Manta BF atty's

[Spydro]

You hardly ever see anyone smoking a briar pipe anymore.

The changing times probably. Smoking in public with pipes that many folks always frowned on as having more intrusive smoke than cigs might be some of it. And in what has become a fast world taking the time to smoke a tobacco pipe as it should be smoked probably doesn't fit in with the younger generations. I even had to get around that some way back in my younger working lifetime when time to smoke had to fit into the routine. Why I had a collection of little Pipo Nosewarmers, they were perfect for shorter smokes when I was too busy at work to savor my other pipes.

Several times I considered getting into pipe mods. Even had the chance to get a couple that were very high end and hard to get. But what appealed to me even more... the ones modded from the real thing, nice old estate tobacco pipes. In younger times when i still had better eyes, etc I would have liked to do just that, mod some of mine. I preferred bent pipes when I smoked them, and they lend themselves to the mod the best for my use IMO. Never found anyone that would mod a pipe for me though so never took it to the next level. Matters not now, I can't see past my Reos.

 

[Rule62]

It's probably part of why I like my Woodvils so much. They remind me of my briar days.
It's either that, or the fact that I spent so many years as a welder, that I've handled enough metal to last a lifetime.

 

[Spydro]

I've been a fine woods guy all my life and crafted it for over 50 years. So the Woodvil's are above most of my other Reos, especially the 2015 Woodvil's, but that suffered some when I put Origen Little 16 atty's on 3 of my Mini 1.0's starting about 9 days ago. I haven't stopped using all three of them yet, have not even used the four 2015 Woodies much since. The newness will wear off some, but they will be right up with the Woodies from now on.

 

[Rule62]

I've been a fine woods guy all my life and crafted it for over 50 years. So the Woodvil's are above most of my other Reos, especially the 2015 Woodvil's, but that suffered some when I put Origen Little 16 atty's on 3 of my Mini 1.0's starting about 9 days ago. I haven't stopped using all three of them yet, have not even used the four 2015 Woodies much since. The newness will wear off some, but they will be right up with the Woodies from now on.

I didn't go for one of the 16mm Origens. Maybe I should have. Even with 2 Nuppins and 2 Atomics, I rarely use any of my 4 metal Grands, other than on the golf course. Everywhere else, I'm using one of my Woodvils, with either a Manta or a Thump.

 

[Spydro]

I run 4 of my Nuppin's on all four of my 2015 Woodies (that will never come off them), the other 4 on LP Grands. The O-16's can at least match to surpass the Nuppin's in flavor, with equal versatility but with a little easier builds, and they look like they belong on the 3 Mini 1.0's where the larger Nuppin's would not. All I have at present to put the 2 Manta's on when they come is 1 other LP Grand unless I give up a Nuppin' on another, or if I finally build 1-2 of the 4 Peko kits I have. If the Manta flies for me and can surpass a Nuppin' they will probably take the Atomic and a Nuppin' out of service to run the Manta's on LP Grands. If not they'll not get used at all. All 4 of my Mini 2.1's and 3 older Woodies run the Chalice II and III's now, the OG VVG a RM2, the OG Mini a Hornet, another older Woodie one of my a 2013 Cyclones.

 

[Spydro]

[QUOTE}(Spydro)...I can't see past my Reos.[/QUOTE]

Have to eat my words quoted above.

I just can't convince myself to put the Manta's that'll be here in a couple of days (or any 22mm atty's) on any of my metal Reos full time, give up any of the Nuppin's/Atomic on them just yet. But I do want to give them a fair try since I bought them to see if I can get over my bf 22mm atty hate thing. So they'll be going on a couple of CAM-MS's when they get here sometime next week instead.

 

[Spydro]

To update: I've had the Manta Hybrids back for about 4-5 days now. In my experience so far the Manta can't compete with the smaller atty's for flavor, not even close. Better flavor than any of the other 22mm's atty's I've bought though. The AFC actually works well and the Manta doesn't leak. Would I buy them again? No.

I was talked into cancelling the CAM-MS's before they shipped, it was an easy decision. I'm having a couple of custom dual parallel batt BF mods made from my exhibition grade woods instead.

 

[Rule62]

To update: I've had the Manta Hybrids back for about 4-5 days now. In my experience so far the Manta can't compete with the smaller atty's for flavor, not even close. Better flavor than any of the other 22mm's atty's I've bought though. The AFC actually works well and the Manta doesn't leak. Would I buy them again? No.

I was talked into cancelling the CAM-MS's before they shipped, it was an easy decision. I'm having a couple of custom dual parallel batt BF mods made from my exhibition grade woods instead.

Good to hear your honest evaluation of the Manta. Sorry to hear about the problems you had, before getting to try them. Your passion for the smaller attys, like the Nuppin, is about like mine for the Manta. It's good to have benchmarks, by which we evaluate whatever else we buy, and what may or may not suit us.
I have several Mantas, but I doubt I'd buy another, at this point, due to the debacle with the most recent run of the CM hybrids. Nor am I likely to buy anything else from JD Tech, in the future. I have had some suspicions about the company, which I'll keep to myself,and the most recent fiasco confirms them.

