I recently ordered a MonkeyBoxx and I thought I would share my experiences with the device for those who might be interested.
My first mod was a Wood Reo and I have an attachment to that device that might be classified as unnatural by a mental health professional. My love for it probably exceeds my love for any other inanimate object I have ever owned. So for me, it is impossible to review this mod without comparing it to other juice fed, mods, particularly the wooden ones, please keep that in mind when considering this review.
Wooden juice boxes can be difficult to obtain and it is easy to see why, they are individually handcrafted art pieces that also happen to produce vapor. The wait for people who want to buy one can be long and there is competition to purchase them. Many people have given up trying to buy wood juicers because they are so hard to get. Enter the Monkey Boxx...
The Monkey Boxx arrived two days ago. Included was an extra bottle and needle assembly, some small rare earth magnets and a very pretty handmade pouch. It has a native 510 connection.
The Outside:
I can see the influences of other successful juice feeders in the design. No major innovation here. It is an attractive mod, the size and weight are most similar to a Journeyman. It looks like it should be heavier than it is, it is very light to hold and the button placement is nice. Holding it and pressing the button has a natural and relaxed feel.
The wood itself is beautiful and you can feel the texture of the grain in your hand just a bit but it still has a smooth finish. It has an oval cutout to insert your thumb to feed the juice. I asked a guy friend with freakishly large hands to depress the bottle and we found that he could, but he had to turn his thumb sideways in order to do it, his thumb didn't get stuck and he didn't think it was awkward or uncomfortable to press the bottle.
The door pops off and on with almost no effort, however, it does not fit flush at the top and there is a gap between the door and the top of the body. This wouldn't bother me as much if the gap were even, but it is not. It fits flush on one side of the mod and then gradually gaps at the edge to the other side, diagonally. The door fits both ways but the gap is there no matter which direction I apply it to the mod. On one corner, the door extends out past the base of the unit a bit, creating a tiny overhang.
I have a concern about this door working well in humid conditions. It fits snugly and there are no magnets to hold it in place. If the wood expands, it may become difficult to remove the door. Likewise, the delicate, clever grooves that allow the door to easily pop on and off may be susceptible to wear and tear and eventually, the door may not function as intended as the wood wears. I will update this review after some rigorous use to see how well it stands up.
My only other observation is that the plastic on/off switch on the side of has a bit of dried glue in it. It does not affect the operation of the switch at all.
Rating 6/10
The Inside:
Popping off the door, the inside is fairly clean and simple and makes efficient use of the space inside the mod. The juice bottle is a 6mL round bottle that uses a bottom-fed needle assembly that resembles what you might find in a Wetbox.
The upside is that it is easy to change juices, if you have another bottle and needle assembly, (1 extra comes with the mod) the downside is getting that little beveled tube into the darn hole. It is like threading a needle at an angle and the "thread" doesn't bend much. It has gotten easier to change the bottle with practice. There has been absolutely no sign of any leakage from the needle assembly on the inside of the mod, even when I flooded it on purpose.
The spring is stiff and it takes firm pressure to pop in an 18650 batt. I have had to reposition the battery in one instance for the device to work, but that has not happened a second time.
Rating: 6/10
The Vaping Experience:
It takes more pressure with my thumb than I expected to feed juice to the atty. In a metal juice box, the thumb hole makes sense because the metal isn't that thick. Wood is thicker, so my small thumb goes in the box to the first knuckle when the bottle is half full. I think I prefer a pressing a button to sticking my thumb that far into the mod, but I consider that a more of personal preference rather than a design issue.
The catch cup on the top has not overflowed despite my heavy handed ways and the small amount of excess juice in the catch cup goes away after vaping awhile, probably into the atomizer, almost if by magic. I am a habitual flooder and I have not been able to flood the Monkey Boxx. The juice stays where it is supposed to stay.
I have vaped this device with an Ultrafire 18650 3.7V with LR510 and Cisco 306 atomizers, as well as with a regular 510 atomizer with two Tenergy rcr123a 3V stacked batteries. The button works perfectly. The flavor, vapor production and TH are spot on for what I expect of the atty/batt combos I have tried.
Rating: 8/10
Summary - If I had never seen a wooden box mod before, I would probably rate this mod higher. It is attractive and functional, but has no new or unique features. The construction appearance goes a bit beyond expected handcrafted variations that make a wood mod unique and strays into what I would call minor flaws, however, they do not seem to hamper the vaping performance of the unit I received. The price for this mod is $110. The maker of this mod provided very satisfactory customer service and offered a phone number when I send him a PM about a concern.
I saw someone use car analogies before and I enjoyed it, so I will give it a try. If the wooden Reo were a Caddy SUV and the Ali'i were a Corevette, the MonkeyBoxx would have to be a Camry.
