Vandy Vape Jackaroo Pod Kit Review: A Jack of All Trades

When Vandy Vape released their Jackaroo mod in 2019, it was clear that they wanted to compete with Geekvape’s Aegis line of mods. The Jackaroo mod was similarly IP67 waterproof, dustproof, and shockproof, and featured an attractive but rugged design that attracted a lot of vapers. After the success of the Jackaroo mod, Vandy Vape followed up with the dual battery Jackaroo Dual mod in 2020.

Geekvape’s Aegis line is more than just mods though; they include pod vapes too, like the Aegis Hero, Aegis Pod, and Aegis Boost. This last one is the one that Vandy Vape seems to be aiming to beat with the Jackaroo Pod Kit. 

The Jackaroo Pod Kit is an IP67 waterproof, dustproof, and shockproof pod vape with a design that is strikingly similar to the Aegis Boost. It has a 2000mAh battery, adjustable top airflow, and adjustable power output up to 70W.

For this review I was sent the complete kit for the Jackaroo Pod. This includes 2 drip tips, 5 coils, and an RDTA pod with two top caps.

This kit was sent to me by Vandy Vape for the purpose of this review.

Box Contents

Standard Kit Contents

• 1 x Jackaroo Pod Kit
• 1 x Instruction Manual
• 2 x VVC 0.90Ω Coils
• 1 x Type-C Cable
• 1 x Coil Tool
• 1 x MTL Drip Tip

Specifications

• H: 108mm x W: 25.6mm x D:40mm
• Battery Capacity: 2000mAh
• Wattage Range: 5-70W
• For MTL or DL Vaping
• Type-C Charging
• 4.5ml Pod Capacity
• Top Filled
• Adjustable Airflow
• Takes VVC Coils
• RDTA Pod Available (Sold Separately)

Design & Build Quality

The similarities between the design of the Geekvape Aegis Boost and Vandy Vape Jackaroo are striking and certainly not a coincidence. It seems like Vandy Vape figured that people like the form factor and design, so why not make something very similar but with little changes to make it better. If you ask me, I think that they’ve succeeded with improving certain aspects of the Aegis Boost.

The Jackaroo Pod has a tall and deep rectangular shape. It’s 108mm tall, 25.6mm wide, and 40mm deep; about the same size as the Aegis Boost. The first thing that I like about the design is the ribbed silicone grip. It’s slightly squishy and feels really good to hold. The silicone from the grip extends and covers the majority of the body which helps the Jackaroo Pod to survive drops and impacts. 

This is a portable device, but it’s larger than most other pod systems. One reason for the size is the large 2000mAh built-in battery. Another is the fact that it’s IP67 water, dust, and shock resistant.

A big design element of the Jackaroo Pod are the panels. These panels appear to be non-removable. There is one panel on each side of the device and these come in 8 different designs. 4 of the designs are ‘classy’ and subtle: Obsidian Black, Carbon Fiber Black, Carbon Fiber Silver, and Black Warrior (a bland and silver honeycomb grid pattern). 

The other 4 panel designs are colorful and way more my style: Glacier Silver, Sea Cerulean, Aurora Violet, and Haze Red. If I had my pick it would be between the Aurora Violet and Sea Cerulean, but Glacier Silver also looks so luxurious! 

Running along the top of the battery portion, just below where the pod sits, is a metal bezel. The silicone body and this metal bezel are always black, regardless of the panel color that you choose. 

There’s a large full color screen with tons of information, and an easy to use 3 button layout with a round fire button and two smaller fused adjustment buttons.

The pod attaches to the battery with 3 magnets that are very strong and pull the pod into place. There is no wiggling or movement of the pod when it’s inserted. 

The pod is deep and top filled through a rubber bung. The pod will hold up to 4.5ml of ejuice — a respectable capacity. There’s a very light tinting to the pod but I’ve had no trouble seeing inside as long as there’s a little bit of light. The tinting is not nearly as dark as I’ve seen on other pod vapes.

Sitting atop the pod is an integrated airflow control ring. It has 12 holes, stacked in 2 rows of 6 holes, and fully adjustable. Turning the airflow ring clockwise will start closing off columns of holes. If you keep turning the AFC ring it will close off just the bottom row of holes and then start closing off the top row. With the ability to close off columns of holes, the bottom row of holes, or leave only a few top row airflow holes open, you can really set the airflow to just the level that you like.

The drip tip on the Jackaroo Pod is a swappable 510. The kit comes with a wide bore drip tip preinstalled and a narrower MTL drip tip in the box. Combined with the airflow, you can get exactly the airflow you prefer for the coil that you’re using and the draw that you want.

Coils just push into the bottom of the pod. The Jackaroo Pod uses new VVC coils but there are a ton of coils to choose from. From what I’ve gathered there are 5 coils available with 3 for DL and 2 for MTL. 

Even though it’s clearly designed after the Aegis Boost, the Jackaroo Pod manages to change a few things that make it different and even better in some ways. The airflow control ring is a nice feature and it’s overall a really nice looking device. The durability is a nice bonus.

How To Use The Jackaroo Pod

The Jackaroo Pod is a simple device to get started with but it also offers plenty of options for how you want to vape with it. It’s a button activated device which means that you have to press and hold the fire button whenever you take a draw. 

To turn the power on or off, press the fire button 5 times. You can adjust the wattage for your coil by using the adjustment buttons, however the device will automatically set the coil to an acceptable wattage output when you insert the pod.

The screen displays a battery indicator with percentage, wattage, puff time, voltage, coil resistance, and a puff counter. You can lock the adjustment buttons by holding the + adjustment button and power button at the same time until the screen displays ‘LOCK’. The device will still allow you to vape. To unlock the adjustment buttons just do the same thing.

