I can't say anything about "worth it".
But it's clear you must provide a wall, a surface or wire for the little grounding spring on the Kick, to attach it electrically to the negative terminal. That's an easy mod to the XL.
Then the batteries have to be shorter to fit the Kick + battery in the XL, so it's not the 18650, it's more like an 18500. They sell the right batteries, and it seems they must be High Drain type, i.e. IMR, which put out more instantaneous current but have less capacity.
So it's a drop in capacity and vape duration for three reasons. The battery is smaller, it's an IMR type, and you're raising the voltage, there are some losses there as well. So if you were to actually run it at the same exact voltage, say 3.7 volts, it cannot vape as long as the standard 18650 mechanical setup at 3.7 volts.
The Kick is not adjusted for voltage. Like the Darwin, it's a wattage regulator. There's a little trimmer potentiometer on top that you set the wattage with. The Kick compensates for the resistance of the atty and changes the voltage to maintain a constant wattage.
If you vape with a LR atomizer, say 1.5 ohms, on a 3.7 volt battery, the wattage you use is
3.7 / 1.5 * 3.7 = (3.7 ^ 2) / 1.5 = 9.12 watts
If you now pop on a 3 ohm atty, you will probably also want 9.12 watts. The Kick will automatically compensate to maintain around 9.12 watts. The voltage will have to increase to
SQRT (9.12 * 3) = 5.23 volts
You can check that it's correct:
5.23 / 3 * 5.23 = 9.12 watts
How exactly you set the little trimmer with a screwdriver in the XL and where you set it is something actual users will have to tell you.
But one more thing is worth mentioning. There are people who believe that wattage is the arbiter of how much vapor you'll get, and it makes sense, since wattage is power, heat, energy. But in practice it's a little more complicated. For instance there are devices like the 3 ohm StarDust clearomizer that theoretically should be weakie vapes on an eGo battery, since the wattage is only:
3.4 / 3 * 3.4 = 3.85 watts
and yet a StarDust clearomizer kicks out darned good vapor on an eGo battery, showing that wattage is not the only factor: the construction of the atomizer can change the required wattage a lot. If you apply the 5.23 volts you would expect to need for a good vape on a 3 ohm StarDust, it's too much and will generally pop the coil in seconds.
So what I'm saying is that a set-it-and-forget-it device that maintains constant wattage is not quite going to require no adjustments, there will be exceptions. And adjusting the Kick is inconvenient since you have no access to the trimpot from the side or from the top in an XL. That's why I haven't jumped at the Kick.
Now in practice, the constant wattage theory works for a lot of atties/cartos, and many people like the Kick, so they'll tell you ...
One more thing. I've come to believe that good vapor comes from an atty with many turns in the coil. This creates a finer mesh through which the vapor is created. On most LR atomizers there are only 3 or so loose turns in the coil, and the vapor is mediocre. If the makers use a special lower resistance wire, it takes more wire length to get the same resistance, so such coils will have more turns. That's what the better LR atties like the HH.357 have. The old style 3-3.5 ohm atties also may have say 8 turns, but the resistance is high, so you need say 5 volts to get a good vape. My expectation is that with a Kick you might get good vapor even with low cost standard resistance atties (run at 5 volts), and you might not need to buy the "cisco coil" type LR atties you need to get good vapor at 3.7 volts. That's a big plus if it works out.
But it's clear you must provide a wall, a surface or wire for the little grounding spring on the Kick, to attach it electrically to the negative terminal. That's an easy mod to the XL.
Then the batteries have to be shorter to fit the Kick + battery in the XL, so it's not the 18650, it's more like an 18500. They sell the right batteries, and it seems they must be High Drain type, i.e. IMR, which put out more instantaneous current but have less capacity.
So it's a drop in capacity and vape duration for three reasons. The battery is smaller, it's an IMR type, and you're raising the voltage, there are some losses there as well. So if you were to actually run it at the same exact voltage, say 3.7 volts, it cannot vape as long as the standard 18650 mechanical setup at 3.7 volts.
The Kick is not adjusted for voltage. Like the Darwin, it's a wattage regulator. There's a little trimmer potentiometer on top that you set the wattage with. The Kick compensates for the resistance of the atty and changes the voltage to maintain a constant wattage.
If you vape with a LR atomizer, say 1.5 ohms, on a 3.7 volt battery, the wattage you use is
3.7 / 1.5 * 3.7 = (3.7 ^ 2) / 1.5 = 9.12 watts
If you now pop on a 3 ohm atty, you will probably also want 9.12 watts. The Kick will automatically compensate to maintain around 9.12 watts. The voltage will have to increase to
SQRT (9.12 * 3) = 5.23 volts
You can check that it's correct:
5.23 / 3 * 5.23 = 9.12 watts
How exactly you set the little trimmer with a screwdriver in the XL and where you set it is something actual users will have to tell you.
But one more thing is worth mentioning. There are people who believe that wattage is the arbiter of how much vapor you'll get, and it makes sense, since wattage is power, heat, energy. But in practice it's a little more complicated. For instance there are devices like the 3 ohm StarDust clearomizer that theoretically should be weakie vapes on an eGo battery, since the wattage is only:
3.4 / 3 * 3.4 = 3.85 watts
and yet a StarDust clearomizer kicks out darned good vapor on an eGo battery, showing that wattage is not the only factor: the construction of the atomizer can change the required wattage a lot. If you apply the 5.23 volts you would expect to need for a good vape on a 3 ohm StarDust, it's too much and will generally pop the coil in seconds.
So what I'm saying is that a set-it-and-forget-it device that maintains constant wattage is not quite going to require no adjustments, there will be exceptions. And adjusting the Kick is inconvenient since you have no access to the trimpot from the side or from the top in an XL. That's why I haven't jumped at the Kick.
Now in practice, the constant wattage theory works for a lot of atties/cartos, and many people like the Kick, so they'll tell you ...
One more thing. I've come to believe that good vapor comes from an atty with many turns in the coil. This creates a finer mesh through which the vapor is created. On most LR atomizers there are only 3 or so loose turns in the coil, and the vapor is mediocre. If the makers use a special lower resistance wire, it takes more wire length to get the same resistance, so such coils will have more turns. That's what the better LR atties like the HH.357 have. The old style 3-3.5 ohm atties also may have say 8 turns, but the resistance is high, so you need say 5 volts to get a good vape. My expectation is that with a Kick you might get good vapor even with low cost standard resistance atties (run at 5 volts), and you might not need to buy the "cisco coil" type LR atties you need to get good vapor at 3.7 volts. That's a big plus if it works out.
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