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Right off the bat I could tell I was going to enjoy using the VAMO. It has the look of The Bolt, which I really loved as a PV, but offered a whole lot more in the way of features. The most important feature, to me, that VAMO has over the Bolt is circuit protection, which is the main reason I refuse to the Bolt any longer (and I used to love the Bolt). But, there is a lot more to the VAMO than simply ‘circuit protection’.

The VAMO comes to us from a new advertiser here at Spinfuel Magazine, The Digital Cig. I like these guys so far. The prices are right, the amount of hardware and accessories is plentiful, there seems to be a great amount of inventory, and the owner, Tim, seems like a real good guy, someone that seems to have a passion for the industry, not the profits (although I’m sure he enjoys the profits as well).  So, if you’re looking for something special, or something hot, like the VAMO, check The Digital Cig. And I certainly wouldn’t mind if you headed over there to buy the VAMO or anything else you might need since they are showing their support for our magazine. NOTE* The VAMO is a “special order”, meaning that it might take a 6-12 days to ship out to you.

Vamo1a

VAMO EGO APV V2 – The Official Name

If you’re wondering why the word “eGo” is part of the official name, keep wondering because I don’t have a clue.

The one that I have here for review (and one that I’m going to keep as my primary PV now) is the Black Chrome version. It also comes in stainless steel. With its very smooth finish and deep dark chrome color it is a very good-looking PV. It’s also one of the least expensive units on the market. Considering all the features it has it’s difficult to understand how it sells for $46.99. That’s very little for a PV with this number of features.

The $46.99 price tag gets you the body and the end cap, nothing else, but compare that price to other VV/VW PV’s and you can see it’s about 40-45% less than its competition.

Variable Voltage & Variable Wattage

Like more expensive devices on the market the VAMO has a variable voltage range of 3.0v to 6.0v with .01v increments, which are increased or decreased with the simple press of the plus or minus sign buttons next to the OLED readout.

The Variable Wattage works the same way, by pressing the plus and minus buttons accordingly, and has a range of 3.0w to 15.0w. Like other devices the wattage increases and decreases by .5w with each click of the button.

The On/Off function is an easy 5 clicks of the main activator button (the larger button you press to vape).

Getting Around The Menu

Because the VAMO uses technology used in other devices, most recently for me is the lesser PV by Apollo, the V-Tube. The look and feel of the VAMO is a much higher quality when compared to the Apollo V-Tube, but accessing the menu is pretty much the same.

When you get your VAMO and have inserted a fully charged 18650 battery (I’ll get into a couple of cool options for battery power later), you click the larger button 5 times to turn it on. The default settings are 3.0v and 3.0w. This just turns the unit on though; to access the menu you need to reach for the smaller, plus and minus buttons that sit directly above the larger button, and directly under the OLED display.

NEGATIVES: The VAMO doesn’t retain the settings. (Most don’t) And to make matters worse, when you access the menu to change from voltage to wattage or vice versa, it falls back to the default setting of 3.0v or 3.0w. It only takes a second or three to get the device back up to where it was. But it kinda sucks that if you’ve been vaping at 4.5v and 4w and want to bump the wattage up to 6w the device falls back to 3.0v when you switch back, which means you need to click back up to 4.5v.

(V)RMS and (V)AVG

This next part I debated with myself for quite a while as to whether or not to get into it. It is a feature and it deserves to be mentioned, but in all actuality it’s of little to no concern to most of us. I’m talking about a very mathematical way of determining voltage and wattage, either with RMS or AVG (‘means’ and ‘average’). RMS is a more accurate method but only the very advanced Vapers would even think about these terms. So my advice is to just leave it set to RMS.

The VAMO is set to RMS at the factory and to access the menu to change it (but don’t) you hold down both the plus OR minus buttons for a full 10 seconds. The display will show NO1 or NO2, NO1 means its set to AVG and NO2 means its set to RMS. Your display will show you a couple of different settings depending on whether you use the plus of minus button to access the NO1 and NO2 settings, so just ignore them as you count off the full 10 seconds. For a deeper understanding between RMS and AVG do a Google search and you will find plenty. Just be prepared for the math involved.

Battery Options

The VAMO is long enough to hold an 18650 battery and by removing one of the extensions you can create a mini-VAMO that takes the shorter 18350 batteries. The Digital Cig suggests the Efest ICR 18650 Li-ion battery, Efest ICR 18350 Li-ion battery, and a TrustFire TR-003 4-channel charger.

