Any follow up [6 month etc] reviews of DNA30 mods?

i decided when these came out to let other people be the guinea pigs.

Being a good mod after a day or a week says nothing for longevity. After the dreadful vtr, my policy is to opt for mechs or time proven performers, but I can't seem to find anyone who bought one early and still uses it frequently, seems people who went out and bought one went on to the 50w mods, then the next new thing.

So i am not convinced that the DNA30 will join the ranks of provareo at top of the table or worth the spend [clone dna30 users have followed up and tends to not end well]

 

It hasn't been quite six months, but I've had a Dark Star DNA30 by Grateful Vapor since early April. Overall the construction quality of the device is very nice and solid. The buttons have a good click to them and the finish hasn't worn off yet. From a hardware standpoint my only complaint about the device was the 510 connector originally installed on it. It was a floating center pin and I had to use a small screwdriver to wiggle it back up each time I wanted to change atomizers to ensure good contact. I reached out to Nick at Grateful Vapor (Wharf Rat here on NV) and he said he'd switch out the 510 for the spring loaded one from Fat Daddy Vapes. I sent that out a week ago and I'll have it back on August 5th or 6th. I believe the Fat Daddy 510 is now the standard for the Dark Star off the production line.

As for the DNA30 chip itself, I've been pretty impressed. I've been using only mechs since late 2012, so this was my first time back in VV/VW land. Being a creature of habit I always tried to set the wattage to give me 4.2 volts, and it would seemingly put out exactly that from full charge to dead battery (the Dark Star has two 1200mAH LiPO batteries). I learned that I don't have to sub-ohm to get a great vape though as I can put a 1.8 ohm build in my Kayfun and at about 13-15W it's a really great experience. If I'm running dual coils, such as with my Kraken at around .6 , I crank that puppy up to 30W and try to change local atmospheric conditions with my clouds.

I still find myself grabbing my mechs more often than not, but I think that's more because I like the tube mod design more than the box mod and nothing to do with the performance of the DNA. I'm happy with my purchase, very happy with the support and service I've received from Nick at Grateful Vapor, and for someone that likes variable voltage/wattage devices would recommend it.

 

I won a DNA 30 mod a while back from a China vendor. After a long wait I was so excited to get it. I opened it up and it was scratched up a bit and one of the screws were almost stripped, but I was fine with that since I won it and had no money in it. So, I put my battery in it, and was pleased with its performance. About 3 hours later I was using it, and I noticed that the fire button was getting harder and harder to push. So I looked at and noticed that the fire button was caved in. As I was taking the back off I heard my coil heating up, and I was wigging out because I could smell my coil burning.....it scared me! I am so thankful that it happened when it did, because i immediately pulled my battery out when I got the back taken off! So i removed the clear red covering over the wires, and I noticed a few clumps of glue (hot glue gun glue) throughout it. I looked at where the fire button was and I found out why it had caved in, the fire button was glued to the wall of the mod to hold it in place.....all of the buttons were glued to hold them in place. I was a little upset with this, because that is not a permanent hold for the buttons and it was dangerous. I let them know about it, and they asked me if I put my battery in wrong.....haha! I told them No I put it in correctly and told them AGAIN that the problem is that the fire button has caved in because it was glued to hold it in place and the glue just could not permanently hold it. I also told them that I was not expecting them to give me a new one, and i was just wanting to let them know for buying customers and safety and so they could check their others. I told them that a customer that payed $63 for this would be very upset. The last response I got from them was they do not remember it being like that and none of their others were like that, and wanted me to ship it back to them so they could look at it. I told them I could not afford to ship it back and I did not expect them to give me another one, and I just wanted them to know about it. I never got a response back.
To be completely honest I really believe that this was sent to me to get rid of or maybe an employee swapped it with their old one or something. The weird thing is the contest advertised the Hana DNA 30 Mod, and I was lead to think that was what I was going to get. I went to their website and they do not carry the mod that was sent to me. It is a DNA30 mod, and not a Hana DNA 30 mod like they had a picture of and link in their contest. They said they sold them for $63, and they were giving one away for free. I do not understand why they would put a picture and link of the contest winnings being a Hana DNA 30 but then send a dna 30 (it does not have the hana imprint on it). It did not bother me it was not the hana mod when I opened it up, but after the problems I had with it it made me start thinking of how they advertised it and the fact I cannot find the mod they sent me on their website. I think it is a little fishy. You cannot put up a contest saying you sale them for $63 and the picture of what the winner will get is a Hana and the link to the product is the hana, and then send the winner something you do not even sale on your website.....unless they are advertising the hana but truly selling the dna 30. To me that is wrong.

