ACHILLES RDA by Titanium Mods

[gmoney$]

Ok some first impressions now that I'm back home and of course immediately started in on the Achilles 2.

- It's shorter. A nice five mil shorter? Me likey. PI, what do your calipers say?
- Shiny. Engraving is visibly nicer than the clone. And the threads are way smoother. It does not say "Achilles II -- just Achilles.
- It was pretty greasy with oil when unwrapped, so I set about cleaning it. Totally disassembled it, finding that the design remains very close to the Achilles "one" (clone) in design, but even simpler. That dead-simple design is a great feature of the Achilles and I'd hoped it wasn't altered. The white insulator plate underneath the deck is gone, replaced with a small round delrin disk and a black o-ring which insulate the positive pin assembly. The o-ring sits in a nice recessed seat machined into the deck's substructure. It's so simple and streamlined I really didn't need to disassemble it entirely to get it clean and there was a little messing around to get the deck re-seated right. So I don't recommend a full disassembly esp if you're eager to get vaping! About every bit and piece has one if not several replacements provided.
- The air flow ring is well designed and doesn't get involved in the refilling process like on the magma, so that's awesome. It rotates easily without spinning free due to the way it interacts with that same o-ring from the original/clone that seats the main tube with the base.
- And now the kinda big part: You can set the air flow ring to obtain a full on open draw if you for some reason want that, and/but can close it entirely, and select any gradient in between including the exact draw we've come to know and love from the FiF clone and ....wait for it ... every single air flow level flows smoothly and much more quietly and less raggedly than the original clone. Really really nice. Yes, he didn't screw up the most important aspect of this atty by designing in more airflow options, which was in my mind the biggest question/concern.

Very happy so far! Everything I didn't mention seems just the same. The top cap is a tiny bit different on both inside and outside but I don't detect anything functionally different nor anything that might affect wicking or that issue I seem to no longer have with the wicks coming out of place.

That's it for initial impressions.

 

[PoliticallyIncorrect]

...It's shorter. A nice five mil shorter? Me likey. PI, what do your calipers say?

A tad over 5, gmoney$, .223" (my calipers are the stone-aged analog dial variety, calibrated to good ol' US customary units), 5.66mm.

Here's mine with MostlySunny's titanium/delrin drip replacing TM's stove pipe:

 

[Bronze]

I'm just wondering how necessary it is, since we have the whole-house filtration system.

Andria

I can't imagine it helping if you have a good house filtration system.

 

[Bronze]

Ok some first impressions now that I'm back home and of course immediately started in on the Achilles 2.

- It's shorter. A nice five mil shorter? Me likey. PI, what do your calipers say?
- Shiny. Engraving is visibly nicer than the clone. And the threads are way smoother. It does not say "Achilles II -- just Achilles.
- It was pretty greasy with oil when unwrapped, so I set about cleaning it. Totally disassembled it, finding that the design remains very close to the Achilles "one" (clone) in design, but even simpler. That dead-simple design is a great feature of the Achilles and I'd hoped it wasn't altered. The white insulator plate underneath the deck is gone, replaced with a small round delrin disk and a black o-ring which insulate the positive pin assembly. The o-ring sits in a nice recessed seat machined into the deck's substructure. It's so simple and streamlined I really didn't need to disassemble it entirely to get it clean and there was a little messing around to get the deck re-seated right. So I don't recommend a full disassembly esp if you're eager to get vaping! About every bit and piece has one if not several replacements provided.
- The air flow ring is well designed and doesn't get involved in the refilling process like on the magma, so that's awesome. It rotates easily without spinning free due to the way it interacts with that same o-ring from the original/clone that seats the main tube with the base.
- And now the kinda big part: You can set the air flow ring to obtain a full on open draw if you for some reason want that, and/but can close it entirely, and select any gradient in between including the exact draw we've come to know and love from the FiF clone and ....wait for it ... every single air flow level flows smoothly and much more quietly and less raggedly than the original clone. Really really nice. Yes, he didn't screw up the most important aspect of this atty by designing in more airflow options, which was in my mind the biggest question/concern.

Very happy so far! Everything I didn't mention seems just the same. The top cap is a tiny bit different on both inside and outside but I don't detect anything functionally different nor anything that might affect wicking or that issue I seem to no longer have with the wicks coming out of place.

That's it for initial impressions.

Nice review. Thanks.

 

[Bronze]

A tad over 5, gmoney$, .223" (my calipers are the stone-aged analog dial variety, calibrated to good ol' US customary units), 5.66mm.

