Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the Vandy vape Bonza Mech Kit. Please see bottom for disclaimers and links. Note: This is marked as a sample.
Introduction:
The Vandy Vape Bonza Mech Kit is the first Mech tube mod from popular vape manufacturer Vandy Vape. They are most popular for their atomizers like the Bonza RDAs, Kylin RTAs, Pulse Line of products (Mech squonk, several RDAs, and 3 regulated squonk mods) so yeah they have made mostly a lot of good stuff over the past 2 years when they came onto the scene. The Bonza Kit, designed in collaboration with popular youtube reviewer from down under, the vaping bogan, is a Kit that includes the Bonza “hybrid” 2x700 Mech mod and the Bonza V1.5 rda. I call it “hybrid” as they really should be referred to as a DTB (Direct to battery) mech mod where there is no 510 connection and the Atomizer connects directly to the battery. It’s available in 6 colors Copper, Brass, Copper matte black, 7 color (rainbow), SS, and Copper Wrinkle Painted Black. Looking around online i see the kit for around 60-90USD.
Manufacturer's Specs: Mod
album
Mech and DTB (aka Hybrid) Safety
Before I talk about the mod itself i wanted to touch on DTB and mech safety a bit. Mechs are not beginner devices period. You should have a basic understanding of ohms law as well as good batteries and understand battery safety. Thankfully u/mooch315
has provided us a list of safe batteries blog here and i also made a safety video here As far as DTB mods go, The only difference is you have to make sure it has a protruding positive 510 pin like this. Also make sure your battery wraps are safe with no damage to them, you should ALWAYS inspect your batteries before using and make sure the wrap isn’t damaged. If it is you need to rewrap it, Video here
on how to do that.
Bonza Mech Mod
Let's talk about the mod now. The mod itself is built pretty nicely. It’s pretty lightweight not super heavy but doesn't feel cheap either. The threading is good, it’s smooth and not squeaky but it came very dirty with lots of metal shavings on it. I’ll ding them a little but it’s a 50ish dollar mech and not a 300 dollar one so it’s not that big of a deal all things considered and cleaning and maintaining a mech is part of owning one anyway, but it’s a mod that would benefit from cleaning of the bat for sure. It’s got an interesting design to it. It’s mostly plain and i got the SS one which to me is a bit boring, any other color would have been preferred but maybe it’s just me and the thought of having so many SS mechs back in the day that it makes it feel old a bit. There is a little flair in a small ring around the top and bottom of the mod. Outside of that there is a metal sleeve that goes over the middle of the mod. The sleeve has a bonza logo on it which i don’t care for. It seems though based on pics that any colors but the SS and copper wrinkle also come with a resin sleeve which would have made it look nicer IMO had they included that as well with the SS color. The sleeve can be turned so it lines the logo up with the RDA logo for those who get a little OCD about stuff like that which is kind of cool. Underneath that sleeve you will have your serial number. It has plenty of battery venting as well. There are 3 holes equally spaced apart at the bottom of the mod so VV recommends using batteries positive side down which is probably a good idea but force of habit and all I always used them positive side up and did that as well with this mod.
It’s a DTB (Direct to Battery connection) only mod. No 510 pin on it so make sure you are aware of what attys you can use on it before buying and which one’s you can’t. It has a coated delrin inside protect against shorts in case you had damage on your battery wrap, but obviously don’t use batteries with damaged wraps. The switch itself is is a pretty simple switch and old school design that just works so no complaints. It has a large contact area with a silver coated connection pin that you need to push up to make it contact the battery and complete the circuit. It comes on a little tight from the factory, but after taking it apart 1 time it’s easy to get apart by hand. It comes with magnets installed and a spare set, and also an optional spring as well if you wanted to swap the magnets out for a spring. Personally i stuck with the magnets cause old habits die hard. Even with the magnets though it’s really stiff. There is no locking mechanism as it isn’t really needed since the switch itself is recessed into the mod so it can’t fire when laying flat and it’s honestly way to stiff to accidentally fire. The switch is adjustable and unscrews out from the bottom so you can make it more or less recessed and to adjust for the 510 length of your atomizer so it can sit flush on the mod without a gap so you have a little wiggle room there. I wasn’t a fan of the switch personally. The combination of it being really strong magnets and the slickness of the mod, means it took a lot of effort to fire as my hand could slide down the mod itself when trying to fire so you have to grip the mod tight so that doesn't happen. Overall the switch works well but it’s a little “too hard to fire” IMO. Not as comfy as other mechs i’ve used.
