I got my pulse dual kit in from Vandy Vape early in the morning on Christmas Eve, and what a nice gift it is !
I've now spent a few days with it, and vaping exclusively on it in that time, and I'm ready to say some things about it. Seeing as the Pulse V2 RDA is marketed as a separate product, I think it's fitting I'm going separate my thoughts into two parts for the two major components that makes up the kit (thus the "Dual review" in the title).
I haven't had a lot of time to write during the holiday season, so isn't going to be a super detailed full review where I get into every little thing. This is more just trying to gather my thoughts on this really good kit and put it to (virtual) paper.
Part #1: The Pulse Dual Squonk Mod:
Just an intro to the mod: The Pulse Dual is a VV/VW mod, and while it is Vandy Vape's fourth entry into it's Pulse squonk mod series, it is also the first incarnation in the Pulse squonk mod series to be a dual battery device. Unlike like single battery Pulse 80w (20700 battery), and the single battery Pulse X(90w) (20700/21700) versions, the Pulse Dual accepts only 18650 Batteries and is rated to reach 220w.
A. Impressions on physical design:
My very first thought was that I liked the looks of the thing, and my second thought was how heavy it seemed. Now I think that requires some clarification because in general it is not more heavy than most of my other dual 18650 mods, it's lighter in fact than most, but it is significantly heavier than the Pulse 80w model (which makes sense really).
I threw them on the scale just for giggles (with no batteries or atomizer) and the Pulse Dual alone weighs about 191g ( 6.73oz ), which is more than double than single battery Pulse 80w which comes in about 84g ( 2.96oz). That said, it's about 1 cm shorter than than Pulse 80w, and about a half inch shorter than the two non-squonking dual 18680 mods I put up next to it. It is sort of wide, at just under 1 3/4 inches at it's widest point.
One thing I immediately noted, and very much like, compared to many other popular other squonk mods is that the squonk bottle is completely separated from any batteries or other open parts of the mod. This is a VERY good move. You always hope to never get any leakage from your squonk bottle, but everyone who squonks know that it's very easy to at least get some juice leaked especially when pulling the bottle in or out. In so many other squonk mods the battery compartment or other open areas of the mod is placed in such a way that any leakage that manages to pool up is likely to wind up right on the battery contact (and I don't know why). Now I like the Pulse 80w too, don't get me wrong, but that is an issue it has and that has been solved in this iteration of the Pulse series.
All around, a very good physical design. Everything seems very easy to manipulate (battery door, front (bottle) shield) but also very well built and secure at the same time. I think in talking about physical design it might also be worth mentioning that I inadvertently dropped this thing on day 2 from a height of about 5 feet onto a very thinly carpeted (still pretty hard) floor, and it was 100% fine. So, that's good... and seriously.. whew.
B: Impressions on Screen and user interface:
So, compared to some non-sqounk dual battery mods the screen is fairly plain, but I can't think of another squonk mod that has a nicer one. I personally like a no-nonsense screen, and on this one everything is very bright, clean, and crisp looking and all the information one needs is all there and then some. You've got some extras like puff counter and puff timer. A variable brightness feature is nice, and I particularly like how pushing all three buttons will put you in a stealth mode (screen off). Since I had a pre-production version to test, with no instruction book, this was an accidentally discovered surprise for me. As someone who likes to vape in the bedroom and not disturb my significant other though , this feature is super useful. There are several DIY preset modes with a manual power curve setting. Another really nice feature though is that a user can set which modes are available to scroll through on the main screen (after three fire button clicks) For instance, if you don't use temp control, but want to have both wattage and bypass mode quickly available, you can set the mod to only scroll through those desired modes. Very cool.
It's not the most advanced chip in the world, but it does more than everything I want it to do, and I really like it.
C: Performance
I don't have a ton to say here other than it works exactly like it should. It works and works well. One thing I will say that I find interesting is that I've found the battery life of the same sets of 18650s to be longer in this particular Pulse Dual than with pretty much any other dual 18650 mod at the same wattage. I honestly have no idea why this is, but it seems to be the case and of course it's a good thing. Also, this thing absolutely rips in bypass mode with good batteries at a high charge.
Part #2: The Pulse V2 RDA
I'm going to say right off the bat that the mod is pretty darn good, but the truly shining part to me is the Pulse V2 RDA. It's quite frankly a brilliant design.
