Uwell Crown D Pod Kit
Uwell have brought out another fantastic pod/mod kit with the new Uwell Crown D Pod Mod Kit. Si put it through its paces
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by Si Davies
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Supplied by Uwell for review
https://www.myuwell.com/products/pod-mod/crown-d.html
RRP = $43.99
Uwell have been busy bees recently with quite a few new releases, the Caliburn has had a few upgrades and the all new Sculptor impressed me a lot. Uwell lobbed the new Crown D Pod Mod into the post for us to test out, I’m kinda bored with pod/mods but this little AIO impressed me no-end.
- Net Weight: 59 g
- Output Range: 5 W-35 W
- Battery Capacity: 1100 mAh
- Materials: Aluminium Alloy, PCTG
- Dimensions: 106 mm * 28 mm * 18.5 mm
- E-liquid Capacity: 3 ml (FDA) / 2 ml (TPD)
- Coil Specifications:
- FeCrAl Meshed 0.3 Ω UWELL PA Coil: 25 W - 35 W (Pre-installed) (DTL)
- FeCrAl Meshed 0.8 Ω UWELL PA Coil: 15 W - 18 W (Spare) (RDL+MTL)
Unboxing
The Crown D comes in a smart little presentation box showing the actual device through a clear panel in the outer sleeve.
Removing the outer sleeve, you find all the accessories in one layer, there’s the Crown D device, a pod with a preinstalled 0.3ohm coil, a second 0.8ohm coil, and a charging cable, and underneath the blown plastic tray are the documents.
I was pleased to see two things; the pod is a less wasteful replaceable coil jobbie, and Uwell have included a second coil at a different spec so you get to try out the Crown D in RDL and MTL modes.
First Impressions and Overview
Grabbing hold of the Crown D for the first time was a bit odd as it looks bigger than it is. It has that classic pod look and feel to it, but it is on the large side for a pod. As a pod/mod though, it seems smaller than I am used to, the majority of it fits into your hand grip with only the mouthpiece sticking out.
Two things stand out as different from the crowd with the Crown D; firstly the bright colour screen which is pleasingly large, secondly and innovatively is the control wheel stuck on the base.
This replaces Up and Down buttons to control the menu and power adjustments, the wheel itself is metal and feels superb with its knurled outer edge. The clicky mechanism is responsive and there’s absolutely no wobble on it.
The styling is quite simplistic but all the little details bring the style to it. The front face has the screen and fire button, and there’s an airflow adjustment switch on the one side. The pod housing is notched so you can see your e-liquid level, the pod itself has a superb fit and feels seamless.
The USB-C charging port is on the base alongside the control wheel, other than all of that, the rest of it is pretty plain. Branding is minimal with only ‘UWELL’ printed in black on the rear side.
The weight surprised me, I hadn’t read the tech bumf so I had no idea when I weighed it, but it came in at just 59g and that’s with a full pod, that ‘looks bigger than it is’ thing was messing with my head as I was expecting upwards of 80g. Uwell have done a great job keeping such a feature packed Pod Mod down to this weight.
The mouthpiece is quite chunky and looks more suited to RDL which left me concerned whether the Crown D was going to be suitable for MTL, usually a larger mouthpiece offers a clue that the airflow would be on the airy side. Spoiler alert, I needn’t have worried, the whole MTL vape was superb.
The pod is a magnetic fit and sits quite deep into the battery, Uwell have recessed the housing so you still get to see most of your e-liquid, and the clear plastic of the pod adds to this.
The pod is really well designed and features leak resistance in the base which diverts the airflow from the base of the coil up a few mm which creates a bit of a reservoir to collect any excess e-liquid, you can’t see much but I know that this method works well as Vaporesso use something similar in their newer pods.
The P1 coils are well made and it’s pleasing to see the basic coil info printed onto the base. Once fitted, you can still see the wattage range and ohms on the base of the pod.
Replacing the coil is quite simple as it’s a press fit, but you do need to pay attention to a flat edge on the coil which needs to align with a flat edge on the pod. It all pushes up flush which usually means it is going to be tricky to remove it, but Uwell have you covered there as they have added two bevels on the base of the pod making it easy to get your fingernail under the coil edge and pops out nice and easily.
As you can see from the included card, the pod is top-fill so it can be filled without removing the pod. The mouthpiece flips off quite easily with a reassuring click when removing or replacing it.
Filling it up is a doddle, the fill port is marked with a red silicone hole and it accepts standard 10ml bottle nibs. There’s a breather hole to avoid airlocks, and the full visibility just made it convenient and mess free.
It’s hard to get excited by a pod but Uwell have put a lot of effort into this design and it ticks every box I can think of, I would say it’s the best pod I’ve tried in a pod/mod kit.
Controls
Uwell have included an interesting chipset in the Crown D and the Wheelie dial control method is refreshingly different, the screen is bright and clear, even in daylight I could make out the required info.
- 5 x Fire = Turns device On/Off
- 2 x Fire = Unlocks wattage adjustment (turn wheel left or right to adjust and Fire to confirm)
- 3 x Fire = Enters top menu (rotate wheel to cycle through the options, long press FIRE to confirm):
- POW = Default adjustable wattage mode (auto limited to the coils resistance)
- VOLT = Variable Voltage (2.4 to 4.0 volts)
- CURVES = Variable user selected power curves
- BYPASS = Auto voltage set to match coils resistance
- CUSTOMISE = Variable Wattage but no limits set 5 to 35 watts (also disables AUTO-DRAW)
- SETTINGS (rotate wheel to cycle through the options, long press FIRE to confirm):
- PUFF CLEAR – Resets Puff Counter
- LIGHT – Adjust screen brightness
- COLOR – Select colour scheme (with a U)
- FACTORY RESET – Resets the factory somehow
- EXIT – Erm……….
