Hi All, I’m often asked to do my “favorites” so here is my favorite stuff of 2017. Yes this is my opinion of stuff. I’ve done over 150 reviews in 2017 so i’ve had a pretty good sample size, with that said obviously i haven’t tried everything and if i haven’t owned it at one point, it won’t make my list. Some categories will have more options then others due to it being really competitive.
mods
Best Quad Battery mods
Snow wolf 365 - no quad battery mod was close to this one period. It’s a shame it got discontinued and the fad of 4 battery mods is dying down so it may go down as the best of all time. Good temp control, plenty of watts, good battery life. Easy to use and handles 30mm atomizers without overhang
Liasmo F4 - almost kind of by default. It’s essentially a quad battery version of the wyvern. Not the best performer but decent and can handle the 41mm RTAs without overhang and thats why it makes the list. It’s also readily available now
Best Triple Battery Mods
High End
Pretty much any DNA250 mod. Take your pic. Personally I really like the
C3D1 - triple 18650 and handles 30mm atomizers without overhang. Comfortable shape
VT250s - 2 or 3 battery DNA250 mod. I’m not counting the triad 250 or finder 250 as they came out late 2016
Affordable
Modefined Prism - at under 50 bucks it’s hard to beat the value. Great performer for power and temp modes, built solid and simple and easy to use. Lacks bells and whistles but gets the job done in a nice package. Also handles 30mm RTA without overhang
Vaptio N1 Pro - while it didn’t work well in 2 battery mode, in 3 battery mode it was one of the best performers in a class of mods that lacked in 2017. Curve modes, good temp control and plenty of power.
Sigelei Fuchai duo 3 - a 2 or 3 battery mod. I didn’t test it in 3 battery mode as i purchased it before it was available but a solid power mode mod with bad temp control that handles 30mm atomizers
Best Dual battery mods non VV mods
So for this one I’m not going to list any order, I also decided to limit it to 1 per company due to this being a category full of options
High End
SX Mini G class - easy to forget since it came out in february but for it’s time it had everything. Big color screen, bluetooth app, excellent temp control and power performance. boost/buck circuit and a 1 year warranty from one of the best high end mod companies. Also handles 30mm atomizers with no overhang in a small compact package
HCigar VT250s - yes it makes both lists. As a dual battery mod it’s the only DNA with the “battlestar” form factor.
Asmodus Minikin Boost Kodama - review is in progress for this one. And it’s pricey but what you are paying for is the looks. Probably the most beautiful stabwood mod i’ve seen to date.
Affordable
Smoant Cylon - review for this bad boy coming in a few days. It’s IMO an affordable version of the g-class. Built well, nice color screen 30mm atomizer friendly and the performance we’ve come to expect from smoant
Modefined Sirius - lost vape made a new company, they also made 2 awesome mods in 2017. The Sirius was the 1st one and it’s a well built easy to use mod with good temp control. Lacks some features like pre-heat and power curve but hard to complain
Vaporesso Revenger X - I’m going to talk more about vaporesso a little later in this post but this mod has everything you can want and more. Every mode you can think of and great performance for power and TC. also a centered 510 pin
Tesla Nano 120 - objectively it’s not as good as some of the mods on this list, but i said this was going to be an opinion piece from the start. The TC leaves a lot to be desired and some may complain it’s only 120 watts, with that said it’s a well built heavy tank in what is probably the best looking body out there. It also has an on/off switch which i wish more mods did.
Aspire Skystar - review should be up this month on vaping360. A fantastic mod performance wise thats stupidly accurate and has every mode known to man. Nice touch screen, centered 510 pin. Lots to love about this mod
Honorable mentions
These mods didn’t make the top list but deserve a mention IMO
Aspire speeder - the limit of 1 per company meant this one was the odd ball out. Still an excellent mod
Smoant Charon 218 TC and Smoant Gaia - 2 excellent mods that again fell victim to the 1 per company rule i made. They lost out the the cylon due to the 30mm friendly, centered 510 pin, and large color screen. Still they are excellent and while the charon had a nice run, i’m surprised the gaia didn’t get much love
VooPoo Drag - an internet community favorite for sure, but i left it out due to the overhang issues and the low watt limit in TC mode. Still an excellent mod though
Eleaf Ikonn 220 - this mod got little to no attention but it was everything the alien should have been. The only issue i had was the really dim screen.
