GGTS Extended Use Review-(Almost) One Month In
About me: Three month heavy vaper. Down to >1 analog per week. Have used std 510, dse 905, hv copper, hv xhaler, mr puff and petercro mini juice box mk2. My experience with PV's so far is that I will initially love a unit, but later on find a flaw or shortcoming that will greatly diminish my love for it a month or so later. My love is intense, but fickle.
Disclaimer: I have no professional or financial relationship with GG, it's creator, or distributors. I am receiving no compensation of any kind for this review. I know of no personal relationship that would in any way bias my review or the opinions behind it.
Description: The Golden Greek Telescopic Storm (GGTS) is an aluminum and brass three piece PV that telscopes to use any cylindrical battery or series of batterys commonly used by the vaping community. It can use 801's, 510's natively, and 901's and KR808D-1's with a single brass adaptor. It has a single brass, mechanical spring button on the bottom of the unit. The unit has a list price of 212.00 USD for the body assembly and 901/KR808D-1 adapter from vaporkings.com, the exclusive distributor in the United States.
Received my GGTS 2/24/2010. It has been my main PV since I received it. So far, I have used it in three configurations: a single 18650 battery with a standard 510 atty, in 6v mode with two 3v cr-123's and a 6v 901 imeoatty, and very briefly with a 1st generation GG AFS system. My experience with the unit so far has been overwhelmingly positive. My preferred mode is with the 3.7v 18650 battery with 510 atty.
Customer Service: 5 out of 5. For ECF members, Imeo and his two distributors all but live on the GG forum of that site. Imeo in particular is excellent about answering questions or giving advice on the forum and responding to private messages. If a GGTS has a flaw or shortcoming, all three are superb about providing a fix or replacement parts immediately at little or no cost to their consumers. A minor quibble I have with Imeo (common to many PV manufacturers) is his tendency to post instructional videos with home webcam sound and lighting quality instead of making better written instructions available to customers; but since the GGTS is simple to the point of being intuitive, I didn't deduct any points for this review.
Adaptability: 4.5 out of 5. Any atty, every batty. The telescopic feature and interlocking parts of the GGTS allows it to take virtually any battery known to vaperkind with a few turns of the wrist, to include one or two cr2's or cr123a's, along with 14500's, 16340's, 17670's, 18350's, 18500's and 18650's. The optional 5v passthrough conversion kit completes the dizzying array of power options. The use of different batteries also change the aesthetics and size of the unit; for 3.7v vaping I can use a single cr123 which makes it tiny, or a 3000 mah 18650 which extends it to its maximum. One of the thing that annoyed me about my other PV's was their lack of flexibility in the battery department, as the same series battery can vary dramatically in size due to being protected or not, different mah's and different manufacturers. Because of this, I used to have apprehension about buying batteries for a mod from anyone but the manufacturer of it, but the GGTS has eliminated this.
The GGTS's can use both 801's and 510's without an adapter. One of the nice things about running into other vapers with these mods is the ability to easily unscrew my atty and cartridge and put theirs on it for no fuss and disease free show and tell. I am also somewhat paranoid about losing adapters on other mods. The ggts does use an adapter to use the KR808D-1 and 901 attys (which strikes me as kind of strange, since his first generation Automatic Feed System uses the 901) which causes me to deduct half a point.
These two abilities make going from reg to high voltage vaping a snap, and make other mods look a bit..primitive.
Build Quality: 4.5 out of 5. The GGTS is extremely well built out of aircraft grade aluminum and brass. It screws together well, and has the precision feel of a swiss watch. The brass mechanical activation button is simple and 100% effective. Unlike my other PV's that had inconsistent activation (which resulted in the habit of me holding mods up to my ear to listen for the atty sizzle before vaping), the GGTS is rock solid dependable: hit the button, get a vape. Repeat. The only quibble I have is the fine grooves on the outside of the unit, which are great-for catching dirt, spilled juice, finger oil and other contaminants. This is no way affects the reliability of the unit, but is slighly annoying. A bi-weekly polishing with noxon7 and q-tips has become part of my vaping routine. Half a point deduction. Hopefully, this will be remedied in the second production batch of the unit.
Vaping Experience: 5 out of 5. The reliability of the GGTS, along with it's ability to take any atty or batty makes this a foregone conclusion. I feel that this is also the least subjective part of my review: if you have a favorite atomizer and favorite battery, you can use them with this unit.
An unexpected surprise was when I threw the 18650 on one my last remaining (non HV) 510 atties before I rushed out the door to start my work day: all day battery life and a 5v-ish vapor and throat hit! The HV experience was improved even further when I tried a high-drain 18650 battery on it. And, I'm using the same atty after almost a month. After killing a minimum of two attys a week on my previous mods using 5-6v, the GGTS may end up paying for itself in less than three months.
Design/Features/Aesthetics: 4.5 out of 5. This category may be superfluous, since I've already covered it in the preceding sections. It is an attractive, feature rich, mod. The only quibbles I have is the dirt catching grooves on the outside of the unit and need for the single 901 adapter. The easy to use, simple and robust mechanical button with locking action is a definite plus, you can throw it in a pocket with almost no worries of accidental activation.
Price/Value: 4 out of 5. The only reason why I didn't give this a perfect score is the high initial cost of the unit, which will keep all but the most ardent vapors from purchasing this product. Nevertheless, because of the adaptability, durability and features of this unit, it is an excellent value.
Final Score and Conclusion: 4.58 out of 5. The GGTS is within arm's reach of perfection. Once I got past the purchase price, the durability, design and features of this PV has made it my main vape. If I die in the near future, I'm confident it will be found either in my hand or within three feet of my corpse. After a month with a PV, I'm usually falling out of love with it by now. This isn't the case with the GGTS. I'm not making any promises of a life time commitment; my love is fickle. But it will have to be one heckuva mod to lure me away from my GGTS.
