Wismec Reuleaux Tinker 300w Kit
I have some friends (lies) that have a whole section of their bedroom, or in more affluent cases…their ‘dressing room’…dedicated to their trainer collection, that’s ‘sneaker’ to you guys over the pond…although I find the term a bit unnerving…I mean we call them trainers because we train in them…what is it that you do in them exactly??..Hmm…best not pull at that thread, regardless, it’s something that I myself do have a ‘semi’ obsession with…not to be confused with an obsession with ‘semi’s’…that would be weird, but trainers…or indeed footwear in general, are the source of many a heated debate between myself and my better half…“YOU ONLY HAVE TWO FEET?!?” she would scream at me whilst out grocery shopping when I inadvertently ‘nip off’ only to emerge mere seconds later from a menswear shop doorway like a sprightly Gazelle spouting phrases such as “I’m sorry…but you don’t choose the shoes my love…the shoes choose you!”…
“I’m pretty sure that’s dogs” she’ll reply…but I’ll ignore it, whilst I mince off down the street staring at my feet, banging into other pedestrians like a pinball…and I know…this happens more than it should, but I’m weak in the ways of the retail, and as it turns out…children can go much further between meals than you realise, seriously…I haven’t lost one yet…so I must be doing something right…and in my own defence, my Mrs was made well aware of my problem with trainers when we first met…
I just feel there are some things you need to get super straight from the get-go you know…
Anyways…why in the fuck am I talking about trainers in a vape review you might well…and justifiably…ask, well…we’ll come to that during what is possibly one of the most bizzare things I have ever had to review…shoe wouldn’t believe it (seriously?) …I’m not even sorry.
…
Welcome back my sneaky steam sucking psychopaths, I trust I find you all well rested and several pounds heavier after last years festivities, or is that just me?..I think several pounds is sugar coating the shit out it to be fair, but a wonderful time was had by all…apart from maybe my cholesterol level…and possibly my liver…but everything else is feeling great and ready to get back to this business we call vape…business…(?). What better way to kick off a new year than vaping on a shoe…well not an actual shoe obviously, you wouldn’t want to vape anything that’s been on one of my middle aged manky Hobbit feet for more than a few seconds let me tell you, but instead…something that has actually been designed around one of these…
Specifically…a Nike Air Jordan 3, not my cup of tea in the slightest. I would even go as far as to say that that is one fugly fucking Trainer/Hi-top/Basketball boot…whatever you wanna call it…You see, these things were nowhere nearly as popular in the UK as they were/are in the US so…I’m not judging any fans of them, we just tend to be a little more …
When it comes to footwear…if you catch my drift…
So…let us indeed…crack the fuck on so that you can see what the hell I am waffling on about…courtesy of my friend Ema over at Sourcemore, I present to you, the Wismec Reuleaux Tinker Kit with Column Sub-Ohm Tank.
Now…like I said earlier, the whole USP regarding the Tinker Kit is the fact that it’s modelled on the Nike Air Jordan 3…such an odd choice, but I can only guess that someone at Wismec is a hardcore sneaker-head. Even the name ‘Tinker’ is lifted from the designer of the Air Jordan 3, one Mr Tinker Hatfield, and I say ‘lifted’…because in typical China fashion…you aint finding any official Nike endorsements anywhere…the whole idea…is basically ‘lifted’…ooooh Wismec…you little Tinker you.
The Lowdown (Tinker Mod)
We’ll start with the mod itself. The Tinker mod is a triple 18650 device that can reach up to an over exuberant 300w, offering every kind of setting to suit every kind of Vaper, and all kept in check by Wismec’s proprietary Avatar chip. The chip itself seems to do what it is supposed to do, I genuinely have little experience with it, but it’s navigated easily enough without the need to refer to the manual, all of which is displayed on it’s 0.96 inch OLED screen…
The display looks nice enough albeit relatively small and the screen is kinda low resolution by today’s standards, but it does the job and holds few surprises in the process, except for one…massive…pain in the ass. On most mods, when you’re turning up the old giggle gauge it tends to speed up the longer you have your finger on the button…not this time, it has one speed, so if you want to take this up to its max 300w…it’s actually painfully slow, even with 1w increments it takes fucking ages, and to top it off…it doesn’t even round robin…HUGE…ball drop for Wismec there, I really, REALLY hope they release a firmware update to tackle this, BAD Wismec…NAUGHTY Wismec!..
