Joytech Espion kit (with ProCore X tank) Review by KingPin!

[KingPin!]

Hello Folks,

You know how sometimes you see a picture of a product and think ….meh <queue the emoji movie>, at this point you’ve lowered your expectations, but you finally see it in the flesh and your opinion completely changes, Well that’s exactly the feeling I got with today’s review. This is one great looking mod, more specifically the gunmetal version!

Heaven Gifts kindly sent me this for review. Don’t worry I haven’t gone all gushy, good or bad it all goes in. I don’t like making recommendations in my reviews, instead I present you with my findings to help bolster your research should you be interested in the product.



The Kit Includes:

• Joyetech ESPION 200W TC Box Mod
• One Joyetech ProCore X Sub-Ohm Tank
• One ProC1 0.4 ohm Coil
• One ProC1-S 0.25 ohm Coil
• 2ml Glass Tank Section and Chimney
• 4.5ml Glass Tank Section and Chimney
• USB Cable
• Spare Parts
• User Manuals
• Warning Card
• Available Colours: Black, Gunmetal, Blue
• Available from: https://www.heavengifts.com/search?q=espion

As usual for my kit reviews ill break it into two parts…the tank first, mod second

Part 1 – The ProCore X Tank



Manufacturer ProCore X Specs:

• Diameter: 25mm
• Height: 44mm (53mm with the 4.5ml extension)
• Refill: Flip Top (Dual Fill Ports)
• Capacity: 2ml or 4.5ml (with the Extender)
• Airflow: 2 slots
• Coils: The ProC series (includes only ProC1 0.4 ohm & ProC1-S 0.25ohm)
• Drip Tip: Proprietary 10mm Bore, Delrin
• Materials: Stainless Steel & Glass

Impressions and Build Quality

The paintwork is a metallic matt and matches the mod pretty closely. Moving around the tank, all threading seems to be in good shape.

The tanks breaks down in 5 or 6 parts with the extension



Starting with the drip tip. I had real difficulty removing it to begin with, even damaging it in the process. When I finally managed to remove the bugger I saw there were 3 O-rings holding it in place which is completely overkill! even lubed up i struggle to get this off the tank.

It’s a 10mm bore proprietary female design so you won’t be swapping that out unless you don’t mind the look of exposed O-rings. I found it to be a little too short and thin so heat transfer does become noticeable when chain vaping (especially using a restricted draw on the 0.25ohm coil).



The top cap incorporates the refill mechanism which is a push and lift design, it’s quite tight to begin with but will break in after a while. Opening the cap exposes two small juice ports which are fairly small, however will accommodate either PET or Unicorn bottles. Quite how the hinge fairs after many months of use is my only concern but for now I have to say it works fine and seals the chamber well.




The glass section is nice and thick. If you do happen to break one you’ll only have the option of running the larger (or smaller spare depending which one you break) as there is no direct replacement included.

Moving down to the bottom and the base, it’s a single piece. The Airflow Control ring has a stop point which always helps with disassembly. It has a really smooth turning and has very little vertical play. Fully open it exposes two 14mm by 3mm slots. These seem large but it’s fairly restricted wherever it’s placed

Underneath the base the Positive pin sits ever so slightly proud at the bottom. I would like to have seen this extended slightly but it’s not caused me any issues to date.



All in all there’s not much to this tank to be honest, it’s a simple template I’ve seen a few times before.

How’s the Vape?

The ProCore C1 - 0.25 ohm coil is rated between 30-50 Watts, best between 35–45W.

• The wattage range was not accurately stated I couldn’t pass 31.5 watts
• Resistance was out by 0.02 ohms
• It took 8ml to break in.
• I was vaping it with the airflow half open for the most part.
• Flavour was ok but I felt I needed to bump up to wattage to get more from it. If I did I would start to get a burnt hit (even with wide open airflow)
• Decent hit, with average vapour production, but requires a longer draw.
• I felt I had to stick with the 2ml tank at all times to squeeze out that flavour as such refill was required every 20 minutes with moderate vaping.
• On a positive note the rubber seal and wire at the base of the coil didn’t need sorting before priming and using.
• Coil lasted just over a week.

The ProCore C1-S 0.4 coil is rated between 40-100 watts, best between 60-80W

· Unfortunately my coil was a dud test failed

The coils look slightly different but they are the same type used by many Sub Ohm Tanks out there now, the “Smok baby beast coil size”. In all honesty if you do pick this up in the kit consider using other coils because there are better alternatives out there.

There is no RBA deck provided which is a shame because that could have been its redeeming feature on the vape test.

Pro’s

• Simple Design with an easy refill mechanism
• Decent capacity at 4.5ml
• No leaking didn’t even get condensation build up
• Thick glass tank section
• Draw caters for both airy and restricted draw vapers
• Decent machining and finish
• Is compatible with smok baby beast sized coils (it’s going to need them!)