Build: I should mention that I've only tried one set of coils, the ones that came with it, a set of Ni80 flat triple fused claptons 27g*3+38g that read on the device as .14ohm (.3ohm each)
Why is it such a brilliant design ? Lets get into that a little.
First lets get into building. It's as quick and simple as anything I've ever built on, and has advantages of different kinds of decks. The post holes are faced upwards, almost like a postless deck, so the coils go straight down in side by side posts (unlike a cross post velocity deck). Unlike a postless deck though, pre-cutting to length is not required (that's always such a pain) because the coils go right through and can be clipped underneath the slight upward bend of the posts. This might be difficult to picture and understand from my words alone, but the best thing I can say probably is simply that my coils needed almost no positioning/bending to shape at all. Pretty much just a straight drop in, tighten screws, clip. Only the slightest bending with a coiling jig came into play. Seriously, this was so much less work than almost any other deck I've ever used.. and that's not even the best part.
The best part is that the RDA cap is not one piece, but three pieces. There is a base, an interchangeable delrin airflow ring, and then a.. lets say 'half cap' that fit's onto the middle ring's airflow holes and has the drip tip.
The interchangeable rings provide incredible airflow and flavor for a dual coil build, and while I haven't tried it I'd imagine just as good for single coil builds; considering one of the airflow rings is designed with longer channels to suit single coil builds. What these rings do essentially is bring your airflow VERY close to the coils without the need to really position them at all. It's all basically a simple drop in feature which provides incredible flavor with complete ease of building.
On just a little side note, the 'half cap' is also far less annoying than removing a normal style cap when you want to get a look at your coils because the base never needs to come off of the anti-leak o-rings until you're doing a complete coil rebuild.
I love this RDA. I really really do. You won't be disappointed with it. 100% buy it. Even if you don't get the full kit, get the RDA. For me, it is now my favorite mass-production RDA and I can't stop using it. Lets put it this way.. I got this kit from Vandy Vape for free for testing, and I bought two more to replace other RDAs. I honestly like it that much.
Final Thoughts: I will say that since I've received it, this is the mod I've been using the most. I only personally own three other squonk mods (all regulated) and this one is easily my favorite now. I mostly vape from dual coil RTAs at this point, but this kit has kind of sold me on squonking; mostly because of the really fantastic flavor I'm getting from the Pulse V2 RDA and how much I like how it solves some complex issues with such simplicity and ease of use.
I've now spent a few days with it, and vaping exclusively on it in that time, and I'm ready to say some things about it. Seeing as the Pulse V2 RDA is marketed as a separate product, I think it's fitting I'm going separate my thoughts into two parts for the two major components that makes up the kit (thus the "Dual review" in the title).
I haven't had a lot of time to write during the holiday season, so isn't going to be a super detailed full review where I get into every little thing. This is more just trying to gather my thoughts on this really good kit and put it to (virtual) paper.
Part #1: The Pulse Dual Squonk Mod:
Just an intro to the mod: The Pulse Dual is a VV/VW mod, and while it is Vandy Vape's fourth entry into it's Pulse squonk mod series, it is also the first incarnation in the Pulse squonk mod series to be a dual battery device. Unlike like single battery Pulse 80w (20700 battery), and the single battery Pulse X(90w) (20700/21700) versions, the Pulse Dual accepts only 18650 Batteries and is rated to reach 220w.
A. Impressions on physical design:
My very first thought was that I liked the looks of the thing, and my second thought was how heavy it seemed. Now I think that requires some clarification because in general it is not more heavy than most of my other dual 18650 mods, it's lighter in fact than most, but it is significantly heavier than the Pulse 80w model (which makes sense really).
I threw them on the scale just for giggles (with no batteries or atomizer) and the Pulse Dual alone weighs about 191g ( 6.73oz ), which is more than double than single battery Pulse 80w which comes in about 84g ( 2.96oz). That said, it's about 1 cm shorter than than Pulse 80w, and about a half inch shorter than the two non-squonking dual 18680 mods I put up next to it. It is sort of wide, at just under 1 3/4 inches at it's widest point.
One thing I immediately noted, and very much like, compared to many other popular other squonk mods is that the squonk bottle is completely separated from any batteries or other open parts of the mod. This is a VERY good move. You always hope to never get any leakage from your squonk bottle, but everyone who squonks know that it's very easy to at least get some juice leaked especially when pulling the bottle in or out. In so many other squonk mods the battery compartment or other open areas of the mod is placed in such a way that any leakage that manages to pool up is likely to wind up right on the battery contact (and I don't know why). Now I like the Pulse 80w too, don't get me wrong, but that is an issue it has and that has been solved in this iteration of the Pulse series.
