Box Mods and Sub-Ohm Tanks – Dave’s Favorites

I’ve been asked to write about the box mods and sub-ohm tanks I use every day. This should be a lot of fun, but I must say upfront that I don’t get to use nearly as much hardware as the reviewers do.  I sorta depend on their reviews myself. You see, as the editor, I ‘edit’ every review that’s ever been published in Spinfuel VAPE, going all the way back to February 2012. The real difference, I don’t get my vape gear at wholesale, I pay full retail.

How I Narrow the Playing Field of Possible Purchases

First, I go about choosing vape gear by choosing the sub-ohm tanks first, then I decide on the box mod that would bring out the best performance of that tank.

I get to read the opinions of the writing staff before they are published and I always had the opportunity to pick their brain before, and after, their review is published. When it comes to learning about box mods, sub-ohm tanks, and even vape juice, I get a pretty good head start before having to spend a dime. That’s one of the reasons that nearly everything I use for vaping comes from SMOK.

Before the SMOK V12 Cloud Beast King came out I was using the SMOK V8 Cloud Beast exclusively. These days I use both, and each one is used with a specific coil head.

I’m not quite there yet, but I am hoping that by the end of this summer I will have spent enough money to have a SMOK TFV12 Cloud Beast King and a SMOK TFV8 Cloud Beast for all 4 box mods I use. Currently I have two TFV12 Cloud Beast King’s and two TFV8 Cloud Beasts. Here’s how I have them set up, and which box mods I use with them.

SMOK TFV12 Cloud Beast King #1 – Stainless

In the Stainless (color/finish) I keep SMOK’s V12-T12 coil head inside. The V12-T12 is SMOK’s widest range for wattage, starting at 60W and all the way to 350W. Or, at least that what’s stamped on the side of the coil. The wattage range is actually between 120W to 190W, for my use.

The T12-V12 is a 12-coil setup, using Kanthal A1 quality heating wire and pure organic cotton for wicking. The coil head is huge, but man it is a coil head that produces profound flavor and clouds so thick it would kick many RDA’s with custom built coils and the best cotton. The T12-V12 also vaporizers vape juice faster than any other coil head I’ve used in the past 5 years.

This TFV12 Cloud Beast King sub-ohm tanks deserve, and gets, a 4x 18650 box mod. A mod that will produce up to 300W or more is the mod that will serve this sub-ohm tank well.

There are several 300W box mods on the market right now, including the iJoy MAXO, the WISMEC Reuleaux RX300, and my personal choice, the SMOK GX350. I’ve been using the common color combo of a black body and a red firing panel, but this week, I hope to have my Silver Body, Black Firing Panel. I ordered it from Vapor Authority and from what I’ve seen this is the best color for the GX350 for using the Stainless TFV12 Cloud Beast King.

SMOK TFV12 Cloud Beast King #1 – Black

For the Black TFV12 Cloud Beast King I use the Coil Head V12-X4, designed to allow plenty of wattage, up to about 160W, but that has been tweaked to produce a bit more flavor than the T12-V12. I have no idea how SMOK tweaks this ‘particular’ coil head to produce a rich, full-bodied flavor, but it’s true.

All SMOK’s replacement coils are made with the same fine Stainless Steel, Kanthal A1 heating wire and pure organic cotton for wicking. Surely, cutting down the number of coils from 12 to 4 isn’t the way to better flavor. It would be nice to know how they do it, but for now, let’s just go with it.

Since I use the V12-X4 coil head with my Black TFV12 Cloud Beast King, I don’t need a Quad-Battery box mod for optimal performance. The optimal range, 100W to 170W, depends on the vape juice used. I like thick, MaxVG better than anything else, so I turn to Vape Dudes and buy from their Private Stock category. If you’ve ever vaped Vape Dudes Belgian Blue MaxVG at 145W you got the idea of what heaven might taste like.

As I write this, we have just started checking in some brand new SMOK mods and starter kits into inventory, and I look forward to seeing how SMOK is continuing its amazing expansion into the vape industry. I am particularly interested in the SMOK GX2/4, a modified mod that can kick 350 watts by using 4x batteries, or 220W using just 2 batteries. But, for now, my Black TFV12 Cloud Beast King sits atop my SMOK Alien 220W Stormtrooper Edition.

First, the SMOK Alien is the perfect size, it has the best OLED display on one side and a textured carbon fiber panel on the other, and the 510 connector is placed in such a way that the Cloud Beast King “just” fits. (It fits because the bottom base of the Cloud Beast Kind is 25mm, the widest part, the Glass tube, is 27mm.)

Yes, the TFV12 Cloud Beast King looks ever-so-slightly larger than it should on the Alien box mod, but the white body and black tank looks sharp. I am looking at buying an H-Priv by SMOK, in Black, for a powerful, sexy all-black setup.

The SMOK TFV8 Cloud Beast Sub-Ohm Tanks

I remember thinking that the TFV8 Cloud Beast was too big for my vaping needs. I loved the performance of this tank, the flavor and clouds were beautiful, but when I first tried to use one I didn’t own a mod that fix it well, nor did the mod(s) have the power they needed to get the most out of the Cloud Beast. Funny how things changed.

