hack400
Olympian
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- Sep 10, 2021
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Pioneer S Community Review
Hello fellow apes, and welcome to another community review. Here we have another BP Mods review, this time it is the new Pioneer S, which is a stock coil tank.
First off, a quick thank you to Andy @dovpo_uk for organising the kit, sending it out, providing the gerbil and generally being supportive, as well as Bruce at BP Mods. We would not be able to do these events without Andy’s support.
The testers for this event are made up of a few apes from the Dovpo Green Room (past testers), and we also ran a random pick from a sign up for an additional 4 in the forums.
They are
@Chris K
@gary68
@MHL
@Phrasing
@RAPTOREX
@Sam Andrews
@stuartd
And myself, @hack400
A big thanks to all the testers, your input is invaluable and keeps these events running!
On to…
The Review
The BP Mods Pioneer S is a new tank that takes the BP Mods TMD stock coils. If you’ve read the TMD Boro review, you may know a little bit about these coils. The coils come in varying resistance, allowing a range of vaping styles from open DTL to a really tight MTL. They are designed to allow compatibility with the Voopoo PnP coils, the Vaporesso GTX coils and the Wotofo SMRT PnP coils, which allows for a large range of coils to be used. There are some exclusions, which can be found on the included documentation.
The tank is 22mm, comes in two colours and two capacities.
In the Box
The Pioneer S comes packaged in what may now be the familiar BP Mods flatbox. You get the tank along with an accessory box that includes an extra drip tip (comes with DTL and MTL drip tips) and extra o-rings and screws. 2 coils are included, a 0.55 RDL coil and the 1.05 MTL coil.
“I like the BP packaging. Stylish and simple, with consistent branding.” – MHL
“as an obsessive collector of BP mods products I like the high quality and easily stackable packaging used, its appealing to the eyes and the separate box for the spares is a nice touch.” – phrasing
“I really like the style of the packaging. It looks and feels high quality. And the flat form factor. Will please the OCD holder in me” – RAPTOREX
The consistent packaging that BP Mods has been using definitely stands out, and so far, what’s found inside has delivered. So, will the Pioneer S meet the same standards we’ve seen so far?
Construction
With the Pioneer S, BP Mods has delivered yet another well made product. From the presentation in the box, to the smooth feel as you remove the top, it all comes together very well. Some may argue that the use of a plastic tank detracts from the quality, but it’s not something you really notice.
“O rings do their job perfectly, threading is nice and smooth with no jamming. Overall perfect.” – Chris K
“Light in weight, but solid and easy to use. Feels like quality, which is not always the case with lightweight products. If anything I would have preferred a glass tank, but I think all BP stuff is plastic tank, so the point is mute.” – MHL
“the build quality and the colour finish are great as always. the top cap isn't as nice as some other BP mods products though.” – Phrasing
“I love the build quality. The treaded section is smooth as butter. The cap bayonet has a lovely solid feel. It all fits together so nicely. Only spoilt by there not being a proper sized replacement o-ring, for just below the bayonet. The tank just feels nice, in the hand.” – RAPTOREX
This was the same across the board, all the testers thought it is a well made tank.
Coil fit and priming
I know, you all want to get to the good bit, but before you get there you do have to get a coil in and prime it. How did the testers get on with setting the tank up?
To be fair, it’s rather easy to fit the coil. The priming, on the other hand, can be a lengthy chore. At least for the 1.05ohm MTL coil.
For the 0.55ohm coil just soak into the side ports and put some juice in the top, that should do it.
For the 1.05 coil there is a lengthy process, which none of the testers were particularly fond of.
Here’s a video from Bruce, the man behind BP Mods.
The following excerpt is taken from the Boro tank review. The coils are the same TMD coils, so the process and observations are the same.
The short version. Prime the coil as you would normally. When you put juice in the top of the coil let it soak up the juice. Then repeat several times. At one point during the video, after about 20 minutes of this, he states that if you think you’re done, well not quite yet. He then asks you to go through the process of dry pulling on the coil. Basically, suck through the coil as if you’re vaping it, but without pressing the fire button. After about 30 minutes of all of this, it should be ready to go.
Yeah, it’s a load of faff, and one that was not popular with everyone. Not only that, we came to find that the early release version of the coils had some issues, and we did find some poor performance initially (burnt taste). However, once the coils are primed properly, they perform their MTL duties extremely well.
“I only used the 0.55 due to it lasting longer hat seemed like forever. Primed usual way (Drop of liquid down Centre and a drop on all exposed cotton) threw it in the tank, filled and vaped immediately. Pretty standard.” – Chris K
“A pain in the arse to be honest. I hadn't read the instructions, so that is my bad. (I never normally need to read instructions that I get with tanks). I wish there had been a more prominent warning. Also, even after reading it was pretty hard to get it going.” – MHL
“priming the .55 coil is quick and easy. the 1.05 is by comparison is long, needlessly complicated and without trying to be rude here, if I wanted to put in that much effort I would just build and wick an rta. this mtl coil is the major blemish on an otherwise damn near perfect tank.” – Phrasing
“for me the whole priming method and longevity of doing it let's the tank down for an end result which doesn't vary much to a standard stock coil tank” – Sam Andrews
To be clear, the long priming method is only or the 1.05 coil. All of the other TMD coils that were used in testing prime up just like any other stock coil. But, so that we are very transparent in our results, we pretty much all agreed that the 1.05 was in need of some help from BP Mods. However, once you get them going, they perform really well.