Here's mine with MostlySunny's titanium/delrin drip replacing TM's stove pipe:

My tips are in transit. How do you like them PC?

 

[PoliticallyIncorrect]

My tips are in transit. How do you like them PC?

They're top-notch quality; the fact that they're titanium makes them an obvious match-made-in-heaven for the Achilles, and by happenstance they blend perfectly with it aesthetically. The opening is very small, small enough to open the adjustment on the Achilles by just a tiny increment.

 

[Bronze]

How is the heat dissipation?

 

[PoliticallyIncorrect]

How is the heat dissipation?

Not sure; my relatively cool vaping style doesn't really put them to any kind of real test.

 

[Bronze]

Not sure; my relatively cool vaping style doesn't really put them to any kind of real test.

Mine should be here tomorrow or Saturday so I guess I'll know soon enough. Takes awhile to go across the country.

 

[klrcommute]

Anyone else think it's weird that a simply designed, non-leaky RDA that holds a reasonable bit of juice and can emulate a smoker's draw is such a difficult to find endangered species for vaping hardware? Haha

Yaeliq
Veritas
Hermes
Achilles

These are all the candidates that I've come across with that criteria--but the only one I've seen with much availability is the Veritas clone. Unless of course I spring for an authentic Achilles @ $100. It does look tempting, though. I think we're paying more for someone's investment in a CNC machine than actual labor & materials--makes you wish one of these manufacturers got big enough to recover the cost of their machine tools and be able to put out a well designed RDA like this for somewhere around $50. You think Titanium Mods actually manufactures themselves or farms their design out to someone else to do the machining?

In any event, everyone's new Achilles 2 look pretty cool. Glad to hear the design changes haven't left the mouth to lung people as an afterthought!

 

[Bronze]

Add Viking to your list. Does anyone have them? Beats me.

 

[AndriaD]

I can't imagine it helping if you have a good house filtration system.

That's good to know, and it's what I suspected -- I'm thinking a $9,000 filtration system beats the stuffing out of some $50-$100 filter! And I know for a fact that the house filtration is pretty great; we have very hard water here, and I used to go thru gallons of vinegar to soften the calcium deposits on my stainless cookware so I could scrub them off, but since we got this system, all I ever get is the "rainbowing" effect, not the hard calcium deposits that look cloudy and icky. So maybe the fridge/ice maker can hang in for a little longer despite the red light, so we can get those far more necessary filters for the reverse-osmosis drinking water tap in the kitchen sink.

Andria

 

[PoliticallyIncorrect]

Anyone else think it's weird that a simply designed, non-leaky RDA that holds a reasonable bit of juice and can emulate a smoker's draw is such a difficult to find endangered species for vaping hardware? Haha

Yaeliq
Veritas
Hermes
Achilles

These are all the candidates that I've come across with that criteria--but the only one I've seen with much availability is the Veritas clone. Unless of course I spring for an authentic Achilles @ $100. It does look tempting, though. I think we're paying more for someone's investment in a CNC machine than actual labor & materials--makes you wish one of these manufacturers got big enough to recover the cost of their machine tools and be able to put out a well designed RDA like this for somewhere around $50. You think Titanium Mods actually manufactures themselves or farms their design out to someone else to do the machining?

In any event, everyone's new Achilles 2 look pretty cool. Glad to hear the design changes haven't left the mouth to lung people as an afterthought!

Alexandr (the Ukrainian maker) produces his RBAs and RTAs only on occasion and in lots of 20, and it's safe to say he isn't using the proceeds to finance his CNC equipment—and least not very quickly, at that rate. This is conjecture, but he appears to be a machinist with a small operation who took up vaping devices as a labor-of-love sideline. In any event, even at €85 a pop (the current price of the Achilles II), he ain't making a fortune at it.

It's tempting to draw a parallel between authentic RBAs/clones and brand-name pharmaceuticals/generics, but in this instance it's a reversal; Alexandr runs a tiny mom & pop operation in the middle of the war-torn Ukraine and eeks a few Euros out of his RBAs, while the cloners are far larger enterprises making the real money if anyone is.

 

[gmoney$]

Two additions -
The size difference is swamped by a new raised drip tip hole on the updated Achilles; the barrel itself is ~5mil shorter but the drip tip hole sticks up about 5 mil. That shows clearly on PI's photo. And, Bronze, I did notice an increase in heat dissipation -- less heat-up of the tube on long/repeat draws. Could be the indents on the new top cap or better material or both.