Cons

• Couldn’t remove the drip tip easily
• Proprietary drip tip that felt a little too short and too thin
• Lack of an RBA deck
• Dud coil (yes it sometimes happens even to decent tanks)
• Short coil life and overrated wattage range, I wanted to push the coil harder and couldn’t consider other aftermarket options.

Final Conclusion

Do I slam this tank or not that’s the question, the issue right now is the coils that come with it! on that basis its bloody awful, the flavour was underwhelming for that massively long 7 days and let’s not mention the dud (it happens sometimes). I’m irked about the quality control in all honesty.

But here’s the thing it’s the coils I have the issue with, not the tank (other than the drip tip) and they can be swapped out for other brands. This is the one saving grace for this tank, and for this reason it avoids a wrathful closing. It doesn’t leak, the tanks quality was good, it matches the mod, it’s got a decent refill mechanism, but for the time I did get to use it monitoring its flavour, I feel there are better alternatives out there.

Right onto the mod!

 

[KingPin!]

Part 2 Joyetech Espion Mod - 200W

Manufacturer Specifications:

• Mod size: 44mm(L) x 28mm(W) x 83mm(H)
• Weight: 148g
• Screen type: 1.45 inch TFT colour screen
• Screen resolution: 240 x 320 dpi
• Output wattage: 1-200W
• Output mode: Power/Bypass/Temp Control –TC (Ni200, Titanium, SS316, TCR settings)
• Resistance range: 0.05-1.5ohm for TC/TCR mode
• 0.1-3.5ohm for Power mode
• Temperature range: 100-315°C/ 200-600°F
• Battery using: Dual 18650 cells
• Max charging current: 2A
• Max output current: 50A
• Max output voltage: 9V
• In build protections

Impressions and Build Quality

Like I mentioned in the intro this is a fantastic looking mod in the flesh, the outer metal casing is left with a slightly brushed finish. Despite its small size it has a solid weight to it 148g out of the box increasing to 294g fully loaded up with the tank and batteries.

Starting at the top the mod doesn’t have any sort of plate to seat your atomiser, scratches will be an issue as result. It’s not like the paintwork is going to come away but I’ve dinked my atomisers a few times now after unscrewing them and can see a couple of scuffs on top.

It will seat up to 28mm atomisers without overhang, and they will be centre mounted. Personally centre or side mounting doesn’t bother me as long as fire button position works well in conjunction. Speaking of which the fire button is located on the side (left of the screen), it has a nice feedback when pushed and has the same slightly brushed metal finish (albeit SS rather than Gunmetal). There’s a tiny amount of play in the button but it’s not rattling about when I shake the mod.



The mod itself is comfortable to hold and use in both left and right hands.

The gold plated 510 pin has a decent throw to it, seating atomisers flush with longer threads wasn’t an issue.



The screen is massive and very bright. The cover is plastic and should be fairly resistant to drops. The screen displays all the usual culprits (voltage, resistance, time of draw, battery level), I like the little bullet touches for the battery indicators as well as the puff counter at the bottom of the screen.



The battery life seems to be decent on the Espion, I was vaping the ProCore X tank at around about 32w and was able to get 520 puffs before it came time to change, granted this was using Samsung 30Q batteries. Actually performance towards low battery seems to be pretty decent as well even using higher wattage mods.

The menu system is intuitive although takes a little bit of getting used to. There is a third button on the screen which takes over the functions many mods incorporate into the fire button. I find the menu on the Espion to be a little slow to commit changes before I can get back to vaping. This is even more noticeable if I’m trying to use the “preheat” and “power” functions, where these are placed is a bit of a pain in the ass in all honesty, and they should have incorporated them as sub mode choices rather than global options.

The battery door is fastened well and incorporates adequate venting. The mod has no rattles.



I had a catastrophic leak from one of my other atomisers at one point (in a noob type fashion I forgot to close up the refill ports properly and the tank dumped over the side and front of the mod. It stood up to it well, a thorough wipe down and on it went about its business.

All in all, it’s all positive stuff here other than the menu (which I just need to adapt to). Just one last thing I did take the top off to peek a peek inside, other than the mount being plastic it looks very tidy indeed. The only “potential” issue is over time that metal bar soldered between the negative and straight onto the chip could stress if you ever really wrench an atomiser on, it’s not something I’m overly concerned about with the notch in the mount there, but it is plastic after all, so try not to overtighten with this.



Modes and Usage

The instruction manual is pretty thorough so I don’t feel the need to go through anything extra. Couple of points I did note

• You can hold the mode button to slowly cycle through modes, its far quicker to access the menu though
• The “Power” sub option relates to temperature control only, this is the ongoing maintenance of the coil heating.
• The “PreHeat” option relates to both Power and Temperature control, you can set this to add an extra boost to heat the coil for the first X.X amount of time you set. Note to change it accordingly though especially if you set this at something crazy then move to a small coil, or simply set it to 0 time to void it working entirely. The minimum setting seems to be 78w and max is 200W
• The mod requires you to press the fire button when removing an atomiser to reset resistance it won’t automatically do it. I’ve missed this a few times now and it’s a pain.

