Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the 3Cvape Sahara rda, please see the bottom for disclaimers and links. Note: This is not marked as a sample version
Introduction:
The Sahara rda is the latest RDAs from pretty new vape manufacturer 3Cvape. They came onto the scene in 2017 with the conspiracy RDA I reviewed which was great, and in 2018 made the Savour MTL RTA which is a great MTL RTA and that’s all i’m aware of that they’ve done so far so 2 for 2 in my book. The Sahara 2 is a dual coil DTL RDA with an included squonk pin and designed in collaboration with vape geek q8 who i never heard of but after looking him up seems to be a small time youtube reviewer who started doing reviews about a year ago. It’s available in 2 colors Silver/acrylic and Black/ultem. Looking around online i see it in the 30USD range and elementvape has them for 27.95 so very good price point.
Manufacturer's Specs
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Initial Impressions
When I first got this RDA I was pretty disturbed at the design. It’s basically a phobia V2 RDA but instead of using a great postless deck they copied the deck from the engine 2 RTA which was one of the worst RTAs made this year. I didn’t get it at all. Not that the deck is hard to build on but it’s a whole lot of extra deck for no reason and there are much better decks to copy. It’s almost as if the designer said take the phobia V2 and throw the engine 2 deck in there instead. Really just a poor idea and just adds to the large amount of questionable design choices I’ve seen from reviewer collaboration products. Especially from a smaller one that isn’t going to sell on name alone, you’d think they would want to create something unique and good to build their popularity but it seems rarely the case. Anyway overall wasn’t very impressed from the start at all.
Build Deck and Wicking (pics above)
Let’s talk about the build deck now. Since they copied the engine 2 RTA deck i’ll just copy and paste my explanation from that deck and make necessary updates. It’s an interesting one. If i had to describe it in a simple way i’d call it an upside down postless deck where you don’t need to precut leads. That’s essentially how it works. It’s a 2 post deck that’s built up high and your coils go in upside down from most RTAs with the leads facing up. Each lead gets its own screw and coils can be installed one at a time. When you are done it’s easy to clip the excess leads of the top as well. It’s an extremely easy to build on deck. Just place your coil to the height you want it and screw in the leads then clip the excess. The deck and airflow with it does leave very limited options though as far as coils size. You also can’t position the coils either much so i recommend using a 3mm max. You are limited in your wraps as well with the negative and positive being very close together but it’s more room then the engine 2 RTA deck due to being an RDA and not a RTA so slightly bigger. The post screws are a good enough quality flat head/phillips combo screw though and better than the ones on the engine 2 RTA. Overall a slightly improved version of the engine 2 RTA deck.
Wicking on it is quite easy. It’s an RDA so nothing fancy just drop your leads to the bottom.
Performance
Performance wise, I used it as a Dual Coil RDA only as intended no way to really run a single coil effectively anyway. I ran 4 builds in this a fancy 3mm ID build, a fancy 3.5 mm ID build, a fancy 4mm ID build and 1 simple round 3mm ID build. For size I found it worked best with the 3mm ID. the 4mm ID was a really tight squeeze and due to the deck you can’t really get air under it well as you can’t raise up the coil so i’d stick to 3mm ID personally and as many wraps as you can fit comfortably in it. The flavor isn’t much with a simple round build and still just mediocre at best with a fancy build. Overall not a bad performer but pretty mediocre and outclassed by many other RDAs on the market currently and very build limited.
Overall Impressions, Details, and Extras
Let’s talk about the airflow now. It has side airflow with 4 good sized round holes angled down on each side that you close off by spinning the top part of the top cap as it’s a 2 piece top cap. Here is where they fixed an issue with the phobia 2 through. The phobia 2 didn’t allow for much adjustment but the sahara allows you to close off 1 hole at a time so well done there and how the phobia 2 should have been. The top cap o-rings are good and it’s easy to pop off and on both parts of it. There is also a stopper so it lines up the air and locks the bottom part into place like the phobia 2 should have been and it’s easy to screw on and off your mod as well.