Minikin 2 - The lack of good temp control and price point kept it off the list, but an excellent well built mod for power mode.
Wismec Ravage230 - review should be up this month on vaping 360, but it tested out very well and gave me no issues. Sadly you can't see the 510 pin internally without breaking the mod due to the design but nothing in my testing or useage showed any issues. I’d still like to see the longevity of it though when it hits the wild so i left it off the list. Still it’s what the predator should have been
Best VV mods
Ijoy Zenith - was under 30 bucks at launch ad found for 20ish later on. Excellent performer and well built. Best mod ijoy made all year but flew under the radar
Dovpo M VV - found in the 25-40 dollar range this VV mod was the best of the dual battery ones. Excellent performance and a wide voltage range of 1 volt to full battery voltage pretty much. Built like a tank and had a nice rubberized finish. It’s a shame it flew under the radar. It should have been more popular
Asvape Lucifer - I didn’t review it due to lack of time but it’s a somewhat affordable stabwood VV mod that is just beautiful and works great. It’s not number 1 only because the price point
Smoant Charon 218 adjustable - an excellent mod from smoant that did what it promised so no complaints. And found pretty cheap around 30 bucks
Hexohm 3.0 - a community cult classic it’s a solid mod built like a tank with a lifetime warranty. Still it’s a 200 dollar mod that doesn't do anything the others on this list don’t do already
Best Single Battery/Internal Battery Mods
Innokin Kroma-A an internal battery mod with 75 watts of power, good temp control and built well. The Atheon chip is very underrated
Eleaf Pico 25. One of the smallest mods made. Can handle 25mm atomizers and a good performer in power mode. TC mode left a lot to be desired though
Geekvape Aegis - it’s a large single battery mod but one tough SOB that was rugged and water resistant.
GTRS GT150 - an internal battery mod with a large 4000 mah capacity and 150 watts in a well built mod with a small comfortable shape
Eleaf Kiya - makes the list based on it’s size. A tiny 50 watt mod for a stealth vape
Best Sqounk Mods
Lost vape therion BF 75c - the updated DNA75c chip in a lost vape mod. What’s not to like. Review incoming for this in february
Hcigar VT inbox - DNA 75 chip in a small box. Had some quirks but a nice little sqounker
Coil Art Azeroth Sqounk Mod - a small single 18650 mech sqounker that outperformed the more popular pulse and is a well built metal enclosure not a 3d printed box at an affordable price
Lost Vape Drone - ok this should be number 1 on the list, but sadly it’s not available so i bumped it down. Best dual 18650 sqounker mass produced to date
Geekvape Gbox 200 - Might review it, might not. I haven’t tried it enough to judge temp control but with the lack of options out there it gets the job done
Best Starter Stuff
In no particular order
Joyetech ATOPACK Dolphin - a simple pod system with large capacity that worked well and good battery life
Vaptio C-II kit - a “Stick” mod and tank combo that felt like it was worth more then the price tag.
Smoking vapor mi-one - one of the 1st pod systems i’ve reviewed, it’s a tiny little guy with a good capacity and battery and took a wide variety of coils
Vaptio C-flat - review incoming on this eventually, but a simple juul-like pod system with refillable pods
Best Chips
Ok here me out on this, I know for many years the DNA chip has been the gold standard for chips in vaping, but I feel they’ve become a bit stagnant. They also only just made the DNA75C chip and it wasn’t anything special. I feel they’ve fallen behind. Sure yihi should get some recognition for the SX550J chip but it’s quite spendy, so i’m going a different route. For me the best chips of 2017 belong to vaporesso and aspire. Let me tell you why. When it comes to features, nobody packs more than them. Watt curve, power mode with preheat, good temp control, TCR modes, bypass modes, Buck/boost circuit, full wattage in temp mode, and the aspire also has an voltage mode as well. So you pack all those features and good performance into chips that can do 200 watts in dual battery configuration and sell them in a mod for under 50 bucks? Who else does that? The answer is nobody also a bit anecdotal but for companies that been around a long time, how often do you hear complaints or failures of their mods? Not very often either. So best chips of 2017 for me go to vaporesso and aspire. The mods being the skystar and revenger x, although the switcher appears it’ll perform the same as the revenger x as well.
