Innokin Coolfire PZPulse Kit user review

I have once again brought you a gadget from Sourcemore that I found quite interesting, released by Innokin (a brand that has almost faded into oblivion) under the name Coolfire PZPulse! Well, this test subject proved quite interesting to me because at first glance, I quickly confused it with another, more popular brand, which is none other than Geekvape… Since I think the resemblance is too great, I became increasingly curious whether it delivers what is expected and what the manufacturer promised, as there are similarities in its features too. To mention something else, the device is capable of a maximum of 80 Watts, and the 2400mAh built-in battery is charged in just over 1 hour using 2A fast charging. It is a DTL device, so it operates with 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 Ohm PZP Max coils.

With dimensions of 119 x 43.77 x 30.58mm, the PZPulse, made of zinc alloy and PCTG material, is available in 5 colors: purple, silver, black, blue and green gradient, and gunmetal. The silver one arrived to me. Now let’s see what it can do, or perhaps what it cannot do…

Innokin Coolfire PZPulse Kit Experience Report


Box Contents and Getting Acquainted with the Device

We don’t get much with the PZPulse, only a USB-C charging cable, a 0.2 and a 0.4 Ohm PZP Max coil, of which the 0.4 is found in the POD head. Furthermore, we also find a user manual and the Warranty Card in the box.

On the front panel, we find the fire button, below it the 0.96" TFT display, below that the navigation buttons, and finally the USB-C connector which, as I mentioned, fast charges the 2400mAh battery at 2A. Nothing is found on the back except the PZPulse inscription. Of course, except for those few creases and the protruding fold, because they didn’t treat the grip material very well. And by the way, this is not nearly as soft as the Geekvape gadget’s…

On the right side of the device, we find the manual device lock slider button, which also resembles the Geekvape device lock button. On the left side, the Innokin inscription adorns the metal frame, which is again eerily Geekvape-like.

The 5.5ml POD head on top of the PZPulse also resembles the Boost POD heads here and there, but this already differs in several ways from the device, which strongly resembles the characteristic design of the Boost series, but considering the overall picture, I think the PZPulse wants to be a copy of the Boost. Returning to the subject, the PZP Max coil is extremely easy to remove or insert, as it is plug and play like most coils. On the bottom of the device, there are only the mandatory pictograms.

Returning briefly to the PCTG material POD head of the PZPulse, its design is not bad, actually. The filling opening is quite large, so we can refill it with anything, although Chubby Gorilla bottles will not be a solution for this device; a narrower bottle is needed for comfortable refilling. The airflow control ring is located under the drip tip and fortunately does not rotate by itself, but we can adjust it easily. The drip tip is a standard 510, which we can change to whatever we like; whether it’s worth it, I’ll write about later. I put the coil aside, let’s leave it, I’ll write about it later…

It got some kind of menu feature, but why? We can access the bare-bones menu by pressing the navigation buttons simultaneously and holding them down for 3 seconds. This 2 menu items selection is not a great achievement from Innokin… However, one of them is not such a bad idea, which is Cut off. This indicates the puff duration in seconds, with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 18 seconds; it is set to 10 by default. This is not a bad thought because this way we can set it to Time out even before we finish the puff, allowing the coil a little extra cooling since we could continue inhaling even after the firing stops. The other menu item is Screen. Here we can only set the display duration, how many seconds it stays awake. The selectable time interval is 5-180 seconds. If we enter the Screen menu, it displays Time out instead of Screen, which is a bit strange.

Well, the situation is that, as I already mentioned and I think it was obvious, the PZPulse can be considered a Geekvape Boost copy! It resembles it so much that at first glance it almost fooled me. The main point is coming now! Let’s dissect this little thing!


Experience Report

Exterior

In reviews, I always first highlight the exterior, which is a weak point of the PZPulse in this case! The material usage itself is not bad, as it is made of zinc alloy and PCTG material, but unfortunately, the whole thing fails during assembly! The seams do not meet everywhere, and the curves do not match everywhere, which is unfortunately visible. It’s as if they messed up the dimensions when cutting the different surfaces and panels. Because of this, there are problems during assembly, which is bad for several reasons, because anything that gets into the seams will not be easily cleaned out, whether it’s liquid, water, or even dust. This is because it has an IP68 rating, which denotes water and dust resistance, but if it is not assembled well, there is a risk that it will not be waterproof after all, and dust can ruin a device just like water. So it would have been better if they had paid more attention to the assembly, because this failed completely for me already, and we are only halfway through the report! (But what else is coming, oh my…)

Here is a photo that adequately conveys the shoddy, poor assembly work I just mentioned! Seam? They don’t know the word! My fingernail fits right in there!

As seen in this picture, my fingernail also fits easily into the right side of the seam below the USB connector! This picture perfectly presents the botched sizing!

