Introduction
The Gaur 18 is (rather unsurprisingly) a dual 18650 version of the dual 21700 Gaur 21. Apart from a few minor changes, it’s mostly the same mod – just in a smaller package.
For most of this review, I’m going to focus mainly on the differences between the original Gaur 21 and the new Gaur 18.
Product overview
The Gaur 18 is a dual 18650, 200w C-frame mod, weighing 115g ,with dimensions of 52.5×91.3×27mm and a waterproof PCBA.
What do you get?
Mod, USB cable, manual – it’s a mod, I wasn’t expecting anything else.
Differences between the Gaur 18 and 21
- Dimensions: 58.8×96.5×30mm and 52.5×91.3×27mm for the 21 and 18 respectively
- Weight: 128g for the 21 and 115g for the 18
- 510 connector: black on the 21, stainless on the 18
- No Wi-Fi or app connectivity on the 18
- More rounded fire button and smaller up/down buttons on the 18
- Minor UI changes
- Different battery door wraps
Thoughts on the changes
- Dimensions: although the Gaur 21 is 30mm wide – this is at the base – both the Gaur 18 and 21 have a very slight overhang with a 28mm atomizer (looks like less than 1mm overhang.)
- Weight – 13g difference isn’t really noticeable – however, this difference is without batteries, once you put a pair of 18650s and 21700s into them, the weight difference is very noticeable.
- 510 connector – the black 510 connector on my Gaur 21 is starting to lose a little color – so changing to stainless seems like a good idea.
- No wifi – I’ve heard different stories about this, firstly chip shortage made wifi no longer possible, also Apple Store and Google Play Store don’t want to allow vape related apps. I found the app on the Gaur 21 to be part useful and part novelty.
- Button changes – the whole design language on the Gaur 18 is a little more rounded than on the 21. The buttons do have exactly the same feel on both mods.
- UI changes – the changes are purely aesthetic and within the menu – these changes are so insignificant, I won’t go into detail.
- Battery door wrap – the faux carbon is a slightly different design on the 18, and more noticeably, the leather has been replaced with textured rubber – it looks and feels better, this is a good improvement.
Functions
- Setup - you are able to partially disable certain modes from the menu – I never use temp control, so it’s disabled on my mod. I really like this feature because you can make the mod as barebones or complex as you wish. You can also adjust the timeout, brightness, UI color, check the version number, and do a factory reset.
- Controls - Five clicks to turn the mod off (although if you hit fire when the mod is off, the screen turns on and displays OFF) – three clicks allows you to scroll through the available modes (with those you have disabled not showing) – holding power up + down enters the setup menu – fire + up locks/unlocks the power adjustment – fire + down rotates the screen 180 degrees (why?) – clicking up + down twice allows you to re-read the resistance.
- Modes wattage mode – bypass mode – voltage mode – temp control for SS/NI/TI – ARR is a smart mode that automatically sets a power level based on the resistance of the coil. ARR mode seems to work pretty well with most of my DTL atomizers – giving a slightly conservative but realistic wattage, however with my MTL atomizers it set the power about 20% higher than I would have liked.
- Temp Control- Vandy Vape generally has a reasonable reputation for temp control, I never use temp control so that’s as much as I will say on the subject.
However, there is once change I noticed:
- The Gaur 21 allowed you to select power modes (normal, soft, medium, hard, DL, MTL and power curve) with four clicks of the power button. This doesn’t seem to work on the Gaur 18 – the power curves were adjusted via the app, so maybe it was easier for them to just remove all of the mode settings from the chipset?
Conclusion
The only differences you need to care about between the Gaur 18 and 21 are battery life, dimensions and weight. The other changes are inconsequential (unless you really need the Wi-Fi app).
It doesn’t add anything to the functionality of the Gaur 21 – but that was already one of my favorite mods, so that doesn’t bother me one bit.
Overall, it’s a great mod, but is it the best non-high-end dual 18650 I’ve used? Right now, I’d say it’s between the Gaur 18 and the Dovpo Riva 200w.
Disclaimer
The Vandy Vape Gaur 18 was provided for the purposes of this review by Sourcemore, who have provided the discount code GAURM which reduces the price from $59.99 to $36.39.
