DotMod DotAIO Kit In-Depth Review
We go in-depth with the dotAIO
Dot AIO Review: In-Depth
Welcome all to an in-depth review on the dotAIO, an all-in-one kit designed by the famous dotMOD. We’re gonna cover the design, feautres, coils, how it vapes and of course my final thoughts on this device! Now, let’s go over the specs real quick before we jump in!
- Measurements: 78mm x 42mm x 22.5mm
- Pod Capacity: 2.0mL
- 0.3Ω and 1.6Ω coils included
- 18650 powered, sold separately.
Design
Right when you take it out of the box, you understand what you paid for. The polished gold 510 mouthpiece, the minimalistic design with only a small gold dotmod logo appearing, and the small intricate engravings on the firing switch with RBG LEDs surrounding it. And just because, they also include this beautiful ultem mouthpiece with a very small hole designed for tight MTL airflow. There’s a wide variety of beautiful colours but of course if you want it to look even BETTER, you can replace the plain doors with the laser engraved chrysanthemum doors in matching or contrasting colours, or one of their fantastic painted doors like I have here. The one con is the fact that it’s plastic, but I don’t care look how sick this looks now. And yes these doors are expensive, $26.99 a set, but look how pretty this is!
Now it’s time to take off these beautiful doors to see what is concealed underneath. Starting with the face on the device, a sled for your 18650, a small gold button, your firing button, and small rubber stoppers to hide both the magnets and screws. We’ll talk about that tiny button don’t you worry! The door on the front is nothing too crazy, having a tiny cutout and ensuring that the battery stays in place without rattle cause these doors don’t move a millimeter!
Now let’s go on to the back side, which is where we’re gonna find our serial number, warnings, and the classic Apple move of “designed in California, made in China.” This is also where we get acccess to the pod, but the door is the cool part one again. You can see how dotMod’s tapered the bottom of the cutout because this actually lines up with the airflow cutouts on the door! They actually provide you with a sticker if you want to cover up the slot on the door to cut airflow down to the bottom only, otherwise both channels are used. Like I said, these doors have TIGHT tolerances so even if you cover the side window by accident or on purpose you won’t be getting anything but this smooth bottom channel airflow.
The last part of design design to talk about is the pod itself, and if you’ve ever used a Billet box well... I like this better. The Billet box is a pain in the butt when you do need to change your coil out, yes it was one of the first pressfit but heck that the dotMod system kicks ass. Super tight tolerances, and the only screwing you do is the coil into the base, which is an easy pressfit into the whole pod. The filling system is a silicone stopper which I normally despise but even with no finger nails this is easy to pop open. However, not having finger nails makes taking the pod out a bit more difficult but I’m happy they included a tab on the pod and a cutout for your finer to grab it.
Oh yeah, there’s also a USB-C port that comes with a matching USB-C dotMod charging cable which is cool, I don’t use it because I have a battery charger but USB-C looks very pretty. Now, onto the features of the device.
Features
When a device looks as minimal as this one does, you don’t expect any features farther than an on off mechanism but boy howdy did they do this right. So let’s start with that little button I showed you earlier. What this little button does is switch you between the different wattage settings, indicated by the LED strip around the fire button. While I don’t know what the exact wattages are, I can tell you that there’s a clear difference between each one, I personally prefer using 2 lights because the 3 gives me flashbacks.
The most notable feature about this device is the fact that it has dry burn protection, which is fancy for temperature control. If the coil notices a spike in temperature from the lack of juice cooling the coil, it will actually flash purple and cut the power so you don’t burn it out. This saved me when I wasn’t paying attention to my juice level, it works extremely well and I haven’t gotten a single dry hit. 10/10 times I hate temperature control because I can never get it to work how I want it to, so having a reliable and simple version of it is converting me because I always get a consistent vape out of this. The last feature I wanted to speak about actually involves the coils, so let’s get into it!
