Kayfun Mini Clones: Potentially Great but Tricky Choices

[TheWestPole]

My Tobeco Kayfun Mini V2.1 arrived yesterday. The machining was very good, no complaints there. I set it up and got enough Kayfun quality hits off of it to see that it can be great. I soon ran into the typical problem with this clone, dry hits and burnt taste, and knew right away I had to deal with that too-tight gap between the lower tank and the chimney. No surprise there either; reviews had warned me. Bad design detail of the Tobeco. So I ground two flats on the OD of the chimney (each ~.012" deep) above the two juice channels, took the rest of the chimney OD down by ~.004" and smoothed it all out. Problem fixed. Vapes like a Kayfun but so skinny.

That said, I wouldn't recommend the Tobeco. Though I expect to have to do finish work on clones I buy, and I tweak practically everything anyway to get it the way I want it, this is a bit much for the general user to have to do to make the thing function smoothly. I will likely want to get another Kayfun mini clone and have boiled my choices down to a few.

1) Get the cheapest Fasttech clone and put the same effort into it. I expect I would get the same performance for half the price of the Tobeco. And replacement parts will be equally cheap.

2) Get the Ivogo clone with the wider clear tank section which solves the flow problem. I understand those work well right out of the box for about the same price of the Tobeco.

3) Get the 1:1 Fasttech clone, which also has the wider clear tank section, but perhaps more significantly has a 15mm diameter body vs the 14mm of the Tobeco, Ivogo and others. (That is what the FT specs. say. I'm waiting to receive one to see for myself. )The extra mm could be just the difference for superior performance. Though if you break the tank it seem that it will be much harder and more expensive to source a replacement.

If any of you have experience with either of these three please chime in. I'm psyched by this skinny little thing and suspect it will soon replace my Aerotank Minis in my stealth rigs. With a little practice, we all can build better coils than we can buy, even in this diminutive form factor!

 

[Taver13]

My Tobeco Kayfun Mini V2.1 arrived yesterday. The machining was very good, no complaints there. I set it up and got enough Kayfun quality hits off of it to see that it can be great. I soon ran into the typical problem with this clone, dry hits and burnt taste, and knew right away I had to deal with that too-tight gap between the lower tank and the chimney. No surprise there either; reviews had warned me. Bad design detail of the Tobeco. So I ground two flats on the OD of the chimney (each ~.012" deep) above the two juice channels, took the rest of the chimney OD down by ~.004" and smoothed it all out. Problem fixed. Vapes like a Kayfun but so skinny.

That said, I wouldn't recommend the Tobeco. Though I expect to have to do finish work on clones I buy, and I tweak practically everything anyway to get it the way I want it, this is a bit much for the general user to have to do to make the thing function smoothly. I will likely want to get another Kayfun mini clone and have boiled my choices down to a few.

1) Get the cheapest Fasttech clone and put the same effort into it. I expect I would get the same performance for half the price of the Tobeco. And replacement parts will be equally cheap.

2) Get the Ivogo clone with the wider clear tank section which solves the flow problem. I understand those work well right out of the box for about the same price of the Tobeco.

3) Get the 1:1 Fasttech clone, which also has the wider clear tank section, but perhaps more significantly has a 15mm diameter body vs the 14mm of the Tobeco, Ivogo and others. (That is what the FT specs. say. I'm waiting to receive one to see for myself. )The extra mm could be just the difference for superior performance. Though if you break the tank it seem that it will be much harder and more expensive to source a replacement.

If any of you have experience with either of these three please chime in. I'm psyched by this skinny little thing and suspect it will soon replace my Aerotank Minis in my stealth rigs. With a little practice, we all can build better coils than we can buy, even in this diminutive form factor!

im waiting for my ivogo v2.1 to come in so i can set it up for the wife, did you ever end up getting one, and if so, anything i should know about?

 

[Wabah58]

I have 2 of the Ivogo mini kayfuns, and have been using them daily for work duty for 6 months. Only problem was i cracked the plastic tank with some peach juice, but that was my fault. Surprisingly they are pretty easy to build. Well worth the money IMO.

 

[Taver13]

awesome, typical kayfu air draw?

 

[Wabah58]

awesome, typical kayfu air draw?

Yeah not a high air draw at all, I know that is a deal breaker for a lot, but im good with it. I do 1 ohm builds, so it will fire on my Spinner batts, it's a good pocketable stealth vape for work missions. the adjustable screw for the air flow is on the side, usually take that all the way out.

Dont waste time trying to side fill through the check ball. Top fill, screw cap on half way, turn upside down to finish securing top cap and chain vape it for a minute. The quicker you can accomplish those steps the better.

