Mech disclaimer: This review is for a mechanical device. Please make sure you are familiar with Ohm's Laws before using a mech. Know your batteries specifications and always build within their limits. Check your battery wraps to ensure that there are no rips or tears and if there are immediately rewrap the battery. Refer to the device's documentation for proper battery orientation. When using a hybrid make sure the atomizer's center pin protrudes far enough to prevent a short. Always build on a 521 tab or check on a regulated mod first to not only check resistance but to make sure that you don't have any problems that may lead to a short such as your coils touching your cap. Above all remember when using a mech its only safety features are you and your brain.
Today I'll be presenting the Hive squonk and Dinky rda kit from Swedish Vaper. It's a single 18650 mechanical squonker paired with a 17mm single coil RDA. This device was provided by Heaven Gifts for purpose of review but that will not affect my ability to provide a 100% honest review. The kit is available from Heaven Gifts for $59.90 or can be found at many popular retailers. The kit is available in either a Nightwasp (Black) frame with Milk (White) and Sting (Yellow) buttons and doors or a Honey (Ultem looking) frame with Nightwasp and Honey buttons and doors which I'll be reviewing. The Dinky is available outside of the kit in red, stainless, black which is included with the Nighwasp kit, and gunmetal which is included in the Honey kit.
Manufacturer's promotional materials
The kit comes in a small square flat black box with a gloss black honeycomb pattern covering the entire surface except for the white slide out panel on the right side. The top has the kit's name and designer. The bottom panel contains the same info as the top with the addition of "Incubated by DeepinMaker". I don't know who DeepinMaker is but good job! The top panel lists the kit's contents along with showing the two available color options. There's a hexagon shaped checkbox next to all of them to let you know what the box contains. The left panel has the name and designer again plus an additional barcode sticker which has the kit color on it. The right panel is entirely white with a black fabric loop to assist in sliding it out. Flipping it over you'll once again be greeted by the name and designer but it additionally has the Swedish Vaper logo, some trademark info, and contact info.
Packaging photos
Inside of the box you'll find the Hive with the Nightwasp door and button preinstalled. The Honey panel is below the device in a plastic bag and the matching button sits in a cutout to the right of the device. The white squonk bottle is already attached to the Hive and and the black is included in the battery tray. There are also cutouts that the Dinky and drip tip sit in. As expected being a squonk kit the Dinky comes with the squonk pin preinstalled. Below the foam you'll find the instructions sheet and goodies bag. Swedish Vaper gets special props for the instructions sheet. I highly recommend that you read it even if you feel that you don't need to because it's humorously well written. The goodies bag contains:
The Hive is small, lightweight, stylish polycarbonate squonker. The corners are well rounded and comfortable. The entire device has overall frosted feel and appearance to it. There's honeycombing on the front panel below the hexagon shaped fire button. The fire button has a stylized h in the center. The battery door is mostly a honeycomb pattern with a large teardrop shaped hole for squeezing your bottle. There are two magnets molded into it. One attaches to a post within the device and the other attaches to the battery. Both of the included battery doors fit exceptionally well with no play what so ever. There are slightly visible injection molding marks inside of the doors. The side opposite the fire button has a glassy looking Hive written vertically in it with a few hexagons thrown in to carry on the theme. The back of the Hive features a large hexagon with Swedish Vaper at the bottom. The spring loaded Stealthvape Source SQ 510 sits at the top slightly upraised enough to prevent atomizer damage yet not high enough to create a visible gap between the device and atomizer. The Hive will fit up to a 24mm atomizer without overhang. The bottom bears the CE logo and the symbol warning you not to throw your device in the trash along with the text "Nothing to see here. Really? Still reading? Ok then...Vape on!". The bottom text is a funny little touch that I enjoyed.
Device photos
The inside of the device is smooth but as with the doors there are slightly visible injection molding marks. There are negative and positive marks on the battery side. I know battery rips are a worry on a lot of these little mechanical squonkers but this one seems to be designed well enough to prevent that. There's a small bump for the negative side on the top contact and the bottom is presses into a formed piece on the contact bar. There is zero play with the battery in place, it fits nice and tight. There's a battery strap to assist removal. The magnet for the door sits at the top of the separator between the battery and squonk bottle. There are two little tabs to hold the contact bar tight to the front of the device. The contact bar itself is held in by a little tab in the bottom that sits in a spot molded into the frame. It can be removed for cleaning or to change the fire button with a little gentle prying at the bottom. It's formed nicely and makes very solid contact with the 510 connector. Throw has a good amount of resistance and is springy. The button has the perfect amount of height that it always sits beyond the device and never recesses into the Hive while firing. I wish I could tell you what the contacts are plated with. It mentions plated contacts on the box but there's no mention of what that plating is. I scratch tested the contact bar so I can tell you that it has copper internals below the plating but your guess is as good as mine.
