Introduction: The Evolve Kit from Apollo
The Apollo Evolve Kit is a very small vape pen style mod with a refillable tank.
Apollo have been on the scene for quite a while now, recently releasing the excellent Brez Pod system.
I did look at the “About Us” section on their website to find out when they were formed but it just talks about Spaceships…
In the box and their website Apollo say this device is designed for 50/50 VG/PG, and high nicotine strength or Nicotine salt e-liquid.
For details about what the terms VG and PG mean in e-liquid read our guide.
I would also add this would be a great kit for use with CBD e-liquid as long as it had the correct VG/PG proportions and would be cheaper to buy and maintain than a lot of the starter kits from CBD companies.
Inside the battery part of the kit is a 150mAh battery and there are no buttons or adjustments simply inhale to vape.
The tank component holds up to 0.7ml of e-liquid (recommended to only fill to 0.5ml mark for best operation) and the coil resistance is 2.5-2.9 ohm. The coils are replaceable and available in packs of 5 from the Apollo website.
At present the Evolve kit is showing on their website – but not on the version for the EU/UK market – so I am not sure if it will be available here. I can’t see why not as the tank capacity is within the EU TPD Regulations and it does carry the warning about Nicotine? So maybe soon.
As usual I will report back honestly on my findings of the kit I have in my possession.
Right time for some high nic action!
What’s In The Box
- Apollo Evolve Battery
- Apollo Evolve tank with coil installed
- Spare coil
- Charger
- Instructions
Features
- Size: 9.2×99.6mm
- Battery capacity: 150mAh
- Cartridge capacity: 0.7ml (best at 0.5ml)
- Coil resistance: 2.5-2.9ohm
- Bottom fill
- Designed for 50/50 e-liquid – high nicotine / nic salts
Build Quality & Design
So this thing is diddy! It is no thicker than the diameter of my ball pen and a lot shorter.
You have two main components – the tank and the battery.
The battery part is simply black with a blue LED on the base which lights up when you inhale.
To connect to the tank there is a 510 threaded connector – however on the battery this is unusual as it is the Male side of the connector. This is the opposite to most mods/batteries so it does mean there are few – if any – tanks you can use on this other than the recommended one.
The tank part is a cylinder shape – no drip tip or mouthpiece as it is all in one.
The tank unscrews from the battery to access the coil base for refilling and coil change.
I find the refilling extremely fiddly which is my only gripe about the design and ease of use of this kit.
You get a great kit contents including a spare coil. The instruction booklet whilst brief is nice and clear and tells you all you need to know.
Set-up Guide
The kit arrives with the battery and tank not connected. So simply screw the tank onto the battery, charge and fill.
Basic operation
- To vape – simply inhale on the mouthpiece.
- Cut-off – if vaping for over 15 seconds the fire will cut off
- Battery low – LED on the end of the battery flashes 10 times
How To Charge The Battery
- Unscrew the tank from the battery.
- Screw the battery onto the supplied USB charger.
- Install the USB charger into a suitable USB outlet.
- The light on the charger will be red whilst charging and will turn green when fully charged.
How To Fill The Tank
- Unscrew the tank from the battery.
- Turn the tank upside down.
- Unscrew the coil base from the tank.
- Fill the tank and observe the liquid level through the glass.
- Do not allow e-liquid to enter the clear centre tube of the tank (arrowed) – this is really tricky – you will have to tilt the tank whilst refilling.
- Replace the coil base.
- Screw the tank back onto the battery.
- For first use or with a new coil leave the tank to stand for 5-10 minutes to allow the wicking in the coil to absorb the e-liquid.
- Check the liquid level and top up if necessary.
How To Change The Coil Head
- Unscrew the tank from the battery.
- Turn the tank upside down.
- Unscrew the coil base from the tank.
- Fill the tank as described above.
- Screw a new coil onto the tank.
- Screw the tank onto the battery.
How Does the Apollo Evolve Kit Perform?
Flavour & Cloud Production
This kit is designed for thinner e-liquids. So really you will require a ratio of approximately 50%VG to 50%PG.
Higher nicotine strength liquids are preferable as this is a low power device. You can still get a good nic hit if you use high strength or nicotine salt e-liquid.
So for my first trial of the Evolve Kit I used the Apollo Smoozie “Strawberries Gone Wild” Salt Nic e-liquid in 20mg nicotine strength.
My first vape was quite surprising!
I have to say I didn’t hold out much hope for this device with it having such a high resistance coil head.
But what a judgemental fool I am!
The strawberry from the Smoozie e-liquid came through really strong and a nice little crackling noise accompanied my vaping.
The airflow is not the tightest I have used but still really close to a cigarette sensation.
To top this all off I got more vapour than I was expecting too!
What a great little device.
I was expecting this to perform like one of the early Cig-a-Like devices – but it does just show how things have moved on and a little kit like this can give flavour and vapour!
Battery Life
I usually give an indication of how many hours of vaping I get from a device as a guide.
This is a bit trickier as I have been using nic salt e-liquid – which if you vape too much of can make you feel a bit icky – so I had bigger gaps between vapes than I would on low nicotine e-liquid.
So I set this to charge to get it fully charged for a battery life test – and it will not charge. The light on the charger stays red – I left it on charge for 5 hours – took it off charge and went to vape on it and the light on the end of the battery just flashed.
I tried again this time plugging the charger into a standard mains socket with an adaptor – and still the same – 4 hours of charging (considering the instructions say around 1.5 hours to charge) and the light was still red.
Almost giving up I plugged the charger back into my PC USB and this time the light went green and it’s working again – hallelujah – some kind of miracle? I might believe in reincarnation now??
Anyway I managed 40 minutes of vaping before the battery conked out again.
It’s now been charging for 3.5 hours, light is still red – so there is something seriously wrong with this kit sadly.
Pros
- Tiny device
- Surprising vape performance!
- Perfect for high Nicotine, Nic Salts or even CBD e-liquid in the 50/50 VG/PG proportions
- Cheaper to use than pre-filled disposable devices
Cons
- Charger / battery is temperamental.
- Fiddly bottom fill tank
- Male 510 connector means you won’t be able to use other tanks on this battery
Final Review Verdict
My whole experience with this kit has badly been soured by this recharging issue.
It won’t charge, then it does, then the battery conks out, then it won’t charge – repeat repeat etc. etc. It could have just been mine but I can only report on the device in hand at the time of use.
Apart from this issue the Evolve pen was pretty impressive… Was…
This gives a lovely flavour and vapour even at such low power using 50/50 nic salt e-liquid. I originally reviewed this e-liquid using the Geekvape Ammit MTL RDA and the flavour on the Evolve is only slightly less. The Ammit did produce more clouds but hey that is a more advanced device.
A lot of devices of similar design use pre-filled disposable tanks – when the liquid runs out or the coil fails you need to dispose of them. This is much cheaper and less wastage – you can re-fill and change the coil heads as you need.
If you are a CBD vaper and have been buying the expensive kits sold by the CBD brands – this might be a great alternative too and just buy the liquid to refill yourself. The Apollo Evolve comes in at just $19.95.
I do feel let down by the stroppy charger / battery problem and the stupid refilling method – which is a shame as I have had to drop some marks for this.
