Excuse my Rihanna impression in the title, what can I say, that song just iSticks with you.....yeah, I struggle...sigh.
The Eleaf iStick Pico 21700 kit with ELLO tank was sent to me for review directly from Eleaf. If your looking for a deal on it this is the site I use often: http://www.vapecrawler.com/results/pico 21700
Specs:
Eleaf iStick Pico 21700 Mod
Eleaf ELLO Sub Ohm Tank
iStick Pico 21700
I know there are a lot of fans of the iStick Pico mods and all the variations over the years. Can't say I was one of them although I did own the 26650 version briefly before a friend of mine just had to have it. This is my first time using one over a month and although it didn't wow me it also never let me down.
The thought of reviewing a 21700 mod did intrigue me, at the time I did not have any 21700 capable mods and included in this kit was a Avatar Controls 30A 4000mAh 21700 battery. The battery has been tested by Mooch, the name to know when it comes to batteries. He gave it a 20A 3900mah rating, using my Hohmbase charger in Battery Doctor mode I measured 4186mah but I would stick with Mooch's ratings. There are better 21700 batteries out there, the Golisi S35 comes to mind which Mooch tested to be 30A and 3700 mah, less life but better if you vape at higher watts. 21700's are still in there infancy though, better options are likely to be more plentiful in the future. If using with the included ELLO tank which works best under 60 watts the included 21700 will be fine though.
Eleaf does include a 18650 adapter, worked fine for me.
The mod itself is comfortable to hold, nice rounded sides and firing with either the index finger or mashing the button with your thumb. The + and - key are located under the mod, have to admit I would have liked them on the front faceplate instead, doing button combinations like + and the power button to go into the menu is a little awkward.
The buttons are nice and clicky, little play on the fire button but it did not rattle when I sholl the mod. I took the mod apart and the buttons are of nice quality.
The 510 is pretty secure but I could not figure out how it is attached, could be press fit but that is just a guess.
I tried pulling on the 510 with a tank installed and wiggling it back and forth....yes, I am still talking about the tank. The 510 feels pretty secure after more than a month, if it is press fit then it is done well but I would have liked to see it secured with a nut.
I did get a sample version and mentioned to Eleaf that the battery threading was too fine which made screwing the cap back on a little tough at first. They mentioned that they were aware of that and had already made changes to the production units. I got use to it after awhile but it can be a bit of a pain to screw back on when a tank is still on the mod.
The screen I feel is a little outdated, there are just so many better screens out there, the Eleaf Tessera screen for example makes the Pico 21700 seem antiquated.
The menu isn't the most intuitive, easy to figure out but there are much better menu's out there.
In everyday use my thought was always....well this could be simpler. For most people they will just adjust the wattage and vape, for those that get more into it the menu system is a little funky, like the early days of vaping. Overall not hard to figure out and the owners manual walks you through it well enough, I just feel it could have been improved.
You are limited to 25mm tanks due to the battery cap, I tried a 26.5mm tank but it was a no go. There is a way around that if you have a 25mm heatsink, you can fit as big of a tank as you want then.....check this out, fits like a glove ;-)
If you have a tank with bubble glass like the Ehpro Bachelor X you will have to remove the tank to open the battery cap.
Battery life with the included 21700 was above average in the 40 to 50 watt range. It does have a puff/vaping time but I was not able to figure out how to reset it. I measured 3.43V on the battery when I was prompted to replace the battery.
As far as performance in power mode it did fine, nothing spectacular but no real issues I ran into in the 40 to 60 watt range. If you are looking to throw a high powered tank on here look elsewhere, running a TFV8 with 0.15 ohm coil hits low, the 20A battery doesn't help and feels like 60 to 70 watts when set to 100.
No lag in firing, hit the fire button and it sparks right up.
It does have a preheat option were you can select the preheat wattage and duration from 0.1 to 2 seconds, you can also just turn it off. The preheat seemed to work fine but most of my time was with it off, more so for convenience as it is not a percentage based preheat which is more convenient IMO.
TC is hit or miss, got the best results with a single coil SS316L build but dual coil tanks were iffy. It will stop you from burning your cotton but some builds had a noticeable delay after hitting the fire button. It also runs a little hot with the SS preset, using the TCR function I was able to yield better results. Overall I would not recommend the Pico 21700 for TC, I enjoyed it more as a power only mod. Let's face facts, the vast majority are power only users and as a medium wattage mod it works fine in that regard.
There is some hope for TC users though, Arctic Fox has a firmware for the Pico 21700. I have not tried it myself but there are die hard fans and from prior use on other mods it does help.
