Good day, eh! Welcome to a Canadian review of a Canadian-designed device, the BB Vapes B2K RDA/RSA.
BB Vapes is a relatively new brand to burst on the scene in the Canadian vape community. Owned by Albert Lee, proprietor of the online shop ecigarettes.ca (as well as a brick and mortar store of the same name located in Toronto, ON), BB Vapes has been busy designing a single coil squonk atomizer straight from scratch. Right now, the industry is getting saturated with many new bottom-feeding devices, and Albert has done his part in furthering this old, but recently popular, method of vaping.
Enter the B2K: a 23mm single-coil postless atty with angled side airflow. The device itself has clearly been designed with the serious builder in mind. Without getting into the flavour or usability of the atomizer just yet, let’s look at some of the quality of life enhancements that BB Vapes has incorporated.
On the top of the deck airflow holes, you see two grub screws, much like you would expect from an Oumier Wasp Nano. However, these screws are simply spare grub screws for the postless holes located underneath. That’s right! For the builder on the go, he’s included everything you need to keep vaping when you have to do an emergency coil switch. The bag also includes another set of spare grubs. The top caps are all milled to allow a hard stop for wide open airflow, so the barrels don’t spin 360 degrees freely around the deck. This makes setting airflow much easier and more consistent in comparison to other devices. The bottom of the deck has a built in o-ring around the 510 threading, preventing leaking from between the 510 connection like with many bottom feeding devices (which should be standard practice going forward for all BF atomizers). There is also a coil jig cutout in the deck, so you can set your coil up with the jig, line it up perfect for the air holes, and screw it down without having the coil move around.
At this point, the device is already worth its mid-range cost of $80 CAD. However, BB Vapes has included more instant value in the box, making that $80 go way further than I’ve seen on any release to date. It includes four different top caps (one Ultem, one black Delrin, one white Delrin, and one stainless steel) a total of eight different drip tips (one of each finish in 510, and one each finish in 810 [PMMA clear instead of stainless steel]), four 810 to 510 adaptors (one of each finish), four beauty rings, a stainless steel spit back guard that screws into any of the supplied 810 tips, and a horizontal airflow control restrictor ring. This plethora of goodies brings the B2K from a good atomizer at $80 to a must-own atomizer that any vape enthusiast should have in their arsenal. If you have a black and yellow mod, you can mix and match the black and Ultem accessories out of the box to match the mod. Maybe you have a white mod and want to go all white. Maybe you want to mix SS, Ultem, and stainless together for a specific look on your prized specialty mod. Well, you can. Out of the box. That is a game changer.
Functionally, the device works great. The top caps don’t transfer heat to your lips, so you can chain vape to your heart’s content. The stainless steel cap will transfer a little heat, however, because it’s finned and has holes drilled into the fin. But it dissipates heat faster than most other stainless steel caps. The 810 and 510 tips all match the atty aesthetically, and while you have the option of using your own custom tips, the profile will cause most tips to look downright terrible. The airflow is perfectly angled to provide anti-flooding from any avid vaper. However, new vapers may have some trouble when they start out.
Again I’m using my favourite coils from SaddlehorseBlues—staggered framed staple coils ohming out to 0.2 even. The flavour from the B2K is as great as you would expect from a high quality, single-coil atomizer.
Now to top it all off, I know that Albert Lee over at BB Vapes is still producing new products for his B2K customers. Recently, he released a gold-plated limited edition deck for $30 (perfect when you get four caps out of the box anyway), along with full PMMA barrels, and dyed PMMA barrels in colours such as lime-yellow, red, blue, and pink for $10 each.
Overall, there are very few faults on the B2K. The price point seems high compared to other popular single-coil atomizers on the market, but when you factor in everything that’s included in of the box, it becomes apparent the value per dollar is off the meter. For any enthusiast who cares about matching devices together, the B2K is a must-own. I’m confident that anyone who puts a quality coil into the B2K will get a satisfying vape off it. The flavor is just so good because it’s a much shorter travel distance from coil to mouth versus other competing atomizers. It’s a nice, quiet draw. I have not experienced any spitback, and haven’t needed to use the spitback guard at all. It might not be the best atomizer for someone to learn to build on—not because it’s difficult, but because any postless deck can cause frustrations in new builders, as well as there is a real possibility of over-squonking, causing leaking. However, if a new builder is confident in their skills, it’s still a great purchase for them (even if they go through some extra coils in the process of getting it right).
This is a true beauty of an atty that came out of nowhere and put many high-end manufacturers to shame with its value and performance. Availability is a bit limited, so finding it can be the hardest part of dealing with the B2K. I personally got my Caviar Edition B2K from Wicks & Wires. They have excellent customer service, and quite a good mid- to high-end selection of products.
If you enjoy squonking, the B2K is a must-own for you. It doesn’t get more simple than that.
NOW TAKE OFF, EH!
