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Driptech DS squonk Silicone?

strigamort

Bronze Contributor
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
I was rebuilding my Defiant Designs mech squonk the other day and realized that both of the bottles it came with are ready for the garbage can. The ones included are the little plastic bottles that, frankly, have always kinda sucked. I noticed that they sell a silicone bottle on the DD website (but oddly not the 528 website) and I believe they are bending you over a bit. Twenty beans for a single bottle is a bit much unless it works well.

Anyone tried one? Is it worth a brick?

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PoppaVic

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
The price turned me off the moment the site loaded. I went inside my DS-style mod and totally removed the silly proprietary crap - and that was after trying to do a semi-hack.

I use regular silicone bottles, with the tube sent up the nose of their 510 fitting to seal. I treat the topcap and bottle as a single unit for installation - I even putty-epoxied the bottle-hole closed. It's 100x faster to fill with a vandyvape type of refill-bottle and getting batteries swapped is at least 2x as easy.
 

strigamort

Bronze Contributor
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
Pics! You, sir, have my attention.

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PoppaVic

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
There really are no pics - just take it apart, pop off everything removable and ditch the bottle.

I reassembled with the clay-like caulk sold for sinks and RV's - all around the 510 end (all layers); polished everyone with autosol to get clean contacts; Put all three layers of the top back together and then forced/fit the silicone tube from my silicone bottle into the remaining opening, (it had a press-fit tube in there for the proprietary). Yes, I did this a few times to get the height right.

Lowered it into the body, banged it down into place. Mixed some epoxy-putty after removing that stupid bottle-screw - jammed it in and forced a peny in on top to make ti expand and fit bitter on wax paper. Trimmed the extrusions a few times and left it sit overnight.

Now, it's my ONLY squonk since the gbox shit and I am waiting for SOMETHING to make it secondary again - it certainly comes to work every day - and about once a week I need to tear it down and make sure all the metal-to-metal connections are right & tight.


The only "investment" is in a roll of that caulk (lasts forever) and a foot or so of spare silicone fuel-line (see yer RC/hobby shop). If you don't have a tube of epoxy-putty, get one; it pays for itself all year round.
 

strigamort

Bronze Contributor
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
Well, I'll admit when I'm wrong. I was wrong. I weighed the option of modifying the system and considered buying 5 more of the OG style bottles then decided to give the silicone bottle a try. It's very much worth the $20. I hope they spend their newfound wealth on advertising. All kidding aside, I do hope that this serves to convince a fellow fan to spend the few bucks should they find themselves on the fence.

Here's the thing. I was irritated that they were asking so much for the bottle. In talking to them I realized that the bottle and the metal collar that the redesigned cap/feeder tube/travel cap threaded into were inseparable. One might question a design where this is the case, but I ain't splittin hairs here. It's a rock solid design and it functions flawlessly. If you aren't a moron there's plenty of real estate to hold onto so unless you're in a hurry (or the aforementioned moron) you need not spill any juice. The bottle itself is that perfect firmness (think Lost Vape Therion) where it's firm enough to suck the juice back into the bottle, but soft enough to easily feel the feeder tube inside the bottle. One of my chief complaints with the plastic bottle was that I couldn't feel the tube in order to know how hard was too hard of a press. Maybe I'm just insensitive. I've been called worse. The top cap thingy is mostly pointless, in my case since I only have one bottle and it's pretty much always gonna be in the mod, but it's all about options and I'm glad I have it. It's high quality too. Heavy.

I guess the problem is that Greg solved a problem that no one realizes needs fixing. Advertising the bottle probably isn't worth it either. In fact, all said, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was losing money. And that is EXACTLY why I recommend these wholeheartedly, and why I'm buying at least one more. It's extremely well crafted and thought out. When was the last time you saw a company substantially improve on an old product? The fact that it's kind of pricey is besides the point (in my reality anyway) and $20 is nothing to support someone who has the balls to release something that you realize immediately is for the betterment of the design, and so obviously not what I worried it might be. A cash grab. I hate those. I'm not an engineer. I'm nothing more than a consumer, but if I were also a betting man (which I am), then my money would be on Greg Stephens being the real deal. I was never a huge fan of the Goon RDA (although I've owned 3), but they were great designs at the time and above average in quality.

If you are a fan of the mod and your bottle has seen better days then I highly suggest considering this option. Hell, if you AREN'T a fan of the mod I suggest picking one of these up. It may just make a believer out of you.
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f1r3b1rd

https://cookingwithlegs.com/
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I hate necroposting; but, I've been watching the driptech site for months and the silicon bottles are always out of stock.
My two stock bottles are done for. Does anyone know of a 3rd party bottle that fits?
 

JuicyLucy

My name is Lucy and I am a squonkaholic
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Here was my solution when they were first released by Custom 528

I have no idea if they have been redesigned since then but.... if it's the same, you can use any silicone bottle that will fit with this method

#18953
 
Last edited:

gsmit1

Platinum Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Here was my solution when they were first released by Custom 528

I have no idea if they have been redesigned since then but.... if it's the same, you can use any silicone bottle that will fit with this method

#18953
That is a positively fabulous idea.
 

Pastorfuzz

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Member For 4 Years
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Crummy crunchy bottles were still pretty common 2 years ago - and the first DTs were no exception - something had to be done, I couldn't stand it
Thanks so much Lucy.
Had a few DS's in my stash because i couldn't stand the bottles.
Just tried this and with a little extra work, works perfect. Can use my DS's again.
Thanks again
 

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