Pod Systems with TIGHT airflow for cig-emulating MTL draw recommendations

[ylem]

Hi all,

My eleaf Aster Total is on its way out, and it's been my stealth vape (100% PG, unflavoured) of choice because it can be set to have an extremely right airflow which simulates cigarettes quite well w/a high-nic/-PG combo. I won't miss its size and weight, though.

Pod systems seem to be flooding the market though, there are so many and it's hard to choose. One that I've taken a shining to is the Lost Vape Orion dna or its little sibling the Q version, but I've read here that the airflow isn't that tight.

Ideally I'm looking for something with a 800+ mAh battery, small-as-possible size, and refillable pod system that takes regular juice (PG + nic). Or a non-pod mod that has these features too.

Any suggestions? It will only ever be used w/24mg nic + 100% PG, unflavoured. Thanks!

 

[bombastinator]

800mah is quite large for a pod. Going to be a bigger one, and bigger ones tend to be looser.

Super tight MTL isn’t my wheelhouse but I wish you luck

 

[greek mule]

 

[drysprocket]

Ya, definitely the Frenzy sounds perfect for you. It hits all your wants, and it's much better than the Lost Vape for tight MTL, but basically the same look. It's $24 most places and you can get the coils for really cheap too.

And I look for the same thing- cig-like MTL that can get tight, and I can tell you this is probably the best one on the market right now. The E8 from Vapeants (thread on here) is a close tie, but not as much battery or juice capacity. But those are the main 2 right now in my book.

 

[United States]

The mini mod is a new phenomenon that will likely gain more foot hold in time. When Geek Vape decided to join the game my thought was "oh boy, now this is getting good".

The VapeAnt device is also a solid performer. No frills, no buttons, no on/off switch. Just cig-a-like performance in a 1x double a flashlight sized tube.

Vaporesso has 2 solid performers in the Zero and Play as well. H/M/L and temperature control'd smoothness drag after drag.

 

[RayofLight62]

Of the Orion looking pods... They all have wide airflow.
The best MTL is Geek Vape Flint. This device has three power levels properly set for tight MTL.
Followed by Aspire Nautilus AIO, but 12 W can be excessive for tight MTL.
The Innokin Biip is one excellent device, but the lowest of the three power levels is too high for true tight MTL.

I am trying the Orchid - which is outstanding with its feature of 5 to 30 W adjustment, but the airflow ring has some wide tolerance and doesn't shut the airflow when closed, airflow became instable if you try to set it to tight MTL. Shame because of the 50 quids I paid.

Get the Flint, it is machined not press stamped.

 

[United States]

I'd like to see Innokin do a long thin Zenith. Screw that sucker to a nice 510 stick with total length of a triple a minimag (or Parker Jotter pen) and there ya go. But for now, I'm enjoying a tastey vape from the Renova Zero.

Folks say nic salt is required for the pod. Well if your a 4.2 second long inhaler from a half ohm or less coil type, yeah you probably require nic salt. But for the MTL type used to around 1.5 ohms at 9-15 watts, no need for nic salt in a pod setup.

12ml would be tops. Trouble is for the non DIY juice folks 6 is as high as it goes all too often. Naked 100 has some tastey 12's though.

 

[gpjoe]

My two favorites are the Aspire Nautilus AIO and the Vandy Vape Apollo AP Kit.

I have three of the Aspire mods filled with 45mg salt juice and they work pretty well for MTL. 1000mAh battery, 4.5ml capacity, and replaceable coils. Button-fired, restrictive hit, and refillable pods with replaceable coils. Checks all the boxes for me, and sells for around 25 bucks.

The VV AP kit is more of a mod and tank but still has a nice tight MTL draw which is adjustable. 900mAh battery, with a smaller 2ml capacity - but super easy top-fill tank with replaceable coils. It is also button fired and gives you five different power levels. Rubber coating makes it nearly indestructible, though the tank is glass. I use high-nic salt juice in the AP kit as well and get a nice restrictive MTL draw, though it does have adjustable airflow so it could possibly be used for a restricted DTL hit. Sells for around 35 bucks.

I tried the Orion GO - bought two, along with a bunch of replacement pods - and was very disappointed with the MTL performance. Sold them both within a couple weeks. MTL performance was terrible. They seem to work OK as a small DTL device, but I wanted a large capacity MTL device and the Orion failed miserably at MTL.

 

[ylem]

Thank you all for your incredibly detailed responses. I'll weigh them up and will do a review of whatever I get, the two votes for the Frenzy will be what I compare the Geek Vape Flint/Aspire Nautilus AIO/Vandy Vape Apollo AP Kit, and the Vaporessos.

Extra thanks to gpjoe for the information on the Orion. I'm not usually moved by aesthetics, but the look of the Orion was very handsome.

Edit: Re the nic salts, I'll google what exactly that is... I don't know. If anyone knows of a particularly good summary a URL would be much appreciated. But y'all have already helped enough already. Have a damn good weekend.

 

[Toronnah]

I have an Orion Q, amongst other equipment. The airflow is adjustable from very airy, almost DTL to very tight, suck-your-cheeks in. The airflow adjustment is a ring at the bottom of the drip tip so it's very easy to adjust without removing the pod.

I also have 3 Caliburns that I find very restrictive with thick juice.less so with thin juice.

I picked up a Voopoo Nano pod a few weeks ago because of the hype. I don't find it overly restrictive. But it has poor vapor production so you have to suck really hard and long to get anything out of it compared to a lot of other pod systems out there.

