Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the Psyclone Citadel rda, please see the bottom for disclaimers and links. Note: This is not marked as a sample version.
Introduction:
The Psyclone Citadel rda is the latest RDA from small vape manufacturer Psyclone. Most popular for their Hadaly RDA from a few years ago, they are popular in the small community and seen as “high end” due to their price point of charging 75-135 dollars an RDA. Personally I don’t buy into the “high end” thing in vaping as to me for something to be high end there should be something to make the price worth it and not just the price itself, be it performance or quality of machining or quality of materials used. The Citadel RDA is a single coil DTL RDA with an included squonk pin and ultem insert. It’s available in 1 colors which is SS. Elementvape has them for 75 USD in the US.
Manufacturer's Specs
album
Initial Impressions
When I first got this RDA well i wasn’t too impressed to start. Never had something from psyclone before but have purchased quite a few of what some would consider “high end” atomizers and mods and plenty of other high end products and usually you get some nice packaging and lots of accessories and authenticity cards and it should have a high quality feel. What i got when i opened the box was a basic box with a little pouch, a dinky feeling RDA, and a very minimal amount of accessories. Wasn’t really what i was expecting for the price tag.
Build Deck and Wicking (pics above)
Let’s talk about the build deck now. It’s nothing new or innovative but it is however a very simple and easy to use deck. It’s a single coil RDA but there are 4 post holes which are sliced into the ends of each post with an angle up to keep your leads in place while tightening down. Having 4 holes means you can wrap your coils either way and easily install the coils. You just put your coil in the middle, guide the leads into the sliced out holes and then screw down the post screw. Very easy to do and simple deck that is easy to build on. Only minor complain i have is the posts are rounded instead of flat so cutting your excess lead could be easier but it’s very minor and not a big deal at all. The post screws are pretty good quality flat head grub screws. And 4 spares are included. Would have been had they included a set of hex as well, but no complaints about the screws personally. Overall it’s a nice deck that’s easy to build on
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 Single Coil RDA only as intended. I ran 4 builds in this 1 fancy 3mm ID build, 1 fancy 3.5 mm ID build, 1 fancy 4mm ID build and 1 simple round 4mm ID build. For size I found it best to use 3-3.5mm ID max. There is an ultem insert and depending on how thick your wire is and how many wraps you use, it can get in the way of the coil so i’d suggest sticking to 3-3.5mm ID. There is plenty of room for lots of wraps as well. Performance wise I was a bit disappointed with round wire, it’s a lot more air then it looks like it would be and not much you can adjustment either. However with the larger fancy builds the flavor is really great. Good enough to put it in my top 3 along with the Mjölnir RDA (i designed) and C4 RDA as far as single coil RDAs with fancy builds go. So overall a good performer as long as you don’t use simple round wire.
Airflow, Misc. Details, and Extras
Let’s talk about the airflow now. It’s side airflow with 2 small oval shaped holes on each side. Full open it’s a slightly restricted DTL vape that’s not very smooth but also not very loud either but not quiet. Pretty average airflow. There isn’t much you can do in terms of adjustments though. Turning the cap doesn’t adjust evenly. The hole on the right is open more then the one on the left and it only gets slightly more restrictive. You also can’t close off 1 hole either. Pretty disappointed in the lack of options there so really it’s best to just be used fully open. The air adjustment is also not on a stopper. The top cap does not lock into place either which would have made it easy to screw on and off your mod but instead many times trying to do so just spins the sop cap so you need to remove the top cap and unscrew it from the deck. A couple of notches could have fixed that and made it better. The top cap also gets very hot especially when chain vaping. Does Not dissipate heat well at all.
It comes with only 1 standard 510 drip tip. It’s a simple basic black delrin one. Obviously being 510 no adapter is needed but for an expensive RDA they should have had more tips then 1 simple black delrin one. The Drip tip does fit very well in the RDA. snug, not loose, not tight. You can use your own as well and most should work just fine. The quality on the Psyclone Citadel RDA is overall ok. 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 post screws are good quality as well and 4 spare screws are included (spares are flathead only). The top cap though feels a bit light and dinky for a 75 dollar RDA. Really that’s my only complaint and had it been a 30 dollar RDA wouldn’t have really cared but the quality here is no better than many good RDAs at half the price. It comes only with a squonk pin and no separate pin for not squonking and the positive pin isn’t even gold plated and they don’t list the material either. In order to use it as a dripper there is a plug screw that is screwed into the bottom of the deck. You unscrew that (which is a hex grub screw) and screw it into the positive pin to plug the hole. No issues with that personally but they really should have had gold plated positive pin.
