You are probably familiar with the concept of RDA (Rebuildable Dripping Atomizers), right? The smoke and flavor of an RDA is hard to compare with any other type of combustion chamber, but one inconvenience when using an RDA is that you have to refill the e-juice regularly and this is NOT FUN at all. Always having to carry a bottle of juice with you is very inconvenient and can turn into a disaster at any time. I am clumsy, so more than once I let the bottle of juice fall freely from the table to the floor and lost a fair amount of juice, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has experienced this. So is there a way for you to still enjoy the smoke and flavor that an RDA brings without having to think about carrying a bottle of juice? The good news for you is that there is !!! Welcome to the world of Squonk Mods (SM).
I. What is Squonk Mod?
Squonk mod or Bottomfeeder mod is a specially designed box with a pre-installed oil tank in the body and this tank is designed so that you can pump the oil directly into the RDA. So from now on you can comfortably use the RDA without having to carry the oil bottle with you anymore.
III. How Squonk Mod works:
This part is very simple, inside the body of the device there will be a bottle containing essential oils (usually made of soft plastic) and this bottle is connected to the 510 pin of the mod through a tube system. When you press the bottle, the essential oil will go through the tube, through the 510 pin and soak into the cotton in the RDA. When you take your hand off the bottle, the excess essential oil will flow back into the bottle.
III. A little history about Squonk Mod:
The first SM according to google appeared in 2009 with the name Juice Box. The Juice Box was sold with a built-in and non-replaceable RDA head. And it seems that the Juice Box was not very successful because now I can't find its successor products.
The most successful SM on the market is the REO boxmod, REO made SM a phenomenon in 2010 and set the standard for this type of box. To this day, REO is still releasing the next SM product lines such as the REO P67. REO products always come with an RDA head optimized for use on the device, but the beauty of REO is that you can completely install other RDAs as long as the contact pins support SM.
Currently, in my opinion, SM has 2 main types: regulated (with chip) and unregulated (without chip). Unregulated boxes tend to be compact, fitting in your pocket. On the contrary, regulated boxes are often quite large because in addition to the bottle containing the essential oil, the machine also has a circuit board. Especially SMs using DNA200 or SX350J chips are quite huge in size. But anyway, you still have 2 SM options depending on your preferences.
IV. RDAs that support Squonk Mod:
Ok, now to the important part. Having a box without an RDA, the box is just for viewing. The RDA used for SM is basically no different from a normal RDA, still has a juice tray, still has a build deck and still has air holes. The biggest difference between the SM RDA and the normal RDA is the 510 connection pin of that RDA, the connection pin of the SM RDA has a positive terminal connection pin that is an e-juice tube instead of a screw like normal RDAs. You can see the difference in the photo I posted below, the Derringer has been modified by drilling a hole from the positive terminal to the connection pin to help the e-juice easily overflow and suck back into the container. With the advent of the Velocity-style build deck, the SM RDA has developed even more because the positive pin of this type of deck is located very low - convenient for absorbing and sucking the e-juice of the SM.
SM is growing so RDA design companies are launching products that support SM, some prominent names are: Velocity v2, Cthulu, Hobo 3.1, Origen V3, Tobeco Torque,.... Or if you want a more perfect SM experience, it's best to go to REO - the father of SM, with countless designs and prices for you to choose from. But what if your favorite RDA doesn't support SM? You can google Catfish Atty Mods, this group sells RDAs that don't support SM and "modifies" the connection pins.
A small note when you use SM is to check what material your RDA positive pin is made of? It is best to make it of stainless steel because copper (brass or copper) will rust when in contact with essential oils and these rust patches will follow the juice and soak into the cotton.
V. You want to try SM but don't know where to start?
In Vietnam, playing SM is quite difficult because the number of players is not large, and big shops don't seem to care much about this area, so there are almost no choices for you. But don't be sad, I see The Vape Club is selling the Squeeze kit of Eleaf - a cheap SM for those who want to try. But I warn you in advance that playing SM is very addictive, think carefully before entering that painful path.
If you are addicted to SM, you can look for some names like: Custom Classic Box, REO, SVA, Lukkos,... The painful path starts here, because most of these brands are handmade, so it is quite difficult for you to hunt for one, you have to join the waiting line to buy the machine or hunt for the machine when there is a sale.
