Rincoe Mechman 228W Review: Test Results Are In

The Mechman 228w Mesh Kit is the latest kit from Rincoe. They just started in 2018 and haven’t released a ton of stuff yet, but had a decent pod system for its time with the Ceto. They then knocked it out of the park with the Manto mod in mid-2018. Their next two mods, the Manto S and X, weren’t up to par in my opinion, so we’ll see how the Mechman stacks up.

The Mechman Kit features the Mechman 228w Mod which is a fully regulated dual-18650 battery mod rated for 228 watts and, despite the name, it is not a mechanical mod. The included tank is the Mechman Mesh, a sub ohm tank that uses mesh coils and comes with a standard 4.5 mL bubble glass.

Price: $54.95 (discontinued)

When I first got this mod, I liked the design a lot. I wasn’t happy that they call it “Mechman” when it’s not a mech, which may confuse some. Outside of that though, it seemed like your basic dual-18650 mod. I liked the build quality, the leather panels and the centered 510, as well as the decently sized and bright screen. Overall, nothing that stands out, but a nice looking mod nonetheless. The tank itself is also a pretty basic sub ohm tank with mesh coils, so no surprises there either.

The Rincoe Mechman 228w is a nicely built and designed mod. It’s mostly rectangular, with some real weight and heft to it. It’s about the same size as many of the smaller dual-18650 battery mods on the market – similar to the Geekvape Nova mod and slightly bigger than a Voopoo Alpha Zip. Color options are plentiful as well with the panels being swappable. Hopefully they’ll make them available to be purchased separately. The panels come with frames in three designs and two color options, as well as a leather layer behind the frame which includes designs like Black, Wolf, the American Flag, Camo and the Union Flag. The leather itself feels nice and not cheap, although I am pretty sure it is not real leather. Sadly, I got the black one, so I can’t speak on how good the other ones look. I am also happy they kept the branding simple and discreet — there is a small Rincoe logo on the battery door and that’s it.

The battery door is a standard magnetic side plate with a little notch on the bottom that makes it very easy to take off. It locks in place with no play and batteries fit great. Really nicely done there. The screen is rectangular and nicely sized. It’s black and white but has some good brightness and it’s easy to read so no complaints there. There is also no button rattle on this mod. The fire button is rectangular with a protruding part, similar to that of the Geekvape Aegis line. It works well — it’s clicky and never gets stuck. The 510 pin is great and gave me no issues with any atomizer. It is centered and on a platform that doesn’t protrude and can handle a 28 mm atomizer flush.

There is 2-amp charge listed on this mod. I don’t recommend charging batteries internally on any mod as it’s one of the leading causes of mod failures. Please use an external charger and stick to the internal one only in times of desperate need. That said, I did test the charge rate to see if they overstated it and I got a max of 1.19-amp charging. A more accurate rating would have been 1.2 amps, but most companies do round up to the nearest half amp so 1.5 amps would have been acceptable. Their 2-amp rating though is just way overstated.

The Rincoe Mechman 228w has most of the basic modes that are found on mods today. You have Power mode (watts), Bypass Mode, and Temp control mode for Ni200, Ti, SS and TCR. It uses the standard TCR system. Nothing fancy though like watt curves, preheats or voltage mode, and no submenus to adjust stuff further. Just basic power and temp modes.

As far as the menu goes, it’s pretty simple and easy to use.

• 5 clicks of the fire button to turn on and off
• 3 clicks to enter menu mode (use up and down to scroll and fire to accept)
• Use up and down to lock the adjustment buttons (but you can still fire)
• Hold down and fire to change power setting in TC modes
• Hold up and fire to adjust watts in TC mode

Overall a basic menu without a ton of features or options. Realistically, most people will only be using power mode anyway with this mod so not much to do other than adjust power and lock the adjustment buttons if needed.

Testing on this mod was done with Sony VTC5A Batteries. They list the specs at 228 watts, 8 volts and 50 amps. The only one listed on their site is the watt limit, but all three are listed in the manual. During my testing, the max achieved wattage was 170, so it is way overrated at 228 watts. Not a fan of that rating at all – it falls almost 60 watts short. The amp limit I got was 35, which is a little low for a dual-battery mod these days. The average is around 40 give or take a couple of amps. It’s also way under their 50-amp rating, another terrible rating grossly overstating the capabilities of this mod.

