ElectraStim KIX Introductory Electro Sex Stimulator Review
: | 28 |
: | Advanced |
: | Male |
: | Bi |
: | Mr. Hankey’s Toys BFG — Test & Review |
- Want to try out E-stim play but don't know where to start.
- Like trave sized toys that don't take up much space.
- Are already familiar with E-stim toys and want to up your arsenal.
- You're color blind.
- You want a lot of bang for your buck.
The Kix by ElectraStim is a small travel friendly e-stim power unit intended for beginner use. It comes with a USB charging cable, one bi-polar lead cable, and two sticky pads.
It’s OK.
I never go into reviewing a new sex toy actively hating it. In fact I go into it wishing and hoping it’ll be the next best thing since sliced bread when it comes to kinky debauchery, because that means I get to experience it. Now I know there’s not way that every single toy I review could possibly be next end all be all for sex toys. There are plenty of great toys, good toys, god awful toys, and the worst, just ok toys. And that’s what the Kix is, an ok toy. Neither good nor terrible, simply ok in its mediocrity. Let me explain.Out of the box.
At first sight I really liked to look of the Kix, it was simple and seemed streamlined in all the right place, but then I took a closer look. The Kix has three buttons, the power button that also acts as the mode button, and the power increase and decrease button. In the center there is a white circle the color changing LEDs in it. There are two cable ports, the charging port on the bottom and the port for the lead cable on the top. This was my first of many small letdowns. See, I’m a greedy slut. The more sensation the better, so when I saw that the Kix would only allow me to shock one part of me at a time, I was a bit crestfallen. When it comes to the sensations that the Kix can produce, it’s…fine. The sensation from the Kix and the included pads in fine, it feels exactly like it should, and that’s not bad. The bad part was the controls.Trying to reinvent the wheel.
As I mentioned before, the Kix has all of three buttons. The power/mode button and the increase and decrease button, those are simple and straight forward, the problem is the color changing LED in the center. Most electro sex toys that have a changing intensity give you some sort of easy to understand indicator and way to change the electrical intensity. Some use an analog knob, some use an LED screen that has either a numerical or graphical readout of the intensity. The Kix uses one color changing LED in that white circle to indicate intensity. On the product page ElectraStim explains: “KIX starts with cooler tones to represent lower intensities and ends in warmer, richer colours at the maximum output. Because of this colour spectrum, not only does KIX look striking, but the lack of numbers encourages you to experiment by feel.” The obvious issue with this is that you’re screwed if you’re color blind. The other issue is that the Kix doesn’t just go blue to red or something straightforward like that, no the Kix uses the whole color spectrum, except out of order. Why bother sticking to the ROYGBIV that everyone and their children know, when we can be cool and mix all the colors up. I take the most umbrage with this because looking striking and experimenting by feel isn’t safe. While using it on myself I had no clue what the different colors meant as far as intensity goes, even after looking up the color chart in the instructions because there isn’t an exact change in the color. The other issue with the control buttons is that there isn’t an immediate feedback when you press a button. The instructions for the Kix state that it takes 40 seconds to go from its lowest setting to its highest by holding down the increase button, and that, “Reducing intensity is much faster for your comfort.” Basically its very slow to increase and fast to decrease, which makes it easy to over or under shoot the level of intensity you actually want.Now what?
I wish the Kix didn’t work at all, that would make it much easier to rate than it working but doing so it such a poor manner. Because of all of this the Kix falls into a weird gray area where it does work and the sensations it gives is where it should be, but it’s just not worth it when the controls are so bad. Becasue of this the Kix will probably reside in the back of my toy drawer until I find someone to give it to.The ElectraStim Kix might not work for me personally, but that doesn't mean I don't love the look of it. It's nice, sleek and compact. It's tiny form factor being its biggest draw when it comes to the overall design, while the implementation of having a power unit that fits in your pocket didn't work, the idea and overall design is cool.
It's so simple yet so complicated. The Kix in theory is a very simple toy to use. Just slap on the sticky pads, connect them to the power unit, and turn up the intensity. Sadly the Kix manages to make that difficult by including an esoteric color coded intensity gauge, and a two button control interface that has such poor physical feedback it feels like using an cheap touch screen circa 2010. There's just no great way to tell if you're giving too much or too little pressure. Add that to a delayed response to said button pushing and your get all the right ingredients for a toy that is hard to use.
From the outside, the Kix doesn't look cheaply made. In fact it almost look like it's worth the $85 price. When it comes to actually using the Kix, that feeling of quality changes, and it becomes very hard to really tell if the Kix is a quality product or not. Since the Kix looks good, and does function as it's meant to, albeit with poor controls, I'm giving the Kix a 60/100 for quality.
Not worth the price. Lets compare. Lovehoney sells the Kix for $85, and Electrastim and Mr. S Leather both sell it for $95. Thats a minimum of $85 for a single channel (one cable connecting two sticky pads) TENS that doesn't really work that well. In comparison I can go on Amazon and find a four channel (four cables, eight sticky pads) TENS unit for roughly half the price. So why would I spend double the money just because the toy in question is loosely related to sex? That is why when it comes to the Kix, you're paying a lot for a little.
When it came to sending an electric current into my muscles through the use of two conductive sticky pads, the Kix worked. It did exactly what it should have done. It just wasn't good at everything else. Not to mention that it takes three hours to fully charge the Kix and yet you only get up to three hours of use depending on your usage. To be fair though, ElectraStim is very up front about how long it last and how long it has to charge, which makes me wonder why the obviously sacrificed battery life for a smaller size.
The packaging was nothing to really write home about. The box gave an enlarged look of what the Kix looked like, and it went over must of the instructions on the side of the box as well as what was included.
None of the websites that sell the Kix list what it's actually made of. This isn't a big issue since it's not meant for internal use, but it's most likely made of ABS plastic. The Kix should not be washed for any reason, and it does come with a storage bag.
Electro-Stim Modes | 5 |
Battery Life | Up to 180 minutes |
Rechargeable | usb charging |
Charging Time | 180 minutes |
Waterproof | no |
Storage Bag Included | yes |
Weight | 35 lbs |
- Simple
- Easy to use
- Travel friendly
- Very basic
- Can't use if color blind
- Expensive
In the words of every parent around the world; I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. The Kix by ElectraStim seems like a great thing. Who wouldn't want a full powered TENS unit that fits in the palm of your hand? Sadly, aside from its small form factor the Kix power unit doesn't have much to offer compared to other model of similar size and price point. To make matters worse the Kix trips itself up with overly simplified controls that become a bit esoteric, and a sloppy transition in intensity that makes using it feel odd.