 

[Bronze]

That's good to know, and it's what I suspected -- I'm thinking a $9,000 filtration system beats the stuffing out of some $50-$100 filter! And I know for a fact that the house filtration is pretty great; we have very hard water here, and I used to go thru gallons of vinegar to soften the calcium deposits on my stainless cookware so I could scrub them off, but since we got this system, all I ever get is the "rainbowing" effect, not the hard calcium deposits that look cloudy and icky. So maybe the fridge/ice maker can hang in for a little longer despite the red light, so we can get those far more necessary filters for the reverse-osmosis drinking water tap in the kitchen sink.

Andria

Try some Barkeeper's Friend for your stainless steel cookware (or anything stainless...among other surfaces). Wally World has it. It's cheap. Located near the Comet. I just get the regular powder in the cardboard can (similar to comet).

 

[Bronze]

Two additions -
The size difference is swamped by a new raised drip tip hole on the updated Achilles; the barrel itself is ~5mil shorter but the drip tip hole sticks up about 5 mil. That shows clearly on PI's photo. And, Bronze, I did notice an increase in heat dissipation -- less heat-up of the tube on long/repeat draws. Could be the indents on the new top cap or better material or both.

It probably all contributes to improved heat dissipation. Thanks.

 

[klrcommute]

Alexandr (the Ukrainian maker) produces his RBAs and RTAs only on occasion and in lots of 20, and it's safe to say he isn't using the proceeds to finance his CNC equipment—and least not very quickly, at that rate. This is conjecture, but he appears to be a machinist with a small operation who took up vaping devices as a labor-of-love sideline. In any event, even at €85 a pop (the current price of the Achilles II), he ain't making a fortune at it.

It's tempting to draw a parallel between authentic RBAs/clones and brand-name pharmaceuticals/generics, but in this instance it's a reversal; Alexandr runs a tiny mom & pop operation in the middle of the war-torn Ukraine and eeks a few Euros out of his RBAs, while the cloners are far larger enterprises making the real money if anyone is.

Yeah, I'm definitely not trolling on Titanium Mods. If anything, with that recent price drop it's one of the more competitive options out there for original hardware--nevermind the titanium aspect, or what it's probably like sourcing materials or reliably producing anything in Ukraine these days. And I may yet order one someday.

It is an interesting little glimpse into 21 century manufacturing though--I completely agree that the clone people are probably making out best. I didn't even understand the term when I first started reading until I thought "oh, they mean counterfeits!" Haha. But yeah, take a sample, send it to some metrology lab on commission where it probably gets 3D scanned into some CAD model and sent to the biggest, cheapest industrial park they can find where they get churned out by the tens of thousands.

Definitely a different sort of economy of scale. Frankly I'd be surprised if anything but a minority of original designers even possessed equipment as opposed to commissioning actual production. Lots of investment on equipment to be machining, deburring, polishing, laser engraving, etc.

All in all, even if you were to drop half a grand on some top shelf hardware that would likely last years, it's still favorable to what it costs to smoke. Just a big psychological difference to handing over $100 at a time versus numerous $7 transactions every week. Haha.

 

[Bronze]

Cloners don't even always use the authentic to copy from. Some just use the photos. One reason why the authentic makers quit showing detailed pictures of their devices before they are released.

 

[Woofer]

Ok some first impressions now that I'm back home and of course immediately started in on the Achilles 2.

Thank you very much for the good news.

Anyone else think it's weird that a simply designed, non-leaky RDA that holds a reasonable bit of juice and can emulate a smoker's draw is such a difficult to find endangered species for vaping hardware? Haha

Yaeliq
Veritas
Hermes
Achilles

You can add the Chels MiniDrip and MicroDrip

Alexandr (the Ukrainian maker) produces his RBAs and RTAs only on occasion and in lots of 20, and it's safe to say he isn't using the proceeds to finance his CNC equipment—and least not very quickly, at that rate. This is conjecture, but he appears to be a machinist with a small operation who took up vaping devices as a labor-of-love sideline. In any event, even at €85 a pop (the current price of the Achilles II), he ain't making a fortune at it.

Very interesting, I had no idea. Changes my thinking somewhat. Thanks.

 

[MostlySunny]

Still don't have adequate time to play with my new toy! Hopefully tomorrow or late tonight. It is very pretty and I'm number 019. That drip tip is gorgeous but I don't do wide bore at all.