The volt limit I got with a 0.6-ohm coil was 6.943 volts, which shows there is no boost circuit, as is the case with most dual battery mods on the market these days (it’s nice when they have it, but not required), and is a little short of the 8-volt rating. This is not a bad rating and it’s possible that you’ll be able to get closer to the 8 volts with a higher resistance coil, so no complaints on the volt listing. I consider it plausible and close enough.

The mod adjusts in 0.1-watt increments under 100 watts and one-watt increments at 100+ watts. You can also hold the adjustment buttons for adjusting in one-watt increments at under 100 watts, and it scrolls fast and round robins. During my testing the mod did a great job of not getting hot. From an accuracy perspective, it’s firing on point at 150 watts or less. Personally, I would have listed the specs at 170 watts, 7 volts, and 35 amps.

Using SS316L Wire in SS mode, I tested four builds:

• One simple round single coil
• One simple round dual coil
• One fancy wire single-coil builds
• One fancy wire dual-coil build

The Mechman shows that the full 228-watt limit is available in temperature control but, in reality, it doesn’t fire high enough in TC. When testing my larger builds, the mod wouldn’t power them in TC mode at all. For example, one of them was a 0.24 ohm build that needs around 100 watts to perform. I set the power to 125 watts but the mod itself wouldn’t put out over 50 watts, regardless of the settings. The same build worked fine in power mode at 100 watts though. It suffers from the same issues as Voopoo chips in that regard.

With the smaller builds it could actually power, TC was a wild ride at best. Really inconsistent overall and even dropping the temp to 340F would result in dry hits at times. I know this can be adjusted in TCR, but it was too inconsistent at cutting off. When it did throttle, most of the time it was very spotty. Overall a poor performer in TC and not usable in that mode.

I wrote this in a previous kit review, and I am going to repeat it here: most tanks included in kits aren’t very good these days. And it’s not the tanks themselves, it’s the actual coils that are usually subpar. Most of the time it’s best to buy a mod and tank separately.

The Mechman Mesh tank comes with only in a 4.5 mL bubble glass configuration but does include a spare. It uses a standard 810 resin drip tip (the one on my kit is black/red) and it fits well, but it’s only is compatible with 810 drip tips with O-rings. All the threading is nice and smooth on it and comes with a sliding top-fill. The airflow control ring is smooth and easy to adjust. However, with the bubble tank bulging and the lack of knurling, adjusting the airflow was really hard with the tank on the mod. Overall, a nicely built and well-designed tank but nothing to stand out from others. Just your average kit tank.

The tank comes with two coil options:

• A 0.25-ohm single-mesh coil rated for 40-50 watts
• A 0.3-ohm double-mesh coil rated for 50-80 watts

I tested both coils by going through five full tanks using five different flavors. I started off with the 0.25-ohm coil and found it best around 65 watts. Even at its best, it suffered from very low flavor intensity and a ton of muting. Then I used the 0.2-ohm double-mesh coil which I found best at the top end of their ratings — around 75 watts. This one was decent at best. There was some flavor, but lots of muting and only some intensity. It also had a very funny taste that I hoped would go away after a break-in period, but it never did – although it started getting better after the first tank.

Overall, the tank doesn’t perform well thanks to the coils and will only be usable if it is compatible with other coils. I’m not sure of cross-compatibility with other tanks, but I wish companies would list coils that their tank can take. The only company that I know that did that was Vapefly with their Fantasy and Fantasy Mini tanks. I’ve had a lot of Rincoe coils personally and the only good one I came across was a quad-mesh coil for the Manto tank at ECC that I think never went into production. They should have made that coil. It needs a lot of power, but it is the best Rincoe coil I’ve ever tried.

Overall, The Mechman enters a market loaded with some excellent choices that are hard to beat, like the Geekvape Nova, Vaporesso Luxe, Innokin Proton, and many others. Unfortunately, it falls short in this crowded space. With that said, it’s still a solid mod that performs fine in power mode at 150 watts or less — which is really the limit anyone should be vaping on with a dual-battery mod. In fact, I believe it is a better mod for that then the very popular Voopoo Drag 2.

But I have to say that I’m not a fan of their listed specs. Their charge rate, watt limit, and amp limit are all grossly overstated which makes it hard for me to support this mod. Overall, I’d call this a 50/50 for me. If you only vape in power mode and under 150 watts I wouldn’t advise against it, as it’s a good enough device and better than some popular more expensive mods out there. Just note that the included tank is pretty mediocre and not worth it due to its poor coils.

Let me know what you think in the comments about the Rincoe Mechman and thanks for reading!