Chances are…if you’re a vaper who is reading this review…you are already lost…and when I say lost, I don’t mean done for…I mean that you are so far down the rabbit hole of this foggy hobby of ours that even if you wanted to…you could probably never find your way out again.
You see…there are certain levels to being a vaper that myself…and you probably…have tumbled past without even noticing where one level ends…and another begins…until eventually you find yourself stumbling blindly through the thick custard rich smog utterly bewildered with only one burning question ever present in your mind…
Level 1 - The Reluctant Smoker - You smoke (urgh) …but you don’t really want to, you know it’s killing you and you know that you are paying heavily with your hard earned cash for that privilege…you’ve tried an ‘electronic cigarette’ but it made you cough so it never really stuck…although…it did taste nice…
Level 2 - The Awkward Inbetweener - You have an ‘electronic cigarette’ that you use in the day but…when you are at home or out having a drink you might have the ‘occasional’ cancer stick because although you do enjoy this part time vape ‘fad’…it’s just not quite enough to keep you satisfied.
Level 3 - The Quitter - Congratulations, you have made the switch from coffin nails to a safer electronic alternative, you have found a liquid that you dig and you have powered through those awkward coughing weeks by battling those cravings as and when they arise simply by whipping out your ‘vape pen’ and having a little tootle puff on your 18mg peppermint liquid that only cost you a mere couple of pounds from your local newsagents.
Level 4 - The Shepherd encounter - You meet someone else that vapes, only they have a bigger pen than you, some may even have a box, and on this box there appears to be bigger tank…and out of this tank comes a cloud of the sweetest smelling Cumulonimbus that wisps past your nostrils peaking your intrigue and leaving your now chemical tasting peppermint liquid cowering in the corner smelling of nothing but cheap inadequacy.
Level 5 - The Upgrade - Your intrigue gets the better of you and you treat yourself to a new ‘toy’ …nothing too much, say a 50w variable wattage box mod and something called a ‘sub ohm’ tank…and while you’re at it…you might as well spend the extra ten pounds on a 30ml of that liquid that is named in such a way it could have literally come from your mother’s fun bag…what’s the sense in half assing it eh…I mean…what’s the worst that could happen…you go home, you follow the instructions in setting this thing up…and when you’re ready… you take your first hit…and suddenly as the flavour of that sweet nectar hits your mistreated and tortured taste buds a vision of that Shepherd you met last week…suddenly appears before you…
And in an instant…you fully understand why that person with their little box of electronic wizardry…looked sooo fucking smug.
Level 6 - The Awakening - A tricky level this…I’d go as far as to say that the vast majority of vapers don’t make it past this point, what they have is ample, overkill probably…they have discovered what they think is the top tier in electronic smoking cessation…and as long as they have this…why would they need anything else??..Pretty soon the residual cravings left over from smoking will be gone and so will this …‘Vaping’…thing…however…a select few…are never happy, they know there must be more… these vapers have stumbled across the rabbit hole…and are peering into it…fearful…yet…utterly intrigued
They didn’t realise just how big this thing was…after all…this was just to give up smoking…wasn’t it?..but…what if?
Ahh…the eternal question…“What if”…just the slightest whisper of that literal dark magic has sparked the birth of a thousand catastrophic fuck up’s…‘What if I just pressed that button that says don’t press?’ …‘What if I just hit him with this metal pipe a little bit?’ …‘What if I just smoked that little rock just this one time?’…‘What if I wore wore red trousers with a pink jumper?’ (okay you’ve gone too far now you need a fucking word with someone) …
"What if this little mod…wasn’t all there was?.. What if I just bought something a little more powerful?..What if I learnt to make my own coils so I didn’t have to spend money on pre-made’s?..What if I learnt to make my own e-liquid?? I could save a fortune!..What if I bought a dripper and tried that instead?..What if…what if…what if…?
Level 7…YOU…probably… you’re invested…you’re in so deep that this whole vape culture has become sooo much more than just a way of giving up smoking, this is a way of life, chances are you already have an arsenal of vaping equipment that could stock a small shop, and you wile away your hours making intricate coils that could pass off as jewellery and even your spare time is taken up concocting e-liquid recipes that could well be served as deserts in a michelin star restaurant…you watch videos…you read reviews (obviously) …you go to vape expo’s…and you might even have a part of your house dedicated to everything vape…your beloved ‘vape station’ - and whether you already have a vape station, or have just maybe started eyeing up that spare room, which currently houses a dusty exercise bike along with various other 90’s artifacts that were just ‘too good to throw away’ and because one day you ‘just might need them’ …this review …is entirely…for you…and do you know why?..
