Ultra-compact but the LED display and a few things are to be review
The sector of the ultra-compact is in expansion, and Vaporesso with its Target Mini Starter kit and JoyeTech with its eVic Basic are the leader in the domain. With its TC40W Mini Kit, Kimsun is the outsider.
TC40W Mini Kit by Kimsun comes in a carton box. Inside, all classic stuff: a clearomizer STL Tank II, to Titanium 0.32 Ω heating elements, a user manual full of illustrations, and a USB cable to charge the box.
With a height of 54 mm, 34.6 mm wide and 21.2 mm of thickness, for only 64 g (32 g less than a Target Mini by Vaporesso), the box TC40W Mini is very compact. With the STL Tank II, it stays under 10 cm and its 90 g make it a lightweight. It is the major asset of this box with its relatively good finish. Buttons do not jingle, the plastic is of good quality and the mod also embarks a 1100 mAh battery.
The Fire and the “+” and “-” are on the front. The LED display is on the top, next to the clearomizer’s 510 plug. One would have preferred an OLED screen with few more information. The symbols (°C, %) are not very readable and the navigation is blindly. Fortunately, the chipset’s usability is rather good.
Error messages are hardly comprehensible and require to get back to the user manual. For example “E01” means that there is a shortcut. A negative point is that the battery level is not visible andthe message “E00” appears when charging is necessary.
Technical features:
The technical features of the Kimsun TC40W Mini kit are:
- LED screen
- Front black “Fire” (on & off by 5 quick press)
- Adjustable temperature: 150°C – 315°C in Ti by increments of 1°C
- Variable wattage: 5 – 40 W by increment of 0.1
- Resistance range: 0.15 – 2 Ω
- Built-in battery capacity: 1100 mAh
- STL Tank II; capacity of 1.1 ml
- Threaded 510
- Weight: 90 g
- Height: 99.3 mm
- Width: 34.6 mm
- Thickness: 21.2 mm
- STL Tank II diameter: 16 mm
- Protection: 15 sec, shortcut, battery overload and low voltage
- Charge via micro-USB, plug located under the box
- Display: Temperature/watts, Power/volts, Ohms
- Material: Aluminium/Stainless steel/Plastic
- Modes: Wattage and Temperature control Ti/Ni
- Two heating elements: Titanium 0.32 Ω
- User manual
- USB cable
- Drip-tip in Delrin and Stainless steel
- Color: Black
Enjoyable but limited vaping experience
The TC40W Mini’s chipset allows vaping in wattage mode or in temperature control mode, with Ni or Ti resistive wires. The kit only offers Titanium coils, so I could only test the temperature control mode. Let’s remind that it must be avoided using Ti or Ni coils in wattage mode because they release toxic compounds
The SS316L (Stainless steel) can be used in both wattage and temperature control modes but Kimsun only proposes Ti heating elements for this box. Pression on both “+” and “-” gives the value of the resistance. In order to switch from one mode to another, one needs to click three times to enter the mode menu, to click once to select the right mode, which is finally quite simple.
Compared to some other chipsets, this one does not allow locking the value of the resistance in temperature control mode. In TC mode, adjusting the power is also not possible.
The tank that Kimsun proposes for this TC40W Mini kit, the STL Tank II is a 16 mm clearomizer in diameter. Very compact, it only contains 1.1 ml. Its finish is average with threads of very bad quality and a gripping airflow ring. Another annoyance is the bottom filling system, not very usable. Only the Stainless steel drip-tip is good, with a coating in Delrin that prevents it from heating too much.
As you can understand, the TC40W Mini Kit is not the best product of the year but when you start vaping, it is not that bad, finally. The temperature control mode does the job and the STL Tank II renders flavors very well with a good volume of vapor. The dual airflow system allows vaping tight of very aerial, which is very comfortable.
On the model in test, the atomizer was having a connexion issue with the box. It required screwing it very tight to make contact, which makes me believe that the ensemble won’t last very long.
Thanks to the temperature control mode, less greedy in e-liquid than a wattage mode, the 1100 mAh are not a problem. The autonomy of the battery sustains a full day of vaping.
In Summary
The “+”:
- Compactness
- Light weight
- Versatile clearomizer
- No Leakage
- Good rendering of flavors
- Cheap
The “-“:
- Small tank capacity
- Clearomizer’s average finish
- No temperature control in Stainless Steel
- LED Screen
- Bottom filling system
- Contact issue
Conclusions
Rating of 3.1/5. Still not fully available in all stores, the TC40W Mini Kit by Kimsun leaves us with a high degree of frustration. Its low price (around €40) is no excuse. Even with its high compactness, the quality of its STL Tank II is average, especially the finish. Another inconvenient is that Kimsun only proposes Ti heating elements for this model. The box is of better quality but its LED screen complicates its utilization. In spite of that, vaping quality is good and the autonomy is far enough to satisfy beginners or experimented vapers with a good rendering of flavors. In fact, better turn to the concurrents that, despite a bit more expensive, propose a range of products that comply with the current standards of vaping, versatile and upgradeable thanks to more powerful chipsets.