Inside photos
The Hive's 510 connector has a pretty cool locking feature. At the bottom there is a rotating plastic ring. In the right position it is fully open and allows the bar to make contact with the 510 firing the device. If you grab the little tab and slide it to the left it rotates into a position that no longer allows the bar to make contact and fire. It's a simple idea that works really well.
Contact and lock photos
The included squonk bottles are the super soft silicon kind. Oddly enough they feature Arctic Dolphin branding but I guess that makes sense from a production standpoint. Reduce your cost by using others off the shelf items rather than manufacturing your own. They both hold 7ml of juice. The black one is smoked pretty dark so depending on the lighting it may be hard to see your current juice level. Both have a decent size round opening. The bottoms of the tubes were flat when I received them which leads to a ....ty squonking experience so I had to cut an angle in the tubing.
Squonk bottle photos
The Dinky is a flavorful little 17mm dual post single coil RDA. It's a standard three piece deck, barrel, cap design. The cap can be used as either a chuff cap or it has a 510 drip tip opening. The cap and included drip tip are made of PEL. What PEL is beats the hell out of me but it seems to stand up to heat well. I've seriously never heard of this plastic type before. The rest of it is stainless. The deck, posts, and screws are all gold plated. The outside of the barrel feels cerakoted. The barrel has three small holes for taking in air on one side and the opposite side has Dinky written vertically in a funky late 60s style font. The cap features two different airflow options. One side has a large rectangular cutout which allows you to shut off airflow one hole at a time and the other has three matching holes that equally shut off the airflow across them all. It has a pretty large juice well relative to its size making over squonking hard but not impossible. If you're using it without the tip it's easy to see the deck and wick if you're one of those people that likes to have a visual check of your squonking activities. The center pin doesn't protrude very far so this one is a no go on a hybrid. Overall machining is excellent and everything fits together properly, tightly, and leak free.
Atomizer photos
The Dinky is advertised as being able to go from DTL to MTL by adding the drip tip. That's not the case. However they didn't lie and it is capable of both. The drip tip doesn't seem to change much in the way of airflow honestly. To get it MTL not only do you need to add the tip but put the cap on the three hole side and close the holes down to practically fully closed. Then you can get a really nice MTL vape. DTL on this even fully open is restricted DTL. The design of the atomizer leads to incredible flavor no matter how you use it.
Building on this deck is a pleasure. Just leave your coil on the jig, pop the leads through the holes, secure, and trim. There's plenty of room between the posts and barrel so as long as your flush cutters are good and cut clean there's no reason not to cut the coil in place. There's not much to say about the included coils being basic round wire contact coils. The same can be said about the included cotton. After trimming and dry burning they came out to .6Ω. The cotton was clean tasting and wicked well. All of the publicity material mentions it is capable of fitting 3.5mm ID coils and they're not wrong to some extent. They don't factor in the size of the coil itself. The post holes are a good size but you're not going to be fitting huge thick flat claptons or quad core fused claptons in there. The atomizer is obviously not intended for that though and you should probably feel bad for contemplating it. I'd say this kit is more intended for higher resistance / lower wattage vaping. For example I wrapped a 316L 30x2+38 fused clapton with a 3.5mm ID which read .68Ω.
Builds
Completed kit
This is one of those reviews I'm going to sound like a shill on because I enjoy it so much. If you're looking for a small pocketable squonk kit this may be the one for you. It's very lightweight and compact not being much larger than the 18650 and bottle themselves. The locking mechanism will prevent it from accidentally firing in your pocket. If you're a MTL vaper looking for a mechanical equivalent to something like the VV Simple EX kit this may be the right one for you. There aren't many squonk kits out there marketed to MTL vapers and even though the Dinky isn't exclusively MTL it's no slouch. If you're just looking for an affordable aesthetically pleasing mechanical squonk kit this may be the one for you. The Hive and Dinky are beautiful. The fit and finish are top notch. If it weren't for some things like the injection molding marks and knowing it's polycarb you'd swear you're holding a high end device. The use of outside sourced parts like the 510 connector and squonk bottles only adds to that appeal. I love the ability to mix and match the included components to customize or change the look as well.
This is definitely a flavor chaser rather than a cloud chaser kit. If you're looking to run large, hot, low resistance builds or wide open DTL look elsewhere. While you could build and fit low resistance coils I'd be afraid of the effects of the heat. Not only with my lips being so close to a hot tiny chamber but to the plastic itself. It does a good job keeping up with anything I've put on it with no excessive heat or any melting but I haven't built anything for it below .5Ω. I really wish they would have listed what the contact plating material is. I know it's copper underneath but it still kind of bothers me on a mech when I'm unsure of the materials and plating. It's probably not the hardest hitting mechanical device on the market but it doesn't seem like it's meant to be.
