So, I finally am getting around to this review, since I've finally killed off the first coil that came with the tank. That sucker hung in there. About four weeks back, I did a review of the Eleaf GS16S (Totally Wicked rebadge) and really pretty well enjoyed using the little guy. Then I discovered that Eleaf decided to update their older GS Air clearomizer and make a product that sits in the mid 1 ohm resistance range as a direct competitor to the Nautilus Mini, perhaps with a few extra niceties. So I picked one up from Sweet-Vapes along with spare coils.
I've used the GS Air and think it's a decent enough tank, but the whole bit with needing a screwdriver to adjust airflow seems just a bit asinine to me. Also, the 16mm diameter made it an odd duck that was designed to sit flush on the uncommon 16mm Ego platform (incidentally, the GS16S I previously reviewed also has a 16mm diameter, but it has the positive distiction of being a tiny tank). It didn't fit flush on either of the much more common 14mm or 19mm Ego standards and looked equally odd on either. Folks complained and Eleaf listened. Enter the GS Air M and GS Air MS (GS Air Mega and GS Air Mega Shorty). These two tanks use the same coils as the older GS Air, but have a couple of major and favorable redesign features. Firstly, both of the tanks are functionally identical except for tank height and juice capacity. I'm reviewing the shorter MS model here. Eleaf took the GS Air tank, threw it out the window, kept the nice coil design, and released two 19mm tanks to replace it. They also opted to completely redesign the air flow control, much for the better. Does all of this make the GS Air a better tank? Read on...
The first thing you'll notice, particularly with the GS Air MS, is how tiny these tanks are. Look at the photos... and keep in mind that I'm a little dude. I'm 5'5" and have what others might categorize as little girl hands that might be at home in a particular Burger King commercial. Even in my elvish hands, the GS Air MS is small. Shorter even than the teeny GS16S. And it holds 2.5 ml of juice in this tiny frame (4.0 ml for the GS Air M). That's more capacity than the far larger Nautilus Mini... and that's quite impressive. The tank is 19mm in diameter, so it looks great on the likes of the Ego One, iPow 2, Evod Mega, and iSticks alike. It DOES overhang the front end of the iStick 20 and Mini, but only by about 1mm, and not on the sides. See the photo... it's not a big deal. It sits perfectly fine on the iStick 30 and 50 without any overhang. Side by side with the diminutive iStick Mini, you can see in the photo just how tiny this tank really is. Without the drip tip, and not including the 510 threading, the tank measures 31mm in height (about 40 to 41mm for the M tank). With the stock drip tip, it measures about 46mm (about 55-56mm for the M). Using the Flow C3 drip tip I have in the photos, it measures 42 mm in height. On the iStick Mini, that makes for a 94mm stealth vape (98mm with the stock tip, or something like 107-108mm with the M tank and stock drip tip)... with decent air flow control... and somehow, good juice capacity. Not bad.
Filling the tank is about as much of a chore here as it was with the GS16S or the original GS Air. It's a little cumbersome with a dripper bulb or a snub nosed plastic dripper, but certainly doable. A syringe or pointy plastic or metal bottle tip is certainly ideal and makes much more graceful. Either way, it's certainly easy enough to fill, though. While filling the tank, you'll notice the coils that look a whole lot like the Joyetech Egrip coils. They also have the same large juice channels and wattage handling range as those coils. They also perform similarly... that's good.
So how does it vape? In a word, great. The tank air flow comes from 3 places... from the two cylon slots on the adjustable AFC ring and from a single hole at the base of the 510 connector, just like on older ego tanks. This way, with the AFC completely closed off, you still get a small amount of air intake from the base, sufficient for a mouth to lung hit. Open the AFC all the way, and you can direct lung inhale with a draw similar to a Subtank Nano between its tightest and midrange airflow settings. It's not airflow along the lines of what a sub ohm clearomizer offers, but it's certainly a ton more than the Nautilus Mini. It'll definitely allow you to chuck a couple of clouds, but don't make reservations at any upcoming cloud chasing competitions.
