this POD kit or not? I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, but this one leans towards the no. It’s not a bad pod system by any means, I've had many of those, but it’s not a good one either. If the coil life was better i'd’ probably lean a little towards the yes, but i really think they need to have better coils and make a few tweaks on the device itself before I can recommend one. Maybe on the next system. I won’t be adding this to my spreadsheet of recs which is linked below. Feel free to check that out if you are in the market for anything new as i keep it up to date with the latest and greatest products I've reviewed.
This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and I'll catch you on my next review.
Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from Kangertech
Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.
Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done over 400 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.
Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here
Spreadsheet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 list here
Best of 2017 list here