Thanks to Heaven Gifts for sending me this device for review! And a special thanks to Swedish Vaper for helping to make it possible!
Today I'll be presenting the Hive squonk and Dinky rda kit from Swedish Vaper. It's a single 18650 mechanical squonker paired with a 17mm single coil RDA. This device was provided by Heaven Gifts for purpose of review but that will not affect my ability to provide a 100% honest review. The kit is available from Heaven Gifts for $59.90 or can be found at many popular retailers. The kit is available in either a Nightwasp (Black) frame with Milk (White) and Sting (Yellow) buttons and doors or a Honey (Ultem looking) frame with Nightwasp and Honey buttons and doors which I'll be reviewing. The Dinky is available outside of the kit in red, stainless, black which is included with the Nighwasp kit, and gunmetal which is included in the Honey kit.
Manufacturer's promotional materials
The kit comes in a small square flat black box with a gloss black honeycomb pattern covering the entire surface except for the white slide out panel on the right side. The top has the kit's name and designer. The bottom panel contains the same info as the top with the addition of "Incubated by DeepinMaker". I don't know who DeepinMaker is but good job! The top panel lists the kit's contents along with showing the two available color options. There's a hexagon shaped checkbox next to all of them to let you know what the box contains. The left panel has the name and designer again plus an additional barcode sticker which has the kit color on it. The right panel is entirely white with a black fabric loop to assist in sliding it out. Flipping it over you'll once again be greeted by the name and designer but it additionally has the Swedish Vaper logo, some trademark info, and contact info.
Packaging photos
Inside of the box you'll find the Hive with the Nightwasp door and button preinstalled. The Honey panel is below the device in a plastic bag and the matching button sits in a cutout to the right of the device. The white squonk bottle is already attached to the Hive and and the black is included in the battery tray. There are also cutouts that the Dinky and drip tip sit in. As expected being a squonk kit the Dinky comes with the squonk pin preinstalled. Below the foam you'll find the instructions sheet and goodies bag. Swedish Vaper gets special props for the instructions sheet. I highly recommend that you read it even if you feel that you don't need to because it's humorously well written. The goodies bag contains:
- An Allen wrench
- An extra set of O-rings
- A solid center pin for the Dinky if want to use it on a non-squonk device
- An extra set of post screws
- Probably the thickest Japanese cotton pad that I've ever seen
- Two 26GA 2.5mm ID Kanthal coils
The Hive is small, lightweight, stylish polycarbonate squonker. The corners are well rounded and comfortable. The entire device has overall frosted feel and appearance to it. There's honeycombing on the front panel below the hexagon shaped fire button. The fire button has a stylized h in the center. The battery door is mostly a honeycomb pattern with a large teardrop shaped hole for squeezing your bottle. There are two magnets molded into it. One attaches to a post within the device and the other attaches to the battery. Both of the included battery doors fit exceptionally well with no play what so ever. There are slightly visible injection molding marks inside of the doors. The side opposite the fire button has a glassy looking Hive written vertically in it with a few hexagons thrown in to carry on the theme. The back of the Hive features a large hexagon with Swedish Vaper at the bottom. The spring loaded Stealthvape Source SQ 510 sits at the top slightly upraised enough to prevent atomizer damage yet not high enough to create a visible gap between the device and atomizer. The Hive will fit up to a 24mm atomizer without overhang. The bottom bears the CE logo and the symbol warning you not to throw your device in the trash along with the text "Nothing to see here. Really? Still reading? Ok then...Vape on!". The bottom text is a funny little touch that I enjoyed.
Device photos
The inside of the device is smooth but as with the doors there are slightly visible injection molding marks. There are negative and positive marks on the battery side. I know battery rips are a worry on a lot of these little mechanical squonkers but this one seems to be designed well enough to prevent that. There's a small bump for the negative side on the top contact and the bottom is presses into a formed piece on the contact bar. There is zero play with the battery in place, it fits nice and tight. There's a battery strap to assist removal. The magnet for the door sits at the top of the separator between the battery and squonk bottle. There are two little tabs to hold the contact bar tight to the front of the device. The contact bar itself is held in by a little tab in the bottom that sits in a spot molded into the frame. It can be removed for cleaning or to change the fire button with a little gentle prying at the bottom. It's formed nicely and makes very solid contact with the 510 connector. Throw has a good amount of resistance and is springy. The button has the perfect amount of height that it always sits beyond the device and never recesses into the Hive while firing. I wish I could tell you what the contacts are plated with. It mentions plated contacts on the box but there's no mention of what that plating is. I scratch tested the contact bar so I can tell you that it has copper internals below the plating but your guess is as good as mine.
