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In-depth Review Of The Eleaf iStick Rim Kit
Eleaf has entered the race in producing a small box mod kit with just 80W of power but with a substantial 3000mAh internal battery. The Rim kit comes complete with the Melo 5 mesh tank, but the question we need to ask, is this new kit in competition with the best vape mods, or is it one that should be avoided? The only way to answer this is to give it a review!
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Design
For a box mod style vape kit the iStick Rim is pretty small measuring in at just 133mm tall, 36mm wide and a depth of just over 30mm. As with most of Eleaf products they are releasing the kit in a number of different color options which include; black (darkness), blue (rainbow), macaron (pink marble), wildness (army camouflage), maze (orange/grey retro), and e-green (green like bubbles)! So you should find something to suit!
The mod itself is slightly rounded, which make it feel great in the hand, oozing of quality. The design around the outside has a shiny plastic feel with a resin look, there is also a rubber streak round the back of the mod giving it extra grip which is a nice touch.
On the front of the mod is the slightly oversized fire button, the screen, and the up and down smaller buttons. On the top is the 510 thread with a base allowing up to 26mm diameter tanks, and on the bottom, we have the Type-C charging port along with holes to allow battery venting.
Due to the size and design, it's fair to actually compare this to the best vape pens rather than calling it a box mod, but we have rules, so we are classing it as a box mod!
Features
The Istick Rim uses the conventional 5 clicks of the fire button to turn it on and off, where you will see the screen turning on showing you all your vape information such as current wattage, the resistance of the coil in the tank, a puff counter and a battery indicator. Really the basics you need to know. The up and down button adjusts the wattage is 1W increments, with the lower wattages moving in 0.1W increments.
The Rim mod also has a couple of other features like if you press and hold the up and down buttons together you can lock the device, but still allows you to fire the device. Pressing the up button and fire button together enters the menu area, where you can change the puff counter to the time or volts, allowing switching to a stealth mode (turning the screen off), along with preheating adjustment, timeout adjustments, the firmware version and finally the voltage left within the battery.
With the 3000mAh battery, you should expect a pretty decent lifecycle before charging, so around 30-50W should last the day.
One big feature we notice is missing on the Rim kit is temperature control, in comparison to the best e-cigs with similar specs we often see this as standard.
The Melo 5 Tank
The Melo 5 Tank is a 4ml tank that has a rubber wire around the tank to help absorb any shock if you were to drop the tank, it's a good idea and doesn't really block the view of the e-liquid. The drip tip on top is removable and the regular 510 design. The Melo 5 does support top fill where you locate the arrow on the top cap, lift, then slide to reveal the fill hole which is protected by a rubber seal valve to prevent any leakage.
The airflow control is a little different on this tank, it is at the base and controlled by swiveling the base cap, the holes are divided up into separate sizes, so just twist to reveal the different holes.
One thing we immediately notice is that the coils are a little different from the old style Melo tanks, the main difference is that they are now using the Mesh design for the coil. The two coils that come with the tank is the 0.15-ohm which vapes between 30-75W and the 0.6-ohm coil which vapes between 15-30W.
When you unscrew the base plate to remove the coil, there is a spring loaded valve that stops any juice from the main tank escaping. This is new and something we haven't seen on other tanks, so another nice touch.
Performance
Starting off we're using the 0.15-ohm coil which is stated as a 30-75W coil. Using the device at 60W it produced a cool but nice vape, anything higher than this and the device is struggling to maintain a constant vape.
Switching to the low wattage coil, 0.6-ohm, we found at around the 35W range produced the best vape, slightly cooler than the other coil but a slightly better-flavored vape.
The flavor overall is pretty good for a relatively small vape mod, especially the 0.6-ohm coils. The airflow control is good, giving you more than enough range and the mod has everything you need for a wattage only controlled mod.
TL;DR
The Eleaf iStick Rim is a smart looking small vape mod that feels great in your hand thanks to the rubber back and the rounded design, it has a feel of quality to it. But, it is only a wattage control device, so if you're into your temperature control devices, this one isn't for you.
The flavor coming from the new Melo 5 tank is not that bad, it's not the best sub ohm tank on the market, but with the 0.6-ohm coil running at just 35W it is one of the best lower wattage tanks.
Overall the Rim kit has a pretty good vape mod, great design and great feel of quality, the Melo tank is good, but not great for the subtly flavored e-liquids you may have.
Nicholas King
Hi! I’m Nicholas King, the founder, and Chief Editor at SmokeTastic. As an ex-smoker and now vaping enthusiast for over 13 years myself, I understand the transition between smoking and vaping. My aim is to share useful information about all the different vape and e-cig products on the market, self-help tips, and detailed reviews.
I hope you find something on SmokeTastic that helps you with your decision process.
