The Kilo 1K pod device featuring dual airflow and auto inhale activation can be used with one of six different flavoured replacement pods; smooth tobacco, menthol tobacco, dewberry fruit, nutty, strawberry and lemon berry ice.
This device accompanied me on holiday, where I used it every day for eleven days. It was with me at the beach, in open air restaurants, at the poolside, and even up a mountain. It was put entirely through its paces.
Kilo define themselves as a company retaining iconic style and originality. They state that the success of their e-liquid company (launched in 2014) rests upon their five fundamental values; passion, integrity, sophistication, creativity and patience.
Straight up the device looks like many other widely successful pod systems. Standard company hyperbole aside, is the Kilo 1K still worth buying?
Disclaimer: I received the Kilo 1K for the purpose of this review. All opinions are based on my own experience.
What’s In The Box:
For $20, I will be honest, not a lot, not even a pod to get you started. The picture on the front and back of the box shows an entire kit, which is misleading. To get started using a Kilo 1K you will need to also buy a pack of replacement pods. A pack of pods costs $20, meaning to start using this device you will need to fork out a whopping $40. Ouch!
- 1 x Kilo 1K closed system device
- 1 x flat ribbon micro USB charge cable
- User manual
The Replacement Pods:
Each packet of replacement pods contains 4 individual pods and a user manual.
The pods I received, sent direct from the USA, contained 45mg of nicotine salts using a mix of 50/50 VG/PG. For the UK market I believe the pods will be 20mg (as per TPD requirements) nicotine salts 50/50 VG/PG.
Specs & Features
Kilo 1K:
- Size: 115 x 18 x 9.5 mm (including pod)
- Battery: 350 mAh
- Colour: Black Matte
Kilo 1K Pods:
- Pod resistance: 1.8ohm
- Pod capacity: 1.5ml
Features
- Dual airflow
- Auto inhale activation
- Non-refillable plug and vape style pods
- Rechargeable battery
- LED battery indicator
- Short circuit protection
Build Quality
Build quality does feel more durable and solid than other pod mod systems I’ve used. It has more weight to it than, for example, the SMOK Infinix. The rubber coating finish feels nice in the hand and the silicon colour-coded caps (green for menthol, pink for strawberry, etc) is a nice touch.
Aesthetically, its slim neat design makes it pocket and purse friendly. After fourteen days of heavy use scratches are visible though.
The pods themselves line-up with the device and provide a diamond shape viewing window to monitor juice levels, which works great until you’re nearing the end of your eliquid, then you will need to pull the pod out to check exactly how low your level is.
The big negative are the magnetic pins inside the device. Mine detached from the Kilo 1K and came out still clinging to the bottom of a pod when I wanted to replace it.
From there, every time I wanted to change pods the magnetic pins came out and I had to remember to pick them off and put it on the replacement. Doing this didn’t affect the device working but if you lose these magnetic pins you cannot use the device, period. This, of course, should simply not have happened.
While I used the device heavily I didn’t drop it or have any form of incident to explain the reason why it essentially broke.
How Does Kilo 1K Perform?
How to use:
It couldn’t be any simpler. Ensure the device is charged using the micro USB cable that plugs into the bottom and then pop a pod in. The LED battery indicator flashes three times to indicate that the pod is inserted and that’s it, you are ready to vape.
Simply inhale like you would a cigarette. There are no buttons to press or settings to adjust.
Performance
The Kilo 1K advertises itself as having dual airflow. I’m not entirely sure how this is supposed to work but from a user perspective the draw is one of the tightest I’ve experienced and gives off a low but sufficient vapour production. Whilst in recent years plumes of clouds bellowing from vaping devices have been all the rage, Kilo hasn’t forgotten those not looking to cloud chase.
The pods lasted ages as did the battery. I thought I would be recharging it constantly but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Charging took about an hour from low to full, but what I tended to do was put it on charge in times when it wasn’t in use, for example, when taking a shower, getting dressed, cooking dinner, etc. These shorter 10-20 minute charge boosts kept me from ever experiencing the red light of vaping doom.