As you can see, it’s an easy device to get started with. However, the airflow options and ability to switch drip tips lets you really tailor the draw to your liking. Of course, you can adjust the wattage to your liking as well but the coils are locked to their recommended wattage range and will not let you exceed the maximum recommended wattage for the coil. 

This locked wattage is definitely a downside for me, but it makes it easier to use for a new vaper who doesn’t know what wattage they should vape at or who is unsure if they’re vaping at too high of a wattage.

RDTA Pod

The Jackaroo rebuildable pod is sold separately but it’s a really neat addition to the Jackaroo Pod. It’s an RDTA style pod where the wicks hang down from the build deck and into the pod. You can also use it as a dripper by dripping straight down into the drip tip.

There are two posts which are secured by two slot drive screws. It’s meant for a single coil where the legs of your coil are secured down by the screws, so you have to have your legs facing opposite directions. 

There are two airflow slots that sit directly under the coil which feed in air from the two small slots on the top cap. My review kit came with a stainless steel top cap and a PC top cap which I’m guessing will be included if you purchase the RDTA separately.

The top cap can be twisted to adjust the airflow but this deck is definitely meant for low wattage direct lung vaping and not for MTL. This is due to the wide bore drip tips on the top caps but also because the airflow does not restrict down enough to get a decent MTL draw.

Overall I really enjoyed using the RDTA pod. It’s a basic build deck that really isn’t anything special in terms of the flavor it provides, but it’s a fun option if you like building your own coils.  

Battery Life

As I mentioned a bit earlier, this device is portable but it’s a little larger than other pod vapes due to the 2000mAh battery that it carries. This is a good size for a pod vape, but the battery life that you will get will greatly depend on the coil that you use and the wattage that you vape at.

Using the higher resistance MTL coils will easily get you through a day, if not two, of vaping. On the other hand, using the lower resistance DL coils will probably require charging the Jackaroo Pod before the end of the day depending on which coil you use and the wattage that you vape at.

The Jackaroo Pod charges through a Type-C port on the front of the device, just below the adjustment buttons. I timed a full charge at just over 90 minutes.

Performance

The Jackaroo Pod Kit comes with two coils, both 0.90Ω MTL coils (9-16W). For this review I was sent the complete review kit which includes the other 4 available coils so I will be going over each of them. The coils I have on hand are:

• 1 x 1.2Ω VVC-120 coil (7-13W)
• 1 x 0.90Ω VVC-90 coil (9-16W)
• 1 x 0.6Ω VVC-60 coil (18-26W)
• 1 x 0.3Ω VVC-30 coil (30-45W)
• 1 x 0.15Ω VVC-15 coil (35-60W)

I’ll begin with the highest resistance coil and work up through the coils. The 1.2Ω coil is rated for 7-13W which tells me that it will work best with nicotine salts. I used a 50/50 VG/PG, 35mg nic salt with this coil. It’s a MTL coil that worked well for a bit, but it burned out on me after only 1 refill and started to taste off. It was good at 11W while it lasted and provided a tight MTL draw with the airflow halfway open. I chalked the premature burning out due to this being a bad coil but it’s a shame that I didn’t get to use this coil for longer.

The 0.90 ohm coil is rated for 9-16W and it’s also a MTL coil for use with salt nics. I set the airflow to 2 columns open and got a nice medium MTL draw. This coil works very well at 13w and gives me flavor that I would call good, but not amazing. It’s definitely not as good as the 1.2Ω coil. I got 4 refills out of this coil before I switched to the next coil and it was still going strong.

As for the DL coils, the 0.60Ω coil is rated for 18-26W.  This coil is versatile because it can be used for either MTL vaping or DL vaping, and for regular nicotine ejuices or nicotine salts. I started off using a 9mg regular nicotine ejuice with the airflow wide open for a restricted DL draw. I ran this coil at 25W, closer to the top end of the recommended wattage, and I really enjoyed the warmth of the draw. 

After a few refills I switched to a nicotine salt ejuice. A 35mg nic salt vapes really well with the airflow restricted and the wattage turned down slightly to 21W. I was able to get a mouth to lung draw with warm and good flavor from this coil which makes it a really useful coil. MTL or DL, regular nicotine or nic salts, this coil does it all and does it well too.

The next DL coil is the 0.3Ω coil that is rated for 30-45W. I preferred vaping this coil at 40W with my regular nicotine ejuice and I found it to be really good in terms of flavor. Again, I used this coil for 4 refills before swapping to the next coil and it was still doing very well at this point. I may even go back to this coil after finishing this review.

Last and probably least is the 0.15Ω coil rated for 35-60W. I found the sweet spot for this coil to be 50W and continued using this coil with my regular nicotine ejuice. The flavor is pretty poor from this coil and probably the worst one out of the 5 coils that I tested. I was happy when I got through 4 refills so that I could finally stop using it.

None of the coils leaked on me at all, neither did the RDTA pod. This is as it should be because leaking coils can really bring down the score of a product for me.

Verdict

Seeing as Vandy Vape is clearly trying to knock the Aegis Boost off its pedestal, did the Jackaroo Pod succeed? I think that they’re even. The Jackaroo Pod is a very solid pod vape that gives plenty of options for coils and airflow, while still remaining a device that is easy to use for beginners. I like the design and it’s also IP67 water, dust, and shock resistant which is a bonus.

You can vape MTL, DL, and even build your own coils if you purchase the RDTA pod. Overall it’s a very solid vape that leaves me with few complaints aside from the coil that burned out on me prematurely. I would say that the short battery life with the low resistance coils is a con, but this is the case with any pod system so I’ll leave that off my list.

The Jackaroo Pod is seemingly a jack of all trades. What do you think? Leave me a comment and we can discuss the Jackaroo Pod together!

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