I find this a truly unfathomable mistake for such a huge company, almost unforgivable, it’s almost as if it hasn’t been tested by…well…anyone…prior to being released, which I find really odd.
Moving on…
Up on top we have the super sturdy 510 and at first glance you would be forgiven for shouting “WHY DON’T WISMEC EVER LISTEN?!?”
Because once again it’s located in such a position that 25mm tops is all she wrote, and this has always been a huge bugbear with Wismec. They make super-powerful devices that can only accept smaller tops without overhang. However, there is one slight difference with the Tinker compared to Wismec’s previous efforts, and that is…it’s a stumpy little bugger. It’s actually a whole centimetre shorter than the old Reuleaux RX 2/3, so you can’t really move that 510 back any further, because if you did then it would infringe into the battery bay…so…you sacrifice one for the other. Personally?..I think 5mm can be worked out during the design stage without too much detriment to the device. It’s 300w for fucks sake, let it at least have the option of taking a 30mm top to utilise all that power and do something magical with a pair of mahoosive ‘fuck physics and the horse it rode in on’ trick coils.
And speaking of the battery compartment, this time around Wismec have opted for a bottom battery door instead of their usual removable back plate. I raised an eyebrow when I first saw this, I was kind of a fan of the magnetic back plate, but this is actually done really well…
The door is firm with very little play even when it’s sprung open, it locks really well…and something that is a huge plus for me is the super-clear battery markings, on the door AND in the tube…can’t love that enough.
Down the face of the Tinker we have the very large square fire button, both function buttons and the micro USB socket for firmware upgrades.
The fire button is shaped so that it curves out towards the bottom lending itself very well to your finger or thumb, and all buttons are very much in the ‘Goldilocks’ zone when it comes to clickety clickiness…this is good…and pleases me muchly.
But that’s all the standard gubbins out of the way, what the Tinker is really all about…is design.
It’s an odd fish for sure. It certainly distinguishes itself against any other device on the market…
It has ergonomic curves running down each side which…on the surface…leave you thinking ‘actually…I bet that’s really comfortable in the hand’…and it is…if all you’re doing is holding it. But we don’t really walk around holding a mod…just for holding its sake, the truth is, these ergonomics make absolutely no sense at all once you come to actually use the Tinker, something hard to explain, but if you held one you’d understand. Regardless of this, it is still one of the comfier triple battery devices on the market due to its relative compactness and well rounded physique; it’s a scientific fact that good things come in fat and stumpy packages, just ask my fiance…
The mod itself is surprisingly light for a triple battery device, which is a good thing because once the batteries are inserted these things can get pretty hefty. I’m not actually sure what it’s made of, could be an alloy of some sort and I don’t think there’s any plastic, but I’m not gonna break it down to find out.
As well as the black and white ‘Air Jordan’ style vinyl wrap, it also has a very grippy ‘rubberised’ plate bolted onto the back…
I like this, it does its job well and offers very nice grip right where you need it to be…it also looks pretty cool.
All in all, as a triple battery devices go it’s actually made really well. It feels solid, it offers good…if not slightly confusing handfeel, and everything works as well as it should. If it wasn’t for the garish design and colour options…
I’d say it was a really good triple battery device…it’s all personal preference and completely subjective when it comes to the appearance though.
The Lowdown (Column Sub-Ohm Mesh Tank)
Within the Tinker kit you do of course get a complimentary matching sub-ohm tank, and this time it is the turn of Wismec’s new Column tank.