…
Fuck my life that’s gotta be the most long-winded intro in the history of long drawn out literal doo doo’s…sometimes…I impress even myself…annnyhoo…welcome once more my level 6/7 vaping virtuoso’s …why 7 you might ask?..Well…because anyone in the realm of 8, 9 or 10 will either be getting paid by YouTube for reviewing whatever I am reviewing, are already selling what I am reviewing, or actually made whatever I am reviewing…they make the cash…from level 7 and under…they…took it to the top…so chances are, they ain’t reading this nonsense…so…WTF am I reviewing??..Well…lots of stuff actually…and I fucking love stuff…who doesn’t love stuff??
Today I will be branching out from the norm, not actual mods or RDA’s or tanks or anything in fact that you can actually use to vape with…(almost) …this time, our gaze is transfixed onto that special area of your abode that we all like to call…the vape station, the area where you create your magic, a personal space dedicated to your collection of stuffs that help you make your aimless wanderings around this never ending rabbit warren…all the more pleasurable…specifically…if you’re thinking of getting your first vape station together.
Courtesy of my (by now completely bored of me demanding all kinds of weird shit to review) friends from the East… Cvapor…I present to you…a glorious mess on my vape station work top…
Tools and gadgets…probably my second biggest weakness…countless times sat in front of the laptop of an evening thinking…‘Do i really need that?’…The answer is almost always a resounding YES even when the opposite is clearly the correct answer in almost all instances.
So, although the intro may well have been ever so slightly lengthy…(slightly??)…there really won’t be an awful lot to tell you about the actual items, primarily because I’d be here all fucking night…but all being well…if you are looking at setting yourself up with a vaping version of a man cave (or femme den) then these items might just peak your interest…hand picked by me…and tested for 2 months exclusively…so let’s crack…the fuck on.
First up…we’ll start simple, we all have them…or at least should do…but maybe not quite like this…with the ability to charge 8 batteries at once, we have the Nitecore Intellicharger i8 battery charger.
The Lowdown
A slightly different approach than other chargers because not only can it charge 8 batteries at once, but it also does it vertically…and with 2 banks of 4 slots sitting back to back…saving you valuable desk space, which for me, with my limited summer house vape station real estate…and almost teenage approach to keeping things tidy…is a necessity.
It’s also about as simple as a battery charger can be with no display to confuse you with…numbers…and shit…just a red light to indicate it’s charging…and a green light to indicate that it’s done.
But…just because the i8 is simple to use, does not mean that it’s a slouch in the technical department, the ‘i’ in the i8 stands for intelligent, and it is exactly that…as long as the subject is charging batteries…it has all the answers, think robot Mooch that can sit on your desktop…it just prefers to sort everything out itself and not tell you about it…which is fair enough…I certainly can’t be trusted with such things…
It will also accommodate the following list of batteries…95% of which…you’ve probably never heard of, let alone actually used…
Li-ion / IMR: 10340, 10350, 10440, 10500, 12340, 12500, 12650, 13450, 13500, 13650, 14350, 14430, 14500, 14650, 16500, 16340 (RCR123), 16650, 17350, 17500, 17650, 17670, 18350, 18490, 18500, 18650, 20700, 21700, 22500, 22650, 25500, 26500, 26650
Ni-MH (NiCd): AA, AAA, C and D cell
Here we have some boring nonsense for those that wear pens in their shirt pockets…
(yawn)
zzzzzz…
As far as speed goes as you can well imagine the more you push it the less it gives, which is more often than not the case with multi battery charging, When 2 batteries are charging it’ll give you 1.5A total, 3 or 4 batteries and it’s 0.75A to 1A and when five to eight batteries are being charged it’ll put out a mere 0.5A … which isn’t super slow, but it is a safe way to charge multiple batteries without having to wait a whole day unlike lesser charger’s on the market.