Atomizers (note I don’t care about clouds so it’s all going to be based on flavor regardless of how many watts are needed to achieve the flavor)
Best Dual Coil RDAs
In no particular order since they are pretty similar in performance anyway
Drop RDA - a postless deck side airflow RDA that handles big builds and kicks out great flavor. Includes sqounk pin
Dot RDA - a unique 1 post designed side air RDA with big flavor. Includes sqounk pin
Conspiracy RDA - similar to the drop as well. Postless side air flow RDA with a little less air than the drop includes sqounk pin
Azathoth RDA - Bottom airflow flavor monster that comes with sqounk pin and a nice staggered deck
Devil RDA - ok this one needs a story probably. As far as i know an authentic devil doesn't exist. I can’t find a company that makes it or claims it at all and nobody seems to know. But i was advised by someone it’s an awesome RDA so i got the devil styled one. The quality is meh, the drip tip is wide as hell. The screws aren't great quality either and some didn’t work at all. But piecing it together this thing kicks out stupidly good flavor. I’ll probably never review it but man it’s a good design for flavor if you don’t mind the other issues.
Honorable Mention
CSMNT RDA - again similar to the conspiracy and drop. Only complaint is that it’s normally 60 bucks and does not include a sqounk pin which is 15 dollars more for the kit. It’s been on sale for 30 though at times so 45 with the sqounk pin makes it worth it. At 75 though might as well get a conspiracy or drop so it’s going to just miss out. Still a great RDA
Single coil RDAs
Wasn’t a lot of them out this year as many companies opted for dual coil ones so i’ll keep it short and simple the pulse 22 and wasp nano. Both are great little single coil RDAs and come with a sqounk pin. Perfect for those single battery mech sqounkers that are growing in popularity
Dual Coil RTAs 26mm or less
In no particular order since they are pretty similar in performance anyway
Ijoy Exo RTA - easy to forget. Came out early in 2017 but included both single and dual coil decks plus a 2.2ml or 6ml capacity option all for around 20-30 bucks before anyone else did. It was the trend setter of 2017 and should not be forgotten.
Aromamizer Supreme V2 - steam crave does things right. They made 3 products all year and all 3 will be on this list
Reload RTA - a small flavor monster RTA with no leaks and no press fit base or JFC
Vandy Vape Kylin - they has issues at first with leaks but with the redesign as long as you didn’t get a faulty base it didn’t leak. Sucks there was bad ones out there but that’s always the risk with press fit bases. I’ve purchased a green and red one. No issues and both give great flavor
Kaees Solomon - everything the troll RTA should have been
Honorable Mention
Ijoy Captain RTA - purchased one, never reviewed it but it is a flavor monster for sure. It has some odd design choices though so it just misses the list. No press fit parts or leaks though and a slide back top fill design
Dual Coil RTAs 27mm or more
In no particular order
Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus - 30mm RTA that’s my favorite 30mm RTA on the market still
Steam Crave Aromamizer Titan - 41mm behemoth.
Voltrove 41mm RTA - I like it better than the titan, but it’s also twice the price
Vandyvape Triple RTA - 28mm RTA great for 2 or 3 coil builds tons of room and kicks out flavor with high watt builds
Modfather RTA - 30mm rta that’s quite pricey but worth it. The option series deck is a huge plus for people using it on series mechs and PWM mods.
Single Coil RTAs
In no particular order
OBS crius 2 - very underrated or under appreciated RTA. flavor monster with a unique 1 post deck
Digiflavor Pharaoh Mini - small version of the pharaoh but packs out big flavor
Digiflavor Pharaoh - needs a large build but with the top air shut and a large coil massive flavor payout
Geekvape Ammit 25 - more for the lower watts like the pharaoh mini but a great flavor RTA
Ijoy exo RTA - again the trend setter makes both lists
Honorable Mention
Vandy vape Govad - dam they made a lot of atomizers this year, but essentially it’s a pharaoh clone without the bulk but not quite as good either. Still a solid RTA
Tanks
In no particular order
Freemax Fireluke - probably my favorite overall sub ohm tank. Very underrated and comes with an RBA deck
Crown 3 - yeah i got a valyrian as well but for me the crown 3 coils just give better flavor so it wins out for the list
Freemax Fireluke mesh - new tank just released at the end of 2017 but for 65 watts the flavor is much better than expected and coils don’t die. My review should be up on vaping360 by the time this is posted up.