Fitting the coil, as previously noted, is simple. It is a push fit coil and that is it. Just make sure that you push it in firmly.
“putting the coil in was one of the easiest I've used no faffing about trying to screw it in the holder just place it in and line up the vision holes with the holes in the top section” – stuartd
“Fitting the coil is very easy and I applaud the use of the pnp/gtx coil format. if every company stuck to a few standard sizes it would give the end users a vastly improved range of choices.” – Phrasing
No need to harp on, it’s easy so I’ll leave it at that.
Filling and Vaping
Yes, we’re getting to the fun part. A quick chat about the fill port and we’ll get on to how this tank performs.
The tank is a top fill, and the top cap is a nice quarter turn that reveals two fill ports. There were a few complaints that the ports were too small, although I wasn’t too concerned by them. Some messy fillers got some juice stuck in the space between the fill ports and the cap.
Well, I think, to be honest, you’ll end up seeing some juice in this area regularly. Perhaps another con?
“2 small holes to fill. Great if you have needle tip bottles but a bit more tricky if tips are wider.” – Chris K
“nice 1/4 turn top cap and 2 ample fill holes .be careful not to overfill .best to stop just short of the fill holes and allow airspace under top cap .or risk pushing juice into the coil and flooding out the airflow slots” – gary68
“the fill ports are functional but a little small in my opinion. because the holes are so small it creates a little shelf between them and the top cap that can make refills messier than I would expect.” – Phrasing
“easy top fill, nice threading and big fill port, only niggle Is the juice sitting in between tank and fill port once filled” – Sam Andrews
So not everyone thought the holes were too small, but there was a concern about juice in the top of the tank. That said, I didn’t experience any issues.
Intermission…
Just some glamour shots.
Phrasing wanted the Blade Top Cap to fit, looked good, but doesn't actually fit. Future opportunity?
Vaping the Pioneer S
Back to the important stuff.
If you have read the TMD Boro tank review, you will be familiar with the feedback on the TMD coils. Of course, there will be tank specific performance, and with the Pioneer S it was consistently the same. The Pioneer S performs extremely well with these TMD coils.
Across the board there was great feedback on the 0.55 coil, and except for the lengthy priming faff with the 1.05 coil, that too impressed.
The flavour production is exceptional for a stock coil.
“Extremely good using the 0.55. For a stock coils pulls subtle notes from Eliquids well. Very impressive for stock coils.” – Chris K
“been using the 0.56 around 22-24w's and it does the job nicely with the mtl coil I ran around 12.5w's which also does the job nicely any higher it did taste a bit different probably because of the juice I am using 70/30” – stuartd
“Awesome, one of the best I have ever tasted, and better than many RTAs, no bull.” – MHL
You’ll get a good cloud out of these coils if you want, and the vape quality and saturation is also extremely good.
“again I want to base this on my best experience with it and from the .55 coil I got a good enough flavour to compete with any plug and puff coil I've used. it doesn't out perform a good rta but it comes close to matching it which is impressive enough.” – Phrasing
“Never had a single dry hit, even when the coil was reaching end of its life. Wicked great from start to finish.” – Chris K
“Where's the Telly? Considering the wattage bags and bags of vapour.” – RAPTOREX
“Thick and chewy” – RAPTOREX
One of the great features of the tanks that use the TMD coils is the ability to use the PnP / GTX coils, and we had several testers giving those a go. To keep it short, they work perfectly. I used the Wotofo SMRT PnP mesh, which was my first experience with the SMRT system, and I was very impressed.
“this is where choosing to use the pnp/gtx coil size proves its worth. if you want massive clouds you can use a .2 coil and listen to the fire alarms squawk with glee at 5 in the morning. if you want to be more discrete you can throw in a mtl option and get away with using it at the pub.” – Phrasing
Of course, it does mean that the TMD coils can be used in other tanks as well, but we’re looking at the Pioneer S here, so I won’t pursue that any further.
If you’re going to position a tank for both DTL and MTL vaping then you’re going to need really good airflow options. Well, the S has plenty of available scope for airflow with two sets of slots. On one side you have an open slot, and on the other there are pinholes allowing you to go from fully open DTL
down to single hole for MTL.
The airflow ring is easy to adjust yet stays in place so no messing around once set.
“Tight as a ducks butt if you wanted or fairly airy. Has various small hole options for MTL or a wide open for DTL. Never felt like needed any more than that.” – Chris K
“Excellent from a DA to a gale all on one airflow.” – RAPTOREX
“for me this tank has the best airflow range I've used from a really tight mtl to a great rdl vape” – Sam Andrews
“Perfect.” – MHL
Does the tank leak. No one likes to deal with a messy tank. Well, there’s nothing to see here. You do get the occasional bit of condensation on the bottom of the coil, but the tank is well constructed and does not suffer from juice leaks. Will note that there was some seepage from the MTL coil if left.
“Dry as a bone from start to finish. Never even a hint of a leak or any condensation.” – Chris K
“not had one problem with it leaking no matter what I tried you can fill it up to the top put the topcap back on and nothing leaked even with the airflow ring half to fully open” – stuartd
“noticed the mtl coil seeped out airflow if left for a day but nothing major” – Sam Andrews
“not a drop of leakage with any of the coils that I have used, if I separate the base I will occasionally find some condensation on the positive pin of the coil but in my experience that's an unavoidable symptom of all coils of this type.” – Phrasing
“can't recall having a single drop of liquid out of place .really great tank to live with” – gary68
Continued...
