Review Pugsley's all mouth and no trousers review of the IJOY CAPO Squonk Kit

[Steampugs]

Starting the new year with a bang!.....that's what I was waiting for....a very much anticipated device that was going to cater for a vast plethora of vapers and continue with the all too present need to squonk the remaining three hundred and sixty odd days of this newborn year away in a sweet fog filled Utopian bliss...

So I chose wisely.....'what would people really want right now' is the train of thought I was running with.....we need something that looks the shit.....that squonks...obviously...because that car aint runnin out of petrol any time soon (that's 'gas' to you guys over the pond....you knew that though....I'll be quiet now) .....it needs to have enough umph to satisfy the majority and for those less experienced that still wanna squeeze the breeze....it needs to be preferably regulated....hmmm....what to choose...

(Rummages frantically in ever growing box of goodies sent over christmas whilst lazily sat around doing close to fuck all other than eat and drink for a very long time)......nope not that.....hmm nice but no......ohh maybe.....nahhh.....DEFINITELY doing that one next...but not now......nope....nope.....definitely not and probably never.....nope.......

....Bingo!

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Welcome once more into a fresh new exciting year filled with....well...who the fuck knows really...no point in even thinking about it, but right now what I can tell you is that I have in my possession a veritable box of heavenly vaping goodness coming up for review over the coming weeks which seems to have hit me from all angles over the festive holidays while I was procrastinating wildly....but sometimes....the timing just seems right to pick one particular device for all the reasons I mentioned above.....this was needed....and on this occasion it was going to be up to IJOY to deliver the goods....would they be Ijoyfull and triumphant though.....let's find out...

Courtesy of my ever giving eastern chums from the...erm...east...? Heavengifts ...I thrust in your ever eager direction....The IJOY CAPO Squonk Kit....

The Lowdown

The IJOY CAPO Squonk Kit consists of a single engine 100w squonk box mod, Variable wattage only powered by an IWEPAL regulated chip and crowned with the IJOY COMBO Triangle RDA......not sure why IJOY always insist on the shouty capitals......I mean lets be honest....it's almost as if they have taken the Captain's name, constructed a small chunky good looking device to attach it to....and decided to make it into a cutesy nickname......."awww that lil 'capo'...bless it's lil cotton socks....

Shouting its name just slaps of angry little mod syndrome....how dare you call it simply 'Capo'...

But it is what it is....certainly isn't the worst name in recent vape history...at least it doesn't contain the word..... 'Poo' .

First up...the way the CAPO is presented definitely deserves a mention, a lot of people hold retail presence in very little regard but I however..am not one of them, to me personally ...being presented with something that's had a modecom of thought put into it only adds to the whole experience and excitement of receiving a new 'toy'....and IJOY nailed it with this one...

Slip off the very nicely designed cardboard sleeve and you are presented with a fliptop hard board wooden box covered in a carbon vinyl...open the lid and you will find your prize nestled in a custom foam insert..and under that...all your little extras (which...I admit..I enjoyed a little too much...I'm easily pleased)

BITS FOR DAYS!!!

Hat's off to IJOY...they know how to supply the extras....spare 'smoked' squonk bottle, usual bag of rings and screws, cotton, coils, USB lead, two screwdrivers AND a 20700 battery....everything you need but liquid, EXACTLY how a kit should be presented, you absolutely should be able to buy a kit, a bottle of your chosen liquid, then go home get set up and start vaping...THAT'S a kit....everything you need....a larger than average slice of kudos on their plate for that.

We're gonna start at the top on this occasion and look at the COMBO Triangle RDA...

The Top

I seem to remember the etching being of a slightly better quality on past renditions of the COMBO...?...not a fan...

Now....this rainbow fad that most manufacturers offer isn't my cup of your finest Earl Grey, not that there's anything wrong with adding a bit of colour to your life...and heaven knows some people could do with that....but it's just not me, I'm a simpler human being (cough dull cough) but in true IJOY style it is available in more colours than you can shake a shitty stick at...

Mine's not even on there.....that's how many....so I will overlook the colour scheme and just presume that some of you might dig it....

