Aspire Flexus Kit
We love a good tube kit, but does the Aspire Flexus Kit deliver? Read on to find out...
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by Tim Jones
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Happy vape day! Today I’ll be taking a look at the Aspire Flexus Stik which was kindly supplied to me for review by TECC – The Electronic Cigarette Company. Aspire have been around for a long time and have built up a reputation for quality and excellent flavour so I was excited to get my hands on the Flexus Stik. It’s not often you see a stick device these days, so it’s always good to come out with something a little different. But will I want to snap this Stik or will I want it to Stik around? Let’s roll…
The box itself is quite compact and has a standard carboard sleeve which slides off to reveal the contents underneath:
- Flexus Stik
- Flexus Stik Pod
- 1ohm AF Mesh Coil (KAL) – rated 12-15W
- 0.6ohm AF Mesh Coil (KAL) – rated 12-15W
- USB-C charging cable
- User Manual and Warranty Card
The kit is available in a variety of colours and finishes – Black (polished and sandblasted), Silver (diamond knurling), Gunmetal (polished and sandblasted), Snow Mint (sandblasted), Fuchsia (sandblasted) and the one I was sent – Red (diamond knurling).
When I opened the box, in all honesty I thought it was one of those posh little torches (some countries call them flashlights) and all of a sudden, I burst out into song, what song is there about torches I hear you ask? What are you on about? Well, it was the theme to Jamie & the Magic Torch, and I couldn’t get it out of my head! You can get 10 extra points if you can remember what his dog was called.
“Down the helter skelter, faster and faster, towards cuckoo land” – Jamie & the Magic Torch Theme
I’m glad they sent me the red variant as damn, it’s a good looking thing. The sleek tube shape, the diamond knurling, and just the sheer simplicity of the design all really appeal to me. I think whoever designed it deserves a bonus as it’s a great looking thing. It’s a nice size, it feels well made, and I’m just drawn to it. There’s minimal branding on it with just a small “Aspire” on one side, and “Flexus Stik” on the other just above the USB-C port. On the same side? It’s a tube, do tubes have sides? Just one side? Well leaving aside some Pythagorean theories and Pi for now, we’ll see the airflow slot at the top above the USB-C port which we’ll cover when we get to the pod itself.
The device weighs in at 56g and is 112.8mm x 22mm in diameter, is made of aluminium alloy, and houses a 1200mAh internal battery which takes roughly 1hr 30mins to charge at 1A. At the bottom of the device is an LED light ring, and then on the very bottom is the fire button. Five clicks of the fire button turns the device on/off, and three clicks changes the power setting. When you vape, this will light up and the colour will be dependent on your battery level – green 60% - 100%, blue 30% - 60%, red 0% - 30%. It will also flash twice when you adjust the power level, you press it three times and it will rotate through the levels, if it flashes red it’s on low, blue is medium and green is high power mode.
I’ll be honest, I don’t like the fire button being on the bottom, I find it awkward to use. I tend to use a fire button even if there is auto-draw, and I find I have to have my hand in an unnatural position to use it. The saving grace is that the auto-draw works really well, I’ve had no stuttering, no instances of it not working, and it kicks in straight away. Because this is a tube design and with the auto-draw working so well, you can hold it like it’s a cigar and use the auto-draw to inhale whilst pretending you are some MI6 agent on assignment in Havana or when you’re role-playing as Colombo on a weekend.
“The strangest people you’ve ever seen, and the torch with it’s magical beam” – Jamie & the Magic Torch Theme
Right, the pod, OK erm, let’s just dive right in…it holds 3ml of e-liquid (or 2ml if you have the TPD version), and the bung is well, it’s kinda ugly and give you a narrow strip to see your liquid level. It’s slightly smoked but you can always view the liquid level without having to remove the pod, which is a huge plus in my book. The supplied drip tip is nice and comfortable to use and is removeable so you can swap it for your own, should you wish. The coils are push and pull to fit which makes changing nice and easy, and the pod is held in place by three small but strong magnets which survived a flick test. All good so far, but here is where it starts to go a little awry I’m afraid. Implementing adjustable airflow on here is to be highly commended and the airflow range is good, you can get from a tight MTL draw to a nice, restricted DL draw, and it’s easy to adjust. On the bottom of the pod, there are five small holes, once the pod is in place you twist the pod and through the airflow slit you can adjust how many holes are exposed thus opening up or tightening the airflow. Simple yet effective, but not perfect. First off, the airflow slit is narrow, and in bright light I can see the holes but in any kind of low light, you can’t see how many holes are showing at all. I’ve got great eyesight so anyone with any kind of sight issues is really going to struggle. The other problem is that when you twist the pod to adjust, it catches at either side to stop the pod just spinning round, great I thought, that way if I can see the holes, I can twist it one way and I’ll know that the airflow is fully closed and the other way it’ll be fully open. Or so I thought. The airflow holes sit in the middle of the spin so if I turn it all the way clockwise, the airflow is closed off, if I spin it anti-clockwise, the airflow is closed off, you have to have it in the middle for it to be fully open so you need to see it, and given the issue above, it’s tricky to always get it right.
