I have just received the Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit to review, and it stuck me, that despite Vapefly being a big brand, I’ve had very little experience with their devices.
In fact, I think the only Vapefly device I have used is the 200W Kriemhild mod that I reviewed last year.
Since the brands launch in 2017, Vapefly has built up a pretty solid reputation with a loyal customer base.
As I write this review, its catalogue consists of:
- 13 atomisers
- 2 mods
- 4 pods
- 6 kits
Vapefly also has 2 DIY tool kits, prebuilt coils and 4 different brands of cotton.
Before we go on, Kriemhild is pronounced ‘Kreem-hilt’ and from past reviews, I know that Kriemhild was a beautiful heroine in the Germanic saga the Nibelungenlied, where she is the sister of Günther and the wife of Siegfried.
What Can We Expect From The Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit?
The Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit comprises of the Kriemhild 80W Box Mod and the Gunther Sub Ohm Tank.
Strangely the mod has a “Security Alarm System”… Yes, we’ll get to that, but it’s probably not what you expect.
It’s a single battery system that takes 21700 and 20700 batteries, but it also comes with a 18650 adapter.
The kit takes a USB-C for charging, however I don’t know the rate because it doesn’t mention the rate on their website, and they like to leave the manual out of reviewers packs.
That’s no drama though, we’ll work it out later on.
As it’s name suggests it has a max power of 80W but it also has a bypass mode.
The Kriemhild 80W Box Mod also has a 0.49″ OLED screen and a 510 connection.
The Gunther Sub Ohm Tank can be bought separately.
It has top to bottom airflow, top filling, uses push pull coils and is compatible with the RMC (Rebuildable mesh coil).
Inside the Box
- 1x Kriemhild 80W Box Mod
- 1x Gunther Sub Ohm Tank
- 1x 0.2ohm Duplex™ Mesh Coil
- 1x 0.3ohm Mesh Coil
- 1x 510 adapter
- 1x Straight Glass Tube 3.5ml
- 1x Type-C Cable
- 1x Battery Adapter
- 1x Accessories Bag
- 2x User Manual
- 1x Warranty Card
Kriemhild 80W Box Mod Specs
- Size: 87.5×43.7x30mm
- Output: 5-80W / 0.5-8V
- Modes: VW, Bypass
- Battery: 1x 18650 / 20700 / 21700 (not included)
- Display: 0.49in OLED screen
- Resistance range: 0.1-3.5ohm
- USB Type C port
- Security Alert system – buzzer and beep
- 3S chipset
Gunther Sub Ohm Tank Specs
- Size: 25.2×54.5mm
- Capacity: 3.5ml (Standard) / 5ml (Bubble Glass)
- Top adjustable airflow
- Top fill
- Coils: FreeCore K coil range, Kriemhild 2 RMC (rebuildable coil system)
- 810 drip tip (510 adaptor included)
Design and Build Quality
The Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit comes in 4 different colours, as you may have noticed mine is Silver.
I think they all look pretty stylish and classy. I also noticed that each colour has a tank to match, which might sound obvious but it isn’t always the case.
The base shape of the device is an oblong oval, which makes for quite a comfortable grip. However I can’t mention the comfortable grip without mentioning the cold touch. Because of the metal body of the mod it can be quite cold on first touch.
At it’s thickest width the mod is 30mm wide and at the thinnest it is 25mm (excluding the front part). I excluded the front part because the mod is very much designed line a C-Mod but it’s not. The outer metal seems to be wrapped around the center part of the mod.
The body is a brushed metal effect and is fairly smooth. With a plaque, parallel on either side with the Kriemhild branding.
Vapefly Kriemhild 80W 510 Connection
In this pod mad world is hard to remember what a 510 connection is, but luckily the Kriemhild 80W mod has one!
Fancy that, a mod with a universal connector…
The 510 is placed to one side, the thicker side.
Secured by 3 torx screws, the connection plate goes across nearly the entire thick side of the mod, which is great.
Not only does it protect the mod from a tank scratching it, but larger connection plate tend to be more secure.
Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Screen
The Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit has a 0.49″ OLED screen.
It’s small, it’s discreet and it’s basic.
Placed on the top of the mod, the screen blends into the mod quite well, when it’s turned off. I thought it has a shiny silver, a bit like a one way mirror. But at closer inspection, the silver property is quite low, making it a very shiny but dark grey.