Conclusion
So now you know what it does, but what’s it like to live with?..Well I did use this for a month up until recently and even now it sits on my desk on my main vape station (yep…I have 2…real problem) and there are some things I noticed that aren’t so much cons…but small annoyances, Firstly…it’s fugly…there’s no getting away from that, I do prefer the look of a flat desktop charger because you can see all the batteries…all the time, and with this back to back set up you can’t, Secondly…even though it is super simple to use, I would still like a display to see just where the charging is up to and how long I have to wait before they are finished. And thirdly…and may I also add…stupidly…putting the batteries into the i8 means you have to put them in bottom first, pull the spring down…and then push the top in…you’d think that would be a relatively simple operation…however…more than once I found myself firing batteries up into the air and even on one occasion…into my own face…
There is of course the added bonus of a 2.1A dual USB output which…if you have this on your desktop…comes in mighty useful for charging your phone as well as any internal battery mods you might have in your arsenal…nice touch…
All in all it’s a very functional battery charger which saves a lot of time should you have a regular turnover of batteries, it also saves a lot of space on your desktop if that’s an issue for you… so this will have a permanent residency in my main vape station and I can also recommend it as a simple, well made and safe 8 battery charger that won’t break the bank.
The Price
Currently Cvapor have this at £35.25 / $49.95 which seems to be about average and if I do manage to get a discount code I shall edit the review later on (it’s the weekend and they’re closed) Find that here…
Nitecore i8 Intelligent Battery Charger
Next up we have the ultimate ‘do I really need that’ item…and I can tell you right now that no…you don’t need it…but ‘need’ and ‘want’ live in completely different towns when it comes to rational thinking so…here we have it…
The Energystash ES UC-001 Ultrasonic Cleaner by Vaporesso…(just kinda rolls off the tongue eh)
We used to have one of these absolutely eons ago for cleaning jewellery, and to all intents and purposes it’s almost identical. Only this time it’s marketed specifically for vape gear…but…it’s just an ultrasonic cleaner.
The Lowdown
Think of this as a ‘remarketing’ exercise. Vapers have been using these things for years for cleaning their RDA’s and RTA’s and even for mixing their e-liquid…it’s nothing new, but…due to this particular model’s tiny stature it is marketed specifically for cleaning your tanks and your drippers.
Just 3 controls to speak of, 3 minute cycle, 8 minute cycle and stop…I’m pretty sure I don’t really need to go into too much detail about what all that means or what indeed you are meant to do with it, but here’s the key points…
Two things wrong with this…firstly, they obviously don’t know what the word ‘big’ means…and secondly…‘quiet operation’…??..Noooo…is it fuck!..it’s an ultrasonic cleaner - if it was quiet it wouldn’t fucking work!..jeez the clue is in the title!..For those that don’t understand the concept, it cleans by bombarding whatever you have in its tank with ultrasonic sound waves, thus loosening off any dirt and grime…so no…it’s not fucking ‘quiet’…think of the most annoying alarm clock you’ve ever had…it’s like that…and if you use it in close proximity to anyone else in the house who might be trying to…sayyyy… watch their favourite soap opera?..trust me…you’ll get moaned at…it is NOT a pleasant noise…
But on the flip side of that…if you do happen to live with someone whos last nerve you kinda like jumping up and down relentlessly on, then…you can use this motherfucker in the middle of the night in a dark room!..
It’s like a tiny illuminated super annoying box of disco!..Which for me personally and my heightened sense of ‘easily pleased’ coupled with my love for annoying people…can only be a good thing…and yes…3am is a perfectly acceptable time to be cleaning your vape collection and/or jewellery.
Conclusion
I guess what you really need to know is ‘does it actually work?’ …Well yes, although their claim of using tap water brings less dazzling results than using actual ultrasonic cleaner fluid followed by a rinse under the tap. There is enough space in there for you to dismantle even the most over engineered grimey RTA and have it sparkling in up to 8 annoying shrill minutes so if you have a large arsenal of tops and like to clean them before they go onto your display stand…or even if you want to give them away or sell them…it’s kinda perfect for that, and in between vape duties it can obviously be used for cleaning your bling…as my girlfriend has come to realise…regularly…so it is genuinely a useful thing to own…unless you’re Mr T…in which case…highly inadequate…
The Price
At time of writing the ES UC-001 can be found on Cvapor for £32.77 / $46.44 and when you think that more robust and larger ultrasonic cleaners can literally run into the hundreds of pounds, that’s actually quite good value and with it being as compact as it is, it won’t take up too much valuable worktop space…it’s small, quick and noisy…which…according to my other half…is a lot like me…I’m not sure what she means by that but…I’ll take it…find that deal here…
Vaporesso Energystash ES UC-001 Ultrasonic Cleaner
Next up we have something to tickle the feels of any budding wannabe coil makers out there, I will stress the word wannabe - if you’re already making coils that confuse the fuck out of ‘normal’ people, then your level of freaky expertise will no doubt be far higher than the level that this next lot of gear is aimed at…but you gotta start somewhere…
From Youde Technology Co. Ltd we have the UD wire box, UD cotton hook (oh yeah…totally a thing) and the UD Coil Jig V4…
Now I’ve had a lot of UD products over the years and I have always found them to be ‘middle of the road’ in terms of quality but more often than not…they offer great value, so if you are thinking of trying your hand at making your own coils they’re a pretty good introduction into what is available.
