Freemax Maxus 200W Kit Review: Test Results Are In

Product intro and specs

The Maxus 200W is the latest starter kit from longtime popular manufacturer Freemax. They have been making some of the best sub ohm tanks on the market for a long time now and still make some of the best coils as well. So much so, that when I use a tank that uses pre-made coils, it’s typically a Freemax one.

While Freemax has been killing it in the sub ohm tank department, they haven’t been very active in the vape mod scene. Two years ago, they made one called the Firelord, and since then it’s been just tanks, AIO-style devices, and pod systems. This kit includes the Maxus 200W dual-battery mod, paired with the successor to one of the most popular sub ohm tanks ever, the M Pro 2 resin tank made for DL vaping.

Price: $74.99

Colors: Green/red, red/blue, blue/yellow, black/orange, yellow/black, orange/green

First impressions

It’s been a long time since I've reviewed (or even used) a Freemax mod, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The last one was two years ago with the Firelord mod, which was a full resin body single-18650 battery mod that came with the Firelord tank. The Maxus 200W reminds me of a lot of similar mods like the Drag 2 with its size, shape, and its resin panels on the side.

One thing that did catch my eye right away is that you can run it in single battery mode. Honestly, I never understood the point of that feature. The mod also features SmartLoad tech, which means you can’t put the batteries in the mod in any orientation, a great feature for beginners. I like that you don’t have to think about it, just load the batteries in.

It comes with the M Pro 2 tank. As expected, it’s compatible with all of the larger style Firelock coils, like the ones the M pro and Fireluke 2 use. These are some of the best, if not the best coils on the market. I’m so happy to see they kept the compatibility. Overall, I was pretty happy with it, as it’s an amazing tank with a solid mod that’s good enough to power it.

Build quality and design

The Maxus 200w is a nicely built mod. It looks nice and simple but definitely feels like it was inspired by the Drag 2 mod. Thankfully there is no giant logo on the opposite side of the resin like the Drag 2 had. Instead, there is a smaller Freemax logo on it that isn’t tacky at all. Still it feels a bit plain, they should have just put resin panels on both sides. In the hand, it feels solid—not cheap or flimsy and not too heavy at all. It’s also pretty small for a dual-battery mod. The fire button is a textured square on the front of the mod above the screen. Below the screen is the up and down buttons and below that is the USB-C port.

The mod features a well-sized black and white screen that’s clear and easy to see, but a bit dim by today's standards. I didn’t see a size listed but it’s likely 0.96 inches, similar in size to the Geekvape Aegis Max screen which I recently reviewed. The 510 pin is great and gave me no issues with any atomizer. It's listed at 28 mm wide and the included M pro 2 tank sits flush and looks great on top of it. The 510 pin is not centered and it is more towards the back of the mod then the front of it.

They have six color options currently available, and I was sent the red/blue one. There are some diagonal lines on the side of the mod that form four large sections, each with their own panel and two smaller sections with no panels. The top two panels are one color scheme and the bottom two panels are another. In my mod, the top panels are a mixture of yellow, red, green and blue while the bottom panels are blue, white and black. The resin looks and feels great though.

The battery door is a standard side plate, like the Drag 2 and many other mods. It worked great though, had no problem getting batteries in and out. The magnets on the door are nice and strong. There is some very minor play on the door, but so small most people won’t notice—unlike the Drag 2, which had a lot of play in the battery door. There is no button rattle on this mod at all either. All in all, it’s a great looking and well-built mod, but they really should have put resin panels on both sides, in my opinion.

Features and functions

The Maxus 200w mod has all the basic features today's mods. Nothing new, but everything you will need. You have power mode (watts) with no preheat options, VPC which is a watt curve, bypass mode, and temp control mode for Ni200, Ti, SS and TCR.

Nothing fancy or overbearing which is kind of nice but all the needed features we expect to have in a regulated mod are here.

Using the Maxus 200W

As far as the menu goes, it’s pretty basic and easy to use. Here is a quick rundown of the usage:

Overall, very simple and easy to use with a good menu.

Power mode performance

Testing on this mod was done with Sony VTC5A Batteries and in dual-battery configuration. They only list max watts which was 200 and max volts which was 8.4. I wish they would list amps too. Still, two out of three is better than just watts. During my testing the max achieved wattage was 213 watts, so the 200-watt rating Is excellent, if not slightly underrated.

The amp limit I got was 43, which is a little above the average these days on a dual-18650 mod. The volt limit I got was 8.731 volts so there is a boost circuit in this mod. While it’s not 100% needed on a dual battery mod, it is nice to have, so I’m glad they included it. But I think it was done more for single battery mode, which does require a boost circuit.