I’ve not used the shorter 18350 batteries yet with the VAMO because the length of time between charges is so much longer with the taller battery. Both batteries are going to deliver the same great service from the VAMO; the only difference is the time between charges and the overall length of the device. I will warn you through; with the 18650-battery option the VAMO is quite tall. Taller than anything else in the office actually, including the Joyetech eVic. It’s also heavier than the eVic, but with the added heft you get a higher quality feel to it. At least I do.

 

Threading

The VAMO is a straight up 510-threaded device. Any 510 threaded cartomizer, tank, clearomizer, whatever will work right out of the box. You can always pick up a 510-eGo adapter if you want to use a Kanger T3 or MT3. Most of the time I’ve been using the VAMO I’ve been using one of the remaining Texas Tuff Tanks we have and a couple of different Vivi Nova’s. We have several adapters here so I am looking forward to trying out the new Kanger EVOD clearos that we expect to receive any day. I love Bottom Coil Kanger’s and although they do add height to an already tall device I still think the vaping experience will prove to be worth it.

Safety Features

I mentioned above that the VAMO features circuit protection so if you happen to rebuild your own atomizers and wrap a bad coil you’re not going to blow up the device, it’ll just shut down. It will also display a LO-V on the OLED screen.

Like several other devices the VAMO comes with a 10-second shut off. This is okay, most PV’s have them, but it just sits wrong with me that if I wanted to take a 15-second drag I couldn’t. But that’s me being a baby, just ignore it.

Lastly, the VAMO can detect the atomizer and if you try to use a LR (low resistance) atty it will warn you with a LO-ohm-symbol and it won’t let you take a hit from it. It’s also kind of nice that if you do rebuild attys and you want to make sure your newly wrapped coil is putting out a certain ohm you can attach it to the VAMO and check it.

My Real World Experience

Like I indicated above, the body design, tubular with a coat of black chrome paint is reminiscent of the Bolt. The VAMO is tall, hefty, with a very smooth surface. The OLED readout is easy to read and getting into and out of the menu system is easy and quick.

I’ve been enjoying the performance of the VAMO for days now and I’ve yet to switch to anything else. It just feels good and works wonderfully well. I don’t mind the weight, in fact I like it, but if you think the eVic is heavy you’re going to think the VAMO is a boulder.

I haven’t used it in public and I doubt I ever would. People will notice you if you are carrying the VAMO around the mail

Buying Advice

Well, this is the easy part. $46 for a variable voltage, variable wattage, and circuit protected, atomizer detecting, well-made vaping device? Not only would the VAMO be an excellent backup device, it would be a great primary device.

One of the great things about working for Spinfuel is that I get to test out all the latest and greatest gear. Occasionally I get keep some too. These are huge advantages to have as a Vaper. So, when I tell you that if I found myself out of a job and in need of a PV, knowing what I know about as many devices as there are right now, up to and including a $179 Provari, I would buy the VAMO every time. I’ll say this again; how can you pass on a device that has nearly every feature of the more expensive devices on the market, and sells for just $46? You can’t! Even when you throw in the cost of a battery and a charger you’re still well below the cost of most VV/VW PV’s.

The bottom line for me is easy as well. I highly recommend the VAMO and if you decide to get one, knowing what you know now, you’ll love it. As far as color choices go though, I know a lot of people that think stainless steel is sexy and the VAMO is offered in SS. But for me Black Chrome (Gun Metal), is even sexier. At $46 though, why not buy both? (The Joyetech eVic, body only, is $87)

One more thing; if you do wind up buying one of these cool VAMO’s from MyVaporStore, if you have the urge to tell them Spinfuel recommended it, go right ahead.

Tom McBride

Full Specs:

  • Length Full size: 5.31in
  • Length short configuration: 4.0in
  • Diameter: 0.86in
  • Battery Cap: New longer gold spring
  • Voltage: 3.0 – 6.0
  • Wattage: 3.0 – 15.0
  • Battery ON/OFF: 5 click
  • AVG and RMS settings
  • Short circuit protection
  • Revers battery protection
  • Battery monitoring
  • Over discharge protection
  • Max amp: 5.0
  • Vented cap to eliminate overheating
  • Display for ohm
  • Display for battery output