We were stoked about the release of the Wismec Theorem, more fruit from the partnership between Jaybo & Wismec along with the addition of Matt from Suck My Mod. There is a ton of innovation and curation of features and fundamentals that make for a killer atty applied to the Theorem. So, is it all theory or will it work out in the real world?
There is no denying the Theorem looks beautiful as it comes out of the package. Clean lines, lots of glass and stainless steal, industrial flair, and the colourful turquoise o-rings.
It sort of goes south the second it’s filled. For us, it’s too much of a view when in use. It’s like enjoying Guacamole, we love to eat it, but we all get turned off when it starts to turn brown. It’s the same here, coils look great until they start to gunk up or the cotton starts to tarnish/turn brown, then they aren’t so pretty. So having a full view of this process turns us off. Sure it’s great to monitor your coil health, but this can easily be accomplished by popping off your top cap and taking a look. Jaybo and/or Matt thought of this and gave us a metal sleeved tank, which is great, but it causes some issues. First the view ports are great for juice level monitoring but not so much for keeping track of your coil position which you need to know to get the optimal performance. Second, while it’s great that the sleeve fits super flush, it causes some trouble with AFC adjustment, leaving nothing to hold to stop your AFC ring from spinning as your screw down your top cap. We have also experienced an issue with the lower o-rings, if wet, they cause the tank section to spin, making it almost impossible to remove the atty from your mod (we had to take off the top cap and use a screwdriver inserted into the airflow ring to torque it off).
The finned AFC/Top Cap (while very beautiful) doesn’t seem to function all that well. It’s hard to use, it’s great that it’s so compact, but its so annoying. There is nothing to grab onto and you need to screw it down to secure your AFC ring, the issue is compounded by condensation while in use. It gets messy, your juice collects in the fins and makes getting enough torque to tighten your AFC almost impossible. On top of this, these fins are also your grips for pulling off the top cap that includes the back airflow intake that is pretty firmly secure when in place. We have major trouble removing this cap, and also battle with it not flying to the floor when we do get it off. The whole design of this AFC/Top Cap needs to be revisited, it’s as if there was no usability testing, like use it for a bunch of tanks kind of thing. The Theorem loves juice, like a lot! It goes through juice at an alarming rate (2ml/hour, if not more), and with only a 2ml capacity you find yourself dealing with these top cap pains/issues quite a bit which effects the overall vape experience quite a bit.
Flavour, it’s very good. We are fans of restricted lung hits and found adjusting the single AFC ring to the back indirect/pass-through airflow intake gave us the best draw with the most intense flavour. The dual airflow ring turns the Theorem into competition atty like airflow (insane amounts of airflow), even shutting them down to the smallest setting it was still way too much, so top and back airflow isn’t an option for how we like to vape. But set to the back it’s friggin flavourful. Jaybo has nailed the ratios of coil, vaporchamber, and airflow, this atty produces some damn fine, thick voluminous vapor.
Wicking while in theory should be good, seems to fight with gravity. We have found you need to tilt the atty on at least a 45° angle to get the best wicking. It’s not that big of a deal until you get a dry hit. Having to know where your coil/wicks are to perform the proper/optimal tilt adds unnecessary ritual and again makes this vape experience seem over complicated. That said, wicks are easy to set and seem to last quite a while.
The biggest let down is the Notch Coil™. We so wanted these to rock. Even using them in Temp Control they are a let down. They ramp too fast, almost instantly. This type of speed doesn’t seem to suit vaping. We found vaping in regular/power mode at 45-50W gave the best results. They are a little harsh, it’s most likely a symptom of the instant ramp up. They were compared with clapton coils, but are nowhere as flavourful, there is nowhere to trap juice. We experienced a lot of dry hits to be honest, and they just don’t produce the quality of vapor we enjoy. It’s a great concept, it needs more work.
You will get the best vape experience building your own coil. Jaybo gave us a great build deck, works perfectly, it’s easy to align and trap your coil. The build we found worked best, 7 wrap, 24awg, 3mm, spaced coil coming in at 0.6 Ohms and run at 42W (5V). The Theorem can take the power, at 5V it’s a very pleasant warm vape, nothing too hot, just right.