It comes with 1 standard 810 friction fit drip tip which on the black one i have is an ultem one with a metal ring on it. The SS version has a clear PMMA looking one from the pics. It also worked well with other 810 tips i’ve tried including friction fit ones and o-ring ones as well so you should be able to use others you have with no issues. It does not come with a 510 adapter so no 510 option unless you already have an adapter. The Drip tip fits very well in the RDA. snug, not loose, not tight. The quality on the 3cvape Sahara RDA is quite nice as well. The o-rings for the top cap onto the base feel right and the top cap is snug but not tight. Very easy to take apart with no issues. The AFC is easy to adjust on or off a mod even with nothing for grip, the o-rings fit just right and everything is nicely done. The top cap does lock into place so also easy to get on and off mods. The post screws are good quality as well and 4 spare screws are included all are flathead/phillips combo screws. It comes with a standard 510 pin and a BF 510 pin like most RDAs these days as well.
The juice well is a good size. Not massive but pretty large. The over squonk protection and Over drip protection is pretty good. The side airflow is high enough up that it doesn't cause any issues leaking when dripping or squonking. I only used it as a dripper as i’m not currently working on a review for any squonk mods but i did put it on a squonk mod just to test it real quick and it worked well. As a dripper you can drip right down the drip tip without taking off the top cap. You can basically flood the coils and it won’t leak in normal usage since the coils sit low and the airflow is higher up but be careful not to because nobody likes to vape a coil sitting in ejuice. It would be better if the coils sat up more but due to the deck they can’t
It’s a 24mm diameter so should not overhang on most mods on the market today. There is plenty of spare o-rings and 4 spare post screws for it, 1 screwdrivers, no 510 tip adapter, no coils, and no cotton however. Pretty bare amount of accessories which was a little disappointing. They should have included a 510 tip or an extra 810 tip as well as a 510 adapter. Also some coils and cotton would have been nice but not a big deal. Branding is pretty nice mostly. Nothing major however on the metal part of the o-ring the reviewer has his initials on it. That’s a bit tacky to me personally and shouldn’t be there. Keep your name on the box and the bottom of the RDA only not on the outside. Thankfully it’s not in your face so not to bad.
Pros:
So with all that said, do I recommend this RDA?I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, but this one will lean towards the no. It’s a shame since their 1st 2 atomizers were really good but now they took a deck i didn’t care for and paired it with the design of a good RDA but missed a lot of what made the phobia 2 good to begin with. They did correct a few flaws of it like the AFC adjustment and adding in the notches to lock the cap in place, but the postless deck was a big reason the phobia 2 was good in the 1st place and with this deck and the way the airflow is you can easily flood a coil and the flavor isn’t very good either. If you wanted this 2 part cap style RDA, your better off with the phobia 2 or just grab one of the other dozen or so options on my list that are much better. I won’t be adding this to my sheet of recs linked down below.
This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and i’ll catch you on my next review.
Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from 3Cvape
Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.
Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done around 300 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.
Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here
Youtube Channel here
Spreadhseet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 so far list here
Best of 2017 list here
Introduction:
The Sahara rda is the latest RDAs from pretty new vape manufacturer 3Cvape. They came onto the scene in 2017 with the conspiracy RDA I reviewed which was great, and in 2018 made the Savour MTL RTA which is a great MTL RTA and that’s all i’m aware of that they’ve done so far so 2 for 2 in my book. The Sahara 2 is a dual coil DTL RDA with an included squonk pin and designed in collaboration with vape geek q8 who i never heard of but after looking him up seems to be a small time youtube reviewer who started doing reviews about a year ago. It’s available in 2 colors Silver/acrylic and Black/ultem. Looking around online i see it in the 30USD range and elementvape has them for 27.95 so very good price point.
