Vapefly Brunhilde SBS 100W Kit
Gorgeous design, fabulous attention to detail, brilliant build quality...is the Vapefly Brunhilde SBS kit too good to be true? Read on to find out...
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by Si Davies
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Final retail version generously supplied by Sourcemore for review purposes.
https://www.sourcemore.com/vapefly-brunhilde-sbs-100w-kit.html
$66.88 (usually $106.99) – Using discount code: SBSK
Something rather special landed on my doorstep to review; the Vapefly Brunhilde SBS kit sent from those friendly folks at Sourcemore. Without giving too much away, this was one of those kits that was delightful to review from beginning to end. Here’s some of the highlights:
- Vapefly & German Community project
- Consists of Brunhilde SBS Mod and Kriemhild II W Version
- CNC 5-axis carving processed
- 1800 seconds for carving a single wing
- Aerospace aluminium casing, light in weight, perfect in hand
- 5V 2A type-c fast charging
- Supports single 18650/20700/21700 battery
I come from an engineering background so I appreciate just how much work has gone into producing this intricate mod and tank, watching one of those 5 axis CNC milling machines is mind blowing, but that’s just the manufacturing process, the real genius is in the design.
What is a SBS?
Simply put; it is where the tank fits alongside the battery which results in a shorter and more compact mod, the majority of other mods have the tank connection at the top so the tank will always sit higher up, SBS stands for Side by Side.
- Mod Size: 52.4*27.0*84.8mm
- Tank Size: 25.0*51.2mm
- Coil: FreeCore Duplex 0.2ohm Mesh Coil, FreeCore 0.3ohm Mesh Coil
- Output Wattage: 5-100W
- Output Mode: VW/Bypass/TC
- Fast Charging: Type-C 5V 2A
- Coil Resistance Range: 0.08-3.5ohm
- Battery Type: Single 18650/20700/21700(not included)
- Screen: 0.91 inch OLED screen
- Tank Capacity: 4ml
- Filling System: Top filling
- Colours: Blue, Red, Rose Gold, Silver, Pink, Gunmetal, Black
Unboxing
The traditional Vapefly packaging is always pleasing and of high quality, the outer sleeve graphics are superb and if you look closely it has hidden keywords in the background. The main two piece box is solid and the top layer displays the mod, tank and a spare glass section.
I know it’s only packaging but how the mod and tank are displayed is pleasing, I really couldn’t wait to rip it out of the box. A nice little touch is the ribbon tab to make removing the top layer hassle free, once you get to the extras you can’t help but be even more impressed.
**The 18650 battery adaptor tube is inside the mod.
Fair play, Vapefly didn’t skimp on anything, far more goodies than most other brand sub-ohm kits. Along with the usual extra coil, charging cable and documents, there’s a comprehensive selection of spare seals, an optional resin 810 drip tip, a 510 drip tip adaptor and some handy gaskets to put under the tank to avoid scratching the 510 plate which is a nice touch.
First Impressions
Normally my first impressions are done during the photography but I couldn’t resist having a good look at this as soon as it arrived in the post so I got a really good feel to it before, this just made me impatient to get the photos out of the way so I could get vaping on it. Already it felt so damn good in the hand.
Weight for it…..
Since the body is mostly aluminium, the weight is a reasonable 146g but stacks up to 288g once a 21700 battery and the Kriemhild II tank is fitted, it’s not the lightest kit but feels well balanced and substantial.
The mod looked a little odd on its own but that’s common with all SBS (Side by Side) mods, it gave me the chance to admire the superb machining and detailing on the Brunhilde mod.
The first thing to discuss is the main body, machined from a solid billet of aluminium into that smooth contoured shape then detailed with what appears to be a Trojan helmet and wings on either side that just start to wrap around the battery tube. Personally I love how this looks and the texture it gives, finished off with what appears to be aqua-blasting (smoother than sand-blasting), and anodised into the chosen colour.
The 510 plate is almost over-engineered with a fancy machined face and four screws, but that reflects the overall quality of this kit. Even the battery tube is well detailed, but the cherry on the icing is the battery cap. Without sounding over the top; this is the best battery cap ever! It is incredibly detailed and the time to produce this alone must have taken a while. Does it matter? Well it does to me as it really adds to the overall appeal and once the tank is fitted, it matches perfectly.
The mod accepts 18650/20700/21700 batteries, the 18650 adaptor tube is stowed away inside the main body tube. 20700 and 21700 fit without any adaptor and sit secure with no rattle. The threading felt a little raspy but the actual fitting is really well machined as it finds the threads easily which means that accidentally cross threading shouldn’t happen. It might not sound much, but it’s something that I’ve noticed on other battery tube mods.
The base is the most boring face but is still engineered to the rest of the mods standard with four screws, and battery and chipset ventilation.