When lit up, the screen is easy to see.
The screen is divided horizontally by a line. Above the line is the battery indicator, displayed as a bar with no percentage and the power setting.
Below the line is the coils resistance reading and the output voltage.
Before we move on, I’d like to emphasise how unhappy I am with the battery indicator.
I personally like a percentage so I have a better idea how how much battery is left. However, the battery indicator on the Kriemhild doesn’t even have staging, it’s just a continuous bar.
I should mention that the screen does display a percentage while it is charging.
The Buttons
There are 3 buttons on the Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit, all of which are down the front on the device.
The fire button is towards the top, despite although it looks like plastic, it is actually metal, or it at least has a metal coating.
This button is a decent size. It measures at 10x15mm and it has horizontal lines, which is just one of those small details that make a big difference.
The Up and Down buttons are towards the bottom, just above the USB-C port. They are individual buttons with the Up placed 6.5mm above the down. They measure at 7x7mm and have lines forming arrows.
None of the buttons rattle and they’re all nice to press (not too hard or loose).
Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Battery Cap – The Mod Base
On the mod Vapefly Kriemhild 80W base, there is 3 screws holding the device together and the screw on battery cap.
The design of the battery cap isn’t a new concept, I’ve seen it many times an I quite like it.
It’s simply a round cap, with threads on the outer edge.
There is a handle that lifts out of the cap, as well as a ‘line’ indented, both are ways to unscrew the cap.
My first gripe about the Kriemhild’s cap, is the handle. Obviously the intention of the design is, you use the handle to unscrew the cap, but it it is stiff you can use something like a screwdriver or coin.
However the handle clips in quite tightly, this makes it nigh-on-impossible to lift the handle for a nail biter like me. But it was even a struggle for my partner, who has lovely healthy nails.
Gunther Sub Ohm Tank Design & Build Quality
The Gunther has all the features you’d expect a tank to have in this day and age.
Adjustable top to bottom airflow, bottom push pull coils and top airflow.
The kit came with 2 glasses for the Gunther tank. The bubble glass (5ml), which was pre-installed and the straight glass (3.5ml).
Mouth Piece
The Gunther has an 810 mouth piece, of which the O-ring is inside the port.
This means it’s interchangeable, with almost any 810 mouth piece, which is ideal!
That being said I do quite like the mouth piece that comes with the kit. The mouth piece arches inward, which is quite comfortable on the lips.
More than that, it’s flush to the top cap, almost. As I said, it’s these little details that make a big difference, and that little details does wonders to the style.
Let’s not forget that the kit also comes with a metal 510 adapter.
Topfill and Top Cap
Notches in the top of the top cap reminds me of a carousel…
However they are extremely useful in helping you to grip and remove it.
The Gunther’s Top Cap can be removed by a quarter turn anti-clockwise. It’s not loose, but it’s certainly not too tight, I’d say it’s just right.
There is a silicone seal on the underside of the top cap, which I always think is imperative to fully prevent leaking.
Vapefly went a bit further than that though!
There is another seal inside the fill port! Complete with thin slits, I like these kinds of seals as it prevents you it leaking and from over filling.
I suppose you could argue that it makes it more fiddly but I like it.
Additionally, the seal on the fill-port can be removed which is beneficial when it comes to cleaning it.
Adjustable Airflow
The adjustable airflow ring is just below the top cap.
The ring is only 6 mm high and has the Gunter Branding on either side.
There is also 2 sets of holes, one on each side. The sets of holes each consist of, 4 slits and 2 circular holes. Which is quite unique for an airflow inlet design.
With just a quarter turn, the airflow is fully on or fully off but it can be set anywhere in between.
There isn’t any beveling or any other form of grip on the airflow ring, but it’s tension is fair decent.
It’s easy to rotate, but not so loose that it should ever move on it’s own accord.
The Base
With a similar style to the top cap the base has grooves which makes it easy to grip.
Now, the base is usually not worth mentioning, but I do want to show you the inside.
However the inside of the base is filleted, quite a lot too, which is quite interesting because it has been long since agreed that this type of edging inside the top cap of a RDA/RTA can drastically improve flavour production.
So I wonder if this has been done to improve flavour, or is it is just a style feature.
Using Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit
Filling The Tank
There is a “min” line on the tank, be sure to not let the liquid go below that line to prolong the coil life and reduce dry burns.
