Smoant Battlestar Squonk Kit Review – Pumping Up The Squonking Action

The Smoant Battlestar Squonk is the company’s chosen device to enter the dual 18650 battery squonk market by using the original style of the Battlestar 200w mod as the building block. Which leaves the question have they pulled it off using what could be classed as a dated design?

The key features here are the squonking pump action and squonk bottle – which is more like a cartridge that slips in and out -though housed separately – via the battery compartment.

Just like the original Battlestar Smoant says this can hit 200w…has a dead simple menu offering all the usual options including temperature control and both variable wattage and voltage and there’s no fancy sub menus either.

Smoant has it’s fair to say a reasonable track record with vape devices. I reviewed the iconic and bloody awesome Cylon 218w and the recently released Naboo kit which I wasn’t overly impressed with…and that shall we say fun set-up the Campbel – the one you can vape drinks on.

As to the Battlestar mods – Laura-ann absolutely loved the 80w mini version whilst our old friend John Summers rated the original Battlestar reasonably highly.

OK that’s the scene set lets see how this squonker come pumper vapes.

For the record this was sent to me direct from Smoant for the purpose of this review – thank you – and as always my thoughts and opinions are not swayed by freebies.

Inside the Box

A large cardboard box and inside you’ll find:

• 1x Battlestar Squonker Mod
• 1x Spare E-liquid bottle
• 1x Battlestar Squonker RDA
• 1x Solid pin
• 1x Micro USB cable
• 1x Warranty card
• 1x User manual
• 2x Spare parts pack

Smoant Battlestar Squonk Kit Specs

• Push button squonk feature
• Dual 18650 batteries
• Max 200w output power
• VW/VV/Power Curve/TC(NI/TI/SS/TCR)
• 2A quick charging
• 7ML capacity
• Resin 810 drip tip
• Easy-to-build deck
• Solid 510 pin included
• Ergonomic design
• Black, Yellow, Gradient blue and Gun-metal colours available

Quick Start Guide

• Open battery door to remove squonk bottle
• Fill via bung at the bottom of the bottle/cartridge
• Insert x2 18650 batteries
• Closing battery door secures squonk bottle
• Use pump to squonk
• X5 clicks on and off
• X3 clicks to enter menu
• Left and right to cycle options
• Fire button to select
• Fire button to vape

Key Features

Let’s get the obvious out of the way – this is a dual 18650 battery mod capable of hitting 200w [with fresh batteries and a freshening wind behind it].

It’s a pump action squonker that Smoant says means less chance of over-squonking and flooding your deck and leaking.

The squonk bottle is more of a cartridge that you slide out by opening the battery door – watch those batteries don’t shoot out. You fill by opening the bung on the bottom and topping up a generous 7ml capacity. Once filled and the batteries are in place closing the door pushes the pipe into the 510…

The bottle/cartridge is clear meaning you can see your juice level.

The menu is extremely basic and with no sub menus to faff about with it’s very easy to scroll through. And as you saw in the specs there’s: VW/VV/Power Curve/TC(NI/TI/SS/TCR) to choose from.

Incidentally the power curve feature is the DVR – I’ve had a look but can’t find what that stands for…answers in comments!

The kit comes out of the box with the squonk pin fitted and should you wish to use the RDA on non squonking vape mods there’s a solid 510 pin included.

The RDA is a dual deck with shared post holes – however unless you have huge coils I found it was easier for both legs to share a hole if that makes sense. I did try using all of the post holes but found fitting the supplied coils was a bit of a stretch [literally] and actually messed one up. Better builders I’m sure will do er better 😉

Maybe it’s not just me as you can see from Smoants own diagram of the coil placement it looks like they share the post holes too.

Airflow comes from two reasonably sized Cyclops style ports however these are pretty much halved by the side angled design. The well of the dripper is not the deepest I’ve ever seen which may not be too much of an issue if the pump action really does prevent flooding/leaking from over-squonking…we shall see…

Design and Build Quality

The Smoant Battlestar squonk mod is made from zinc alloy and reasonably ergonomic, and whilst feeling like you’ve got a solid chunk of metal in your hand it is comfortable enough to hold – though as you might expect pocket friendly this ain’t.

Not quite one just for the table top or desk but close let’s put it that way.

One quick note about the battery door. Out of the box and without batteries inserted you only needed a gnat to land on it – the slightest pressure and it popped open which concerned me. However once the batteries are in I’ve had no issues – it locks rock solid!

It’s definitely a well-built set-up that will take some knocks – especially the 22mm RDA which is made from brass and will take most of your custom 810 drip tips. However the pump button does feel a little wobbly to say the least with a tendency to come loose after use…easily remedied by tightening but still a niggle.

Design wise it has that retro look especially in the gun-metal version I received which to be honest has a hint of browny/brass tinge rather than regular grey.