Vapefly Fantasy mini - another underrated tank. Compatible with more coils then any other tank on the market
Asvape Cobra - stupidly good flavor for a low watt tank. Only needs 40 watts
Vapefly Nicolas - gets on the list because the list needs a MTL option and this was a great one in a year we didn’t see many of them. Also a solid low watt (under 25) RLH vape as well
Honorable Mention
Cigpet Eco 12 - just for it’s insane coils that could be vaped 300 watts. If you wanted a cloud blaster, this was the one to get.
Aspire Cleito Exo - got beat out by the crown 3 and fireluke but it’s almost as good. Small capacity , small size, and leak proof though
Ok lets get into the Dunce awards per say. We did the best, now how about the worst and overrated?
Most overrated Products
NOTE** Overrated doesn't equal bad. It just means products that were hyped as the 2nd coming but really just pretty average or mediocre
In no particular order
Dead Rabbit RDA - a dual coil RDA that had worse flavor then anything on my top 5, yet was recommended more then any as well.
Pulse BF sqounk Mod - tons of mods like this came out, but the pulse suffers from more voltage drop then most if not all of them. There were better ones to recommend. Not a bad mod by any means but didn’t deserve to be a craze either
Serpent SMM - a mediocre RTA hyped as the best flavor ever. Was pretty dull
Troll RTA - huge hype train as a flavor monster dual coil RTA. the flavor was great but poor quality threading, poor quality post screws, poorly designed deck with an insulator that melted made this one a dud.
Wismec Predator - this will make both the overrated and worst products list so kudos to that. Remember when everyone was recommending this many not even having it or using it less then a day? The “alien killer” Pepperidge farms remembers. I took a beating warning people about this mod. Less than a month everyone knew it was junk and stopped recommending it. It taught a good lesson though stop with hype wave BS.
Ijoy Captain PD270 mod - this will also make both lists. Every got so caught up in the hype of new batteries, they failed to realize how bad the device was
Worst Products of 2017
Wismec Predator - outside of the poor performance of the mod, people’s 510 pins literally popped out for no reason.
Ijoy Captain PD270 mod - the mod that couldn’t read resistance right. Many atomizers didn’t work on it. Temp control was a mess. Output was shaky. Overall one of the worst performing mods i tested in 2017
Wismec exo skeleton - making an exception here, I didn’t own one but the fact they spontaneously combusted for no reason it deserves a place here
Carrys green tank - another exception , don’t own one but a buddy of mine that i trust a lot called it the biggest POS tank he’s ever vaped on. He also does reviews and ripped it so it gets an honorary spot
Sumo RDA/Bushido 2 RDA - both got ripped in my reviews. I almost completely blocked them from my memory. Worst designed deck out there. The sumo was even worse though then the bushido due to it’s crappy 3 air flow system
Cuboid tap kit - the tap started dying out pretty quickly and was hard to use. It also gets way too hot at high wattages. Just an overall POS mod and the procore tank while not bad, has crappy coils. Just a poor idea of a mod executed even worse
Wismec Gen 3 - it overheated when you looked at it funny. Performed like crap didn’t do anything good and caused way too much drama. Plenty of complaints coming in from it now though that people have used them. How anyone recommended this was mind boggling. Nice shape and form factor i’ll give them that though. Could have used the body for a nice series mech sqounker lol
Rofvape warlock z box - tiny little mod with a terrible battery door that got super hot during my testing and never cut off. Also pretty much any atomizer overhung on it.
