My wee little Derringer clone arrived today. It was part of a nice haul of vapemail, but I saved it for last. I wanted to go through all the other stuff first, then settle down and do a build on it, then sit back and have a vape.
After installing my new M-tank on the Kayfun (translucent black, to match my new Sigelei Mini), and opening up the new juice I got from ITC to let it breathe, I grabbed my 24 gauge Kanthal and did 8 wraps on a 2mm screwdriver. I bought the Derringer clone to replace my Jam RDA clone, which was a dirt cheap but ultimately disappointing and annoying atty. The problem with the Jam, if I may take moment to go off topic, is that the airflow control ring which sits on the outside of the barrel, is too large in diameter. When you screw down the topcap to hold it in place, there is a little gap all the way around between the ring and the barrel. While you're vaping, juice collects under the top cap and condenses, spilling into that gap and making a ridiculous mess. Maybe it's just the clone, maybe it's just the clone I received, I don't know. But it's awful, and I've been swearing at it so long I decided it was time to go.
After wrapping my coil and pulling apart the Derringer, I slid the coil into place and started tightening the post screws. By the way, the Derringer clone I received from vaping Walrus was immaculately clean. Spotless. Not a drop of machine oil on it. This was the first and only time I've taken a dripper out of the box it came in and felt comfortable building on it without giving it a thorough washing. Honestly, I usually do that with any vape gear, but this thing was just sparkling, so I decided to give in to my excitement and slap a coil in there without the usual ritual. No regrets, either. Anyway, as I tightened the screws on my build, I realized that there was a problem. My coil was so wide there wouldn't be enough room to tuck in the wick on the side closest to the edge of the chamber. Man, that is one teensy tiny little build deck.
So I pulled out the coil and took one wrap off, making it 7 wraps. It was still terribly cramped so I began bending the wires to get the coil more towards the center of the deck. It wasn't hard, and while the wicking wasn't quite as easy as in other RDA's, it went fine.
Unlike my previously most-used dripper, the Infinite CLT, the Derringer has a single-coil option for the airflow. As much as I enjoy blowing gigantic, warm and dense clouds with CLT, I am not rich and can't afford to have more than one atty eating up juice that fast. And, great flavor doesn't need two coils.
After finishing up the build, I dripped some Cosmic Fog Church on the wick (see my previous blogs for a review of this juice). I put the newly-built and freshly dripped Derringer on my Astro clone and took a toot. Holy moly, that was amazing. Better have another, that must have been a fluke. Nope, another and then another great hit. Super warm, extremely flavorful, huge dense clouds. Single coil, .5 ohms, and pretty much the same quality of vape as my CLT with two coils built to .3 ohms. That reduced chamber, while being a bit of a pain to build on, makes for one heck of a nice vape.
After being sufficiently wowed by my new toy, I had some lunch, watched a couple of old episodes of 3rd Rock From the Sun on Netflix, and took a nap. While sleeping, I had some weird dream in which I was having an odd confrontation with some obnoxious guy at a vape shop. The funny thing I noticed when I woke up was, throughout the dream, I was vaping on the Derringer. I'd only had the thing for a few hours, but was already dreaming about it. And I want you to understand, I have never dreamt about vaping or vape-related things before. This was a first. Sure, I've had the occasional daydream about Jenee Fowler, but that's different.
Normally, I use a piece of new gear for several days or more before writing a review for this blog. I've jumped the gun before and it's kind of a drag having to go back and make corrections or write a whole new blog recanting my previous enthusiasm for a product. But this thing was so terrific right out of the box that I had to share. I still might find something terribly wrong with it down the line, or discover some cool trick or build that makes it even better (if that's possible), but at this moment I couldn't be happier. If anything comes up, I'll let you know.
After installing my new M-tank on the Kayfun (translucent black, to match my new Sigelei Mini), and opening up the new juice I got from ITC to let it breathe, I grabbed my 24 gauge Kanthal and did 8 wraps on a 2mm screwdriver. I bought the Derringer clone to replace my Jam RDA clone, which was a dirt cheap but ultimately disappointing and annoying atty. The problem with the Jam, if I may take moment to go off topic, is that the airflow control ring which sits on the outside of the barrel, is too large in diameter. When you screw down the topcap to hold it in place, there is a little gap all the way around between the ring and the barrel. While you're vaping, juice collects under the top cap and condenses, spilling into that gap and making a ridiculous mess. Maybe it's just the clone, maybe it's just the clone I received, I don't know. But it's awful, and I've been swearing at it so long I decided it was time to go.
After wrapping my coil and pulling apart the Derringer, I slid the coil into place and started tightening the post screws. By the way, the Derringer clone I received from vaping Walrus was immaculately clean. Spotless. Not a drop of machine oil on it. This was the first and only time I've taken a dripper out of the box it came in and felt comfortable building on it without giving it a thorough washing. Honestly, I usually do that with any vape gear, but this thing was just sparkling, so I decided to give in to my excitement and slap a coil in there without the usual ritual. No regrets, either. Anyway, as I tightened the screws on my build, I realized that there was a problem. My coil was so wide there wouldn't be enough room to tuck in the wick on the side closest to the edge of the chamber. Man, that is one teensy tiny little build deck.
So I pulled out the coil and took one wrap off, making it 7 wraps. It was still terribly cramped so I began bending the wires to get the coil more towards the center of the deck. It wasn't hard, and while the wicking wasn't quite as easy as in other RDA's, it went fine.
Unlike my previously most-used dripper, the Infinite CLT, the Derringer has a single-coil option for the airflow. As much as I enjoy blowing gigantic, warm and dense clouds with CLT, I am not rich and can't afford to have more than one atty eating up juice that fast. And, great flavor doesn't need two coils.
After finishing up the build, I dripped some Cosmic Fog Church on the wick (see my previous blogs for a review of this juice). I put the newly-built and freshly dripped Derringer on my Astro clone and took a toot. Holy moly, that was amazing. Better have another, that must have been a fluke. Nope, another and then another great hit. Super warm, extremely flavorful, huge dense clouds. Single coil, .5 ohms, and pretty much the same quality of vape as my CLT with two coils built to .3 ohms. That reduced chamber, while being a bit of a pain to build on, makes for one heck of a nice vape.
After being sufficiently wowed by my new toy, I had some lunch, watched a couple of old episodes of 3rd Rock From the Sun on Netflix, and took a nap. While sleeping, I had some weird dream in which I was having an odd confrontation with some obnoxious guy at a vape shop. The funny thing I noticed when I woke up was, throughout the dream, I was vaping on the Derringer. I'd only had the thing for a few hours, but was already dreaming about it. And I want you to understand, I have never dreamt about vaping or vape-related things before. This was a first. Sure, I've had the occasional daydream about Jenee Fowler, but that's different.
Normally, I use a piece of new gear for several days or more before writing a review for this blog. I've jumped the gun before and it's kind of a drag having to go back and make corrections or write a whole new blog recanting my previous enthusiasm for a product. But this thing was so terrific right out of the box that I had to share. I still might find something terribly wrong with it down the line, or discover some cool trick or build that makes it even better (if that's possible), but at this moment I couldn't be happier. If anything comes up, I'll let you know.