Manufacturer's Specs
- 24mm Diameter
- 4mm Deep Juice Wells
- Superior 304 Stainless Steel Construction
- U-Shaped Two-Post Build Deck
- Side Secured via Phillips Screws
- Single or Dual Coil Configuration
- Dedicated Airflow Tank Section - Acrylic or ULTEM
- Four (4) Downward Sloping Fully Closable Air Holes Per Side - 2mm per Hole
- Double O-Ring Internally Locked & Sealed Tank
- 810 Wide Bore Resin Drip Tip
- Gold-Plated BF Squonk Pin
- Gold-Plated 510 Connection
- Available in Black or Silver
- 1 Sahara 24mm BF RDA
- 1 810 Wide Bore Drip Tip
- 1 Spare Parts Pack
- 1 Gold-Plated Bottom Feed Pin
- 1 Flathead Screwdriver
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Initial Impressions
When I first got this RDA I was pretty disturbed at the design. It’s basically a phobia V2 RDA but instead of using a great postless deck they copied the deck from the engine 2 RTA which was one of the worst RTAs made this year. I didn’t get it at all. Not that the deck is hard to build on but it’s a whole lot of extra deck for no reason and there are much better decks to copy. It’s almost as if the designer said take the phobia V2 and throw the engine 2 deck in there instead. Really just a poor idea and just adds to the large amount of questionable design choices I’ve seen from reviewer collaboration products. Especially from a smaller one that isn’t going to sell on name alone, you’d think they would want to create something unique and good to build their popularity but it seems rarely the case. Anyway overall wasn’t very impressed from the start at all.
Build Deck and Wicking (pics above)
Let’s talk about the build deck now. Since they copied the engine 2 RTA deck i’ll just copy and paste my explanation from that deck and make necessary updates. It’s an interesting one. If i had to describe it in a simple way i’d call it an upside down postless deck where you don’t need to precut leads. That’s essentially how it works. It’s a 2 post deck that’s built up high and your coils go in upside down from most RTAs with the leads facing up. Each lead gets its own screw and coils can be installed one at a time. When you are done it’s easy to clip the excess leads of the top as well. It’s an extremely easy to build on deck. Just place your coil to the height you want it and screw in the leads then clip the excess. The deck and airflow with it does leave very limited options though as far as coils size. You also can’t position the coils either much so i recommend using a 3mm max. You are limited in your wraps as well with the negative and positive being very close together but it’s more room then the engine 2 RTA deck due to being an RDA and not a RTA so slightly bigger. The post screws are a good enough quality flat head/phillips combo screw though and better than the ones on the engine 2 RTA. Overall a slightly improved version of the engine 2 RTA deck.
Wicking on it is quite easy. It’s an RDA so nothing fancy just drop your leads to the bottom.
Performance
Performance wise, I used it as a Dual Coil RDA only as intended no way to really run a single coil effectively anyway. I ran 4 builds in this a fancy 3mm ID build, a fancy 3.5 mm ID build, a fancy 4mm ID build and 1 simple round 3mm ID build. For size I found it worked best with the 3mm ID. the 4mm ID was a really tight squeeze and due to the deck you can’t really get air under it well as you can’t raise up the coil so i’d stick to 3mm ID personally and as many wraps as you can fit comfortably in it. The flavor isn’t much with a simple round build and still just mediocre at best with a fancy build. Overall not a bad performer but pretty mediocre and outclassed by many other RDAs on the market currently and very build limited.
Overall Impressions, Details, and Extras
Let’s talk about the airflow now. It has side airflow with 4 good sized round holes angled down on each side that you close off by spinning the top part of the top cap as it’s a 2 piece top cap. Here is where they fixed an issue with the phobia 2 through. The phobia 2 didn’t allow for much adjustment but the sahara allows you to close off 1 hole at a time so well done there and how the phobia 2 should have been. The top cap o-rings are good and it’s easy to pop off and on both parts of it. There is also a stopper so it lines up the air and locks the bottom part into place like the phobia 2 should have been and it’s easy to screw on and off your mod as well.
