Advken Orcas Pod Review

There are a lot of Mouth to Lung vapers out there, and often they are quite particular about getting a nice tight draw from their devices. Sure, there are plenty that like a more open draw, but ultimately that tighter Mouth to lung draw is a lot harder to get right, specially when considering you need airflow to produce vapour!

Anyway, today’s review is of a device that does the job really nicely, and is purposely built for those who love a really tight vape. There is no option for more airflow, this is it. A very tight Mouth to Lung draw. If you love this kind of vaping, continue on, you might have just found your new out and about MTL pod vape! Everyone else, don’t even bother reading any further!!
( Unless of course you’re curious and love my reviews, in that case, thank-you, and carry on 😀 )

Let’s take a look at the Advken Orcas Pod!

Big thanks goes to Vaporstate, who are the Advken global partner in Australia, for sending this through for me to review!

Photos

General Info

I’m not going to go on about features and bells and whistles with this one. It doesn’t have any. The Advken Orcas Pod is as simple and straight forward as it gets, and that’s totally elegant to me. Too often, manufacturers throw in all sorts of additional features without really focusing on the user.

To categorise the Advken Orcas Pod, I’d put it firmly in the “Stick Pod” category, just like it’s brothers, the Uwell Caliburn, Advken Potento and many more.

Built to be portable, the Orcas Pod is not only lightweight, but of a nice slim size and shape, easily slipped in the pocket for use during the work day.

With it’s 10 Watt power level, 360mAh battery size, 2ml e-liquid capacity, as well as it’s really tight draw, the Orcas is instantly going to appeal to those who like lower power vaping with a cigarette like inhale.

The Body

Made from Aluminium Alloy, the body is a slim line size, diamond shaped for a nice hand feel, and finished with a lovely metallic paint fade, giving it a unique look among other ‘Stick Pods’.

Up top, of course you have your Pod recess, where the PCTG pod slides into place with a distinct ‘click’. There are 2 connectors in there, as well as the auto-draw activator, and tiny airholes on either side, that are viewable from the outside and allow the small amount of air in and under the Pod.

There are no buttons, levers, or toggles on the Orcas Pod. It’s an exclusively auto-draw activated device, with no other settings to get confused about. In fact, you can’t even turn it off. It is permanently ‘On’, so you can take a sneaky puff quickly anytime.

The only thing remotely human operable, is the visible battery level indicator available in the centre of one of the faces of the device, that shines a different colour depending on how your battery is travelling.

On the bottom you’ll find the USB Type C charge port, which I’m now treating as a fairly standard feature these days. I did commend manufacturers for getting on board with USB -C for a while, but it’s now simply ‘expected’. ( Is that me being too harsh? )

The PODs

The Pods are an interesting design, being quite similar to the Potento Pods, they are one piece, and disposable. Which is great for those just getting into vaping, or those who just want a simple experience without worrying about fiddling with removing coils.

I would still have loved to see these have removable coils though, in fact, I’d love to see everything have removable coils. Disposable pods really are a bit of a waste, but I suppose they have their place.

As you can see from the photos above, the Pods are made from a darkly tinted PCTG material, which is tough and hard wearing. I’ve found that they are just a little too darkly tinted for my liking, and need to hold them directly up to the light to have any chance of seeing how much e-liquid is left in them. Unfortunately this is a pretty big thing. Without being able to see levels, how can you fill a Pod accurately?

Sticking to a similar theme, I’ve also found that the fill port of the pods is quite small too. So filling requires you to not only hold the Pod up to the light to see the level, but also juggle the e-liquid bottle nozzle in the fill hole at an angle and as close to one side as possible in order to avoid an overfill or a back pressure situation.

The Pods are quite long, and fit like a glove. Actually I think they fit a little too well, and can be a bit of a pain to remove at times. You’ve got to give them a good wiggle to remove them when you need to fill. A minor problem, but still needs a mention.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel however, the Pod is comfortable to hold in the mouth, and a perfect shape for a nice MTL draw. On top of this Advken also print all of the details you might need onto the side of your Pod, so you can always check easily which resistance Pod you are using.