The COMBO Triangle RDA is a 25mm affair with dual side airflow (scooped upwards) an industry standard Ultem 810 drip tip and a relatively well machined build deck and dual post design shaped in a....well....a triangle....I genuinely think IJOY are running out of names for the vast amount of different decks they have pushed into the Combo...

And do you know what...it's alright.....not amazing but about as good as 80% of RDA's on the market...The holes are the wrong way round....the middle two post holes should really be lower than the outer two to keep the legs out of the way when you wick but....more are wrong than right these days with this kind of deck it would seem so....kind of expected. The airflow is a good effort with it's side vents being set super low and angled up but.....even though they are so low...the angle on the vent is too steep so you have to set your coils really high to get the air underneath them, which keeps your coils away from the liquid in the impressively deep juice well....making it a slightly inefficient squonker....

Building on it brings no surprises and the supplied fused claptons are of a high standard....big fan of the overly large post screws have to say...

Plenty of room for cotton and lots of space around the squonk pin for the splurge...all in all...not half bad....not groundbreaking....but....adequate....moving on...

The Bottom

First and foremost....I love the design of the IJOY CAPO Squonk mod, it's the perfect size for your palm and it's built really well, it almost looks like it's wearing a kind of futuristic armor and it's powered by either a 21700, 20700 (included) or with the supplied silicone sleeve... an 18650....versatile....some would say

It also has one of the best and easiest refill methods on the market.....

The front guard that holds the bottle in is held in place by a magnet underneath, simply pull it off and remove your bottle, fill it up...pop it back in and slap the guard back on, no muss no fuss......simples. The included 9ml squonk bottle is also rather unique, a hard exterior with a soft and squidgy centre.....much like myself....

 

[Steampugs]

Which not only helps fight against the rather annoying flat bottle characteristic that most silicon bottles can suffer from but it also means you don't need a thumb like Arnold Schwarzenegger to press the damn thing .....I like that.....

In true IJOY fashion the fire button is HUGE and feels exactly the same as it always does, reassuringly firm and clicky

And on top of that all threads feel fine, spring loaded 510 is....springy..?.....and there is nothing else on the mod build-wise that gives me any other cause for concern....The CAPO Squonk kit appears to be ticking all the boxes...

So far so good then yes?......we have a compact complete squonk kit, looks the shit, squonks well enough, comes in an array of different colours, is a piece of piss to build on and has its fair share of unique little innovations going on....and by all accounts has come along at precisely the right time to add to the relatively small choice in high powered single battery regulated squonk kits right? .....squonkers rejoice!!....... and then sit down again....because from here on in...it goes from bad.....to a little bit shit.

For reasons I can't quite fathom...IJOY in their ultimate wisdom have manufactured a 100w regulated mod that is capped at 4.2v ......no boost....just 4.2.....that's your lot....never mentioned that in their ad campaign did they....and all from one of the worst chips I have ever had the misfortune of testing......

There's a story here that I am not party to, the CAPO squonk release date was pushed forward more than once and I can only imagine that this had something to do with it. IWEPAL are responsible for all IJOY chips these days and generally....they're OK.....not DNA or YIHI OK.....just....OK.....but this POS chip seems to have been found in abundance...in a skip...in the furthest corner of the IWEPAL R&D department marked 'For fucks sake don't use these in anything' then got themselves in a rut with the chip they were gonna use.....and simply had no choice but to use it....

There is no menu system with this, because there's nothing to show, you have VW only and a power up and power down ...kind of....'Z' shaped button...

It displays your Watts....your Ohms and your battery life....no volts....curious.

It's only when you try and use this thing that the problems become apparent....25/30 watts and everything works as you'd expect, the Mod and the RDA pull together as a team and at least show willing...

40 to 50 watts....power increases noticeably.....and everything is going swimmingly....it almost encourages you to go higher....

So you do...obviously.....60w.....

Then 70w........

80w.....

At this point the chips refusal to cooperate becomes very frustrating so you just think 'fuck it' .....and you bang it up....maximum wattage....100w....the reaction you get from the CAPO Squonk mod chip.....is unexpected....

