Winter in Scotland brings in short dismal, wet, cold days, storms one after the other, and unless they have to go to work, folk spend a lot of time in their houses - and of course we long for traditional comfort foods such as rich stews, steak pies, mince ‘n tatties with dough balls, and stovies.
These notions led me, vaping wise, to dig out my old familiar favourites once again - so you all can guess what they are - yes you’ve got it, my collection of original Nautilus Minis topping iStick 30ws, using 1.6 ohm coils and running around 8 watts.
Two of these Nautis I've had since I took up vaping in October 2015 ( they are the ones with the silicon seals permanently discoloured by some evil “tobacco” or synthetic ”fruit” flavoured concoctions, which I tried back then when I didn’t know any better).
Howandever, I’d read a bit about how there was a new version of the old soldiers, called the Nautilus 3 running the old Nautilus coils and took the notion to try one.
So how did it go? Well, rather like the proverbial Curate’s Egg - good in parts.
The, imho, good bits …
It has a more modern styling compared to the original Nautilus Mini.
Lookswise it gives the impression of a well built high quality tank.
It uses the normal Nautilus coils which are readily available.
It is top rather than bottom fill.
You simply drop the coils in rather than screwing them home, so there should be no chance of them jamming.
You can change the coils with the tank full without getting covered in vape liquid, as there is a valve system which really does work.
It comes in a nice box with spare bits and two drip tips.
The not so good bits, again IMHO, …
It is very heavy, and while it will fit on an iStick 30w, it throws the rig out of balance, and I wouldn’t recommend leaving it standing upright anywhere where it might get knocked over.
I cannot work out if the “glass” is actually glass or plastic (I suspect the latter). Either way it is very exposed - it would benefit from some protective metal or latticing, given its tendency to overbalance readily.
If you get, or have to get, the TPD version, I am not convinced it holds anything near the 2 mls; by the fourth draw you are well down the tank. With an old style Nautilus Mini, filling it in the morning I get to mid afternoon before reloading; on the Nautilus 3 I filled it 5 times between waking up and dinner time ( 12 midday in Scotland ).
It’s not at all a Flavour Monster - I found it very bland. Thinking it might be because the coil was new, I took a coil out of one of my old ones, fitted it, tried again and found the flavour weak to non existent - that vaping 16 strength Menthol Chill liquid. On both devices I had the air inlet on the second smallest hole, and was using the same wattage. I got plenty of vape but little taste.
As a final comparison I tried it against a Mark 1 Innokin Zlide, again with a 1.6 ohm coil running at 8 watts and loaded with 16 strength Menthol Chill. To my mind the Zlide won hands down on every front.
Sadly my personal verdict is that the Nautilus 3 is good looking but overweight, over engineered, and that it underperforms as an MTL tank despite using the tried and trusted Nautilus Coils … but it does come in a nice strong box
Picture 1 - the Winner - Innokin Zlide
Picture 2 - the Also Ran - Nautilus 3