here are some pics of the mod I received in the condition I received it in:




Anyone have a recommendation on making the fire button stay in place? Without a hot glue gun? I do not have a hot glue gun, plus I am afraid of it activating again. It is not usable right now until I get the fire button to stay in place.

 

I have seen a box that caught on fire when someone put the battery in backwards and fired that puppy off. The inside looked like it had melted into a gob of goo.

Truly I think any DNA 30 device is dangerous in that aspect of things. (battery placement wise)

Besides, the DNA 30 technology has becoming out of date.

 

I've had my DNA vaporshark for almost 6 months and I love it.

 

I have a DNA 30 clone which is pin for pin identical to the original. Roughly 3 months of daily use, and love it. No issues at all.
However, I don't run it at high wattage. I love the fact that it tells me moment to moment what the resistance is in my coil.
Of course, there are other devices that do that too, but I'm sort of renewing my love of box mods rather than tube mods these days.
My provari isn't getting much love at the moment.
All that being said, I don't think anyone has any business putting a device on the market which doesn't have the protection required to mitigate the risk of reversing the polarity accidentally. (ie - putting the battery in the wrong way, which is pretty easy to get wrong with flat top batteries). It's such a basic thing, and I'd rather pay more to get that aspect sorted, especially when the genuine mod is sometimes well over $200.
A lot of people don't realise how dangerous battery operated thingies can be.

 

Wow! That is terrible!
Mine has glue in it to hold things in place; the buttons and some wires. Nothing is melted or anything like that.

 

Out of curiosity, how is your fire button and other buttons held in place?

 

I still rock my 20w Hana clone from Fasttech on the regular. No issues at all, but mine is only down to .9ish ohms at about 15w. (Yeah I know I'm an old fogey). Interior is better than the actual Hana in build quality, and electronics have stayed solid.

 

They're held in with hot glue. I know some people who use them at high wattage have had issues because the glue melts, and messes up the circuitry, but I never really vape higher than about 9.5 watts, which for my device is equivalent to running a V8 car on idle all the time. It is not showing any signs of being messed up and it just goes and goes. Battery life is awesome and I don't ever open it up, because I charge it using the micro usb cable supplied.

The fact that vaping devices are sold without protection from accidentally reversing polarity really annoys me. Imagine if they tried to do that in children's battery operated toys. Especially with flat topped batteries, it's a pretty easy mistake to make, putting them in the wrong way. To think you'd pay up to $300 for something that you can make terribly dangerous just by such an accident is something I hope which is rectified by regulation when we get some.

 

the sx350 is the same by default, it has the option to manually move the negative wire to enable reverse polarity protection, which begs the question why not by default?

the long term reviews are coming out BTW, and one of the biggest issues I have seen is they are sensitive to even the slightest bit of juice on the circuit, even a teensy bit which creeps down inside the plastic coating of the wire from the 510 can kill them

thanks to all who are writing

 

Thank you So, it is normal that the buttons are held with hot glue? I need to get myself a hot glue gun to reglue the fire button. I guess there is no other way to hold the button in place besides using a hot glue gun

I agree with you that devices should have a protection against accidently putting the battery in wrong. I am always very careful when I put batteries in my devices, and I have never put one in backards so I do not know first hand how terrible it is.......but I am sure it is scary. When I got my dna 30 mod I made sure I was very careful since I have never had a mod like this before.

The short time I had with this mod before the glue holding the fire button gave way, it worked very well! I only got to use it up to 7 W (I know it is the lowest that it goes , but I did not get a chance to really play with it or anything). I do not see myself going very high with it, but I would like to have it safely working so I can at least use it