Eleaf Tance Review | Style Over Substance?

The Eleaf Tance is yet another take on a pod mod vape system.

It’s not just Eleaf of course that re releasing this type of vape product. It’s getting to the point where pod based systems are saturating the current market to such a degree that there has to be something special incorporated to make them stand out from the crowd.

Simplicity is the order of the day with any such device and Eleaf have entered this arena before with the likes of the iTap, Elven, iWu and of course the Tance Max I recently reviewed.

This time they’ve certainly pulled out all the stops aesthetically but as always, looks ain’t everything.

What Can We Expect From The Tance Pod Mod By Eleaf?

Without doubt this is a device designed solely for the casual mouth to lung vaper. With a power output of 10W it is perfect for those occasions where stealth vaping is of utmost importance and an ideal introduction onto the scene for newbie vapers wishing to dip their toes in for the first time.

We can expect the Tance to appeal to the novice vaper. Let’s take a closer look.

This device was received free of charge for the purposes of review and all opinions are based on my own experiences of the device. For better or worse, you’re gonna get my honest thoughts.

What’s In The Box

• 1 x Tance Battery
• 1 x Tance Cartridge
• 1 x Type C Charge Cable
• 1 x User Manual

Specifications/Features

• Dimensions: Width 24mm – Height 95.5mm – Thickness 14mm
• Weight: 55 G
• Integrated 580mah rechargeable battery
• 2ml (TPD compliant) pod featuring built in 1.2ohm Nichrome Alloy coil
• Max Wattage 10W
• Resistance range 0.3 – 3.0ohm
• LED battery indicator / status light
• Replaceable / refillable pod

The Tance comes in six colour schemes. Black and white are your standard renditions while scarlet, black streak, white streak, star and macaron all give off something of a seventy’s retro theme with their bold and brash characteristics.

There’s a scheme to suit most tastes and I happened to receive the “lava lamp” styled macaron in all its, er , pink glory… Maybe someone’s trying to tell me something!

Always Use Protection

The Eleaf Tance comes with an array of circuit protection features.

• If vaping time exceeds 10 seconds continuous output the device automatically cuts out and the LED will flash five times to indicate this.
• If short circuiting occurs the Tance will flash five times before you attempt to use it and should short circuiting occur during use the LED will flash three times to warn.
• When the voltage drops below 3.3V the Tance will flash 20 times and automatically switch off. Stop being lazy! Charge that baby up!

Design & Build Quality

The Battery / Main Body

The body of the battery is comprised of zinc alloy and at a mere 55g is quite light in the hand and certainly on par with other popular devices of this type, yet it retains a significantly solid feel that looks able to stand the test of time.

The sides, bottom and very lower portion of the battery all unite as a polished chrome effect finish or trim which contributes much to the overall appeal of the design.

The two main facing panels incorporate IML (In Mould Labelling) technology which provides a glossy finish over the Macaron styled artwork which is pin sharp and vibrant in colour tones. Very classy, very impressive!

On either side of the battery there are pinhole air inlet ports and the interesting thing is they are of uneven size! More on this a bit later.

Charging

The Eleaf Tance features a built in 580 mAh battery that can be recharged via the type C charging port located on the underside. Type C charging has two main benefits over previous micro slot versions.

1. It’s reversible so there’s no wrong way of plugging that connector in, especially useful for people with poor eyesight. Like me!

2. Charging time is dramatically reduced and it’s not uncommon to have a dead battery fully replenished within an hour, hour and a half. Very handy if your’e impatient. Also like me!

During the charging period itself the charging indicator illuminate bright red. This will switch off to let you know you’re good to go with a fully charged battery.

During use the Tance will display in the following ways:

• 100% – 20%: Green
• <20%: Red

Whenever the Tance illuminates a red LED there’s a sure chance you’ve only got around another 10 – 15 draws before the battery depletes.

Turning on/Off

The Tance doesn’t feature an on/off button, instead utilises the pod itself as a means to provide instant power.

By plugging the pod in a connection is made with the magnetic pins seated inside the top of the main battery and Hey Presto! The charge indicator briefly illuminates to let you know all systems are go..

Removal of the pod from the main body/battery will kill power to the battery. No surprises there then but as a side note if you decide not to use the device for a prolonged period of time it is preferable to separate the pod from the main body in order to preserve battery life and to prevent any general safety risks.

The Pod

The pod is made of a toughened semi transparent plastic mould which looks highly durable and allows you to see the current fill level of your vape juice.

On the underside there are two magnets that connect to the body of the main battery and appear to offer a good degree of resisTANCE when removing which is reassuring. Also located alongside these magnets is that all important fill port.

