Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the eleaf istick Rim Kit With Melo 5 tank. Please see bottom for disclaimers and links. Note: This is marked as a sample.
Introduction:
The Eleaf iStick Rim Kit is the latest Kit from Eleaf. They are one of the “joyetech family” brands so been around a while and somewhat popular but seem to be losing their popularity. With that said they are the best brand in that family and have made some solid beginner stuff in the past, although lately not much good outside of the elven pod and the iStick nowos mod. This kit includes the iStick Rim Mod with the Melo 5 tank. The Rim is an internal battery mod rated at 80 watts with USB C charging and the Melo 5 is a low to mid watt tank. It’s available in 6 colors, WIlderness, E-Green, and Maze which have a black frame and black tank and Macaron, Rainbow, and Darkness which have a silver frame and a silver tank. Looking around online i see it pre-order only out of china. I see the mod itself in the 30-40ish range and the kit for 50-60 range so an extra 10-20 bucks for the included tank.
Manufacturer's Specs: Mod
album
Initial Impressions
When I first got this mod I really liked the simple and sleek design of it. It’s really small and the IML panels look good. Nothing special but a simple easy to use mod. Plus it’s very light, has a centered 510, and supposedly a large battery and fast charging. It comes with a melo 5 tank, I’ve used many of the melo tanks and haven’t been impressed so we’ll see how this goes. This 5 is pretty standard with the exception of an ugly rubber on the glass that I'd just peel off personally.
Watt Mode Performance (chart and spreadsheet in picture album)
Now let’s get into some data. I ran my normal testing. I used the internal battery for the testing. Testing resistances were done at .09, .16, .19, and .6 ohms. wattage points were max (80), 60, 40 and 20. At .09 ohms it maxed out at 77 watts and 29 amps. For the rest of the testing it was really good never off by more than 1 watt. At .16 it maxed out at 71 watts. The rest of the testing a little on the low side 6 watts at 60, but 40 or less on point. For the .19 test it maxed out at 80 watts. The rest of the testing really good being on point or 1-2 watts high. For the .6 testing it maxed out at 88 watts and 7.258 volts. For the rest of the testing sighty high 1-4 watts.
Overall I felt the performance of this mod was really good. No struggle even at .09 and pretty accurate all around. I was able to get 88 watts max, so I consider it to be accurately rated at 80 watts. The 7.258 volt limit was maxed out by the watts and the volt limit shouldn’t be any issue. I could not find any volt or amp limit though but the volts show a boost circuit which is good but I do wish they would list all 3 personally. On this mod and the most amps i got was 29 with a .09 ohm coil which is on the high side of average for an internal battery mod (average is 25-30 these days).
Simplified TLDR Power Performance summary
Mod performance is really. Accurately rated for watts (88), Volt limit is no issue (over 7v with a .6 ohm but capped off by the watts) 29 amp limit which high side of average.
Temperature Control Performance
This mod does not have TC and is power mode only
Charge Rate and Battery
Quick rundown on the specs for the charging and battery. Eleaf doesn't list much out at all. The only listed stuff they have is 40 minute charge time, 3000mah battery, USB C port. Now I like to keep things simple so no reason to go into a bunch of nonsense that is hard to understand, so I'll give a TLDR summary as there is a lot to the charging of this mod. I ran 3 tests with an inline USB meter. Battery size I got 2541-2657mah so it’s slightly overrated. I’ll ding them there but still a good size overall. I would have been ok with at most 2700-2800 rating. Max charge rate is 1.9A so 2A charging would be a good rating. Time wise it’s 1:25 to 1:30 for a full charge with a 5V charger. You can also use a 9V charger which cuts the time down to 1:10. So in short, does charge super fast either way, however not capable of charging in 40 mins either so i’ll ding them a little there as well. Overall it’s a versatile charging system that is really fast and has a really good battery size for the size of the mod (comparable to a samsung 25R or Sony VTC5A mah wise) however not quite as good as they list it to be, but not over the top exaggerated specs either.
