Lost Vape Centaurus Quest BF Kit
9.0
PROS
- Overall good looking mod
- 9.5ml squonk bottle capacity
- Storage bottle is great even for non-squonkers
- Leak and mess free filling and squonking
- Excellent build quality
- Good overall performance, including TC
- Clean and easy to use UI
- Good battery and chipset efficiency
CONS
- Screen and button panel sticks out a lot from the mod
- Big & heavy for a single battery squonk mod
- No TCR mode
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a squonk mod. Companies these days seem to be more favoring pod devices and disposables these days than anything else, but in my opinion nothing beats a good RBA and squonk mod. Cue the Lost Vape Centaurus Quest Squonk Kit.
The Centaurus Quest Squonk kit features an innovative and removable 9.5ml squonk bottle and also comes with a “storage” bottle if you want to use it as a regular mod. It can fire up to 100W and takes a single 21700, 20700, or 18650 battery. It can be recharged through Type-C charging. The kit comes with the Centaurus Solo RDA.
Lost Vape makes great devices, no matter if they use the DNA chipset or their in-house Quest chip. Some of their recent releases include the Ursa Nano pod device, the Thelema Quest mod, and the Cyborg Quest mod. Each of these received relatively high scores from our team, but can the Centaurus Quest keep up the trend?
Box Contents (Kit)
- 1 x Centaurus Quest BF Mod
- 1 x Centaurus Solo RDA
- 1 x 18650 Battery Adapter
- 1 x 9.5ml Squonk Bottle (Pre-Installed)
- 1 x 9.5ml Storage Bottle
- 1 x Spare Drip Tip
- 1 x Spare Parts Bag
- 1 x Type-C Cable
- 1 x User Manual
- 1 x Warranty Card
Specifications
- Zinc Alloy Construction
- Size: 86mm x 52.75mm x 31.90mm
- Takes a Single 21700/20700/18650 Battery
- 0.96” Color Display
- 8V Maximum Output Voltage
- 100W Maximum Wattage
- Power, TC, Bypass, Voltage, Custom Curves modes
- 9.5ml Squonk Bottle Capacity
- Bottom filled Squonk Bottle
Design & Build Quality
The Centaurus Quest BF mod has a little bit of an unconventional design, even for a squonk mod. Most squonk mods that I’ve used in the past have had their screen on the “front” of the device where the firing button is, and the squonk bottle on the side or back. This mod is the exact opposite — the squonk bottle is located just below the firing button and the screen and buttons are on the side. It’s a weird look, especially because the screen and buttons sit on a panel that is raised from the mod by quite a few millimeters.
If you ignore that side of the Centaurus Quest BF and look at it from any other angle, it looks like a pretty nice and normal squonk mod. It has a distinctly “Lost Vape” design about it that reminds me a lot of their other mods. Aside from the weird, protruding side mounted screen, the design is clean and attractive.
This mod is made of zinc alloy and comes in 6 different grip designs: 3 are colorful and abstract, the other 3 are more neutral. The color of the frame will be either black, gunmetal, or silver depending on which grip design you choose. All of the colors come with a carbon fiber style panel.
I’m using the black frame with pearl fish grip and I think that it’s the best looking one. But everyone has their own tastes. I won’t judge you if you like the other colors.
As far as the build quality goes, this is a Lost Vape device after all so even though it’s from their Quest line it’s still very well made. The fit and finish of all of the pieces is excellent and there’s no rattling or movement of any of the parts. It feels good in my hand and great to squonk with. It’s a little heavy for a single battery mod, even with the zinc alloy construction, and I find it more comparable in size and weight to a dual 18650 battery mod.
The battery door is a threaded cap that unscrews to give you access to the battery compartment. The threading is smooth and very well machined. This mod takes a single 21700, 20700, or 18650 battery (using the included adapter). The battery cap features a hinge that pops out to make removing or replacing it a breeze. The hinge is firm and hasn’t gone ‘floppy’ on me yet. There are also venting holes in the cap for safety which I love to see.
The battery compartment is snug but not too tight and features a spring loaded positive terminal inside. There is a little battery rattle if using an 18650 battery with the adapter or a 20700 battery, but nearly none with a 21700 battery.
Now on to the most exciting part about the Centaurus Quest BF: the squonk bottle. The bottle itself is integrated into a plastic frame which slides into the bottom of the device. This rail system ensures a perfect, tight seal and fit. It also means you don’t have to reattach a squonk tube to the bottle like on other squonk mods. The bottle has an absolutely gigantic 9.5ml capacity.