Dovpo Rogue - little heard of tiny single 26650 mod that caught my eye since it handled 30mm atomizers. Purchased it, 1st one was DOA with an autofire. 2nd one worked but was still a POS with crap performance and a crap 510 pin
Biggest trends of 2017
Sqounking - been around for awhile but now it’s become mainstream
Quad Battery Mods - the 1st one came out late 2016. Then we seen 3 come out early in 2017 with the GX350, RX300, and snow wolf 365. Later in the year we had the smok GX2/4 and finally late december the liasmo F4. towards the end of the year i did see a shift more towards smaller set ups
Trending up for 2018
Squonking - it’s not going anywhere i see 2018 being a huge year for sqounking
More MTL stuff - MTL has kind of been the forgotten market for most of the larger companies. However late in 2017 we seen innokin, fumytech, and cthulhu make affordable MTL RTAs we also seen a lot of pod systems chasing the juul fame. I think we’ll see a lot more MTL stuff in 2018
Single battery mods - I think we’ll see more of these as well. The market is more towards pocketability now and 1 and 2 battery mods are the best sellers. I don’t think we’ll see many 4 battery mods if any, and maybe only a couple of 3 battery mods most likely the DNA250c mods will start dropping early 2018
mods
Best Quad Battery mods
Snow wolf 365 - no quad battery mod was close to this one period. It’s a shame it got discontinued and the fad of 4 battery mods is dying down so it may go down as the best of all time. Good temp control, plenty of watts, good battery life. Easy to use and handles 30mm atomizers without overhang
Liasmo F4 - almost kind of by default. It’s essentially a quad battery version of the wyvern. Not the best performer but decent and can handle the 41mm RTAs without overhang and thats why it makes the list. It’s also readily available now
Best Triple Battery Mods
High End
Pretty much any DNA250 mod. Take your pic. Personally I really like the
C3D1 - triple 18650 and handles 30mm atomizers without overhang. Comfortable shape
VT250s - 2 or 3 battery DNA250 mod. I’m not counting the triad 250 or finder 250 as they came out late 2016
Affordable
Modefined Prism - at under 50 bucks it’s hard to beat the value. Great performer for power and temp modes, built solid and simple and easy to use. Lacks bells and whistles but gets the job done in a nice package. Also handles 30mm RTA without overhang
Vaptio N1 Pro - while it didn’t work well in 2 battery mode, in 3 battery mode it was one of the best performers in a class of mods that lacked in 2017. Curve modes, good temp control and plenty of power.
Sigelei Fuchai duo 3 - a 2 or 3 battery mod. I didn’t test it in 3 battery mode as i purchased it before it was available but a solid power mode mod with bad temp control that handles 30mm atomizers
Best Dual battery mods non VV mods
So for this one I’m not going to list any order, I also decided to limit it to 1 per company due to this being a category full of options
High End
SX Mini G class - easy to forget since it came out in february but for it’s time it had everything. Big color screen, bluetooth app, excellent temp control and power performance. boost/buck circuit and a 1 year warranty from one of the best high end mod companies. Also handles 30mm atomizers with no overhang in a small compact package
HCigar VT250s - yes it makes both lists. As a dual battery mod it’s the only DNA with the “battlestar” form factor.
Asmodus Minikin Boost Kodama - review is in progress for this one. And it’s pricey but what you are paying for is the looks. Probably the most beautiful stabwood mod i’ve seen to date.
Affordable
Smoant Cylon - review for this bad boy coming in a few days. It’s IMO an affordable version of the g-class. Built well, nice color screen 30mm atomizer friendly and the performance we’ve come to expect from smoant
Modefined Sirius - lost vape made a new company, they also made 2 awesome mods in 2017. The Sirius was the 1st one and it’s a well built easy to use mod with good temp control. Lacks some features like pre-heat and power curve but hard to complain
Vaporesso Revenger X - I’m going to talk more about vaporesso a little later in this post but this mod has everything you can want and more. Every mode you can think of and great performance for power and TC. also a centered 510 pin
Tesla Nano 120 - objectively it’s not as good as some of the mods on this list, but i said this was going to be an opinion piece from the start. The TC leaves a lot to be desired and some may complain it’s only 120 watts, with that said it’s a well built heavy tank in what is probably the best looking body out there. It also has an on/off switch which i wish more mods did.
Aspire Skystar - review should be up this month on vaping360. A fantastic mod performance wise thats stupidly accurate and has every mode known to man. Nice touch screen, centered 510 pin. Lots to love about this mod
Honorable mentions
These mods didn’t make the top list but deserve a mention IMO
Aspire speeder - the limit of 1 per company meant this one was the odd ball out. Still an excellent mod
Smoant Charon 218 TC and Smoant Gaia - 2 excellent mods that again fell victim to the 1 per company rule i made. They lost out the the cylon due to the 30mm friendly, centered 510 pin, and large color screen. Still they are excellent and while the charon had a nice run, i’m surprised the gaia didn’t get much love
VooPoo Drag - an internet community favorite for sure, but i left it out due to the overhang issues and the low watt limit in TC mode. Still an excellent mod though
Eleaf Ikonn 220 - this mod got little to no attention but it was everything the alien should have been. The only issue i had was the really dim screen.
Minikin 2 - The lack of good temp control and price point kept it off the list, but an excellent well built mod for power mode.
