The Kind Pen Dream: High Powered Battery, Disappointing Atomizers
Design & Quality
The Kind Pen Dream is one of the larger vape pens on the market. At 18mm in diameter and with the larger 1500mah battery, it has more than 2x the battery capacity of many vape pens. They advertise that it has temp control, but it doesn’t (a huge misleading statement from some vape pen companies). Temp control is when a specific temperature can be specified for the atomizer.
The Dream has the standard 3 different voltage settings, cycling with 3 quick clicks on the touch-activated button. Green is High, Pink is Medium, and Red is Low. Their booklet states that each color is a certain temperature. This is impossible to do with a simple battery like this. At most it’s an estimation with one of the atomizers. The battery cannot have a chip to read temperature in the chamber so it cannot stop when it reaches a certain temperature. Same rule as other vape pens. The longer you press the hotter it gets. This works well but we have to dock a point simply on the misleading statement. They could simply be more truthful, call this a variable voltage battery and promote the high capacity it has at 1500mah.
One of the coolest features off the Kind Pen Dream is its touch-activated power button at the bottom of the battery. While other vapes pens have a button that when firmly pressed activates, the Kind Pen Dream activates by the touch of your finger. It uses the same type of activation as smartphone touchscreens, which means it has to touch skin to activate. This means it won’t activate by touching other objects, only with the contact of skin. So while other vape pens can potentially turn on in your pocket if not locked, the Dream is never in danger of that. That’s a plus.
The placement of the button definitely could have been better though. This is a great feature put in the wrong spot. Makes holding it awkward and may get people looking at it. It also charges easily on the side with a Micro USB port. You don’t have to unscrew the attachment and use a proprietary charger like other brands.
It has a variable airflow system with 4 air vents in a cross system under the atomizer. You can either have all 4 open or seal them completely. Air flow with all 4 open completely is still a bit restrictive. Still much better than most pens, especially the Puffco Pro 2. The top of the attachment is a glass chamber that will get dirty with use. Glass chambers are really cool to see cloud production, but if they don’t have a splash cap, end up looking dirty very quickly.
The Kind Pen Dream comes with two different atomizers. One coil-less ceramic plate and one quartz double coil atomizer. The box reads that it’s meant to include a ceramic donut, so it’s very nice to have a free upgrade. While their coilless atomizer is a great surprise, their double coil is a letdown. The coil used is a standard alloy coil, that for a pen of this price, we’d expect a better coil material.
Also a letdown is their atomizer design. They’re big, but not the way you’d want them to be. Because of the wider battery the atomizers are wider to touch the glass walls. The inside cup is also wider than other vape pens, but is also much shorter than other vape pens. This sounds like a good thing in concept, but the problem is because it’s shorter, you have to put less wax in than deeper atomizers. The wider size of the cup again sounds like a good idea. However, the heaters (the coils or the plate) are not wide. This means just more empty space for wax to get stuck. We feel a lot of wax is wasted with design. You will end up scraping around to get it back.
Ease of Use
The Kind Pen Dream in use sounds easier than it actually is. Remember that really cool touch-activated button? Well, since they placed the button on the bottom of the battery, instead of activating by the naturally placed thumb on the battery, you have to make a weird hand grip mid-way down the battery to use one of your other 4 fingers to activate the battery. It’s not the end of the world. It is like reinventing the wheel with an oval. It works, but worse than the original eCig battery button placement every other vape pen is using. This could have been a great add on if it was where you normally press the battery on an eCig, but instead it is more of a burden.
Another problem is the only feedback that the battery is activated, is the light on the touch button turning on. You can only tell it’s activated by the lighting turning on, unlike other vape pens that you feel when you press the button. If you’re trying to be discreet and block the light, then you have no way of knowing until you inhale vapor.
The last problem with the button is the skin requirement we mentioned earlier. Because it needs the contact with skin for the electrical current to activate you can’t use gloves. If you use your vape pen in the cold in winter and wear gloves. Not that big a problem for Cali users, but Colorado users should think twice before getting the Dream.
If the Kind Pen Dream button was where it’s meant to be, on below the attachment, this would be 10x better. It would then be a cool feature in the right place. Now its a cool feature that in the end is not so cool because its the hassle.
