EHPro’s SPD A8 is one of the latest temperature control box mods to hit the market, boasting up to 80 W of power, an in-built 4000 mAh battery and temperature control from 200 to 600 °F. It ticks all of the boxes, and also has a pretty unique design to boot, but is it worth the purchase?
Is it worth buying?
The G3 Kit is a brilliant deal, offering a study, sub-ohm capable and temperature control box mod in combination with an RTA that gets the job done exceptionally. The mod may have some niggling issues, but overall it does exactly what you want it to, and the battery life is substantial, making it ideal for vapers who spend a lot of time out of the house.
Of course, competition is fierce in the temperature control box mod field, but the SPD A8 does have a lot going for it, and the Billow V2 Nano is widely considered one of the best RTAs around, so most vapers will be more than satisfied with the G3 Kit.
Temperature control box mods are quickly becoming the bread and butter of vaping. Offering tons of power, excellent battery life and temperature control in a compact and often affordable package, they have everything a vaper could need. The problem is, there are tons of them on the market, so picking one out of the line-up isn’t exactly easy.
EHPro’s SPD A8 is one of the latest devices to enter this crowded market, boasting up to 80 W of power, an in-built 4000 mAh battery and temperature control from 200 to 600 °F, it ticks all of the boxes, and also has a pretty unique design to boot. You can also pick it up for $83, in a kit that also includes the well-loved Billow V2 Nano RTA, making it a pretty solid deal for a vaper looking for an upgrade.
But is the box mod and RTA combo worth the purchase? We’ve put the G3 Kit to the test in our EHPro SPD A8 review to find out.
What You Get
The G3 Kit comes with the SPD A8 mod – along with a USB charger for it – and the Billow V2 Nano – which includes some Japanese cotton, two ready-to-install coils and a bag of spare O-rings, screws and a mini screwdriver. This is basically everything you need to start vaping apart from some e-liquid, with a very capable mod, batteries and a widely-recommended tank.
The mod and tank are separately boxed – and are basically just sold together to produce the “kit” – but it’s definitely an impressive offering overall. Available for $83 on Heaven Gifts, you’re definitely getting a good deal.
Design and Compatibility
The SPD A8 has a unique but still pretty appealing design, being about average thickness but wider than most box mods you’ll find, at 55 mm (just over 2 inches) wide. You can pick it up in several colors – black, white, red, blue and green – and each has a soft-touch, silky coating that increases the comfort when you’re holding it.
The edges on the mod are rounded, too, and there are three diagonal ridges on each side of the device to make it more comfortable to hold, although the level of comfort is debatable, because the width does detract from the otherwise ergonomic design. The buttons stretch up a central ridge on the device, with the OLED display screen in the middle, with a triangular fire/power button above and “+” and “−” buttons below – pointing up and down, respectively – making operation pretty intuitive.
The combination of the width, the diagonal ridges and the angular buttons gives the SPD A8 a design that might not be to everyone’s tastes, but I’m perfectly happy with it, appearance-wise. There’s a small “EHPro” logo on the back of the device, and it says SPD A8 on the metallic bottom section, but other than that it’s free from logos or anything too garish.
On the top edge of the mod, the spring-loaded 510 connection sits in the center of the metallic top piece, with “Caution: Hot Surfaces” written on either side (totally unnecessarily) and four airflow trenches carved into it (forming an “x” with the 510 connection in the center). The device works well visually with a wide range of atomizers, including the Billow Nano V2 – which, in my case, matches with the black mod – and I never had any connectivity issues at all during testing.
The Billow Nano V2 has a straightforward but effective design, with a black top and bottom section surrounding a glass tank and metallic chimney section, as well as an airflow control ring that allows you to open up two slots for airflow. The tank has a 3 ml capacity, and a 22 mm diameter at the bottom, with the central portion bowing out a little to help it accommodate more juice. The 510 connection is copper, and can be adjusted with a flat-head screwdriver.
The deck has a split center post, with Phillips-head screws to open and close the holes in the post (which, of course, fit the included mini-screwdriver) and four channels for your wicks, so juice can easily make its way up to your wicks and coils. The airflow holes open up directly underneath your coils, allowing for fantastic vapor production and flavor, but the adjustable airflow means you can still tailor your draw to your preferences.
When you’ve attached your coils, there’s a cylindrical piece of metal you screw on to form the bulk of the chamber, then the whole thing goes up into the larger chimney so the vapor has a clear path up to the wide-bore drip tip. The design of the tank portion means you have to refill upside down, but this is done through four oval slots around the outside of the chimney, which means you can easily unscrew the tank – even when it’s full of juice – and get access to the deck to adjust your coils.
Overall, both the SPD A8 and the Billow V2 Nano have a straightforward but effective design, giving you exactly what you want without unnecessary features or design elements cluttering anything up. The mod’s design might not suit everybody, but it’s definitely easy to get used to.
EHPro SPD A8 Features
The SPD A8 is a very capable vape mod, offering pretty much everything you expect from a VV/VW device. The most sought-after feature for vapers is temperature control, and the SPD A8 offers the standard operating range of temperatures for nickel coils only, and can be set to work in Fahrenheit or Celsius. The mod is set to ramp up at 50 W in temperature control mode, but you can edit this to suit your preferences through the menu.
