Pod System Reviews

Jmate PCC – Portable Charging Case for Juul

Jmate have released a superb companion for Juul users. The handy carry case will hold and recharge your Juul as well as keeping a couple of pods protected and easy to find!

by Dave Junglist
Feb 21, 2019

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The Jmate PCC is a portable charging case for the Juul ecig and it will also hold a couple of pods as well. The case is lightweight and tiny and feels really good in the hand. Let’s have a closer look and see if it is a worthwhile purchase for Juul users like myself!

Specs

Weight: 63g
Height 100mm
Width: 56mm
Depth: 12mm
Charge capacity: 1200mAh
Anodised Aluminium Casing

What’s in the box

Inside the box you get the Jmate PCC and a tiny, and I do mean tiny, USB charging cable. The cable is the same height as the PCC itself, so 10cm long – it did make me laugh at the size of it initially but plugging it in to an external USB hub on my desk or into my laptop when I have been out and about has not been a problem at all. I guess we should applaud them for their environmentally friendly outlook on material consumption if nothing else!

Apart from the packaging and the PCC itself that’s your lot! The PCC is very straightforward to use and the few items of information that you need are on the packaging anyway which I’ll cover in a mo! A second point on this – all of the packaging is cardboard too. I don’t know about you but the amount of plastic waste in all walks of life is pretty astounding, so it was good to see a product in for review with just a bit of cellophane wrap around it an no plastic anywhere else.

Design and manufacture

This is a really nicely designed and put together bit of kit. As you will see from the specs, this is a mere 63g, just over two and half packs of my old favourite tobacco, lighter than a lot of the pod mods I have tried. Size-wise it is a tad taller than a billet box and 2-3 times thinner.

It is made from an anodised aluminium cast – so while the frame may look relatively thin in places it feels really strong and it will take a heck of a whack to put it out of shape.

The anodised surface is smooth, but it isn’t slippery in the hand, with the weight being minimal you won’t lose grip of it easily so it doesn’t need to be roughly finished.

There is a rubber top cap on the PCC, it is attached into the frame at one end so you won’t lose it as soon as you get it. This clips down on the opposite side of the charger and will keep your Juul and pods inside the frame while you carry it in a bag or pocket. I guess there is a risk that the rubber will degrade over time and with use and will detach on the side where it is fixed to the frame, I have given it a hard tug or three and it seems pretty resilient – so hopefully it will last a good amount of time before perishing.

Using the Jmate PCC

As you can see from the pictures, the PCC will hold two pods and a Juul – the Juul will only fit without a pod being attached to it. The Juul fits really nicely into its slot, the charging light showing up every time I have put it into the frame. I am sure most Juul users out there will have experienced the frustration of the USB chargers – I am not sure quite where the issue lies, probably juice build up at the bottom of the Juul or in the charger well, but I often find the little sods won’t start to charge without a clean or a wiggle to get them to connect properly. I have not used my USB chargers once since getting the PCC a couple of weeks ago – and for that I am very grateful!

You don’t need to worry about the Juul staying in place so that it keeps charging either – the rubber top cap fits really snugly into place and hasn’t come away once so the Juul stays pushed onto the charging contacts at all times. My Juuls have always got the green light when I take them out.

The pods will only fit into the frame one way up – with the removable plastic cap upwards in the frame. They can be a bit of a fiddle to get out though, gripping the pod with the thumb and forefinger through the cut out and wiggling upwards is the easiest way to do it, the pods tilt a little bit and won’t come out most of the time if you just try and up end it.

I have taken the PCC into work most days in my bag and took it for a long weekend away last weekend and threw it in a rucksack and my grotty old coat pocket and it doesn’t have a scratch on it so from the relatively small amount of use it had had I reckon it should stay tidy for quite some time. I have had mods just look at my walking coat pocket and develop a scratch before so to have survived the weekend away it has done well!

The charging port is on the bottom of the device, due to size constraints I guess this is the only place it could go. It charges relatively quickly – around 90 minutes from completely drained to full - and the light system (flashing while charging, solid light when full) makes it easy to see when it is done.

Conclusion

All in all I think this is a really solid little extra for any Juul users out there who find that a whole charge isn’t quite enough for them. I have used a Juul for about 18 months now and was solely on them for a time last year. For me the 50mg pods are superb, the only problems with them are that they cost way too much to have as a full time habit (even more so if you want the 50mg ones from the states), the batteries don’t last long enough for a good session down the pub or a full day in work and the pods are a bit hit and miss at times.

Well, the PCC does solve a couple of these issues, having a couple of Juuls on you, one in the charger and one on the desk or in the pocket works really well. Knowing you have one extra full pod in the PCC as well (don’t forget that one of them is what you would probably use on the spare device so you really only have one full one when using this system) is also good as I was forever misplacing them in my bag or leaving home with what I thought was a full pod, only to find it was nearly empty when I got to the office…

Two minor points for improvement. Four pods would be nice. Or, even better, make the device just a bit taller so it will accommodate a Juul with a pod attached and four pods on the side. I would be happy with it being another pod higher, it would still fit nicely in my pocket I reckon. Second minor point would be some kind of battery power indicator, I tended to vape and then stick it back in the charger so no clue as to how many charge cycles the thing had completed at any point. Yes, the sensible thing to do is to stick it on charge if you are using it a lot, four full Juuls a day should be enough for most people. Like I said, minor points really.

So there you have it, if you Juul a lot then this is a really good add on and I heartily recommend it, I am not parting with mine! If you are in the UK and you want one then keep reading right until the end as we are giving one away…

If you like the look of the PCC you can buy them direct from https://jmate.net/ for $29.99, they have kindly given POTV readers a $5 discount if you use the code jmatepcc! This takes it down to $24.99 including shipping which works out at just over £19.

If you Juul and you want to get your hands on one of these then well done for carrying on reading. Click here to enter the competition where we are giving one of these away – Jmate kindly sent us two so the spare one is up for grabs, like I said before, there’s no way I am parting with mine!

Dave Junglist

Reviewer at POTV

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Dave Junglist is co-owner of Planet of the Vapes and has been vaping since 2015. He spent his early years with his head in a bass bin and was a very committed and experienced smoker. He had his first cigarette at the age of 13 and just knew it was for him. He did stop briefly with the aid of patches but reverted quickly and became a ‘secret’ smoker, working hard to keep his weak will from the attention of his family. Vaping made an honest man of him and for this he is forever thankful. He has been involved in websites since completing a degree in Environmental Science in the late nineties. At that time there was pretty much no contact with computers but on joining the regular workforce and deciding that the world-wide-web was the future he blagged his first job as a web designer and never looked back. As you would expect from a junglist, Dave likes his beats and is most comfortable when the bass is wobbly.