Thank you for taking the time to view my review of the Vandy Vape Pulse BF 80W squonk mod which was sent directly from Vandy Vape.
First a note on fighting for our rights to have flavors in our e-juice. Please let the FDA know how important flavors were for you and how much they helped you quit smoking. The deadline for comments has been extended to July 16th, 2018 so let your thoughts be known: https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=FDA-2017-N-6189-0001
Getting to know the Pulse BF 80W
Having never owned the original and popular Pulse squonk box which was a mech I can't really speak to the differences other than this one is regulated with a chip. I do know this is a little bigger but mostly the styling has remained the same. Designed in collaboration with the popular youtube reviewer Tony B this is sure to have a following.
Only one color for the body, black, the only difference is the panels, I received the carbon fiber. You can purchase different color panels to match your style, nice touch there. Light weight considering it is not made of metal, plastic perhaps? It is durable and feels solid though and the slightly rounded back does give it a comfortable grip in the hand.
Both panels are removable easily with a notch at the bottom. Both panels fit really snug with no play in them and the magnets hold them firmly in place. You will need to remove both panels to take the battery out, no battery ribbon installed.
Vandy Vape lists the depth at 26mm, I measure a little more at 26.3mm but the sides begin to round out giving a flat platform of 24mm, 24.5mm tanks will overhang the bevel if that bothers anyone. Still looks good with a variety of squonk RDA's I tested on it but most are 24mm anyway.
Buttons are nice and clicky and the mod as a whole has no rattles, real solid build quality. The 510 is pretty stiff and not a lot of travel but not once did I have any connection problems. No leaking either while squonking.
Only comes with (1) 8ml squonk bottle, actually 6.5 to 7ml as you have to account for the displacement the straw takes up. I was just shy of getting 8ml in the bottle using a syringe but that is to the very tip top and if you then screw back the straw the juice will go all over the place. Even with using a fill bottle from the 510 8ml won't happen, the best possible scenario would be 7.5ml but not if your unscrewing the top cap and filling the bottle directly.
Overall it is a solidly built squonk mod, not the fanciest you will find but you won't regret the build quality.
Power Performance
Note: Most of my testing was done with the original firmware V005, I did test out the new V006 which was released a few weeks after I received the Pulse but I will go into why I reverted back to V005 in the TC section.
Not really much to complain about here, power performance seems solid even at 80 watts but it was a touch hotter when comparing to the SXmini G Class.
They also include 5 memory modes which can be used to configure a curve in both power or TC. To select the memory modes press and hold the up/down button then select DIY. Once in DIY you can select the material used by clicking the power button 3 times. To adjust the DIY curve click the power button 4 times then set your watts for each setting up to 10 seconds. Overall it works good and is easy to set up. I prefered to keep it easy and just use power mode but you may enjoy it.
They also include a Bypass mode, much like a mech as you will draw on the available voltage of the battery. A voltage mode is also included in case you like to adjust your vape that way. Tried both and they work fine, power mode is still my preference though.
Firmware update V006 does add some nice features that are worthwhile for power mod users, if you don't use TC it is a worthy update.
TC Performance
With the original firmware V005 SS TC was adequate, maybe 5 to 10F hot in some cases where I had to turn down the temp to avoid dry hits. It could vary based on the build but for the most part it did OK and prevented dry hits while remaining smooth with no pulsing. Not a top performer of even in my 2nd tier of TC mods but I could get away with vaping in TC and not want to hurry back to power mode.
Now this is where I ran into some interesting problems with the TC performance when updating to V006. Talk about an anemic vape, wow, what happened. Maybe they were going for the "No Dry Hits" at any temp technique, they won out there as I was able to max out the temp at 600F and got no dry hits. At my normal 430F the vape was hardly there, not even close to what it should be. I kept on upping the temp until I got at about 510 to 530F, somewhere in that range to get the vape I was accustomed too. I didn't take any notes as I was on the road regretting not testing prior to leaving the house. When I got home I reverted back to V005 and it was all good again, well not good but OK. I tried V006 once more time later in my evaluation and the same thing, this time taking the temp up to 600F and no dry hits but what I was experiencing was not 600F as well. This was with my normal dual coil builds which I also verify with my SXmini G Class. 2 builds that actually worked OK were single coil builds, 1 a 26g spaced and the other a fused clapton spaced. While not great not the huge variation my dual coil builds showed which worked great on my G Class.
If you are looking for a great TC mod the Pulse 80W is not it. With V005 it gives a decent TC vape though, you will just have to adjust your temp down to about 420 to 425 to avoid dry hits. Don't even bother with V006, it is just all over the place and I will keep my Pulse running V005 from now on unless they issue a V007 that doesn't mess up TC.