Wismec Ravage230 - review should be up this month on vaping 360, but it tested out very well and gave me no issues. Sadly you can't see the 510 pin internally without breaking the mod due to the design but nothing in my testing or useage showed any issues. I’d still like to see the longevity of it though when it hits the wild so i left it off the list. Still it’s what the predator should have been
Best VV mods
Ijoy Zenith - was under 30 bucks at launch ad found for 20ish later on. Excellent performer and well built. Best mod ijoy made all year but flew under the radar
Dovpo M VV - found in the 25-40 dollar range this VV mod was the best of the dual battery ones. Excellent performance and a wide voltage range of 1 volt to full battery voltage pretty much. Built like a tank and had a nice rubberized finish. It’s a shame it flew under the radar. It should have been more popular
Asvape Lucifer - I didn’t review it due to lack of time but it’s a somewhat affordable stabwood VV mod that is just beautiful and works great. It’s not number 1 only because the price point
Smoant Charon 218 adjustable - an excellent mod from smoant that did what it promised so no complaints. And found pretty cheap around 30 bucks
Hexohm 3.0 - a community cult classic it’s a solid mod built like a tank with a lifetime warranty. Still it’s a 200 dollar mod that doesn't do anything the others on this list don’t do already
Best Single Battery/Internal Battery Mods
Innokin Kroma-A an internal battery mod with 75 watts of power, good temp control and built well. The Atheon chip is very underrated
Eleaf Pico 25. One of the smallest mods made. Can handle 25mm atomizers and a good performer in power mode. TC mode left a lot to be desired though
Geekvape Aegis - it’s a large single battery mod but one tough SOB that was rugged and water resistant.
GTRS GT150 - an internal battery mod with a large 4000 mah capacity and 150 watts in a well built mod with a small comfortable shape
Eleaf Kiya - makes the list based on it’s size. A tiny 50 watt mod for a stealth vape
Best Sqounk Mods
Lost vape therion BF 75c - the updated DNA75c chip in a lost vape mod. What’s not to like. Review incoming for this in february
Hcigar VT inbox - DNA 75 chip in a small box. Had some quirks but a nice little sqounker
Coil Art Azeroth Sqounk Mod - a small single 18650 mech sqounker that outperformed the more popular pulse and is a well built metal enclosure not a 3d printed box at an affordable price
Lost Vape Drone - ok this should be number 1 on the list, but sadly it’s not available so i bumped it down. Best dual 18650 sqounker mass produced to date
Geekvape Gbox 200 - Might review it, might not. I haven’t tried it enough to judge temp control but with the lack of options out there it gets the job done
Best Starter Stuff
In no particular order
Joyetech ATOPACK Dolphin - a simple pod system with large capacity that worked well and good battery life
Vaptio C-II kit - a “Stick” mod and tank combo that felt like it was worth more then the price tag.
Smoking vapor mi-one - one of the 1st pod systems i’ve reviewed, it’s a tiny little guy with a good capacity and battery and took a wide variety of coils
Vaptio C-flat - review incoming on this eventually, but a simple juul-like pod system with refillable pods
Best Chips
Ok here me out on this, I know for many years the DNA chip has been the gold standard for chips in vaping, but I feel they’ve become a bit stagnant. They also only just made the DNA75C chip and it wasn’t anything special. I feel they’ve fallen behind. Sure yihi should get some recognition for the SX550J chip but it’s quite spendy, so i’m going a different route. For me the best chips of 2017 belong to vaporesso and aspire. Let me tell you why. When it comes to features, nobody packs more than them. Watt curve, power mode with preheat, good temp control, TCR modes, bypass modes, Buck/boost circuit, full wattage in temp mode, and the aspire also has an voltage mode as well. So you pack all those features and good performance into chips that can do 200 watts in dual battery configuration and sell them in a mod for under 50 bucks? Who else does that? The answer is nobody also a bit anecdotal but for companies that been around a long time, how often do you hear complaints or failures of their mods? Not very often either. So best chips of 2017 for me go to vaporesso and aspire. The mods being the skystar and revenger x, although the switcher appears it’ll perform the same as the revenger x as well.