 

[Taver13]

awesome thanks for the advice. this is the first rebuildable the wife will have, its going on her itazte vv

 

[TheWestPole]

im waiting for my ivogo v2.1 to come in so i can set it up for the wife, did you ever end up getting one, and if so, anything i should know about?

Well, I have a few of them, but haven't been using them lately. They were for an mini mod project, the Mini in a side by side rig with Novice 14500. Kinda like this but with a custom polycarbonate base. Haven't finished it yet.



Also have another project putting a Mini deck into a Euforia, which is 17mm dia. and more capacity. That's also on hold.

Anyway, that's not what you asked. The Mini does indeed give you a Kayfun vape when you get it working right. Depending on how thick your juice is, there can be a juice flow issue between the tank and chamber, as I mentioned in the original post. Ditto for the juice channels in the deck, which can be cut too shallow. I had one that was way too shallow and needed to be ground deeper. You might try starting with lower VG juice to give you the best shot at good juice flow and wicking. Likewise try wicking it so the ends just come down and touch the top of the juice channels.

The draw is pretty tight vs. regular Kayfuns. Might be fine for your wife, but too tight for me, so I drill out all the vents.

One nice bonus of the set is the extra long chimney. Way too long to use in the Mini IMO, but great for making big tanks, like these for my Orchids:

Best of luck with it. Feel free to check in if you have any issues.

 

[TheWestPole]

Yeah not a high air draw at all, I know that is a deal breaker for a lot, but im good with it. I do 1 ohm builds, so it will fire on my Spinner batts, it's a good pocketable stealth vape for work missions. the adjustable screw for the air flow is on the side, usually take that all the way out.

Dont waste time trying to side fill through the check ball. Top fill, screw cap on half way, turn upside down to finish securing top cap and chain vape it for a minute. The quicker you can accomplish those steps the better.

All good points, these.

 

[Taver13]

Well, I have a few of them, but haven't been using them lately. They were for an mini mod project, the Mini in a side by side rig with Novice 14500. Kinda like this but with a custom polycarbonate base. Haven't finished it yet.

View attachment 12826

Also have another project putting a Mini deck into a Euforia, which is 17mm dia. and more capacity. That's also on hold.

Anyway, that's not what you asked. The Mini does indeed give you a Kayfun vape when you get it working right. Depending on how thick your juice is, there can be a juice flow issue between the tank and chamber, as I mentioned in the original post. Ditto for the juice channels in the deck, which can be cut too shallow. I had one that was way too shallow and needed to be ground deeper. You might try starting with lower VG juice to give you the best shot at good juice flow and wicking. Likewise try wicking it so the ends just come down and touch the top of the juice channels.

The draw is pretty tight vs. regular Kayfuns. Might be fine for your wife, but too tight for me, so I drill out all the vents.

One nice bonus of the set is the extra long chimney. Way too long to use in the Mini IMO, but great for making big tanks, like these for my Orchids:

Best of luck with it. Feel free to check in if you have any issues.

if i find to have juice flow issues, ill break out the dremel and grind the channels a bit. so i should basically wick it like i would an orchid? what size do you have the vents drilled out to? if she dosent end up liking the thing, ill be taking it, and im gonna need some serious airflow. she is starting to get into more air draw ayway so i may just drill it anyway. Also, i was already planning on using that log chimney for exactly that.

 

[TheWestPole]

if i find to have juice flow issues, ill break out the dremel and grind the channels a bit. so i should basically wick it like i would an orchid? what size do you have the vents drilled out to? if she dosent end up liking the thing, ill be taking it, and im gonna need some serious airflow. she is starting to get into more air draw ayway so i may just drill it anyway. Also, i was already planning on using that log chimney for exactly that.

As I recall, 2 mm is about as much as you can safely drill out the center of the center pin, and 1.5 mm out the sides. I removed the AFC screw and drilled that out big, 3 mm I think, to a depth just past the center pin hole into the far side, so both side holes on the center pin can breathe freely. You'll see what I mean.

Don't expect serious air flow, Taver. About the best you can expect is to get it up to a stock regular Kayfun draw, maybe a tick better.

 

[Lefty]

I have the Ivogo. I had heard that the Tobeco had issues and that the wider Ivogo tank was superior. While it didn't dry hit the Ivogo had poor flow between the clear tank and the SS section. Filling with the valve was near impossible due to this. Then the Ivogo clear tank cracked at the thread seam where the tank narrows down. Unable to get a replacement Ivogo tank I ended up purchasing a replacement tank from FT without the wider body fearing the worst. Turns out the replacement tank works better than the original. I believe it's ever so slightly longer and that the main choke point was the end of the chimney body and the narrowing of the tank at the threads. The replacement comes just far enough past the chimney before the threads start to relieve that without creating a problem at the cap end. Looks better to my eye too. While filling from the valve is still a bit of a pain it can now be done.