Simplicity…I keep using that word, don’t I?

Well. Eleaf have handed us another simple idea and one I hope will be effective.

The pod only features one, yes one, airflow port and it’s certainly one of the smallest I’ve come across thus far in my five years of vaping!

So! One airflow port supplying the coil but two air inlet slots on the battery of differing sizes.

Are you beginning to see where this is going?

The answer’s quite simple. Read on.

How Does The Eleaf Tance Pod System Perform?

How To Fill

The manual shows a very easy way of filling the pod through the small silicon port located on its underside.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

There was no way I was able to penetrate this silicon sleeve which lead to some disastrous results. E-liquid under pressure is never a good thing and before long I was covered in it with my attempts to dispense it into the pod.

The only option was to pierce the seal with a pin and this did the trick but nowhere in the manual does it mention this.

Very disappointing start.

That’ll teach me for constantly using the words simple and simplistic..

Of course, it looks like I received a dodgy pod. Without an impenetrable seal it should be as easy as this:

• Remove pod from battery
• Turn pod upside down
• Pop juice bottle nib though the sleeve and fill carefully
• Remove and the silicone sleeve will re-seal.

The recommended priming period of letting the juice saturate the cotton was observed, which in my case is usually ten minutes before using for the first time. This helps avoided the dreaded dry burn and ruining your coil.

Flavour

As mentioned earlier there are two air inlet slots fixed to either side of the battery both of differing sizes so I began by aligning the pods internal coil airflow port with the smaller 1.0mm slot.

I used Vampire Vape Shortz range Cool Yellow Slush with a ratio of 70VG / 30PG.

The Eleaf Tance uses draw activation in order to work so no fire buttons are needed. This is a style of vaping that is purpose designed for those still in the transition stage of moving from smoking to vaping.

I found the coil to be extremely efficient and didn’t take much time to heat up and the flavour and cooling agent of the e juice profile appeared instantly.

I got a long lasting taste from the pineapple, mango and the coolada was very effective in doing its job on the back of the throat.

This is not a bad mouth to lung experience but attempting a direct to lung had me experiencing the coughing fit from hell!

Moving on, and I reversed the pod to work with the larger 1.6mm air inlet hole to see what differences there were, if any.

This offered a much less tight draw but both flavour and cloud were compromised and attempting a restrictive lung hit worked much better because there was no coughing or spluttering this time around with the flavour and throat hit from the coolada springing back to life.

Cloud production was at its best while the airflow port coincided with the 1.0mm air inlet hole on the battery.

Flavour overhang

As soon as I had finished with the Vampire Vape juice I decided to try a completely different profile to see how much flavour overhang time occurred.

I chose The Yorkshire Vaper Maj because it was as far away from a tropical fruit ejuice flavour as possible, being from a bakery line and one I am totally familiar with.

It took about seven or eight pulls before the fried dough element started forcing its way onto the scene and around four or five tugs later the strawberry syrup was singing along with the rest of the choir and the coolada from the Cool Yellow Slush was all but a distant memory.

This was a pretty good reproduction of the Maj I know and love.

Pod Performance

It was very easy for me to overfill, there being no guiding line or mark to assist on the pod itself which lead to some initial spit-back but this needs to be put down to user error. A schoolboy error on my part more than anything.

E-liquid was constantly weeping from the juice fill port but nothing drastic.

I found it to be more of an annoyance because I was constantly pulling the pod out to check, but that annoying mouthpiece!

Just like its older brother Max but on a smaller scale, and just like the Tance Max I was left feeling I should be singing a tune from it more than actually trying to vape.

Not good. Not good at all…Greensleeves this ain’t.

The flavour reproduction from the built in Nichrome coil was absolutely amazing giving that it was pumping out a mere 10W power.

I was able to pick out all the elements from the two chosen e-liquid tests and there was no flavour muting whatsoever. Full marks to Eleaf for the inclusion of this veritable workhorse of a coil.

The pod life is likely to be extended and work best with e-juice PG/VG ratios of:

• 50VG / 50PG
• 60VG / 40PG
• 70VG / 30 PG

Battery Performance | Charging Time

I achieved a maximum of five and a half hours use with the Tance under moderate use, so a casual vaper can expect to get a full working days life from the device which I think is very good going.

Under type C charging it took approximately one and a half hours to recharge the fully depleted battery.

It’s not mentioned in the instruction manual but you are actually able to vape while charging, commonly referred to as “pass through charging”.

