I received the Vapor Storm Trip 200W from Heaven Gifts as a prize in one of their competitions, and here are my thoughts on what Vapor Storm tout as the smallest dual 18650 mod in the vaping world. As the design is reminiscent of a suitcase, the designer decided to call it the Trip.
The box is pretty bland but serves the purpose, and contains the Trip, a charging cable, manual, warranty, and the usual warning cards.
I received the Red version of the Trip, however it is also available in Black, Silver and Blue, which all have an aesthetically pleasing satin finish.
The Trip is manufactured out of CNC cut Aerometal and PC, which all helps to make this mod very light. Without batteries it weighs in at 90g, and with 2 x 18650’s installed came out at 177g, which is very acceptable.
It is pretty small, 85mm high, 27mm thick and 51mm wide, which is smaller than any dual 18650 battery Mod that I have at present, and it fits in my pocket just fine.
The centrally located 510 connector is held on by 3 screws, not press fit, and accommodates a 24mm atomiser perfectly, anything more than that will start to overhang.
The build quality is very good and there is no movement in the battery door, or any other bits, barring a slight rattle from the buttons when you touch them, which are also aluminium, this however was barely noticeable, but needs to be mentioned as it may bother some people. As the battery door is thin aluminium it does sound a little tinny if you want to be pedantic.
The Trip fits in the hand very well, and the vertical ribs aid in ensuring a firm grip. The wording on the casing, VSTORM and TRIP, are discreet and are well placed. Overall a well-designed Mod
The Trip features a 0.91inch OLED screen which is clear and easily read, with the fire button above and the + and – buttons below, which is pretty standard, all work well, with a satisfying click.
The battery cover is held on by the use of two magnets, that hold the cover on very well with no movement or rattles.
Batteries are easy to insert and remove, and are well marked for positive and negative ends. The battery status bars on the screen do not drop evenly, with the one on the right dropping a bar before the left one, however removing the batteries and testing them showed the batteries at exactly the same charge state, so this is no doubt an anomaly of this device. Interestingly the pictures on the Vapor Storm website also show the Trip with uneven battery bars, it must just be a thing with the chip. This is indicated in the picture of the screen, above.
The manual is all in English, and is very well written, and thorough. I found it easy to follow and had no trouble setting up the Trip in all it’s configurations.
All the usual modes are available Wattage, Bypass, SS316, Ni200, Ti101 and CCW M1 and M2 for you to decide for yourself. (Apparently bypass mode will allow you to push this device to 230W should you so wish.)
Press the + and – buttons together to access the menu, then scroll through the various options using the +/- buttons, in TC mode, click the fire button to move on to your wattage selection, click again to access the TCR setting for your wire, click +/- to set this, and you’re good to go. The user manual describes the process very well.
Performance
I have tested this mod using a variety of different atomisers, such as the Profile and Profile Unity, Doom and Kylin M (all with SS316L mesh), Dead Rabbit, Drop and drop Dead (with fancy builds) to the Aromamizer V2, Innokin Ares and Doggystyle 2016 (with simple round wire coils) as well as a Nautilus Mini, and I’m pleased to say that the Trip works flawlessly on all of them.
In wattage mode this mod performs very well, although I found that I had to reduce wattage compared to other mods. This thing hits like a train!
In TC mode it works as expected, but I also noted here that I had to reduce the wattage to achieve the same result that I am used to on other TC devices. The one odd thing to note, is that in TC I was not able to reduce the wattage to less than 30W, which is what I wanted to do for MTL attys running SS coils, the use of wattage mode becomes necessary for this type of coil.
I did write to Vapor Storm on this, but have not had any response at all, which in itself is rather disappointing.
My thoughts
I am pleasantly surprised by this offering from Vapor Storm, it is a well-made device that not only looks good, but also performs very well.
It is a light, portable yet powerful performer that I am happy to recommend.
Yes, there are a couple of minor niggles.
The battery readings on the screen falling unevenly
The rattily buttons
The limitation of a minimum 30W in TC mode, making it unsuitable for MTL devices with higher ohm SS etc. coils that could be run in TC
However, the positives far outweigh any niggles, which are in themselves really not deal breakers, unless you are a bit OCD.
Thank you for taking the time to read my review, and should you be intrigued enough, the Vapor Storm Trip is available from Heaven Gifts for $44.47
https://www.heavengifts.com/product/Vapor-Storm-Trip-Mod.html