My first mod was a Wood Reo and I have an attachment to that device that might be classified as unnatural by a mental health professional. My love for it probably exceeds my love for any other inanimate object I have ever owned. So for me, it is impossible to review this mod without comparing it to other juice fed, mods, particularly the wooden ones, please keep that in mind when considering this review.
Wooden juice boxes can be difficult to obtain and it is easy to see why, they are individually handcrafted art pieces that also happen to produce vapor. The wait for people who want to buy one can be long and there is competition to purchase them. Many people have given up trying to buy wood juicers because they are so hard to get. Enter the Monkey Boxx...
The Monkey Boxx arrived two days ago. Included was an extra bottle and needle assembly, some small rare earth magnets and a very pretty handmade pouch. It has a native 510 connection.
The Outside:
I can see the influences of other successful juice feeders in the design. No major innovation here. It is an attractive mod, the size and weight are most similar to a Journeyman. It looks like it should be heavier than it is, it is very light to hold and the button placement is nice. Holding it and pressing the button has a natural and relaxed feel.
The wood itself is beautiful and you can feel the texture of the grain in your hand just a bit but it still has a smooth finish. It has an oval cutout to insert your thumb to feed the juice. I asked a guy friend with freakishly large hands to depress the bottle and we found that he could, but he had to turn his thumb sideways in order to do it, his thumb didn't get stuck and he didn't think it was awkward or uncomfortable to press the bottle.
The door pops off and on with almost no effort, however, it does not fit flush at the top and there is a gap between the door and the top of the body. This wouldn't bother me as much if the gap were even, but it is not. It fits flush on one side of the mod and then gradually gaps at the edge to the other side, diagonally. The door fits both ways but the gap is there no matter which direction I apply it to the mod. On one corner, the door extends out past the base of the unit a bit, creating a tiny overhang.
I have a concern about this door working well in humid conditions. It fits snugly and there are no magnets to hold it in place. If the wood expands, it may become difficult to remove the door. Likewise, the delicate, clever grooves that allow the door to easily pop on and off may be susceptible to wear and tear and eventually, the door may not function as intended as the wood wears. I will update this review after some rigorous use to see how well it stands up.
My only other observation is that the plastic on/off switch on the side of has a bit of dried glue in it. It does not affect the operation of the switch at all.
Rating 6/10
The Inside:
Popping off the door, the inside is fairly clean and simple and makes efficient use of the space inside the mod. The juice bottle is a 6mL round bottle that uses a bottom-fed needle assembly that resembles what you might find in a Wetbox.
The upside is that it is easy to change juices, if you have another bottle and needle assembly, (1 extra comes with the mod) the downside is getting that little beveled tube into the darn hole. It is like threading a needle at an angle and the "thread" doesn't bend much. It has gotten easier to change the bottle with practice. There has been absolutely no sign of any leakage from the needle assembly on the inside of the mod, even when I flooded it on purpose.
The spring is stiff and it takes firm pressure to pop in an 18650 batt. I have had to reposition the battery in one instance for the device to work, but that has not happened a second time.
Rating: 6/10
The Vaping Experience:
It takes more pressure with my thumb than I expected to feed juice to the atty. In a metal juice box, the thumb hole makes sense because the metal isn't that thick. Wood is thicker, so my small thumb goes in the box to the first knuckle when the bottle is half full. I think I prefer a pressing a button to sticking my thumb that far into the mod, but I consider that a more of personal preference rather than a design issue.
The catch cup on the top has not overflowed despite my heavy handed ways and the small amount of excess juice in the catch cup goes away after vaping awhile, probably into the atomizer, almost if by magic. I am a habitual flooder and I have not been able to flood the Monkey Boxx. The juice stays where it is supposed to stay.
I have vaped this device with an Ultrafire 18650 3.7V with LR510 and Cisco 306 atomizers, as well as with a regular 510 atomizer with two Tenergy rcr123a 3V stacked batteries. The button works perfectly. The flavor, vapor production and TH are spot on for what I expect of the atty/batt combos I have tried.
Rating: 8/10
Summary - If I had never seen a wooden box mod before, I would probably rate this mod higher. It is attractive and functional, but has no new or unique features. The construction appearance goes a bit beyond expected handcrafted variations that make a wood mod unique and strays into what I would call minor flaws, however, they do not seem to hamper the vaping performance of the unit I received. The price for this mod is $110. The maker of this mod provided very satisfactory customer service and offered a phone number when I send him a PM about a concern.
I saw someone use car analogies before and I enjoyed it, so I will give it a try. If the wooden Reo were a Caddy SUV and the Ali'i were a Corevette, the MonkeyBoxx would have to be a Camry.
