Cigaverte Firebox bottom feeder VV/VW mod
(This is mostly a repost of this post, with a few edits, and photos added)
This is a review of the Firebox bottom feeder VV/VW mod from French vaping retail chain Cigaverte. It was designed and made exclusively for Cigaverte, and to my knowledge, is the only bottom feeder that sports VV/VW and a screen that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
It is supplied with a ACA 510 Bridgeless atomizer, which is a Cisco knockoff, also made exclusively by/for Cigaverte, that works really quite well.
Salient features of the device (in no particular order):
- It's heavy. And I mean HEAVY! The case is like 1mm thick steel. You can vape and work out for the next arm wrestling championship with that thing.
- No really, you have no idea how heavy it is...
- Despite the case being bomb-proof, the screen is protected by a thin flexible plastic sheet. It feels like your thumb could go through it and crush the LCD. Go figure...
- The button has a heavy action. Also, being the only button to vape and navigate the menu, the menu navigation isn't terribly fast - you "select" a menu item by not pressing long enough. It's functional enough though, unless you like to vary your power settings all the time. The button is heavy enough that you'll constantly think about pressing it hard enough: oftentimes you'll find youtself in the middle of a puff, and suddenly the vape will stop coming, and you'll realise you've subconsciously released pressure on the button (because it's just a little to hard to be natural), and the device has gone into the settings menu. On the plus side, it won't activate inadvertently in your pocket.
- The bottle is a LDPE thingy with a syringe in it, to draw liquid from the bottom. The upside is, you don't have to tilt your mod upside down to feed the atty. The downside is, when you unscrew the bottle, you inevitably press on it ever so slightly, and juice gets wasted. Also, you need to screw the bottle reaaally carefully, lest you strip the bottle's threading. You can also remove the syringe if you prefer feeding the atty by tilting the device upside down, ala V-MOD. It's nice to have both options.
- The default ACA atomizer has a tight draw. Add the beauty ring, and the airflow is even more impeded, which leads to self-feeding. I've drilled eight holes in the beauty ring (very easy, you can't go wrong if you drill at the bottom of each of the 8 flutes on the cone) and enlarged the atty's vent holes, and now it's all peachy. Definitely plan on doing that if you want to be happy with it. Once the draw is loose, it vapes like a champ - and 15W in the supplied atomizer is plenty powerful enough to make impressive clouds.
- The supplied drip tip is metal. Unless you like burning your lips, you'll have to change it to a plastic drip tip.
- It can take a Mini A7, and if you want to use it as a backup battery for a clearo, I've tried it with a Mini Protank 2 and an Evod with a 510 extender. The catch cup is 14 mm in diameter exactly, so those clearos sit nice and tight in it. However, the beauty ring can only accept a 9 mm atty, so you won't be able to use it with the Mini A7, and that's too bad because the beauty ring also stabilizes the topper and protects the 510 connection (it's a heavy-duty steel cone that protects the entire atty-510 connector assembly incredibly well).
- The battery cap has a buttery smooth thread, and it feels nice, solid and well made (and heavy, like the rest of the case). The battery compartment is very tight however: my batteries cames with a QC sticker, and I had to remove it to get the battery to slide in. On the upside, when you install it, you just let it drop and it slowly and gracefully slides in. Very satisfying in a completely nonessential sort of way
- It has a small, unobtrusive hole for a lanyard between the beauty ring and the battery cap. Very, very useful!
- The bottle compartment has a metal thread that matches the bottle's threading and a small screw that acts as a stop to prevent you from screwing the bottle too far in. When you insert the bottle, a small needle connected to the bottom of the 510 connector slides into the bottle's tip and completes the juice connection. The aforementioned needle is electrically connected to the mod's PCB with what looks like a small gauge wire - but it's adequate obviously - and the base of the needle is embedded in some kind of white goop, cement or epoxy resin of some kind. It doesn't look terribly pretty inside, but it seems functional.
- The inside of the metal "bridge" that forms part of the casing at the bottom of the bottle compartment sports 3 tabs that protrude inside the compartment. They form a kind of scale, to determine how much juice is left in the bottle. Unfortunately, they protrude a little too much, and tend to scratch the side of the bottle when you screw it in and out. It's not really a problem, but if you're .... about how your bottle looks, you'll have to file down and deburr the tabs a bit.
- It's small enough to fit comfortably in a small shirt pocket (althougth the impressive weight of the thing will make you fear for your shirt pocket's seams), and almost small enough to qualify as a stealth vaping device, if you have big hands.
- It has a proper power supply. If you don't like mechanicals and you prefer to have protection against shorts and a 10s puff time limit, this is one of the few bottom feeders that do a proper job of it.
- It's power-hungry: if you vape a lot, you'll need two 18500 batteries to get you through the day at 11W. One battery will last long enough to process about 3 ml of juice.
- It's cheap.
In short, if you like small, bomb-proof, electronic, and don't mind a little DIY to make it truly perfect, this is the bottom feeder for you.
Photos
(These photos show the beauty ring with the vent holes I've drilled in it. The stock ring doesn't have these holes. Also, the device doesn't come with a lanyard or a battery.)