On the bottom of the bottle is a tiny round threaded cap, similar to the battery door. You can remove this cap while the bottle is still inserted into the mod, but I find it easier to remove it and then fill it. Once removed, the bottle self seals the nozzle so there’s no chance of it leaking when turned upside down. This lets you easily refill it without making a mess. You can also unthread the top cap of the bottle and refill it from there, but this is a lot messier because the internal tube of the bottle comes out with the cap. The top cap being removable is more meant for cleaning out the bottle and not for refilling.
The bottle is nice and squishy and easy to squonk with. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to push it to rejuice your RDA but it still feels firm and solid.
In addition to the squonk bottle, you also get a 9.5ml storage bottle. This bottle has a plastic frame too and also slides into the bottom of the device. Unlike the squonk bottle, the storage bottle does not have a cutout to access and squonk with the bottle. There is also a silicone cap that goes on the tip of the bottle to seal it. When this storage bottle is inserted into the mod, it essentially converts the Centaurus Quest into a regular mod.
So what’s the point of this bottle? Well, it’s pretty genius if you ask me. You can fill this bottle with your favorite ejuice and use, for instance, a sub ohm tank on the centaurus quest. When you need to refill your tank you can just take out the storage bottle from the bottom of the Centaurus and refill your tank. This saves you from having to carry around a bottle because it’s integrated into the mod. And because it holds 9.5ml of ejuice, that’s quite a bit of ejuice you can carry around.
There’s a lot of details here so let me just summarize; the Centaurus Quest BF mod has an unconventional design and I’m not a fan of how the side mounted screen and buttons stick out. However, the rest of the mod has a nice design and the build quality is excellent. The squonk bottle design and storage bottle design are one of the best, most convenient, and easiest to use designs that I’ve seen on a squonk mod. Overall, this mod is going to lose points for looks, but the rest of the design is superb.
Centaurus Quest BF Mod Features
This mod uses the same Quest 2.0 chipset as found on the Lost Vape Thelema Quest that I recently reviewed. The modes that you get are Power, TC, Bypass, Voltage, Custom Power Curve modes. It can fire up to 100W in power mode and from 200-600°F in TC. There’s support for Nickel, Titanium, SS316L, and SS904. There does not appear to be a TCR mode or a way to adjust the TCR value for each material.
The UI is user-friendly and easy enough to figure out. There are three navigation buttons; up, down, and select. You can use the up and down adjustment buttons to scroll through the UI to the option you want to change, then use the select button to highlight it. From here you can use the up and down buttons to change it.
For example, to change modes you would use the up and down buttons to highlight the mode. Pressing the select button will then allow you to use the up and down adjustment buttons to scroll through the different modes. When you have reached the mode you desire, press the select button again and you’re done. The same method can be used to change the wattage, temperature, reset the puff counter, or enter the settings menu.
The settings menu doesn’t have a lot but there are a few things in here that are useful. The ‘Atomizer’ option lets you remeasure your coil resistance if it’s not reading correctly (which I haven’t had happen, this mod is pretty accurate). You can also adjust the wattage or temperature from here as well.
Other options in the menu allow you to change the screen brightness, UI color, reset the settings, or set user profiles. You can set 3 user profiles which can easily and quickly be selected from the main menu. For example, you can set the first profile for temperature control at a specific wattage and temperature, and profile 2 for wattage mode at specific wattage and hardness (soft, normal, or hard). This lets you quickly go from TC to wattage mode without having to manually adjust the settings each time and I found it rather useful.
While the Centaurus does lack some features exclusive to DNA mods (like the Centaurus DNA 250C), the UI and features that it does have are still nearly just as good.
Lost Vape Centaurus Quest Button Combinations
- Turn device off or on: Press fire button 5 consecutive times
- Lock/Unlock adjustment buttons: Hold select +/- buttons together
- Reset puff counter: Use adjustment buttons to highlight the puff counter. Press select to reset.
- Change vaping mode: Use the adjustment buttons to highlight the mode and then press select. Switch Between Modes: Use “+/-“ buttons. Press select again when you are in your desired mode.
- Adjust temperature or watts: Highlight the temperature or wattage on the UI. Press select. Use “+/-“ buttons to adjust.
Centaurus Solo RDA
The Centaurus Solo RDA comes with the kit and features a single coil, dual post build deck. It’s made of stainless steel and has a 24mm base diameter. The design is sleek and looks very good. The paint matches the color on the Centaurus Quest mod so they pair together really well.