 

[drysprocket]

Of the Orion looking pods... They all have wide airflow.
The best MTL is Geek Vape Flint. This device has three power levels properly set for tight MTL.
Followed by Aspire Nautilus AIO, but 12 W can be excessive for tight MTL.
The Innokin Biip is one excellent device, but the lowest of the three power levels is too high for true tight MTL.

I am trying the Orchid - which is outstanding with its feature of 5 to 30 W adjustment, but the airflow ring has some wide tolerance and doesn't shut the airflow when closed, airflow became instable if you try to set it to tight MTL. Shame because of the 50 quids I paid.

Get the Flint, it is machined not press stamped.

The Flint was my favorite for awhile too, and I still love the tank part of it on another mod; but honestly they upgraded it with the Frenzy in just about every way. Same 1.2 coils, but now does temp mode automatically, so can get warmer/and dry hit protection, and I think the airflow can even get even slightly tighter. You can also change coils with about half a tank of juice with the Frenzy, where the Flint had to be near empty. And the biggest upgrade is that the performance doesn't get weaker as the battery drains on the Frenzy like the Flint does. It's constant.

You're right about the build quality on the Flint- it's truly well made (I love that drip tip) but I think the Frenzy is just objectively better in performance. And it's $22.95 at Mypro right now, so hard to beat.

 

[Bigbob2322]

Love the Frenzy, check out my honest review.

GEEKVAPE FRENZY KIT REVIEWED BY bigbob2322

 

[MartinD]

I have Aspire AIO and Renova Zero.Aspire AIO have good battery capacity and adjustable airflow but working on higher wattage and I think it's not suitable for higher pg liquids.Renova Zero don't have adjustable airflow,have adjustable wattage,compact and working beautiful.

 

[ylem]

In the meantime I still couldn't decide. I've never owned a Geekvape product before, though I've had great experiences with Aspire/VandyVape/etc. So I did what any post-rational person would do:

Ordered the Geekvape Flint—and the Frenzy.

MTL PG-/nic-only stealth vaping is a beautiful thing that deserves a bit of investment. The excellent reviews for both didn't help my bank balance; neither did their gorgeous aesthetics and diminutive size, esp. the Frenzy. I'll sell the one I don't like as much—maybe both, tho that seems unlikely. With my discounts I "can" afford them. It's fantastic how decent the quality of budget vapes is these days, or maybe I've just been lucky.

AUD $80 is a 50gm pouch of tobacco in Australia; would've lasted me a week. But I'm starting to build up a bit of a collection, and that has me worried. I have five spare Blue/Silver Eleaf iKonn Totals and eight spare glasses for its tank – that must be pathological. I don't really need four spare RX200s and six iSub G tanks for at-home use either. Damn.

Ah well. Thanks all for sharing your input/information/experiences. Happy vaping!

 

[vimagreg]

I just reviewed the Vladdin RE and found it a very restricted MTL. Battery is not a strong point, but maybe it worth some attention in your searching.

I have Orion and it definitely are not a restricted MTL. Aspire Breeze 2 can be a very nice choice, too.

 

[RayofLight62]

Hi ylem,
In the last four years of my decade long tobacco habit, I smoked exclusively with a pipe. This because I wanted to get rid of the double damage caused by the cigarette tar (permanent inflammation of upper tract, delayed / prolonged nicotine release).

In these four years I found solace in trying new pipes, sophisticated filters more expensive than tobacco itself, some custom pipe lighters, leather pouches, various glycerine bottles to wet the tobacco (proto-cloud chaser), and many other accessories.

I'm saying this to you, because the attitude to diversify and have stock (note, not hoarding, but reasonable stock holding) pre-dates the vaping days.

Vaping days come then, and they were as colorful spring days of flowers and flavors, as opposed to those leaden and dark years of contrition and guilt for the inability to stop smoking.

In the halcyon days of my vaping, (when the halcyon bird was nesting with some supernatural support), I suddenly stopped counting the pennies, as I did instead with all the pipe accessories and my other hobbyes.

Almost as it was a tangible recognition of the good I was receiving, I tought that two, and then three MVP2 mods were a sort of insurance that I wouldn't have reverted to smoking because of a device fault.

I was buying two 10 ml bottles of e-liquid every ten days at the time; on one occasion I bought five cherry bottles because of an offer, and I slept much better that night, almost feeling safer.

My decades of smoking have been full of guilt from day one. I was successful at quitting in year '92 and I have been smoke-free for two years; when in ' 94 both my parents passed away, I found myself smoking again - and without the ability to stop again.

All of that internal fighting has left a trace; something akin to PTSD damage, something that is different from shinytis.

Shinytis is a prize for the self, and it is extended to a full range of items. This "prudent stocking" of mine (and maybe, yours?) is for vape stuff only, and it is the gift for living frustration-free after three decades of calling myself a loser.

My opinion.

 

[gpjoe]

The Orion is a truly beautiful device, very well made with a high quality look and feel. My complaint was with the MTL performance. A lot of devices with adjustable airflow can be dialed down to a very restrictive MTL draw, the Orion included, but that doesn't necessarily result in a great MTL vaping experience.

When I bought my Orion Go mods I was looking to replicate my vaping experience with my stick mods (myjet, juul, boulder rock) but with a device that had a larger battery and juice capacity, and the Orion did not work for me.

Using the same high nic salt juice in the Orion that I had used (and enjoyed) with the stick mods had me hacking and wheezing. The Orion just didn't give me a pleasant vape. And though it worked very well as a beautifully compact DTL mod with a restricted lung hit, it wasn't what I was looking for.

 

[dansus]

Frenzy. No doubt.