There was barely ANY noticeable difference between 50w and 100w...like....at all......and this isn't a hard thing to test I just simply put the RDA on a different mod, my VTinbox at 75w hit's wayyy harder than the CAPO at 100w??.....So I changed the battery and went with a VTC5a in the silicone sleeve due to Mooch's less than impressive test results on the IJOY 20700 .....same result....I only have one thing to say to IJOY about the apparent 'performance' stats on the CAPO Squonk box.....

The Stats

Parameters
Size: 78.2mm (Height) x 52.3mm (Width) x 30mm (Thickness) x 25mm (Diameter)
Tank capacity: 9ml
Max wattage: 100W
Resistance range: 0.05 - 3.0 ohm
Suitable tank: no overhang with 26 mm tanks
Battery type:
high-rate 21700 battery (continuous discharge current≥40A, NOT included)
high-rate 20700 battery (continuous discharge current≥40A, Included), 3000mAh
high-rate 18650 battery with adapter (continuous discharge current≥25A,NOT included)
Thread: 510 thread

It comes with

1x IJOY CAPO SQUONK BOX MOD
1x 20700 battery cell
1x 18650 adapter
1x COMBO RDA Triangle
1x Squonk Bottle
1x Accessory bag
1x USB Cable
1x Manual
1x Warranty Card
Just to make things clear....that list is copied and pasted...I ain't takin' no blame for that shit...no matter how vague it is.

Final Thoughts

I never thought I'd say this about a company as renowned as IJOY, as this is the kind of behaviour you'd expect to see from a little known company attempting to make a quick buck out of a current trend...but this device from them...just smacks of a deliberate ruse. The fact that they purposefully held back crucial information that really matters regarding how well the CAPO performs tells me that they knew exactly what they were doing....people will buy this on pre-order based solely on the pre-sale stats and the way that it looks.....and I know for a fact that this has already sold a shit ton. There will of course be those that will justify their purchase claiming that it works fine for them, lower ohm coils will of course pull more power but at great cost to battery life and possibly battery safety...but even then...you won't get close to 100w...and there will also be those that don't really vape more than 40 or 50 watts and the CAPO will suit them too...at a push...

But...

For the life of me I cannot imagine how a vaping company at the forefront of innovation would think that capping a regulated single battery device at 4.2v is a good idea?.....

Who would want that?.....and why not mention it in any of the pre-sale advertisements??....I think we all know why....because you wouldn't have bought it...that's why.

And it's a real shame too, because with a decent chip installed IJOY would of been onto a winner, it would have been received with pleasure instead of disappointment as will be the case with most vapers who pre-ordered one, the fit and finish is a step up on any other IJOY device......I mean let's be honest they have made mistakes before, but nothing quite so deceiving and blatant as this...and it's not even cheap...

The Price

If the 'crossed out' original retail price is to be believed then this thing was intended to sell at an eye watering $115 / £84 ...to that....I simply say...

And at time of writing Heavengifts currently have 33% off...although that oddly makes it the same price as IJOY themselves seem to be selling it for.....more curiousness ... and a price tag of $76.99 / £56.74 which in terms of a complete kit INCLUDING battery...actually isn't bad...if it worked...find that deal here..

IJOY CAPO Squonk Kit - Apparent 33% Discount

And with my special discount code APUGS15 that brings it to $65.44 / £48.23

My guess is....if you really want one of these then hold back, word will get around at how underpowered this device is and they will end up sitting on shelves taking up valuable real estate for better future devices.... bringing the price crashing down around IJOY's ankles....and deservedly so....

It's a big fat fail for me and on that basis I cannot recommend this kit to anyone who is looking for a 100w regulated squonker...because this isn't one.

As always if you would like to see how this less than impressive kit scored against everything else in this vapey universe then feel free to hop on over to Steampugs where you will find a cornucopia of marvellous reviews from the Steamteam and while you’re there take a moment to peruse the shop where you will find bargains a-plenty....certainly..better bargains than this....

Wow I'm really fucking grouchy over this thing.....what's that all about....?...I feel genuinely offended....must be on my period or some shit...

Until next time

Pugs