I spent a year or so on the EGO type batteries (1300 mAh, and far right in the pic below) and Kanger tanks (T-2 and Protanks) before I spent the $35 or so on a couple of big 18650 batteries, a charger and a V3 Sentinal clone in all brass from Fasttech (second from the left in the pic below). I have had absolutely no problems with the mech or the batteries, though the cheapo charger is of very low quality and a good Nitecore charger is highly recommended.
A couple of the selling points of the mech -
a) dirt cheap, nearly indestructible and if I do break it I can usually find parts for it at a local Home Depot.
b) no worries about breaking it if dropped, no lcd screen or electronic circuit boards to ruin with spilled ejuice
c) batteries are not only much cheaper than EGOs, they easily last all day long on a single charge
d) if you are not going through the hassle of building your own sub-ohm coils, a normal Protank or Nova type setup will serve you just fine. Protank heads come in 1.8 ohm resistance as well as the 2.2-2.5 ohms, so you can use the lower ohm heads and have a better hit without doing anything fancy.
e) Additionally as long as you aren't running sub-ohm coils you really have no worries about using non-protected batteries. So if you use a regular old tank/carto system on a mech you really have no worries at all about exploding any batteries. At least no more worries than the average person with a discharging li-on battery sticking out of their mouth might have.
f) They look great, function fine, and are easily "modded" to your own personal tastes. I didn't care for the locking ring on the bottom of my V3, so I took it apart, removed it, and bought a brass compression cap at Home Depot for a couple of $ which fits perfectly and matches the color and texture of my entire mech mod, as well as making it 100% safer to carry around. No worries of the firing button locking ring coming loose and the thing firing away in my pocket. A better pic of the compression cap mod I did is in my avatar
I then picked up a KTS Storm mech mod (far left in pic) from a member here, rebuilt the firing button, and while I like it I do not use it quite as much as I do the V3. Same batteries, same type of system - no electronics, simple battery tube and mechanical button.
My Vamo V2 in the pic I also bought from a member here, and while I find it interesting, especially since I have an RSST and made my own ceramic wick, it does not hold my attention like the mechs do. I play with it a bit at home, but my favorite daily vape comes from a mech, hands down, without resorting to complicated super low resistance coils, and without having to do anything fancier than re-wick my Protank flavor wicks now and then with cotton yarn.
I do, however, use the Vamo as an ohm meter when I play at coil building. More so than actually vaping on it.
