Eleaf iStick Pico S Kit Review by KingPin!

[KingPin!]

Hi Folks.

I need to open this review with a disclaimer: Unicorns were harmed in the making of this product! Brace your eyes, are you ready for it….



Gulp, Ok swallow that pride man! This dazzling spectacle is going to be living with you for the next month wherever you go…calm down, carry on. Let’s face it nobody really cares what you’re vaping on whilst watching footie down the pub…hmm maybe “Nigel” will, but then he’s an exception to the rule.



So before I get cracking; I should mention I kindly received this directly from Eleaf. I don’t like to make recommendations in my reviews; instead I’ll present you with all my findings to help bolster your research should you be interested in the product.

What’s in the Box?

• 1 x Eleaf Ello vate tank standard version 6.5ml (2ml for Europe) assembled with the HW-N 0.2ohm coil
• 1 x Spare Coil HW-M (0.15 ohm)
• 1 x Spare Glass (non bubble)
• 1 x 18650 Battery Adaptor
• 1 x Avatar AVB 21700 Cell (optional)
• 1 x Eleaf iStick Pico S Mod
• 1 x USB Cable
• 1 x User Manual and other info
• 1 x Spare bits bag

Available colours: Black, Rainbow (dazzling), Red, White, Blue , Silver

Product Information: http://www.eleafworld.com/istick-pico-s-with-ello-vate/

Part 1 - The Ello Vape Tank

Build Quality and Impressions

I’m going to take the 5th and skip a large portion of the tank review. I’m not try to shirk my responsibilities here, I just feel the Ello Vate tank is too close to the Ello TS, to the point I’d rehashing exactly the same info…(shhhh - it’s just in a different skin).



I won’t leave you completely hanging though. If you were interested in the tank, my review of the Tessera and Ello TS kit can be found here:

http://vapingunderground.com/threads/eleaf-tessera-ello-ts-kit-review-by-kingpin.405787/

The main differences between the tanks are the Ello Vate comes with:

• A bubble glass tank increasing it capacity for non-European countries
• A single Honeycomb resin drip tip, instead of two Delrin
• Different airflow slot size
• Different coils
• Different Aesthetics

Aside from this they are the same, even the coils are cross compatible, so I really don’t want to go over old ground again, but I’ll leave some pics to show you around it.




Be careful dropping this “honeycomb” drip tip they are liable to crack and break around those metal mesh areas. This was my own fault entirely (on a different drip tip) I’m just pointing out what can happen. Unfortunately unlike the Ello TS and Tessera kit you don’t get any spare in this pack.



How’s it Vape?

The only main difference are the coils it comes with:

Kanthal mesh is the order of the day. A tightly perforated mesh net, and a standard mesh separates the two coils you get with the kit.



HW-N (0.2ohm mesh net) is rated between 40-90 watts. I found the stated resistance to be accurate. Unfortunately the coil break in time, to get rid of that horrible cotton taste, was extensive at 12ml of E-juice!

I found it to be a very airy vape, in fact I had the airflow open just a fifth to compensate. I wasn’t able to push the coil much above 50W, so it’s wildly overrated. The coil life was very disappointing at 4 days. I reckon I’m just bloody unlucky with these kits, I had a janky coil in the last kit as well!

HW-M (0.15ohm mesh coil) is rated between 50-100 watts. Taking the learnings from its sibling, I pinned this next coils cotton a fair amount to make sure it was going to be wicking well, and surely enough it performed much better.

I found the stated resistance to be accurate. It’s still wildly overrated; I’m vaping this at 68W and can’t push it much beyond this. However it lasted me 1.5 weeks, which is much more respectable. Break in was a single tank, and I was satisfied with the airflow set to half way.

So to conclude: Pinning either of these coils is an absolute must. The flavour is an improvement over those offered with the Ello TS, but as I said these are cross compatible tanks so there’s nothing to stop you picking up some mesh coils for your Tessera kit and whacking these in the TS tank.

Ello Vate Tank - Final Conclusion

Since it’s the Ello TS tank with a new look I’m going to avoid giving it a Pro’s and Cons. I’d only cover very similar findings as before anyway.

I will say this in conclusion though: I’m not sold on mesh coils, I personally don’t like the lack of fade. What I mean is you go from “this tastes really nice” on one puff, to “oh shit, I just got the hit from hell” on the next. Whilst they offer an advance in flavour, I’d still be looking to stick with the traditional coil types for this tank.

 

[KingPin!]

