smoktek has just introduced the 6 Amp Version of the smoktek Smokbox Varicool. This will be an in depth review of the unit and how it vapes at Xtreme Levels.
This first post is a background post. The next post in the thread will be the testing results. So skip this if the background isn't what you are looking for.
I wrote a review on the 3amp Smoketek Varicool http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...aricool-custom-box-mod-made-u-s-review-4.html
The review has received about 1500 views in the past 3 weeks, which made the owner of Smoktek take notice. Some are asking questions about the new 6Amp Beast. Others have suggesting that the owner send me a unit to thoroughly review.
Rob, the owner, listened to his customers and sent me a complimentary unit to test. I was tempted to order one, but I'm 100% satisfied with my 3amp unit, and in the range of vaping that I do,I don't need to upgrade to the 6amp. On the other hand if the 6amp was out at the time I bought my unit, I might have opted for it. I'd like to emphasize, I don't have a commercial interest in Smoktek and my review will be scientific and impartial.
If you've read my other review than you can pick up that I dislike subjective reviews. Statements like it " vapes fantastic ", "I go 24 hours on a battery" etc.. don't cut it. I'm going to test how it works and I'll make my judgement of the unit based on testing.
I'm not a professional reviewer, just a ECF Veteran who has been vaping for more than 3 years. I went through a whole bunch of Junk before the Provari came out and after that standardized on just the Provari with a couple of Egos for backup. Than my Provari went bye bye after 15 months. Seems that the V1 is only 2.5 Amps and the circuit board wasn't built to handle a LR 1.8Ohm Clearomizer. Within a week of vaping the ViviNova 1.8, my provari was Kaput. I had it repaired and upgraded to the VS 2.0. The first time they returned it to me it was still defective but the second time was the charm and my Provari works perfectly. Customer service at Provari is excellent.
In the meantime, before sending the Provari to the shop I was very nervous about not having a backup unit to my VV Ego Style E-cig, so I went in search of another backup unit. Since I expected to get my Provari back and Provari is arguably the Cadillac of Vaping units. I wanted a lower priced unit. I went looking for a VV that was a little smaller.
I searched high and low on the Forum and ended up with a Young June Mini Lava Type unit. Boy was I the victim of hit and miss Chinese Manufacturing. The first unit lasted 30 minutes. 15 minutes or so into my vape, I unscrewed my Vivi Nova from the top and forgot to hold the bottom and a small amount of juice dripped down the side. I'm not sure if the E-Cig is supposed to be sealed but for sure this one wasn't. Within 10 minutes, it began to smoke and putrid smoke poured out of the LED, of course I quickly yanked the batteries. Destroying a unit in 30 Minutes was a new record for me.
I sent it back and the vendor crosshipped a replacement. The replacement lasted for two hours before it stopped recognizing my Vivi Nova Clearomizer. Back to the Vendor for a refund.
The seller of this unit was wonderful in his customer service. He was so great about everything that I don't want to mention the exact model or who he is. I wish him the best in his business and won't discount that maybe I was just unlucky.
So after that I went searching hours and hours in the forums. Everything that I ran across was out of my price range, or just too many negative reviews resulting from the Hit and Miss Quality of Chinese Manufacturers. The problem seems to be that one person will get a Chinese Unit that works perfectly and than another will get a defective unit, so it's pot luck on whether you are going to get a good unit.
Than I ran across the Smoketek Smokbox Varicool. What was different about it? Most important of all I searched the forum for comments about the Smokbox Varicool and almost all were favorable. Initially I confused them with the Chinese Smoketech, but than realized that they were a different company. I wrote the owner and found that the box was assembled in the United States. That was the clincher for me. A unit assembled in America for $56.00 seemed like a deal.
Although there were a number of positive comments on the forum and on the Smoktek website about the Varicool , there was only one professional review and that review just wasn't detailed enough for me. So I decided that I'd buy one and completely test it.
I'm a Provari Fan and feel that every Vaper should have a Provari or a model of equal quality. On the other hand not everyone is in the position to lay out $200.00+, or they fear the wrath of their spouse when the credit card statement arrives. I won't say that the Varicool is better than a Provari. I will only say that it is different, doesn't have the bells and whistles, but what it does it does well.
The Varicool has become my primary unit because I like the form factor and features. It's small, doesn't roll or fall over, has great battery life (Proven in my testing), and most important gives a rock solid stable vape (Proven in Review). If you don't need the Bells and Whistles of the Provari, and don't mind that the chassis isn't as solid, this unit within a limited parameter is as good as a Provari.
Now with the introduction of the 6Amp we are adding a new dimension. At extreme levels this unit may outperform the Provari. I can't wait to find out.
