AIO Mod Guide | Boro Tanks, Bridges and Who It Suits

Online vape shops often give the AIO mod a corner of its own, sometimes labelled the boro corner, packed with brand names you rarely see anywhere else. The acronym looks simple enough. In practice it covers two families of devices that have almost nothing in common, apart from a single body that holds everything. Before buying a tank, a bridge or a drip tip, it pays to know which one you are dealing with. Here are the questions worth asking.

What is an AIO mod, exactly?

An AIO mod is a box-style vape whose atomiser sits inside the body of the device instead of screwing on top. AIO stands for All In One. Battery, chipset and tank form one compact object, and only the drip tip sticks out.

Today the term is mostly associated with boro devices, where a removable tank slides into a cavity in the body. Earlier on, it was also used for box mods with a built-in tank sold by the big manufacturers.

What does AIO mean, and why is the term confusing?

The same acronym has been used by very different makers at different times. The result is product listings that say AIO for devices that share neither parts nor buyers.

The AIO with a built-in tank

At Joyetech, the AIO first took the shape of a pen, the eGo AIO, covered in our guide to the vape pen. In 2016 the brand carried the idea over to a box with the eVic AIO, adjustable from 1 to 75W, with a 0.96-inch OLED screen and a tank built into the body. This kind of AIO runs on its maker’s own pre-made coils.

The boro AIO

The other family grew out of the modding scene. The body takes a removable tank, the boro, which holds a coil platform known as a bridge. This is the family the shops ranking for an AIO mod search put forward, and it is the one the rest of this article covers.

What is a boro, and where does the name come from?

The boro is the removable tank section supplied with the Billet Box, the device made by Billet Box Vapor, a brand that has been around since the early 2010s. The name comes from borosilicate glass. In a 2014 post quoted by the enthusiast site Billet Box Info, the maker explains that it gave the tank a borosilicate glass face, which slides down for filling, because no clear plastic was tough enough. The earliest tanks had a Delrin face, an engineering plastic.

The format caught on, and several brands now sell replacement boros in Delrin, polycarbonate or aluminium.

Does a boro AIO mod have to be rebuildable?

No. It all depends on the bridge, the part inside the boro that holds the coil.

The rebuildable bridge

The classic bridge is a deck you build yourself, with resistance wire and cotton. It is the enthusiast set-up, where you choose your build and your airflow. It calls for a working grasp of Ohm’s law and of the resistance your build ends up at.

Adapters for ready-made coils

Since 31 December 2020, Billet Box Vapor has shipped the Billet Box with the Nord adapter, which takes off-the-shelf Nord coils, in 0.6 and 0.8 ohm mesh or 1.4 ohm regular versions. It replaced the OCC adapter designed for Kanger coils. The same maker also offers the A-Tank, a boro of the same size with a wider bottom opening that accepts Aspire Atlantis coils.

An AIO mod can therefore run on ready-made coils, provided you pick the right adapter.

Are all boro tanks compatible with each other?

Not all of them. Several standards exist side by side, and one specialist retailer sorts its accessories into Boro, dotAIO, P-Tank and Orion formats. A Billet Box-style boro will not fit a device designed around another tank.

Even between devices that use the Boro format, compatibility has to be checked part by part. Airflow position, cavity depth and contact pin all vary with each maker’s tolerances. A third-party tank sold as compatible with most devices implies there are some where it is not. Dotmod’s dotAIO follows its own logic, with a silicone-plugged tank and a rebuildable deck sold as an option for its standard and SE versions.

AIO mod, pod or standard box mod, how do you tell them apart?

The three formats can look alike on a shop shelf. The difference lies in where the atomiser sits and where the power comes from.

Criterion	Pod	Standard box mod	Boro AIO mod
Atomiser	Built-in cartridge	510 screw-on tank	Boro slid into the body
Power	Built-in battery	Removable cell or built-in battery	Removable cell, 18650 on the models mentioned
Coil	Cartridge or proprietary coil	Depends on the tank	Rebuildable bridge or adapter
Settings	Few or none	Full	Full on the models mentioned
Size	Very compact	Varies	Compact, tank sheltered

Because the tank sits inside, the body shelters it, and the whole thing slips into a pocket more easily than a box mod topped with its tank.

Who is an AIO mod really for?

The Cthulhu AIO Box review published by Vaping Post describes this segment as an elitist market. A boro AIO mod mainly appeals to three kinds of vaper.

There is the rebuilder, who wants a compact object to build coils in. Then comes the collector of small-workshop mods and bridges from independent modders, a world where limited runs circulate. Last is the vaper who wants a compact device with a removable cell and picks a ready-made coil adapter to skip the building.

For a first device, a pod remains simpler. An AIO mod assumes you understand your battery, check the compatibility of every part and, in rebuildable form, measure the resistance of your coil.

What do UK rules say about the tank on an AIO mod?

A boro tank can list a larger capacity than the tanks sold in UK shops. The review mentioned above refers to a 6ml tank. Under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, however, tanks for nicotine e-liquid are capped at 2ml in the UK. When a maker offers a 2ml version, often called the TPD version, that is the one to look for.

The same rules cap nicotine strength at 20mg/ml and limit nicotine refill bottles to 10ml.

FAQ

Five more practical questions that tend to come up when choosing or kitting out an AIO mod.

Which battery does an AIO mod use?

The one its spec sheet calls for, an 18650 cell on the Cthulhu AIO Box for example. Choosing a cell rated for the current your coil draws matters as much as its capacity, a point covered in our guide to the 21700 battery, which applies to other sizes too.

Do AIO mods come with coils?

Not always. The Cthulhu AIO Box review lists the lack of any coil in the box among its drawbacks. You then need wire and cotton for a rebuildable bridge, or the coils that match your chosen adapter.

Can you charge an AIO mod without a charger?

Some AIO mods can be charged through a USB-C cable, the Cthulhu AIO Box among them. An external charger is still the better option to look after the cell and keep an eye on its charge, as our article on the vape battery charger explains.

Which power modes does an AIO mod offer?

AIO mods with a regulated chipset carry over the modes of a standard box mod. As early as 2016, Joyetech’s eVic AIO offered variable wattage from 1 to 75W and temperature control for nickel, titanium and stainless steel. The exact modes are then listed on each model’s spec sheet.

Will a standard drip tip fit an AIO mod?

Not necessarily. Specialist retailers list drip tips in Billet Box, Boro or dotAIO formats, separate from the 510 drip tips used on ordinary tanks. Check the format before buying, just as you would for the boro itself.

AIO mod, what to remember before buying

The AIO label covers two families. The older one groups big-brand box mods with a built-in tank, while the one most visible today relies on a boro slid into the body, fitted with a rebuildable bridge or an adapter for ready-made coils.

Before buying, check the tank format, the type of bridge and whether the capacity stays within the 2ml limit. Chosen with care, an AIO mod offers a compact and versatile device, halfway between a standard box mod and a rebuilding bench.

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Editorial content for adult readers only. Vaping products can contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance. Vaping products are not for sale to anyone under 18 in the UK. This article is not a purchase recommendation.