Part 2 - The iStick Pico S Mod




Manufacturer Specifications

• Dimensions: H 80mm x W 28.5mm x D 52.5mm
• Weight : 275g (fully assembled with juice in the tank), 211g on its own
• Display : 27mm x 13mm OLED screen
• Wattage Range 1-100W
• Voltage Output: 0.5V – 9V
• Battery: Single 21700 or 18650
• Modes: Wattage (VW) / Bypass /Temperature Control (TC) for Ni, Ti, SS / Manual Temp Control (TCR)
• Allowable Resistance Range: 0.05ohm – 1.0ohm in TC modes / 0.1ohm – 3.0ohm in VW modes
• Charging: 5V/2A
• Thread: 510
• 510 Pin Depth: 4.2mm
• Chipset: Eleaf’s own Proprietary
• Firmware Upgradable
• Usual Protections in place

Available Colours: red, black, white, silver, dazzling, blue

Product Info: http://www.eleafworld.com/istick-pico-s/v

Build Quality and Impressions

The Pico series is very long running now it’s undergone many iterations over the past few years and is widely regarding as a solid starter kit. It’s a bit like cars just add a letter or something to the name and you get a new mod out of it.

So what’s good about the iStick Pico S then?

Feels good in the hand both in weight, and comfort. I found it doesn’t matter whether you’re a lefty or righty, it suits both equally. I like how the fire button engages on the Pico S in addition to the up and down buttons. As with the Tessera I reckon Eleaf got the press resistance spot on and there is no button rattle on my mod.

Oddly there is no lock function. You just turn the mod on or off, although it’s very easy because there is no boot up screen to worry about.

It supports both 21700 and 18650 batteries. The optional 21700 it comes with (Avatar Controls) isn’t all that bad. As per Mooch it has a capacity of 3900mAh and discharge rating of 20A. I managed to get 367 puffs out of a full battery vaping at 50 watts, which I’m certainly not going to scoff at. To put this into perspective vaping a single 18650 Sony VTC5a under the same conditions I got 168 puffs out of it; so to me it really is a no brainer to use the larger battery.



I should note here although I was able to get 367 puffs above, by the time the mod is at quarter full (3.5 volts or around 298 puffs) you’ll be wanting to recharge by then because its performance drops off noticeably.

The paint job is rather excellent and suits the tank seamlessly. I haven’t had any problems with it until now what-so-ever (1 month). The 510 plate does sit slightly proud and will make your atomisers appear to have a slight gap underneath.

I haven’t had any problems with the 510 assembly itself, the pin has decent throw to it and it will seat up to 25mm tanks no problem. Unfortunately I can’t disassemble this mod to take a look underneath, the unicorns sealed it up well which is going down as a con because I cant clean up if there’s a leak



I like how easy it is to swap a battery over, and the added grip to the battery tube. I also like that Eleaf place the positive end down with venting underneath.



I’ve had no issue with on board charging this device. It gets a little warm but nothing particularly worrisome. I’ve taken the battery out just once for external charging.

I recorded low voltage cut off at 3.3V. It took 2 and half hours to charge the cell. Much like the Tessera it initially flashes at 4.15V as if it’s fully charged, but it continues to charge until its proper cut off, at which point the screen goes blank. I recorded cut off at 4.21V, which is within tolerance (even for external chargers). It took the mod a total of 3 hours to charge it from cut off.

I hate flashy lights on mods, however I feel that the lights on the iStick Pico have been incorporated tactfully, plus they have a purple (among 7 colours to choose from) which goes swell with the unicorn poo colour scheme



And what’s not so good?

Unless you are already familiar with the Eleaf menu system; I can imagine its tricky to get to grips with it. You will be tapping buttons in certain combinations to get to settings, or reveal information. Despite its visual and access differences, it’s very much the same menu as other Joytech or Eleaf products which require a little patience to get used to. The good news is when you’re all set up you rarely need to change anything thereafter.

I do find the on screen info a little irritating; when you reach 999 puffs it can’t handle 4 digits so will display only the last three digits on screen, you have to access the sub menu to gain info on the proper counter. I feel 5 digit info should have been accommodated, there’s room for it, just make the wattage number a bit smaller!

The screen itself isn’t very bright in daylight you’ll have problems seeing what’s going on



The Battery tube portion does have several annoyances for me: first being it squeaks and scratches because the threading is a left a little wanting. Second if you get a leak it gets in the grooves and trust me; its a pain to clean up (this clean-up is even required with normal condensation from the tank), third is the adaptor for the 18650, it will sometimes get stuck inside and you have to whack it like an old style Heinz ketchup bottle to get the bugger out.