I received the 6amp two days ago and have been breaking it in. It has been vaping great with 1.8Ohm to 2.8Ohm Clearomizers and no problems with either the Trustfire Flame or the IMR Aw 1450 at my normal vaping range of 3.7 to 4.3V. Yes this is a subjective statement, don't worry I'll start my testing in my next post. Over the weekend.
One of the things that I'm not going to do is to take this unit to the limit with regular Lithium batteries. According to the Spec on the chip, under maximum load it has the capability to overdraw the battery of a regular Lithium Ion. So the highest that I'm going to go on a normal Battery is 5-6V depending on the Cartomizer/Atomizer. Using the AW IMR 14500 batteries though, I'm going to take this baby to the Maximum!!!
The technology on this unit is different from the Provari. The Provari takes a 3.7V battery and boosts the volts. According to the forum it is PWM with a effective filter on it. The filter is a capacitor that stores electricity and fills in the voltage when it fluctuates downward.
The Varicool operates on a stacked battery type of technology. Before you eliminate it because it's stacked battery, it does it a little differently. The batteries are separate on each side, which is safer than when they are joined together . The chip has protections on it that will stop short circuits, in addition the casing is non conductive plastic, which reduces possibilities of short circuits. The way it works is that the batteries are putting out around 6.3 to 8.4 Volts and the DC to DC converter chip converts the voltage downward. To me that seems a very sensible way of maintaining steady voltage. This unit I've been told by the tech gurus is also PWM with an excellent filter on it.
The way I can tell is that the inexpensive Smoktek Led Digital Voltage tester won't work with units that don't output stable voltage. It won't work with an Ego for example. The PWM is not an issue with this unit or the Provari because the Filter is stabilizing the voltage. With some of the new PWM units a 3.0 is like a 4.0.
I realize this next statement is subjective but using my Led Tester I set the Provari at 4.2 and the Varicool at 4.34 with a Clearomizer Voltage of 4.2 and the vape was identical. You couldn't tell that you were vaping on different units.
One difference between the Provari and the SmokBox Varicool is that if you put the Provari on 4.2 the provari will both put out 4.2V and vape at 4.2V. The Varicool on the other hand drops under load. So to get a 4.2V vape I have to set it at 4.3V or 4.34V depending on the Clearomizer.
In my last testing round, I verified that this drop is instantaneous. There is no spiking of voltages, as soon as the clearomizer is fired the Voltage holds steady. This means that your hit is rock solid no tapering vape.
This weekend I'll be testing the unit, so stay tuned as the test results come in.
This first post is a background post. The next post in the thread will be the testing results. So skip this if the background isn't what you are looking for.
I wrote a review on the 3amp Smoketek Varicool http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...aricool-custom-box-mod-made-u-s-review-4.html
The review has received about 1500 views in the past 3 weeks, which made the owner of Smoktek take notice. Some are asking questions about the new 6Amp Beast. Others have suggesting that the owner send me a unit to thoroughly review.
Rob, the owner, listened to his customers and sent me a complimentary unit to test. I was tempted to order one, but I'm 100% satisfied with my 3amp unit, and in the range of vaping that I do,I don't need to upgrade to the 6amp. On the other hand if the 6amp was out at the time I bought my unit, I might have opted for it. I'd like to emphasize, I don't have a commercial interest in Smoktek and my review will be scientific and impartial.
If you've read my other review than you can pick up that I dislike subjective reviews. Statements like it " vapes fantastic ", "I go 24 hours on a battery" etc.. don't cut it. I'm going to test how it works and I'll make my judgement of the unit based on testing.
I'm not a professional reviewer, just a ECF Veteran who has been vaping for more than 3 years. I went through a whole bunch of Junk before the Provari came out and after that standardized on just the Provari with a couple of Egos for backup. Than my Provari went bye bye after 15 months. Seems that the V1 is only 2.5 Amps and the circuit board wasn't built to handle a LR 1.8Ohm Clearomizer. Within a week of vaping the ViviNova 1.8, my provari was Kaput. I had it repaired and upgraded to the VS 2.0. The first time they returned it to me it was still defective but the second time was the charm and my Provari works perfectly. Customer service at Provari is excellent.
In the meantime, before sending the Provari to the shop I was very nervous about not having a backup unit to my VV Ego Style E-cig, so I went in search of another backup unit. Since I expected to get my Provari back and Provari is arguably the Cadillac of Vaping units. I wanted a lower priced unit. I went looking for a VV that was a little smaller.
I searched high and low on the Forum and ended up with a Young June Mini Lava Type unit. Boy was I the victim of hit and miss Chinese Manufacturing. The first unit lasted 30 minutes. 15 minutes or so into my vape, I unscrewed my Vivi Nova from the top and forgot to hold the bottom and a small amount of juice dripped down the side. I'm not sure if the E-Cig is supposed to be sealed but for sure this one wasn't. Within 10 minutes, it began to smoke and putrid smoke poured out of the LED, of course I quickly yanked the batteries. Destroying a unit in 30 Minutes was a new record for me.