- While holding the tank/kit upright Rotate anti-clockwise, then lift the top cap
- Push the nozzle, of your e-liquid bottle, through the slit on the fill hole cover and fill the tank
- Reapply the top cap and lock it by turning it clockwise, until it stops turning
- Allow 5 minutes before using to allow the liquid to soak into the coil
Changing the coil
- Take the Tank off the mod
- Twist and remove the tanks base
- Pull the old coil out from the bottom of the tank
- Push a new coil in. Press firmly and make sure the bottom Oring is inside the coil port.
- Reapply the base, and fill the tank
Don’t forget to leave the e-liquid to soak in for 5 minutes.
Kriemhild 80W Mod Operations
Vapefly didn’t send me the manual, so If I miss something, that’s why.
Everything below is what I have found from experimenting.
- Turn on/off = Press fire button 5 times
- Change Power Setting = Press +/- buttons accordingly (hold to go through faster)
- Change between bypass/adjustable power mode = Press fire button 3 times, see screen for current setting
- Flip Screen = Press fire and + simultaneously
- Turn screen off/on = Press fire and – simultaneously
- Lock the +/- buttons = Press + and – simultaneously (this does not disable the fire button)
Bypass mode fires with full power (voltage) of the battery, while (I presume) keeping the safety features to protect the battery.
How Does The Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit Perform?
0.2ohm Duplex Mesh Coil
The 0.2ohm Duplex Mesh Coil came pre-installed in the kit.
I filled up and left it on the kitchen side to soak into the coil.
1 hour later I went to start using the vape and noticed the tank was only half full. How strange.
I removed the base to let all the liquid train, I check the coil was inserted properly and all the O-rings were intact. They were, so I put it back together and left it for another hour.
This time the tank was fully empty.
Thanks to the top to bottom airflow, none of the liquid left the tank until the tank was tipped the the side.
I drained the e liquid, topped it up and had a 2 puffs, after I could taste burning, I wrote the coil off.
It should be noted that I used two different e-liquids one from Twelve Monkeys (90VG/10PG) and one from Dinner Lady (70VG/30PG).
This is a hard predicament to be in. On one hand I know that it was probably just one in a thousand coils that were faulty. But on the other hand the rule of thumb is “Review what you have”, “Write What you experience”, so this will be a tricky one to score.
I’ll comment on my decision and reasoning in the score comments at the bottom of the review.
0.3ohm Mesh Coil
This coil is recommended to be used at 40-55W.
I went back to my Twelve Monkeys Tropika, which is a 70VG/30PG e-liquid that I’d made up to 3mg.
It took a while for the flavours to fully come through but they did and here’s how it performs.
At the minimum recommended wattage, 40W produces a lovely prominent flavour. The exotic fruit blend explodes in your mouth. While the vapour is very smooth, fluffy and plentiful. Although it doesn’t feel it on the way in or out, the vapour production is quite a lot.
Half way through the recommend range, at 47.5W the flavour doesn’t change too much but the vapour does get a bit thicker.
55W is the maximum recommended and the flavour is really prominent her, it almost floods the mouth and the vapour is plentiful.
…Dry vapour, its an oxymoron, but I’m sure some of you will know what I mean.
You don’t get it straight away but after vaping on it for a short while your mouth and thought starts to feel dry.
Again this is going to be hard to rate.
50PG/50VG E-liquids
There were times with the 90VG/10PG Twelve monkeys that there were little too much e-liquid inside the airflow, you could feel it gargling.
That and the leaking of the other coil, prompted me not to try this kit with 50VG/50PG liquids, as a rule of thumb you shouldn’t really use 50/50s on sub-ohm kits anyway, but this is certainly one that I don’t trust to handle the thinner juicers.
Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Menus & Operation
It turns out that the Vapefly Kriemhild 80W mod doesn’t have a menu. In fact it is super basic and simple to use.
All the essential features are built into the button ‘shortcuts’.
Come to think about it if they wanted to add more they’d probably need to add a bigger screen. I think a menu system on a 0.49″ screen would be a nightmare.
Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Battery Life & Charging
Vapefly say the Kriemhild 80W Kit has ‘fast charging’ but I can’t really find any specs for the charge rate, so we had to find out the old fashioned way.
I charged a 2,500 battery twice with a 2A plug (a different plug and plug socket each time). Each time took roughly 100 minutes (1hour 40 min).