(This is mostly a repost of this post, with a few edits, and photos added)
This is a review of the Firebox bottom feeder VV/VW mod from French vaping retail chain Cigaverte. It was designed and made exclusively for Cigaverte, and to my knowledge, is the only bottom feeder that sports VV/VW and a screen that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
It is supplied with a ACA 510 Bridgeless atomizer, which is a Cisco knockoff, also made exclusively by/for Cigaverte, that works really quite well.
Salient features of the device (in no particular order):
- It's heavy. And I mean HEAVY! The case is like 1mm thick steel. You can vape and work out for the next arm wrestling championship with that thing.
- No really, you have no idea how heavy it is...
- Despite the case being bomb-proof, the screen is protected by a thin flexible plastic sheet. It feels like your thumb could go through it and crush the LCD. Go figure...
- The button has a heavy action. Also, being the only button to vape and navigate the menu, the menu navigation isn't terribly fast - you "select" a menu item by not pressing long enough. It's functional enough though, unless you like to vary your power settings all the time. The button is heavy enough that you'll constantly think about pressing it hard enough: oftentimes you'll find youtself in the middle of a puff, and suddenly the vape will stop coming, and you'll realise you've subconsciously released pressure on the button (because it's just a little to hard to be natural), and the device has gone into the settings menu. On the plus side, it won't activate inadvertently in your pocket.
- The bottle is a LDPE thingy with a syringe in it, to draw liquid from the bottom. The upside is, you don't have to tilt your mod upside down to feed the atty. The downside is, when you unscrew the bottle, you inevitably press on it ever so slightly, and juice gets wasted. Also, you need to screw the bottle reaaally carefully, lest you strip the bottle's threading. You can also remove the syringe if you prefer feeding the atty by tilting the device upside down, ala V-MOD. It's nice to have both options.
- The default ACA atomizer has a tight draw. Add the beauty ring, and the airflow is even more impeded, which leads to self-feeding. I've drilled eight holes in the beauty ring (very easy, you can't go wrong if you drill at the bottom of each of the 8 flutes on the cone) and enlarged the atty's vent holes, and now it's all peachy. Definitely plan on doing that if you want to be happy with it. Once the draw is loose, it vapes like a champ - and 15W in the supplied atomizer is plenty powerful enough to make impressive clouds.
- The supplied drip tip is metal. Unless you like burning your lips, you'll have to change it to a plastic drip tip.
- It can take a Mini A7, and if you want to use it as a backup battery for a clearo, I've tried it with a Mini Protank 2 and an Evod with a 510 extender. The catch cup is 14 mm in diameter exactly, so those clearos sit nice and tight in it. However, the beauty ring can only accept a 9 mm atty, so you won't be able to use it with the Mini A7, and that's too bad because the beauty ring also stabilizes the topper and protects the 510 connection (it's a heavy-duty steel cone that protects the entire atty-510 connector assembly incredibly well).
- The battery cap has a buttery smooth thread, and it feels nice, solid and well made (and heavy, like the rest of the case). The battery compartment is very tight however: my batteries cames with a QC sticker, and I had to remove it to get the battery to slide in. On the upside, when you install it, you just let it drop and it slowly and gracefully slides in. Very satisfying in a completely nonessential sort of way
- It has a small, unobtrusive hole for a lanyard between the beauty ring and the battery cap. Very, very useful!
- The bottle compartment has a metal thread that matches the bottle's threading and a small screw that acts as a stop to prevent you from screwing the bottle too far in. When you insert the bottle, a small needle connected to the bottom of the 510 connector slides into the bottle's tip and completes the juice connection. The aforementioned needle is electrically connected to the mod's PCB with what looks like a small gauge wire - but it's adequate obviously - and the base of the needle is embedded in some kind of white goop, cement or epoxy resin of some kind. It doesn't look terribly pretty inside, but it seems functional.
- The inside of the metal "bridge" that forms part of the casing at the bottom of the bottle compartment sports 3 tabs that protrude inside the compartment. They form a kind of scale, to determine how much juice is left in the bottle. Unfortunately, they protrude a little too much, and tend to scratch the side of the bottle when you screw it in and out. It's not really a problem, but if you're .... about how your bottle looks, you'll have to file down and deburr the tabs a bit.
- It's small enough to fit comfortably in a small shirt pocket (althougth the impressive weight of the thing will make you fear for your shirt pocket's seams), and almost small enough to qualify as a stealth vaping device, if you have big hands.
- It has a proper power supply. If you don't like mechanicals and you prefer to have protection against shorts and a 10s puff time limit, this is one of the few bottom feeders that do a proper job of it.
- It's power-hungry: if you vape a lot, you'll need two 18500 batteries to get you through the day at 11W. One battery will last long enough to process about 3 ml of juice.
- It's cheap.
In short, if you like small, bomb-proof, electronic, and don't mind a little DIY to make it truly perfect, this is the bottom feeder for you.
Photos
(These photos show the beauty ring with the vent holes I've drilled in it. The stock ring doesn't have these holes. Also, the device doesn't come with a lanyard or a battery.)
