First I want to mention that…
I was announced as a winner of the contest on Oct 27 for the Fremax Starre Tank from @Heaven_Gifts. Four days later (October 31) I ordered 10 flavors from a flavor vendor in Durham, NC. The One in China had to be packaged, shipped and clear customs. The other just had to be packaged and shipped. They both arrived the same day Friday November 4, 2016. That is pretty good considering after clearing customs the package had to travel from the opposite side of the earth to make it to my door. Actual DHL shipping time was 3 days from them picking it up in China, to dropping it here at my door in Arkansas.
I received it with a signature, and found the package was a bubble lined envelope with the odd shaped box in it, well wrapped with more bubble wrap and clear tape. It was unscathed without a dent or scratch from the long trip.
The box is not square; it is tapered and is somewhat difficult to open. It does not have, but needs a pull strap like in battery compartments to open the box and to remove the plastic tank holder inside the box. There’s an instruction book, 9 spare O-rings in 5 sizes, and a spare glass under the tank in the box, and a spare coil with the tank. The glass is actually “high quality Borosilicate” which is known for having very low coefficients of thermal expansion making them resistant to thermal shock; more so than any other common glass from this planet. The tank is 25mm or almost 1” diameter, and 64.3mm or 2.53” tall. In other words it’s a big-un! Size wise it’s large but the capacity is still just 4ml the same as Crown and ULTIMO.
This tank is top fill only; when you unscrew the bottom of the tank the holes you see are the vent holes so don’t add juice to the bottom. I experienced no spit-back and the heat is warm but bearable when you vape it. If it is too warm you can change the tip with a standard 510 size mouthpiece. The instruction book is in English, but the translation is not perfect, Freemax should hire an alien to proofread their instruction booklet!
The device was clean, no oil residue and the threads are good, no burrs. I noticed the 510 pin on the bottom of the tank is a tiny bit too long, it had a bit of a wobble and I added a shim between the tank and the mod .014” (0.35mm) to fix it. That is probably the length of the tanks pin, but it is so close it may fit other mods better.
Something I noticed with this tank my batteries seem to last longer, It may be the tank is more efficient so I can turn it down some and still get great vapor. Or it may be that I’m running it in VW mode instead of TC or VT mode and that may be why the batteries do better.
The coil design is Unique, where most coils have metal around the coil, this one has ceramic. They call it Ceramic Cover Coil or CCC, and it does work to help keep the tank cool but it still provides a quick startup when you press the fire button. The coil is a dual vertical Kanthal coil. The coil that is pre-installed is 0.25ohms so the low ohm coil also keeps the ramp up time short. The vapor density seems to be a little better than the crown running a NI 0.15ohm coil, and better than the ULTIMO running their 0.5ohm ceramic. And yes the ramp up is shorter on the Starre Pure than both. The instructions suggest Inverting the tank for a minute after filling it the first time. After that it took only a couple of minutes to work the coil up to operating wattage and temperature and start producing vapor, so I think it’s fairly fast to break-in and startup a new coil. The flavor is awesome and stays good even after the tank is almost empty. Other tanks I own seem to cook the juice and they don’t taste as good toward the bottom of the tank.
The airflow comes from the top through a double wall to an air chamber below the coil, then up through the center of the coil, so the air space also helps insulate between the coil and the juice. Other tank designs let the juice come into direct contact with metal on the outside of the coil; in my opinion Starre Pure has a much better design for the prolonged flavor of the juice. Also the coil diameter and the bore of the draw tube are large enough to accept a Q-tip so if your coil gunk’s up you can clean it without disassembly, just run a Q-tip down the bore.
Here is a look at the bottom cap and the coil after 4 days of constant use, the coil and cotton is still pristine. I do expect the cotton to burn in time but for now there is no sign of it happening. In this photo you can also see the vent holes and the threaded bottom cap that collects any leakage and condensation.
So the bottom line, this tank is technologically superior, great taste, no leaking and better than Crown and ULTIMO as far as flavor and vapor production. It is obviously made with stolen Alien technology. I highly recommend anyone wanting a great tasting tank with ceramic coils give this one a go. They put a lot of thought into an efficient device that runs cool with the design of this tank.