Bulli A2 review

[prof beard]

I've reviewed the Bulli A2 here:
This is my review of the A2 repairable atomiser from Bulli-Smoker.com:

Bulli-Smoker A1 Atomizer - Fa.Bismillah

This is an atomiser which you can replace the wick and "element" on (and which therefore lets you choose the resistance of the atomiser in the process). It is available with threads for either 510, 901 or 801 fitting.

I ordered my A2 in 901 form and it came in 5 days – which I thought was pretty good for a small Germany-based concern. The A2 came in a standard "air mail" type shipping box and contained – well not much really – some paper for padding the box and the A2, wire and wick in a small snap-bag.

This is what was in the box:



This picture shows the A2 atomiser, a spare 1m of glassfibre wick, and a spare 1m of wire.

The mouthpiece of the atomiser is threaded, and when unscrewed shows the cartridge and it filler:



This reveals what I think is a shame – the A2 cartridge is NOT as some think an 801 cartridge, but a proprietary one. (CORRECTION – the carts are 701 e-cigar carts so they are more widely available than I thought) The picture below shows the A2 cartridge removed from its mouthpiece (on the left) alongside an 801 cartridge removed from it's mouthpiece. The A2 cartridge has different dimensions and an 801 cart with not fit in the A2 mouthpiece:



So, some pictures of the working bits…

Firstly, here is the atomiser unscrewed from its body showing the wick as fitted when supplied along with the atomiser wire wound on the wick and attached to the two terminals by the screws:



And a close up of the winding:



(I understand from others that the supplied "number of turns" gives ra esistance of around 4ohms)

Here is a picture of the atomiser threading (note the surround, this caused me an issue – see later):



A couple of pictures of the "tube" body, mouthpiece end first:



The tube has an air-hole at the atomiser end of the tube:



Overall, the A2 is a similar size to a TorneGo "Mega" atomiser…
I filled the cart with TW Titan Tobacco Flavour eliquid at 36mg – it took over 40 drops to fill (plus a couple "down the tube")

In action

The first thing I did was to try to screw the Bulli onto "old faithful" – my nearly two year-old Screwdriver Mk1 – it didn't fit!!!! Because the Bulli has a surround to the threading and the SD has a recessed 901 fitting, the surround fouled the SD body. So – out with a 901-808 carto adapter I'd got from Cloud 9…

The battery i had in the SD was not at peak – result good vapour, excellent flavour and more or less no hit. So I put in a fresh battery (probably around 4 and bit volts then). Result as before but with the sort of hit you get from a standard resistance 801.

Ok, so I needed a "test bed". So, with aid of a 510 to 901 adapter, I fitted the Bulli to my Nuck's FistPack (LR version):



This FistPack supplies switchable voltage from around 3.7v up to around 4.3v. At the lower settings the results matched the SD, so I selected the maximum voltage and got: lots of vapour, excellent (really excellent) flavour and a really good hit.

So overall – it works – and give really quite remarkable flavour, good vapour and seems like that – for me – I need a lower resistance "winding"…

The next part of this review will cover my changing the atomiser wick and wire (with fewer windings to give a much lower resistance) BUT as I've found a tool which gives me decent hit "out of the box", that won't appear until I need to replace the atomiser innards – we see how soon that happens – wait on…
Still Waiting
Well it's eight days on now and my A2 (still at 4.2+v on the FistPack) is still going strong…
I remain really pleased with it's performance (at the voltage used) – the flavour and vapour are excellent. BUT – the thing that is REALLY impressing me is how well the thing wicks. I topped it up with 20 drops (still far from empty but I did it to see what would fit) during the afternoon yesterday and used it for most of the rest the day, and again at work this morning for around 30mins. At that point the vapour dropped, so I topped it up again – the cart was, to intents and purposes – EMPTY!! It took 40 drops to fill it. I've put getting on for 20ml through it so far and the coil is still good.


So far I'm really impressed with it

[Royal]

Prof. Bear,
I increased the number of allowable pictures per post to accommodate you.
I then took the liberty to move your post in to it's own thread and added the entire contents of your review (all images included) here.


Thanks,

Royal.