First a note on fighting for our rights to have flavors in our e-juice. Please let the FDA know how important flavors were for you and how much they helped you quit smoking. The deadline for comments has been extended to July 16th, 2018 so let your thoughts be known: https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=FDA-2017-N-6189-0001
Getting to know the Pulse BF 80W
Having never owned the original and popular Pulse squonk box which was a mech I can't really speak to the differences other than this one is regulated with a chip. I do know this is a little bigger but mostly the styling has remained the same. Designed in collaboration with the popular youtube reviewer Tony B this is sure to have a following.
Only one color for the body, black, the only difference is the panels, I received the carbon fiber. You can purchase different color panels to match your style, nice touch there. Light weight considering it is not made of metal, plastic perhaps? It is durable and feels solid though and the slightly rounded back does give it a comfortable grip in the hand.
Both panels are removable easily with a notch at the bottom. Both panels fit really snug with no play in them and the magnets hold them firmly in place. You will need to remove both panels to take the battery out, no battery ribbon installed.
Vandy Vape lists the depth at 26mm, I measure a little more at 26.3mm but the sides begin to round out giving a flat platform of 24mm, 24.5mm tanks will overhang the bevel if that bothers anyone. Still looks good with a variety of squonk RDA's I tested on it but most are 24mm anyway.
Buttons are nice and clicky and the mod as a whole has no rattles, real solid build quality. The 510 is pretty stiff and not a lot of travel but not once did I have any connection problems. No leaking either while squonking.
Only comes with (1) 8ml squonk bottle, actually 6.5 to 7ml as you have to account for the displacement the straw takes up. I was just shy of getting 8ml in the bottle using a syringe but that is to the very tip top and if you then screw back the straw the juice will go all over the place. Even with using a fill bottle from the 510 8ml won't happen, the best possible scenario would be 7.5ml but not if your unscrewing the top cap and filling the bottle directly.
Overall it is a solidly built squonk mod, not the fanciest you will find but you won't regret the build quality.
Power Performance
Note: Most of my testing was done with the original firmware V005, I did test out the new V006 which was released a few weeks after I received the Pulse but I will go into why I reverted back to V005 in the TC section.
Not really much to complain about here, power performance seems solid even at 80 watts but it was a touch hotter when comparing to the SXmini G Class.
They also include 5 memory modes which can be used to configure a curve in both power or TC. To select the memory modes press and hold the up/down button then select DIY. Once in DIY you can select the material used by clicking the power button 3 times. To adjust the DIY curve click the power button 4 times then set your watts for each setting up to 10 seconds. Overall it works good and is easy to set up. I prefered to keep it easy and just use power mode but you may enjoy it.
They also include a Bypass mode, much like a mech as you will draw on the available voltage of the battery. A voltage mode is also included in case you like to adjust your vape that way. Tried both and they work fine, power mode is still my preference though.
Firmware update V006 does add some nice features that are worthwhile for power mod users, if you don't use TC it is a worthy update.
TC Performance
With the original firmware V005 SS TC was adequate, maybe 5 to 10F hot in some cases where I had to turn down the temp to avoid dry hits. It could vary based on the build but for the most part it did OK and prevented dry hits while remaining smooth with no pulsing. Not a top performer of even in my 2nd tier of TC mods but I could get away with vaping in TC and not want to hurry back to power mode.
Now this is where I ran into some interesting problems with the TC performance when updating to V006. Talk about an anemic vape, wow, what happened. Maybe they were going for the "No Dry Hits" at any temp technique, they won out there as I was able to max out the temp at 600F and got no dry hits. At my normal 430F the vape was hardly there, not even close to what it should be. I kept on upping the temp until I got at about 510 to 530F, somewhere in that range to get the vape I was accustomed too. I didn't take any notes as I was on the road regretting not testing prior to leaving the house. When I got home I reverted back to V005 and it was all good again, well not good but OK. I tried V006 once more time later in my evaluation and the same thing, this time taking the temp up to 600F and no dry hits but what I was experiencing was not 600F as well. This was with my normal dual coil builds which I also verify with my SXmini G Class. 2 builds that actually worked OK were single coil builds, 1 a 26g spaced and the other a fused clapton spaced. While not great not the huge variation my dual coil builds showed which worked great on my G Class.
If you are looking for a great TC mod the Pulse 80W is not it. With V005 it gives a decent TC vape though, you will just have to adjust your temp down to about 420 to 425 to avoid dry hits. Don't even bother with V006, it is just all over the place and I will keep my Pulse running V005 from now on unless they issue a V007 that doesn't mess up TC.
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