The Eleaf iStick Pico 21700 kit with ELLO tank was sent to me for review directly from Eleaf. If your looking for a deal on it this is the site I use often: http://www.vapecrawler.com/results/pico 21700
Specs:
Eleaf iStick Pico 21700 Mod
- Dimensions: 77mm to top of battery cap, 69mm without x 51mm x 26mm
- Powered by a single 21700 or 18650 battery (with included 18650 adapter)
- VW / Bypass / TC-Ni / TC-Ti / TC-SS / TCR
- Wattage: 1W - 100W
- Voltage: 0.5V - 9V
- VW resistance: 0.1Ω - 3.5Ω
- TC resistance: 0.05Ω - 1.5Ω
- Temp range: 100ºC - 315ºC / 200ºF - 600ºF
- 0.91” OLED display
- 2A Micro USB charging
- Firmware upgradeable
- Dual circuit protection
- Reverse polarity protection
Eleaf ELLO Sub Ohm Tank
- 25mm Diameter
- Stainless steel
- 2ml/4ml E-Liquid capacity (4ml with included extension)
- Sliding top fill
- HW coils
- HW1-C 0.25Ω Single Coil
- Wattage Range: 25W - 50W (Optimal At 35W - 40W)
- Ceramic Insulated Wicking System
- HW2 0.3Ω Dual Coil
- Wattage Range 30W - 70W (Optimal At 45W - 60W)
- HW1-C 0.25Ω Single Coil
- Dual adjustable airflow
- Gold plated 510 pin
iStick Pico 21700
I know there are a lot of fans of the iStick Pico mods and all the variations over the years. Can't say I was one of them although I did own the 26650 version briefly before a friend of mine just had to have it. This is my first time using one over a month and although it didn't wow me it also never let me down.
The thought of reviewing a 21700 mod did intrigue me, at the time I did not have any 21700 capable mods and included in this kit was a Avatar Controls 30A 4000mAh 21700 battery. The battery has been tested by Mooch, the name to know when it comes to batteries. He gave it a 20A 3900mah rating, using my Hohmbase charger in Battery Doctor mode I measured 4186mah but I would stick with Mooch's ratings. There are better 21700 batteries out there, the Golisi S35 comes to mind which Mooch tested to be 30A and 3700 mah, less life but better if you vape at higher watts. 21700's are still in there infancy though, better options are likely to be more plentiful in the future. If using with the included ELLO tank which works best under 60 watts the included 21700 will be fine though.
Eleaf does include a 18650 adapter, worked fine for me.
The mod itself is comfortable to hold, nice rounded sides and firing with either the index finger or mashing the button with your thumb. The + and - key are located under the mod, have to admit I would have liked them on the front faceplate instead, doing button combinations like + and the power button to go into the menu is a little awkward.
The buttons are nice and clicky, little play on the fire button but it did not rattle when I sholl the mod. I took the mod apart and the buttons are of nice quality.
The 510 is pretty secure but I could not figure out how it is attached, could be press fit but that is just a guess.
I tried pulling on the 510 with a tank installed and wiggling it back and forth....yes, I am still talking about the tank. The 510 feels pretty secure after more than a month, if it is press fit then it is done well but I would have liked to see it secured with a nut.
I did get a sample version and mentioned to Eleaf that the battery threading was too fine which made screwing the cap back on a little tough at first. They mentioned that they were aware of that and had already made changes to the production units. I got use to it after awhile but it can be a bit of a pain to screw back on when a tank is still on the mod.
The screen I feel is a little outdated, there are just so many better screens out there, the Eleaf Tessera screen for example makes the Pico 21700 seem antiquated.
The menu isn't the most intuitive, easy to figure out but there are much better menu's out there.
In everyday use my thought was always....well this could be simpler. For most people they will just adjust the wattage and vape, for those that get more into it the menu system is a little funky, like the early days of vaping. Overall not hard to figure out and the owners manual walks you through it well enough, I just feel it could have been improved.
You are limited to 25mm tanks due to the battery cap, I tried a 26.5mm tank but it was a no go. There is a way around that if you have a 25mm heatsink, you can fit as big of a tank as you want then.....check this out, fits like a glove ;-)
If you have a tank with bubble glass like the Ehpro Bachelor X you will have to remove the tank to open the battery cap.
Battery life with the included 21700 was above average in the 40 to 50 watt range. It does have a puff/vaping time but I was not able to figure out how to reset it. I measured 3.43V on the battery when I was prompted to replace the battery.
As far as performance in power mode it did fine, nothing spectacular but no real issues I ran into in the 40 to 60 watt range. If you are looking to throw a high powered tank on here look elsewhere, running a TFV8 with 0.15 ohm coil hits low, the 20A battery doesn't help and feels like 60 to 70 watts when set to 100.
No lag in firing, hit the fire button and it sparks right up.
It does have a preheat option were you can select the preheat wattage and duration from 0.1 to 2 seconds, you can also just turn it off. The preheat seemed to work fine but most of my time was with it off, more so for convenience as it is not a percentage based preheat which is more convenient IMO.
TC is hit or miss, got the best results with a single coil SS316L build but dual coil tanks were iffy. It will stop you from burning your cotton but some builds had a noticeable delay after hitting the fire button. It also runs a little hot with the SS preset, using the TCR function I was able to yield better results. Overall I would not recommend the Pico 21700 for TC, I enjoyed it more as a power only mod. Let's face facts, the vast majority are power only users and as a medium wattage mod it works fine in that regard.
There is some hope for TC users though, Arctic Fox has a firmware for the Pico 21700. I have not tried it myself but there are die hard fans and from prior use on other mods it does help.