The Lowdown
The UD Wire Box was the first thing I ever bought when I started to build, it has been on the market for quite a while but it seemed to offer a good selection of ‘basic’ wires for doing your rudimentary starter coils…and I believe that still holds true.
You have 3 variants of Kanthal, single wire, twisted and clapton as well as a reel of 26 gauge Ni200, SS316L and Nichrome, so it can really teach you early on how the different wires act and what they’re capable of doing before you level up into making more intricate coils. It’s a good stepping stone for those that are simply ‘dipping their toe’ into this craft. It also comes in a very handy box that keeps them altogether, although…I have to be honest…the box is a bit of a PITA and once you start to pull the wires out to use them the reels kind of have a tendency to uncoil inside the box - so I started using rubber bands around the reels to prevent this…unfortunately that kinda defeats the object of the box but…whatever…
The Price
The thing I do like about this bundle is that it’s a relatively cheap set to gain the kind of knowledge that can come in useful should you progress your skills, around £2 / $3 per reel so even if you decide that coil making isn’t for you…you’re not gonna break the bank…just £12.70 / $18 for the whole box, find that deal here…
Now for the tools…me likey tools…
The Lowdown
No!..I didn’t know it was a thing either!..The cotton hook (slash coil jig) …this is one of those things where you either need it or you don’t (that makes absolutely no sense at all…). It’s basically a double ended tool …
Easy now…
With a bent pointy …point…on one end for hooking your cotton through your coil…
And a kind of coil jig on the other, now I didn’t/wouldn’t use the coil end because it’s only about 2 /2.5mm wide and I like my coils with a bigger diameter, but it does come in useful for keeping your coils in place whilst you screw them down…
The pointy end however…apart from managing to impale myself several times with it…including my leg…(?)…has come in very useful during some awkward wicking moments…a handy thing to have fo’sho.
The UD Coiul Jig V4…however…is an out and out coil jig…that also doubles up as a screwdriver set! …I FUCKING LOVE THAT SHIT!..Ahem…sorry…easily pleased remember…
Now…it’s a coil jig in every sense of the word but instead of simply supplying 4 different width spindles, the spindles themselves are actually screwdrivers…so cool…
The drivers range from 2mm up to 3.5mm in 0.5mm increments, and the Jig itself has a hole for each…
Now…this kinda Jig won’t be of use to you if you are hoping to neatly coil some large flat trick coils, the hole in the handle isn’t big enough to cope with that, but for the kind of coils you can make with the above UD Wire Box it’s more than adequate, it offers a range of widths and is of a relatively good quality…couple that with the added bonus of having a set of screwdrivers thrown in…and you have yourself a handy little kit that will serve you well and give you an ample amount of chufties to boot.
The Price
As expected, UD products rarely put a strain on your finances and this time is no different. The cotton hook is currently a paltry £3.70 / $5.24 and the Coil Jig V4 is £8.98 / $12.72 …find both those deals here…
OKIE DOKIE!..Finally…we have the pièce de résistance …something that ticks EVERY box for me, and truth be told…the catalyst for this whole review…I was offered this and just thought…well…let’s do an accessory review?..Why the fuck not, people need this shit and so…we whittled my list of 147,572 things down to what we have here today…wellll it was worth a shot…so, from those plucky little tearaways Geekvape, I present to you with an almost giddy childlike excitement… the Geekvape 521 Master Kit V3…
You may well be thinking ‘why are you so excited??..it’s a fucking tool kit??’ well…I’ll tell you why, because ‘Kits’ are my number ONE weakness, I just fucking love anything that comes as a kit…NO…I don’t know why and NO i’m not going to try and explain it OR try and understand it… but if comes as a kit…especially if it’s a tool kit…I’m all over it like a tramp on chips.
The Lowdown
‘Comprehensive’ I think is the best word to describe the Master Kit V3, if you have surpassed my (completely fictional) level 6 assessment and you want a complete set for building, rebuilding, coil making and wicking then look no further because this kit will offer you absolutely everything that you need all tucked away nicely in a very high quality zip case.
