Lost Vape Centaurus Quest BF Kit 100W With Centaurus Solo RDA

Lost Vape’s child company Quest has grown up fast, and their latest release is a real treat and quite an evolution in their growing product range, a squonk kit which includes Quest’s very first RDA. When this kit was offered up for review, I was on it like a tramp on chips!

Supplied by Lost Vape for review.
https://lostvape.com/product-item/centaurus-quest-bf-kit
Price TBC but around £70-£80

• Composed of Centaurus Quest BF Mod and Centaurus Solo RDA
• Leak-proof 2-in-1 squonk & storage, easily switch between mod and squonk
• Leak-proof squonk design, valve linkage & automatic reset
• Large 9.5ml e-liquid capacity, bottom filling system
• Supports 21700/20700/18650 mod with 100W max output
• Type-C fast charging
• Exclusive Quest 2.0 Chipset
• 5 vaping modes: wattage mode/VPC mode/bypass mode/voltage mode/TC mode(SS904/SS316/Ti/Ni)
• Centaurus Solo RDA with leak-resistant top airflow

Unboxing

The Centaurus BF Kit comes well packaged with the usual outer sleeve showing your colour choice with the features on the sides and the rear showing the specs and contents.

The top layer holds the mod and RDA, and the bottom layer has all the rest of the bits n bobs including spare RDA seals, a solid pin for dripping, a dripper bottle cartridge, an 18650 adaptor, an additional 810 drip-tip, the manual, a warranty card, and the USB-C cable.

First Impressions

From the moment I picked up the Centaurus, I was impressed with the ergonomic design, it’s designed to access everything within your grip without having to faff around, for example, you can reach all the buttons and the squonk bottle with minimum effort. It’s not lazy as it’s just so much more convenient, the squonk bottle and fire button on the same face makes it easier when in use.

Lost Vape know how to produce classy and unique kits, and their Quest line always manages to come up with their own design twists. This kit has that genuine Lost Vape look and feel to it, I’m not sure if it was intended to go straight into the Quest line-up or was it intended to be a DNA version first, but either way we get one high quality, innovative design.

The bulging side mounted screen and buttons looks deceptive as they doesn’t protrude as much as it looks, and the bevel helps it feel natural in your grip. This made all the difference as if it was any larger, it would have felt clumsy. Lost Vape have done well in the whole shape of the mod in general.

The only compromise is the USB port which protrudes slightly so they have given it a plastic shroud so it doesn’t stick into your hand, I don’t see any other way around that though.

There was a surprising cosmetic feature that I expected not to like but ended up loving, the dual textured wrap looks superb and the quality of both makes the difference. The leather pattern, colour, and texture are stunning, and the carbon fibre effect panel has a soft deep texture, these contrast the main body so well and it ends up looking well balanced.

One of the things I want in a single battery squonk mod is it being able to take a 21700 battery, and thankfully the Centaurus does. You can also use 18650 or 20700 batteries but to get the most from this mod, a 21700 is a must. Fitting the battery was a little fiddly to flip the handle out as it was a bit tight, but once it’s open, I found it easy to unscrew and retighten.

The top face is pretty plain and a little hard on the edges but it doesn’t affect how it feels in the hand, and when you look at the design as a whole, then it’s a good choice as it keeps it classy and is not overdesigned.

Squonk or Drip

You get two different bottles in the kit which might come across odd but I’m fine with this choice. The preinstalled bottle is the main one and is intended for a BF (Bottom Fed) mod, the second bottle is designed for dripping (where you manually drip e-liquid directly onto the coil every few draws) and it fits into the mod for storage only, a handy feature and I think I will take advantage of this option as I have tons of different juices to get through so dripping is perfect for this.

No spare squonk bottle?

Not as such but the dripper bottle comes apart easily enough so you can use the silicone bottle by swapping the cage and top-cap. That said, I will likely get a couple of spare bottles for swapping flavours on the fly.

The squonk bottle has a leak-proof valve which is a nice feature and makes it perfect for storage. The dripper bottle has a little silicone cap but I doubt it will hold if the bottle gets squashed in your bag or pocket.

