Starter Kit Reviews

Freemax Twister 30W

FreeMax continue their 2020 refresh with a new twist....the Twister 30W!

by Antony Lord
Aug 14, 2020

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FreeMax Twister 30W kit

FreeMax continue their 2020 refresh with a new twist on their popular Twister 80W kit with the release of the new Twister 30W kit which is aimed squarely at the starter and mouth to lung markets. Let’s dive down and take a closer look at what’s on offer.

The kit comes in the now familiar FreeMax packaging with details of the kit and a scratch ‘n’ sniff code on the outer sleeve. The main box has a bold “Twister 30W” logo on the front, and inside you will find the Twister 30W mod along with the Fireluke 22 tank and a spare glass for the tank. As this is the TPD edition, both glass sections are 2ml, but non-tpd regions will have a 3.5ml bubble tank preinstalled. Under your kit is a smaller box containing all your paperwork, a micro usb cable, spare o-rings for the tank, a second coil and a second drip tip.

FreeMax Twister 30W mod

Specifications:

Size/weight 78.3 x 22 mm / 78 grams
1400mah internal battery / 1.5 amp fast charge
Resistance range 0.5Ω to 3.0Ω
Power range 7.5 to 30 watt / 8 amp output
90% efficiency

Freemax Twister 30W close up and button placement

The Twister 30W mod looks instantly familiar as I reviewed its older sibling the Twister 80W last year. The version I reviewed was from the initial release with the colourful “graffiti” designs, but I’m happy to see FreeMax have carried over the more toned down single colour finishes seen in the later second wave for this new kit along with a subtle “Twister 30W” logo on the front and back. It all feels well constructed as I’ve come to expect from FreeMax, but remains small and light enough to be easily pocketed.

On one side you have a square power button with an led for power and error indications. This is slightly raised from the body and feels a tiny bit mushy but has a definite click towards the end of its travel, and there’s zero button rattle. The led changes colour to indicate approximate battery life but I’ve not been able to find any mention of what the levels are set at so I’m guessing that it’s the usual green > 70%, blue 30~70%, red <30%.

Around the other side is a micro usb port for charging the internal 1400mAh battery with promised 1.5amp fast charging in under 80 minutes. When charging, the led on the button lights up red and in my tests the Twister 30W actually achieved a peak charging rate of 1.64amps and the LED turned off after about 55 minutes with a recorded charge of 1300mAh, however the mod continues to charge at a slower rate for a further 20 minutes before dropping to zero (total time 1hr 15mins) with a final recorded charge of 1379mAh. One of the things I disliked the most with the Twister 80W was the incredibly slow charging at just 0.75amps taking over 3 hours to charge, so this is a very welcome upgrade. Battery life has also been surprisingly good, probably due to the 90% efficiency. I was particularly impressed when using the supplied mouth to lung coil in the Fireluke 22 tank

Up top is a spring loaded 510 connector. The platform is just 22mm though, so this is obviously more suited to smaller tanks. Most mouth to lung tanks still stick to the 22mm format though so this isn’t really an issue as you’re not going to be using high wattage 30mm tanks on here.

Down at the bottom, you have the adjustable wattage with battery venting. This time the wattage is adjustable from 7.5 watts to 30 watts with a definite ‘click stop” every 2½ watts. This does limit the range of options available, especially in the lower wattage range where mouth to lung vapers tend to operate so it may lack some of the fine tuning you might desire, especially below that all important 15 watt range. I haven’t found it to be a problem personally, but if you’re an exclusively mouth to lung vaper it might be worth bearing in mind.

FreeMax is all about safety so the Twister board employs no less than eight safety protections. To test this I tried a tank with a 0.37Ω coil, well below the stated 0.5Ω minimum resistance, and the Twister simply flashed a red error code.

FreeMax Twister 30W mod Pros

Compact tube design
Adjustable wattage
Fast charging

FreeMax Twister 30W mod Cons

Lacks fine adjustment at lower wattages
Slightly “mushy” power button

FreeMax Twister 30W mod conclusion

This is a superb piece of kit particularly if you’re a low wattage vaper. Be aware that you might not have quite the fine level of control over wattage that you might want though. The 1400mAh battery will get most mouth to lung vapers through a full day, and the fast charging is an added bonus. As is usual from FreeMax, the build quality is excellent and there are multiple safety protections built in.