Other Usage Notes
The mod uses a standard 5 click of the fire button to turn on and off. It’s a very simple mod without a lot to it. There are no modes or anything just power mode. Clicking up and down locks the adjustment buttons but you can still fire. Up and fire brings you to a sub menu which is their standard submenu but not much important in it (stealth mode, check battery voltage, HW/FW version, puff time out, screen display option) but there is a pre-heat option in there as well with time and duration settings. It’s a simple power mode only mod with a preheat option. I’m glad eleaf went that route lately. This and the nowos were power mode only and I'd much rather have companies not include TC mode if it doesn’t work well. I hope the other brands in their company (wismec and joyetech) follow suit. It’s easier for beginners and saves people headache, time and money. So props to eleaf for leaving it out. There is 1 extra feature they advertise called “auto TC” which is supposed to work with their .6ohm coil since it’s SS, and i seen it activate twice for literally no reason since the coil wasn’t dry (not surprised of the false flags since their TC never worked right anyway) but that was it and it’s easy to forget it exists as it doesn't do much outside of a false flag here and there. I was easily able to get a dry hit with SS wire on a rebuildable so yeah that feature doesn’t work at all but outside of the couple of false flags i got which was rare, we can basically pretend it doesn't exist.
The Eleaf iStick Rim adjusts by 1 watt increments above 20 watts and .1 increments below it, and if you hold it scrolls really fast, so well done there as well. The mod itself is built really nice too. There is some very minor button rattle on the fire button only. The Fire button is quite large and can only be pressed in on the top half of it, but it worked very well with no complaints from me. The paint on the mod has held up really well. No wear and tear anywhere except the normal amount on the bottom. I have the “wilderness” color which is a black frame with camo IML panels that have a glossy finish to them. I like the looks and if you like simple mods they make a black with a silver frame that looks sleek. The USB port is on the bottom though which is a minor con, I don’t like leaving mods on their side to charge personally but not a big deal. The 510 pin gave me no issues and every atomizer i used on it and while I had no issues with it, it doesn't look like much lol but it works fine. The mod handles a 26.5mm atomizer (base size of the melo 5) with room to spare so accommodates anything you’d realistically want to use on it. The screen is a standard “eleaf” screen which is a small balck and while “old school DNA style” screen. Not a big fan of that, I wish they would use nicer screens but it gets the job done and is reasonably bright. Also for branding the mod itself just a small eleaf on the bottom of 1 side panel and an “istick rim” on the other. Really nicely done there. Nothing too large or gaudy.
Melo 5 tank rundown
Lets go over the tank now. I’ll start with the basics. It’s a 26.5mm diameter at the base, and the 4ml version is a bubble glass that bulges out to 28mm. So 2ml is the TDP version and 4ml for the standard version. The bubble glass has a rubber coating on it which is well dumb. I mean include a vape band if you want so you have the option but i makes the juice hard to see and it’s ugly. If i didn’t have to take pics for the review I would have peeled it off. It’s a slide back top fill which works great. You pull up and slide back so when you shut it, it locks into place. It also has an auto JFC so when you pull a coil, the tank seals and the juice can stay in there which is nice, but both designs were taken from the aspire tigon tank. This does really seem inspired by the tigon in many ways. The fill hole is a good size and has a flap which is nice for filling with a fine tooth bottle, however twist top bottles are a no-go and you need to pull the flap out to fill with one of those. The drip tip is a standard 510 black delrin tip. The top cap has a little play in it which is annoying as well but not a big deal. The air is for MTL and DTL. there are 2 small round holes which can be opened for 1 or 2 to do a loose MTL but really the smallest setting is only a loose MTL there is also your standard large oval for DTL air options. The AFC is smooth and easy to adjust and on a stopper.
That’s the basics of the tank but lets go over the coils now. It comes with 2 coils a .6 ohm15-30 watt SS coil (EC-S) and a .15 ohm 30-75 watt kanthal coil (EC-M). I started with the low watt one the EC-S. I started with a standard 70/30 3mg juice. I found it to be best at 20-22 watts but it had no punch for my nicotine needs basically. It’s best used as a MTL coil on the lowest air setting to get ok flavor. So after 1 fill of that, I switched to using a 50/50 VG/PG 20mg nic salt on the lowest air in the 20 watt range and that was ideal for the coil, but sadly it died before I could finish a whole tank so a little under 8ml that coil lasted. Then onto the .15 ohm coil. I can’t speak too much on this one. I got a crystal clear dud that has a hot spot in it so i can't really use it or dial it in. I’ve used quite a bit of eleaf coils over the past years and in the past they were pretty average. Not as good as the top ones but acceptable and not bad. Lately though they seem to be going downhill. I hope they fix it but as of now they are a below average coil maker to me and I hope that changes. Overall though I’d avoid the tank. It’s basic, has a couple of nice features but also some odd ones and the coils are no good.