Fitting the bottle is simple as it just drops and slides into place with a satisfying click as the valve opens up, it also stays in place really well and requires a bit of a push to remove it. I’ve owned many squonk mods and this has to be the most convenient that I’ve seen, and the quirky rectangular bulge feels well done and is ever so easy to squonk when in use.

Controls

I’ve covered the controls a few times now and trust me, the QUEST 2.0 is a doddle to use and offers most features for new and experienced vapers.

The three button controls are quick and easy to flip through the modes, and the screen displays the relevant info for each mode.

Here’s the manual, it might look a bit daunting but it really isn’t as the manual just covers everything you need to know.

It’s one of those mods where you can easily work it out for yourself without resorting to the manual, but it’s all there should you get stuck or require explanations.

I think it’s pretty impressive how they managed to squeeze the chipset and screen into such a small space, I’m dying to take it apart to check inside but I don’t want to stuff it up. My only concern is that there’s little air getting to the board to keep it cool, but so far in use I have found no heat build-up.

The weight when fully loaded is 284g, which sounds quite heavy but it doesn’t feel it in the hand. I know that makes little sense but I think the combination of the ergonomics and the compact size gives it a nice balanced feel. For a 21700 and 9.5mm bottle, I wouldn’t class this as a heavy kit.

Centaurus Solo RDA

The included RDA is, as the name suggests, a single coil deck which is ideal for a single battery squonker, Lost Vape rarely venture into RDAs so it’s great to see a spanking newly designed one to go with this kit.

The Centaurus Solo has dual top airflow which is adjustable, top airflow is ideal for squonking as it is very forgiving for over-squonking (squeezing too much juice up). A common problem with bottom airflow RDAs is excess juice spilling out of the airflow holes.

I love the look of this RDA, it is simple, elegant and has that ‘lost vape’ look to it. The 810 drip-tip is quality, and the knurled metal ring on it helps the RDAs looks. If this doesn’t float your boat, then there’s a spare all clear one in the box.

Building wasn’t the easiest I’ve tried but it is quite intuitive and easy to wick. I decided to use a 5 wrap, 3mm inner diameter Tank Track SS316L 0.2ohms (Stainless Steel for TC). The first issue I encountered was the width of the posts was quite wide which forced me to space the coil wider than I usually would which wasn’t difficult to do, I could have added an extra wrap but I prefer less on exotic coils. The next issue was when I went to adjust the position with a coil rod as the 2 location tabs just got in the way, a notch in these would have been helpful.

From here on in the build was very easy……..

The coil height was intuitive as you can simply see where it should go, and it requires raising above the posts' natural clamped position, you will see it easily as the direction of the airflow ports dictate this. Ideally there should be a balance of air underneath and pushing up the sides of the coil, those tabs that got in the way when first fitting the coil no longer get in your way but help see the central position. Clipping the leads was easy and there is plenty of room to get to them. I dry burned the coil at 25watts, pulsing and strumming out any hot-spots, but spacing tends to avoid these.

Wicking was as simple as it gets, the length is easy to estimate and is quite forgiving if you get it too long. Tucking the legs into the ports and tidying up was effortless. The only thing you need to make sure of is that the wick is long enough to touch the base snuggly, the juice wells are plenty deep and the height to the airflow is raised to prevent leaking.

There appears to be enough space for a 3.5mm coil, and maybe 4mm at a push.

Filling up the squonk bottle was convenient and the 9.5ml capacity is very welcome. The little screw cap at the bottom screws and unscrews well and you can feel it seal, you can do this inside the mod, but I found it better outside as I could cram more in.

Time to vape!

For me, the Centaurus BF kit is the first one that suits TC (Temperature Control) vaping for me, I already love how simple the QUEST 2.0 chipset is to setup and use, and it took no time to dial in a suitable setup.

There’s no need at all to venture beyond the main control screen as the ‘boost’ function is disabled for TC modes, I just love how easy it is to dial in and adjust your settings, and it didn’t take me long to fine tune for a perfect vape.