Freemax Twister 30W logo

FreeMax Fireluke 22 tank

Specifications

Size 35 x 22mm (not including 510 or driptip)
Weight 48.3g
2ml capacity (3.5ml for non-TPD regions)
904L steel coils with tea-fibre cotton

Freemax Twister 30W Fireluke tank

FreeMax have included the new Fireluke 22 tank in the Twister 30W kit which is designed for both (restricted) direct lung and mouth to lung vaping, and there are two drip tips included, one for each style of vaping. It breaks down into six parts as you can see above.

On top is a standard 510 catch cup so if you’re not keen on the included tips, you can of course use your own. I found the included direct lung drip tip to be quite comfortable, but the mouth to lung drip tip was too tall for my liking so I substituted it for one of my own. The filling mechanism features a safety feature where you have to first lift the top section before sliding the top back to reveal the fill port, no worries about it coming open in pockets here, and filling was easy.

The airflow is one sided but there are plenty of options. If you turn it all the way to the right, you activate the single hole airflow with five different sizes available, no word on how big these are but visually I’d say they range between 0.8 and 2mm. Turn the airflow all the way to the left and the direct lung cyclops airflow comes into play.

Freemax Twister 30W coils

Coils are press fit into the bottom and the tank and the housing have a spring loaded mechanism that closes when you remove the coil meaning you can change the it even when the tank is full. This is something I’ve come across before, but it's still a welcome addition.

Two coils are available for the Fireluke 22 tank, a 1.5Ω mouth to lung coil and a 0.5Ω direct lung coil. These both feature the FM CoilTech 4.0 system with 904L steel mesh coils and tea fibre/cotton wicks for enhanced flavour reproduction.

The 1.5Ω coil is rated for 8 to 12 watts. This means, of course, that there are really only two available power settings with the Twister 30W, 10 watts and 12.5 watts. I found 10W was acceptable but 12.5 watts was much better with a richer more satisfying flavour, although it should be noted that I experienced a short break in time (around half a tank) before it really kicked in fully. The airflow had a borderline whistle on the two smallest airflow settings, but I prefer a slightly looser MTL vape anyway so I found the third hole was perfect. Of course one advantage of this low power draw was the outstanding battery life, I got a day and a half out of a single charge!

The 0.5Ω coil is rated for 15 to 30 watts and this gives you a much wider range of power options with the 2.5 watt increments on the Twister 30W. It needs 17.5 watts on three holes to start producing good flavour, but once again there’s that borderline whistle lurking in the background. Crank the wattage up to 22.5 or 25 watts with the airflow fully open though, and you get a really pleasing restricted direct lung vape with bags of flavour. The obvious downside here is with that 1400mAh battery, you’re definitely not going to get a full day's use.

FreeMax Fireluke 22 tank Pros

Perfect for MTL or (Restricted) DL vaping
Child proof filling

FreeMax Fireluke 22 tank Cons

Borderline whistle on some airflow setings
904L coils may be problematic if you have nickel sensitivity

FreeMax Fireluke 22 tank conclusion

Whilst I've thoroughly enjoyed using the Fireluke 22 tank, in both DL and MTL modes, as both coils use 904L stainless steel this unfortunately this means I cannot continue to use the tank as I know from using other FreeMax coils using the same material they are giving me problems most likely due to the relatively high nickel content (23~28%). As this is the first tank to use these coils, there’s no fall back position either so I would urge FreeMax to consider making a low nickel variant available (kanthal or ss316), and the same rings true for the AutoPod50 kit I reviewed recently.

Overall Conclusion

Another great kit from FreeMax which I’d happily recommend to a new vaper. It’s well worth a look if you're a mouth to lung vaper as well.
Many thanks to FreeMax for sending the Twister 30W kit out for review.

Freemax Twister 30W fossil cool

Antony Lord

Reviewer at POTV

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I 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.