Lost Vape Centaurus e40
Antony got to test the pretty in pink Lost Vape Centaurus e40 pod kit
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by Antony Lord
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Not too long ago I took a look at the Thelema Elite 40 and e-Plus RBA kit from Lost Vape and whilst I was generally happy with the setup, it did have some shortcomings, mostly the overly restrictive “smart” wattage limits which I felt were holding the RBA back. Given that the Thelema Elite 40 is only the first entry in a series of pod kits that Lost Vape are releasing based around this common platform, I thought I’d take a look at the Centaurus e40 kit this time as it does away with the screen and uses a rotary power dial instead…. Our friends at Healthcabin were kind enough to send it over for review so fingers crossed this will eliminate the power limitation issues I was having last time around.
Specifications
- 93.9 x 44.2 x 19.5mm
- 99.6 grams
- 1400mAh internal battery
- 5~40 watt output
- 3ml pod (2ml for TPD regions)
- optional e-Plus RBA available
The Centaurus e40 is available in six colour options and of course I forgot to add my usual “not pink!” request when asking Healthcabin if they would send this over for review so guess what colour I got in the mail… hot pink with a slightly pearlescent finish!! Some of the other colour options are much less in your face but I’m sure someone will love this. Inside the box you’ll find the Centaurus e40, two pods, a lanyard, a USB-C charge cable, and the usual assortment of paperwork.
On the exterior, the Centaurus e40 very much reminds me of a couple of semi-mechanical box mods circa 2016 with a bold boxy design and rounded corners on the control panel surface. I’m also not a fan of the graffiti style artwork on the sides on this pink version, luckily the other colour variants are much more subdued and sensible.
Up front we have cutouts for the lanyard at the top, a fairly large power button which is metal rather than plastic, a rotary wattage control and a USB-C charge port. On the opposite side, there’s the adjustable airflow control.
The rotary control is clearly marked in 5 watt increments allowing you fine control over your power level and it has a nice amount of tension in the movement which has meant it’s stayed at the desired setting with no accidental adjustments in pockets and the like. There is a limited control scheme in play here with three clicks locking the fire button whilst leaving the auto draw system functional, and five clicks turning the device on or off.
One of the two side panels lights up whilst vaping or charging and changes colour to give you a rough idea of the amount of charge left. As this is based around a common platform, we once again have a 1400mAh internal battery, and in my tests this hit a peak charge rate of 1.4amps with exactly 1400mAh capacity recorded in 1 hour and 13 minutes.
Up top there is of course the pod recess with under coil airflow, and this uses the same E-Plus pod system as the Thelema Elite 40, with a 0.3 and 0.6ohm pod included in the kit. A 0.8ohm coil is also available plus the optional E-Plus RBA kit, and as before, I feel a better mix here would have been the 0.3ohm paired with the 0.8ohm pod to give you a better spread of the airflow options out of the box. Having said that, last time around 0.6ohm pod gave a fairly respectable loose mouth to lung draw which was fine by me, and the 0.3ohm pod gave a very nice, restricted lung draw.
The PCTG E-Plus pod has a 3ml capacity for international releases but will obviously be restricted to 2ml here in the U.K. The duck bill design along with the slightly wider pod gives this a nice mouth feel, and the lightly smoked pods make it fairly easy to see your e-liquid levels and this has been a completely leak free experience. The fill port is a decent size, but its position means that you will need to remove the pod for filling, and it can get a bit messy if you’re not paying attention to what you’re doing. The mesh coils are kanthal, so are suitable for those of us with nickel sensitivity issues.
Of course I was more interested in how this would perform with the RBA kit as I found myself being frustrated by the “smart” wattage limitations imposed by the Thelema Elite 40. I was hoping that the analogue rotary control meant that this “feature” would be removed from the Centaurus e40 so I left my build from last time in there with the largest airflow pin aaaand… bugger! It feels like I’m not getting the power levels I want and a quick Look in the manual confirms that the wattage is once again limited according to the resistance of the coil you have installed. (Boo!!)
Another annoyance quickly rears its head with the placement of the airflow control, as this is around the “back” of the device directly opposite the fire button, I constantly found myself blocking the airflow. Placing this on one of the side panels would easily have reduced or even eliminated this issue.
Conclusion
The Lost Vape Centaurus e40 is another fairly decent entry in their new e-Plus pod kit line up, but I can’t overlook the flaws here. It’s all too easy to block the airflow and the Thelema Elite 40 was much better thought out in this regard, and whilst it works well with the stock coil pods, that annoying “smart” wattage limitation really holds the optional e-Plus RBA back. I really can’t recommend this over the Thelema Elite 40 and think that is a much better option overall.
Many thanks to Healthcabin for sending the Lost Vape Centaurus e40 for review.
- Compact, versatile stock coil pod system
- Optional RBA kit
- Auto draw doesn’t always work well with the RBA
- Whilst the power levels are well matched with the stock coils it can be a bit limiting when using the E-Plus RBA kit
- Too easy to block the airflow
Antony Lord
Reviewer at POTVI 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.
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