Review of Wotofo Manik Pod & SMRT Coils.
For a while now the team at Wotofo have been working behind closed doors, on a new project, set to shake up the coil market. As up till now market between standard prebuilt pod and tank coils, and that of Rebuildable market, such as the multitude of RTA (Rebuildable Tank Atomiser) has been clearly defined, between the vapor who is tied to continuing to purchase prebuilt coils and pod, and the more experienced vapors who have learnt how to build and wick their own coils, there by negating the need to continue to purchase packs of coils, which over time can become quite expensive.
To my knowledge, up til now there hasn’t been a middle ground. That was until Wotofo designed and manufactured their own SMRT Coil System, a Coil System the easily allows the user to effectively build the own standard stock coils, with their choice of grade mesh coils, and organic cotton. Turning what was a virtually impossible task, to hack the standard stock coils, striping down and recoiling and wicking the coil. Due to the manufacturing process, the stock coils weren’t designed to be taken apart, and although just about possible, the time and effort it took, never seemed worth the effort, and even if you did manage to ‘Hack’ the coil, and reassemble, the results weren’t ever that great.
Seeing this gap in the market, Wotofo set about designing a Rebuildable stock pod coil. Starting the SMRT PnP Rebuildable Coil, which is interchangeable with VOOPOO PnP and Vaporesso GTX Coils. The next design batch will be compatible with the popular RPM2 coils. After speaking to my contact at Wotofo, it is clear that they will release more batches to fit all the coils in the market.
The SMRT Pod Kit.
From launch you have the option to purchase the Full SMRT Pod kit, which includes the MANIK S Pod and SMRT Coil kit, or just the SMRT Coil kit, which just includes everything coil related.
The team at Wotofo very kindly sent over the full SMRT Pod Kit to test and review.
With the SMRT Pod Kit, you get a flavor-enhancing airflow system with a substantial 4.5ml big pod capacity, and a 2000mAh Li-ion battery, Type-C fast charging, and nexCHIP Technology making sure that its 80W output is safe. The colors available with the device are in black, gold, black-red, and black blue with an elegant and durable gradient finish.
The SMRT Pod Kit comes in as the most versatile pod system in the market right now.
The SMRT Pod Kit allows you to use your vaporizer without worrying about endlessly fiddling with complex settings that you don’t understand. The playability of the SMRT Pod Kit allows everyone from beginners to veteran vapers to use the product for an enjoyable experience.
The More You Use Your SMRT, The Better It Gets
The SMRT Pod Kit is Wotofo’s way to provide a convenient solution for vapers at all levels. The basic product itself is quite easy for newbies to understand, but it is highly customizable. With several easy rebuilding options for coil heads, you can make slight adjustments to the pod as you learn more about vaping and start playing around.
The product effectively levels up the interaction between vape products and vapers. Instead of purchasing a simple product as a beginner and moving on to another product when you want to take your vaping game up a notch, you can easily rebuild your SMRT Pod Kit to match your changing vaping preferences
What’s in the package:
- 1 x MANIK S Battery
- 1 x SMRT PnP Pod Cartridge
- 1 x SMRT PnP Rebuildable Coil Kit
- 1 x D15 Clapton M Coil (Interchangeable with GTX Coils or PnP Coils)
- 1 x Type-C Charging Cable
- 1 x User Manual
Yes, you are reading that correctly. Buying the Wotofo SMRT Pod Kit means that you get all of these in the same package. You can choose to start with the most basic setup with the D15 Clapton M Coil, to get the ball rolling. Once you start getting the hang of everything, you already have all the necessary parts to easily hack the coil heads and customize your experience.
The SMRT Pod Kit Specification
- Dimensions: 29.2 x 23 x 117.3mm (with pod installed)
- Pod Capacity: 4.5ml (Standard Edition) / 2ml (TPD Edition)
- Pod Cartridge Type: Refillable Pod for Replaceable Coils
- Main Material: Aluminum Alloy + PCTG
- Display: 0.96'' TFT
- Filling Method: Side Filling
- Airflow Type: Side Airflow
- Battery Type: Built-in 2000mAh Battery
- Output Power: 5-80W
- Charging Port: Type-C
- Charging Current: DC 5V/1.5A
The Manik Pod Build & Design.
