Introduction
Hey y'all,
Today I'll be talking about the Smoant Pasito. I don't know their meaning behind using that name, but it means "little step" in Spanish as a bit of trivia for you. And anytime I say it out loud I get "Despacito" stuck in my head, so thanks for that Smoant, hahaha.
Anyways, this is a feature packed little pod system, and one with features that a lot of people have been asking for. Rebuildable coil option? Check. USB-C? Check. MTL and DTL options? Check. Mesh coil? Check. Variable Wattage? Check-ish, with 5 different settings. Top-to-bottom leak resistant airflow? I can't really recall anyone asking for it, but also check. So, this pod has a lot of promises and hype to live up to. Without further ado, let's jump into the review and see how it turned out.
Disclaimer: This product was provided to me by the manufacturer, Smoant. I have been using the product for around 2 and a half weeks.
Reviewer Disclaimer: I have been vaping for about 5 years now. I primarily use RDAs and regulated mods, mostly using DNA devices as I prefer vaping in TC mode. I vary between tight MTL vaping and extremely loose DTL vaping, with several steps in between, throughout the day and feel that I have a pretty good feel for most vaping styles.
I started doing reviews on products that I had purchased myself just because I had them and wanted to get some more honest reviews out there, and that is still very important to me, though I have done some sponsored reviews now. I try to lay out what I find good and what I find bad to help people make more informed decision, and what situations the product in question would be good for and what situations it would be poor for. If the product just sucks or is overpriced, I'll say so.
Full Photo Album
What's in the Box?
Manufacturer's Specs
- Size: H 84mm * W 38mm * D 16mm
- Material: Space Aluminum
- Surface Painting: oxidation + sandblasting + CPR patch
- Cartridge Material: Food grade PTFE
- Wattage: 10-25W, 5 speed Variable Watts
- Lung sunction coil: 0.6Ω, mesh coil, use between 20 and 25 watts
- Mouth suction coil: 1.4Ω, nichrome coil, suitable between 13 and 16 watts
- RTA Coil: suitable for ordinary coil 1mm or less, single coil
- Resistance Range: 0.3Ω-0.6
- Charging: 5V, 1A, charging port, USB-C
- Battery capacity: 1100 mAh.
Contents
- Pasito Kit
- Type C USB cables
- Coils
- User Manual
- Certificate care
- Warranty care
Packaging
The Pasito comes in a nice looking package. On the front you have the name of the device and a picture of it. And, unlike most boxes the picture is actually a picture of the color of the device the box contains. On the back is a list of contents, manufacturer info, and authenticity code.
On the right side of the front you'll see a flap secured by magnets. Open it up and you'll be wished a good day (honestly I think this is cheesy but kinda funny) and see another set of flaps with the artwork on the front of the device. By pulling on the "Smoant" tab, you finally reveal the device, sitting in a foam tray next to box holding your starter coils and a USB-C cable. On the inside of the flaps you'll see the manual. On the left you'll see how to install a coil, on the right you'll see a schematic and more detailed specs. Here's a closer look at the extras and warranty/QC cards.
I normally don't really care that much about packaging. I always describe it because it's the first part of the experience of using the device, but it's mostly the same thing with different colors or slightly different materials. This is different. This is really nice. Opening the final set of flaps to reveal the device made it feel like opening a present. The fact that it actually shows you a picture of what your device looks like is also nice. I do have one con here, though. I really wish that the manual had information on how to turn on and operate the device. Sure, it may seem easy for those of us who have already used a vaporizer and know that 5 clicks turns it on, hitting the small button adjusts output, and hitting the big button fires. But a new user might not know that, so I'd have preferred to see a more detailed manual.
Aesthetics & Build Quality
Colors
There are four colors available, Classical Red, Bronze Blue, Carbon Black, and Gun-Metal. They each have a panel of digital art on the front and the back and a matching drip tip. The color describes the aluminum body and the general color theme of the art.
I received the Bronze Blue and that is what is shown in the pictures.
Battery
The front of the device has two panels displaying the artwork, separated by a piece of the body. The top part is the display, it's 5 LEDs that shine through a semi-transparent image. "Smoant" is also written in white on the body here along with "Pasito" in silver type on the bottom.
The left side of the device has the fire button about halfway up, the smaller adjustment button below it, and the USB-C port and an access screw below that. The top half curves in and forms a kind of indention as it meets the pod. The right side is of the same design, but only has an access screw. And the back looks like the front except the image is not divided and there's no branding. The bottom has four more access screws and twenty-five little vent holes, as well as white lettering identifying the "Ant Chip" and "Don't Trash" and "CE" logos.