I sent it back and the vendor crosshipped a replacement. The replacement lasted for two hours before it stopped recognizing my Vivi Nova Clearomizer. Back to the Vendor for a refund.
The seller of this unit was wonderful in his customer service. He was so great about everything that I don't want to mention the exact model or who he is. I wish him the best in his business and won't discount that maybe I was just unlucky.
So after that I went searching hours and hours in the forums. Everything that I ran across was out of my price range, or just too many negative reviews resulting from the Hit and Miss Quality of Chinese Manufacturers. The problem seems to be that one person will get a Chinese Unit that works perfectly and than another will get a defective unit, so it's pot luck on whether you are going to get a good unit.
Than I ran across the Smoketek Smokbox Varicool. What was different about it? Most important of all I searched the forum for comments about the Smokbox Varicool and almost all were favorable. Initially I confused them with the Chinese Smoketech, but than realized that they were a different company. I wrote the owner and found that the box was assembled in the United States. That was the clincher for me. A unit assembled in America for $56.00 seemed like a deal.
Although there were a number of positive comments on the forum and on the Smoktek website about the Varicool , there was only one professional review and that review just wasn't detailed enough for me. So I decided that I'd buy one and completely test it.
I'm a Provari Fan and feel that every Vaper should have a Provari or a model of equal quality. On the other hand not everyone is in the position to lay out $200.00+, or they fear the wrath of their spouse when the credit card statement arrives. I won't say that the Varicool is better than a Provari. I will only say that it is different, doesn't have the bells and whistles, but what it does it does well.
The Varicool has become my primary unit because I like the form factor and features. It's small, doesn't roll or fall over, has great battery life (Proven in my testing), and most important gives a rock solid stable vape (Proven in Review). If you don't need the Bells and Whistles of the Provari, and don't mind that the chassis isn't as solid, this unit within a limited parameter is as good as a Provari.
Now with the introduction of the 6Amp we are adding a new dimension. At extreme levels this unit may outperform the Provari. I can't wait to find out.
I received the 6amp two days ago and have been breaking it in. It has been vaping great with 1.8Ohm to 2.8Ohm Clearomizers and no problems with either the Trustfire Flame or the IMR Aw 1450 at my normal vaping range of 3.7 to 4.3V. Yes this is a subjective statement, don't worry I'll start my testing in my next post. Over the weekend.
One of the things that I'm not going to do is to take this unit to the limit with regular Lithium batteries. According to the Spec on the chip, under maximum load it has the capability to overdraw the battery of a regular Lithium Ion. So the highest that I'm going to go on a normal Battery is 5-6V depending on the Cartomizer/Atomizer. Using the AW IMR 14500 batteries though, I'm going to take this baby to the Maximum!!!
The technology on this unit is different from the Provari. The Provari takes a 3.7V battery and boosts the volts. According to the forum it is PWM with a effective filter on it. The filter is a capacitor that stores electricity and fills in the voltage when it fluctuates downward.
The Varicool operates on a stacked battery type of technology. Before you eliminate it because it's stacked battery, it does it a little differently. The batteries are separate on each side, which is safer than when they are joined together . The chip has protections on it that will stop short circuits, in addition the casing is non conductive plastic, which reduces possibilities of short circuits. The way it works is that the batteries are putting out around 6.3 to 8.4 Volts and the DC to DC converter chip converts the voltage downward. To me that seems a very sensible way of maintaining steady voltage. This unit I've been told by the tech gurus is also PWM with an excellent filter on it.
The way I can tell is that the inexpensive Smoktek Led Digital Voltage tester won't work with units that don't output stable voltage. It won't work with an Ego for example. The PWM is not an issue with this unit or the Provari because the Filter is stabilizing the voltage. With some of the new PWM units a 3.0 is like a 4.0.
I realize this next statement is subjective but using my Led Tester I set the Provari at 4.2 and the Varicool at 4.34 with a Clearomizer Voltage of 4.2 and the vape was identical. You couldn't tell that you were vaping on different units.
One difference between the Provari and the SmokBox Varicool is that if you put the Provari on 4.2 the provari will both put out 4.2V and vape at 4.2V. The Varicool on the other hand drops under load. So to get a 4.2V vape I have to set it at 4.3V or 4.34V depending on the Clearomizer.
In my last testing round, I verified that this drop is instantaneous. There is no spiking of voltages, as soon as the clearomizer is fired the Voltage holds steady. This means that your hit is rock solid no tapering vape.
This weekend I'll be testing the unit, so stay tuned as the test results come in.
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