The Kanger Spider kit is from a brand that many vapers will know, if you’ve been vaping for some time, as one of the earliest players in the industry…their Nebox, Dripbox and Kbox ranges are just some of the many offerings they’ve released since their inception, way back in 2007! Not forgetting of course one of the first to release a sub ohm tank to the masses, the Sub Tank.
Sure, they’ve been on the block for more years than most Shenzhen brands but to be honest, Kangertech seems to have faded from view for the last few years. Their K-Kiss kit was one of the first batch of items I ever received as a vape reviewer and I was pumped to receive a late but welcome package with Kangertech stamped on it for the first time since!
Now, anything with the name, ‘Spider’ on it gives me the eeb-jeebs, so when I received my Kanger Spider Kit, my first thought was, ‘s$%#, it must be good, it must be dangerous, must be something!”
Well, it is something, let me tell you…not all good, not all bad but, without a doubt, one of the WEIRDEST vape kits I have ever picked up: and not just because it triggers my arachnophobic shivers .
What’s In The Box
- 1 X Five 6 Mini Tank
- 1 x Spider Mod
- 2 x Tiger coils, 0.6 Ohm x 3 in parallel
- 1 x Pyrex Glass
- 1 x Micro USB Cable
- 1 x User Manual
Features Mod
- 510 Connect
- Built in 4200mAh battery
- 10 – 200W Output
- Modes: Power/Ti/Ni/SS/DIY1/DIY2
- Resistance range: 0/05 – 2.5 Ohm
- Temp range 100-315 C
- Unique adjustment dial
- Comes in two-tone Black, Black and teal/green/red/ or blue
Features Tank
- 2/4 ml E-liquid Capacity (EU or Non-EU)
- 26 x 44 mm
- Adjustable bottom airflow
- Uses Tiger Coil Head
- Delrin Drip Tip
- Features Wattage Adjuster Tabs For Tiger Coil Head
Build Quality & Design
Spider Mod
Well, on opening up the big, black, sleeve covered spider box, I was actively trying to dispel OCD mental images of nasty violin spiders, spindly legs and everything else that comes with being a chronic arachnophobe OCD freak…but once I’d gotten over myself, I found the Kanger Spider vape mod kinda sexy.
The mod itself (excluding the tank) is very ergonomically designed, from the top it looks like a almost-square with one side 3cm wide, the opposite side 4cm wide, the connecting sides both 3cm wide…the side that sits in your palm being the shorter side.
This off-square is extended into 3 dimensions by 78mm (I hope you’re following my attempts to describe it, been reviewing for a while but shape description is almost always a challenge).
The vertical edges are rounded, for a very comfortable hand feel.
The entire mod is full of diamond shapes, reminiscent of a spider web, perchance…2 diamonds wrap around the edges of the wider side (where the screen is) and are covered in carbon fibre.
When facing the screen, the side on your left features a bif, upside down triangle shaped fire button, nice and clicky…with fine spotted texturing and a big power sign set in it.
The narrower pannel, opposite the screen side, is full of that spotted texturing for grip and has fairly discreet Kanger branding at the bottom and a micro usb port for charging at the top.
The screen is an upturned triangle on the front, with a smaller, right-side-up triangle that features horizontal light-bar battery level indicators, five of them, below it. These two screens are separated by a notched dial which replaces the traditional up and down adjustment buttons.
What a mouthful, am I done…no, er…there’s a deep and springy 510 connect set centrally atop the mod and 14 small ventilation holes on the base for that massive 4200mAh on board battery. Phew!
Kanger Five6 Mini Tank
Okay, first up, don’t be fooled by the name of this tank. This is not a MINI anything…it’s one of the biggest tanks in my collection, size wise. The thing is monstrous, with a whopping 18mm tall base, which I will explain in due course.
Inside the 4 ml tank I spot what must be the biggest coil head I’ve EVER seen, a tall, fat, silver cylinder.What the…? What’s going on, why is this coil head so big?
Above the tank, the topcap/mouth piece curves seamlessly into an 810 size driptip, all Delrin…so there’ll be no custom drip tip fitting here, sadly.
The topcap screws off to reveal a neat top fill system.
Let’s get back to that base, that crazy thick base.
Starting at the bottom, there is a ring with what looks like three separate air-flow adjustment switches (or push-buttons) as next to each switch there’s a little hole. These switches each expose or obscure an LED and every one that is exposed adds 60W to your vape (the wattage on the mod auto-changes from 60W to 120W to 180W) or, in other words, adds another of the three 0.6 ohm parallel coils in your Tiger head to the setup.
