BP Mods AmpBB
BP Mods have released the AmpBB, a fresh new take on the Boro od design, and that is music to our ears!
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by Antony Lord
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One of the more interesting stands at Vaper Expo back in May this year was BP Mods where they were showing off their take on a Boro mod, the AmpBB. This is a rather unusual take on the Boro mod and was garnering quite a lot of attention, so now that it’s finally available, I asked our good friends over at Sourcemore if I could take a look, and they were kind enough to send a kit out for review.
Specifications
- 107 x 28 x 24mm (excluding drip tip)
- 105.5 grams (excluding any Boro tank/bridge)
- Wattage, Voltage, and bypass modes
- Output 60 watts / 8.0 volts
- Internal battery 2000mAh (rated) / 2075mAh (typical)
- 2 amp USB-C charging
The packaging for the AmpBB presents the mod rather well in a safe foam insert, and you get a ton of extras included in the box including a rather nice drip tip system called the DacBB in a separate triangular box. If you’re wondering where the names came from, apparently the chief designer on this project is something of an audiophile and modelled the Boro device on tube based audio amplifiers (hence the Amp) and following this theme, it was only logical to call the drip tip the Dac (Digital To Analog).
The DacBB box contains a custom 510 drip tip with three interchangeable tips to suit the whole range of vaping styles from mouth to lung right the way up to direct lung. You’ll also find the 510 flush nut stored in here as well and of course you’re also free to use your own custom tips. The flush nut uses standard Billet Box threading so all your integrated tips should also work as well.
Whilst it might at first glance look like a Boro tank is fitted to the AmpBB, this is in fact a small foam pad containing two extra flush nut spanners (more on those later). Whilst I’m sure most vapers looking at this kit will have already bought into the Boro mod ecosystem, this is something you’ll need to bear in mind if this is your first Boro mod because you’ll need to factor in the cost of a tank and/or rebuildable on top of the purchase price. Whilst this is fine for me, it does seem like something of an oversight, the inclusion of a budget stock coil Boro tank would have given this a broader appeal but would of course have also increased the cost.
One area BP Mods frequently gets praised for is their instructions, and the ones included with the AmpBB are no exception. It’s a simple piece of high quality card with easy to follow instructions printed on both sides, but everything you need to know is here in an easy to digest format.
Onto the mod itself, this eschews the traditional concept of most Boro mods by placing the tank at the top of the mod in a fully exposed configuration. This gives the AmpBB a stick-like appearance rather than the typical box, and at just 107mm tall (excluding a drip tip), it’s a similar height to many starter “pen/stick” kits that many will be familiar with from the past. This design decision means that it is of course far too small for a removable 18650 battery necessitating the use of that internal 2000mAh battery.
You still have the Boro tank secured from the top with the included 510 flush nut which is where those flush nut spanners come in… one of those is cleverly integrated into the front panel and is held in place with a strong magnet, and you get two extras included in the box, I wouldn’t worry about losing these as I’ve been carrying this around for three weeks and not once has the spanner come loose in a pocket, it can become something of a fidget though if you’re that way inclined.
Whilst the bulk of the chassis is made from aluminium alloy, the front and back sport large Carbon or Glass fibre panels. I have the silver variant which has the glass fibre panels whilst the gunmetal variant sports carbon fibre ones. Despite the boxy appearance and the exposed edges on the front glass fibre panel, this is actually quite comfortable to use with no sharp edges. The position of the main power button has meant that I’ve found that the best way to use the AmpBB is by thumb firing leaving the Boro tank above my fingers which has the added benefit of leaving the airflow clear of any obstructions. The front panel has a window showing the innards which glow when powered up, fortunately this can be turned off in the settings.
Around the back you have a small but serviceable screen and the up/down buttons. The screen on my unit is a little skewed and having watched a few you-tube videos, this seems to be a common issue. It doesn’t affect the performance and you have a quite capable 60 watt chip on board with wattage, voltage, and bypass modes. It does tick though like the other Dovpo/BPmods products I’ve used in the past; this isn’t too intrusive and I’ve only noticed it a handful of times in unusually quiet settings.
Charging the internal battery is done via a USB-C port on the side of the AmpBB, the LED panel pulses whilst charging and goes out once finished which is a handy feature. In my test this hit a peak charge rate of 1.62 amps almost straight away, and maintained this through most of the charging cycle, and whilst it got a little warm to the touch, it remained relatively cool thanks to that aluminium chassis.
After 1 hour and 35 minutes, the LED panel went out with a recorded capacity of 2090mAh. There was still a small 0.135 amp draw at this point though and this finally dropped to zero amps after 1 hour and 51 minutes with a final recorded capacity of 2111mAh. Clearly that extra 15 minutes only added 20 mAh so once it’s lights out, you’re good to go.
I tried this with a range of different tanks/bridges and whilst you can use an original Boro tank, the open design means that you have no protection for that now exposed Borosilicate glass panel, so I’d suggest using a more modern PCTG tank design where possible. I've been using a limelight tank for example. The open design means that you won't suffer the long standing issue of condensation often associated with Boro tanks, this won't protect you from leaky builds though! You do get small compressed cotton pads to use around the positive pin to combat this issue and these have worked quite well in my testing.
So far I’ve only had one bridge that wouldn’t work (and that is known to have issues on other Boro mods) and at one stage I was thinking of using my EVL tank until I remembered that this depends on the Boro enclosure holding the fill port bung in place! All in all though this should work with most Boro tanks and bridges, and if this is your first Boro device and you want something cheap and cheerful to get you up and running, then the Pulse Stock coil tank is a nice option along with the VVC Coil system (third in the picture above).
Pros
- A different take on the Boro mod
- Good build quality
- Open design reduces condensation build up
Cons
- Open design may limit the Boro tanks you can use
Conclusion
I have to give BP Mods credit here for thinking outside the Boro box and giving us a new twist on a modern classic. I’ve primarily been using this as a mouth to lung device and it’s performed brilliantly here with a full charge getting me through two days. Rowdier builds will obviously reduce this, but apart from a couple of modern mesh Boro tanks, this should suit most builds just fine. If you’re into your Boro devices, then this is well worth a look, especially at the price point this is being offered at.
Many thanks to Sourcemore for sending the AmpBB Boro mod over for review. As always they’ve given me a discount code for you to use as well, and you can grab this great piece of kit for just $55.99 with the code AMPBB.
Antony Lord
Reviewer at POTVI was a twenty a day smoker for 25 years and like most smokers I was always going to quit "next week". Having hit my mid forties and having the usual smokers cough and difficulty with anything more than moderate exercise it was obviously time to give up the cancer sticks. I bought my first e-cigarette in 2013 when they were expensive, difficult to find and quite frankly... crap. I used it for about a week then went back to the roll ups, mark up another failed quit attempt. The fact that I had just changed jobs and was under quite a lot of stress probably didn't help. Move on to 2016 and whilst I was browsing eBay I noticed that one of the suggested items that would occasionally pop up was for a cheap e-cigarette. It looked similar to the one I'd bought 3 years earlier but it was only £5 (about 8 times cheaper than before) so I decided to give it another go on a whim. Once the kit arrived I managed to gradually replace the cigarettes with my new kit over a two month period and got into watching YouTube reviews for newer kit. My cheap and cheerful kit was replaced by a more upmarket affair, and being a noob I made a mistake once it arrived... I put in the supplied direct lung coil, this was of course a complete revelation and I haven't touched a cigarette since. Oh and I no longer spend the first five minutes of every day having a coughing fit either.
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