Review: Wraith by Council of Vapor

I often find myself browsing through different webshops drooling over new equipment, creating lists in my head of stuff I want to try out next. Quite a few of Council of Vapors products have made it into those lists. Actually a lot of them have to be honest. I do like their style to put it that way, and they've come up with good ideas and designs and realised these in some good quality products. I still love my Mini-volts and my Defiant tank although I have to admit I've been out of atomizer heads for a while now, seems to happen with most sub-ohm tanks I have... when I'm out of heads there is so much other stuff to try out so I never get around to buy new heads. Got to get some for the Defiant though... great little tank to bring around when I'm travelling. This also goes for the device I'm reviewing here; the Wraith 80W Squonker Mod. At least in theory it sounds great: Dripper quality flavour and high juice capacity. This is an all in one kit, that includes both the mod and the dripper... everything you need to get squonking in other words.

In the box

• The Wraith Squonker Mod
• Two juice bottles (one clear and one black-ish)
• The Wraith Squonking atty 
• Spare o-rings and screws
• A tiny blue screwdriver
• User manual

Specifications

• 5 mL juice capacity (?). I haven't measured this, but several sources on the web says 5mL. The bottles are however exactly the same size as my 10 mL juice bottles. Subtract some for the tube in the middle, I think you should be able to get at least 7 mL in there.
• Single 18650 battery (not included)
• Max. 80 Watts
• Temp. control mode (Ni, Ti, SS @ 200-600F)
• Diameter
• Zinc alloy construction on the mod, Stainless steel atomizer
• Rubberized finish 
• 2 post 23mm velocity style (-ish) atty with adjustable airflow, suitable both for single- and dual-coil builds
• Spit back protection system in the drip tip

Look and feel


I think the Wraith looks great to be honest. It has a nice rubberized finish and the carbon fiber inlay looks nice even if it's probably just a sticker. They've used this same style inlay for several mods now, so it's easy to see that this comes from the same family as the Mini-Volt and the Tempest. I was actually a bit disappointed when I first saw the new Mega-Volt that they just released, as I couldn't see this on that mod, but having a closer look they have actually put it on that one as well, just a lot less of it. The rounded edges makes it feel very comfortable in your hand. I do however see a little gap between the bottom plate and the rest of the mod. If you put a battery in there it becomes a bit bigger as there is more pressure from the inside. Could have been better quality control there. I bet it's a lot easier to see this gap on the white version than on the black one. But all in all... it's a nice looking device that feels really natural and comfortable to vape on.

In use

No rocket science required to use this one. The menu-system is a bit different to what I'm used to though, but not difficult to use and quite well described in the user manual. In wattage mode there is one button for switching between three memorized wattage settings and one button for switching between "Powerful", "Standard" and "Soft" mode, that will affect your ramp-up time (same as on for example the Mini-Volt). In temp. control mode you use the + button to switch between three memorized temp. settings and the - button to adjust the max wattage (that seems to go up to 50W in temp. control mode). When you cycle to a memory slot the slot indicator ("M1", "M2" or "M3") will blink for a while, and if you hit - while it does, you can start adjusting temperature or wattage for that slot.

Both the battery and the juice bottle is accessed by opening the lid on the bottom. The lid is hinged onto the mod so it won't go flying around on you once you pop it off. I would have preferred that the juice bottle had some kind of mechanism to stay in place when you open the lid though. It comes popping out quite quickly once you open it which can result in some mess. Then again, once you get used to it you will probably remember to keep a finger on the juice bottle (where you usually squonk) to avoid this.

The build deck on the atty is quite nice to be honest. I've mostly put single coil builds in there and there is plenty of room between the posts to do this. Personally I prefer single coil clapton builds in this one, and not too low resistance so I can keep it around 40W. The reason for this is that I think the battery is drained to fast when you start cranking up the wattage, which kind of defies the point of such a mod in my opinion. That is for the way I've been using it at least, bringing it around. Actually this is where the memory slots start to make sense. You could have several atties ready (it is of course compatible with other squonk ready atties), with different builds which you can use in different settings. If you're at home with batteries readily available, use a low-ohm, high wattage build to fill your living room with vapor in no time, then easily switch to a higher-ohm, lower wattage build when you go out so you don't have to bring extra batteries. You also have two juice bottles to you can easily switch flavours as well. When it comes to airflow on the atty it is easily adjusted by twisting the top cap. There is a little indicator dot that you line up with symbols for either fully open (an infinity sign), 4 or two holes open. Fully open there is 8 holes in total, so you get quite a lot of air.


I've already mentioned the juice bottle that comes popping out quite quickly when you open the lid. Filling the bottle can also be messy ... the first times that is. You have to make sure you don't fill it too much as the tube also takes up some space in there. Also, the bottle is quite soft so when you're snapping on the top-cap-thingy, make sure you don't squeeze it. I usually use some paper towel that I push down on the top so the juice that inevitably comes up of the top when you push it on will be soaked up. When I first got the Wraith I had some problems with juice leaking into the battery compartment. However I do think this was a faulty device, as I contacted dampevarer.no (who sent me the device for review) about this. They instantly sent me a new one and I've had no leaks whatsoever with that device. Hopefully I was just unlucky on the first device, and I haven't really seen anyone complaining about this on the we either.

Wrapping up this section, there are some small things you should be aware of when using this kit, but once you've made all the mistakes once (or twice) it's really easy to use.

Performance

Performance wise I think this kit delivers what it promises. The wattage it delivers seems to be on par with other devices I have, so it's a good chip IMO. When it comes to flavour and vapor production it's also good. There are of course better drippers out there, that will cost you a lot more, and you can always upgrade later on. I've gotten some really good flavour out of it, and with the right build you can also fill a room with vapor in no time (your battery won't last long though). What limits your experience with this kit is actually your own building skills and your eagerness to experiment. I'm not sure if it is, or will be possible, to buy the atty by itself but it would be cool. Or they could release a bigger kit for example with two atties so you can experiment even more. Or you can of course buy some other squonk-ready atty for even more fun.

When it comes to temp. control I rarely use that on any of my mods, but I have tried it with SS on this one and it seems to work as intended. No burnt wicks yet at least. It does however limit the max watts in TC to 50. For some that might be a con but for the build I've used (0.5ish SS) it is enough for me at least. 

Pros and cons

+ Good flavour and vapor
+ Leak free (so far at least)
+ Lots of fun
+ Looks kind of cool IMO. Actually, the white version is kind of cool in a star wars kind of way, while the black is more elegant ... again IMO.
+ "Soft", "Standard" and "Powerful" settings to affect ramp-up time
- No usb to upgrade or charge the battery
- Gap between bottom plate and mod
- Juice bottle should have had some mechanism to stop it from popping out when you open the lid.

Conclusion

A great kit for a great price, you can get it for around $60-ish (NOK 649,- at dampevarer.no). The mod performs as promised and the atty is good. As I've said, you can find better tasting atties out there that are also squonk ready, but there is really no need to unless you have your own favourite from before... or just want to try out a bunch of different stuff... kind of like me.

Thanks a lot to Dag Einar at dampevarer.no for making this review possible. He also provided a discount code for my readers, so you can use code tvg10 to get a 10% discount.

Disclosure:

• All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product.
• This review does not contain affiliate links.

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