Filling is a pain in the ass, and you do it a lot. You need to somehow get enough of a grip to pull off the top cap and then use a fine tipped dripper, syringe, or a narrow enough unicorn bottle to get down to the fill port. As it’s been pointed out by Matt (Suck My Mod), it very important to create some air channels beside your wicks to help with overall wicking as well as airlock where the juice well is concerned. Even with this method, you will experience some trouble filling the tank, at times you have to be patient and fill a little at a time to allow the trapped air to release. A secondary hole to help air escape would really help. Again this issue wouldn’t be so bad if you weren’t doing this task a lot (crazy juice consumption).
We had high hopes for the Theorem. It seemed to have all the right pieces/features, but in the end it’s a pain to use. It’s awkward, and messy, and gets gruesome to look at. We are starting to doubt this partnership we also had such high hopes for, there have been issues with quite a few products that Wismec have released lately (Reuleaux 510, VapeForward Stout Chipset, etc..), there seems to be something wrong in the development process. Are products being rushed to market? Who knows, but we will have a new hesitation and scepticism until we see something change. We are adding a new review criteria to our reviews, Ease of Use, and we are sorry to report that the Theorem scores very poorly. There is just too many little annoyances that add up to a poor overall vape experience, flavour and vapor quality are only a part of what makes a good experience. It’s some innovative thinking that was either rushed or not tested enough.
Update: The flavour and Vapor quality are just so damn good that we are learning to live with the Theorem’s shortcomings. If you set the AFC when its had a fresh cleaning and lock it down as tight as you can, it will keep its setting. Wicking is a lot better if you work with your own 3mm coil, sure you still need the gene tilt (tilting it towards the wicks on inhale) but it keeps up very well and vapes quite clean. It’s still a pain in the ass to pull the top cap (nothing to really grab a hold of) and you still need to fill it quite often. With this new AFC lockdown method you can also use the Metal Tank which solves the unwanted coil view. Maybe this atty should have been marketed as a dripper, our expectations/opinions would have be different. We changed some of our scoring to reflect this update (going from an overall score of 6 to a 7.1).
Just got the Theorem today after watching a few reviews. Quite frankly, I also like the Wismec products I got so far, so I gave it a shot. But so far I had the exact same experience as you pointed out in your review, and I’m coming from an Aromamizer I’ve used for months, so I guess I’m also a bit spoilt. 6ml of juice, no hassle in refilling (filling once a day max.), good flavour and no tilty action to get the wicking. The filling is the biggest turnoff however. I just don’t want to wait till the juice sinks down into the chamber, and I was simply shocked at how fast this one drains the juice. Disappointed so far. Flavour and vapour is top notch, though. (no pun intended)
I found the juice consumption to be the same if not less than the Aro and Griffin. If you cut your wick too long (tails nearly touch or halfway from the bottom), even if you fill the tank fully, I doubt it would take more than 1.5ml of liquid as the wick has already taken a significant portion of the tank space.
Having to refill often might cause the impression of juice consumption IMO.
Tried GrimmGreen’s fused clapton 2.5mm 6 wraps. Flavour and vapour production are amazing.
I personally prefer the cool vape of this tank over the intense and turbulent vape of the Aro, which may be nice in the first few puffs but can be really fatiguing.
I have no nails but I can pull the top cap off easily.almost to easily.glass tube though can get stuck already cracked first one pulling it off the theorum. Not tried the notch coils so can’t comment.
My build is dual vertical clapton coils 26ga + 32ga kanthal A1 5 wraps around 5mm drill bit shank.resistence come out at 0.51ohm.depending on type of juice as to wattage but anything from 30w upto 80w works for me.I am running the theorum on a joyetech cuboid 150watt with 200w firmware update.
I have to say I have drippers velocity/derringer/tiny cheap unknown rda/tobh mods 26mm/itsuwa 26mm amigo jigantor/ kayfuns 20mm and 26mm/various size taifuns and various other atomisers/and the smok tfv4 atomiser/expromiser/ithaka and smok magoo.I have to say the theorum beats all of these on flavour in my opinion and personal preferences.
Hey Paul,
Happy to hear you dig the Theorem, we agree the flavour is quite good, it’s just a pain to use (and we aren’t much for looking at our build degraded and get dirty over time).