Today I received my first authentic RDA, the CLT by Infinite, which I got from 101Vape.com. They were actually listing it as out of stock, but I messaged them asking if they were going to get any more, and they said they actually had one left in back stock and would be happy to ship it right out to me. It's not exactly my first piece of authentic gear - technically my Vision Spinners and Protanks were 'authentic', but all my mechanical mods and RBA's since have been clones, because that's all I can afford. I was only able to afford the CLT because it was on sale for 21 bucks; it usually goes for around $35. I really wanted to get the Version 1 before it disappeared, since the V2 just came out. So when the package arrived today, I was pretty excited.
The box and presentation was very nice, and the atty itself looked sparkling clean. I scrubbed it with Everclear and a toothbrush anyway, 'cuz that's what you're supposed to do with a new RDA. After the rinsing and drying, I began my first build. I use 28g A-1 Kanthal exclusively, in my Kayfun as well as my drippers.
Now, at this point I should say that yes, I did my research. I watched more than a couple video reviews of the CLT, and determined that it was probably the best RDA I could afford, and it looked perfectly suitable for my style of builds (usually dual microcoils, 7 wraps each on a 1/16th drill bit). Also, I really liked that the airflow adjustment was made by twisting the knurled top cap, which allowed you to hold the barrel and keep the whole thing stable. After using the Jam clone, this seemed like the perfect design. With the Jam, which has a top cap that screws down to hold an airflow control sleeve in place, I found that if I had even a little bit of juice on my fingers, the whole thing would get ugly and slippery and I'd need to pull it all apart and clean it (and wash my hands) before starting over and getting it to work. Which was pretty much every time I used it. So the CLT seemed to hold the promise of a new dawn of dripping.
On my very first build, however, things did not quite go as easily as I had hoped. First of all, the barrel of the CLT is held on by two O-rings which were a ridiculously tight fit. I couldn't seem to get the barrel all the way down onto the deck, no matter how hard I tried. So I decided to just put in the coils and deal with that later. Then I wrapped a couple of my standard coils and started to install them, which is when I discovered another problem, which was the post holes. They are in the style of the Helios RDA - that is, two holes in a block for the positive, and one hole each for the negatives. The positive post block is kinda wide, and the negative posts are milled into the sides of the build deck, and when I put my coils in there they seemed utterly tiny. Also, if you number the post holes 1 through 4 from left to right, I assumed I would be putting one coil into holes 1 and 3, and the same on the other side. But my coils were way too short for that, so I decided to try them out in holes number 1 and 2. The problem with that is the coil then sits so far to the left of the deck that is would easily touch the barrel and cause a short. So I decided to try something different and wrapped two new microcoils, with 8 wraps this time.
Then I took a page from Big Lou over at Big Lou's East Coast Review and bent one of my leads into an L shape so I could center the coil in the middle of the deck. I hope that makes sense, and if it doesn't you can go check out Big Lou's builds and you'll see what I mean. It's just an extra step and while not exactly easy, it wasn't hard and I can tell that it will quickly just become the default way I install coils on this RDA. If I hadn't seen Big Lou do it, I might not ever have figured it out and been sorely disappointed with the CLT. But yeah, using Big Lou's bent lead idea works great.
After I got the coils and wicks on there and got 'em all juiced up, I touched my finger to the wet wick and quickly ran a little juice around the deathgrip O-rings and, ta-daa! The barrel slid on easily (I learned that trick from Grimm Green). The airflow worked great as advertised, so I was finally ready to vape.
And a darn good vape it was, too. It's a sturdy RDA, well built and while it's obviousy made for thicker gauge wire than I was using, it worked just fine. And it looks very nice on my M16 because it's got the same finish as the M16's stainless end caps (what I call 'slightly brushed stainless').
The drip tip is a little odd, though. It's tapered inside like you're supposed to drip directly into the tip, but that doesn't work because the bore diameter at the bottom is too small to get a heavy VG juice through. Also, the tip has fins on it to match the Tobh-style heat sink fins on the top cap. It looks nice and gets the best flavor of any tip I've had on it, but that last little fin at the base of the tip is sharp. It could easily cut you if you're not careful. Not a smart design. Also, the drip tip is short and narrow, and looks as out of place as a Tyrannosaur's arm. But the main reason I got this RDA is that most of the reviewers I checked out agreed that the CLT delivered terrific flavor, which it definitely does. Also, clouds. You can crank open those airholes and get giant lung hits and, miraculously, the flavor is still pretty amazing.