Pros:
So with all that said, do I recommend this mod or not? I don’t like to do a hard yes or no but this one for the mod itself leans towards the yes. It’s a solid, simple, good working internal battery mod that’s small, has good battery life, and charges really fast, and priced well in the 30-40 range. It’s a really good beginner mod for sure. I’d easily skip the tank and pair it with a nunchaku for DTL fans or a zenith or tigon for MTL fans, or of course a lower watt rebuildable. I’ll be adding the mod to my spreadsheet of recs linked down below, but not the tank. Feel free to check that link out if you are in the market for anything new.
This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and I'll catch you on my next review.
Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from Eleaf
Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.
Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done over 300 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.
Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here
Youtube Channel here
Spreadsheet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 list here
Best of 2017 list here
Introduction:
The Eleaf iStick Rim Kit is the latest Kit from Eleaf. They are one of the “joyetech family” brands so been around a while and somewhat popular but seem to be losing their popularity. With that said they are the best brand in that family and have made some solid beginner stuff in the past, although lately not much good outside of the elven pod and the iStick nowos mod. This kit includes the iStick Rim Mod with the Melo 5 tank. The Rim is an internal battery mod rated at 80 watts with USB C charging and the Melo 5 is a low to mid watt tank. It’s available in 6 colors, WIlderness, E-Green, and Maze which have a black frame and black tank and Macaron, Rainbow, and Darkness which have a silver frame and a silver tank. Looking around online i see it pre-order only out of china. I see the mod itself in the 30-40ish range and the kit for 50-60 range so an extra 10-20 bucks for the included tank.
Manufacturer's Specs: Mod
- Size: 30.3 x 36 x 80mm
- Battery type: Built-in 3000mAh
- Output wattage: 80W max
- Resistance range: 0.05-3.0ohm
- Charging time: 40min
- Charging port: Type-C
- Thread: 510
- Diameter: 28mm
- Height: 57.3mm
- E-liquid capacity: 4ml
- Coil: EC-S 0.6ohm Head; EC-M 0.15ohm Head
- Thread: 510 thread
- 1pc iStick Rim Battery
- 1pc Melo 5 Atomizer
- 1pc EC-S 0.6ohm Head
- 1pc EC-M 0.15ohm Head
- 1pc QC3.0 USB Cable
- 2pc User Manuals
- Spare Part
- EC-S .6 ohm SS316 Rated for 15-30 watts
- EC-M .15 ohm Kanthal Rated 35-70 watts
album
Initial Impressions
When I first got this mod I really liked the simple and sleek design of it. It’s really small and the IML panels look good. Nothing special but a simple easy to use mod. Plus it’s very light, has a centered 510, and supposedly a large battery and fast charging. It comes with a melo 5 tank, I’ve used many of the melo tanks and haven’t been impressed so we’ll see how this goes. This 5 is pretty standard with the exception of an ugly rubber on the glass that I'd just peel off personally.
Watt Mode Performance (chart and spreadsheet in picture album)
Now let’s get into some data. I ran my normal testing. I used the internal battery for the testing. Testing resistances were done at .09, .16, .19, and .6 ohms. wattage points were max (80), 60, 40 and 20. At .09 ohms it maxed out at 77 watts and 29 amps. For the rest of the testing it was really good never off by more than 1 watt. At .16 it maxed out at 71 watts. The rest of the testing a little on the low side 6 watts at 60, but 40 or less on point. For the .19 test it maxed out at 80 watts. The rest of the testing really good being on point or 1-2 watts high. For the .6 testing it maxed out at 88 watts and 7.258 volts. For the rest of the testing sighty high 1-4 watts.