A kind of black camo finish hard case affair with orange stitching and zip…all very urban…all very…vapish…and it’s good that Geekvape went down this path when choosing the case to go with something like a tool kit…I mean…we can’t be trusted to choose our own bag for such an occasion…
But more on the case later…
Here’s a list of what you can expect inside…
All the tools are of a very good quality bar the scissors…they’re foldable scissors and I am yet to find a pair of foldable scissors anywhere that aren’t a little bit shit…and these are no different really, they will cut the cotton but they feel a bit flimsy and I much prefer to use my high quality scissors instead but…they will do the job if needed, everything else however…I have absolutely no complaints with and I have been using these tools exclusively for well over a month.
A special mention goes to the precision screwdrivers, I have quite few sets of these but none have quite such a thick handle as these Geekvape screwdrivers, which makes them extremely easy to use for someone with chubby little chipolata sausage fingers such as myself…
But the biggest surprise for me however…was the Geekvape Tab Pro Ohm reader…I should also add…that when I reached this point of putting the review together…some person…who for the purposes of confidentiality shall be known as ‘utter fucking cockwomble’ …managed to smash the screen on my phone and then deny all knowledge…leaving me camera-less for a whole week…so…I have had to pilfer these pictures for the review…anyway…onwards…
I’ve had a handful of Ohm readers but none quite so well made as this little cheeky monkey…not to mention versatile…you see…the Tab Pro has a neat little trick up its sleeve…not only can it Ohm read and test burn…
But if you swivel the 510 round…it can also be used as a backup 50w mod!..
How massively fucking cool is that!..it even has a USB charge socket…
It uses a code system to tell you all manner of fascinating things and the key to this is printed right on the device…which is awesome…because if it was in the manual…I’d obviously never see it and therefore…would never know wtf it was telling me…it also seems to be super accurate when checking the same coils over several mods and my 521…love this thing to death.
Also within the Master kit V3 you’ve even got yourself a dual battery box AND a set of coils AND a strip of cotton, stick some batteries, an RDA or RTA in there and you’ve got yourself the perfect travel rig with enough tools to maintain it on the fly…and then of course…you’ve got the case internals…
This is no thrown together piece of shitty garbage, this is a quality zip case with custom foam inserts and pockets for everything, and it all folds in on itself to keep everything from rattling around…
You almost feel like a spy…or some shit…
Conclusion
Apart from the dodgy scissors I have nothing but good things to say about this kit, it’s got everything you need whether you are a novice or a hobby vaper and all the stuff you get included …again…apart from the scissors…are of a very good quality and I would definitely recommend it to anyone…the only real …‘Oh?’ moment…came when I saw the price…
The Price
£48.69 / $69.00 …I’ll hit you with that right off the bat because when I first saw $69…I winced slightly…but then I weighed it up a bit more…you see the Tab Pro is available separately and priced at $39.99 which leaves just $30 for all the included tools, extra’s, plus the really nicely made zip case…so it’s actually not that bad…Would I pay it?..well if I didn’t have an ohm reader and was looking at buying myself a Tab 521 which is priced around the same as a Tab Pro…I would recommend that you at least take a look at paying the extra and getting this complete kit instead because you certainly get a lot of stuff for the extra £21 / $30…including the added bonus of a backup mod…find that deal here…
Geekvape 521 Master Kit V3 Tools Kit
And there we have it, I hope at least some of these items have given you budding level 6/7 vapers a glimpse at what is available to help you on your journey down this rabbit hole of ours, there is of course a ridiculous amount of choice and it is all too easy to get bogged down with options…
But I have been testing and using these particular items regularly for around 8 weeks now and I feel confident in recommending them to all and sundry. The vape station will become a special place to you, so it’s important that you kit it out with some quality stuff because sooner or later you will be sat there, away from your family and friends, talking to your vast collection of vape gear like it was alive …and you’ll also be broke…and probably mad…but as long as you have your vape station…the world can go eat a big fat bag of dicks.
As always the doors over at Steampugs are open 24/7 so although there are no scores this time round, you will find a plethora of awesome write ups from the Steampugs team who have been incredibly busy just lately, and on top of that there is of course the Steampugs ‘top picks’ shop where you will find bargains galore.
Price code edits! 
Nitecore i8: use code ‘I8’ - 40% off, final price is $29.97.
Vaporesso Energystash Ultrasonic Cleaner: Use code ‘ES’ - 39% off, final price is $28.33.
Geekvape 521 Master Kit V3: use code ‘521’ - 45% off, final price is $37.95.
Until next time
Pugs.
you gotta love doin it coz it will drive you nuts otherwise let me tell ya.
lol 
