Rincoe has bucked the trend of making a light resin or plastic based mod, and instead decided to go down the durable, rugged route.

The name ‘Mechman’ will give you some indication as to the solid materials this device is made from, but it might also fool you into thinking this is just a mechanical device when in fact it’s a fully regulated mod.

The ‘Mech’ part of its name comes from the riveted styling adorned across the side panels of the device. One of the side panels acts as a magnetic battery door, and the other has a styled pattern layer beneath it. The panels are swappable (and can be purchased separately), currently, there are three frame designs with two color options with the following layer designs; Black, Wolf, the American Flag, Camo and the Union Flag.

We have the stainless steel and American flag design, which is actually quite striking, especially for those with a patriotic streak about them.

The Mechaman mod is made primarily of metal, which gives some real weight to it, but it’s that added heft that fills you with confidence that this thing could survive the most severe of drops.

It’s also surprisingly comfortable in the hand, I first thought it was just going to feel like a solid rigid lump. However, the rectangular shape still posses rounded edges, and it’s a decent size for a dual battery device, I’d say it’s a similar size to the Geekvape Nova mod.

The Mechman features a centered 510 pin, which is always a plus in my book and is capable of housing atomizers up to 28mm with no overhang.

There are three buttons on the device; a curved rocker style firing button, and two smaller adjustment buttons beneath the screen. All of the buttons are responsive with the perfect amount of pressure required to activate them.

The screen is relatively large, but only black & white. There’s no way to adjust the actual brightness, but even outdoors I found that it was easily bright enough to see clearly.

As I mentioned in the design section above the build quality of the Mechman Kit is very impressive.

The materials used to make it feel incredibly rugged and robust, the magnets and fit of the battery door are perfect with very little play.

All of the buttons are decent quality and have a nice clickiness to them.

The Mechman 228W uses Rincoe’s in-house chipset for regulation and is capable of outputting 228W in power mode – as you may have guessed by the name.

It also comes with a bunch of safety features from overheating protection, short-circuit/overload protection, low voltage protection, reverse battery protection, as well as a 10 second cut off.

The board features several different firing modes with Power, Temp Control, TCR and Bypass modes all available. That will certainly suit most vapers, but those looking for variable voltage, unfortunately, won’t find it here.

The UI will display your battery status, current mode, wattage, resistance, puff time, and output voltage. It’s a pretty unfancy affair that can’t be adjusted, but it definitely covers all the bases.

The Mechman features 2Amp charging (although we still recommend charging batteries externally), and there’s also pass-through so you can vape while charging.

The Mechman is pretty straightforward to use because as there’s no real menu. Simple operation is as follows:

• 5 clicks of the fire button to turn on/off
• 3 clicks to enter mode selection (+/- to select and fire to accept)
• Press +/- to lock the adjustment buttons
• Hold – and fire to change power setting in TC mode
• Hold + and fire to adjust watts in TC mode

It’s a basic menu which is easy to operate. Generally, most vapers tend to stick to power mode, so they’ll find it simple to operate. However, it would’ve been nice to see some extra features like power curves, etc.

The Mechman Mesh Sub-ohm tank is an understated affair in its design compared the main mod.

It’s matched the device in color, but could easily be mistaken for any other sub-ohm tank on the market.

The Mechaman Mesh is 28mm in diameter and comes with bubble glass giving it a capacity of 4.5ml. There’s also a spare glass included in the kit, in case you break it. I’m not sure what they will be supplied in the EU (TPD), but I’m guessing it might be a straight 2ml glass.

The tank uses a wide 810 drip tip, and the one that comes supplied is resin, but you can use your own.

There’s a push-to-fill top system that we’ve seen on top of most tanks to hit the market recently. It’s a nice firm one, which won’t become insecure in your pocket, but there’s no designated locking mechanism.

The adjustable airflow on the Mechman comes from two wide slots on the base. The control ring also has a very firm turn to it (which I’m sure will loosen over time), there’s a stopper at either end. It’s solely a direct-to-lung draw, and in all honesty, I didn’t find too much difference when adjusting the draw.

Included with the Mechman Sub-ohm tank are two different coil options:

• A 0.25-ohm single-mesh coil rated for 40-50 watts
• A 0.3-ohm double-mesh coil rated for 50-80 watts

Both provide good flavor and vapor, as you’d expect from mesh coils, but I’ll cover them in a bit more depth in the performance section.

While testing the Rincoe Mechman mod I used the included kit, but also through a few of my trusty RDAs on top to further check the power output and TC modes.

When it comes to power, the Mechman does an excellent job, it feels like it puts out the power you set. I’m not sure if it will achieve the full 228W, because I only pushed it up to 150W (i get nosebleeds I’ve I go any further!)

However, switching over to temp control and the performance becomes a bit lackluster. It feels way off of delivering the temperature you set. I had to bump it up to about 500°F to get anywhere near the 420°F that I usually vape on my DNA devices. Even then it’s a bit of a choppy experience.

The mod definitely seems to be reading resistances correctly, as I tested against over devices, so there’s no issue there. I’d say if you are a TC vaper then best stick to trusted TC chipsets on the market.

Moving on to another positive with the device, it seems to very efficient on the batteries. The Rincoe chipset does a good job at not over draining the cells, and I was hitting nearly two days of use vaping at high wattages, which I’m more than happy with.

The best I can say for the Mechman sub-ohm tank is that it’s ok.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the tank itself, but it is let down somewhat by the coils. In comparison to standard coils on the market, yes they produce good flavor and vapor. However, compared to other mesh coils and they are not even in the same league.

I ran it up against my Freemax Mesh Pro, and the Mechman’s flavor feels drastically muted in comparison, even at high wattages. Of the two coils, the 0.20-ohm dual mesh coil is definitely the better one, but I’ve got a feeling most will still find it under par for a mesh sub-ohm.

It’s a shame that Rincoe didn’t make it compatible with other mesh coils on the market because everything else about the tank and device is perfect. Let’s hope they bring out some improved coils latter down the line.

Overall if you are looking for a robust and unique looking dual 18650 device, the Mechman is an excellent choice.

It has a nice form factor, excellent build quality, is customizable, and performs extremely well in power mode.

However the caveats are that it only performs well in power mode, anybody looking to use it for temp control will be remarkably disappointed, and the included coils for the Mesh sub-ohm tank really aren’t up to scratch.

I’d advise going for the mod alone, and sticking another tank on top – unless the full kit is at an excellent price.