The device also operates in variable voltage mode – from 0.5 to 8 V – and variable wattage mode – from 5 to 80 W. It has an in-built resistance checker, which operates automatically and gives a result to two decimal places (with a minimum firing resistance of 0.1 ohms). Of course, the device also has all of the expected protections – including low voltage, short circuit, high current and high temperature cutoffs – and also has two vent holes at the bottom.
There are several other features accessible through the menu, including stealth mode – which turns off the screen while you’re vaping – and an option allowing you to flip the screen so you can operate the device in whichever orientation works best for you. I didn’t need either of these features, but their inclusion obviously doesn’t do any harm.
The SPD A8 also has upgradable firmware – which increases the maximum power to an impressive 120 W – but to be honest, despite having downloaded the necessary files and read through the instructions, it is far from clear enough for me to get it working. Most of the instructions included with the download are in Chinese, and it seems as though the drivers provided for the special USB charger are faulty, possibly counterfeit. Long story short: I gave up. 80 W is more than enough for me, and I’m sure more tech-savvy vapers will be able to get it working.
Overall, the SPD A8 has all the features you’d expect from a VV/VW mod, along with temperature control and (at least theoretically) upgradeable firmware: it does pretty well in this department.
In Use
When it comes to day-to-day vaping, the SPD A8 is an absolute pleasure to use. The size may not be ideal, but with a 4000 mAh battery – which lasts me two days or more of vaping – it’s definitely worth putting up with the slightly bulkier size. It isn’t as heavy as you might expect, either, so it doesn’t do too badly in terms of portability. It’s a mod I happily take with me when I’ll be out of the house for a couple of days: durable, dependable and very capable.
Most of the time, operation is very simple. A thinner design would help make things a little more comfortable, but the buttons are very easy to press, and when you get used to the layout, you start holding it so your thumb naturally falls on the fire button. Everything is very intuitive when you’re vaping, with the wattage increasing in one watt increments with the adjustment buttons, and the temperature increasing in 10 °F increments, making dialing a new setting in very easy indeed.
Additionally, switching between modes is easy too. All you have to do is press the fire button in combination with either the + or – key and you’ll enter the menu. You hit the fire button to accept the displayed option, and the adjustment keys to scroll through the menu. The “Working Mode Setting” menu is the first option displayed, so after hitting the fire button, you scroll to either temperature, power or voltage mode and then hit fire again to change it.
The home screen has a clear layout, so you see your main setting on the left hand side – either the temperature, voltage or wattage you’re operating at – the resistance of your atomizer is displayed in the upper right and the temperature or wattage is displayed in the lower right. At the very right edge, there’s also a battery level indicator, so you have a good idea of when the SPD A8 will need charging.
Charging is also pretty quick – taking just a few hours, which is impressive for such a large-capacity device – but you don’t get pass-through vaping. The USB port being on the back side of the mod (rather than the bottom) also means it can be stood up while you charge, although the lead is a little too short.
If that’s all you have to do – and really, it is for the most part – the mod is pretty pleasant to use. Two things, however, combine to produce a constant (if minor) annoyance: the device’s tendency to shut off when not in use – after about 10 minutes – and the fact that pressing the fire button five times within two seconds is more difficult than it sounds.
So you vape for a while, set the mod down, and then absentmindedly go to pick it up again, press fire and get nothing. Then you realize what’s happened and press the button five times quickly. Nothing happens. You do it again, and eventually settle on what became my standard approach: aim for about seven or more presses as quickly as possible. Perhaps I’m incompetent, but since I’ve never ran into this issue before, I’d guess either the timer is a little too fast or you actually need more than five presses. This really isn’t such a big deal, but it’s just one of those things you wish they’d made a little better.
The menu system is also a little crappy. It works basically how it should, but it shuts off a little too quickly when you’re inactive, so I tend to find myself racing through it. It’s also not particularly intuitive, so the whole process – unless you’re just changing your operation mode – is a bit of a chore. Again, not a huge complaint, but some more time before it shuts off would have been ideal, and you’d have felt less like you were racing the clock when you went to make a change.
Minor complaints aside, though, the SPD A8 is a great mod, nonetheless. The battery life is fantastic, it has more than enough power for me (even without the upgrade) and the temperature control works just as intended. It quickly found its way into my regular device rotation, and I continue to use it now.
The Billow V2 Nano is also a fantastic RTA. The split positive post design makes rebuilding a pleasure, and although the deck can feel a little cramped – you have to make quite small coils to avoid contact with the cylindrical chimney – the vapor production and flavor when you’ve got everything together is exceptional, with the below-coil airflow and conical chimney having a big role to play in that.
Refilling is very simple, and the airflow control ring allows you to tailor your draw to your preferences easily, although it’s worth noting that you have to use both slots, which isn’t an issue for dual coil setups and lung hitting vapers, but may not be ideal if you like a tight draw. Personally I found the airflow – fully open – to be just right for my tastes, but you can always partially close it off if you like a tighter draw.
Overall, the starter kit performs excellently in use, with no major complaints when it comes to performance, making adjustments to your settings or connecting up your coils. There were some minor annoyances, but I found them more than tolerable.
Manufacturing Quality
Both the mod and the tank seem well put-together, overall. The device itself is one of those mods that you feel could take a serious beating without any issues, and the threading fits your atomizers comfortingly snugly. Some reviewers have found the buttons too “clicky” and said the mod had an altogether cheap feel, but for me it seems absolutely solid with very little to complain about. The same goes for the tank: everything seems sturdy, there are no problems with the threading, and it also has a PEEK insulator so it can stand up to sub-ohm vaping and high temperatures.
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