That suggests that the kit has a 1.5A charge rating.
In regards to how long it will take to charge depends soley on the battery that you use. How long it will last for depends on the battery and the power you are using it.
If you use a 3,000mAh battery, it will take the kit 2 hours to charge it.
If you then use that kit at 55W, the battery will last for 242 x 3 second puffs. Which is about 8 hours worth of having a puff every other minute.
Airflow On The Gunther Tank
The airflow is fairly generous.
While the airflow is fully turned off it creates a restrictive Direct To Lung.
So there’s not a lot of airflow but still too much to create a restrictive Mouth To Lung Experience (which I mention because of the 510 adapter).
With the airflow fully open it’s pretty restriction free. So it’s a decent variety for a DTL tank.
Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Security Alarm System
Get ready for a rant.
On Vapefly’s website page for this kit this is the picture:
Now, the words “Security Alarm”, suggests to me that it is some sort of anti-theft system.
It then goes on to say “Safest Mod Ever”… now to me a safe mod, is electronically safe.
But if you say it has a security alarm, I automatically think it’s the safest, in the same way that the Crown Jewels are the safest jewellery ever.
You’ll probably be as disappointed as me when you realise that it actually means “Safety Alarm”, it has nothing to do with security… at all.
That’s right the beeping will only occur when the mod detects a short circuit, overheating, over 10 second of firing or the battery is fully charged.
All of the pre-mentioned have the same ‘alarm’ in which the mod “buzzes 5 times, 3 beeps a time”. Except from the battery fully charged which “buzzes 1 time, 3 beeps a time”.
Maybe I didn’t read that properly, but to me the word “buzzes” suggests it vibrates, it doesn’t. It’s actually 5 sets of 3 beeps – beep beep beep, pause, beep beep beep).
The beeps aren’t that loud either, but I suppose i’m being picky now. Think of an old dirt cheap alarm, that wouldn’t really wake you up… Okay I suppose it’s satisfactory, let’s get back the the point.
“The safest mod ever”, is it though? Maybe “Most novelty safety feature ever” would be a better fit, in my opinion.
The only feature that is added, is a beep.
All the other devices cut off just the same, then the screen tells you what’s wrong (which this also does).
The only scenario I can think of, in which this feature would make it safer, is if it starts auto-firing while you’re in bed.
Which has happened to me before and in that case, the auto fire would kick in, then a few minutes later it would start firing again until the cotton was dry then until the cotton was on fire. (I suggest you turn all mods off while you sleep).
However, I doubt the alarm would walk me up, it’s really not that loud.
Oh, and there is the full battery, that’s handy.
It wouldn’t really prevent you from burning the coil out in your pocket.
If you have a coil set to it’s max recommended wattage and you pocket fire for 10 seconds without drawing, that coil is very likely burnt.
Pros
- Durable Kit
- Takes External 21700s (20700 and 18650s)
- Easy To Use
- Decent Flavour
- Big Cloud Producer
Cons
- Faulty Coil
- Battery Cap isn’t the easiest to use
- Vapour can have dry sensation
Final Verdict
This is a hard one, because it’s very nearly an awesome vape, but there is little bits that just take that away.
In summary, the Vapefly Kriemhild 80W Kit is a great sub-ohm starter kit that has an up market look and feel about it.
I’m not going to punish Vapefly too much for the – what I presume is a – faulty coil, Because I don’t think that’s fair.
However, due to how the rating system works it will definitely impact the score. But there is other little bits like the ‘dry’ vapour from the duff other coil.
I should also add that I know people that have got the kit and they all like it. Some have said they had a leaking issue with the coil that was built in but most didn’t.
Even the screen and interface is super basic. Which can be a good thing but i highly dislike the lack of specific battery information.
The battery caps build/design quality makes an incredibly good battery cap, an annoying cap. Seriously if it wasn’t for the intentional tight hold, it would perfect.
The last thing I want to touch on if the “Security Alarm”, I think I was a bit harsh in it’s description. Mainly because of it’s miss-leading title, which is quite paramount when it’s one of the main selling points. It does indeed have it’s benefits, especially the fully charged alert.
If you’re looking for a simple, stylish sub-ohm kit this could be an interest to you.
It is a well built mod, and in all fairness, it is a pretty good mod.
However for me to buy it, the little annoying bits would have to be improved on.
Is this a mod or vape kit you’re interested in?
Please let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.
