Wismec Reuleaux Observation

[DrVapenstein]

so years ago I'd been vaping Joyetech Cuboids, because they were a small 2x18650 mod that could do 150w, they just worked, and you could get one for under $35. Then Joyetech redid the Cuboid and I didn't like the new one, so I bought a new at the time Reuleaux RX2/3. I only just retired that mod after vaping it for years.

I recently found the RX gen3 for under $30 online and bought one. I was so happy with it that I bought another one. It had been so long since I had bought any vape gear, vaping my Reuleaux RX2/3 with an OBS Crius day in and day out for years, that I kind of went nuts watching Youtube vids to catch up on all the gear I hadn't paid attention to for the last 5 years. So I bought tanks and more tanks, and I bought some more mods. I scratched the stabwood itch that I had never scratched and bought an Asmodus Lustro Kodama, and I liked it so much I bought another one. I liked the two of them so much that I went back and bought a Minikin Kodama 21700. I also picked up the new 200w version of the Odin. I had picked up a Manta rta which I liked and that turned into three of them, and then I got a Fatality M25 and I liked it even better than the Manta so I now have three of those as well.

I am keeping the Asmodus stabwoods and the Odin out for use and the new Reuleauxs got wiped off and put back in their boxes in the cabinet. I'm not too sad that I have two brand new Reuleauxs I'm not using, because with all the uncertainty about what we will and won't be able to get in the near future it won't hurt to have a couple of insurance mods in the cupboard along with the one NOS Cuboid I'd been saving.

The primary reason the Reuleauxs are back in the boxes is this. Once I got past the frustration of dealing with Asmodus' broken firmware and got my Lustros dialed in for my use I vaped them pretty much exclusively because I had always admired stabwood and never scratched the itch, so I was like a kid at Christmas with my new stabs. I still had the Reuleauxs on the desk at this time, and after a few days of switching back and forth between them I thought that there was a big difference between the vape I was getting on the Asmodus mods vs the vape I was getting on the Reuleauxs.

The Lustros already had brand new builds on them, so I burned off the coils on my Reuleauxs and put fresh wicks in. Same resistance on all these builds (0.24), same wire (26ga twisted), same wicking, same rtas (using the Manta as reference).

And what I found was that between the Reuleaux RX gen3, the Lustro Kodama, and the Odin, the Reuleaux had a decidedly different vape than the Asmodus and the Dovpo. The Odin and the Asmodus mods I couldn't pick which was which blindfolded, they all produced a very good vape and were indiscernible from each other.

The Reuleauxs on the other hand I could pick out blindfolded. In contrast to the Asmodus and Dovpo mods they produced a noticeably softer vape at 75w. To the point that I was running the Reuleauxs at 82.5w to try to get the same vape as the other mods. I vaped them all for a couple of days where I was home all day, and on the third day I cleaned off the Reuleauxs and put them back in their boxes.

I'm not terribly upset that I bought two Reuleauxs I'm not using. I paid $60 for the pair, the price of a Playstation game. That's my yardstick for not feeling guilty about a purchase. $60 misspent and by the next paycheck you've already forgot about it. I have two insurance mods out of the deal.

I was surprised by this though. Any regulated mod running in wattage mode should produce the same vape at a given wattage, plus or minus 2-3 percent I suppose. I think what I may do is install the Arctic Fox 3rd party firmware on one of the Reuleauxs and see if it's Wismec's firmware that is the culprit.

Don't know if this will be useful for anyone but I thought I'd share my experience. Something is slightly off with the Reuleaux compared to comparable mods from other manufacturers, at least with the RX gen3. As for the Asmodus and Dovpo mods I'm vaping now, they're giving me the best vape I've ever had and I couldn't be happier.

 

[nadalama]

It isn't just the Reuleaux. I have noticed it in a less specific way when switching RTAs or RDAs across different devices.

Your gear collection consisting of (mainly) multiples of a few different models seems easier to quantify. I have many different models and very few multiples of the same mod or atty. What I find myself doing is just following my nose as far as which atty vapes best on which mod, and I am constantly trying different combinations and moving things around. The difference in the quality of the vape can be quite noticeable on different mods, using the same atty.

 

[Jinx'd]

when i first started vaping, i noticed people say "this mod vapes better than that mod". i found that odd, as all they do is produce power(temp control not included). but as you say, there can be a difference. i also found that some mods, the output vs the display # can be off. the Seigelie Fuchai i just got, its known to be low on power, i just turn it up. its a nice mod otherwise, at least for $12.

 

[DrVapenstein]

I did install Arctic Fox on one of my Reuleauxs and the vape is just like with the oem firmware. Curious. I suppose either the Reuleaux has a cool vape or the other two mods run hot.

 

[BoomStick]

Since static battery voltage and under load voltage is different, I wonder if some mods adjust for when the batteries sag under load and some don’t. Just a thought.

 

[Carambrda]

The wattage being lower than the mod reports isn't a real concern to me. Just turn the wattage up higher, problem solved... the reason why I highly recommend ArcticFox firmware is because of the power curves: in NFE Tools, set the Preheat Type to "Curve", and, next, select a power curve from the list, there's an Edit button that opens the Curve Editor in a separate window. There's a timeline (in seconds) that lets you set multiple timers (down to one tenth of a second accuracy), each one of which will start counting down at the start of every puff, and, each time when a timer expires, the wattage will be changed to match the percentage that you specified. There's also a button that lets you zoom in on the timeline, to get a clearer view of only the start of the puff. So, if you edit the curve in such a particular way that the first one half of a second part looks like a high bump that rolls off (as opposed to transitions abruptly) into a flatline that's constant at 100 percent for the remainder of the puff, for example, then what you'll get is a preheat that you have customized to suit your own personal preference of what preheat should be like. (The idea of using a preheat is to get faster rampup of the coils resulting in better flavor performance.) In the main window of NFE Tools, there's an Upload Settings button that lets you upload your changes, including the edited power curves, into the mod (on which ArcticFox firmware needs to be already installed prior to this) via USB cable connection.

The beauty of this software, aside from the fact it's free, is twofold. Firstly, because it uses percentages, not wattages, the curve will be scaled correctly each time when you change the wattage setting on the mod via the wattage up/down keys on the mod. Secondly, because the curves are stored in the mod's ArcticFox firmware directly, they remain stored in there without further ado, i.e. no more futzing around with the USB cable once it's all set and done, because the curves will be scaled automatically like I explained so no need for tedious repetitive manual re-adjustments. For these two reasons alone, it makes any and all mods that are NOT compatible with ArcticFox look like utter jokes. But because Wismec's "Reuleaux" line of mods includes mods like the RX Gen 3 and the RX300 giving you ample battery power to work with, you ALSO don't need to worry about your mod running fast out of power being no longer capable to sustain preheat. That's the best part of it all... it's about turning that high power output capability others see as just another gimmick into something that's genuinely useful: better flavor performance at no additional cost.