- Testing, Experiences, & Opinions -
As a standalone mod, you'll receive everything you need to fire this thing up except the external battery. The kit comes with:
- Vapefly Brunhilde SbS 100W Mod
- 18650 Battery Adapter
- 2x 510 Connection Scratch Protectors
- USB Type-C Charging Cable (2 feet long)
- User Manual
- Warranty Card
- Vapefly & German 1o3 Informational Card
- Battery Wrap Info
A couple of things to note about the accessories. The USB Type-C charging cable is only about 2 feet long. This is pretty standard for most Type-C cables that come included in kits, but I feel it's worth noting since I find these cables to be pretty hard to utilize without them being an inconvenience. This is also not a 3.0 Quick Charging (QC) cable which is great, because the chip itself will not read a 3.0 QC connection. I would advice against using 3.0 QC cables in any mod even if the mod chip is capable of reading a 3.0 connection simply because there's a lot of live current funneling through it to the battery(ies). This will often result in a lot of heat, which is your biggest enemy when it comes to chip and battery longevity.
Using the cable included in the kit, I was able to reach a 1.4-1.5A charging speed which is a bit under the advertised 2 Amps, but still much better than 1A. For the purpose of chip and mod longevity, I would not suggest charging your mods using the USB port unless you have no other means to recharge your battery. Please purchase an external li-ion battery charger if you can, they're very cheap.
While charging, your display will look like this.
In regard to external batteries, remember to buy OEM battery brands from authorized vendors to ensure the specs are accurate. Molicel, Samsung, Sony/Murata, Panasonic/Sanyo, LG, Lishen, & Bak would be my recommendations.
When using the included 18650 adapter with the mod, the fit felt very tight when trying to fit the positive end of the battery into the adapter. I would recommend putting the negative end of the battery into the adapter before putting the battery and adapter into the mod, positive end pointing down as seen below. Battery orientation is clearly marked on the cap and inside the mod.
The "front" of the mod is where you'll find the fire button designed into the forehead of the Greek Corinthian style helmet engraving. I put front in quotation marks because this would actually be the back if you're used to firing mods with your index or middle finger. The fire button itself is raise 1-1.5 millimeters so that it's easily found. There have however, been some issues with the fire button. First off, it's very mushy feeling when suppressed. There've been a few cases where the fire button has gotten stuck firing when releasing my thumb, but I've noticed that it mostly happens when I'm pressing down on the top of the button near the 510 plate above. Trying to duplicate this purposefully has not yielded much for results, it just seems to happen from time to time. Since then, I've not had this happen much while using the bottom of the fire button. For those that use your middle or index finger to fire should have a much easier time locating and pressing the middle of the fire button if you do run into problem. Searching around the internet, it seems that some others have also run into this issue. My thoughts on this are that the tolerances of the machining was just a tad bit too tight around the fire button, and that's what's causing the sticking. I'm wondering if pulling it apart and either flipping the fire button 180 degrees or maybe even using a tad bit of WD-40 might alleviate this.
Below the fire button, you'll notice the USB Type-C charging port. I like seeing ports on the side, so the mod itself doesn't have to be tipped over to plug them in. However again, I don't recommend using the Type-C port to recharge unless that's the only option you have.
To the right of the front-facing fire button, you see the first side of the symmetrical wing engravings. Just below it, you have the left and right buttons ([-] and [+] respectively) to adjust settings and Wattages. I'll get into the functioning of the UI down below.
On the left side of the front-facing fire button, you'll see the second side of the symmetrical wing engravings that perfectly mirror the opposite side. Below that is the small, but elegant "Brunhilde" engraving. Vapefly consistently sticks with the Olde English style font which I think works very well with the overall aesthetic.
You also get a better view of the CNC'd portion of the mod curving up and around the cylindrical battery enclosure which I think is an elegant touch.
From top down, there are a few things to note. First off, the 3 battery vents that are positioned around the torch emblem engraved into the battery cap are a nice plus. I've heard from some that the vents aren't really even needed and that they're more for ease of mind. In this case, they wouldn't be of much help in a thermal runaway situation anyway. If the battery were to vent, it would exit the positive end of the battery which is on the opposite end of the this battery cap (pointed downward). There are battery vents on the bottom as you'll see below. Never-the-less, it probably aids in some cooling and that's never a bad thing for li-ion batteries.
The cap itself is a little grindy once it makes contact with the battery and some compression starts to happen with the connector on the positive end, but it's not nearly as bad as some of the other SbS caps I've experienced. The top lip when the cap is removed also isn't as sharp as I've seen on other mods. This has always been a concern to me, because I feel like it would be very easy to scrape into battery wraps as the battery is being slid in and out constantly. In the case of this Brunhilde, there's not much to worry about in that regard.
The brass 510 connector is spring-loaded as you'd expect from pretty much any modern regulated device. I'm not entirely sure if it's sealed with an O-ring however, as I had difficulty with one of the screws trying to remove the 510 plate for further inspection.
One of the best features of this SbS mod in my opinion is the abundant amount of atomizers I can use on it where other SbS's have fallen short. The Dovpo Abyss, Dovpo College, Steam Crave Hadron Lite, SXK Supbox, Digiflavor Z1, Hippovape B'Adapt Pro are just a few examples of SbS's that I'm only able to use a very select few atomizers on due to the diameter restriction. The 510 deck has a 26mm diameter which is quite large for a SbS and can even accommodate some bubble glasses. The caveat to this is, the atomizer cannot be 26mm where the battery cap is. At the end of the review, I'll post a bunch of atomizers that I cannot fit on the SbS mods mentioned above.
