After a bit of a lean spell Lost Vape have been creating some nice mods lately & the Grus is one of the latest additions to the stable. Read on to see how I got on with it.
Package is a sleeved outer depicting the colour/style of the mod on the front & contents list & usual warnings on the rear. Remove the sleeve & the lid of the main box & you have the mod, wrapped in an HDPE sleeve, sitting in a foam tray underneath which is the manual. Unbagging the mod & removing the battery cap reveals the 18650 adaptor & USB C charging cable stowed inside.
The supplied model is the Black frame with wooden inlays & SS 510 & base. Other colours are available.
SPEC
Brand Lost Vape
Product Name Grus 100W Mod
Dimension 94.6*40.5*30.5mm
Base 30mm
Battery Single 21700/20700/18650 battery (not included)
Battery Voltage 3.0V-4.2V
Output Voltage 0.8V-7V
Power Range 5-100W
Current Range 0.3A-30A
Temperature Range 200℉-600℉/100℃-300℃
Screen 0.96 inch colour TFT display screen
Body Material Zinc Alloy
Coil Resistance Range 0.1ohm-5.0ohm
Colour SS/Carbon Fibre, Gunmetal/Carbon Fibre, Black/Carbon fibre, SS/Zebra Wood, Gunmetal/Walnut Wood, Black/Walnut Wood, SS/Jungle, Gunmetal/Puzzling, Black/Marine
In the hand
This is not a lightweight mod even without a battery. Using quality materials this gives an air of higher-end mod without the price tag. The paint finish has, so far, showed no signs of chipping or scratching and the top is a substantial 30mm with a sprung 510 pin.
On the base is a screw-on battery cap, with a lift up catch to make fitting and removal easy. The battery tube isn’t marked for polarity, save for a + embossed into the contact at the top of the tube. Three vent holes are drilled into the battery cap, although the battery is fitted positive up. The "wooden" inserts on the sides appear not to be stickers/vinyl as they don’t make an impression if you push a fingernail in.
On the front face is a fire button, 0.96” TFT colour screen and three navigation/menu buttons with the USB C socket completing the finish. The button/screen surround is a gloss finish with the rest of the body being matt black and gives protection to the inset screen. The screen is clear and bright, and the important info is easy to read.
At the top is a battery meter graphic & coil resistance. Underneath is the Mode, then Power/Temp. Below the chevron is the Puff timer & counter and right at the bottom is a row of coloured dots relating to the optional colour schemes available. The watts increments by 0.1 on single clicks and 1w when held. The watts round-robin back to 5w when the 100w limit is reached. The temperature can show either Celsius or Fahrenheit by scrolling through to min/max and pressing again to change.
In use
All testing was done with a 21700 battery to try to maximise run time.
Once installed, a standard 5 clicks turn the mod on/off. Anybody who has used a DNA C boarded mod will immediately recognize the 3 button layout & like those boards, the top/bottom buttons are used for increasing/decreasing settings.
The middle button, when pressed will highlight the mode in red and up/down button will scroll through the Power, SS316, Ti, Ni and Voltage. Pressing the centre button locks the selection.
Given the similarity to a DNA C device, it seemed logical to try out the temp control first. A dual SS316L coil set up at around 0.3ohm seemed a good place to start. Selecting the SS316 profile and a temp of 240c started well.
One thing to note though, there is no way to set the output power only temp. The temp control worked well & prevented a dry hit even when chain vaping. Without wattage adjustment, it was impossible to fine-tune and it felt somewhat underpowered. Power mode worked equally well with output consistent and quick-firing with single coil or mesh but seemed underpowered with dual coils. Voltage mode worked equally well for those who prefer using volts over watts.
Conclusion
The Lost Vape Grus is a very capable, well-built mod that delivers decent performance at a very reasonable price.
The big 30mm 510 plate allows bigger tanks to be used but 24mm and smaller RTA/RDAs can look a little lost. The only other thing that let it down was battery life. I compared the run time with a 21700 DNA75C and sadly this lagged behind with the same 0.3 SS dual coil build in both power and Temp mode.
The most likely cause is an apparent lack of boost/preheat. TC mode did give better runtime as it won’t be outputting constant power, instead of dropping to control the temperature.
There’s no battery rattle, thanks to the screw-in cap, on either 21/20700 or 18650 with the adaptor. Although not recommended, onboard charging is possible via the USB C port & peaked at around 1.4 Amp, although there is no pass-through available. Battery cut off averaged 3.3v.