On the top, under where the pod goes, you can see two contacts, a little magnet, and a big magnet. The magnets, understandably, secure the pod in. They hold it in tight and you have to give the pod a little pull to remove it. The contacts are where the coil holder on the pod connects to the device and where electricity is sent through.
By my measurements I observed it to be 102mm tall with the drip tip, and 82mm tall without. The Pasito measures 36mm wide and 16mm deep. These measurements might be off by a little bit as they were taken with a ruler and not a caliper.
Pod Section
The pod is made of a dark-tinted plastic. On the top is a metal section that holds the drip tip. Removing the metal part reveals the fill hole. It's smaller in use than shown here, since the coil chimney restricts some space. There should still be plenty of space for any type of bottle, though needle tips work the best. The tank holds about 3ml, but that also varies depending on the coil as they take up different volumes.
The drip tip can be removed from the metal piece. The inner bore is about 7mm, so it might be able to fit Orion drip tips. The metal piece has two o-rings on the section that holds the drip tip and one around the section that screws into the pod. On the section that screws in there are two flat planes, which allow displaced air to be released when screwing it back in after filling. This reduces fill pressure and the potential for flooding the coil.
The airflow control is on the top of the pod, opposite the drip tip. It adjusts easily and mostly stays in place, but it can get opened or closed in your pocket. Looking at the side of the pod you can see where the air flows down the side and under the tank to go into the coil. The adjustment does make a difference, ranging from a decently tight MTL to a restricted DTL.
The bottom of the pod shows you the gold coil holder and connection and the two magnets. Looking at the magnets, you can also see a small plastic shield to provide a little bit of leak protection. The coil holder has two indentations on it's base that allows you to easily grip it with your nails and remove it.
Coils
The coil holder has two slots in it to allow airflow and a vertical section with three o-rings, one that sits between the airflow channel and the bottom of the pod and two that separate the airflow channel from the tank.
There are two coils that come with the kit, the 1.4Ω nichrome MTL coil and 0.6Ω mesh DTL coil. These are labeled as such and the MTL coil is skinnier. The juice holes are about the same on both, and wick best with 70/30 juice. The coils screw into the coil holder and then you pop it into the pod.
There is also an RBA section that is sold separately. The RBA kit comes with the RBA coil and a 510 adapter to allow you to read the ohms and dry fire it outside of the pod. Removing the cap on the RBA reveals what is about an 11mm build deck. Instead of the normal post design of opposing holes, the holes on this deck are pointed to the side. This does make it a bit harder to build than normal, but not outrageously so. With round wire you can just thread the leads through and pull them tight, however you should precut and bend the legs on any fancy coils.
This odd post design does have an upside, however. It allows the leads to be far enough apart to not squish the coil and uses the least amount of post that is needed to do that. The posts could be angled in such a way that they would actually be offset from each other, but it would be a little more difficult to center the coil this way.
In between the posts is the hole for the bottom airflow. On the sides are the wicking ports. These look pretty large, but that's only because the deck is so small. These end in slits at the bottom that are exposed when the cap is closed.
Overall Thoughts on Aesthetics & Build Quality
The indentions on the side make this comfortable to hold. And it is very light. The coloring on the aluminum has held up well to a couple of drops, but the lettering on "Ant Chip" has halfway worn away.
The artwork on the panels has also held up really well, still looking bright and scratch free. It doesn't remain fingerprint free like they claim, however it doesn't hold fingerprints super well unless you try to leave a finger print mark.
The pod section has a couple of design decisions I don't like, but more that I do. The dark color makes it hard to see the juice level when it is dark outside. It also gets scuffed very easily, which makes it even harder to see through. Especially when you try to shine a light on it when it is too dark to tell the juice level.
What I do like is that everything that you need to grab either has knurling or grooves to help get a hand on them. The airflow construction has prevented any leaking from occuring to my unit. The coil changing method is fairly quick, and since you can rest the pod on its side you can change the coil without spilling juice if it's 2/3rds full or less. The cutouts to reduce fill pressure are a very nice design choice.
I also like the RBA deck. It's small and looks unweildy, but isn't hard to use in practice. I'd have preferred it to come with the device, but at least it's available
Teardown
This device is really easy to take apart. Most Smoant devices tend to be, and I'm glad they did that with this pod so we can get a look at the internals. First you remove the screws on each side and on the bottom. Then you can push down on the top of the device where the pod goes and push the tray containing the internals out, which also causes the buttons to come loose.
Here is a picture of the circuit board. Nice construction, what looks to be a shiny conformal coating, and rubber gaskets that seal the buttons from juice infiltration there is a ribbon that goes over to the LED display. Here you can see the battery, which is held in place with what looks like white silicone sealer. I don't know what it is, but it is labeled as 4.06wh which means that it is an 1100 mAh battery. The soldering also looks nice back here.
