INTRODUCTION
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Hello Everyone and welcome to Pizza Dave’s Vape Reviews. Today I will be going over the Battlestar Squonk kit by Smoant. As many of you may know, the Smoant Battlestar regulated mod from a couple of years ago turned out to be an excellent device that many people came to know and love since release. It was small, ergonomic, and just worked. Smoant listened to the great opinions of vapors everywhere and has reincarnated the Battlestar, but this time around, it squonks. Dual battery squonkers don’t come out very often, and since they tend to cater to my style of vaping, I always get excited to try them. This device is a 200w, dual 18650 squonker, that comes with a 7ml squonk bottle. The kit also includes a retooled version of the Battlestar rda. This has been hyped up a lot, mostly on forums and reddit, so let’s dive down and see if it will live up to our high expectation!
Disclaimer: This device was sent to me by Smoant for review.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
WHAT YOU GET
- Available in black, brushed metal, yellow, and gradient blue.
STOCK SHOT
PACKAGING
UNBOXED
_____________________________________________________________________________________
MOD OVERVIEW
There isn’t a whole lot to mention here that I didn’t throw out in the intro. The Battlestar squonk is a dual 18650, regulated squonk mod. To keep the size down, Smoant elected to go with a hard plastic squonk bottle on the backside. The squonking action is done via a pumping button on top. Other than that, it is nothing out of the ordinary. It has a medium sized display, with a fire button near the top and adjustment buttons on the bottom. Operation is super easy, so let’s hit that quickly next.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
OPERATION
Simplicity is king on the Battlestar Squonk. 5 clicks of the fire button turns it on and off. 3 clicks of the fire button will highlight the mod up top and you can cycle the following modes:
Most of this is all self-explanatory. The only other tidbit of info is to adjust preheat wattage in TC modes. Pressing the fire button and up button together flips it over to that setting and it will allow you to set a maximum preheat wattage of the full 200w. It also has an AUTO setting which is designed for the chip to detect the optimal setting it things you should have it at.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
HOW IT VAPES / SQUONKS
I tested this mod in both wattage and temp control modes. I primarily used it for wattage and found that it provided solid wattage performance as far as my body can tell. I never felt that it was underpowered in any way and seems to deliver what it states the wattage is. I also tested TC SS on this and found that it regulated the temperature consistently, but it didn’t back off quickly enough to prevent a dry hit. I could feel less power being delivered and felt the cotton was getting drier but would still get dry hits if I kept on puffing on it. One of the biggest aspects to a device of this nature is one of the most important things, how it squonks.
This squonking system is definitely unique and has only been done on a couple of other devices before it. Essentially the squonk button on top acts like a dollar store squirt gun. It is a spring-loaded mechanism that provides a little shot of liquid with each press. It doesn’t build pressure in the tank and force liquid up, and since it doesn’t do it this way, there is no vacuum created to get suction of liquid back into the tank. It requires some trial and error to get used to, as at times it doesn’t feel like it is squonking, but indeed it is. Since it doesn’t suck back, you can keep on pumping liquid into and rda and either flood the deck or leak out the air flow. While this method definitely won’t be for everyone, once you get used to it, it isn’t all that bad. I learned to just give it a couple of pumps for every couple of puffs, and that way I didn’t get liquid pooling up too deep in the rdas I used. There are a few things I don’t like about the button. The first thing is it feels cheap and just looks tacky on top of the mod. Most of the mechanism is built into the bottle, so luckily, if something were to break with that portion, all you must do is get a new bottle (or use the spare) and you are good to go. The other thing I don’t like with this squonking mechanism is how it shifts the bottle in and out. The bottle always made clicky noises as it moved in and out on the back of the device, and I found myself gripping the bottle and pulling it back toward the mod.
One con I don’t like with the squonk bottle itself how you fill it. It has a rubber flap on the bottom that can only be accessed once you open the bottom battery door. I think this is still better than taking out soft bottles and filling, but you either must tip it over and potentially leak liquid out of the RDA (which is easy since it doesn’t suck it back down), or you must remove the bottle and make sure the batteries don’t come flying out. The last con I have for the squonk bottle is cleaning. I submerged mine in an ultrasonic cleaner, rinsed it out, and let it air dry for 2 days, but it just isn’t as simple as regular bottles are. Most of the time, with regular bottles, I rinsed them with hot water, twist a paper towel, and partially dry out the inside before letting them air dry. That is just about impossible with Smoant’s design.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
BATTLESTAR RDA REVIEW
I am not going to touch on this too deeply. I like that Smoant included this rda, as well as coils and cotton, to make this truly an out of box starter kit. All you need is liquid and batteries, and you can start using this device. However, the rda is nothing that wowed me in any way. The build deck is an old school 4 post design that has side air flow that angles up from the bottom. The low air flow combined with a squonker that doesn’t suck back liquid is a pour combination in my opinion and beginners buying this as their first ever squonker could go hog wild with the button and make a huge mess. I never over squonked it, but I can see it being an issue. However, even though the design isn’t all that great, it does work for what it is. It provides mediocre flavor, isn’t too terrible to build on, and matches the device well. I just consider this rda a bonus in the kit for beginners that don’t have other squonking rdas.