The fire button isn’t sealed and if your kit is anything like mine, the airflow opening on the Ello Vate tank sits directly above the fire button when screwed into place. Just hope you don’t get a colossal leak then…

The important bit is its performance. Unlike the Eleaf Tessera; I found the iStick Pico S to be lacking across all functions…Eleaf say this mod is capable of 9V output, based on my usage I’d say it’s struggling to get much past 4V.

In Variable Wattage mode for instance I struggled to push the mod past 80W with a 0.12ohm build.

A 0.37ohm build struggled to get past 50W. In fact when I was using this higher resistance build I noticed the mod was reading resistance out by 0.03ohms, yet the 0.12ohm coil was reading accurately?.

A 0.29ohms build in Temp Control (TC) was well off, I had to use a TCR of 123 and wattage of 55w just to get it moving. The TC inconsistency was felt much more so than the Tessera across the coil types I tried. Maybe it’s down to not being able to access the pre heat function? (for some reason you can only access it whilst in wattage mode). I feel TC is very choppy, so I’m going to fail TC on this mod.

There is one thing I noticed and that’s the poor performance is largely offset whilst vaping on pass through (charging whilst vaping). When doing so the mod really steps up, so it might actually be a good vehicle mod in that respect?

I’d say really you need to think about what wattage you want to vape at because the resistance of your coil is going to weigh heavily on what get out of the iStick Pico S.

Modes and Usage

General Comments and Observations

• If you hold down the “up or down” button it moves in whole amounts after 20 watts either way
• It takes time to cycle the wattage and there is no round robin
• The device is firmware upgradable using either windows or mac.
• You can have a puff counter, vape time or amp display on the main screen.
• When you get to 1000 puffs it only displays the last 3 digits only on the main screen.

Navigation:

• 5 clicks of the fire button for on or off
• 3 click of the fire bar to access the modes (Variable Wattage, Bypass & Temp Control options: Ni, SS,TI,M1,M2,M3)
• [when on] Hold fire buttom and up to get into the Menu Options
• [when on] Hold up and down button to lock/unlock all buttons except for the fire button
• [when off] Hold up and down buttons to change orientation of the screen
• Whilst in TC mode click fire button 4 times to access wattage adjustment

Menu Options:

• The resistance picture – you’ll only see this when in TC mode (lock or unlock starting resistance)
• The squares & diamond picture – choose on screen info Puff, Vape Time, Amp (I use puff)
• The dude in the space helmet picture – stealth on or off
• The 3 wavy lines picture – this is preheat used for wattage mode, (you won’t see this in TC)
• Logo picture – does nothing as far as I can’t tell
• Lightbulb picture – choose between 7 colour or turn it off
• The V picture – is hardware and firmware version
• The battery picture – is the current voltage in the battery

 

[KingPin!]

Part 2 Continued

Mod Pros

• Supports 21700, decent life out of the battery
• Lovely paint job – especially If you like matching set up’s
• Very Comfy to hold – will accommodate both small and large hand sizes
• Durable construction
• Very minor fire delay (0.2s)
• Lovely styling – definitely looks the part
• No gaudy branding - the mod itself is the centre piece
• Firing bar works really well in either hand
• Handles charging well

Mod Cons

• Atomisers don’t sit exactly flush (although it does mean the lovely paintwork is protected)
• Variable Wattage is underpowered – very coil resistance dependant
• Temp Control was poor
• Could be susceptible to leaking/condensation
• The Up/Down/Action buttons could have a little bigger
• Screen brightness and layout (lack of characters)
• Menu System takes a little bit of getting used to
• Battery Tube threading is poor

Final Conclusion part 2 – iStick Pico S Mod

I’ve struggled with this review in all honesty it’s been a long slog to get to the finish line for me especially because I have to keep using it to make sure it doesn’t break. I like parts of this mod, certainly its styling and ergonomics to name a couple, but in other ways it’s lacking some serious go juice.

The short and sweet conclusion for me is: up to and around 55W it performs well, if you use this in the car with pass through up to and around 80W, it performs well.

Personally though even with its capacity shortfalls, I still prefer using the Tessera over the iStick Pico S. I treat them both as internal battery mods really, and the Terssera is the better performer with an easier user interface.



What I used when my coils died prematurely ...now that’s a flavour atty!



Thanks for taking the time to read my review, I hope the information serves you well…. until next time KingPin!