It comes with 1 standard 810 friction fit drip tip which on the black one i have is an ultem one with a metal ring on it. The SS version has a clear PMMA looking one from the pics. It also worked well with other 810 tips i’ve tried including friction fit ones and o-ring ones as well so you should be able to use others you have with no issues. It does not come with a 510 adapter so no 510 option unless you already have an adapter. The Drip tip fits very well in the RDA. snug, not loose, not tight. The quality on the 3cvape Sahara RDA is quite nice as well. The o-rings for the top cap onto the base feel right and the top cap is snug but not tight. Very easy to take apart with no issues. The AFC is easy to adjust on or off a mod even with nothing for grip, the o-rings fit just right and everything is nicely done. The top cap does lock into place so also easy to get on and off mods. The post screws are good quality as well and 4 spare screws are included all are flathead/phillips combo screws. It comes with a standard 510 pin and a BF 510 pin like most RDAs these days as well.
The juice well is a good size. Not massive but pretty large. The over squonk protection and Over drip protection is pretty good. The side airflow is high enough up that it doesn't cause any issues leaking when dripping or squonking. I only used it as a dripper as i’m not currently working on a review for any squonk mods but i did put it on a squonk mod just to test it real quick and it worked well. As a dripper you can drip right down the drip tip without taking off the top cap. You can basically flood the coils and it won’t leak in normal usage since the coils sit low and the airflow is higher up but be careful not to because nobody likes to vape a coil sitting in ejuice. It would be better if the coils sat up more but due to the deck they can’t
It’s a 24mm diameter so should not overhang on most mods on the market today. There is plenty of spare o-rings and 4 spare post screws for it, 1 screwdrivers, no 510 tip adapter, no coils, and no cotton however. Pretty bare amount of accessories which was a little disappointing. They should have included a 510 tip or an extra 810 tip as well as a 510 adapter. Also some coils and cotton would have been nice but not a big deal. Branding is pretty nice mostly. Nothing major however on the metal part of the o-ring the reviewer has his initials on it. That’s a bit tacky to me personally and shouldn’t be there. Keep your name on the box and the bottom of the RDA only not on the outside. Thankfully it’s not in your face so not to bad.
Pros:
- standard 810 tip (ultem or PMMA depending on color choice)
- standard 510 pin and squonk pin included
- plenty of spare o-rings
- good quality flathead/phillips combo screws post screws
- Good over squonk protection
- works well as a dripper or squonker
- simple looks and branding mostly
- build deck is easy to build on
- nice size juice well
- good build quality
- Price point (under 30 USD)
- top cap locks into place
- AFC easy to adjust
- no included coils or cotton
- only 1 tip included
- overall lack of standard accessories
- don’t like the build deck and it’s limiting on coil position and size
- flavor is mediocre
- lack of color options
So with all that said, do I recommend this RDA?I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, but this one will lean towards the no. It’s a shame since their 1st 2 atomizers were really good but now they took a deck i didn’t care for and paired it with the design of a good RDA but missed a lot of what made the phobia 2 good to begin with. They did correct a few flaws of it like the AFC adjustment and adding in the notches to lock the cap in place, but the postless deck was a big reason the phobia 2 was good in the 1st place and with this deck and the way the airflow is you can easily flood a coil and the flavor isn’t very good either. If you wanted this 2 part cap style RDA, your better off with the phobia 2 or just grab one of the other dozen or so options on my list that are much better. I won’t be adding this to my sheet of recs linked down below.
This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and i’ll catch you on my next review.
Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from 3Cvape
Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.
Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done around 300 reviews to date. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.
Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here
Youtube Channel here
Spreadhseet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 so far list here
Best of 2017 list here