Power Mode

I’m a low to mid-range vaper and rarely venture above 120W so my core experiences are up to and around this level (unless of course I’m using an atomiser that requires more power)

I felt the Espion was pretty accurate through the wattage ranges, the converter output feels clear and steady on the draw. When I engage the button there is a minor recognisable delay but it’s not much of a concern.

I do think it helps to use the additional preheat function only it lacks a little punch initially to get the mod going, once I’ve got this going in conjunction with the normal power setting it works really well (just need to remember to change it when you change atomisers)

Temperature Control and TCR

The mod seems to be struggling to reach the set temp reliably and not by a little bit, I’ve tried 4 different builds at varying resistances and the results were the same even with a simple single coil. Mucking about with both power and preheat combinations did help improve things in order to get a satisfactory vape experience, but don’t be expecting this to “wow” you like others out there.

I did check see whether Artic Fox was available to help give it some welly but it doesn’t seem to be ready at the time of this review.

On the plus side it could detect when I had dry cotton…..so that got half of it right, but if they managed to do that why not make it work to heat the coil consistently?

Charging

I detected low cut off at 3.18V on the Espion. Discharge was slightly uneven on some of my tests, the negative side (looking at the door) seems to discharge deeper than the positive side by 0.2V

The Onboard Charge process takes approx. 3 hours which is certainly not the 2A they advertise. The mod did evenly balance the batteries well though with a variance of 0.02v. The full charge cut off stopped at 4.1V

Of all the mods I’ve charged in my reviews this one heated up the most, to a level I didn’t feel comfortable leaving out of sight or without continual checking.

After charging I could smell something “off” like plastic or electrical smell coming from the positive side only. When I disassembled everything to take a look everything was still fine from what I could see, the only thing I can think of is that yellow Kapton tape shrunk slightly? Although this should have high intermittent heat resistance, so I’m assuming it needs to stay in place to insulate that component from touching the casing.



The smell hasn’t got any worse and I’m not noticing other problems such as the mod heating in use or arcing marks anywhere, at this stage the mod is perfectly functional, I just haven’t bothered using the USB to charge again.

Pros:

• Fantastic finish on the mod with a small compact form
• 510 seems stable
• Mod can seat small or large atomisers without looking stupid
• Full metal construction with plastic screen case, should stand up to a beating
• Solid power mode (Variable Wattage mode)
• Lovely big bright display
• Very comfortable to hold and use
• Decent venting
• Preheat setting available (although could be easier to change)
• Decent battery life for a dual 18650

Cons:

• Will show up scuffs (but there is no paint to worry about).
• Menu interaction is a little clunky (although is intuitive)
• Temperature control leaves a little to be desired
• Mod will not automatically reset resistance when changing atomisers
• Discharge level is slightly off
• The mod gets a little too hot for my liking when charging via USB

Final Conclusion

I think Joytech have got a lot of bits right with the Espion and I personally love its styling especially this gunmetal finish. It’s comfortable to use, the screen is vibrant, Battery life is good, it’s sturdy and it carries out its duties in power mode really well.

I have a few minor cons but the main two areas for improvement are how it performs in temperature control and my observations from on-board charging, so if either of these things bother you this isn’t going to be the mod for you.



Thanks for taking the time to read my review, until next time KingPin!

 

[mjag]

Great review!

Love that little mod, so much so I picked up the Gunmetal like you got to replace the black I was sent. Just love the form factor, crazy small for a dual bat and the looks have really grown on me.

 

[zephyr]

I like mine, it's Heavy for its size but I think the battery door will outlast my Eleaf Invoke by a mile.

Some cool things worth adding:

You can change the clock from analog to digital

You can click the fire button once while it's off to display the clock

 

[KingPin!]

Great review!

Love that little mod, so much so I picked up the Gunmetal like you got to replace the black I was sent. Just love the form factor, crazy small for a dual bat and the looks have really grown on me.

Thanks mate love the mod in power mode I’ve had some crazy leaks using the kylin mini this has just shrugged it off and cracked on it’s gonna be a beater for sure haha hoping I’ll get to try out Arctic Fox at some point never used it

I like mine, it's Heavy for its size but I think the battery door will outlast my Eleaf Invoke by a mile.

Some cool things worth adding:

You can change the clock from analog to digital

You can click the fire button once while it's off to display the clock

Thanks meg love the analogue myself and having the puff counter on the front display although to begin with it looks like it only has four digits once you get past 9999 is carries on adding sitting pretty in the high teens now