The Kilo 1K was absolutely perfect for me in the setting I was in. While I was always outdoors vaping, I was frequently in heavily populated places; the beach, by the pool, dinning outside. I quickly realized my cloud chucking sub-ohm devices were frankly a little anti-social within a family-friendly resort.
Although people around me were smoking, which made me feel somewhat indignant about odd glances at my sub-ohm device, I wasn’t up for starting confrontation about it. Instead I used the Kilo, which satisfied my cravings without prompting attention.
Kilo 1K Pod Mod Flavours
My personal favourite was lemon berry ice but I also enjoyed strawberry and dewberry fruit. They are all good flavours and it’s a good mixture of choice.
Nutty wasn’t one of my favourites but I’m happy they added it, as it will appeal to the cream fans.
Don’t be put off by the small 1.5ml capacity – the pods last an age and with such high strength nicotine you won’t be chain vaping.
Regardless of your taste preferences all the flavours gave a smooth draw with a satisfying throat hit, which shouldn’t have a new vaper experiencing any coughing fits.
The pods have different coloured rubber caps, making it easy to know which flavor you are using after you’ve discarded the packaging.
However, most of the pods had a small amount of leaking straight out of the packet which, considering Kilo 1K state on the box ‘no leaks’, I immediately questioned. Naturally, once you start using the pod it leaks a little bit more.
Pod price
Pod priceMy other gripe with the pods is, you have to buy a packet of four at $20, but what if dewberry fruit or nutty turn out not to be your thing? That’s quite a costly mistake for a new vaper looking to try a new flavour. Maybe Kilo should offer a selection pack?
While the build quality is nice and the pod flavours are good, I cannot get away from this price point.
As a direct comparison, the UK company ‘Blu’ have launched a pod system that retails at £10 and includes a pod to get you started. It also comes in a range of nicotine strengths and a range of flavours. At this sort of power level none of the flavours are going to blow you away.
These are systems designed to hit cravings, deliver nicotine and taste the best they can while doing so, but it’s never going to reach the type of flavour you’d get with a decent tank style starter device. It’s here where I think Kilo missed the point, which is, you need to incentivise a smoker to make the switch to vaping and, when other companies are putting near exact devices on the market for £10, I can’t see why a consumer would stretch to the $40 shelf.
The Kilo 1K is basically Kilo’s version of a JUUL. What niggles at me though is that they didn’t learn from the JUUL’s mistake – the expensive replacement pod packs, the inability to sample a flavour first, the lacking in-range of nicotine strengths, and the general overall cost.
The JUUL was successful despite those factors because it was something original to the market at the time. Kilo had an opportunity to compete in a meaningful way and offer all the things the JUUL lacked but they didn’t.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Great battery life
- Portability
- Socially acceptable vapour production
- Variety of pod flavours which use nicotine salts
- Pods last ages
- Nice weight and feels nice to hold
Cons:
- Expensive
- No pod to get started
- Magnetic clips came loose
- Some leaking from brand new pods
- Not unique
- No choice of colours
Final Verdict
The Kilo 1K is a good pre-filled pod system. It does have some very positive aspects but many of these tend to be widespread throughout pod systems in general rather than unique to this particular device, i.e. portability, ease of use, auto inhale activation etc.
In all it’s a device that does the trick, and I will happily pass it to my friend who is looking to quit smoking, after I’ve explained to him about the loose magnetic clip.
Personally though, I won’t be spending $20 on replacement pods. Which firmly answers the question, is it worth buying? No. It’s not worth the price point, but for me, neither is the JUUL. If the replacement pods were retailing at $12-15 or there was an option to buy two pods for around $8 and the device included one or two different flavoured pods to get you going, my mind would be changed.
That said, I used this device far more than expected and I would have struggled without it on my holiday. It sure did come in handy and it stomped all over any nicotine cravings.