Strength
The Kind Pen Dream is strong using the included dual coil, but even at the highest setting it’s not lung crushingly strong like the Boundless CF 710 was. Other double coil vape pens I have used were also stronger.
Not the strongest, not the weakest.
Efficiency
The wider size of the Kind Pen Dream mentioned earlier really is noticeable here and really hurts efficiency in both the double coil and coil-less atomizers. Some efficiency could be saved by scraping the sides of the atomizer with a dab tool to get that reclaim. This however is a hassle that could have been solved with a abetter atomizer design.
Double Coil
The double coil atomizer has the two coils in the center of the cup. Because the atomizer is shorter and wider this means you have to put a very small amount of concentrate right on the 2 coils. If you place a larger amount the wax will just pool on the large side next to the coils.
Coilless Ceramic
The coilless ceramic heater is smaller than the atomizer cup that heats it. So it has empty space that wax melts off to the side. You ending losing wax to the side. You can scrape and recover some of it, but overall The Kind Pen Dream coilless atomizer is not efficient.
The coilless atty does taste great.
Problem On Both Atomizers
The short atomizer size also means that unless all of the wax vaporizes almost immediately, the melted wax will get sucked up when you inhale and splash on the side of the glass. More wax is wasted.
Versatility / Atomizer Options
The Kind Pen Dream has a double coil and a coil-less option. The used to have a ceramic donut atomizer, but it can’t be purchased separately anymore. Both of the atomizers have multiple issues as mentioned above. They can be wax wasters unless you are very accurate about placing your wax on the coils or directly on the center of the coilless atomizers. This creates an unneeded headache. Most of us like vape pens because it is easier than a rig.
The Kind Pen Dream gets docked here because there really are no “just atomizer” options. You have to buy a whole new attachment every time.
Portability
The Kind Pen Dream is almost 40% larger than other vape pens, so while portable it’s still somewhat portable it’s more noticeable than most other pens. To get technical it fails at “moving portability.” This is because it would be much more difficult to be moving around and hitting the bottom button to get a hit compared to using a regular eCig button. Try doing that on a skateboard or bike. Not that we advocate skating or biking while vaping.
Discretion
The Dream’s portable and quick so sneak in a hit easily, but it’s not really very discreet. It has a see through globe, that is most likely dirty with wax residue, unless its recently cleaned. The touch-sensitive button also lights up green the bottom of the battery every time you activate the vape pen. You also are hitting it in a weird position by touching the bottom that draws attention to you.
The glass is just not that discreet. Even less after it is used.
Taste
The coilless atomizer on the Kind Pen Dream excels at giving you the best taste and flavor out of your concentrates. The low temp atomizer is the best part of the Dream. Even though there is some waste, when it comes to taste the coilless atomizer really delivers.
The double coil atomizer is ok, and more suited for stronger hits.
Value
The Kind Pen Dream at $99.99 puts it along with kits that contain other premium batteries. On the battery end the value delivered is much better in comparison to other brands. The battery has more than twice the capacity as most other vape pen models out there today. It also includes and extra glass globe in case you need to replace it.
It includes two atomizers: one of which is a coil-less ceramic plate that still few vape pens offer and the other a quartz double coil atomizer that utilizes what appears to be an alloy wire. The Kind Pen also offers a very generous Lifetime Warranty, and if anything fails, they send you a free replacement, “no questions asked.”
The best part is they have great discounts, including a 40% off coupon “SAVE40” which is a nice bonus.
Replacements
The only way to purchase replacement atomizers is to purchase a Kind Pen Dream attachment. That’s $39.99, comes with a globe, the attachment itself, as well as both atomizers. But you’re stuck paying that every time one of the atomizers need to be replaced. Getting the atomizers by themselves would be a huge plus. However, use the coupon code and the deal is not horrible.
Conclusion
The Kind Pen Dream misses a lot of points that make up a good vape pen. The high capacity (1500mah) of the battery is definitely a plus, but the battery as a whole isn’t a positive due to the weird way you have to hit it from the bottom. Flavor was Both atomizers waste a lot of wax and are too big for the heating elements inside. You can get the Kind Pen Dream here. The coupon code SAVE40 works for 40% off everything on the site, making it a much better deal if you still want it.