The SMRT kit comes with the Manik Battery and Pod, the Manik, is quite a cool little Podmod, although I did think it felt a little cheap, (which at only $34 for the whole kit it is great value). Mainly due to the lack of weight in the hand, it just feels to light. Even with the 2000mAh internal battery, some people my say that having a lite weight mod is a positive, and pocket friendly, but that is just my option, plus the fact that the one I was sent had a sharp edge running around the base of the body, where it didn’t quite line up with the plastic base section.
Once I got over the virtual weightlessness of the device, it did begin to grow on me, it has a great shape in the hand, and the fire button felt very natural. And was easily found, when Vaping. The paint work is nice with some really striking colours to choose from.
Branding
Wotofo seem to have a thing for branding on their products, and the fact that they tend to go a bit over board. Especially with the massive MANIK printed down the back, and Powered by nexM Technology on the side, and the strange location of the CE info on the opposite side. Would have been a nicer product with slightly less branding on. In my opinion.
Battery & Charging
As mentioned the MANIK comes with 2000mAh internal battery, which is a healthy size power source for such a small device. Once again they have placed the Type C charging port on the base. Which I never understand, as it means you have to lay the mod down to charge it. Not quite sure why they didn’t put the CE info on the base and the charging port on the side in its place. Running at around 30w I seemed to get a decent amount of vaping between charged, and even when it did go flat, it only took about 50 minutes to charge.
Display
I really like the 0.96” TFT screen, which was super bright, both indoors and outside. With all the information well proportioned and clearly laid out.
Displaying the following information.
- Battery bar and battery percentage
- Wattage along with locked symbol.
- Ohms Resistance
- Voltage drawn
- Number of puffs.
- Time of puff.
You also have the option to customise the colour of the background on the screen, by pressing fire button along with the + button, to cycle through the choices.
Controls & Functions.
The Manik has a nice colicky fire button, which responds well, and feels nice to use. The unmarked control buttons are located underneath the screen, and are also nice and positive when pressed.
- The standard 5 Clicks on and 5 clicks off.
- 3 clicks in rapid succession, locks the fire button.
- Pressing + & - together will lock the wattage adjustment, but will allow it to still fire.
- Pressing the fire & - will reset the puff counter.
Manik Pod
The Manik pod holds 4.5ml (Standard Edition) / 2ml (TPD Edition), a is filled using the rubber bung on the side on the pod, the pod has to be removed to fill the pod.
I did find the bung quite tricky to remove to fill, as it does require nails to hook under it to lift it up. But once open it has a good sized fill port, which didn’t give me any issues filling
The pod is held in place by two round magnets at the base and a longer one at the top, with airflow channels running directly to the coil.
Airflow.
I was a bit disappointed that there is no way to adjust the airflow, and comes fixed at wide open, with the air being drawn directly through the side air inlets on each side of the device, it would have been nice to have some type of adjustment on the sides, or build directly into the coil.
The SMRT Rebuildable Coil
The star of the kit is definitely the SMRT Coil, superbly designed and super easy to use and rebuild.
Wotofo created the SMRT Pod Kit as its solution for pod vapers so they can also enjoy a more interactive experience with their vaping products. A completely customizable system, the SMRT Coil is a fantastic way for pod vapers to enjoy a tailor-made experience without investing in a lot of expensive and complex apparatus.
Wotofo’s SMRT PnP Rebuildable Coil Pack is a comprehensive kit that allows you to enjoy rebuilding your vape pod so you can change it to meet your preferences. The kit comes with three different types of nexMESH coils, namely nexMESH Chill, nexMESH Turbo, and nexhMESH Extreme. It also includes a SMRT PnP Rebuildable Coil, cotton strips,
SMRT PnP Rebuildable Coil Pack
1 x SMRT PnP Rebuildable Coil
2 x nexMESH Chill 0.20Ω
2 x nexMESH Turbo 0.20Ω
2 x nexMESH Extreme 0.20Ω
6 x Cotton Strip
2 x Contact pins
2 x Rubber black insulation rings
1 x Building Manual
The user manual is detailed and easy to read and understand, giving you step my step instructions as to how to build your coils. Wotofo have also put together a great video, showing you clearly how to build the coils, check it out here https://www.wotofo.com/pages/smrt-coil-guide
Each kit will effectively allow you to rebuild the coil six times, based on the fact that you only use the coil once, but I did try and use the coil again, and it seemed to work fine, just became a little tricker with the coil legs, getting them aligned.
