We’ve come a long way since the days of the humble box mod. The Heat Vape Defender is another in a long line of sleek and powerful “box” style APVs to hit the market in the last few months. Heatvape’s Defender boasts not only a curvy, compact design but a power plant capable of delivering 25 watts of power. Check the review below for all the details.
Disclosure: this review is based on a pre-production model provided to me for review by HeatVape.
Visit the official HeatVape website
HeatVape Defender Specs
- Reversible 510/eGo top cap
- Spring-loaded center pin
- OLED display
- Auto incrementing power adjustment
- 3-25w power range
- 1-8v voltage range
- 0.5 – 3.0 ohm range
- 20A capacity
- 2600 mAh battery
- Micro USB charging port
HeatVape Defender Design
I’m not sure whether to call the Defender a curved box or a double-wide tube. Two sides of the body are flat while the other two have about the same curve to them as a traditional tube-style APV.
Of course, the Defender is smaller than any respectable tube mod. It’s positively tiny standing about 6 inches tall. Yet, somehow they managed to stick a 2600mAh battery in there along with all the required circuitry.
The model I received is in a glossy black, but there’s a whole rainbow of colors for this device. The top section and bottom plate are both chrome, so in a word, shiny!
Shiny is easy. But I guess I’m easily amused. One of my favorite features of this device is proof. The battery connector top is simply brilliant.
Basically, it’s a simple ring. When oriented one way, it’s a typical, flat, 510 connector like you find on most devices in this class. But, unscrew the top and flip it over. When you screw that back on, now you have an eGo threaded connector.
I hate having extra parts like eGo cones and adapters I have to keep up with. Therefore, this concept is magic in my mind.
There is a caveat, however. The eGo connection is recessed with side walls all around the connector. There’s a significant amount of space between the two so it shouldn’t be an issue. If you have a particularly zaftig eGo tank or something, there might be a fit issue.
I’ll stop writing about a simple battery connector now. The top also features a couple of holes through which you can string a lanyard or strap. You know I love all of my readers, but if you do that, you’re kind of a nerd. No judgement.
Anyway, moving along. One side of the HeatVape unit features the fire button along with a rocker switch for adjusting the settings. What you can’t see, at least on a black model is the OLED screen. It somehow blends in perfectly. You can sort of feel it, but it’s hard to see when the display is off.
HeatVape did a good job of curving the screen cover on the side surface which kind of gets it out of the way when not in use.
The power button above the screen is a good size, especially on a small device and is easy to find by feel. The same is true for the rocker buttons.
There is an interesting feature where the adjustment is concerned. When you hold down one of the buttons to adjust across a wide range of wattage, the display doesn’t speed up like it does on most competing products.
Instead, holding the button activates a sort-of hold feature. You can let go of the button and the wattage or voltage will keep moving in that direction until you press the button again. It’s a nice feature, but I do wish it would speed up as well since it can take a while to go from 10 to 25 watts in .1 watt increments.
The display itself is pretty much what you’d expect from a modern device. It’s a nice, bright display that shows a battery graph, current resistance of your tank, wattage setting and the actual voltage the device will be operating at with the given settings.
When you press the fire button, the display will briefly show a timer showing how many seconds the button was pressed. Not a terribly useful feature I suppose, but now I know I average around 4.6 seconds when I vape.
Finally, the bottom plate is plain, save for a micro USB charging port to refresh the built-in battery.
Using the HeatVape Defender
Neat features and a slick design don’t mean a lot if the device doesn’t work all that well. On paper, it may seem like the Defender is at a disadvantage because it’s limited to 25 watts instead of 30 or more. In practice, however, that didn’t seem to be much of an issue.
I had no problem driving some of the new generation of power-hungry tanks like the Subtank and Atlantis in the 20-25 watt range on this device.
That’s especially impressive considering the defender tends to be smaller than something like my Cana DNA mod.
You get close to the same performance in a much smaller package. In addition, the power plant in the Defender can go longer between charges than my 18650 powered devices. I have actually gone a whole day morning until bedtime on a single charge, running in the higher wattage ranges.
When you compare this device to some of the other large-capacity built-in battery APVs like the latest iTaste MVP, the Defender becomes very compelling.
The HeatVape Defender is a great looking, compact device with a brilliant reversible battery connector, OLED display and all the bells and whistles. The battery life more than makes up for a slightly lower wattage output as compared to bigger box mods.
I do want to mention that this is a pre-production model I have reviewed. This is actually the second one I’ve had as they made some significant improvements to the battery connector and other aspects of the device from the earlier model I had.
You can find more details on HeatVape’s website. Keep an eye out at your favorite vape shops for this thing to appear soon.