All around, a very good physical design. Everything seems very easy to manipulate (battery door, front (bottle) shield) but also very well built and secure at the same time. I think in talking about physical design it might also be worth mentioning that I inadvertently dropped this thing on day 2 from a height of about 5 feet onto a very thinly carpeted (still pretty hard) floor, and it was 100% fine. So, that's good... and seriously.. whew.
B: Impressions on Screen and user interface:
So, compared to some non-sqounk dual battery mods the screen is fairly plain, but I can't think of another squonk mod that has a nicer one. I personally like a no-nonsense screen, and on this one everything is very bright, clean, and crisp looking and all the information one needs is all there and then some. You've got some extras like puff counter and puff timer. A variable brightness feature is nice, and I particularly like how pushing all three buttons will put you in a stealth mode (screen off). Since I had a pre-production version to test, with no instruction book, this was an accidentally discovered surprise for me. As someone who likes to vape in the bedroom and not disturb my significant other though , this feature is super useful. There are several DIY preset modes with a manual power curve setting. Another really nice feature though is that a user can set which modes are available to scroll through on the main screen (after three fire button clicks) For instance, if you don't use temp control, but want to have both wattage and bypass mode quickly available, you can set the mod to only scroll through those desired modes. Very cool.
It's not the most advanced chip in the world, but it does more than everything I want it to do, and I really like it.
C: Performance
I don't have a ton to say here other than it works exactly like it should. It works and works well. One thing I will say that I find interesting is that I've found the battery life of the same sets of 18650s to be longer in this particular Pulse Dual than with pretty much any other dual 18650 mod at the same wattage. I honestly have no idea why this is, but it seems to be the case and of course it's a good thing. Also, this thing absolutely rips in bypass mode with good batteries at a high charge.
Part #2: The Pulse V2 RDA
I'm going to say right off the bat that the mod is pretty darn good, but the truly shining part to me is the Pulse V2 RDA. It's quite frankly a brilliant design.
Build: I should mention that I've only tried one set of coils, the ones that came with it, a set of Ni80 flat triple fused claptons 27g*3+38g that read on the device as .14ohm (.3ohm each)
Why is it such a brilliant design ? Lets get into that a little.
First lets get into building. It's as quick and simple as anything I've ever built on, and has advantages of different kinds of decks. The post holes are faced upwards, almost like a postless deck, so the coils go straight down in side by side posts (unlike a cross post velocity deck). Unlike a postless deck though, pre-cutting to length is not required (that's always such a pain) because the coils go right through and can be clipped underneath the slight upward bend of the posts. This might be difficult to picture and understand from my words alone, but the best thing I can say probably is simply that my coils needed almost no positioning/bending to shape at all. Pretty much just a straight drop in, tighten screws, clip. Only the slightest bending with a coiling jig came into play. Seriously, this was so much less work than almost any other deck I've ever used.. and that's not even the best part.
The best part is that the RDA cap is not one piece, but three pieces. There is a base, an interchangeable delrin airflow ring, and then a.. lets say 'half cap' that fit's onto the middle ring's airflow holes and has the drip tip.
The interchangeable rings provide incredible airflow and flavor for a dual coil build, and while I haven't tried it I'd imagine just as good for single coil builds; considering one of the airflow rings is designed with longer channels to suit single coil builds. What these rings do essentially is bring your airflow VERY close to the coils without the need to really position them at all. It's all basically a simple drop in feature which provides incredible flavor with complete ease of building.
On just a little side note, the 'half cap' is also far less annoying than removing a normal style cap when you want to get a look at your coils because the base never needs to come off of the anti-leak o-rings until you're doing a complete coil rebuild.
I love this RDA. I really really do. You won't be disappointed with it. 100% buy it. Even if you don't get the full kit, get the RDA. For me, it is now my favorite mass-production RDA and I can't stop using it. Lets put it this way.. I got this kit from Vandy Vape for free for testing, and I bought two more to replace other RDAs. I honestly like it that much.
Final Thoughts: I will say that since I've received it, this is the mod I've been using the most. I only personally own three other squonk mods (all regulated) and this one is easily my favorite now. I mostly vape from dual coil RTAs at this point, but this kit has kind of sold me on squonking; mostly because of the really fantastic flavor I'm getting from the Pulse V2 RDA and how much I like how it solves some complex issues with such simplicity and ease of use.
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