In for review today I have the awkwardly named, HippoVape B’Adapt Pro Mod.
As long time readers will know, I’m a big fan of side-by-side mods, so I’m excited to get my hands on another one.
This is also the first HippoVape product we’ve had for review, they’re a relatively new company, established in 2018, and have so far focused on disposables, AIO and pod devices. However they’ve also made a few mods such as the Viva Box Mod.
What Can We Expect From The HippoVape B’Adapt Pro?
As I mentioned at the top, this is another new Side-By-Side (SBS) mod. I feel like we’re being spoiled with decent SBS’s at the moment, however this means that the HippoVape is going to have to offer some compelling reasons for it to stand out.
It does at least tick the boxes for what I consider the cost of entry requirements these days. It will take an 18650 or 21700, and it has USB C charging.
As well as that it’s got an unusual “shielded tank” design that I’ll go into further on in the review.
As normal, this was sent over free of charge for the purpose of review (thank you) however, this will not affect my scores, and I shall report back honestly with what I find. On to the review!
In The Box
- HippoVape B’Adapt Pro Mod
- 2x Tank Shields (they call them “beauty accessories”)
- USB C charging cable
- Manual
- Warranty card
Specs
- Dimensions – 79x52x26mm
- Display – 0.69in mono LCD screen
- Power Output – 5-100W / 1-9V
- Battery – 1x 18650 / 20700 / 21700 (not included)
- Modes – VW, VV, TC and Bypass
- Resistance range – 0.1-3ohm
- User modes – VW (Power), VV, TC, Bypass
- Material – Zinc Alloy, PC
- USB Type C charging
HippoVape B’Adapt Pro – Design and Build Quality
The B’Adapt Pro comes in a choice of 4 different colour ways. Tawny Clear, Amber Clear, Reddish Brown, or Dark Wood (which I received).
Body
BodyI’ve got to admit, when I first picked it up I was most immediately struck by one thought… it’s a bit “plastic fantastic”. Now I’ve got nothing against a plastic body, I’ve got various mods that are mostly plastic
However some feel cheap, and other’s not so. Unfortunately, without a battery or an atomiser, this definitely feels the former. It’s very lightweight!
Also, I’m not usually a fan of “fake” wood grain. And I’m still not massively keen on this. However it is very dark, so it tends to just look “dark”, rather than being “in your face” wood grain.
Battery Cap
Once again, it’s a screw down battery cap. I have nothing against these, however this one feels very scratchy and hard to line up the threads.
There’s also no polarity indication that I can see, either inside or on the battery cap. It goes positive end down by the way. But even in the days of reverse polarity protection, there’s no excuse to not make it obvious, or at least put something to show the correct orientation!
Beauty Accessories
So as well as the mod, you get given two little bits of plastic. These act as tanks shields, and encircle the tank. They give a little bit of protection, but they also make everything look “all one piece”.
These slide into two slots on the higher section of the mod, and are secured by two magnets at the base.
One of them gives you access to the base of the tank, and one does not, fully enclosing the atomiser within the mod.
Base
On the base you have three Torx screws to hold everything together, your regulatory marks, and “Designed by VSS Project x HippoVape”.
Unfortunately this is also where your charging port lives. I’m never keen on charging ports being on the base of a mod, as it means you have to lie them down if you ever want to use them. 99% of the time I will charge in an external charger, and I recommend this for everyone. However it is something useful to be able to top up the charge on the mod itself.
Screen and Controls
The fire button is positioned on the side of the mod, below the atomiser. Because of this this it really only suits thumb firers. I wasn’t able to find a comfortable way to fire it with a finger, it also fits right handers far better than left.
The screen is on the front of the mod, with the + and – buttons just above.
Controls are very simple
- 5x Fire button = Power On/Off
- 3x Fire Button = Bring up mode switcher
- – and + = Lock power
- – and Fire = Clear puff counter
- + and Fire = Lock all buttons
The modes available are Variable Wattage, Variable Voltage, Temperature Control (SS, Ni, Ti, TCR), and Bypass.
The screen is very legible with temperature at the top, followed by percentage battery indication.
Below this you have an indicator to your mode and the resistance of your coil.
Under that is your wattage (or voltage/temperature). Finally you have 4 small indicators showing current amps drawn, volts used, time in seconds of last draw (shown to two decimal places, but it only uses 1) and puff counter.