The RDA is slightly lighter in colour without being too obvious – however the exposed gold coloured airflow ports – the gold ring on the base of the dripper and the gold pump button is a little garish to my eyes. It may have bumped the price up but matching the pump with the colour of the mod may have calmed things down a little in my opinion.

The squonk bottle/cartridge is as I’ve already mentioned see-thru through tinted blending in nicely with the overall look and indeed design.

There’s a choice of colours and to be honest that black one looks stunning…

How Does the Smoant Battlestar Squonk Kit Perform?

The mod is dare I say very basic when it comes to operating and choosing your settings and for me that’s a good thing. There’s no faffing about with sub-sub menus it’s all there on the 0.96 OLED screen which despite being behind tinted plastic is reasonably bright even for these tired old eyes.

I did pop on my old Goon with a pair of basic stainless steel coils and fired whilst empty and as you might expect these days whilst there was some discolouring nothing caught fire.

Removing and filling the squonk bottle is an absolute doddle – it slides out no bother and that fill port is wide enough for most nozzles and the bung pops in easily enough with no threat of leaking – indeed I’ve had none from the bottle…

So what about the pump and does it in fact stop over-squonking? Let’s take a look…

Battlestar Squonker RDA

Nope – it doesn’t stop over-squonking one little bit.

I was hoping for some kind of pressure physics or some such shenanigans that would stop the pump in its tracks at a certain point. However you can pump away quite merrily [ooer missus] and what starts as a seepage of fluid [ooer missus] becomes less of a trickle and more of a gush…

Yup… it seems a combination of a very shallow juice well – that angled airflow and pumping too hard will lead to a sticky top…OK…enough of the smutty 8-year-old puns…but you get my drift and as you can see from the photo and after 5 pumps thar she blows…

I’ve had this for a little over two weeks and have kind of guessed when I’ve pumped enough – but it’s not an exact science and I have found myself stopping mid-pump to whip its top off to have a look if it’s juiced up enough…OK one more smutty pun 😉

So just take it easy tiger when pumping is my advice…

Building – Wicking and Squonking

As to building and wicking and as I said at the start I found it easier sharing post holes with the legs which was easy enough. As to coil height – I found because of the sloped upwards airflow I placed the coils with the base just under the top of the slope – this meant the air was hitting them bang on the middle giving me a tasty vape…experiment to find your perfect height!

As for wicking – this is an RDA so it’s a cinch to wick. Though saying that and given its tight in there you may need less cotton than usual. The squonk action is pretty good with a raised platform with two squonk holes either side. So when wicking make sure those are clear to allow the juice to spread evenly.

How’s the Flavour and Vapour?

The big question of course is how’s the flavour? It’s actually pretty good and using my current go to juice 12 Monkey’s Origins Puris – whilst not matching my go to dripper the Augvape BTFC – it was very close indeed with good vapour too.

The airflow as I’ve said isn’t quite as large as you may think – that’s down to the slope – however I found wide open it gave me a lovely airy vape – bang on my preferred. Closed right down and as you can guess it’s restricted but not overly so…though definitely not Mouth To Lung (MTL)!

BTW I used the supplied coils at 77w ohming out at 0.16ohm. I have pushed it to 120w which in my experience it hit no bother and the vapour was very good indeed at mid-range and the high wattage.

Pros

• Solid build
• Decent design
• Easy to follow menu
• Dead simple to fill squonk bottle
• RDA easy enough to build on [for most except me lol]
• Flavoursome RDA
• Plenty of clouds

Cons

• Can leak if over squonking/pumping
• Very shallow juice well
• Not so good battery life
• Pump button can come loose after use

Final Verdict

The Smoant Battlestar Squonker is one of those setups that has grown on me. On opening the box I was a little underwhelmed and whilst not overwhelmed now I quite like it but it’s not one I’d take out and about.

Battery life isn’t so good either and I’m not sure why. Using this for a day whilst working from fully charged to almost empty I got around 6 hours which in the scheme of things I suppose isn’t too bad but given it’s a simple chip/menu it did surprise me somewhat.

Despite an over tendency to leak when pumping too much, I do like the flavour the little RDA is producing with impressive vapour too. The airflow coupled with the shallow deck is a major design fault – however once you gauge it [or whip off the top to check] it slowly stops being a real issue and more of a niggle…practice that pumping 😉

Being a dual squonker virgin I’d say it was a decent enough set-up but not mind blowingly so. My Pros have outweighed the Cons and I guess that says it all.

I can’t say if the Smoant Battlestar squonk kit is up to the same squonking standards as say the hugely popular Dovpo Topside Dual for instance and I for one – when it comes to squonking – will be sticking with my Lost Vape DNA 75 BF…me an elitist? Naw… 😉