Overall I felt the performance of this mod was really good. No struggle even at .09 and pretty accurate all around. I was able to get 88 watts max, so I consider it to be accurately rated at 80 watts. The 7.258 volt limit was maxed out by the watts and the volt limit shouldn’t be any issue. I could not find any volt or amp limit though but the volts show a boost circuit which is good but I do wish they would list all 3 personally. On this mod and the most amps i got was 29 with a .09 ohm coil which is on the high side of average for an internal battery mod (average is 25-30 these days).
Simplified TLDR Power Performance summary
Mod performance is really. Accurately rated for watts (88), Volt limit is no issue (over 7v with a .6 ohm but capped off by the watts) 29 amp limit which high side of average.
Temperature Control Performance
This mod does not have TC and is power mode only
Charge Rate and Battery
Quick rundown on the specs for the charging and battery. Eleaf doesn't list much out at all. The only listed stuff they have is 40 minute charge time, 3000mah battery, USB C port. Now I like to keep things simple so no reason to go into a bunch of nonsense that is hard to understand, so I'll give a TLDR summary as there is a lot to the charging of this mod. I ran 3 tests with an inline USB meter. Battery size I got 2541-2657mah so it’s slightly overrated. I’ll ding them there but still a good size overall. I would have been ok with at most 2700-2800 rating. Max charge rate is 1.9A so 2A charging would be a good rating. Time wise it’s 1:25 to 1:30 for a full charge with a 5V charger. You can also use a 9V charger which cuts the time down to 1:10. So in short, does charge super fast either way, however not capable of charging in 40 mins either so i’ll ding them a little there as well. Overall it’s a versatile charging system that is really fast and has a really good battery size for the size of the mod (comparable to a samsung 25R or Sony VTC5A mah wise) however not quite as good as they list it to be, but not over the top exaggerated specs either.
Other Usage Notes
The mod uses a standard 5 click of the fire button to turn on and off. It’s a very simple mod without a lot to it. There are no modes or anything just power mode. Clicking up and down locks the adjustment buttons but you can still fire. Up and fire brings you to a sub menu which is their standard submenu but not much important in it (stealth mode, check battery voltage, HW/FW version, puff time out, screen display option) but there is a pre-heat option in there as well with time and duration settings. It’s a simple power mode only mod with a preheat option. I’m glad eleaf went that route lately. This and the nowos were power mode only and I'd much rather have companies not include TC mode if it doesn’t work well. I hope the other brands in their company (wismec and joyetech) follow suit. It’s easier for beginners and saves people headache, time and money. So props to eleaf for leaving it out. There is 1 extra feature they advertise called “auto TC” which is supposed to work with their .6ohm coil since it’s SS, and i seen it activate twice for literally no reason since the coil wasn’t dry (not surprised of the false flags since their TC never worked right anyway) but that was it and it’s easy to forget it exists as it doesn't do much outside of a false flag here and there. I was easily able to get a dry hit with SS wire on a rebuildable so yeah that feature doesn’t work at all but outside of the couple of false flags i got which was rare, we can basically pretend it doesn't exist.
The Eleaf iStick Rim adjusts by 1 watt increments above 20 watts and .1 increments below it, and if you hold it scrolls really fast, so well done there as well. The mod itself is built really nice too. There is some very minor button rattle on the fire button only. The Fire button is quite large and can only be pressed in on the top half of it, but it worked very well with no complaints from me. The paint on the mod has held up really well. No wear and tear anywhere except the normal amount on the bottom. I have the “wilderness” color which is a black frame with camo IML panels that have a glossy finish to them. I like the looks and if you like simple mods they make a black with a silver frame that looks sleek. The USB port is on the bottom though which is a minor con, I don’t like leaving mods on their side to charge personally but not a big deal. The 510 pin gave me no issues and every atomizer i used on it and while I had no issues with it, it doesn't look like much lol but it works fine. The mod handles a 26.5mm atomizer (base size of the melo 5) with room to spare so accommodates anything you’d realistically want to use on it. The screen is a standard “eleaf” screen which is a small balck and while “old school DNA style” screen. Not a big fan of that, I wish they would use nicer screens but it gets the job done and is reasonably bright. Also for branding the mod itself just a small eleaf on the bottom of 1 side panel and an “istick rim” on the other. Really nicely done there. Nothing too large or gaudy.
