Not so long ago I won this little (or perhaps not so little) Ample Mace-X tank from an ELR competition that was hosted by @Heaven_Gifts . I will try to make this review as objective and impartial as possible, but I do have to note that I mostly vape on RDA’s and RTA’s. Sub-ohm tanks with pre-built coils are not in my daily rotation but I will do my best.
First of all I want to thank HeavenGifts for the giveaway, and for the package they sent. Inside the package I received the tank itself, a pack of three extra coils, and a voucher for $5 off on any purchase of a Smok product on buybest.com (if anyone wants this code do let me know, since my hatred toward Smok products is quite famous at this stage (or not (am I using too many parentheses?!?)))
So, let’s get this show on the road!
Mace-X came to me in a neat black box with the photo of the product on the front, and the standard list of contents on the back. The side of the box has the standard scratch-off authentication code as expected.
Extra coils came in a box of their own (boxes, boxes, boxes …) and are individually packaged in shiny tear-off baggies that do remind me a bit of something else.
Inside the big box is the tank itself. With it I got another spare coil, and the bubble glass that will boost the tank capacity from 3.7 to a whopping 5.7ml capacity. As you can see from the photos, the tank that I got is black, and it comes with the nifty plastic orange drip tip.
Underneath the tank I was pleasantly surprised to find an additional drip tip which wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the contents. There is also the bag with extra o-rings, and the English user manual.
Time to get technical!
Let’s pile up some useless information. The base of the tank is exactly 24mm wide. Without the 510 connector and the drip tip, the tank is exactly 42.4mm tall, and with the drip tip inserted, the height is boosted to 50.6mm. The bubble glass (which I use) is 27.7mm wide, and the straight glass is 24.7mm. I would put this in a nice table, but since I already classified this as useless information, let’s move on.
The coils that come with the tank are a very interesting design, and remind me of that certain Vandy Vape RDA. All five coils I got in the package have the same resistance of 0.27ohm and are rated for anywhere between 35w-90w (50W-75W being the recommended range). The way the coil is built, there seems to be a huge amount of cotton underneath it (and this definitely helps when vaping, but let’s address this a bit later)
Overall, the tank is very well built from solid stainless steel. Machining on the 510 threads is near perfect, and all seals with the glass are very tight. When unscrewed, the glass will stay tightly on the top part of the tank, and needs a little bit of wiggle to be taken off. Top cap threads are top notch and never gave me issues whether opening or closing. 510 pin is gold plated, which is always nice to have. The drip tip on the other hand is very loose and can probably be easily knocked off the tank (better watch out with it).
Mace-X sports top airflow, and the airflow ring will rotate endlessly (if you like stoppers on airflow you will be disappointed here). Both airflow openings are of course synchronized, and what ever is set on one side, will be mirrored on the other side. The airflow control can easily be taken off the tank (no idea why would anyone do this tho) when the tank is open for refills. Bottom portion of the tank has absolutely no openings, and needless to say, this tank will never leak from the bottom (unless you are Adary, and you manage to unscrew the tank instead of removing it from the mod)
So how does it vape??
Before putting everything together I ‘primed’ the coil with 1ml of juice (yes, one whole milliliter of juice) and absolutely all of it was absorbed by the coil. I screwed it all in, filled the tank to the brim, set my mod for 50w and took the first puff (and this is where I think I should have turned left in Albuquerque). Let me put this mildly, I was very disappointed with that first puff. There was the huge cloud I expected, but there was almost no flavor in it. Of course, at this stage the coil still wasn’t broken in, and I was at the lowest part of the recommended range.
Few puffs and 20W later, taste started to appear, and after about one quarter of the tank it was finally there. 70W seems to be the sweet spot for the flavor on this one. Taking it higher than that didn’t give any more flavor. Seven tanks later (39.9ml of juice later for those of you who want more precision) the flavor is still there, and it’s still going strong. I definitely can’t say that the flavor is as good as I would get it in my RTA or RDA’s, but is surprisingly good for a sub-ohm tank. The clouds on the other hand are huge and will satisfy most cloud chasers out there (that is cloud chasers who choose to use a tank)
Remember how I said that the coil itself absorbed one whole milliliter of juice? On one hand this is a very good thing, but on the other hand, it can be sort of not so good (I just don’t want to say bad). Even when the tank is completely empty, you won’t get a dry hit. I managed to get at least 20 puffs of it with an empty tank before it started to taste burnt, and this is great. If you want to switch flavors in the tank though, you will have a very long period of mixed tastes (and I can tell you, custard doesn’t mix that well with pink lemonade).
The good, the bad and the ugly!
Let’s try to make some sense of this whole exercise
The tank:
- 24mm base
- 50.6mm overall height
- 3.7ml/5.7ml juice capacity
- Top airflow
- Available colors: Stainless, Black, Blue
Pros:
- No leaks
- Surprisingly good flavor for sub-ohm
- Stainless Steel construction and good machining
- Large juice capacity
- No dry hits
Cons:
- Loose fit on the drip tip
- Proprietary coils
- Too much juice in the coil for flavor swaps
Some thoughts for the end!
I have to say that Mace-X left a pretty good impression. It’s a very solid sub-ohm tank, and would be ideal for cloud chasers who want very little hassle with their gear. The flavor can easily be classified as ‘above average’ for a sub-ohm tank.
Would I replace it if it get lost or broken? Probably not, but that is just me (remember how I said I prefer RTA’s and RDA’s?).
Would I recommend it? Definitely yes to everyone who is into sub-ohm tanks.
You can get one today at HeavenGifts: https://www.heavengifts.com/product/Ample-Mace-X-Tank.html