The 510 plate is held in by 4 torx screws. I actually stripped one of them while trying to get them out and this is as far as I could get the plate open. It's nice to know that the screws are in fact screwed into metal instead of plastic, but mind you that the CNC'd metal is still carved out of aluminum (aluminium for some folks 
). The fact that the screws strip out easier than the threads do is actually comforting to some degree, but I wish they'd have maybe stuck a screw or two into the accessories bag.
On the bottom of the mod is where you'll find the UI display as well as the battery vent holes mentioned earlier. The plate (made of steel I believe) is held in by another 4 torx screws and adds a tiny bit of weight to the mod which personally I like. The UI display is an older style similar to the type you'd find in older Aspire models or the non-C(olor) version of the DNA chip. This leads us right into the functioning of the mod and its modes.
- Mod Functioning & Modes -
The 3S chip found in the Brunhilde looks and operates very simply. Holding the directional buttons [-] or [+] very quickly scrolls the Wattage in whole number increments. If you stop holding either key down and use single presses, the mod will scroll through in 0.1 Watt increments. The mod does round robin from 100W to 5W and vice versa.
It should also be noted that the mod can still operate up to 100W while using the adapter and an 18650, but I would not recommend that. The highest Amp CDR battery I know of for 18650's is the Samsung 20S, and Mooch rates these safe at 30A or lower. Even at 30A, you shouldn't be going over 90W for safety reasons.
Wrapping SS316L, Ni200, and Titanium under the umbrella of "TC", there are only 3 different firing modes. Before we get into the firing modes, I thought I'd mention the shortcut key functions first.
Shortcut key combinations are as follows:
- 5 quick clicks of the fire button - turns the mod on and off
- 3 quick clicks of the fire button while mod is on - scrolls through firing modes
- Hold both [-] and [+] buttons together - locks and unlocks the adjustment keys; the mod can still fire
- Hold both [-] and the fire button together - puts mod into stealth mode
- Hold both [+] and the fire button together - flips the display 180 degrees
To navigate between the 3 fire modes, quickly press the fire button down 3 times. The sequence in which the screen rotates through menus is shown below with the exception of the last screen - that is to show that the Wattage in TC mode can also be changed.
The 3 power modes available are:
- VW (Variable Wattage/Power) - Power controlled by Wattage
- Bypass - Semi-raw battery output based on battery life
- TC (Temperature Control) - throttles the power based on coil temperature to prevent dry hits
- Stainless Steel 316L
- Nickel 200
- Titanium
Use the [-] and [+] buttons to switch between TC metals while it's blinking. Wattage in TC can be changed by holding down the fire button after choosing the type of metal you're using. The Wattage value will begin blinking if you've done it correctly.
- Performance -
The Vapefly Brunhilde performs like you would expect from a quality mod. The chip can boost Voltage output up to 8V which is great for those really high resistance coils. This also allows the delivery of a nice and consistent vape throughout each battery cycle, even when the battery is close to dying. This is the biggest reason to have a boosted chip in my opinion.
Even with a 0.18 Ohm coil, the Amp limit wasn't capped out at 100W (it only reached 23.67A) which is where mods can have a tendency to fail. Although mods will advertise "100W", often this 100W output can only be reached with a very specific coil resistance with many of them. It's great to see a single battery mod putting out these kinds of numbers. This performance test was conducted with a Molicel P42A 21700 battery, I cannot guarantee the same performance with an 18650.
- Pros, Cons, & Considerations -
(+)(+) Pros (+)(+)
- Elegant/aesthetically pleasing
- For the most part, machined very well
- Great hand feel for a SbS
- Easy to operate
- Unique design with the buttons on the side
- Chip is boosted - 8V max ouput
- 510 deck accommodates up to 26mm diameter atomizers (assuming the atomizer isn't 26mm at the battery cap)
- 510 plate is screwed into the CNC'd body, not plastic
- Compatible with 21700, 20700, and 18650 batteries
- USB Type-C - 1.4/1.5A charging speed
(-) (-) Cons (-) (-)
- Fire button can occasionally stick when pressing the fire button on the top or bottom (fire button tolerance too tight?)
- I'm not sure how prevalent this is - hopefully they address this in a future release
(-)(+) Preferential Considerations (+)(-)
- Chip feels dated even though it covers most of the common firing modes
- A Voltage mode would have been nice
- Torx screws can easily strip - spares would have been nice
- No puff counter
- Overall Rating -
8.0
(9.5 without the occasional fire button issue)
Hopefully if you do purchase this, you don't run into any issues with the fire button. I think if you fire with your middle or index finger right in the center of the fire button, you shouldn't have any issues. This mod is an absolute beauty, otherwise.
Thanks for reading and I hope you've learned all you'd ever want to know about the Vapefly Brunhilde SbS 100W mod. You can find the mod here and the Brunhilde Kit here at Sourcemore. If you're not a Bronze member, you can use the code "SBSM" and the price should drop to $48.31. Remember to register and/or log in to see the lowest prices available sitewide.
Happy vape hoarding!
