UWELL Dillon EM Review: It Has a Moving Shield in the Pod!

Design & Build Quality

There’s no mistaking the Dillon EM for a vape from any other brand. It has a distinctly ‘Uwell’ design and, from the front, it looks like one of their Caliburn series devices. Once you look at it from the side though, that’s when you notice that it’s a bit chunky and definitely not one of their Caliburn A or G series pod vapes. It actually has a form factor that is similar to the Caliburn AZ3, just not quite as short or as thick.

The Dillon EM is 95.9mm tall, 21.6mm wide, 24.1mm thick and weighs approximately 53g. This places it somewhere in between the Caliburn G3 and Crown X by size and it’s a rather comfortable weight in the hand. I like the size; it’s compact and portable but still big enough to accommodate a large 900mAh battery.

The Dillon EM comes in four colors: Silver Quartz Fiber, Off White Micro Arc, Purple Aura Quartz, and Luxury Black Gold. The design on all four colors is simple and doesn’t include too much branding. There’s a UWELL Dillon logo on all of them but it’s tastefully done and placed in medium-font near the bottom of the device.

On my Luxury Black Gold device the logo is gold and raised. The rest of the device is black. This color combination really does feel high-end, although calling it luxurious might be taking it a little too far. The paint finish is extremely durable and does not scratch easily. It’s also matte so it doesn’t hold fingerprints.

One obvious feature is the large ejuice window cutout on the front of the Dillon EM. Since the pod is completely clear, it’s really easy to see how much ejuice is left inside of the pod. Not having to remove the pod to check is a nice convenience but this window also allows you to see the EM-LOCK technology at work. More on this later.

The back of the device features a ribbed texture that I found added a little bit of grip to the Dillon EM but it mainly just looks nice.

The sides of the Dillon EM have a bar LED indicator that relays your battery life in one of three colors: green, blue, or red. Placing these LEDs on the side of the device isn’t very helpful because you can’t see them at all when you’re vaping and they turn off quite quickly. You have to draw and then immediately turn the device on its side or else you’ll miss the LED. Placing the LED on the front would have made way more sense.

Features

The Dillon EM has one of the coolest features that I’ve seen on a pod vape and that’s the “EM-LOCK” technology. It’s an electromagnetically activated shield that surrounds the coil and controls how much eliquid is in contact with the wick. You can see it at work any time that you insert a pod or take a draw. This technology is cool because it doesn’t require any maintenance or special steps for it to work; it just does.  

When you first fill your pod and insert it into the Dillon EM, the shield will begin opening and closing. It will close, then open, then close, then open. The shield will stay in the open position to allow ejuice to contact and saturate the wick.

Once you’ve allowed enough time for the wick to saturate (I waited about 10-15 minutes), you can take a draw. After about 3 seconds, the shield will close and block ejuice from reaching the wick. From here, each time that you take a draw the shield will open. Once you’re done inhaling, the shield will close again.

I recommend not waiting too long after filling or reinserting the pod to take a draw because the shield will remain open until you vape. You want to allow enough time to let the wick saturate, but not so much that the shield isn’t allowed to do what it’s there for.

So why need a shield for the wicking ports in the first place? The first and foremost reason given by Uwell is to prevent leaking. This includes leaving the device sitting without being used, as well as in day to day usage. I’ve been using a variety of 50/50 ejuices with both pods and I haven’t had even a drop or a trace of ejuice leak out. 

I was worried that closing off the wicking port would lead to some issues with thicker ejuices but it hasn’t. I’ve used a 70VG ejuice once or twice with the 0.6Ω pod and, surprisingly, I didn’t have any wicking issues or dry hits.

UWELL also says that this shield prevents e-liquid from oxidation. Since the shield effectively seals the ejuice from the air, this is supposed to keep the ejuice fresh.

As I mentioned, this shield doesn’t require you to do anything to make it work. Just fill the pod and vape as you normally would with any other pod vape and the Dillon EM takes care of everything on its own.

Some other specifications and features to mention are that the Dillon EM will fire at up to 25W. This is not adjustable and the output will depend on which pod you use. This is also a draw activated device and there are no buttons at all.