The mod also has some accessories sold separately including a 25mm top cap for thebonza RDA to make it look better but it still won’t sit flush which is odd form a kit like this and also extra tubes so you can make it a stacked series mech if you are one of those who likes the tall lightsaber stacked mechs. Performance wise the mod is pretty solid especially at the price point. Mind you it’s been a long time since i’ve reviewed a mech mod. I had to go back to july-august of 2017 where i reviewed the Desire Mad Dog Kit and the SOI Subzero X Kit. Those were the last 2 mech tubes i’ve reviewed but i have reviewed a few mech squonk boxes since then. I’m also not a mech user these days much. I still have some for nostalgia as i use to use them exclusively back when regulated mods had no power and you can get much more power from a mech and it was pretty much the only way to DTL vape back in the days as regulated mods really only had enough power for MTL vaping. Nowadays with mods being 100-200-300-400 watts lol you don’t need a mech for power anymore. I only used 21700 batteries in this mod and more specifically I only used the samsung 30T for both my testing and normal usage. Normal useage wise i was mostly running a .19 ohm build and mostly used my Mjölnir RDA. For my everyday use the mod worked just fine with no issues or hiccups as a mech should. No misfires or anything. For the testing I tested the total output at a few resistances which means it includes not only voltage drop from the mech itself but also voltage sag of the battery underload and testing was done with fully charged batteries. To stay within the safe limits the lowest I tested was .15 ohms which got me 80 watts. At .2 ohms i got 60 watts. At .63 ohms i got 25 watts. My general rule of thumb i look for in mechs is 60 watts at a .2 ohm build. To put a little perspective i did look back at some old similar tests and the arctic dolphin crea mech squonker was around 65 watts, the azeroth mech squonker was around 61 watts and the much maligned vandy vape pulse mech famous for it’s bad voltage drop was around 54 watts. And those are boxes with a 510 pin and not a “DTB” so just goes to show that “DTB” doesn’t always mean it “hits harder”, but still the performance is more than acceptable for the price tag especially since outside of old mechs and clones there aren’t really many affordable tubes made these days.
Bonza V1.5 RDA
Now i already reviewed this RDA about 6 weeks ago so if you want the full review you can check this link. Instead i’m going to talk about how it works and fits in with this kit and fair warning it’s not going to be good. First off as much as i like the bonza RDA and think it’s a great RDA on it’s own, I don’t like it at all in this kit. It’s way too airy to run on a single battery mech. It’s fine if you want to sue cloud chasing builds but if you want flavor and battery life they really should have packaged it in with a single coil RDA or at least a much less airy dual coil RDA that didn't’ need such a massive build for flavor. It felt pretty lazy to slap in that RDA with the mech mod and call it a day. Especially from a reviewer which makes it feel more like a “cash grab” then a design someone actually thought out to make something good for vapers. They should have made at minimum a “Bonza V2” single coil RDA with less air and designed especially for dripping to really give it a “kit” feel.
My other gripe is well, probably going to be a long rant. Again going back to the last 2 hybrid kits i’ve reviewed the SOI subzero X and Desire Mad Dog the included atomizers actually screw onto the body of the mod itself and not just to the 510 threading to give it that “AIO” or all in one look as if it was one piece and not 2 seperate items slapped together with the same logo on them. Why they didn’t do that here, i’ll never know but again it makes it feel more like a cash grab, then a product designed by a vaper for vapers. It’s also why i don’t consider this rally to be a hybrid. Most manufacturers these days (well let's face it lots of names and descriptions for vape products absolutely suck) label anything with a DTB connection as a hybrid. So now it’s generally an accepted term when saying “hybrid” that you really mean DTB when it comes to vaping. Now mind you the actual term hybrid is something debated upon itself, and yeah i’m going off topic a bit but it’s rare i get to review a kit like this so might as well throw in a vaping history lesson and may lead to some good discussion in the comments as well, but some say “hybrid” is acceptable to all mech mods as it’s meant to be a hybrid of a mech and a flashlight. The 1st mech mods were modified flashlight bodies with a 510 and a switch on them to fire. I debate that as that is why they are called “mods” as they were modded flashlights. Had nothing to do with the connection. Others say Hybrid are for the “AIO” style kits where the atomizer screws onto the tube to make it look part of the mod itself and not a separate part. Again i debate that as those are called AIO kits and hybrid is generally used as a term for something that can do multiple things like a hybrid car that can run off electricity or gas. It does both. Which leaves me to the last definition which is the one i believe to be true and by definition makes the most sense is a hybrid mod is one where you have both options to do a DTB connection or use a 510 or use it as an AIO. any of those 2 options in a kit would make it a hybrid as it does both. But i’m always up for good discussions about this so feel free to comment about that below. Either way though short answer is this could have been done in 1 line and that line is, this RDA is not a good pairing for the kit.