[prof beard]

Cheers Royal - much appreciated

[mcquinn]

good pics,I need to spring for a new camera.

[jcamacho]

Nice, but you really have to have lots of idle time for all this. I just don't have the patience.

[mcquinn]

I think it is more of insurance ,as nichrome wire and silicone fiber will be available regardless of what the FDA does.It also would be good for performance nuts who are trying to find the perfect balance between resistance and voltage for the perfect vape.I agree it is way easier to just crack open a new atty or carto once in a while.

[prof beard]

Here's an update:

As I'm determined to see how long the coil my A2 came with lasts, I'm still a winding virgin! (I'm starting to crack but I WILL be strong ) So Part 2 is still waiting to happen...

However, in a moment of "want another one", I decided to get another A2 (a stainless steel 510 this time), plus an eGo "sheath" and some spare wire and wick (what the hell, it's only money)

So, here is a picture of my new A2:



My aluminium one didn't have branding on it, but this one does:



"Bulli Smoker King of Vapor"

Here's the atomiser end:



and the wick and coil:



Here's the Bulli on my Super T Super Six:



The eGo "sheath" has one end unthreaded and the other threaded to screw onto the eGo cone threads:



Fitted, it looks acceptably neat:



This new A2 has come with a lower resistance winding judging from the hit I'm getting at 4ish volts on the Super Six, flavour and vapour production are as before excellent.

(I'll get my multimeter out and measure the resistance when I get round to it and update this)

Ohms Watts and Volts

OK, my original 901 A2 came in wired at 4 ohms and has slipped to 4.6 ohms over the time I've been using it.

As I've been using it on my Nuck's Fistpack at about 4.3 volts (regulated) my "wattage" started at 4.62 watts and has fallen to 4.02 watts as the attie has "faded".

My new 510 A2 came as a "robust" 2.5 ohms and I've been using it a 4.1 falling to 3.7 volts (a 14500 battery) on my Super Six. That means at the moment I'm operating in a wattage range of: 6.72 watts to 5.48 watts...

[mcquinn]

Looks good

[prof beard]

I've described my purchase and initial use of my Bulli A2 901 and 510 fitting atomisers in the first two parts of this article in post above...

As I'd noted at the end of Part 1a, my first A2, which had come with a coil giving around 4ohms resistance had started showing signs of age as its resistance was creeping slowly up. So, after TWO MONTHS of fairly regular use (not constant use) at 4.3v on my Nuck's Fistpack I decide it was time to bite the bullet and do my first "recoil and rewick".

I'd read how important it was to get the coild in the right position relative to both the air hole and the mounts, so I though a "reference" would be useful. I did this by taking a picture of the coil and wick I was about to replace:



Not a pretty sight!

But the shot from the other side is the important one:



Note that the two "poles" with the screws are different - remember this and you will always get your coil on the "right side".

So, using the old wick as a guide, I cut a new length of wick and folded it to the same width. I then held the nail that Bulli supply and, holding it against the folded wick, wound a number of turns of wire around it (again, using the old wick and coil as a "model" - BUT using less turns as I wanted a low resistance coil)

I then mounted the wick and coil on the Bulli:



Note that I left quite a bit of wire spare - this was because I intended to measure the resistance and if it was too low I could add an extra turn - wire isn't free!

So, placing the probes into the slots in each screw I tested the resistance of my new coil - 2.3 ohms! Seemed about right, so I tidied things up:



Having "double tightened" the screws, I fitted the body of the A2 onto the base (being careful to ensure the wick fed in properly and the coil was not disturbed) and, as it was nice and "wet", attached the cartridge.

I then fitted the A2 onto my Fistpack and set the Fistpack to its lowest setting (about 3.7v): Result - JOY! Excellent vapour, flavour and hit! I then tried it at each progressively higher setting (it has four, the highest being about 4.3v) and the hit increased to a highest setting of WOW! - without loss of flavour. At this point I did a little dance...

After around 30 minutes I had a look down the end of the Bulli:



No wicking problems there! (Also no leaks either).

So - success! I should that, including taking the pictures, the entire re-wick/wire only took about 15mins - not bad as a "first timer".

I am - WELL PLEASED!

[mcquinn]

Nice job,does get funky in there doesn't it?