Unfortunately the supplied cable is very short and it looks odd watching someone vaping against a wall socket! Not a good practice if I’m being serious and most certainly not good for the neck, if I’m joking.

Thoughts And Opinions. My Stance On The Tance

Design

The design of the Tance is extremely impressive. I love the IML technology which gives the device a very polished and elegant feel.

The gloss finish prevented any scratches within the week I tested it although the chrome plated sides and bottom picked up a few scratches.

The stylish artwork on the panels is pin sharp, with crisp vibrant colours and high detail giving the impression you’re holding a much more expensive pod system.

Auto Draw

Here’s where we come to a big design flaw with the Eleaf Tance.

As with the Tance Max I feel there is too much airflow despite the fact there is only one airflow port.

It doesn’t seem to matter if you use the 1.0mm air inlet slot or the larger 1.6mm one.

There’s simply not enough restriction for this device to function efficiently as a mouth to lung device.

To prove this lack of restriction it is quite possible to attempt a vape off the Tance only to find no auto draw activation. You need to take quite a hard inhale while using that duck billed mouthpiece which I found to be an unpleasant experience.

More restriction, more flavour. This is what a new vaper generally looks for and this is where the Tance fails, and it’s a highly significant performance failure.

Filling Port

Upon first testing out the fill port it swiftly became apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to bypass the silicon seal without pricking a hole in it with a needle.

The Needle pin nozzle of my e-juice bottle was merely stretching the material down inside the pod, leaving me completely unable to penetrate it for the fill.

So now I’m left wondering if I was the cause for the minor leaking that occurred or maybe this is yet another design fault. There’s even a chance I received a faulty cartridge (pod).

Instruction Manual And Box Contents

• The back of the presentation box declares that there are two Tance cartridges despite the fact that I only received one.
• Nowhere in the instruction manual does it mention about fill levels or how much liquid you should be applying in the pod itself.
• Pass through charging is not mentioned, even though this is possible and some people might like to use it.

Single Airflow Port On The Pod

I think the airflow port is too big to allow a satisfactory mouth to lung experience and generally speaking you will need to inhale with relative force to activate that auto draw mechanic, leading to an unnatural, uncomfortable vaping experience.

My apologies if I seem to be dwelling on the negative aspects of this device. It’s not all doom and gloom, there are actually some positives. Trust me. I’m a vaper.

Pros

• Fantastic design and finishing thanks to IML technology
• Very comfortable in the hand (best suited to smaller hands)
• Lightweight and extremely portable
• The included 1.2ohm Nichrome alloy coil is a veritable workhorse
• Awesome flavour reproduction
• Fast and efficient type C charging capability
• Very good battery life under normal usage

Sorry! Here’s where negative Neil writes.

Cons

• No LED to indicate mid battery strength. You may get caught out.
• Contoured base means you won’t be charging the Tance upright
• Chrome trims are a fingerprint magnet
• The mouthpiece is uncomfortable to use
• One Tance cartridge included, not two as stated on the box
• Filling port on the pod was initially fussy and messy to use
• Consequent weeping from the fill port (subjective con. Could be user error)
• Exaggerated pull required to activate auto draw consistently

Final Verdict

I must admit to having limited experiences with pod based systems because my vaping journey has evolved way passed the need for such devices.

I’m far from the beginner that Eleaf have in mind when it comes to the Tance, but there is an inherent issue going on with not just this, but its bigger relative the Tance Max in terms of airflow structure.

They both provide too much airflow in order to work successfully as mouth to lung devices and again, just like the Tance Max, I found myself needing to direct lung in order to achieve any kind of functionality. This is not the purpose of these models and may well confuse its target audience.

This issue is compounded by the way the Tance needs to be almost forcefully vaped in order for it to work, which leads to a very unnatural vape experience and one that is borderline direct to lung.

The virgin vaper out there doesn’t usually make that kind of jump when starting out so the device can and will be off putting.

I can’t knock the fit and finish of the Tance and the presentation, weight and feel of the pod is superb. Admittedly designed with smaller hands in mind there is much to be said for its portability and battery life.

The included coil performs admirably well and reproduces very good flavour tones for such a low powered device.

Would I Buy The Eleaf Tance?

In a word, No.

It struggles to perform its basic duty as a mouth to lung device and is frustrating to discover this is solely down to the airflow mechanic employed.

Would I recommend the Tance?

Again, no.

There are far too many other options out there at the moment and far too many performing much better than the Tance. Auto draw is a cool feature but sadly this device is unable to carry out even the basic requirements of providing a satisfactory mouth to lung experience. Save your money for something better.