By the way, it is also shock-resistant, which is at least a true fact, as I managed to drop it and fortunately it was unharmed; the paint did not chip, nor are there any scratches on it! But I think even a non-shock-resistant device could handle that much… Although if they had forced the surfaces together more tightly, it wouldn’t fall apart over time either, but I hope I’m wrong… The grip is nicely rounded, but this is only aesthetically pleasing, and only from a distance. When held in the hand, it is not at all as soft as the padded covering of the Geekvape. This is just a thicker leather-like material that we can feel the metal underneath when we squeeze it. Moreover, it is squeezed under the metal so ugly, as if they decided to put a grip covering on it at the very last moment, because it is squeezed so tightly as if there were no designated space for it, causing the leather to wrinkle on top. At the bottom, it looks like the material wasn’t cut to size, so the folded leather sticks out from under the seam. This is again attributable to poor assembly.

Look here, wrinkled on top and sticking out at the bottom. What kind of work is this?

The fire button rattles slightly; in contrast, to write something positive, there are no issues with the navigation buttons.

FunctionalityThe most annoying flaw of the PZPulse is that the firing button often fails! I press it and it doesn’t fire! Roughly every 60-70th puff it gives up, and no matter how much I press it, the device ignores me… But it has also happened frequently that it got fed up after every 3rd puff. Although it resumed working on the next puff, well, a renowned and long-established manufacturer like Innokin simply cannot allow such a thing! Not to mention the device lock button! But I will mention that just a slight movement locks the device halfway, or unlocks it if it was locked, but ultimately it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t work properly this way! But at least the navigation buttons work well! The POD head is not completely fixed, it tends to move a little, although it’s not critical and the magnets hold it properly, so this is something that can be overlooked, especially after what has been described and what follows! The PZPulse POD head actually isn’t bad, there’s really no issue with that, however, the coil inside produces a very disturbing phenomenon. It leaks the liquid, so the leakproof feature mentioned on the manufacturer’s website is not characteristic of the device either!

This is every POD owner’s nightmare! This also raised the question in my mind: what kind of work ethic might prevail at Innokin if they can release something like this?

Speaking of leaking, this is what the water resistance is like! That is water that leaked between the display and the plexiglass! The liquid spilled onto it, I thought I would rinse it off, since it’s waterproof! Well, no! But the Geekvape didn’t leak, no matter how much I washed it…

The leaked water will slowly destroy the display or even the entire device! Thus, the indicated IP68 rating is a huge lie! The device cannot be completely turned off. If we press the firing button quickly 3 times, the device supposedly turns off, at least that’s what the display shows, but if we lock the device afterward, it still displays Locked and won’t allow it to turn on until we unlock it. In my opinion, this is completely pointless.

Menu

The menu, apart from having almost nothing in it, works well overall. It does what it was designed for; we can adjust the puff duration and screen timeout. Both maintain the set seconds with clockwork precision. So there is no problem with that. What is strange, however, is that Time out appears instead of the Screen menu item, but perhaps one can get over this, as we have read much more disturbing things in this review. However, since we mentioned puffing, the puff counter does not go up to 9999, but switches from 999 to 000, and only then to 001, which is strange because it deviates from the norm, but perhaps this data is not essential, as everyone vapes as much as they feel like.

Experience

As I wrote above, let’s just ignore the coil because, to put it mildly, it’s not good! Of course, it produces some flavor, but not in an outstanding way. The cactus liquid tasted more like kiwi, the peanut one like bad coffee, I felt something from the vanilla cream one, but perhaps only because it was more intense and sweeter than the previous two, so it hit harder. But now that the coil is nearing the end of its life, I only taste the sweetener with a slight hint of vanilla. The first 30-40 puffs were worse than this. The TH took everything, like hitting the jackpot! Nothing else could be felt, just the unbearably strong throat hit! But don’t imagine that I don’t like TH because I can’t handle it; I don’t like it because after a while my throat hurts, but I usually tolerate it fine. I gave the PZPulse to Donát to try because he tolerates TH better and even likes it, but he gave it back saying even that was too much for him. That’s how unenjoyable it is! We managed to get through those first 40 puffs, while the TH somewhat subsided, over several hours, just so I could finally use it fully, and this isn’t even the smallest coil, but the 0.4 one, which shouldn’t be this strong. Moreover, I didn’t use it between 40-60 Watts as recommended by the manufacturer, but first at 25, then at 30 Watts, because it is simply unenjoyable and strong with the recommended Watt settings. And on top of that, it also pissed itself, so the flavor absolutely could not compensate for the external shortcomings and poor assembly of the PZPulse! I also tried it with a narrower drip tip because this one was longer, hoping the flavor would turn in the right direction, but I only managed to suck up the liquid, so this path is also not viable.