Pros:
So with all that said, do I recommend this kit or not? I always speak pretty open and honestly about stuff and really these days i don’t see any reason to recommend a DTB mech mod. It’s not to say they are bad, i mean i like them personally but the vape industry is growing very quickly and more quickly then good info can get out and they aren’t necessary anymore for power. Now mind you, if you are a mech user and are in the market for this or something similar, you are probably smart enough to read the review, weight the pros and cons, and decide if it’s a good fit for you personally. So i’ll leave it at that
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 Vandy Vape
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 around 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 Vandy Vape Bonza Mech Kit is the first Mech tube mod from popular vape manufacturer Vandy Vape. They are most popular for their atomizers like the Bonza RDAs, Kylin RTAs, Pulse Line of products (Mech squonk, several RDAs, and 3 regulated squonk mods) so yeah they have made mostly a lot of good stuff over the past 2 years when they came onto the scene. The Bonza Kit, designed in collaboration with popular youtube reviewer from down under, the vaping bogan, is a Kit that includes the Bonza “hybrid” 2x700 Mech mod and the Bonza V1.5 rda. I call it “hybrid” as they really should be referred to as a DTB (Direct to battery) mech mod where there is no 510 connection and the Atomizer connects directly to the battery. It’s available in 6 colors Copper, Brass, Copper matte black, 7 color (rainbow), SS, and Copper Wrinkle Painted Black. Looking around online i see the kit for around 60-90USD.
Manufacturer's Specs: Mod
- Size: 85.5*27mm
- Colors: Stainless Steel, Copper Wrinkle Painted Black
- Compatible With Single 20700 / 21700 / 18650 Batteries
- Interchangeable Sleeve System For Customisation And Logo Alignment
- Magnetic Switch
- Safety Insulated Tube
- 510 Hybrid Connection
- Short Form Factor
- Magnetic Switch With Spring Option Included
- Pure Copper Conducts Electricity To Reduce Internal Loss
- Each Mech Mod Has An Individually Number
- Colors: Matte Black, Stainless Steel, Gun Metal, Rainbow, Copper Wrinkle Painted Black
- Size:25.5*24mm
- 2ML E Juice Capacity
- 9MM Deep Juice Well
- Raised Squonk Pin Include
- Top Cap Locking System
- Dual AFC Options Bring Smooth Airflow
- Enlarged Posts, Screws And Plates
- 1 Bonza Kit (mech mod and RDA)
- 1 Accessory Bag
- 1 User Manual
- 1 18650 Battery Adapter
album
Mech and DTB (aka Hybrid) Safety
Before I talk about the mod itself i wanted to touch on DTB and mech safety a bit. Mechs are not beginner devices period. You should have a basic understanding of ohms law as well as good batteries and understand battery safety. Thankfully u/mooch315
has provided us a list of safe batteries blog here and i also made a safety video here As far as DTB mods go, The only difference is you have to make sure it has a protruding positive 510 pin like this. Also make sure your battery wraps are safe with no damage to them, you should ALWAYS inspect your batteries before using and make sure the wrap isn’t damaged. If it is you need to rewrap it, Video here
on how to do that.