Comparing the Cloud Beast and the Cloud Beast King side by side gives you the idea of just how much more powerful the King can be, but the good old TFV8 Cloud Beast is the easier “all-day-tank”.

The Cloud Beast has been on vendor shelves for a long time. The TFV8 replaced the SMOK TFV4, a sub-ohm tank that, way back then, I believed to be just too damn big and too damn powerful. (imagine!) I still own the two TFV4’s I was given when the tank came out, but they are still factory sealed.

Since I began using the TFV8 Cloud Beast as my all-day-every-day sub-ohm, I had opportunities to try out the other, smaller TFV8 tanks, the Baby Beast and the Big Baby. While I like both of those tanks and their coil heads, the Cloud Beast just feels ‘right’.

SMOK TFV8 Cloud Beast #1 – Black

When I began buying Sub-Ohm tanks as all day tanks, I was editing reviews for vape juice and box mods that always mentioned the TFV8 Cloud Beast.

All my prior tanks were ‘black’, colored, so when I decided to purchase my own Cloud Beast I bought a Black one. I also picked up a couple of packs of V8-T6 coils, which I loved for a while, but then a new coil was introduced, the V8-T10, and this coil is now the only coil I will put in the two Cloud Beast tanks I own.

The V8-T10 has a range of 50W to 300W, and an optimal range of 130W to 190W. If anyone expects any vapor or flavor at 50W, they will be disappointed. The minimum wattage for the V8-T10 is 100W, my optimal wattage is 140W. At 140W I can vape most anything with it and it feels, and tastes, like it couldn’t get any better.  I keep a stack of V8-T10 Coils at home, as well as a stack of T12-V12 and T12-X4 Coil Heads.

 Black goes with anything, or so they say, so for me, the options available for the right box mod to use with the TFV8 Cloud Beast in Black were many. I have collected several box mods over the past few years, but for the Cloud Beast I wanted something that could easily handle the wattage, but not so big that it needed four 18650 batteries. After a lengthy search and trial and error, I chose two, the SMOK Alien 220W (again) and the VGOD 150W box mod.

I discussed the Alien box mod above, so I can only add that while the Alien does look good with the larger TFV12 Cloud Beast King, it looks GREAT with the smaller TFV8 Cloud Beast sub-ohm tanks.

For some reason, the VGOD PRO150 appeals to anyone looking for an extremely well built, sleek and sexy box mod that can deliver the performance when needed. It’s on the pricy side, $100USD and up, and the widest tank you can use with it without any hangover is 24mm. However, the Cloud Beast’s 25mm diameter on top the VGOD PRO150 splits the difference of .5mm on each side, only noticeable when running a finger up the mod and onto the tank. Otherwise, the black tank and the black VGOD looks perfectly flush.SMOK TFV8 Cloud Beast #1 – Red

My Red TFV8 Cloud Beast is my favorite one. Naturally, it’s the color of the tank, not the tank itself, but still, this shade of red is a dark, deep, metallic red. As I said above, the V8-T10 is the coil I use with both of my Cloud Beast sub-ohm tanks, so choosing the right box mod for it has to be considered carefully.

The Red Cloud Beast looks good atop the Lost Vape Triade DNA250, or even the WISMEC Predator 228W (you would think it would be the Red Predator, but the “shade” of red is off, so it actually looks awful). The Black on Black Predator (black body, black side panels) with a deep red Cloud Beast sitting on top makes a powerful statement.

Ultimately however, it was just recently that I found “the” best box mod for my Red Cloud Beast; the SMOK G150, black body, identical red color accents.

I just got my SMOK G150 on Friday, and while I had hoped for a Full Kit, all I received was the Box Mod itself. Which turned out to be fine. The weird thing is that the package was addressed to me, at the Spinfuel VAPE office, and there was no return address, and no slip or receipt in the box.

 

Dave’s Day to Day Vaping

I consider myself a Moderate Vaper. I do switch out batteries about once a day if I start the day with a fully charged mod, and I refill my Cloud Beast and Cloud Beast King about once a day, sometimes more if I am stressed or under a deadline.

While the ‘reviewers’ here on staff have several dozen mods and even more sub-ohm tanks, I do not. I buy my ‘vape gear’ only after the staff has reviewed them, and found them to be good products.  I may not love every SMOK product I’ve used before, but SMOK has the market locked up when it comes to that delicate balancing act of “quality” and “value”. I love my VGOD PRO150, but to me that was expensive and I don’t think I would spend that much again if mine broke or got lost. I’d use the money to buy twice as much SMOK vape gear.

My favorite vape juice for sub-ohm tanks is made by Vape Dudes, Kilo, Ethos, and Mountain Oaks Vapor. Whenever possible I run High or Max VG juice through my tanks, and my biggest wish is that Mountain Oaks Vapor reformulates to a High VG line, but they won’t. Not now anyway. 

So, there you have it. Now that I’ve told you what I use every day, please consider leaving a comment and letting me (and us) know what you use every day. Might be fun!

Just about every product I use can be purchased at Vapor Authority, a 5-Star Vendor.

Dave Foster

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