This time I will not write a pro and con list because the Innokin PZPulse is a borderline thin piece of crap as it is! The assembly is poor, which allows all the dust in the world to get in, which can wreck the whole thing. The water resistance failed because water is swimming in the display, and it’s only a matter of time before it flows into the chips, and if it doesn’t short circuit but reaches the battery, we’ll celebrate with fireworks, but nobody will be smiling then, and we’ll hear again that e-cigarettes are dangerous! The coil underperforms in flavor and even leaks underneath itself. What is relatively problem-free is the menu and the puff counter, but even those don’t work as they should, but at least they do their job, even if not in the usual way.


In conclusion, I do not recommend the Innokin Coolfire PZPulse Kit to anyone! It failed worse for me than anything before! I only regret that there is nothing I could genuinely list as positive besides the navigation buttons. If the assembly were good, I wouldn’t have to fear that it would break if dropped once. However, I think the lack of water resistance is also attributable to the poor assembly. If the flavor return were better, perhaps the thing could be saved, but the coil leaks, which means there would be plenty of problems even with good flavor. But I won’t list further what ifs… Finally, one should imagine what would have happened if Innokin hadn’t put this together…

Reluctantly, I’m dropping a link:

https://www.sourcemore.com/innokin-coolfire-pzpulse-kit.html


Thank you for reading! Have a nice day! :hugs:

23 Likes

This is why they say (referring to the installations) that quick work isn’t always good.
I am glad that I could read your excellent writing again, Dear Kinga!
:saluting_face:

8 Likes

Thank you for the great writing :heart: I like writings that factually highlight a product’s shortcomings … ..I won’t buy this either and I won’t recommend it to anyone.

10 Likes

A pity, he was an excellent agent, the average Terence Hill would say…

Phil Busardo and Dimitris didn’t bid farewell to them as ambassadors for no reason…

9 Likes

The world’s wooden axle has twisted… mass-produced 2nd class mechanical junk, an unjustifiably serious display, but it won’t be a product pampered for years by any owner either. Thanks @Vaperina_Kinga Kinga for suffering through such a test again :hugs::grin:

8 Likes

Thanks guys! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: Well, Innokin is not the same as it used to be at all. I was very disappointed, because I didn’t expect such a bad product. But that’s how it is. :woman_shrugging:t3:

9 Likes

Thanks Kinga for the great writing :slightly_smiling_face:, well I won’t buy one, I wanted to, because as you wrote, and it’s also visible that it’s a Geekvape copy, what I like about this device is the pod head with the replaceable drip tip, which on the Geekvape is a duckbill and specific, the rubber seal is inside the drip tip, and when switching hands you always have to adjust the drip tip :frowning:

7 Likes

Thank you :hugs: Well yes, the Boost series isn’t perfect either. However, the Soul pod could be good if only the mouthpiece is the problem. :wink:

7 Likes

You’re very welcome :slightly_smiling_face: The Boost 3 is almost good, their atomizers/coils are also “good” (0.2, 0.3, 0.4ohm), it doesn’t leak at all :heart_eyes:, I’m not happy with the drip tip :grimacing:, I just bought an acrylic tube on AliExpress 15mmØ x10cm

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004464506095.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.1102.a6991802e8Dvq1

I’ll cut it to size, drill it, I just don’t know how to hollow out the space for the rubber gasket from the inside yet :thinking:. I think the Soul would be very tight DL for me, I’ve been considering it, and the Soul 2,

https://www.sourcemore.com/geekvape-soul-2-pod-kit.html
but then I let it go because the “atomizers” start at 0.6ohm.
Still, thank you for your help and recommendation :slightly_smiling_face:

7 Likes

Thanks @Vaperina_Kinga for the excellent report again!:clap: :+1:
It was a pleasure to read again, though it’s not my cup of tea.

7 Likes

It’s interesting that the other reviewers somehow forgot to report on these problems. Of course, this isn’t a unique phenomenon, but it’s definitely thought-provoking…

Here, it usually happens that when Kinga finishes the test, but it hasn’t been published yet, we look around to see what others have written or said about the product. And then we are often just amazed—did they really test the same product?!

In our opinion, credibility can only be maintained if the reviewer is honest. If a product is bad, it’s bad—if it’s good, it’s good. We have no other way, never have, and never will.

We don’t test to please manufacturers or resellers, but so that the Community gets a real picture of what to expect from a product. Anyone who reads us has the right to know what to expect, and this requires honesty, not marketing.

18 Likes

:heart:
Staring Star Wars GIF by Disney+

10 Likes

Thank you for the report, it was a great pleasure to read you after a long time.

And well, yes. This is what happens when Comrades Ping Pong and Teng Leng focus on quantity rather than quality :grinning_face:

8 Likes