Vape Club have sent over The SMOK Tech247 pod kit for us to look at.
Smok are back with a new pod kit. I’ve had a couple in my time and always enjoyed them, the original Nord was a favourite when it came out, and the first version of the Novo was reliable too. It’s been a while since I’ve had either one however, and it’s nice to try out something different rather than the fifth or sixth iteration of those two well established kits.
Step up the SMOK Tech247. This is a small pod kit with a 1800mAh internal battery. It takes 0.4ohm, 0.6ohm, and 0.8ohm mesh coils, goes up to 30W, has adjustable wattag,e and the airflow is on the pods themselves rather than the device. The coils are replaceable and, as this is the TPD version, the pod holds 2ml of liquid.
In the box you get:
- Tech247 Device
- Tech247 Pod
- 0.8ohm Meshed M-Coil
- 0.6ohm Meshed M-Coil
- Lanyard with drip tip cap
- USB Type C Cable
- User Manual
Design wise, it’s quite a nice looking little pod. For a 1800mAh battery, they’ve kept it very compact. The screen is quite small and has basic info on it, but that’s sometimes better if there aren’t a lot of functions on a kit. There’s a button that fires the coil, changes the wattage, and lets you turn the button firing off so it’s auto draw only. I like that part as I hate burning out coils by constantly firing them when they’re in my pocket, only realising when I feel the heat or the oozing, overheated e-liquid on my thigh. The one I was sent is a nice purple, melding into a sky blue at the bottom. There’s a rubbery type coating on the battery section too so it feels really smooth, while being quite grippy as well. The shape makes it comfortable to hold, all nice and rounded off. There are other colours too so be sure to check them out at Vape Club if interested.
The pod is an all in one with a moulded drip tip. The tip is quite thin and round, it’s a bit weird but is comfortable enough, and it lends itself to both MTL and RDL draws. Airflow is controlled via a slider on the front of the pod. You can get a decent RDL draw and a tight MTL, the in-between is decent too, but you have to adjust slightly to get that medium draw as the slider is quite short.
One thing is that the pod is set up for the international edition so there’s a massive bung that obscures your view of how much liquid is in there. There’s a small window where the coil is and a very small one at the back where you can see the level, but it’s harder to see in low light, and the lower ohm coils do drain the juice quite quickly, so you do have to keep track. It’s not a dealbreaker as you can see the level pretty well, just not over the whole pod. The coils are push fit and I’ve not had any leaks at all so far, with very little condensation either.
I started off with the installed 0.8ohm coil and found it quite nice. The device auto sets the wattage for you when you pop the pod in and thinks you want to do 14W. I preferred it a little higher at 16W so I changed it, and then changed it every single time I took the pod out and put it back in again as the auto wattage setting kicks in every, single, time.
Using 70/30 VG/PG juice, it didn’t do RDL too well, so it works much better as a MTL coil if you’re using higher VG liquid, but that’s standard for MTL coils. With 50/50 liquid, it was fine, and even ok for the odd RDL boost draw. A good start, and the coils do give pretty good flavour and a decent amount of vapour with them being mesh. I had a sweet lime in at first, and the coil picked up the lime, as well as the fizzy sherbet I’d gone a bit overboard with when mixing. It also did well with some 50/50 bar salt type juice, highlighting the flavours behind the ice and sweetness that you get in that kind of liquid.
The 0.6ohm coil is where I had an issue. The battery section has a little line at the bottom where it says the device is powered by IQ chip technology and I’m not sure if it’s this technology or if I had a bit of a dud, but the auto select when you put the pod in thinks I’m still running a 0.8ohm coil and set the wattage accordingly at 14W. I bumped it to 18W and got a really decent RDL draw with some pretty good flavour. The coil drew like a 0.6ohm and produced vapour like a 0.6ohm coil, but the display insisted it was 0.8. I noticed it was still saying 0.8ohms so I took the pod out and slid it back in again. 14W again, arrrgh, it’s maddening! After a while, it did recognise the 0.6ohm coil and set at 17W, which is a lot better. I honestly think it’s the coil that’s a bit dud rather than the device, but I’ve not had time or cash to buy some more to test out. Some stock coils do fluctuate, but I’ve found it’s more by 0.01s of an ohm rather than 2 full 0.1s of an ohm, but then, it’s SMOK, so maybe the occasional QC issues other people complain about sometimes are real and I’ve just been lucky previously. I personally think they should have left the auto wattage set function off, it would have saved a lot of frustration, but that’s a feature a lot of companies are including for those who just want to click in a pod and vape away, so it would probably be remiss of them to not include it.
Conclusion
The SMOK Tech 247 is a good little pod kit. The top airflow on the pod works pretty well, and it’s different. I quite like it. I also like the fact that you can turn the button press draw off, that’ll save me when I’m wearing tight jeans. The draw and performance of the coils is good too with decent flavour. This would make a good starter kit for anyone who’s not sure what style of vaping they prefer yet. It’s also quite good for taking out and about with the large battery capacity for a pod kit. I did not like the auto wattage setting when you put a pod in, and I did not like the 0.6ohm coil being mistaken for a 0.8ohm coil. As I say, perhaps that’s down to a dud coil, but I’ve found it fluctuates and sometimes it registers as either.
If you would like to try the SMOK Tech247, it will set you back £22.99 for the kit, and replacement pods are £3.99 for a pack of two. Finally, you will need extra coils, and these come in packs of five for £11.99.
Many thanks to Vape Club for sending in the SMOK Tech247 for review
- Nice compact wee kit
- Top airflow on the pod is different and works
- Rubber casing makes it a comfortable kit to hold
- Can turn off the button press draw to make it an auto draw only device
- The damned auto wattage when you pop a pod in
- Pod has a bung in it so can be hard to see the juice level
Stephen Gitsham
Reviewer at POTVI was a very militant smoker for many years…why would I stop doing the only thing I had left that I liked doing? Then I fell into vaping in 2017. My wife bought a cheap kit off from Amazon that stopped working and I took it to a local vape shop to see what they could do with it. An hour later and full of new knowledge about watts, ohms, and juice strength, I headed home with a new nautilus mini tank for her and raved to her about the helpful guy in the shop. I must have bored her with all my new found information. I tried her vape that night, and a week later bought my own kit. Then I found POTV and the amazingly helpful and generous people on it. A month later I was making my own (disgusting) vape juice, and a month after that I was winding coils for my new RDA. Six years on and I'm much better at making juice, and I now have no money but lots of shiny mods and tanks
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