All in all, I'm happy with the CLT. It will take a little getting used to, but overall it's a win.
The box and presentation was very nice, and the atty itself looked sparkling clean. I scrubbed it with Everclear and a toothbrush anyway, 'cuz that's what you're supposed to do with a new RDA. After the rinsing and drying, I began my first build. I use 28g A-1 Kanthal exclusively, in my Kayfun as well as my drippers.
Now, at this point I should say that yes, I did my research. I watched more than a couple video reviews of the CLT, and determined that it was probably the best RDA I could afford, and it looked perfectly suitable for my style of builds (usually dual microcoils, 7 wraps each on a 1/16th drill bit). Also, I really liked that the airflow adjustment was made by twisting the knurled top cap, which allowed you to hold the barrel and keep the whole thing stable. After using the Jam clone, this seemed like the perfect design. With the Jam, which has a top cap that screws down to hold an airflow control sleeve in place, I found that if I had even a little bit of juice on my fingers, the whole thing would get ugly and slippery and I'd need to pull it all apart and clean it (and wash my hands) before starting over and getting it to work. Which was pretty much every time I used it. So the CLT seemed to hold the promise of a new dawn of dripping.
On my very first build, however, things did not quite go as easily as I had hoped. First of all, the barrel of the CLT is held on by two O-rings which were a ridiculously tight fit. I couldn't seem to get the barrel all the way down onto the deck, no matter how hard I tried. So I decided to just put in the coils and deal with that later. Then I wrapped a couple of my standard coils and started to install them, which is when I discovered another problem, which was the post holes. They are in the style of the Helios RDA - that is, two holes in a block for the positive, and one hole each for the negatives. The positive post block is kinda wide, and the negative posts are milled into the sides of the build deck, and when I put my coils in there they seemed utterly tiny. Also, if you number the post holes 1 through 4 from left to right, I assumed I would be putting one coil into holes 1 and 3, and the same on the other side. But my coils were way too short for that, so I decided to try them out in holes number 1 and 2. The problem with that is the coil then sits so far to the left of the deck that is would easily touch the barrel and cause a short. So I decided to try something different and wrapped two new microcoils, with 8 wraps this time.
Then I took a page from Big Lou over at Big Lou's East Coast Review and bent one of my leads into an L shape so I could center the coil in the middle of the deck. I hope that makes sense, and if it doesn't you can go check out Big Lou's builds and you'll see what I mean. It's just an extra step and while not exactly easy, it wasn't hard and I can tell that it will quickly just become the default way I install coils on this RDA. If I hadn't seen Big Lou do it, I might not ever have figured it out and been sorely disappointed with the CLT. But yeah, using Big Lou's bent lead idea works great.
After I got the coils and wicks on there and got 'em all juiced up, I touched my finger to the wet wick and quickly ran a little juice around the deathgrip O-rings and, ta-daa! The barrel slid on easily (I learned that trick from Grimm Green). The airflow worked great as advertised, so I was finally ready to vape.
And a darn good vape it was, too. It's a sturdy RDA, well built and while it's obviousy made for thicker gauge wire than I was using, it worked just fine. And it looks very nice on my M16 because it's got the same finish as the M16's stainless end caps (what I call 'slightly brushed stainless').
The drip tip is a little odd, though. It's tapered inside like you're supposed to drip directly into the tip, but that doesn't work because the bore diameter at the bottom is too small to get a heavy VG juice through. Also, the tip has fins on it to match the Tobh-style heat sink fins on the top cap. It looks nice and gets the best flavor of any tip I've had on it, but that last little fin at the base of the tip is sharp. It could easily cut you if you're not careful. Not a smart design. Also, the drip tip is short and narrow, and looks as out of place as a Tyrannosaur's arm. But the main reason I got this RDA is that most of the reviewers I checked out agreed that the CLT delivered terrific flavor, which it definitely does. Also, clouds. You can crank open those airholes and get giant lung hits and, miraculously, the flavor is still pretty amazing.
All in all, I'm happy with the CLT. It will take a little getting used to, but overall it's a win.