Atomizers (note I don’t care about clouds so it’s all going to be based on flavor regardless of how many watts are needed to achieve the flavor)
Best Dual Coil RDAs
In no particular order since they are pretty similar in performance anyway
Drop RDA - a postless deck side airflow RDA that handles big builds and kicks out great flavor. Includes sqounk pin
Dot RDA - a unique 1 post designed side air RDA with big flavor. Includes sqounk pin
Conspiracy RDA - similar to the drop as well. Postless side air flow RDA with a little less air than the drop includes sqounk pin
Azathoth RDA - Bottom airflow flavor monster that comes with sqounk pin and a nice staggered deck
Devil RDA - ok this one needs a story probably. As far as i know an authentic devil doesn't exist. I can’t find a company that makes it or claims it at all and nobody seems to know. But i was advised by someone it’s an awesome RDA so i got the devil styled one. The quality is meh, the drip tip is wide as hell. The screws aren't great quality either and some didn’t work at all. But piecing it together this thing kicks out stupidly good flavor. I’ll probably never review it but man it’s a good design for flavor if you don’t mind the other issues.
Honorable Mention
CSMNT RDA - again similar to the conspiracy and drop. Only complaint is that it’s normally 60 bucks and does not include a sqounk pin which is 15 dollars more for the kit. It’s been on sale for 30 though at times so 45 with the sqounk pin makes it worth it. At 75 though might as well get a conspiracy or drop so it’s going to just miss out. Still a great RDA
Single coil RDAs
Wasn’t a lot of them out this year as many companies opted for dual coil ones so i’ll keep it short and simple the pulse 22 and wasp nano. Both are great little single coil RDAs and come with a sqounk pin. Perfect for those single battery mech sqounkers that are growing in popularity
Dual Coil RTAs 26mm or less
In no particular order since they are pretty similar in performance anyway
Ijoy Exo RTA - easy to forget. Came out early in 2017 but included both single and dual coil decks plus a 2.2ml or 6ml capacity option all for around 20-30 bucks before anyone else did. It was the trend setter of 2017 and should not be forgotten.
Aromamizer Supreme V2 - steam crave does things right. They made 3 products all year and all 3 will be on this list
Reload RTA - a small flavor monster RTA with no leaks and no press fit base or JFC
Vandy Vape Kylin - they has issues at first with leaks but with the redesign as long as you didn’t get a faulty base it didn’t leak. Sucks there was bad ones out there but that’s always the risk with press fit bases. I’ve purchased a green and red one. No issues and both give great flavor
Kaees Solomon - everything the troll RTA should have been
Honorable Mention
Ijoy Captain RTA - purchased one, never reviewed it but it is a flavor monster for sure. It has some odd design choices though so it just misses the list. No press fit parts or leaks though and a slide back top fill design
Dual Coil RTAs 27mm or more
In no particular order
Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus - 30mm RTA that’s my favorite 30mm RTA on the market still
Steam Crave Aromamizer Titan - 41mm behemoth.
Voltrove 41mm RTA - I like it better than the titan, but it’s also twice the price
Vandyvape Triple RTA - 28mm RTA great for 2 or 3 coil builds tons of room and kicks out flavor with high watt builds
Modfather RTA - 30mm rta that’s quite pricey but worth it. The option series deck is a huge plus for people using it on series mechs and PWM mods.
Single Coil RTAs
In no particular order
OBS crius 2 - very underrated or under appreciated RTA. flavor monster with a unique 1 post deck
Digiflavor Pharaoh Mini - small version of the pharaoh but packs out big flavor
Digiflavor Pharaoh - needs a large build but with the top air shut and a large coil massive flavor payout
Geekvape Ammit 25 - more for the lower watts like the pharaoh mini but a great flavor RTA
Ijoy exo RTA - again the trend setter makes both lists
Honorable Mention
Vandy vape Govad - dam they made a lot of atomizers this year, but essentially it’s a pharaoh clone without the bulk but not quite as good either. Still a solid RTA
Tanks
In no particular order
Freemax Fireluke - probably my favorite overall sub ohm tank. Very underrated and comes with an RBA deck
Crown 3 - yeah i got a valyrian as well but for me the crown 3 coils just give better flavor so it wins out for the list
Freemax Fireluke mesh - new tank just released at the end of 2017 but for 65 watts the flavor is much better than expected and coils don’t die. My review should be up on vaping360 by the time this is posted up.
Vapefly Fantasy mini - another underrated tank. Compatible with more coils then any other tank on the market
Asvape Cobra - stupidly good flavor for a low watt tank. Only needs 40 watts
Vapefly Nicolas - gets on the list because the list needs a MTL option and this was a great one in a year we didn’t see many of them. Also a solid low watt (under 25) RLH vape as well
Honorable Mention
Cigpet Eco 12 - just for it’s insane coils that could be vaped 300 watts. If you wanted a cloud blaster, this was the one to get.