By default the Centaurus Solo comes with a medium-bore 810 drip tip, but there is a wide bore drip tip included in the package that you can swap out. I preferred the wide bore drip tip for increased vapor and larger draws but you can test them out and see which one you like more.
This RDA is made of 4 pieces: the drip tip, top cap, body cap, and deck/base. The top cap serves as the airflow control for the two airflow slots and can be rotated to open or close the airflow. The airflow design is interesting because the airflow slots connect to the build deck and creates a tunnel of air from the airflow slots directly to the bottom of the coils. With the airflow fully open, the top cap seals the top of this tunnel and only allows the airflow to direct under the coils.
If you have the airflow set to anywhere but fully open, this will allow air to escape out the top of the tunnel and thus decrease flavor. My suggestion is to leave the airflow open all of the way for the best results.
The deck is a simple two post deck meant for a single coil. There are top mounted flat head screws that simply unscrew. You then insert your coil legs and tighten these screws down. It’s an easy deck to build on — it really doesn’t get much easier than this. Once the coil is installed make sure to pulse it at low wattages and strum the coil with ceramic tweezers to work out any hot spots. Then you can wick the coil by tucking it into the channels on the sides of the deck and you’re done.
The squonk pin comes preinstalled on this tank which is good because it comes with a squonk mod. However, there is a solid pin included if you want to just use it as a dripper. If you’re going to switch the pin, do it before you build on the deck or it can be a hassle to swap.
Performance
I’ll start with what you all want to know: how good is this mod when it comes to squonking with it? Well, it’s definitely one of the best mods that I’ve used in this regard. I praised the squonk bottle a lot in the design and build quality section and in practice it works just as I had hoped. Day to day using this mod is essentially mess free. I remove the bottle, turn it upside down, remove the cap, and fill it up. From here I can use the bottle for two days before having to refill it again.
All it takes is a firm press on the bottle to rejuice my RDA. Over-squonking isn’t an issue with the Solo RDA either because excess ejuice gets sucked back into the bottle. I can be guilty of constantly pressing the squonk bottle almost every time I go to take a draw (can you tell that I’ve had a few bad dry hits in the past?) so if it doesn’t flood for me, it probably won’t for you either.
My build came out to 0.20Ω on the Solo RDA and I ran it at 80W with the airflow wide open. Flavor is good but not good enough to make me drop my other RDAs for it. But for a first attempt at an RDA Lost Vape have done well with the performance it provides.
Back to the mod. The overall performance and TC performance are good for a non-DNA mod. It’s still not as good, but it will do if you aren’t looking for the absolute best performance possible. DNA chipsets just have a level of sophistication that regulates the temperature better, allowing you to go right to the edge of a dry hit before reducing the power so that you don’t get one.
The Quest chipset on this mod feels like it cuts the power a little too early, but this isn’t going to be noticeable if you haven’t used DNA mods extensively in TC mode or aren’t an avid TC mode vaper. For someone wanting to try out TC, the Quest chipset will allow you to experience it at a more affordable price point.
Verdict
We haven’t had many squonk mods being released lately so the Centaurus Quest BF kit is a nice surprise. It’s definitely the best squonk mod to be released in recent times and worth upgrading from whatever squonk mod that you currently have. The convenience of the squonk bottle system is unrivaled, even by the more popular options like Dovpo’s Topside series. Those are convenient, but this system is really convenient and mess free.
Even if you don’t squonk, the storage bottle is excellent for subohm tank users and RBA users who prefer to drip over squonk. You can fill the bottle up and leave your bottle of ejuice at home, only removing it from the mod when you need to refill or drip. Very convenient and innovative.
I really think that Lost Vape has made a winner with this mod. The kit is worth the buy too, but as I mentioned in the performance section, the flavor from the Solo RDA is decent but it isn’t the absolute best that I’ve experienced.
Have you used the Centaurus Quest Squonk Mod? Have a question? Leave a comment down below.
Sorry for commenting on an old post, but I haven’t been able to find an answer to a question I have about this mod. Which sub ohm tanks can be used? Is the mount point standard? I use a GeekVape S100 right now, but am intrigued by the Centaurus Quest.
No worries! For the squonk functionality (squeezing the bottle to refill the tank) only RDAs will work because they’re the only tanks that will come with the hollow pin that allows the ejuice to flow into the tank. However, you can still use any tank with a 510 thread, which is basically 99.99% of tanks today, but you won’t be able to squonk which defeats the purpose of using this mod.
If you’re using a subohm tank and don’t use RDAs, it will be best for you to stick with a box mod and not purchase a squonk mod.