RAM Box Mod by Stentorian & Wotofo

Commercial characteristics

• Sponsor having loaned the product for the magazine: Happesmoke 
• Price of the tested product: 89.90 Euros
• Product category according to its selling price: High end (from 81 to 120 euros)
• Mod type: Mechanical Bottom Feeder
• Is the mod telescopic? No
• Maximum power: Not applicable
• Maximum Voltage: Mechanical mod, the voltage will depend on the batteries and their type of mounting (series or parallel)
• Minimum value in Ohms resistance for a start: Not applicable

Reviewer comments on business characteristics

Squonkers friends, get out of your dens! After many years or you have been ignored, mocked or even ostracized, you are finally free. Take out your dusty REO, Galactika and your drawers, your drippers with the pine lovingly hand-pierced, you've become fashionable! 

Indeed, for a few months and under the democratic impetus of Kanger, the Bottom-Feeding has become an essential passage for the vapogeek and few are the manufacturers not to offer in the catalog an object which will therefore allow you to feed your dripper by the bottom of its connection via a flexible bottle judiciously placed in the box. Because it is Bainsi that we could popularize the concept of bottom-feeding to explain it to the neophyte. 

Box BF electronic or mechanical, it depends more on the parish to which you belong and I would not squonker on the bottle to feed this schism. The offer is now bloated, it reaches all price segments, everyone can find something to suit them and that suits me perfectly! 

Stentorian, American moderator, therefore offers us with the RAM Box mod his interpretation of the BF mechanical mod. The brand called on the services of Wotofo for the production of said object, certainly with the laudable aim of bringing down costs and becoming competitive in a sector that has long been devoted to the high-end, whether this is deserved on certain pieces of goldsmith or usurped on others.

The Ram is therefore presented as a mechanical single-battery box accommodating a 7ml bottle of capacity. There are two versions corresponding to the two materials available. A version in padouk, a very stable and naturally water-resistant exotic wood species, treated to be truly e-liquid-proof and a version in molded composite resin that we will discover today. In this material, it is available in three shades, knowing that the resin molding necessarily ensures a unique rendering on each box.

Available at 89.90 €, public price generally observed, the RAM is not blowing its nose but remains, to a certain extent, competitive if we take into account the average market price for the category. And the little rascal is counting on her sympathy capital and her hourglass figure to turn heads and change the game.

The bottom-feeding does not support the approximation and it will take something other than a pretty dress to impress the old men already familiar with the exercise. But we are starting off on a good basis. Let's go on…

Physical characteristics and felt quality

• Width or Diameter of the product in mm: 24.2
• Product Length or Height in mm: 78.5
• Product weight in grams: 120
• Material composing the product: Padouk wood or composite resin
• Form Factor Type: Classic Box - VaporShark type
• Decorative style: Classic
• Quality of decoration: Good
• Is the coating of the mod sensitive to fingerprints? No
• All components of this mod seem well assembled? Yes
• Fire button position: Lateral near the top cap
• Fire button type: Spring mechanics
• Number of buttons making up the interface, including touch zones if they are present: 0
• User interface button type: No other button
• Quality of interface button (s): Not applicable interface button
• Number of parts in the product: 2
• Number of threads: 1
• Quality of the threads: Good
• Overall, do you appreciate the quality of manufacture of this product with regard to its price? Yes

Rating of the vapelier as to feelings quality: 3.9 / 5

Reviewer's comments on physical characteristics and perceived quality

Here we are in direct contact with a very small and cute miss that seems made to seduce.

First of all, seduce by its mini size, which makes it barely exceed a Pico muzzle and which makes it perfectly nomadic for everyday use. 

Also seduced by its weight which largely benefits from the lightness inherent in the composite material. Armed with a 22mm diameter dripper, it will struggle to exceed 150gr, which is a good start to almost forget that you are holding a mod in your hand.

Finally, seduce by a joyful aesthetic, between a princess box and a “Munchienne” atmosphere of patterns that the resin draws on its own as it dries.

The finish is very honorable and does not call for any particular reproaches. The fit between the frame and the bonnet is very correct. The central retaining magnet holds well (Etienne, Etienne….) And the interior has been worked to present a finish comparable to that of the exterior, both in quality and in materials. There is therefore a spring-loaded switch button, which can be locked and unlocked by a simple quarter turn clockwise or counterclockwise. Once operational, the switch makes contact on the stem connected to the connection, thus closing the electrical circuit and sending energy to your coil. Simple and classic, this system will bring back good memories to old fans of pinky switches that worked in the same mode.