 

[Papa_Lazarou]

My experience with the manta is that it's got pros and cons (what doesn't?).

On the plus side, it's got decent flavour (IME) - better than pretty much all 22mm atties (with a few exceptions), but not in the league of a good 14mm topper - has nearly bulletproof afc (it works and with no leaking), and I dig the design.

On the minus side, it requires some futzing to get the build right (some folks even have to measure the coil height, plus avoiding shorting on the cap is unintuitive looking at the base) and quality can be suspect (witness Spydro's woes - that's on the manufacturer, JD Tech).

It is, on the whole (and IMHO), a decent middle weight atty that allows for some aggressive air with more flavour than a lot of atties that easily fit dual coils. If leak avoidance isn't high on your priority list, I'd say the Nuppin' or the Origen Little 16 punch harder in this weight class.

 

[Spydro]

Good to hear your honest evaluation of the Manta...

My experience with the manta is that it's got pros and cons (what doesn't?)...

The debacle started with the MFG, but they are not alone in contributing to it. I'm still not satisfied with the 2 I have and so far they were not worth the cost of admission. Can say the same for all the other 22mm BF atty's I have as well. I'll play a little longer. Maybe try wire with a faster ramp up since i haven't tried that in a Manta yet. My lowest Manta build so far was 3.5 ohm, I'm not interested in going any lower. I run VG Heavy to 100% VG joose and that's not going to change either. If the Manta's can't live with that then they are not for me, can go in The Box never to see the light of day again.

It's a given that in general I don't like 22mm BF atty's. I have never liked larger size atty's anymore than I like long DT's. By default I know that makes the row they have to hoe to win me over harder. While some were close I never had a 22 in the dripper days that could produce the flavor I always look for, and none since the GP PAPS & Heron days that could either. Yes I could run Heron's on the Reos, I have a couple of the 510 Heron adapters for my 4 Herons. But they are also a very big and bulky atty that would have to rely on the hybrid fluff reservoir alone instead of squonking. They'd last as long between fill/batt changes, but what's the point? If I still wanted to use them I'd run them on the 11 GP PAPS 2.1, V3's, X's, TiX that's been in The Box since soon after I bought my first Reo/RM2 15+ months ago. Kind of sad, thousands of dollars in GP PAPS that IMO are as good as tube mechs get and only some of them got used for about 4 months before the Reos put them out of service.

I know how to build atty's right, have been building them for well over 2.5 years successfully, early on including on much smaller toppers that are truly a RPITA to rebuild. The over sized coils are where they have to be to clear the cap, are centered T-B & S-S on the AFC's perfectly but back off the deck edge a little. I could go lower with them, but I can't go higher without them hitting the cap. So someone will say use a smaller coil. Nope. These are my favorite coils now with Scottish rolled wicks that hold so much more joose for my LSDLH's. I run the same size coils/wicks in the tiny little O-16's with no problems, and some of the Nuppin's run them with zero issues as well. I get massive flavor rich vapor out of all of them with these coils, but only so-so from the Manta.

 

[WharfRat1976]

Love the Manta. It wants lower ohms for sure.

 

[MattyRetro]

I have not met a 22mm rba that I have liked yet. I have tried quite a few and it is just too much airflow. I am also a single coil user. Does the Manta have a single coil option? I would probably run it in the 1-1.3 ohm range.

 

[Papa_Lazarou]

Yes, the manta afc allows for a single coil config. Note, as has been mentioned above, it's 22mm only in outer diameter. The chamber is reduced to about 18mm like the RM4 or Nuppin'.

I have vaped it with a single coil at about the resistance you referenced and it works fine, although I get better performance in that config from 14mm atties (if they have decent air).

 

[Spydro]

You can certainly run a single coil in a Manta, and stop down the AFC far enough with a single smallest intake hole to probably do MTL in them OK. Their forte is probably dual coils though, and that they can deliver as much air as you'd ever want for DLH's. They don't leak as per se (even with under size cap o-rings to make pulling caps much easier), but for a lung hitter they can weap vapor condensation from the air intake ring.

I agree that the Manta's chamber is very close to the same size as an Atomic's (the later is actually a little bigger). But the chamber in a Nuppin' is about 30% smaller than either and more compact.

The proof is in use. As expected from my experience running 2 Manta Hybrids this past10 days or so is that the Manta's do not produce even close to the flavor that the Nuppin's do in spades with the same .4 ohm range builds and the same jooses.

 

[Rule62]

Yes, the manta afc allows for a single coil config. Note, as has been mentioned above, it's 22mm only in outer diameter. The chamber is reduced to about 18mm like the RM4 or Nuppin'.

I have vaped it with a single coil at about the resistance you referenced and it works fine, although I get better performance in that config from 14mm atties (if they have decent air).

It's actually smaller than that. The inside diameter of the cap of the Manta is about the same as that of the Nuppin; about 14.5mm. The Manta chamber itself is deceptively small, for a 22mm atty, because of the air channels.

 

[Spydro]