“If I hadn’t really been there, I’d think that I was dreaming” – Jamie & the Magic Torch Theme
The filling port is on the bottom of the pod and quite frankly, there’s nothing I like about it. You peel back the bung to reveal the fill port and then fill it up, pop the bung back in and start vaping. I have quite big hands and so I found peeling back the bung tricky at times, and although the fill port seemed big enough, I found that when filling, it easily backed up and started to overflow. There was space for liquid in the pod, but it backed up and spilled over the sides. It made the whole thing quite messy and frustrating. The other issue with the bottom of the pod that I found was the build up of e-liquid underneath the pod. I don’t know whether it was due to condensation or whether the pod itself was leaking, but there was quite a bit of liquid underneath and I found myself having to wipe the bottom quite often. I expect there to be some drops on all pod kits, but this was excessive.
“Jamie, Jamie, no two nights are the same, Life is one long glorious game with Jamie” – Jamie & the Magic Torch Theme
So, how’s it vape? With the 1ohm coil primed and ready, I took this for a vape. This coil is definitely for MTL so I adjusted the power level, spun that airflow right round baby, right round, like a record, and found what worked for me was with the airflow mostly shut off and the power on the high setting. I can tell you this now, for a small coil like this, the flavour is really, really good indeed. There was a nice amount of vapour production, the airflow was smooth, and it was an all round excellent vaping experience. Switching between the power modes means you can really tailor this to suit, and there is a marked difference between each of the modes which gives you plenty of options. No matter where you set the airflow or which power setting you choose, you’ll get a great MTL vape with oodles of flavour.
Now onto the 0.6ohm coil which I primed and started with the airflow fully open so I could try the airflow for an RDL vape. Again it takes a few goes to adjust the airflow and switch between power modes till you get the experience best for you. For me, this was on the medium power mode with the airflow fully open and yet again this was a cracking vape with super flavour coming through. With this coil, you can even get a warmer MTL vape, just shut down the airflow and you can get that experience if you wish, but I personally preferred the 1ohm coil.
“Wordsworth, Wordsworth following hard behind, Ready for adventure always there to lend a paw or hand” – Jamie & the Magic Torch Theme
Who remembered that the dog was called Wordsworth? Have a daffodil as your prize. Let’s get into the positives first. The Flexus Stik is a looker for sure, it’s stylish as hell. Who wouldn’t want to pick that up and vape it! It’s portable, the battery was lasting me all day with either coil, the airflow is nice and smooth and has a good range, being able to adjust the power is great and worked really, the auto-draw never skipped a beat, and the flavour is joyous indeed.
However, it has pod issues. The airflow is not always easy to see and shouldn’t spin to either side, just block it one side with the airflow shut and the other side fully open. The fill port is difficult to use and get can a bit messy, and the leaking/condensation under the pod is too much, causing you to have to constantly keep an eye on it and keep wiping away the liquid. The charging is only done at 1A which really should be 2A, and I am not fan of the fire button being on the bottom.
Overall this is a great vape with options to customise your vape experience, but it’s let down somewhat by the pod itself. All in all, it’s a good device, but with some tweaks, the Flexus Stik become an excellent one.
FM Out.
Tim Jones
Reviewer at POTVI was a 20 a day smoker for 25 years, I'd tried to quit before but I never lasted more than a few days. I first tried a vape pen in 2018 and i used it while still smoking for about 6 months before I gave the pen away to a friend. In Jan 2020 I decided to give vaping another shot, I scoured many articles on POTV and bought myself an Adept Zlide and some Chiri Sun and I've never looked back.I've now gained quite the collection of devices and liquids and started on rebuildables and some mixology. I love contributing to the forum and enjoy learning from fellow vapers and generally having a laugh, as a Forest fan you have to have a sense of humour!
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