**There’s a thin protective film on the base which I chose to leave on to avoid scratching, the vent holes are cut into it.
Before I mention the screen, you will notice that the body is ever so slightly tapered from the front towards the battery tube to allow for a 21700 battery. You barely notice this other than from the base view, and it adds to the feel in the hand.
The screen is the best I’ve seen so far on a SBS mod. It appears to be bespoke as the font is larger and brighter resulting in an easy to read display, just another detail that reflects the overall quality of the design.
The fire and adjustment buttons are exceptional, there’s absolutely no rattle and the short travel is just right making it difficult to accidentally adjust. I did see in a prototype review that the fire button had some rattle but Vapefly went back and fixed this which is a sign of their production quality.
Kriemhild II Tank (W)
It’s quite evident that this kit was designed together as the tank's styling matches the Brunhilde mod perfectly. It’s a gorgeous tank on its own and is well designed.
It follows the now standard press fit coils but I found them a bit tricky to pull out and ended up using a coin, no biggie as it’s still less trouble than a screw fit. The kit features a new Duplex mesh coil.
This has a double gate structure which divides the mesh into two elements, I’m not quite sure what difference this makes but I would hazard a guess that it heats like a dual mesh but within a single bore, time will tell on that.
Strangely only the 0.3ohm coil has this ‘duplex’ structure, the 0.2ohm is regular mesh with a slightly narrower bore and wider gauge mesh, there’s nothing wrong with this and it should be interesting to compare the two.
It strips down into its components easily which makes it simple to clean and maintain. The machining is high quality, though the base feels slightly raspy from new, I noticed this ease over time.
The top cap is a third turn to unscrew and feels well designed and secure. It has a silicone bladder that accepts standard shortfill bottle tips, filling was a little awkward due to the solid top sections visibility, but I found tipping it over slightly eased this and I was able to fill it up without any mess.
The standard 810 drip-tip is surprisingly good, normally I would have gone for the optional resin one but the standard one suited the kit better and is very comfortable to use, but it is nice to have the option.
The airflow control is one of the best I’ve tried. The adjustment ring is buttery smooth but with enough resistance to prevent accidental adjustment. Fully open the airflow is super airy which was a surprise as I’ve seen larger inlets, but this just works. Even more pleasingly, the noise is low and there is no whistling.
Controls
One of the downsides of these compact SBS mods is that the chipset and screen has to be equally compact, resulting in rather limited features. That said, the Brunhilde has pretty much everything an experienced user needs, it’s no DNA but there’s VW, BYPASS and three TC modes (Ni/Ti/SS).
- 5 x Fire = Turns device On/Off
- Press and hold Up & Down buttons = Locks adjustments (still fires)
- 3 x Fire = Mode selection (repeat to cycle)
- Fire & Down = Turns screen (and adjustments) Off/On
- Fire & Up = Rotates screen 180 degrees (doesn’t swap adjustment buttons)
With TC selected, you can scroll through the material options (Ni/Ti/SS) with the Up/Down buttons and Fire to confirm, you can then select the wattage with the Up/Down buttons.
That’s everything. Although it’s simple, I did like the quick mode selection and how straight forward setting the TC material and wattage was. The clarity and brightness of the screen was a joy to use and the feature of turning it off and locking the adjustment buttons at the same time was really useful and saves battery power.
With the Kriemhild II tank fitted to the mod, this is where you most appreciate this design, it is well-engineered, aesthetically pleasing and feels so damn good in the hand. The tank’s mouthpiece sticks up enough that you don’t end up kissing the battery cap when vaping, the kit fits comfortably in your hand, and the shape almost leads your hand position; resting in your grip with your little finger in the base and your ‘flipping the bird’ finger finds its way onto the fire button. The only snag is your index finger can potentially block one of the three air inlets but even if I did, I didn’t notice the effect during vaping as the three air inlets were ample.
Performance
It’s pretty obvious by now that I am loving this kit, my only hope was that it performed as good as it looked. I started with the 0.3ohm Duplex coil rated between 40-55 watts, starting off at the lower end I wasn’t all that impressed as the vape was too cool for my tastes. As I crept up to 55 watts, I was starting to really enjoy it, the flavour was rich and the vapour production was dense. I broke my habit of sticking within the recommended wattage range and worked my way up to 65 watts and it still performed well, the flavour was awesome and pretty warm. The cost of higher wattage is usually a shorter coil life so went back to 55 watts, but I was more than happy with this.
The standard 0.2ohm coil was rated at 45-60 watts. The sweet spot for me ended up exactly the same as the 0.3ohm at 55 watts. Although it was very good, I didn’t feel it was as good as the 0.3ohm Duplex coil, vapour production seemed higher and flavour was good but I had been spoilt with the Duplex version.