Airflow

There isn’t a lot of airflow, and that’s intentional. As a result of how tightly these pods sit inside the main body, and how tiny those airflow holes are on each side of the device, this is well and truly a tight Mouth to Lung vape.
So for all of you true mouth to lungers, you’re going to love how tight this airflow is. I do, it is my absolute perfect amount of airflow.

There is no airflow adjustment, which is not really an issue considering it’s clearly designed for a specific type of vaper. I suppose you could get a more open draw if you drilled those airflow holes out a little if you were so inclined, or if you wanted even tighter, you could hold your finger over the airflow holes.

Battery

As with most Stick Pods, the Orcas has an onboard battery. This one has a 360mAh capacity, which is quite small, but considering that this is a maximum 10 Watt output device, carries charge quite well, so it will easily get you through most of the day.

For those who treat their vape like an extension of their hand, and just do not put them down, you’ll likely run out of battery a lot quicker, but Advken have included a USB Type-C charge port on the base of the Orcas, and you’ll get it charged to full within 40 minutes!

To see how much battery life you have left, Advken have conveniently placed an LED behind the design on the front of the device, that will light up a different colour depending on your battery level. Here are what the colours mean!

Green Light: 4.7~3.2V
Yellow Light: 3.7~3.5V
Red Light: 3.5~3.2V

Filling

Like I mentioned earlier, the Pods for the Orcas, can be a bit of a pain to fill, mainly due to the dark tint of the Pods. You’ll need to hold the Pod up to the light directly, so that you can see the e-liquid level inside.

You’ll also need to pay particular attention to the fill hole as it is quite small, which doesn’t really help if you get any type of back pressure while filling.

Take it slow though and you will be fine.

Advken, a slightly larger fill port please, or perhaps a slightly elongated hole to allow for backpressure. While you’re there, please lighten the tint on these Pods!!!!

Any Leaks?

None, absolutely none. This is a very clean device.

Usage

Usage = Take a vape!
Seriously, there is nothing more to this device, you cannot even turn it Off/On, there are no buttons, no toggles, not airflow adjustment, just take a draw and enjoy that vapour!

Pros:

• Slim, Lightweight form factor
• Excellent tight MTL airflow
• Battery capacity will get you through a day
• Plenty of eliquid capacity for a 10 Watt machine
• Nice battery level light display
• Super simple to use

Cons:

• Difficult to remove Pod
• Difficult to fill Pod
  
  

Where to Buy:

The champions over at Vaporstate sent this through for me to review, so I’ll plug them here, head on over to Vaporstate’s Online Store and you can pick up the Advken Orcas kit for $35 AUD. A great price for a reliable, no-nonsense MTL Pod device!

Conclusion

Finally a no-nonsense tight MTL Pod on the market! There have been so many Pods released over the last few years that boast being Mouth to Lung appropriate vapes that literally have a really airy draw. Not so here!

Advken’s Orcas has a really tight draw, a small footprint 10W power output, with appropriate sized battery and Pod. You’ll seriously be vaping most of the day without needing to refill or recharge.

It slips in the pocket really easily, and is not only lightweight but really comfortable to hold too.

There were some cons here, but they were mainly to do with the Pods, which I’m hoping Advken can do something fairly easy to fix. While it’s completely possible to fill the Pods without problems, they are a pain due to not being able to see your e-liquid level because of the dark tint, and you’re always wary of some back pressure due to the really small fill hole.
The Pods are also difficult to remove, but I can understand why they are, it’s to retain that nice tight MTL draw. It’s something I can live with as long as the tint and fill port are taken care of 🙂

Great work Advken! Love it!

Shane Presser

Shane Presser has been vaping since 2013, and has extensive experience with advanced equipment, coil builds and DIY mixing. He is the man behind VapersGarage, and also more recently Aussie Vape Stores, a resource to help vapers find their nearest Vape Shops, and eLiquid Vendors.