The RDA performed really well and the coil height-to-mouth was in that perfect middle ground. Flavour was spot on, but your coil choice will affect that somewhat, I chose this Tank Track SS316L coil as I knew what to expect as I use it in my DROP Solo, but I prefer it in the Centaurus Solo as it’s giving me more flavour and feels closer to a dual coil setup. The coil height seemed to be just right too which makes it handy for re-building as you can always intuitively judge it.

Temperature Control worked a charm, and the power dropping off as the wick started drying out was subtle. I chain vaped it without squonking to test out if I would get a dry hit, and I’m happy to report I didn’t even come close, my cotton was almost touch dry and I was still getting vapour from it. Obviously the flavour was long gone as this was an extreme test, I am impressed.

Here’s a photo after over 30 draws, the cotton is more or less dry and there’s no signs of it burning, the next pic is how it normally looks after a well saturated squonk.

The cotton has slightly sagged due to pushing it to extremes, but it was still performing well.

Airflow worked well and is pretty airy, I closed it off a little to suit my taste but it is one of the airiest single coil RDAs I’ve tried. The downside of a top airflow RDA is it can be quite noisy, and this was as I expected, but there were no irritating high pitched whistling thankfully.

Overall the Centaurus BF Kit just delivered everything I could expect from a 21700 squonker and is a pleasure to use. I’ve been distracted with all the other stock coil DL vapes over the past few months so going back to squonking was a welcome change. If you’ve never tried squonking, then this kit is a great way to get going but it’s more than a starter kit and will handle dual coil RDAs well.

Battery life was superb, I’m surprised how power efficient the Quest 2.0 chipset is. With a Molicell 21700, I was getting the majority of the day at moderate to high use, better still it has 2 Amp charging so recharging was under an hour on average.

A brief guide to TC Mode…….

Don’t let the daunting appearance of temperature control put you off, in essence it is quite simple and forgiving if you start off low, here’s why TC mode is so useful:

• NO dry hits
• Cotton lasts longer
• More hits per squonk/drip
• Refine your vape as warm or cool as you like.
• You can achieve a warmer vape without damaging your coil and cotton
• More forgiving for under-squonking (not enough juice)

Not all wires work with TC though, to keep it simple I will just use stainless steel SS316L which is widely available in pre-made coils or wire spools.

How it works: Instead of just applying the set power constantly, it measures the temperature of the coil instead, e-liquid naturally cools the coil down and decreases the power applied to the coil automatically (once you have the basic settings applied, let’s say 240c and 80watts).

So for example; if there’s plenty of juice then you will get that full powered vape, but as the juice lessens after a puff or two, then the coil is too hot and TC will reduce the power accordingly, the vape will get a little cooler each time but not drastically (you just naturally notice when to squonk or add more). Now without TC and in normal wattage mode, you would get the start of a dry hit, and each hit after gets hotter and burns the cotton (and your throat) until enough juice is delivered to cool it back down.

Just to illustrate how dry hits occur, if you pop a coil with dry cotton into your RDA and apply wattage, say 40watts, then it will simply burn the cotton and intensifies that burning for as long as you press fire, it is purely juice that stops cotton burning and how much power is applied. You can still get a dry hit with plenty of juice, if the coil is rated for 40 watts and you apply 100 watts, it will burn for sure – dry hit from hell!

Hopefully I’ve kept it simple, but I will use my review build as an example:

• Wire: SS316 (Tank Track but any SS316L wire will do)
• Ohms: 0.23

The first setting you need to set is the wire type, you will find the material in the main modes so find SS316 (you will see the screen change to Temperature once selected).

Let’s say I would usual vape this setup at 45 watts in VW (Variable Wattage), you can usually add 20 watts to that in TC mode to get a better hit but I will start with 45 watts.

The scary ‘Temperature’ setting is just a fluffy bunny if you start off low, I work in Celsius and I tend to start around 220c, but let’s take this all on the cautious side and set it to 200c

So our settings for a 0.23ohm coil:

• Mode: SS316
• Temperature: 200c
• Wattage: 40 Watts

With your RDA juiced up and ready to vape, you can take a vape…..