This is weird, bizarre, unheard of…I know. The tank actually has a chip inside it. Will it work? We’ll see.
How Does The Kanger Spider Kit Perform?
Let’s start with the mod…there’s a lot to be said about a 4200mAh on-board battery, for starters. In one way, it saves users the pain of fiddling with batteries, it’s a little more compact than your average dual 18650 mod but still has a damn good Output capacity as well.
The battery performance is what I’d expect from this size battery and not shabby at all, of course this isn’t hitting the max 200W on offer.
I love the big triangular fire button and the texturing that makes it easy to find in the dark.
The screens show me all I need to know, resistance, wattage, voltage, mode and battery levels but the adjustment dial can be a little tricky.
I like it, the feel of turning it, the convenience of it when I’m making small wattage adjustments but when it comes to large adjustments it takes forever and a mf’ing day. Grrrr.
Testing the mod up against a number of my industry favourites with a similar output range, to check the power feel, the TC and the ramp time…I’m actually not disappointed, Ramp is not the best of the best but it’s good and the wattage and temperature levels feel true to their readings.
So, performance wise, the Kanger Spider mod is not bad, it’s just a question of whether we really NEED a 4200 mAh on board battery or whether we’d prefer the extended mod-lifespan on an 18650 run mod, not to mention the fact that we could switch batteries instead of waiting for a recharge!
Let’s talk about this tank though.
Tank and Stock Coil Performance
The Five 6 Mini tank and the Tiger coil are joined at the hip, no cross compatibility here, no option of using any other coil with this tank and that is why I’ve decided to put tank and coil performance in one section.
I…DO…NOT…LIKE…IT.
First up, I find the drip-tip/mouthpiece uncomfortable and I wish that I could fit a custom tip.
Second, I find that the power settings (60/120/180) use the expected amount of juice up, they chow the expected amount of battery…all that is as it should be, however I am just NOT getting the cloud production or flavour profile that I’d like to see at those levels, any of them! And that is with my mod’s flavour setting on HARD.
When set to 180W, the tank heats up to the point of being a burn hazard…it drinks e-liquid and eats battery life and yet cloud production is what you’d expect from 80W, not 180W.
What is the Tiger coil doing to my e-juice? What is the Tiger coil doing to my battery life? Two great unanswered mysteries of vape life…
Flavour is severely muted throughout the settings and I felt that I was wasting my high end juice on this tank, throughout the review period.
I did not, by the way, conduct this review while suffering vapers tongue…every other tank I was reviewing at the time, and every old tank I tested the Five 6 Mini against all confirmed my experience.
The coils also took a very long time to break in, performance at the onset was EVEN worse. I will shelve this tank and these coils, this tank will stay shelved and so will these coils. I’m sorry, Kanger!
How To Fill the Five6 Mini Tank
- Unscrew the top cap
- Fill through a slot
- Replace top cap
How To Change the Coil
- Unscrew the pyrex from the base
- Unscrew the Tiger head
- Replace
How To Operate the Mod Menu System
- 5 Clicks on or Off
- 3 Clicks to access menu
- Use wheel to scroll and power to select
Battery Life
- Approximately 5 hours at full coil setting of 180W, vaping at short intervals.
- 7 Hours on 120W.
- 9 Hours on 60W.
Pros
- Massive 4200 mAh on board battery
- Ergonomic hand-feel and compact for the battery size
- True wattage and TC performance
- Nice, big fire button
- The concept of 3 coils options in one head
Cons
- Low Flavour and Cloud performance from the Tiger coil and Five 6 Mini tank
- Adjustment dial can be a drag to use
- Tank becomes extremely hot at higher wattages
- Execution of some innovative concepts lacking
Final Review Verdict
Final Review Verdict
If you are looking for a high powered mod with one of the biggest on board batteries around, then the Spider by Kanger is a good option…that’s provided you don’t mind the idea of scrolling with a dial instead of adjustment keys.
When it comes to the Five 6 Mini tank, I’m sorry to say that I cannot recommend it for either flavour or cloud, which, for me, are the two key MUST HAVES in a sub-ohm tank. So I’m afraid that the Spider Kit is a big, spindly legged miss in my book.
And..
Would I buy the Kanger Spider kit if I lost/broke the device? Unfortunately not.
What if it still doesn’t turn on