Penelope showed up at my door at about 0930 today. She was dressed in a fancy plastic bag 
and she looked great!
I was excited, but my excitement was tempered by the experience I recently had with the D.I.D. I immediately pulled up Scott igetcha69's video on wick setup for the Odysseus, and it actually went very well. Details in just a minute...
I wouldn't classify this as a review or a shootout. There are too many reviewers out there that do a much better job than I ever could, and I don't want to waste your time. You can check out Scott or Phil's videos for all the technical data on how to build the wicks, etc. Geekgirl does a great job too. What I want to do is give a quick USERS opinion on these two rebuildable atomizers.
You already know based on the subject line that I like the Penelope and I'm not too happy with the D.I.D. Please understand I think both of these units are fantastic. They both look great, and they both have excellent build quality. The problem with the D.I.D. is me, plain and simple. I can't build a good mesh wick to save my life. That isn't the fault of the D.I.D. That's just a lack of experience.
If you have watched Slip from Mainely Vapor, you know he talks about a fiddle-free vaping experience. I couldn't agree more. Fiddle-free baby!!
As I said, they both look great. The D.I.D actually looks better on the Provari due to its larger size. Penelope looks ok on the Provari, but I am looking forward to trying it out on a 14500 device like the Proteus. They are roughly the same length.
The real difference comes with ease of use. When I got the D.I.D., I went through almost the entire roll of wire before I got it to work. I swear the coils looked perfect, and I had the terminals tight, but the resistance varied from 1.3 ohms to 2.9 ohms just from looking at it cross eyed. I couldn't get rid of the hot spots.
When I got the D.I.D. working, it seemed ok, but the flavor just wasn't what I expected. I am using Discountvapers Italian Ice Lemon (awesome stuff by the way). The flavor was muted. Vapor was good though. I went back to a Boge carto with the same liquid, and it tasted noticeably better. Again, a good working wick would probably solve these problems. I don't think the liquid was burning evenly across all of the loops of the coil.
And then I would suddenly get another hot spot or an error code on the Provari. I am aware that some people say the D.I.D. is too sensitive to use on the Provari, but I was running short on wire, and I wanted the Provari's circuit protection to shut current flow down to protect my last remining coil. Also, I liked the ability to check atty resistance. As I said earlier, that resistance changed like the wind.
Eventually, I moved the D.I.D. to my Legacy with a Kick, but things didn't go much better. I kept getting dry hits. I tipped it slightly to help the wicking process. This inevitably led to some juice seepage.
So I wasn't thrilled with the D.I.D. I actually put it on the shelf.
Then Penelope showed up.
I lowered my expectations a bit due to the problems I encountered with the Genesis style atomizer. The first thing I noticed was even with my large fingers, it was much easier to build the wick.
Next I put Penelope on the Provari, soaked the wick, and gave it a burn. Perfect! A quick check of resistance showed 1.8 ohms. And it is still 1.8 ohms every time I check it. Hot spots? Not a one, thank you very much.
And holy crap, the Italian Ice Lemon smelled wonderful during that burn. I couldn't wait to try it. The vapor is great, just like the D.I.D., and the flavor was really good. I could taste the tartness of the lemon. Pucker power baby!
The draw is airy, but not as airy as the D.I.D. btw, I put a small piece of tape inside the cap of the D.I.D. over the air hole and then pierced it with a pin. That helped a lot.
The icing on the cake? How about no dry hits. It also uses ALL of the juice in the tank.
So there you have my opinion of these two powerhouses. They are both nice, and they both do the same job. But for a guy like me that prefers fiddle-free vaping, there is no contest here. The Penelope just worked well, and it was easy to set up.
I'm not trying to discourage anyone from buying a D.I.D., but you better be ready to tinker with it. You'll need plenty of practice.
and she looked great! I was excited, but my excitement was tempered by the experience I recently had with the D.I.D. I immediately pulled up Scott igetcha69's video on wick setup for the Odysseus, and it actually went very well. Details in just a minute...
I wouldn't classify this as a review or a shootout. There are too many reviewers out there that do a much better job than I ever could, and I don't want to waste your time. You can check out Scott or Phil's videos for all the technical data on how to build the wicks, etc. Geekgirl does a great job too. What I want to do is give a quick USERS opinion on these two rebuildable atomizers.
You already know based on the subject line that I like the Penelope and I'm not too happy with the D.I.D. Please understand I think both of these units are fantastic. They both look great, and they both have excellent build quality. The problem with the D.I.D. is me, plain and simple. I can't build a good mesh wick to save my life. That isn't the fault of the D.I.D. That's just a lack of experience.
If you have watched Slip from Mainely Vapor, you know he talks about a fiddle-free vaping experience. I couldn't agree more. Fiddle-free baby!!
As I said, they both look great. The D.I.D actually looks better on the Provari due to its larger size. Penelope looks ok on the Provari, but I am looking forward to trying it out on a 14500 device like the Proteus. They are roughly the same length.
The real difference comes with ease of use. When I got the D.I.D., I went through almost the entire roll of wire before I got it to work. I swear the coils looked perfect, and I had the terminals tight, but the resistance varied from 1.3 ohms to 2.9 ohms just from looking at it cross eyed. I couldn't get rid of the hot spots.
When I got the D.I.D. working, it seemed ok, but the flavor just wasn't what I expected. I am using Discountvapers Italian Ice Lemon (awesome stuff by the way). The flavor was muted. Vapor was good though. I went back to a Boge carto with the same liquid, and it tasted noticeably better. Again, a good working wick would probably solve these problems. I don't think the liquid was burning evenly across all of the loops of the coil.
And then I would suddenly get another hot spot or an error code on the Provari. I am aware that some people say the D.I.D. is too sensitive to use on the Provari, but I was running short on wire, and I wanted the Provari's circuit protection to shut current flow down to protect my last remining coil. Also, I liked the ability to check atty resistance. As I said earlier, that resistance changed like the wind.
Eventually, I moved the D.I.D. to my Legacy with a Kick, but things didn't go much better. I kept getting dry hits. I tipped it slightly to help the wicking process. This inevitably led to some juice seepage.
So I wasn't thrilled with the D.I.D. I actually put it on the shelf.
Then Penelope showed up.
I lowered my expectations a bit due to the problems I encountered with the Genesis style atomizer. The first thing I noticed was even with my large fingers, it was much easier to build the wick.
Next I put Penelope on the Provari, soaked the wick, and gave it a burn. Perfect!
A quick check of resistance showed 1.8 ohms. And it is still 1.8 ohms every time I check it. Hot spots? Not a one, thank you very much. And holy crap, the Italian Ice Lemon smelled wonderful during that burn. I couldn't wait to try it. The vapor is great, just like the D.I.D., and the flavor was really good. I could taste the tartness of the lemon. Pucker power baby!
The draw is airy, but not as airy as the D.I.D. btw, I put a small piece of tape inside the cap of the D.I.D. over the air hole and then pierced it with a pin. That helped a lot.
The icing on the cake? How about no dry hits. It also uses ALL of the juice in the tank.
So there you have my opinion of these two powerhouses. They are both nice, and they both do the same job. But for a guy like me that prefers fiddle-free vaping, there is no contest here. The Penelope just worked well, and it was easy to set up.
I'm not trying to discourage anyone from buying a D.I.D., but you better be ready to tinker with it. You'll need plenty of practice.
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