Mod Reviews

Eleaf iStick Power Mono Kit

We are starting 2023 on a high with the new Eleaf iStick Power Mono kit

by Antony Lord
Jan 3, 2023

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The second item sent over from The Electronic Cigarette Company (TECC) for us to take a look at this week is something of a rarity these days, a full kit featuring a mod and a tank. The Eleaf iStick Power Mono is the latest entry in their long running iStick range and features a large 3500mAh internal battery so I thought it would be worth taking a look at how well it performed as a daily driver.

Specifications

39 x 32mm x 85mm
138 grams (mod only)
3500 mAh internal battery
5v/2a USB-C charging
Output 1~80 watts
Resistance range 0.1~3.0 ohms
GTL pod tank and two coil included in kit

Eleaf iStick Power Mono kit unboxing

The iStick Power Mono kit is supplied with the GTL Pod tank and two GTL coils to get you started along with a USB-C charge cable and brief user guides. The kit is available in five colours, and I was sent the “Black Grey” version for review.

Eleaf iStick Power Mono kit close ups

All the iStick Power Mono mods have a gunmetal gray chassis and the colour choice actually refers to the two tone leather patch running around the sides and back of the mod. The classic teardrop shape with its softly rounded edges and padded leather trim makes this very comfortable to hold, even the buttons are rounded off giving them a pleasant, tactile finish. The large power button is perfectly placed for either trigger or thumb firing, and the buttons all have a reassuringly solid click with zero button rattle. The branding is subtle with “eLeaf” and “power mono” logos running down either side of the chassis in an almost handwritten style.

The bottom features emergency battery vents and despite the rounded appearance, it has a nice flat base so this will stand up easily on a desk or table, and although the iStick Power Mono isn’t overly heavy considering it has an internal battery, there’s little chance of a passing draft knocking this over.

Up top there’s a small 510 connector which is raised just a hair above the top of the chassis which means that you shouldn’t experience any atty rash, the downside of this being you will experience some minor gapping below your tank. The positive pin does have some travel in it but it’s worth considering that Eleaf/Joyetech/Wismec products traditionally have slightly shorter than average 510s so I would recommend using a bit of caution when using an atty with a long 510 or a massively protruding positive pin. There’s plenty of room here as well even with those rounded edges, and you can fit anything up to 28mm diameter on here with ease.

Eleaf iStick Power Mono kit screen

The screen used is a little old school in today's market of large colour screen mods but it functions perfectly well. You only have wattage and bypass modes on offer here so it doesn’t have to convey all that much information in any case.

The built in 3500mAh battery is charged via the USB-C port on the bottom of the control panel, and in my tests this achieved a 3300mAh charge which is reassuringly close to the quoted capacity. This hit a peak charging rate of 1.83amps, but that large battery means that it still takes around 2 hours and 5 minutes for a full charge from zero.

Eleaf GTL tank

The pack-in tank is the GTL Pod tank which as its name might suggest has its origins in a pod system with a PCTG pod/tank housed in a metal base with adjustable airflow and a 510 connector. As this is a TPD compliant kit from TECC, we’re stuck with the 2ml capacity whilst international versions have 4.5ml pods, luckily the coils aren’t all that thirsty so the 2ml limit isn’t too frustrating.

Eleaf GTL coils

The GTL Pod tank uses the tried and tested Eleaf GTL coils with a 0.4ohm and 0.8ohm coil included in the box. These both use a modern mesh design with the 0.4ohm coil offering a slightly restricted direct lung vape and the 0.8ohm coil giving a loose/modern mouth to lung draw. I’ve used these before and they’re cracking little coils, they’re kanthal as well so I’m happy to recommend them for use by anyone with nickel sensitivity problems like myself.

Pros

Large battery capacity
Comfortable to use
Kanthal coils

Cons

A little pricey

Conclusion

Some of the first “proper” kits I owned were from Eleaf and Joyetech so it’s been nice to catch up with their modern lineup. The Eleaf iStick Power Mono kit doesn’t disappoint and I’m particularly impressed with the 3500mAh battery capacity on offer here, the GTL coils used in the included GTL Pod tank are great little performers as well. I’m sometimes wary of recommending kits with removable batteries to new vapers (and some long term vapers I know for that matter) because of the careless way they often mishandle the batteries, but I’d be happy to recommend this as the internal battery does away with that problem.

Many thanks to The Electronic Cigarette Company for sending the Eleaf iStick Power Mono kit over for review.

Eleaf iStick Power Mono kit signature

Antony Lord

Reviewer at POTV

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I 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.