Bonza Mech Mod
Let's talk about the mod now. The mod itself is built pretty nicely. It’s pretty lightweight not super heavy but doesn't feel cheap either. The threading is good, it’s smooth and not squeaky but it came very dirty with lots of metal shavings on it. I’ll ding them a little but it’s a 50ish dollar mech and not a 300 dollar one so it’s not that big of a deal all things considered and cleaning and maintaining a mech is part of owning one anyway, but it’s a mod that would benefit from cleaning of the bat for sure. It’s got an interesting design to it. It’s mostly plain and i got the SS one which to me is a bit boring, any other color would have been preferred but maybe it’s just me and the thought of having so many SS mechs back in the day that it makes it feel old a bit. There is a little flair in a small ring around the top and bottom of the mod. Outside of that there is a metal sleeve that goes over the middle of the mod. The sleeve has a bonza logo on it which i don’t care for. It seems though based on pics that any colors but the SS and copper wrinkle also come with a resin sleeve which would have made it look nicer IMO had they included that as well with the SS color. The sleeve can be turned so it lines the logo up with the RDA logo for those who get a little OCD about stuff like that which is kind of cool. Underneath that sleeve you will have your serial number. It has plenty of battery venting as well. There are 3 holes equally spaced apart at the bottom of the mod so VV recommends using batteries positive side down which is probably a good idea but force of habit and all I always used them positive side up and did that as well with this mod.
It’s a DTB (Direct to Battery connection) only mod. No 510 pin on it so make sure you are aware of what attys you can use on it before buying and which one’s you can’t. It has a coated delrin inside protect against shorts in case you had damage on your battery wrap, but obviously don’t use batteries with damaged wraps. The switch itself is is a pretty simple switch and old school design that just works so no complaints. It has a large contact area with a silver coated connection pin that you need to push up to make it contact the battery and complete the circuit. It comes on a little tight from the factory, but after taking it apart 1 time it’s easy to get apart by hand. It comes with magnets installed and a spare set, and also an optional spring as well if you wanted to swap the magnets out for a spring. Personally i stuck with the magnets cause old habits die hard. Even with the magnets though it’s really stiff. There is no locking mechanism as it isn’t really needed since the switch itself is recessed into the mod so it can’t fire when laying flat and it’s honestly way to stiff to accidentally fire. The switch is adjustable and unscrews out from the bottom so you can make it more or less recessed and to adjust for the 510 length of your atomizer so it can sit flush on the mod without a gap so you have a little wiggle room there. I wasn’t a fan of the switch personally. The combination of it being really strong magnets and the slickness of the mod, means it took a lot of effort to fire as my hand could slide down the mod itself when trying to fire so you have to grip the mod tight so that doesn't happen. Overall the switch works well but it’s a little “too hard to fire” IMO. Not as comfy as other mechs i’ve used.
The mod also has some accessories sold separately including a 25mm top cap for thebonza RDA to make it look better but it still won’t sit flush which is odd form a kit like this and also extra tubes so you can make it a stacked series mech if you are one of those who likes the tall lightsaber stacked mechs. Performance wise the mod is pretty solid especially at the price point. Mind you it’s been a long time since i’ve reviewed a mech mod. I had to go back to july-august of 2017 where i reviewed the Desire Mad Dog Kit and the SOI Subzero X Kit. Those were the last 2 mech tubes i’ve reviewed but i have reviewed a few mech squonk boxes since then. I’m also not a mech user these days much. I still have some for nostalgia as i use to use them exclusively back when regulated mods had no power and you can get much more power from a mech and it was pretty much the only way to DTL vape back in the days as regulated mods really only had enough power for MTL vaping. Nowadays with mods being 100-200-300-400 watts lol you don’t need a mech for power anymore. I only used 21700 batteries in this mod and more specifically I only used the samsung 30T for both my testing and normal usage. Normal useage wise i was mostly running a .19 ohm build and mostly used my Mjölnir RDA. For my everyday use the mod worked just fine with no issues or hiccups as a mech should. No misfires or anything. For the testing I tested the total output at a few resistances which means it includes not only voltage drop from the mech itself but also voltage sag of the battery underload and testing was done with fully charged batteries. To stay within the safe limits the lowest I tested was .15 ohms which got me 80 watts. At .2 ohms i got 60 watts. At .63 ohms i got 25 watts. My general rule of thumb i look for in mechs is 60 watts at a .2 ohm build. To put a little perspective i did look back at some old similar tests and the arctic dolphin crea mech squonker was around 65 watts, the azeroth mech squonker was around 61 watts and the much maligned vandy vape pulse mech famous for it’s bad voltage drop was around 54 watts. And those are boxes with a 510 pin and not a “DTB” so just goes to show that “DTB” doesn’t always mean it “hits harder”, but still the performance is more than acceptable for the price tag especially since outside of old mechs and clones there aren’t really many affordable tubes made these days.