Both coils happily took a proper thrashing of high power chain vaping. Within reasonable limits, I wasn’t even getting a hint of a dry hit, even towards the end of the coil life. The mod also performed well and kept cool. Usually I would turn the screen off once I had my settings dialled in, but I left it on to test the battery life. A Molicell P42A 21700 lasted me almost a full day of exclusive vaping, at a push, had I opted for lower power, I could trust it for a whole day. I also tested the 2 Amp charging and it took around 95 minutes from low, the mod got a little warm during charging but not too warm. Personally I would choose to charge it externally where air can naturally keep it cooler.
This Means WAR!
So there are two options of the Kriemhild II tank; War (W) & Peace (P), the difference between the two are; the Peace version has a full vision glass section and the War version has a half sized glass and a larger metal top section. I had the War version which is trickier to see while filling but looks better to me, but the choice is there. All-out war or CND hippie road blocks, the choice is yours.
(I assume the TPD version is Switzerland (N) for neutral?)
Casualty of War?
So just when everything was going so well, I encountered a problem. After changing coils back from the 0.2ohm back to the preferred 0.3ohm Duplex one, I started to encounter some leaking through the base. The thing is, due to me vaping it at a higher wattage and giving it excess hammer, it could be user error, or was this just a duff coil? I have a feeling it was my own fault as it was fine before I gave it some welly, and after changing back to the 0.2ohm I’ve had no issues since.
Colour options
There’s an interesting range of colours and most noticeably a few feminine friendly choices which is quite rare for a sub ohm DL kit. With the design the way it is, the battery tube will always match the mod and the body colour contrasts it well.
SBSBSBSBS
Side by Side mods are very popular amongst some vapers, and I think I’ve found my new favourite for DL vaping. It feels far better in the hand that the MIXX and the Z1, the screen and 21700 battery capacity pips it overall. For MTL though, I struggled to find a tank that looks as good as the Kriemhild II on it so my Techmod wins here.
Innovation?
Nope, move along, nothing to see here………..
Despite having no innovative features, it still feels like something a bit different, mostly down to the exceptional design and quality machining. SBS mods are nothing new and have been around for years, but Vapefly grabbed hold of this concept and nailed it on their first attempt.
Conclusion
I have always been impressed with Vapefly’s products, in fact I have never had a duff one from them. They always seem to go that extra mile and rarely do you see any blatant copying. Although they are more known for their atomisers, the Brunhild SBS kit is engineering excellence, possibly over-engineered but in a good way as to add to the looks and appeal. Attention to detail is obvious and nothing was skimped on (including the generous bundle of extras), the end result looks good, feels good and performs good resulting in a remarkable bit of kit that new and experienced vapers will appreciate.
Germanic? Trojan? Greek? Spartan? Power Rangers?
The helmet engraving on the front had me a little confused, to me it looks like a Trojan or Greek helmet, perhaps Germanic tribes adopted this style but I’m happy believing it to be a Trojan design as I’m a big fan of Trojan Records.
While on the subject of Germanic, I never fully know the contributions between the manufacturer and the collaboration in the design process, I suspect the German designers had a big part to play as the no compromise engineering and vape designed by vapers is evident throughout. Either way, I would say it is a great job done by all!
Pros
- The CNC machining is flawless
- One of the best ‘in the hand’ SBS kits I’ve tried
- Fine attention to detail
- Kriemhild II tank is perfectly matched
- 2 Kriemhild II options (War & Peace)
- 1865/20700/21700 battery options
- Generous bundle of extras
- High end at an affordable price
Cons
- Naff all
Personally I have no cons at all, the only potential down-sides buyers should consider are the weight, limited options for other tanks, and it’s purely a DL kit. These are not cons for the actual kit though as it was designed this way.
Final Thoughts
I had that ‘special’ feeling throughout this review period and the sparkle hasn’t worn off as it stands out as a superb bit of kit in every way. I’m often delighted with some kits, but this one is an instant ‘best of’. The limited tank options don’t bother me when the Kriemhild II looks so well matched and vapes so well. I may get the RBA, but I doubt the flavour will be a patch on the Duplex stock coil.
Scores
- Flavour: 9/10
- Vapour production: 8/10
- Quality: 10/10
- Value: 9/10
Overall Score: 9.5/10 - Vape excellence
Si Davies
Reviewer at POTVMy background is Engineering and Professional Photography. Mostly from POTV users knowledge I learned so much about pretty much all styles of vaping and equipment, Cloud Chasing, Squonking, Mouth To Lung, Direct To Lung, Pods, Mechs, Rebuild-able tanks and atomisers etc, and have experience with many many devices and atomisers, it's become a hobby and enjoy trying out the latest gear. I like to think my reviews are plain speaking and informative without getting too technical, if I have to resort to reading the manual then I don't consider it user friendly!
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