Coils
When it comes to coils, you have a pretty large spectrum to choose from. Let’s start out with the dotMod coils as those will be the most used. Included in the box you’ll receive a 0.3Ω mesh coil which has a 35W cap from what I’ve seen, and a 1.6Ω wire coil that caps at… a lower wattage. I’ve been adoring these mesh coils using regular nicotine juice, I’ve had no problems with wicking using a 70VG juice and I’m very happy with the flavour. I usually use this with 3/4 to full airflow, it’s smooth as glass and was the reason why I actually purchased this mod. Moving on to the 1.6Ω coil, if you like mouth to lung vaping or salt nicotine then this is gonna be your jam. It provides a nice tight draw and give you a proper MTL experience that you won’t get with mesh coils. If you loved the Nautilus, you’ll definitely love this coil, or of course you’ll love using the Nautilus coil!
DotMod clearly ripped their coil design from Aspire which isn’t shocking cause they’ve done it before, as well as pretty much every other company at this point. DotMod’s smart though, and they know there’s diehards so of course they included an adapter to use Nautilus coils! Albeit it’s a bit more of a process with screwing things in, but it’s great if you either can’t find DotMod coils or want to try something new! Aspire has a wide range of different coils, so if you’re looking for a nice in-between option the Aspire’s got you covered.
The last option that they offer is where you start getting all of the control, because they made a rebuildable section! DotMod has always made fantastic RDAs and RTAs which is what gave them such a big name, so of course they did a fantastic job on this little ditty. You have a curved deck to provide smooth air flow, large wicking ports, and a postless drop in deck to help cut down on space! If you build a nice coil in here, you’re going to have fantastic flavour that will barely cost anything to maintain. Even then, as long as you aren’t using super sweet juice the dotMod coils have lasted me a surprisingly long time! So yes, these coils are good on paper, but how do they vape?
How does it Vape?
It’s unreal. How unreal is it? Well take a peek at what my friends and I are using, and that should speak for itself. The draw is awesome, the battery life is awesome, it doesn’t matter what coil you put into this thing cause it’s awesome! I’m very snobby when it comes to airflow on vapes, and if it doesn’t feel right or it sounds off I won’t bother going near never mind purchasing. DotMod has always been #1 in this department, every single dotMod atomizer I’ve used has had a smooth wooshy airflow that is like no other. I love using the 0.3Ω mesh the most and it finally got me off using salt nicotine. Don’t get me wrong if you use salt you’re going to have a great time especially with the MTL drip tip included, it’s similar to the Berserker RTA which was stupid comfy. That’s something else dotMod does the best, I don’t know how they always figure out the absolute perfect diameters for maximum comfort, the old dotMod RDA drip tips were to die for.
Final Thoughts
Now before I leave y’all today it’s time to summarize my final thoughts and note any cons that I’ve found. Let’s get the cons out of the way because they’re very minimal. I’m sure you’re wondering if it leaks, and to be completely honest I have had a little bit of juice in the pod compartment! I didn’t even notice because it doesn’t affect how it vapes, didn’t get juice on my hand, etc. Wipe it out once and a while, this is a high-end device you’re supposed to give it the maintenance it deserves. That could just be condensation for all I know or care, it hasn’t affected anything, almost every single tank/pod I’ve ever owned has leaked because gravity pulls things down. The other con I mentioned before, which is that the extra fancy doors are plastic so if you don’t like that don’t buy those doors, who cares.
I honestly wish I picked one up sooner, and being able to have this many customizations means everyone can have a unique setup! I literally have battery life for days using this 0.3Ω coil, obviously new batteries are going to give you even better battery life but all I’ve used is some old 18650s I’ve had laying around and it’s still been stellar. If you’ve been thinking about getting it for a while, I hope you’ll be like me after this video and pull the trigger because I have 0 regrets. As long as you take care of this thing, it’s going to last you a very long time. If I lost this thing today, I would definitely (wait til payday and) buy another one, with a pricetag of $124.99 CAD I can confidently say it’s worth every penny.
I hope you enjoyed this review, and if you want to pick one up for yourself you can click here to grab it with free shipping in Canada!
Betul ke hengko ni