Pods

The pods for the Dillon EM have the coil built-in. These coils are non-removable and you can see the EM-LOCK shield surrounding them by just looking into the pod.

The pods that come with the Dillon EM are a 0.6Ω pod (19W) and a 0.9Ω pod (15W). Both pods are completely clear so there’s no trouble checking on ejuice levels, especially thanks to the ejuice cut out window on the front of the Dillon EM.

These pods are side-filled and it’s easy to get them juiced up. The rubber fill hole stopper seems durable and does a good job of tightly sealing the fill port.

Airflow

The airflow for each pod can be changed depending on which way the pod is inserted. The 0.9Ω pod delivers a tight MTL draw which can be changed to a medium MTL draw by rotating the pod 180°. The 0.6Ω pod delivers a medium MTL draw which can be changed to a loose MTL or even a RDL draw if you keep your lips a little loose on the pod.

I would have liked a fully adjustable airflow system here, like a slider or dial, but the airflow from the two pods is still good as it is. The 0.9Ω pod is really good for MTL vapers as both airflow modes have a nice bit of restriction. The 0.6Ω pod is better for those who prefer a looser draw and for anyone who is going to be using freebase nicotine ejuices with this device.

Battery Life & Charging

UWELL didn’t skimp on the battery capacity here and they’ve put a 900mAh battery in the Dillon EM. The placement of the LED could have used more thought but the battery life is super. I’m getting at least two pods per charge and even more with the 0.9Ω pod. Even heavy vapers will get a full day out of the Dillon EM and probably even longer.

The 2A charge speed on the Dillon EM results in really quick charge times – only 35 minutes for a full charge. I would plug it in and before I even knew it, it was fully charged. 

Since the placement of the LED is so inconvenient, I really just forgot about it most of the time. That’s not great if you’re out of the house a lot because you’ll probably end up with the Dillon EM dying on you. As they say, out of sight, out of mind and that’s exactly the case with the LED indicator. 

If you do remember to check it, the battery level indication is as follows:

• Green: 60%+
• Blue: 30-60%
• Red: Under 30%

Performance

When using the Dillon EM, I mainly stuck with 50/50 or 60VG nicotine salt ejuices because the resistance of the pods seemed best suited to nic salts. But just to see how the shield fared with thicker eliquids, I also used a 70VG ejuice a few times with the 0.6Ω pod. Long story short, I experienced no leaking or wicking issues with any of the ejuices that I tried.

The absence of leaking makes sense with the thinner ejuices because of the eliquid shield but it’s puzzling that I didn’t have wicking issues with the thicker eliquids. Not complaining, just pleasantly surprised!

There’s very little difference in the flavor from each pod and that probably comes down to how close they are in both their resistance and output wattage. That being said, flavor from both pods is excellent and in line with what I expect from a pod device from Uwell. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of their Caliburn devices and those have always been really good on flavor – it’s no surprise that the pods here are good as well.

I did have a preference for the 0.9Ω pod though simply because of the airflow. It’s a tighter draw than the 0.6Ω pod on either of the two airflow modes and this tighter airflow just suited my preferences better. If you’re more into looser MTL or RDL draws then the 0.6Ω pod is the one to go with.

Verdict

UWELL continues to impress with their pod devices and with the new features that they’re able to implement. I didn’t think that a shield for the wicking ports was something that I needed but after experiencing how reliably it prevents leaking, I’m wondering how I ever lived without it.

It’s really cool how UWELL has managed to implement this EM-LOCK so flawlessly in the first iteration of the technology. The shield has worked without any issues and has functioned perfectly even after removing the pod multiple times and taking over a thousand draws.

The only major issue that I have with the Dillon EM is that the placement of the LED indicators don’t make a lot of sense. Placement on the front of the device would have been more practical. Some lesser issues are the lack of true adjustable airflow and there not being adjustable wattage but this actually makes it a more beginner-friendly device.

For MTL vapers that are concerned with leaking, the UWELL Dillon EM is highly recommended.

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