Last Updated on March 27, 2017 by Team Spinfuel
Lately SMOK mainly releases powerful 200+ watt devices including a couple soon to be released models capable of over 300W! So while the SMOK Brit One Mega Starter Kit ($24.95 at Element Vape) isn’t SMOK’s first tube-style mod, the market is obviously asking and manufacturers are producing these easy, one button devices, targeting the beginning vaper looking for an upgrade from eGo-styled pen devices. SMOK saw an opening, joined the simplicity train and designed a classy kit that not only looks the part but performs equally as well (despite some spitting issues). If you’re actively searching for an easy to learn and inexpensive Starter Kit, I present you the Brit One Mega Starter Kit!
The SMOK Brit One Starter Kit has two different variations, the Mini and Mega Kit. The Brit One Mini Kit is more geared towards flavor, measures 22mm in diameter and utilizes a mid-ohm coil head to activate the flavor profiles rather than focusing on clouds. The Brit One Mega Kit was created for the cloud chasers out there, is 24.5mm around and gives you a lower-ohm coil head option with higher power capabilities to achieve the huge plumes of vapor we all know and love. I only received the Brit One Mega Kit so the following review will reflect my time (over a month) spent with that version only. I’ll reference differences throughout the sections below but my overall experience is with the SMOK Brit One Mega Starter Kit only.
With Direct Voltage Output, there are no regulatory buttons or screen for that matter; the power exerted depends on the life of your battery. With a fully-charged battery (4.2V), you’re going to feel close to 60W of power. As the battery starts draining, the wattage floats around the 35-45W mark until it reaches 3.3V and completely dies. As soon as I’m noticing a drop in vapor production, which happens around an hour of vaping, I’ll throw it back on the charger to bring it back to its full potential. With a full charge, the clouds are big and the flavor cool and mellow. But once the battery life starts falling, it just doesn’t have enough juice to get the job done for me.
The SMOK MISUB Plus is a simple device visually sporting one main button and a SMOK engraving towards the bottom. Being 75mm tall, it’s a fairly small tube mod but with the Brit Sub-Ohm Tank attached, it measures 113mm which fits comfortably in my larger hand. A 5-click standard operating system is what the MISUB Plus runs on with an LED backlighting the fire button serving several purposes. Five clicking the device on or off, the light will blink three times. When the resistance reads lower than 0.1Ω or higher than 2.5Ω, the device will blink five times and automatically shut down.
With a 2000mAh internal battery (the Mini Kit has a 1600mAh cell), expect a couple hours of constant vaping if you vape heavily like me. You can monitor your battery life by the flashing LED behind and around the fire button which should flash four times after each puff (according to the user manual but mine never flashed). The first couple cycles I waited until the light flashed 15 times (Low Voltage Protection) indicating the battery is completely dead and it’s time to charge her up. There’s a small pinhole on the bottom that serves as minimal battery venting. But with such low wattage flowing through the device most of the time, the MISUB Plus only ever got warm and never exceeded past that.
The SMOK MISUB Plus can be charged through the micro USB port located opposite the fire button with the included USB cable. A red light next to the USB port will illuminate when the battery is charging and will turn off when completed. SMOK integrated pass-through charging in both the Brit One Mega and Mini Kits. The Gold-plated 510 pin and smoothly machined connection threads never raised any concern. SMOK states the MISUB Plus is using a new generation elastic-touch connection that can fit many different Atomizers perfectly. I’ve never had any connection issues with any of my SMOK mods, including this one. I attached other sized tanks to it and each one kept a solid connection. There’s no visual change to the 510 area so I’m not entirely sure about the legitimacy of this new technology but it seems to work as described.
The SMOK Brit Sub-Ohm Tank is beautifully crafted out of Stainless Steel and attaches to the MISUB Plus flush, giving the entire kit a streamlined appearance. Both the full-size Brit and the Mini share a 2ml eJuice capacity. With a threaded top-fill design, simply remove the top cap and fill the tank between the coil and glass (4.5mm of room to fill). Only fill to the O-ring that surrounds the coil or you will get flooding and gurgling issues. The tank never seems to be completely full since you can only fill it about 2/3 of the way up or you run the risk of drastic leaking and spit back. The Pyrex glass (with a replacement included) feels durable and thick, is held strongly in place by a single Black O-ring surrounding the base and a seal under the top cap that cinches everything down nice and tight.
The SMOK Brit Sub-Ohm Tank has two 9.5mm x 1.5mm top adjustable airflow slots located directly under the drip tip. The airflow ring has a few notches to grip onto but is quite skinny and restrictive which makes adjusting it tough at times (mine stayed wide-open the entire time anyway). The amount of airflow provided is definitely enough to blow some decent size clouds while not sacrificing flavor (when it’s not gurgling and spitting). The lengthy pulls I need to take to achieve substantially large clouds is in the 5-6 second range. The 14.5mm ‘bullet’ wide-bore Delrin drip tip is comfortable and similar to other SMOK tanks (TFV8 Baby Beast). Held in place by two clear O-rings and is pretty easy to remove. The top cap is 510 drip tip compatible if you have a matchy-matchy drip tip option.
Airflow comes in through the two airflow slots down through the three slots surrounding the inside wall of the coil structure, down and finally back up threw the center of the coil. This true top airflow SMOK has created does work wonders on most of their previous tanks but for some reason, I get a non-stop supply of spitting eJuice with this Brit Tank. It varies how much spit back from mild most of the time to severe at others; a frustrating issue that seemed to plague these coils. I can’t speak for all coils but the two I received always had some type of gurgling and spitting the entire month I used them.
The preinstalled B2 0.4Ω Kanthal Dual Core coil head (The Brit Mini comes with two BM2 0.6Ω coil heads) serves as the chimney as well giving you direct airflow from the coil. With a recommended wattage range between 20-50W (best at 35W), attaching the Brit Tank to other mods, I found the 45W mark felt just right to me. The coil consists of a 4mm ID dual parallel coil along with three 7mm x 2mm wicking slots that obviously absorb way too much eJuice; lots of flooding and leaking. I was getting eJuice eruptions out of the drip tip without priming or dry-pulling the coil prior to firing.
Tons of burning hot gurgling eJuice isn’t pleasant to vape on. After several attempts of disassembling the tank, making sure nothing was physically wrong with the coil or contact pin, I still got the same result. After tipping the tank upside down and letting the overflow drain out, as well as blowing into the coil and shooting any excess eJuice out of the airflow slots, I was able to get semi-better results with not as much spit back. But when I took the top cap off and refilled it, I was greeted by the liquid volcano again. Frustrated with the first coil, SMOK included another one so I wanted to give it another shot. The second one did improve but I played the same back and forth game of random spitting and a constant gurgle. I tried using several different juices to see if the PG/VG ratio made a difference with zero improving results. (I’m going to order a pack of coils to see if my results can hopefully be better next time around)
Final Grade – C
“The spitting and gurgling aside, the SMOK Brit One Mega Starter Kit would’ve got a much better grade. This kit is perfect for the beginner if they don’t have the same issues I did. For $24.95 at Element Vape, it could be worth the gamble to see if your experience proves better than mine did.”
Team Spinfuel