Bonza V1.5 RDA
Now i already reviewed this RDA about 6 weeks ago so if you want the full review you can check this link. Instead i’m going to talk about how it works and fits in with this kit and fair warning it’s not going to be good. First off as much as i like the bonza RDA and think it’s a great RDA on it’s own, I don’t like it at all in this kit. It’s way too airy to run on a single battery mech. It’s fine if you want to sue cloud chasing builds but if you want flavor and battery life they really should have packaged it in with a single coil RDA or at least a much less airy dual coil RDA that didn't’ need such a massive build for flavor. It felt pretty lazy to slap in that RDA with the mech mod and call it a day. Especially from a reviewer which makes it feel more like a “cash grab” then a design someone actually thought out to make something good for vapers. They should have made at minimum a “Bonza V2” single coil RDA with less air and designed especially for dripping to really give it a “kit” feel.
My other gripe is well, probably going to be a long rant. Again going back to the last 2 hybrid kits i’ve reviewed the SOI subzero X and Desire Mad Dog the included atomizers actually screw onto the body of the mod itself and not just to the 510 threading to give it that “AIO” or all in one look as if it was one piece and not 2 seperate items slapped together with the same logo on them. Why they didn’t do that here, i’ll never know but again it makes it feel more like a cash grab, then a product designed by a vaper for vapers. It’s also why i don’t consider this rally to be a hybrid. Most manufacturers these days (well let's face it lots of names and descriptions for vape products absolutely suck) label anything with a DTB connection as a hybrid. So now it’s generally an accepted term when saying “hybrid” that you really mean DTB when it comes to vaping. Now mind you the actual term hybrid is something debated upon itself, and yeah i’m going off topic a bit but it’s rare i get to review a kit like this so might as well throw in a vaping history lesson and may lead to some good discussion in the comments as well, but some say “hybrid” is acceptable to all mech mods as it’s meant to be a hybrid of a mech and a flashlight. The 1st mech mods were modified flashlight bodies with a 510 and a switch on them to fire. I debate that as that is why they are called “mods” as they were modded flashlights. Had nothing to do with the connection. Others say Hybrid are for the “AIO” style kits where the atomizer screws onto the tube to make it look part of the mod itself and not a separate part. Again i debate that as those are called AIO kits and hybrid is generally used as a term for something that can do multiple things like a hybrid car that can run off electricity or gas. It does both. Which leaves me to the last definition which is the one i believe to be true and by definition makes the most sense is a hybrid mod is one where you have both options to do a DTB connection or use a 510 or use it as an AIO. any of those 2 options in a kit would make it a hybrid as it does both. But i’m always up for good discussions about this so feel free to comment about that below. Either way though short answer is this could have been done in 1 line and that line is, this RDA is not a good pairing for the kit.
Pros:
- Build Quality for the price is good enough
- No Locking Mechanism needed due to recessed fire button
- No “hot button” issues
- Performs Good
- Fills a niche of a new affordable 2x700 mech mod with DTB connection
- delrin coating inside tube and battery venting for safety
- switch is adjustable and includes magnets and a spring
- DTB connection only, no 510 pin included
- Not really a hybrid kit and doesn't give the AIO look
- Switch takes a little too much effort to fire
- Included RDA doesn't pair well with mod
- Threading all came dirty
- Interchangeable Resin Tubes don’t come with some colors like my SS
So with all that said, do I recommend this kit or not? I always speak pretty open and honestly about stuff and really these days i don’t see any reason to recommend a DTB mech mod. It’s not to say they are bad, i mean i like them personally but the vape industry is growing very quickly and more quickly then good info can get out and they aren’t necessary anymore for power. Now mind you, if you are a mech user and are in the market for this or something similar, you are probably smart enough to read the review, weight the pros and cons, and decide if it’s a good fit for you personally. So i’ll leave it at that
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 Vandy Vape
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 around 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