They also list a 2-amp charge rate, and while I don’t recommend charging your batteries internally if it can be avoided, I did test the charge rate and the max I got was 1.8 amps. Most 2-amp rated charging mods will charge a max of 1.7 to 1.9, so it’s right in the range and above 1.5 amps.

The specs are pretty solid, and they make good on the listed rates. The mod adjusts in 1-watt increments, which is great. I’m glad they didn’t do the 0.1-watt increment thing. If you hold it down it’ll scroll pretty fast as well. There is no round robin for wattage though.

During my testing the mod did a great job of not getting hot. Accuracy wise. it’s pretty average. It struggles below a 0.2-ohm resistance and hits a little low, but at 0.2 ohms or higher it hits a little high. Overall, a solid performer. Nothing excellent but nothing bad either—it will get the job done to power the included tank with no problems. You can see the full test results above.

Temperature control performance

Using SS316L wire and in SS and TCR modes, I tested five builds:

The power is fully adjustable in TC mode, with the full 200-watt limit. First off, before I go over performance, TCR mode was broken for me. It has three memory spots and when you adjust it, it even gives you a chart that lists the TCRs for various metals. However, funny enough, SS904 isn’t on the chart despite being the material of the included coil—which is an oversight to me. Also, SS316 should be 92 but they list it at 96. None of that matters though, because no matter what you set it to, it goes back to 100 when you use it. Now, it could be a UI bug on the screen or something, but either way, it’s not working as it should.

While at times I could get a good vape using SS mode with the SS316 wire and the included SS904 coil by playing around with the temp, it wasn’t consistent enough for me to give recs to the settings. I had to keep adjusting, which is a good sign that TC mode isn’t working right. It wasn’t consistent enough for me to recommend this mod for TC, but it wasn’t awful either.

Considering this is only the second mod they have made with a TC feature, it could have been way worse. But it is still something they will need to fix and improve upon if they plan to continue making mods with temp control. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this mod for temp control usage.

M Pro 2 tank rundown

Ok, so let's do a quick rundown of the M Pro 2 tank. First off, the great news is it is compatible with the larger Firelock coils, like the ones for the Fireluke and the M Pro, but not the smaller coils like the one for the Fireluke M. This is great, as they are one of the best coil lines on the market (if not flat out the best.) The fact I can use the old double and triple-mesh coils I've been using in my tank makes this a winner already, but I was excited to try the new coils.

It comes with two coils, the preinstalled one is a new M2 0.2-ohm SS904 double mesh coil rated at 60-90 watts, and the other coil included is supposed to be the M1 0.15-ohm SS904 single-mesh coil rated at 40-70 watts. However, I was sent the original single mesh (non SS904 version) from the older tanks instead. It's compatible, but I've used it many times before and it’s only a decent coil, so it wasn’t worth using for this review. Overall, they have a good ten or so coil options, including the four that got released with this tank (the SS904 ones), so there’s lots of variety. They used to have an RBA deck that came with the original Fireluke, so if you have one it’s compatible. But I no longer see it listed, so it’s probably not available anymore.

The tank comes with a straight glass (2 mL) and a bubble glass (5 mL). The coil system is your standard screw into the base like many other tanks. The coils are easy to remove and replace by removing the base and just unscrewing them. You can't do it with a full tank; it needs to be empty. It uses a standard wide bore 810 O-ringed fit matching resin drip tip, which is pretty nice. It fits very nicely. All the threading on the tank is smooth, and the fill method is a simple slide back of the top cap which is marked by a red dot, right near the Freemax logo on the tank. Just push it there to slide it back and expose the large fill hole. It’s easy to fill, but if using a 100 mL+ bottle, it’s best to remove the drip tip when filling.

The airflow control ring is smooth and easy to adjust and on a stopper. The previous Freemax tanks were either all resin outside or all metal, this one is metal with holes cut in it so you can see the resin. It’s a nice design that looks great, and the resin matches the top two panels on your mod. Overall, the tank itself is pretty standard, but well done.

Performance wise, I got exactly what I expected from Freemax (which is a good thing.) I used the new M2 SS904 mesh coil and the flavor was great. On top of that, I ran 100 mL through it and it was still like new. Their coils really last forever. Just another great coil by Freemax. Then, I put in an older double mesh (Kanthal) from my M Pro tank and yup, it still works and is excellent. Overall, one of the best tanks on the market for DL vaping, as expected.

Pros / Cons

Gallery

Verdict