Aspire Cleito Exo - got beat out by the crown 3 and fireluke but it’s almost as good. Small capacity , small size, and leak proof though
Ok lets get into the Dunce awards per say. We did the best, now how about the worst and overrated?
Most overrated Products
NOTE** Overrated doesn't equal bad. It just means products that were hyped as the 2nd coming but really just pretty average or mediocre
In no particular order
Dead Rabbit RDA - a dual coil RDA that had worse flavor then anything on my top 5, yet was recommended more then any as well.
Pulse BF sqounk Mod - tons of mods like this came out, but the pulse suffers from more voltage drop then most if not all of them. There were better ones to recommend. Not a bad mod by any means but didn’t deserve to be a craze either
Serpent SMM - a mediocre RTA hyped as the best flavor ever. Was pretty dull
Troll RTA - huge hype train as a flavor monster dual coil RTA. the flavor was great but poor quality threading, poor quality post screws, poorly designed deck with an insulator that melted made this one a dud.
Wismec Predator - this will make both the overrated and worst products list so kudos to that. Remember when everyone was recommending this many not even having it or using it less then a day? The “alien killer” Pepperidge farms remembers. I took a beating warning people about this mod. Less than a month everyone knew it was junk and stopped recommending it. It taught a good lesson though stop with hype wave BS.
Ijoy Captain PD270 mod - this will also make both lists. Every got so caught up in the hype of new batteries, they failed to realize how bad the device was
Worst Products of 2017
Wismec Predator - outside of the poor performance of the mod, people’s 510 pins literally popped out for no reason.
Ijoy Captain PD270 mod - the mod that couldn’t read resistance right. Many atomizers didn’t work on it. Temp control was a mess. Output was shaky. Overall one of the worst performing mods i tested in 2017
Wismec exo skeleton - making an exception here, I didn’t own one but the fact they spontaneously combusted for no reason it deserves a place here
Carrys green tank - another exception , don’t own one but a buddy of mine that i trust a lot called it the biggest POS tank he’s ever vaped on. He also does reviews and ripped it so it gets an honorary spot
Sumo RDA/Bushido 2 RDA - both got ripped in my reviews. I almost completely blocked them from my memory. Worst designed deck out there. The sumo was even worse though then the bushido due to it’s crappy 3 air flow system
Cuboid tap kit - the tap started dying out pretty quickly and was hard to use. It also gets way too hot at high wattages. Just an overall POS mod and the procore tank while not bad, has crappy coils. Just a poor idea of a mod executed even worse
Wismec Gen 3 - it overheated when you looked at it funny. Performed like crap didn’t do anything good and caused way too much drama. Plenty of complaints coming in from it now though that people have used them. How anyone recommended this was mind boggling. Nice shape and form factor i’ll give them that though. Could have used the body for a nice series mech sqounker lol
Rofvape warlock z box - tiny little mod with a terrible battery door that got super hot during my testing and never cut off. Also pretty much any atomizer overhung on it.
Dovpo Rogue - little heard of tiny single 26650 mod that caught my eye since it handled 30mm atomizers. Purchased it, 1st one was DOA with an autofire. 2nd one worked but was still a POS with crap performance and a crap 510 pin
Biggest trends of 2017
Sqounking - been around for awhile but now it’s become mainstream
Quad Battery Mods - the 1st one came out late 2016. Then we seen 3 come out early in 2017 with the GX350, RX300, and snow wolf 365. Later in the year we had the smok GX2/4 and finally late december the liasmo F4. towards the end of the year i did see a shift more towards smaller set ups
Trending up for 2018
Squonking - it’s not going anywhere i see 2018 being a huge year for sqounking
More MTL stuff - MTL has kind of been the forgotten market for most of the larger companies. However late in 2017 we seen innokin, fumytech, and cthulhu make affordable MTL RTAs we also seen a lot of pod systems chasing the juul fame. I think we’ll see a lot more MTL stuff in 2018
Single battery mods - I think we’ll see more of these as well. The market is more towards pocketability now and 1 and 2 battery mods are the best sellers. I don’t think we’ll see many 4 battery mods if any, and maybe only a couple of 3 battery mods most likely the DNA250c mods will start dropping early 2018
