Mod Reviews

Vandy Vape Pulse AIO.5 Kit

Vandy Vape have upgraded their Pulse AIO.5 Kit which offers an all in one kit at an attractive price

by Antony Lord
Nov 18, 2022

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Back at the start of this year, Vandy Vape, along with TonyB, decided to dip their toes into the Boro kit market with the Pulse AIO kit, I was fairly impressed when I took a look at it back in February, especially given the impressive pack-ins and competitive price point (forum review HERE). However some users have apparently suffered a few issues, mainly centered around cracks developing in the plastic around the 510 nut area, which have been addressed in this updated Pulse AIO.5 release. With this in mind, I asked our good friends at Sourcemore if I could take the updated kit for a test drive.

Vandy Vape Pulse AIO.5 Kit unboxing

The Pulse AIO.5 still comes in a wide variety of colours with the device clearly displayed in the front sporting an updated square button on the front panel. Turn the box around and you’ll also find a bonus set of coloured panels along with an original round button set.

Two versions of the kit are available: a budget friendly “without RBA” version (as shown above), or for an extra $20 you can get the “standard version” which includes the Pulse Vessel rebuildable Boro tank. If you’re wondering which set to go for, then I would say that it depends on which type of vaper you are, the Pulse vessel RBA is an easy to use Boro rebuildable but it’s most definitely a direct lung only experience so if you’re a purely MTL vaper then you might want to consider the cheaper option.

Vandy Vape Pulse AIO.5 Kit details

The extra coloured round button panels are a welcome bonus, and you are supplied with a round button faceplate to use with the Pulse AIO.5. In my case, I’m quite taken by the new square button design with its bold metal surround so the panels have been used on my original Pulse Aio to give it a fresh new look.

The panels have also been updated for a better fit, whilst there was minimal movement in the originals, these are a much better fit. You can also use any other panels you may have bought on the updated Pulse AIO.5 as well. Vandy Vape Pulse AIO.5 Kit under the hood

Strip away the side panels and apart from the updated square button, you’d be hard pressed to tell the new and old kits apart. It follows a traditional Boro kit layout as before with a polycarbonate frame and a 21700 battery. I’ve heard some users complain that a 21700 battery is overkill for a Boro device and that it makes the pulse too bulky, I have small hands and I find it to be a perfectly acceptable size and I appreciate the extra battery capacity afforded especially when using RBAs that have a higher power requirement.

I believe the board is unchanged and you get the same 80 watt capability along with temperature control, bypass and voltage modes. The screen is once again small but serviceable, and you have on board USB-C charging capability.

Vandy Vape Pulse AIO.5 Kit updates

One of the primary failure points on the original Pulse AIO was some users were experiencing cracks in the polycarbonate frame centered around the 510 nut. This isn’t something I’ve experienced myself but Vandy Vape have done several things to try and address the problem:

An updated form of Polycarbonate has been used (Lexan EXL1414T) which is apparently more durable. The design of the flush nut fitting has been changed to a tear drop design to spread the pressure over a wider area. I also found that this area is about 0.2mm thicker than the earlier model (with my crappy plastic calipers).

All of this should reduce the earlier problems, I’d still advise that you don’t need to torque this down though. When I first opened this and put my pulse vessel tank in, the ohm reading was way off but rather than cranking down of the 510 nut, I took the tank out and raised the adjustable positive pin at the base. This gave me the correct ohm reading without having to take a monkey wrench to the 510 nut!

I still dislike the white nipple style drip tip included in the box so that’s stayed put and I’ve once again gone for a 510 drip tip of my own. The 510 nut is still Billet Box compatible as well so most of your integrated drip tip sets will also work well here.

Vandy Vape Vessel

It goes without saying that the Pulse AIO.5 is compatible with most other Boro style tanks and bridges, and even with the cheaper “without RBA” kit, you are still supplied with the rather good Vessel stock coil tank and two 0.3ohm coils to get you started on your journey. This is compatible with VVC coils which use a modern kanthal mesh design and I’ve had great performance from these when I’ve used them in the past.

Pros

Some welcome improvements over the original
One of the cheapest ways into the Boro market

Cons

Some may still not like the larger frame needed by the 21700 battery

Conclusion

The Pulse AIO.5 takes everything good about the original design and makes a few minor improvements that should make it more durable in the long term. Whilst some may not like the bulkier design due to the 21700 battery, I find it perfectly serviceable (and I have small hands). This is still currently one of the cheapest ways to dip your toes into the Boro device side of the hobby (unless you can still find the original on clearance) and as always, Vandy Vape gives you plenty of bonus items in the box like the extra panels so this still comes highly recommended by me.

Many thanks to Sourcemore for sending the Pulse AIO.5 out for review. They also gave me a discount code for you to use: PAIO5K will get you the kit for $39.99.

Vandy Vape Pulse AIO.5 Kit handcheck

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.