SMRT Supplies
But once you have either your Manik Pod Kit or SMRT Coil Pack, you can then purchase replacement Mesh Coils, and Cotton strips, to make your coil with, a SMRT PNP MESH-COTTON SET will cost you $9.95 and includes 10 Mest Panels and 10 pre cut cotton strips, which mean each coil will cost you around a $1 each to rebuild, which is amazing value.
SMRT Mesh Coil Selection.
Both the Manik and the SMRT coil packs come with a selection of the mesh panels, to allow you to choose your favourite set up.
nexMESH Chill for SMRT PnP
0.20Ω (Best Power: 37-43W)
Smooth flavor, great vapor production.
nexMESH Turbo for SMRT PnP
0.20Ω (Best Power: 37-43W)
Heightened flavor, thick vapor production.
nexMESH Extreme for SMRT PnP
0.20Ω (Best Power: 45-55W)
Vigorously warmer flavor, heavy vapor production.
SMRT Coil Build.
Once you have chosen which coil you want to use, lay out you component parts on a clean work space.
Then take you cotton strip and lay the mesh coil in the center of it.
The take coil coiling rod, and shape the cotton and coil around the bar, shaping it a tightly as possible, gripping the two ends of the cotton, between your thumb and forefinger
Then carefully insert it into the open end of the coil body, with the two cotton end coming out through the slot, and just push it into place, you’ll find that you have to pinch the cotton hard to make it the correct side to fit.
As you push it in, the coil legs will point out of the end of the coil body.
Once the cotton and coil, are all the way in place, you then need to separate one of the legs, the one closest to the cut out notch, and bend the leg down into the notch, at a right angle.
Next pick up your rubber insulation ring, and thread it over the remaining leg, so you have one left on the outside, and one leg up through the middle. Effectively straddling the oring.
Move the inner leg over to the side, press fit in the brass contact pin, which will hold both legs in place. You should end up with the outer leg bent over at a right angle into the notch, and the remaining leg trapped between the rubber insulation ring and the brass center pin, giving your positive and negative contact.
You can now take your cutters and cut the remaining cotton off, as close as possible to the body of the coil. And the snip off the excess coil legs.
And finally you can you the rolling rod, and screw on the outer coil cage. And you coil is complete.
The outer cage then needs threading onto the main body section, which keeps everything in place, and creates a seal when installed into the pod.
Any Issues?
I only had a couple of teething issues, firstly I started to get dry hits on the first mesh I installed, which I think was down to user error, and running it at to higher wattage, when doing the photos of the screen. And secondly when I installed the second mesh, the device would fire, and just kept coming up saying ‘Check Atomiser’,
so I took the coil back out and started to check the build, and found that I hadn’t actually put the second coil leg through the middle of the insulation ring, so effectively had two negative connections. But due to the Manik’s safety features, the worst thing that would happen, is an error message on the screen.
Final thoughts.
So impressed with the SMRT PnP Rebuildable Coils, super easy to build up, and immense flavour production, more inline with an RTA, definitely not what I am used to from stock coils. Wotofo are on to a real winner, and have final found a way for newer vapors to start customising their vaping experience. Really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the Smart Line up will be like.
If you already have pod systems that run the PnP coils, like the VooPoo Drag range, then I would juice grap yourself one of the SMRT Coil Kits, which includes everything you are going to need, plus snipers and a handy carry case, which I think is always useful when you have kits like this, with lots of little bits that you don’t want to loose.
Check out the kits here, https://www.wotofo.com/pages/smrt-pod-kit