TANK PROS
TANK CONS
_____________________________________________________________________________________
PHOTO GALLERY
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Hello Everyone and welcome to Pizza Dave’s Vape Reviews. Today I will be going over the Battlestar Squonk kit by Smoant. As many of you may know, the Smoant Battlestar regulated mod from a couple of years ago turned out to be an excellent device that many people came to know and love since release. It was small, ergonomic, and just worked. Smoant listened to the great opinions of vapors everywhere and has reincarnated the Battlestar, but this time around, it squonks. Dual battery squonkers don’t come out very often, and since they tend to cater to my style of vaping, I always get excited to try them. This device is a 200w, dual 18650 squonker, that comes with a 7ml squonk bottle. The kit also includes a retooled version of the Battlestar rda. This has been hyped up a lot, mostly on forums and reddit, so let’s dive down and see if it will live up to our high expectation!
Disclaimer: This device was sent to me by Smoant for review.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
WHAT YOU GET
- 1 Smoant Battlestar 200w squonk mod
- 1 Battlestar RDA
- 2 7ml hard plastic squonk bottles
- 1 USB cable
- Spare parts
- Coils / Cotton
- Tools
- Paperwork
- Available in black, brushed metal, yellow, and gradient blue.
STOCK SHOT
PACKAGING
UNBOXED
_____________________________________________________________________________________
MOD OVERVIEW
There isn’t a whole lot to mention here that I didn’t throw out in the intro. The Battlestar squonk is a dual 18650, regulated squonk mod. To keep the size down, Smoant elected to go with a hard plastic squonk bottle on the backside. The squonking action is done via a pumping button on top. Other than that, it is nothing out of the ordinary. It has a medium sized display, with a fire button near the top and adjustment buttons on the bottom. Operation is super easy, so let’s hit that quickly next.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
OPERATION
Simplicity is king on the Battlestar Squonk. 5 clicks of the fire button turns it on and off. 3 clicks of the fire button will highlight the mod up top and you can cycle the following modes:
- Variable Wattage
- Variable Voltage
- Wattage Curve (DVW)
- Ni TC
- Ti TC
- SS TC
- TCR TC
Most of this is all self-explanatory. The only other tidbit of info is to adjust preheat wattage in TC modes. Pressing the fire button and up button together flips it over to that setting and it will allow you to set a maximum preheat wattage of the full 200w. It also has an AUTO setting which is designed for the chip to detect the optimal setting it things you should have it at.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
HOW IT VAPES / SQUONKS
I tested this mod in both wattage and temp control modes. I primarily used it for wattage and found that it provided solid wattage performance as far as my body can tell. I never felt that it was underpowered in any way and seems to deliver what it states the wattage is. I also tested TC SS on this and found that it regulated the temperature consistently, but it didn’t back off quickly enough to prevent a dry hit. I could feel less power being delivered and felt the cotton was getting drier but would still get dry hits if I kept on puffing on it. One of the biggest aspects to a device of this nature is one of the most important things, how it squonks.
This squonking system is definitely unique and has only been done on a couple of other devices before it. Essentially the squonk button on top acts like a dollar store squirt gun. It is a spring-loaded mechanism that provides a little shot of liquid with each press. It doesn’t build pressure in the tank and force liquid up, and since it doesn’t do it this way, there is no vacuum created to get suction of liquid back into the tank. It requires some trial and error to get used to, as at times it doesn’t feel like it is squonking, but indeed it is. Since it doesn’t suck back, you can keep on pumping liquid into and rda and either flood the deck or leak out the air flow. While this method definitely won’t be for everyone, once you get used to it, it isn’t all that bad. I learned to just give it a couple of pumps for every couple of puffs, and that way I didn’t get liquid pooling up too deep in the rdas I used. There are a few things I don’t like about the button. The first thing is it feels cheap and just looks tacky on top of the mod. Most of the mechanism is built into the bottle, so luckily, if something were to break with that portion, all you must do is get a new bottle (or use the spare) and you are good to go. The other thing I don’t like with this squonking mechanism is how it shifts the bottle in and out. The bottle always made clicky noises as it moved in and out on the back of the device, and I found myself gripping the bottle and pulling it back toward the mod.
One con I don’t like with the squonk bottle itself how you fill it. It has a rubber flap on the bottom that can only be accessed once you open the bottom battery door. I think this is still better than taking out soft bottles and filling, but you either must tip it over and potentially leak liquid out of the RDA (which is easy since it doesn’t suck it back down), or you must remove the bottle and make sure the batteries don’t come flying out. The last con I have for the squonk bottle is cleaning. I submerged mine in an ultrasonic cleaner, rinsed it out, and let it air dry for 2 days, but it just isn’t as simple as regular bottles are. Most of the time, with regular bottles, I rinsed them with hot water, twist a paper towel, and partially dry out the inside before letting them air dry. That is just about impossible with Smoant’s design.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
BATTLESTAR RDA REVIEW
I am not going to touch on this too deeply. I like that Smoant included this rda, as well as coils and cotton, to make this truly an out of box starter kit. All you need is liquid and batteries, and you can start using this device. However, the rda is nothing that wowed me in any way. The build deck is an old school 4 post design that has side air flow that angles up from the bottom. The low air flow combined with a squonker that doesn’t suck back liquid is a pour combination in my opinion and beginners buying this as their first ever squonker could go hog wild with the button and make a huge mess. I never over squonked it, but I can see it being an issue. However, even though the design isn’t all that great, it does work for what it is. It provides mediocre flavor, isn’t too terrible to build on, and matches the device well. I just consider this rda a bonus in the kit for beginners that don’t have other squonking rdas.
TANK PROS
- Matches the mod nicely
- Makes for a complete squonk kit out of the box
TANK CONS
- Flavor is just ok
- Build deck is dated
- Low side air flow can cause leaking if over-squonked
_____________________________________________________________________________________
PHOTO GALLERY
_____________________________________________________________________________________