Overall a really well put together device. What I've seen here and in the rest of the device makes it apparent, to me at least, that leak prevention and mitigation was very important during the design. This is really nice to see in a mass produced device.
Operation & Performance
Operation
Five clicks of the fire button powers the device on or off, and causes all five LEDs to illuminate. The adjustment button cycles through the 5 wattage settings, ranging from 1 light for 10 watts, 2 for 13 watts, 3 for 16 watts, 4 for 20 watts, and 5 for 25 watts. Clicking the adjustment button once displays the current level, while subsequent clicks adjust it up. Firing the device displays the current battery level by illuminating the corresponding lights, with each representing a range of 20%. This battery meter has been accurate in my experience, and is a lot better than the normal indicators on pod systems.
The 1100 mAh battery is enough to just make it through the day on 25 watts (5 lights), and about 2 days on 13 watts (2 lights). It charges in about an hour, consistent with it's 1 amp charging limit.
Performance
So, all of that's nice, but it doesn't count for anything if the device doesn't perform well.
The MTL coil is rated for 10-13 watts, so the levels 1 and 2 I found it best at level 2, but if you like a cooler vapor you might like it better at 1. For this I got the best draw and performance with the airflow cut down so that the opening in the airflow slit was roughly a square. Flavor off of these coils was nothing special, but still enjoyable. The flavor dropped off pretty steeply after the 6th pod, or around 18mls, which is right around decently average coil life.
The DTL coil is rated for 20-25 watts (levels 4 and 5), again I found it best at the higher setting but with the air wide open this time. Flavor was even better on this coil. I haven't used a Caliburn to compare it to, but it is quite flavorful. Currently I'm over 7 refills, or 21 mls, and it's still going pretty strong. I did get a little flooding and spitting with this coil, but it's been about 70% humidity and in the mid-80s here, so that may have something to do with it.
Finally the RBA. First I tried a 1.5mm 7 wrap coil with 28ga SS316L, coming out to 0.6Ω. This made for a nice MTL coil using the second wattage setting. Wicking was pretty easy with this one, just fluffing out the leads and stuffing them into the wicking holes, then fluffing the parts sticking out of the slits a little more. I also used this 2.5mm 4 wrap 28*2+36ga SS316L fused clapton for a restricted DTL build on the top wattage setting. The wicking on this one needed to be trimmed down a bit otherwise it led to dry hits. From this it looks like the best diameter for wicking would be 2mm. About the biggest coil you could put in here would be a 3mm coil if you use small guage wire, but I definitely recommend staying at 2.5mm or under as it will be a very tight fit. The low end of the resistance range also may not be a hard stop, that Clapton measured 0.26 on my Therion and still worked fine in the Pasito. Overall I'm really happy with the RBA section.
The power adjustment also works really well. You can tell a definite difference between levels, and it fires at a consistent level up until you get a low battery warning, even on the higher settings and with lower resistance coils.
Conclusion
Pros
- Enjoyable flavor with prebuilt coil options
- Rebuildable
- Decent coil life
- Leak resistant design
- Comfortable and easy to use
- Well assembled
- Good battery life
- Good range of wattage
- Nice filling design
- Very good price point ($29-$37 for the kit, $8-$12 for a replacement pod, $5-$12 for either a 3 pack of pods or the RBA)
Cons
- Rebuildable section sold separately
- RBA deck is obtuse and will be difficult for new builders
- Pod is too dark to easily see the juice level
- Pod gets scratched easily
- Manual leaves out information a beginner might need
Final Thoughts
Overall this device left a good impression, and I'll definitely be using it after posting this review. Like I said before, it ticks a lot of boxes and does them well.
Coil life and flavor are decent. The RBA deck is not the easiest, but you do get used to it quickly and the performance on it is good. It definitely looks worse to use than it actually is to use.
The device is also put together and designed very well, with the exception of not being able to see the juice level easily. Leak resistance seems to be a major factor in the design and they succeeded on that front.
In conclusion, while the Pasito isn't flawless, it's well made and offers at least decent performance at an affordable price point. And has a USB-C port. And it's rebuildable. If you've been waiting for a rebuildable pod then you should definitely take a hard look at it. If you're a new user then there could be some better options, but this definitely isn't a bad one if you want something with a bit more adjustability than a more standard pod system.
Hope y'all enjoyed the review, I'll see you next time and around the sub! And good luck!
Submitted July 02, 2019 at 09:26PM by Jwiley92 https://ift.tt/304Xxrr
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