It’s a 25mm base going up to 28mm around it’s chubby midriff and has a bottom AFC. It also has a very impressive 6.5ml glass bubble tank…it’s a bit of a beast it has to be said, and knurling…oooh we love knurling, and this thing has it for days. I’m also a big fan of the transparent blue 810 drip tip.
It looks very substantial, if not a bit dated, but then the whole kit is modelled on a shoe that was released in 1988 so you’d kind of expect it to be.
The bottom AFC ring which is open on both sides provides…a quite frankly…enormous amount of airflow straight through and up into the coil. It also locks either side so you won’t spend your precious minutes rotating the thing to find your sweet spot, and it’s so deeply ridged you won’t struggle trying to get to grips with it either, but even I, whilst tending to gravitate towards more airy devices, have to close it halfway to put the brakes on the sheer amount of air this thing can draw.
The coil that comes pre-installed is of course the now industry standard mesh coil, fucking huge too because that knurled chimney you can see is actually part of the coil…and not the tank. However this brings yet another eyebrow raising question which will piss a lot of people off…especially when you think that this is a brand new product. Why would it piss people off?..Well…how many Sub-Ohm tanks do you know of these days that don’t offer the option of being able to change the coil without draining the tank…?..that’s right, you unscrew the base on the Column tank to remove the coil and you’re gonna dump any remaining liquid straight out through the drip tip. Why they couldn’t make the internal chimney part of the tank instead of part of the coil to alleviate this problem…is beyond me.
And to add salt to this festering wound…as far as mesh coils go…it’s not the best. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still far superior to any standard non-mesh coils of yesteryear, but there are definitely better mesh coils out there today, and as far as I am aware…you can’t fit anyone else’s coils in the Column tank. It does it’s job though, the flavour is good just not as good as others.
And then to add vinegar to this already salty sore…the top fill system, which I used to actually kinda dig on Wismec’s tanks, is also…a bit shit…
It’s almost as if the Column tank has completely ignored the evolution of today’s devices. I mean this idea was good a few years ago, with it’s sliding top revealing a single fill hole made for 10ml needle point bottles that were so popular a few years back, but these days tanks tend to have 2 larger kidney shaped fill holes - and the reason for 2 is so that the air can escape out of one when it’s being pushed out due to you filling the empty space with liquid. This singular hole really isn’t big enough, so you will find that at times when you are filling the Column tank, the liquid will create its own seal, and will bubble the liquid out again creating…yet another almighty mess. It’s not impossible by any means, but it’s a pain in the dick when it happens…which it will.
The Specs
Parameters:
Mod Size 445678.3mm
Battery Type 3x18650 Cells (discharging current should be above 25A, not included)
Output Wattage 1-300W
Screen 0.96-inch TFT color screen
Resistance Range 0.05-1.5ohm for TC modes
0.05-3.5ohm for VW mode
Temperature Range 100-315℃/200-600℉ (TC modes)
Maximum Charging Current 2A
Maximum Output Current 50A
Output Voltage Range 0.5-8V
Output Mode VW/TC-Ni/TC-Ti/TC-SS/TCR mode
Tank Size 28x54mm
E-jucie Capacity 6.5ml
Coil Type WL01 0.15ohm head (30-100W)
Thread Type 510 spring loaded connector
FEATURES
Details:
- Inspired by the AJ sneakers
- Triple 185650 cells with 300W max output
- Full-color display with user-friendly interface
- New WL01 0.15ohm coil for huge vapor and optimal flavor
- Upgradeable firmware with preheat function
- Retractable top refill and bottom airflow control system
PACKAGE CONTENTS
It comes with:
●1 x Reuleaux Tinker Mod (no cells)
●1 x Column Atomizer (WL01 Single 0.15ohm Head Pre-installed)
●1 x WL01 Single 0.15ohm Head
●1 x QC USB Cable
●2 x User Manual
●1 x Warning Card
●Spare Parts
Final thoughts
Sooo many final thoughts on the Wismec Reuleaux Tinker 300w Kit. Firstly…and I think…most importantly…I really can’t work out who this kit is aimed towards…I mean there aren’t that many triple battery devices on the market, mainly down to the obvious drawback of sheer bulkiness they offer. Vaping was born from the need to replace smoking, and smoking is an utterly portable habit - you needed your coffin nails on your whereabouts at all times…you didn’t see many people carrying around a sleeve of cigarettes with them did you?..unless maybe you’re Charlie Sheen…
Which thankfully… none of us are…#winning
What a triple battery tends to be is a desktop mod, or maybe a car mod, but not really a carry around mod, so there’s your demographic slashed by quite a fraction…people like portable.
