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Review TGV Reviews The Xato Copper Mod From DKX Technology

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Oct 9, 2014
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The Philippines has become quite the hotbed of activity in the vaping scene over the past year, or so and seems to be firing on all cylinders. A quick search on google throws up a huge amount of B&M shops, not just in Manila, but all over the islands. While shops are springing up in abundance, it seems the same thing is being echoed in the mod making scene and they are beginning to make their way over here. It’s high quality stuff too. The world seems to be waking up to some of the quality that the Philippines is bringing to the west.

DKX Technology and YAS Philippines have just begun selling their copper tube mods in the UK at Vapor-Z and judging by the Xato Mod made by Mr Dann Dann Tagata of DKX it seems they are a force to be reckoned with, not only in the aesthetic department, but also in performance too.

Vapor-Z were kind enough to send over one of their Xato Mods for review – So, many, many thanks to Rianne and Tan for that. You can buy it, here, for £109.00. Vapor-Z also stock a 26650 version in brass for £126.00.

Let’s vape!

Design:

The Xato Mod a 22mm diameter tube made of copper which arrived to me with a lovely patina on it. For the purposes of this review I gave it a good clean up so you could see it in all its copper bling glory, but it’s a matter of personal taste whether you give it a good once over with a lemon, or leave it to the elements to give it a more rustic look. Personally, I prefer the shininess of it clean.

It comes with both 18650 and 18350 battery tubes supplied. The 18650 mode is conservatively sized at 90mm top to bottom. The 18350 version is 58mm in length, absolutely ideal for stealth vaping.

The top-cap has four airflow grooves cut out of it – should you be using an atomiser with no airflow – and it’s so slim it could almost pass as a hybrid connection, it has a copper telescoping adjustable pin which allows every dripper, or tank I have put on it to sit very nicely and flush to the cap.

The 18350 and 18650 tubes both have some absolutely gorgeous, deep engravings of a Celtic cross on them – it really is very skilfully done and looks fantastic, as well as being deep enough to provide some surface area grip on the mod itself. There’s not much fear of the Xato slipping through your hands then. The 18350 flavour also has some extra engravings around the cross subtly displaying the DKX brand name, the mod name Xato, the word, “Copper” and the chemical element symbol, “Cu”. The design is all very tasteful – there is nothing else on the mod, so the tube itself it fairly minimal, which is very much to my taste. There are no huge logos loudly displaying a brand, it’s really very nice indeed. The 18650 tube just has the cross on it and actually, I’d quite like to see the same wording engraved around that too.

Moving down the mod to the recessed fire button and we find some equally nice engraving, again a Celtic inspired design, which allows some grip when unscrewing the button. Threading on the top cap and fire button is sublime and silky smooth. The fire button itself is very much a no fuss design and has a very short throw, which I’m a fan of. The spring inside has just the right amount of give and is very smooth to use, no crunchiness here. The battery connection again has a telescoping copper adjustable pin. When I initially received the Xato, I did have a bit of an issue getting the thing to fire, but this was purely down to user error and once I had got the hang of using only the fire button adjustable pin to compensate for battery rattle, everything was smooth sailing. There is no locking on the fire button, but it is flush to the bottom of the device, so you can place the mod base down on a table with no fear of it firing at all. That said, I wouldn’t really want to throw it in a bag and forget about it without the ability to lock it off, I would definitely want to take the battery out first. It would be unlikely to fire in that situation and you’d be unlucky, but still personally, I’d rather be totally safe.

Now, here comes by biggest criticism of the Xato. No venting. No venting at the bottom of the device at all. I think we’re at a point now where the majority of vapers have some level of awareness that safety is a big issue, and for me venting is fairly important. No matter how hard I blow down the end of the Xato I can’t get any air movement at all. Should you be in the awful situation where you have a catastrophic battery failure on the Xato, the only way is up through the top cap. Now, I’m not sure just how much vent holes would protect you anyway should battery go bang, it is a high pressure situation where you can have no real idea which direction the force would come from, or how fierce that force would be. Still, I’d very much like to see some kind of venting added to the next iteration of the Xato Mod. If you are a sensible vaper with good knowledge of battery safety and aren’t pushing the ohms to extreme limits you should have nothing to worry about. If you are a vaper that pushes things to extreme limits, you may want to have a word with yourself anyway.
Overall, I find the design of the mod to be stunning looking, even more so once you get it cleaned up.

The top cap is a very nifty, slim and elegant design, the tubes themselves have some lovely engraving, and the fire button fires every time and never sticks. It’s an impressive looking device then with just the one caveat above.

All I need is a copper rebuildable dripping atomiser, maybe like the Little Boy (I hate that name) on top to complete the look.

Performance:

Firstly, every atomiser I’ve tried on the Xato has worked without any issues at all whether that be a Nautilus, an Atlantis, or a Magma dripper. I don’t do any super sub-ohming – it‘s just not my style, but I have gone down to 0.4 ohms on The Magma and it’s has performed absolutely brilliantly while chain vaping – with no hot spots on the body of the Xato or on the fire button at all.

As The Xato made of copper with copper connections, the phrase, “Hits hard like a steam train” isn’t a favourite of mine, but in this case has never been more accurate. While I don’t know what the voltage drop is, I would think it is very low indeed. Vapour production on any atomiser I’ve tried has performed beyond expectations. Using the Magma with this device, well, it’s never been better.
The performance using The Atlantis at 0.5 ohms has also been excellent. The Atlantis is a plume machine as we know, but the conductivity of The Xato has turned the monster even more monstrous.

In short then, The Xato is all round great to use and has stellar performance too.

Click here for my final thoughts and vape porn pics!
 
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