Melo 5 tank rundown
Lets go over the tank now. I’ll start with the basics. It’s a 26.5mm diameter at the base, and the 4ml version is a bubble glass that bulges out to 28mm. So 2ml is the TDP version and 4ml for the standard version. The bubble glass has a rubber coating on it which is well dumb. I mean include a vape band if you want so you have the option but i makes the juice hard to see and it’s ugly. If i didn’t have to take pics for the review I would have peeled it off. It’s a slide back top fill which works great. You pull up and slide back so when you shut it, it locks into place. It also has an auto JFC so when you pull a coil, the tank seals and the juice can stay in there which is nice, but both designs were taken from the aspire tigon tank. This does really seem inspired by the tigon in many ways. The fill hole is a good size and has a flap which is nice for filling with a fine tooth bottle, however twist top bottles are a no-go and you need to pull the flap out to fill with one of those. The drip tip is a standard 510 black delrin tip. The top cap has a little play in it which is annoying as well but not a big deal. The air is for MTL and DTL. there are 2 small round holes which can be opened for 1 or 2 to do a loose MTL but really the smallest setting is only a loose MTL there is also your standard large oval for DTL air options. The AFC is smooth and easy to adjust and on a stopper.
That’s the basics of the tank but lets go over the coils now. It comes with 2 coils a .6 ohm15-30 watt SS coil (EC-S) and a .15 ohm 30-75 watt kanthal coil (EC-M). I started with the low watt one the EC-S. I started with a standard 70/30 3mg juice. I found it to be best at 20-22 watts but it had no punch for my nicotine needs basically. It’s best used as a MTL coil on the lowest air setting to get ok flavor. So after 1 fill of that, I switched to using a 50/50 VG/PG 20mg nic salt on the lowest air in the 20 watt range and that was ideal for the coil, but sadly it died before I could finish a whole tank so a little under 8ml that coil lasted. Then onto the .15 ohm coil. I can’t speak too much on this one. I got a crystal clear dud that has a hot spot in it so i can't really use it or dial it in. I’ve used quite a bit of eleaf coils over the past years and in the past they were pretty average. Not as good as the top ones but acceptable and not bad. Lately though they seem to be going downhill. I hope they fix it but as of now they are a below average coil maker to me and I hope that changes. Overall though I’d avoid the tank. It’s basic, has a couple of nice features but also some odd ones and the coils are no good.
Pros:
- Power mode performance good
- Accurately rated for watts (88)
- good volt limit (7.258+)
- handles 26mm+ atomizers without overhang
- full watt increment adjustments over 20 watts
- color options (6)
- really good charge rate (1.9A tested)
- charges really fast (1:10 to 1:30)
- good battery size for internal battery mod (around 2600mah)
- good build quality
- nice simple looks
- 510 pin gave no issues
- nice fire button
- good amp limit (29)
- simple easy to use power only mod
- no TC mode (making a pro since their TC never worked anyway so better not to have it in that case)
- Included tank is not good, mostly due to coils. Not worth buying kit.
- Slightly overstated battery life (roughly 2600mah not 3000mah as advertised)
- does not charge in the 40 mins advertised (but still really fast)
- Old outdated screen style
- USB port is on bottom of mod
- auto TC mode feature doesn't work (but you likely won’t notice it even exists) doesn't need to exist on this mod.
So with all that said, do I recommend this mod or not? I don’t like to do a hard yes or no but this one for the mod itself leans towards the yes. It’s a solid, simple, good working internal battery mod that’s small, has good battery life, and charges really fast, and priced well in the 30-40 range. It’s a really good beginner mod for sure. I’d easily skip the tank and pair it with a nunchaku for DTL fans or a zenith or tigon for MTL fans, or of course a lower watt rebuildable. I’ll be adding the mod to my spreadsheet of recs linked down below, but not the tank. Feel free to check that link out if you are in the market for anything new.
This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and I'll catch you on my next review.
Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from Eleaf
Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.
Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done over 300 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.
Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here
Youtube Channel here
Spreadsheet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 list here
Best of 2017 list here