All of the metal parts are 24k gold plated, this is good to avoid the oxidation of the contacts even if this makes the fittings a little bling-bling and too shiny, more “Gifi” than “Van Cleef & Arpels ”if you know what I mean. And above all, this should not suggest that the conductivity is objectively better, this depending heavily on the base material before plating, on its own mass and on the size of the contact surfaces.

The 510 connection is surrounded by an insulating circle of peek to avoid conveying heat to the resin, an idea which seems theoretically good and which, in use, seems to work perfectly. I reassure you, nothing melted during the test!

No degassing vents but the light allowing your finger to press on the bottle also plays this role. In addition, its size is ideally designed for handling, even the largest fingers will have trouble missing the squonk (editor's note: action of pressing on the bottle to make the juice rise in the atomizer, all in a sucking noise that makes “squonk”, roughly speaking.… 

The switch is not the most pleasant to handle. It remains tough even after a certain break-in time and its stroke is too long. Of course, it remains bearable but a little tiring on the length of the vape. Moreover, we will come back to this one a little further down because there are some additional problems to be noted.

Under the bottom-cap, we find a medal with the arms of the manufacturer Stentorian, well done but which adds, in my humble opinion, an extra strass aspect to the box. I much prefer the hot stamping of the product name “RAM” located on the front panel where the switch is located.

The cradle for the battery is cut from the resin and has a wall which will partially protect the battery from the bottle. The battery is easy to insert, in the direction you want since we are, I remind you, on a mechanical box. The flask and the plumbing device for delivering the liquid to its purpose are conventional but very effective. There are no leaks so the seal is ensured and the liquid arrives safely, which is always preferable. The flexibility of the bottle is ideal and pressing on it to send the fluid is no problem.

All in all, we have a contrasting balance sheet with obvious positive points such as size, weight and finish but also negative sides such as the hardness of the switch and an assumed propensity to put too much glitter on a box that probably didn't ask for it. not that much.

Functional features

• Type of chipset used: None / Mechanical
• Connection type: 510
• Adjustable positive stud? Yes, through a spring.
• Lock system ? Mechanical
• Quality of the locking system: Poor, the chosen approach is tedious or impractical
• Features offered by the mod: None / Mod Méca
• Accusability: 18650
• Does the mod support stacking? No
• Number of batteries supported: 1
• Does the mod retain its configuration without batteries? Not applicable
• Does the mod offer a recharge feature? No recharge function offered by the mod
• Is the recharge function pass-through? No recharge function offered by the mod
• Does the mode offer a Power Bank function? No power bank function offered by the mod
• Does the mode offer other functions? No other function offered by the mod
• Presence of air flow regulation? No, nothing is planned to feed an atomizer from the bottom
• Maximum diameter in mm of compatibility with an atomizer: 24
• Accuracy of the output power at full charge of the battery: Not applicable, it is a mechanical mod
• Accuracy of the output voltage at full charge of the battery: Average, because there is a noticeable difference depending on the value of the resistance of the atomizer

Vapelier's note regarding functional characteristics: 2.5 / 5

Reviewer's comments on functional features

Talking about features around a BF mech box comes down to asking three questions:

Sealing? We are good, the RAM provides this chapter and the hydraulic system is under control. It does not pearl, does not drip, does not leak. We are on a product designed for bottom-feeding which has not forgotten the basics.

Conductivity? I am more circumspect. This does not seem to be the most conclusive and the comparison with other models, atomizer and battery equal, corroborates my intuition alas. The switch being placed 2mm too low compared to the stem, the stop is partly made on the rubber pipe. The circuit closes all the same, of course, but the non-optimal position could theoretically influence the general conductivity. Likewise, it would have been undoubtedly more efficient to land the part pushed on a flat in order to maximize the connection. Here, you fail on the stem cylinder and, once again, you lose valuable contact surface.

To end with this system that I do not find sufficiently optimized, I will add that the hardness of the switch also has a negative influence on the conductivity. Indeed, even if one objectively never obtains missfires, one notices that, during a less sustained pressure, the delivered tension drops slightly and the result is thwarted. 

Please note, these are not disqualifying faults. The box vapes correctly and keeps its promises in terms of vape quality. But, at nearly 90 € all the same, we are perhaps entitled to expect maximized conductivity. Here, this is not really the case.