Fairly tame wasn’t it? That’s fine as it was our safe starting point (if you found it worked for you then simply keep those settings and vape on), I tend to bump up the wattage first which gives you the intensity of the vape, try in 10 watts increments (50/60/70/80) and see which you prefer. This doesn’t have to be too precise as it’s the temperature that does the main work.

Getting better? I hope so but now comes the simple setting, simply apply 5 degrees and take a vape up until you find the warmth you prefer (don’t forget to keep squonking to keep the coil soaked when setting up).

So let’s say we landed at 230c and 60 Watts and that’s how you like it (I ended up at 245c and 90 watts!), so now it’s time to see TC mode in action……just chain vape away without squonking juice (we want it to run dry-ish). You should notice the flavour start to drop off and the vape is cooler, and it decreases subtly with each draw. That is exactly how it should behave and it shows TC is working.

If you take a look at your coil and cotton, it should start to look dry but you should see NO signs of it burning, you can happily squonk more juice in with no damage done to your coil/cotton/lungs.

That really is all there is to it, you have now got the basics of the mysterious TC mode sussed. You can play around with those settings, but be aware as you keep on increasing you can get to the limits, for example if the temperature was right up to 400c (it won’t go that high) then the juice cooling effect isn’t as great and you run the risk of burning your cotton. Just keep it simple and push it as far as you’re comfortable with.

This is a basic intro, but you can get a load more help and advice on the forum’s TC section:
https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/forums/advanced-pv-mod-making-and-diy-discussion/temperature-controlled-vaping/

It’s in the DNA

Lost Vape are more than experienced when it comes to BF Squonk mods, in fact they excel at them going by their previous releases. I still use my precious Therion DNA75c BF which is still my favourite single battery mod, so it was natural I had to compare the two.

It surprised me how dated my ‘timeless classic’ Therion was looking. Looks aside; the Centaurus is just so much nicer in the hand for comfort and ease of use, and better still, it takes a 21700 battery and goes up to 100 Watts.

But is it as good as a DNA chipset? In some ways yes as it’s far easier to use and there is less to learn, but that advantage is also its shortfall as you just cannot achieve the fine-tuned level of vape that a DNA produces and the level of accuracy. There’s no customisation options that you get on a DNA which is something I love, especially when you hook it up to the Evolv software.

If you’ve never tried a DNA mod, then you won’t find any of these shortfalls apparent as the Quest 2.0 does the job really well and is a brilliantly intuitive kit that is a breeze to use.

Conclusion

Overall I am delighted to add the Centaurus BF kit to my squonk collection, this beats pretty much all of my single cell mods to the point I’m going to thin the herd as this just outclasses them, it looks good, feels good, and performs well, and it also oozes quality.

I’m not sure I would go as far as calling it ‘perfection’, but it’s not far off, and the RDA is a damn fine single coiler that compliments the mod well. The kit suits new and experienced users and stands out in the crowd with its novel form factor that is more comfortable than it looks.

Coming up with any real cons will be difficult, but I do have a couple of niggles. The squonk action of the bottle is a little soft so you have to push it in further than I would like. The other is the initial coil fitting which is a little fiddly, but the second build was easier as I knew how to work with it.

Pros

• Lost Vape pedigree
• Innovative ergonomics
• 21700 and up to 100 watts
• Stylish and classy
• User friendly user interface
• TC mode works well
• 9.5ml easy swap bottle
• Dripper friendly RDA with dripper bottle
• Single coil RDA performs well

Cons

• Soft squonk bottle

I decided my niggle of the squonk bottle had to be a con as it was something I didn’t get used to with time, but other than that I have zero complaints. 

Final Thoughts

The Centaurus BF Kit exceeded my expectations and just feels like a ‘special one’. I have many RDAs but I don’t feel the need to swap the kit one as it vapes well, and the leak-proof top airflow makes it ideal for squonking. It appeals to me as an experienced vaper but it’s a great kit to introduce newbie squonkers and TC novices alike.

Score: 9/10 – Honk if you Squonk

 

 

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