Flavor output from this tank is great...right on par with the Nautilus Mini, and that's saying something. Airflow in this tank, as mentioned before absolutely destroys what the Nautilus Mini has. The juice channels in the coils are about twice the size as on Aspire's tank, as well. With all of that, these coils outperform the Nautilus coils in terms of wattage handling, vapor production, and (in my opinion) flavor output... but only barely with the flavor. It seems to give a "crisper" flavor than the Nautilus Mini, for lack of a better word, with different flavor subtleties and nuances. This tank IS a little noisier than the Nautilus Mini with the AFC ring wide open, however... it does hiss a bit if you take a deep, rapid draw. The AFC ring is slightly loose for my taste, too, but that's not a big deal... it stays put just fine.
Coils last about three weeks on this tank. When they die, they begin to produce significantly less vapor and the flavor becomes a bit metallic. I didn't really pay attention, and the fourth week of performance was pretty subpar. These coils don't go out with quite the blaring trumpet call some other coils give in their death throes, so keep an eye out for it... if the vapor diminishes and tastes funny, chuck the coil. Still, twenty-ish days out of a coil is more than respectable, especially when the replacement coils cost less than $10 for a 5 pack. This clearomizer uses the already abundant GS Air coils, so they're fairly inexpensive and they'll be easy to find in a pinch, but your resistance is always going to be 1.5 ohms... period. For what this tank is, though, that's perfectly fine and it's still (barely) a lower resistance than what's available for the Nautilus and Nautilus Mini.
In terms of wattage handling, the tank performs admirably for a device with a resistance rating of 1.5 ohms. On my iStick 30 watt, I was able to consistently work at 20-22 watts, but only with a 50/50 or thinner juice. Anything from the thickness of max VG down to a 60/40 VG/PG ratio would only consistently work up to about 16 watts. By working, I mean absolutely zero dry hits or wicking issues while chain vaping a dozen or so consecutive, eight second draws from the tank (use zero nicotine if you want to try this, even on this tank... trust me). All of that being in mind, I'd say that most people should have no issues with vaping at 15 watts, all day long. I personally found the flavor and vapor sweet spot to be about 12-13 watts with a heavy VG juice and about 15 watts with a 50/50, but preference and taste are certainly subjective and your mileage may vary.
Eleaf seems to have designed this tank around the iStick Mini. All of the design cues fit in with the battery and the height of the tank and battery together are a great match at under 100 mm (with the MS tank... the M tank is about 10 or 11 mm taller). Not bad. Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my iStick Mini, when regulating to 5 volts is consistently pushing out about 13.5 watts instead of cutting off at 10 watts, regardless of the tank or coil resistance... the same thing is true here... I get about 13.3 to 13.6 watts from this tank on the iStick Mini, and that's pretty much dead perfect for these coils.
Overall, I'm really impressed with this little tank, particularly when paired with the iStick Mini. It has a couple of niggling issues like being a bit cramped to refill and having that fingerprint magnet chrome finish, but is overall a fantastic clearo that gives one of the best quality vapes I've ever had out of a prebuilt coil running over 1.2 ohms. Build quality isn't QUITE as good as with the Nautilus Mini, but it's certainly really good, and this tank costs half of the Aspire product does. Really, I'm glad that manufacturers haven't forgotten that not everyone wants a sub ohm tank. Not everyone wants disgusting amounts of airflow. Not everyone wants to vape at 30-100 watts and go through 50ml of juice a day. Some folks just want a good vape with a somewhat tighter draw that they can control. This tank does this quite well, and it's nice to see a new product that follows the philosophy of the Nautilus tanks... and surpasses them on a whole lot of levels. This tank with the iStick Mini (or 30 watt) is perfect for the beginning vaper and it even offers pretty decent air flow control for a range of different drawing styles. It's also great for the intermediate to advanced vaper looking for a small stealth vape or something to just carry around easily that also happens to be able to generate a satisfying cloud of vapor.
Most impressive and highly recommended at only $10.
Look out for Eleaf, they're getting their act together lately!
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