So there’s quite a bit you can do within the menus and it was novel to navigate with the wheel of fortune, but in reality I doubt the majority of user will need anything other than the default POW mode once you’ve set up your desired screen settings. CURVES can be useful for adding preheats and cooldowns for RDL but not much use for MTL.
Changing the wattage with the wheel was simple enough via 2 x Fire to enable the wheel, and I liked how it locked itself once you fire the Crown D, but there’s one thing that nagged me; there’s no way to lock the fire button other than to turn it off which makes accidental pocket-firing a certainty.
The charging screen is very basic and doesn’t display a percentage or time remaining, a minor niggle as you just get used to it as it takes around 40 minutes max to charge the 1100mAh cell, the charging current is 5V/2A USB-C (I had to trawl the manual to find the Amps).
The manual is one of the best I’ve seen, easy to follow, well-illustrated and fairly jargon free, and not over-bloated with tech stuff we will never need to know.
Performance
My instincts were telling me that the Crown D was going to be a great RDL vape, so I kicked off with the 0.3ohm coil and left the device on POW which set the wattage for me. After filling up the pod with 70VG/30PG e-liquid (Japanta Dr Cherry) and waiting a good 10 minutes for the coil to prime, I opened up the airflow fully and took it for a toot…..
Just superb! Even at the default 30W, it was warm, flavourful, and provided decent dense vapour. The airflow was a loose RDL, not quite a full DL though, but I actually needed to close it off a tad for my desired RDL draw. The airflow adjustment worked really well and I couldn’t detect any air coming in through the sides of the pod, perhaps this bugger might just do MTL after all?
I tested it out at the maximum 35watts, it did get better but I was happy going back to the 30watts default as that usually means your coil will last longer. Battery life was quite decent, even at 30 watts I was getting a full working day and into the evening before I had to recharge, little things like how fast the screen sleeps all help this. If you want it to last even longer, you can lob the screen brightness right down to 10% (this was quite the chore as the scroll wheel required 90 clicks to get there!).
MTL – I whacked the 0.8ohm coil in, filled the pod with 50PG/50VG 20mg nic salts and let it soak in for 10 minutes. So Crown D, are you up to it? Indeed it is! I closed the airflow off fully as I wasn’t expecting it to be tight enough, but it was a cheek-pulling tight draw and I actually needed to open it up a pinch, so that’s a big tick on the airflow. The default POW set it to 17watts and this provided quite a warm, flavourful vape. Since I had the airflow closed off, I found 17watts a bit too warm so I took it down to 13 watts and that was bob on and I found my sweet-spot – this vape was even better than the Sculptor! Well I say that, but it is proportional due to a lower ohms and higher wattage naturally giving a more intense vape. The only factor that didn’t quite suite MTL was the mouthpiece which is larger than I prefer, but I got used to it quickly and forgave it due to the vape quality, either way I was very satisfied and saw the Crown D under a new light as a good all-rounder.
The auto-draw performed flawlessly, even with the loosest RDL airflow it never skipped a beat and kicked in instantly so I simply didn’t need or use the fire button. The device itself was comfortable to use and the light weight added to the long term comfort. Shoving it in my pocket became troublesome though due to the lack of locking the fire button, so I had to either leave it out handy or turn it completely off when stashing it in my jeans pocket. I had to change my habits but turning it on/off so much did get a touch annoying but never enough to dislike the Crown D.
Conclusion
Uwell had already provided me with an ideal compact pod MTL vape with the Sculptor, I had hoped the Crown D was going to give me the same level for RDL vaping and indeed it did! But not only that, it gave me an excellent MTL vape into the bargain. With far more customisation from the adjustable wattage and airflow control, I would say the vape quality is actually better than the Sculptor.
The default POW mode is perfect for new vapers, and the various other modes should keep most experienced vapers happy. The more I used the Crown D, the less I needed any of these extra functions, POW with the set limits was ample for both modes (MTL and RDL).
The minor niggles (fire locking, basic charging screen) were a shame as Uwell appear to have put a lot of effort into the Crown D Pod Mod.
Pros
- No1 is the vape quality for both RDL and MTL
- Design of the actual pod is near perfect
- Top-fill
- Quirky control wheel
- Effective airflow control
- Clear & bright colour screen
- Multiple power modes
- Only 59g
- Replaceable coils
- Leak resistant
- It’s better than Netflix’s The Crown
Cons
- Lack of Fire button lock
I’m not going to class the battery screen as a con as in real usage it didn’t bother me one bit, a quick glance at the battery bar and knowing how long it took soon became instinctive. The lack of fire locking did continue to bug me though, eventually I wore it on a lanyard which got rid of that annoyance.
Final Thoughts and Score
Despite being bored of pod/mods, Uwell have won me back with the Crown D. Reviewing can become a chore and you soon forget and move onto the next new thing, but the Crown D will be firmly fixed in my main rotation for some time I suspect. I will even be buying an additional pod so I can swap and change between MTL and RDL.
Score 8.5/10 – Crown Jewels
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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