Security ? This point will raise a second important downside regarding the use of the box. Indeed, it is planned that the switch can be locked by turning it, thus allowing transport of your set-up without fear of inadvertent start-up. And it works. Sometimes. The problematic point comes from the difficulty of turning that damn knob. Its tiny size, its ridge making it difficult to grip anything and the hardness of the rotary movement combine wonderfully to deter you from doing it once and for all. If you have fingernails, don't even think about it. If you don't have one, but your fingers are larger in diameter than a five-year-old, there's no need to hurt yourself. This function, however crucial, was simply dispatched by a rotary movement difficult to achieve by a human hand, making its usefulness quite relative. 

It is however possible that this problem affects only the copy which is in my hands, I must remain objective. Also, I will welcome your feedback, positive or negative, in the comments section in order to provide more information to vaponauts. 

Evaluation of the packaging 

• Presence of a box accompanying the product: Yes
• Would you say that the packaging is up to the price of the product? Can do better
• Presence of a user manual? Yes
• Is the manual understandable for a non-English speaker? Yes
• Does the manual explain ALL features? No

Vapelier's note on packaging: 3.5 / 5

Reviewer's comments on conditioning

The conditioning blows hot and cold at the same time, a bit like the rest of the test.

If we find a notice in French (among others), which is a good point, we may regret the total absence of interesting information on it. She just explains how to fill the bottle and lock the switch (good luck!). A reminder of the precautions of use, always important for a mechanic mod, as well as a technical sheet worthy of the name could have been found here for the target audience of RAM: those who do not yet have a box bottom -mechanical feeder.

We will not find less than three bottles, which will allow you to largely see it coming. An excellent point that, alas, a relatively rigid packaging cardboard, sad reminiscence that will remind older vapers of the initial wanderings of some High-End supporters and other vicious ants, understands who wants. If your box arrives unflattened, consider yourself happy.

Appreciations in use

• Transport facilities with the test atomizer: Ok for an inside jacket pocket (no deformations)
• Disassembly and cleaning facilities: Easy, even standing on the street, with a simple Kleenex
• Easy to change the batteries: Super simple, even blind in the dark!
• Did the mod heat up? No
• Has there been any erratic behavior after a day of use? No
• Description of situations in which the product has experienced erratic behavior

Vapelier's rating in terms of ease of use: 5/5

Reviewer's comments on the use of the product

I will be very clear. If you like to vape at a fairly modest power, on a tight or semi-aerial flow, with a mono-coil dripper and nomadic situation, the RAM is a good tool. A good complement to a tight Narda mounted in 0.7 / 1Ω for example, to express a vape rather typical sweet tastes.

If you want an abundant, airy vape and sustained power, the Ram is not made for that. It can, of course, develop a fairly substantial power with the appropriate battery and a fairly low resistance but the fairly limited conductivity of the machine will dissuade you from using it in this direction.

Otherwise, beyond my great reserve on the locking device, I did not notice any anomalies during operation.

Recommendations for use

• Type of batteries used during the tests: 18500
• Number of batteries used during the tests: The batteries are proprietary / Not applicable
• With what type of atomizer is it advisable to use this product? Dripper Bottom Feeder
• With which model of atomizer is it advisable to use this product? A BF RDA between 22 and 24mm
• Description of the test configuration used: The Flave, Narda, Saturn
• Description of the ideal configuration with this product: The one that suits you aesthetically

was the product liked by the reviewer: No

Overall average of the Vapelier for this product: 2.9 / 5

Link to a video review or blog maintained by the reviewer author of the review

The mood ticket of the reviewer

Beautiful, a little too makeup but very nice, the RAM arrived with a healthy fresh air in the game box BF.

But here it is, there are free figures and imposed figures, as in figure skating, in the cruel world of the mod mech. Conductivity and security are non-negotiable things and it becomes therefore difficult to appreciate at its “true value” a contender who is admittedly cute but who has forgotten that conductivity is worked on before anything else in this category.

Likewise, it is a shame to have ignored the database of hundreds of modders who have perfectly succeeded, in more than ten years of experience in the world of mechanical mods, the course of switch blocking to propose here a subject device unreliable and difficult to handle.

In short, I pass my turn with regret and a questioning glance at the requested price which seems to me more suited to the fashion circumstances surrounding the BF than to a concrete R&D reality.

(c) Copyright Le Vapelier SAS 2014 - Only full reproduction of this article is authorized - Any modification of any kind is totally prohibited and infringes the rights of this copyright.