Hellvape Fusion R Pod Kit

Antony tried out the new Hellvape Fusion R, another contender in the tiny vape pods market

by Antony Lord
May 18, 2023

Share on:

The second item Hellvape sent over for review this week is their new Fusion R pod kit which is aimed squarely at the starter end of the market. Hellvape actually released the Fusion Alpha pod system a couple years back but this appears to have only been available in Asian markets and this latest Fusion R kit could be seen as its baby brother taking a lot of design cues from that but in a much smaller and simpler package with an easy to use auto draw system and disposable (but refillable) pods. It looks like it will be very competitively priced as well coming in at just £14.99 at places like Vapesourcing.uk for example.

Specifications

69 x 45.4 x 12.8 mm
39 grams
800mAh battery with usb-c charging
2ml Fusion pod (one 0.8ohm pod included)

Hellvape Fusion R unboxing

The Fusion R comes in a small box and is accompanied with a Hellvape lanyard, USB-C charging cable, and a brief user guide. One disappointment here is that there is only one pod included although I’m guessing that was necessary to hit that budget price point intended to draw users away from the dreaded disposable systems we all see littering the streets these days.

Hellvape Fusion R variants

The Fusion R is available in eight colours, four with a screen printed finish and four with a block colour design with deeply engraved lettering harking back to the original Fusion Alpha. I was sent the “silver black” printed version along with a “legend black” engraved one for comparison. Both have a really nice exterior finish and although the screen printed version initially drew my eye the most, the black one has become my favourite with that deeply engraved lettering at the base adding an extra bit of tactile interest in use.

Hellvape Fusion R close up

The front of the Fusion R has a small viewing window for your pod along with a bold logo running along the base, and this is mirrored on the other side with a Hellvape logo. The viewing window for your pod is actually functional if you’re in a brightly lit area but as it’s so small I found it to be of limited use and have often resorted to simply pulling the pod out for a peek at my e-liquid levels, particularly in poorer lighting.

Along one edge you will find a small airflow control and a power indication LED. The airflow control does give you quite a good degree of control ranging from eye wateringly tight to a fairly loose modern mouth to lung vape. I’ve been preferring this around halfway open myself, and once you have it dialled, in the control provides enough resistance that it won't get accidentally adjusted in pockets.

Hellvape Fusion R charging

The Fusion R has an internal 800mAh battery with a USB-C charge port at the base and a small power indication LED on the lower edge of the device. The LED changes from green (>60%) to blue (>20%) and finally red (<20%), it’s a bit difficult to see in use due to its location but does stay lit for a couple of seconds so it’s easy enough to monitor your remaining battery capacity as the day draws on.

When plugged in, the LED indicator pulses to show that it’s charging and changes colour according to the approximate charge level and finally turns solid green once charged. This hit a peak charge rate of 1 amp, unfortunately I didn’t notice the LED had finished pulsing the first time I ran the test, and this is one of those annoying kits that still has a small 0.02 amp draw when finished so I had to run the test a second time being careful to monitor what was going on nearing the end of charging. In that second run, I recorded a final capacity of 722 mAh with a total charging time of 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Hellvape Fusion R pod connection

Up top there’s the pod recess with two fairly strong magnets, this holds the pods extremely well and no amount of shaking will dislodge them from here. You also have a convenient lanyard slot here should you be inclined to use one.

Hellvape Fusion R pod details

As mentioned earlier, you only get one 0.8ohm pod included with the kit, but fortunately Hellvape sent over some extra Fusion R pods including a pack of the 1.2ohm pods so I could try those out as well. These come in packs of three and I’m seeing those on preorder for £9.99 at places like Vapesourcing.uk. The two different resistances can be easily picked out by their fill ports with the 1.2 ohm pod having a gray bung and the 0.8ohm one a black bung. The fill port is quite a good size as well so I’ve had no difficulty filling these.

As I had two kits, I could run both of these side by side with the same e-liquid to compare them. They both have a modern mesh coil design and I couldn’t really detect any difference flavour wise between the two. I would also say the flavour was good but not mind blowing, to me it felt like they could use an extra kick of power but sadly that’s not possible here. If you want that extra bit of power and control, I’d suggest the Hellvape Eir kit instead with its adjustable power and replacement coil system which I was a touch disappointed to see hadn’t been carried over to the Fusion R.

Pros

Pocket friendly design

Cons

Only one pod included

Conclusion

I love the design of the Hellvape Fusion R, and at just 39 grams this is a perfect pocket companion. I was a tad disappointed with the pods, they just feel like they need a bit more power for my tastes at least, my peppermint e-liquid felt a tad flat but a menthol came through much stronger. They still compare reasonably favourably with similar kits so don’t take this as a complete dismissal and one of my friends called this evening having another quit attempt and finding himself stuck on expensive disposable pods so these will be going to him later this week to use instead.

Many thanks to Hellvape for sending the Fusion R over for review.

Hellvape Fusion R handcheck

Antony Lord

Reviewer at POTV

View Articles

I was a twenty a day smoker for 25 years and like most smokers I was always going to quit "next week". Having hit my mid forties and having the usual smokers cough and difficulty with anything more than moderate exercise it was obviously time to give up the cancer sticks. I bought my first e-cigarette in 2013 when they were expensive, difficult to find and quite frankly... crap. I used it for about a week then went back to the roll ups, mark up another failed quit attempt. The fact that I had just changed jobs and was under quite a lot of stress probably didn't help. Move on to 2016 and whilst I was browsing eBay I noticed that one of the suggested items that would occasionally pop up was for a cheap e-cigarette. It looked similar to the one I'd bought 3 years earlier but it was only £5 (about 8 times cheaper than before) so I decided to give it another go on a whim. Once the kit arrived I managed to gradually replace the cigarettes with my new kit over a two month period and got into watching YouTube reviews for newer kit. My cheap and cheerful kit was replaced by a more upmarket affair, and being a noob I made a mistake once it arrived... I put in the supplied direct lung coil, this was of course a complete revelation and I haven't touched a cigarette since. Oh and I no longer spend the first five minutes of every day having a coughing fit either.