Inside photos
The Hive's 510 connector has a pretty cool locking feature. At the bottom there is a rotating plastic ring. In the right position it is fully open and allows the bar to make contact with the 510 firing the device. If you grab the little tab and slide it to the left it rotates into a position that no longer allows the bar to make contact and fire. It's a simple idea that works really well.
Contact and lock photos
The included squonk bottles are the super soft silicon kind. Oddly enough they feature Arctic Dolphin branding but I guess that makes sense from a production standpoint. Reduce your cost by using others off the shelf items rather than manufacturing your own. They both hold 7ml of juice. The black one is smoked pretty dark so depending on the lighting it may be hard to see your current juice level. Both have a decent size round opening. The bottoms of the tubes were flat when I received them which leads to a ....ty squonking experience so I had to cut an angle in the tubing.
Squonk bottle photos
The Dinky is a flavorful little 17mm dual post single coil RDA. It's a standard three piece deck, barrel, cap design. The cap can be used as either a chuff cap or it has a 510 drip tip opening. The cap and included drip tip are made of PEL. What PEL is beats the hell out of me but it seems to stand up to heat well. I've seriously never heard of this plastic type before. The rest of it is stainless. The deck, posts, and screws are all gold plated. The outside of the barrel feels cerakoted. The barrel has three small holes for taking in air on one side and the opposite side has Dinky written vertically in a funky late 60s style font. The cap features two different airflow options. One side has a large rectangular cutout which allows you to shut off airflow one hole at a time and the other has three matching holes that equally shut off the airflow across them all. It has a pretty large juice well relative to its size making over squonking hard but not impossible. If you're using it without the tip it's easy to see the deck and wick if you're one of those people that likes to have a visual check of your squonking activities. The center pin doesn't protrude very far so this one is a no go on a hybrid. Overall machining is excellent and everything fits together properly, tightly, and leak free.
Atomizer photos
The Dinky is advertised as being able to go from DTL to MTL by adding the drip tip. That's not the case. However they didn't lie and it is capable of both. The drip tip doesn't seem to change much in the way of airflow honestly. To get it MTL not only do you need to add the tip but put the cap on the three hole side and close the holes down to practically fully closed. Then you can get a really nice MTL vape. DTL on this even fully open is restricted DTL. The design of the atomizer leads to incredible flavor no matter how you use it.
Building on this deck is a pleasure. Just leave your coil on the jig, pop the leads through the holes, secure, and trim. There's plenty of room between the posts and barrel so as long as your flush cutters are good and cut clean there's no reason not to cut the coil in place. There's not much to say about the included coils being basic round wire contact coils. The same can be said about the included cotton. After trimming and dry burning they came out to .6Ω. The cotton was clean tasting and wicked well. All of the publicity material mentions it is capable of fitting 3.5mm ID coils and they're not wrong to some extent. They don't factor in the size of the coil itself. The post holes are a good size but you're not going to be fitting huge thick flat claptons or quad core fused claptons in there. The atomizer is obviously not intended for that though and you should probably feel bad for contemplating it. I'd say this kit is more intended for higher resistance / lower wattage vaping. For example I wrapped a 316L 30x2+38 fused clapton with a 3.5mm ID which read .68Ω.
Builds
Completed kit
This is one of those reviews I'm going to sound like a shill on because I enjoy it so much. If you're looking for a small pocketable squonk kit this may be the one for you. It's very lightweight and compact not being much larger than the 18650 and bottle themselves. The locking mechanism will prevent it from accidentally firing in your pocket. If you're a MTL vaper looking for a mechanical equivalent to something like the VV Simple EX kit this may be the right one for you. There aren't many squonk kits out there marketed to MTL vapers and even though the Dinky isn't exclusively MTL it's no slouch. If you're just looking for an affordable aesthetically pleasing mechanical squonk kit this may be the one for you. The Hive and Dinky are beautiful. The fit and finish are top notch. If it weren't for some things like the injection molding marks and knowing it's polycarb you'd swear you're holding a high end device. The use of outside sourced parts like the 510 connector and squonk bottles only adds to that appeal. I love the ability to mix and match the included components to customize or change the look as well.
This is definitely a flavor chaser rather than a cloud chaser kit. If you're looking to run large, hot, low resistance builds or wide open DTL look elsewhere. While you could build and fit low resistance coils I'd be afraid of the effects of the heat. Not only with my lips being so close to a hot tiny chamber but to the plastic itself. It does a good job keeping up with anything I've put on it with no excessive heat or any melting but I haven't built anything for it below .5Ω. I really wish they would have listed what the contact plating material is. I know it's copper underneath but it still kind of bothers me on a mech when I'm unsure of the materials and plating. It's probably not the hardest hitting mechanical device on the market but it doesn't seem like it's meant to be.
Thanks to Heaven Gifts for sending me this device for review! And a special thanks to Swedish Vaper for helping to make it possible!