Next you have the design, I’m all for ‘different’…thinking outside the box and taking a risk on something creative and ‘artsy’ is right up my street, love that shit. But…from a business point of view, you’re either gonna be a die hard sneaker-head who recognises the nod towards a classic retro sports shoe that you utterly love from the eighties, or you just have a soft spot for eighties culture in general…and on both of those counts…you would also have to vape too…demographic massively slashed once again.
You could of course just really dig the appearance, be a lifelong Wismec fan, and be on the lookout for an outlandish looking triple battery desktop mod at a time when battery advancement has caused dual 21700 battery devices to almost catch up with the kind of performance a triple 18650 used to do…but I’m not totally convinced that would be a large pool of revenue either…if one at all, I mean Wismec aren’t that far behind Smok when it comes to scorned ex-customers…just sayin.
Too bitchy?..meh.
Then there’s the Column tank that comes with the kit, I really don’t see anything in the way of innovation here, I mean it’s nice that it houses 6.5ml of liquid, but it’s a backward step in evolution when you compare it to the latest wave of mesh coil Sub-Ohm tanks on the market, it’s just not as good, end of story…so I don’t fully understand why we need it?Sure it works fine, and you won’t find a better tank to matchy matchy your Tinker if you buy one, but if you’ve tried a few of the newer mesh coil tanks…then my guess is that you will be underwhelmed at best.
Now I may sound like I just trashed the whole thing, but if you’re a beginner and you want silly-long battery life plodding along at 80w then…it’s a good kit. The mod appears to work very well from my experience, I mean I’ve had it sat on my bedside table all over Christmas, used it every day, I’ve even taken it in the car with me on a few longer trips, and it’s performed great. I genuinely have no complaints with the Tinker mod’s performance at all…as far as wattage mode goes anyway - I really can’t comment on the TC…but the tank lets it down in kit form, and the appearance is just too …‘specific’.
Which leads me to my final gripe with the whole thing…I get that it’s modelled on a classic retro sports shoe, but just because the Air Jordan 3 was expensive…there’s absolutely no reason to follow suit with the Tinker kit.
The Price
At release, full blown retail on the Tinker kit was…I shit you not…$120/£94…
No…I’m being super cereal. Thankfully for us, the consumers, almost all suppliers have drastically slashed a knife straight through this massive pile of bullshit to a more palatable $75/£59. I can only imagine, seeing how Wismec themselves are still touting the full retail price…that this is down to underwhelming release sales, because that price…IS fucking mental.
Find the discounted price over at Sourcemore here…
Wismec Reuleaux Tinker 300w Kit - Sourcemore dicounted price with free shipping.
£60 for a full triple battery device that covers all the bases actually isn’t bad, and both the Tinker and the Column tank are available separately. My advice?..Find a 25mm Blue RDA and try the Tinker mod…IF…you really dig the appearance.
A confusing set up for sure, and If I had to sum it up, I’d say the Tinker?..
As ever, the doors at Steampugs HQ are open 24/7, so feel free to peruse all the fabulous reviews from the fabulous Steamteam, and while you’re there take gander around the Steampugs Shop where you will find a handpicked list of highly discounted vape gear, and also if you would like to come and meet the Steamteam to see where we talk this kind of nonsense on a daily basis then head on over to our little corner of the universe that we like to call The Vaping Community Forum, where you will find the welcome warm and utterly drama free, so come and say hello …I promise at least some of us don’t bite…
Until Next time
Pugs.
thanks 
…asking for a friend 
thanks for that 