It’s a perfectly functional screen, with not much to write home about.
During testing I mostly stuck to wattage.
Wattage
Unfortunately I did not find it terribly easy to get on with the wattage, for two main reasons.
Firstly, the mod seemed to be keen to adjust the wattage based on the resistance. I couldn’t replicate this 100%. But I would often find it when I switched off the mod, or removed and reattached the atomiser and powered it back on, the wattage would jump around. Happily it was never more than a couple of watts and possibly could be stopped by locking the wattage, but it was disconcerting.
Secondly, and more importantly, it scrolls in 0.1W increments. This is fine when you’re operating at very low wattages, however it continues to use these increments all the way up to 100W!
Now obviously, it would take far too long to scroll all the way if this were the case. So pressing and holding on + or – will switch to 1W increments after scrolling for 1W at 0.1W. However once it makes this switch, it also starts to scroll incredibly quickly.
This is fine for switching from 20W to 60W, but it makes moving from 18W to 22W (for example) far harder than it should be. You either have to press + 40 times to go up in 0.1Ws, or you press-and-hold, and hope you don’t overshoot (which you will).
Also there’s no round robin, so if you need to switch from 100W to 20W, you’re going to have to go all the way down.
How Does the HippoVape B’Adapt Pro Perform?
So I’ve been using the B’Adapt Pro for a little over a week now.
What fits?
What fits?One of the most important questions for a side-by-side mod is, what atomisers fit? I found that 24mm is about the limit on the width, which is a bit of a shame for a 21700 battery mod, I was hoping it would fit up to a 25mm.
However if you want to use the “Beauty Accessories” (i.e. Tank Shields) you’re limited even more. In this case the widest tank diameter you can put on is 22mm and even this might be a little tight. My advice would be to only use the full shield if you have a tank where you don’t have any airflow control on the base, as removing and reattaching the shield is a bit of a pain.
You need to very carefully line it up with the slots, and push it into them relatively hard. In all honesty, it often feels like you’re about to break them. I actually really like the idea of these, but the execution just leaves something to be desired.
On the plus side, there’s not a massive drop between the top of the battery compartment and the 510 connector, so most atomisers are going to be easily tall enough to work well.
Day to day use
As I mentioned earlier, one of my biggest complaints is how difficult it is to quickly adjust the wattage. No one needs 0.1W control all the way up to 100W, in fact it’s barely needed at less than 10W.
However the way they have designed the menu system is such that if you single press the + or -, it will always be 0.1W. Pressing and holding will cause it to scroll much quicker, and in full watt increments, but it scrolls too quickly to be really useful. Not to mention when you are “almost there” you then have to switch to single pressing to get to the power you want.
Any other thoughts?
For a mod that takes both 18650 and 21700 batteries, I was surprised to see that there was no battery adapter for a 18650. So if you look at buying this and only have 18650 batteries, be aware you’ll need to bring along your own adapter.
Pros
- Clear screen
- Comfortable in the hand
Cons
- No 18650 battery adapter
- Tank shields only compatible with 22mm tanks
- No polarity indication for battery
- Charging port on the bottom
- Very fast scrolling and 0.1W adjustments
HippoVape B’Adapt Pro Mod – Final Review Verdict
So that was the HippoVape B’Adapt Pro Mod! What did I think? Well sadly the list of cons probably gives away my overall impression, there’s several things on here that I’m not that keen on.
However it’s not all bad news. For one thing, it is a very light and comfortable side by side mod. I’m not usually a fan of light mods, as I much prefer something with a bit of heft. But if that’s something that you like, it’s one of the lightest 21700 SBSs I’ve used.
I also found the tank shields/beauty accessories to be a really interesting idea. It’s a shame that you’re limited to using 22mm diameter tanks with them, but I’ve also liked the look where a tank “disappears” inside a mod.
I think sadly that this is a case of bad timing on the part of HippoVape. If the B’Adapt Pro had come out 2 or 3 years ago, I would have been celebrating a rare example of a side by side mod. Unfortunately, this type of mod has become fairly popular recently, with examples from Aspire, Mechlyfe, SteamCrave, Ambition Mods and Kizoku (to name a few). So it’s much harder to stand out if you don’t do something particularly well, or at least different.
Do you own this kit? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