The juice well is a decent size. Due to the airflow being kind of high up on the side it creates a decent sized juice well. The over squonk protection and Over drip protection is pretty good. I used it as both a dripper and a squonker and it worked better as a squonker. As a dripper you can drip right down the drip tip without taking off the top cap but that does lead to spitback and you can’t drip a lot a the well isn’t that big. As a squonker though it worked very well.
It’s a 22mm 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, and 1 allen wrench so pretty bare on accessories. Branding is really nice on this RDA. no visible branding on the outside. It just looks like a plain RDA and all the branding is on the bottom so well done there.
Pros:
So with all that said, do I recommend this RDA?I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, and this one was a bit tough for me as the performance is there for a single coil RDA with the right build, but in the same sense the lack of performance with simpler builds, the lack of accessories, the feel of the quality and many other things really don’t justify the price tag. I’m going to mark it at 50/50. I wouldn’t say avoid by any means it’s not a bad RDA and if you wanted one, don’t mind the price tag, and planned to squonk with it and use fancy builds, I think you’ll enjoy it. Outside of that though it still isn’t anything better and often has some worse qualities of RDAs at half the price so I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it either. 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 Element Vape
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
Spreadsheet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 so far list here
Best of 2017 list here
Introduction:
The Psyclone Citadel rda is the latest RDA from small vape manufacturer Psyclone. Most popular for their Hadaly RDA from a few years ago, they are popular in the small community and seen as “high end” due to their price point of charging 75-135 dollars an RDA. Personally I don’t buy into the “high end” thing in vaping as to me for something to be high end there should be something to make the price worth it and not just the price itself, be it performance or quality of machining or quality of materials used. The Citadel RDA is a single coil DTL RDA with an included squonk pin and ultem insert. It’s available in 1 colors which is SS. Elementvape has them for 75 USD in the US.
Manufacturer's Specs
- 22mm Stainless Steel RDA
- Peek Insulators
- Black Delrin Drip Tip
- Unique Ultem Chamber Reducer To Enhance Flavor and Warmth
- Dual Sided Slotted Post with Large Flathead Securing Set Screws
- Hadaly Styled Airflow Angled Downward for Minimizing Leaks
- Integrated Squonk 510 pin (Plug Screw is Located in the Bottom of the Deck)
- Spare Parts Kit (Spare O-Rings, Spare Set Screws, Squonk Plug Screw Tool)
- Width: 2.50 (in)
- Height: 2.50 (in)
- Depth: 1.50 (in)
- 1 Citadel RDA
- 1 Accessory Bag
album
Initial Impressions
When I first got this RDA well i wasn’t too impressed to start. Never had something from psyclone before but have purchased quite a few of what some would consider “high end” atomizers and mods and plenty of other high end products and usually you get some nice packaging and lots of accessories and authenticity cards and it should have a high quality feel. What i got when i opened the box was a basic box with a little pouch, a dinky feeling RDA, and a very minimal amount of accessories. Wasn’t really what i was expecting for the price tag.
Build Deck and Wicking (pics above)
Let’s talk about the build deck now. It’s nothing new or innovative but it is however a very simple and easy to use deck. It’s a single coil RDA but there are 4 post holes which are sliced into the ends of each post with an angle up to keep your leads in place while tightening down. Having 4 holes means you can wrap your coils either way and easily install the coils. You just put your coil in the middle, guide the leads into the sliced out holes and then screw down the post screw. Very easy to do and simple deck that is easy to build on. Only minor complain i have is the posts are rounded instead of flat so cutting your excess lead could be easier but it’s very minor and not a big deal at all. The post screws are pretty good quality flat head grub screws. And 4 spares are included. Would have been had they included a set of hex as well, but no complaints about the screws personally. Overall it’s a nice deck that’s easy to build on
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 Single Coil RDA only as intended. I ran 4 builds in this 1 fancy 3mm ID build, 1 fancy 3.5 mm ID build, 1 fancy 4mm ID build and 1 simple round 4mm ID build. For size I found it best to use 3-3.5mm ID max. There is an ultem insert and depending on how thick your wire is and how many wraps you use, it can get in the way of the coil so i’d suggest sticking to 3-3.5mm ID. There is plenty of room for lots of wraps as well. Performance wise I was a bit disappointed with round wire, it’s a lot more air then it looks like it would be and not much you can adjustment either. However with the larger fancy builds the flavor is really great. Good enough to put it in my top 3 along with the Mjölnir RDA (i designed) and C4 RDA as far as single coil RDAs with fancy builds go. So overall a good performer as long as you don’t use simple round wire.
Airflow, Misc. Details, and Extras
Let’s talk about the airflow now. It’s side airflow with 2 small oval shaped holes on each side. Full open it’s a slightly restricted DTL vape that’s not very smooth but also not very loud either but not quiet. Pretty average airflow. There isn’t much you can do in terms of adjustments though. Turning the cap doesn’t adjust evenly. The hole on the right is open more then the one on the left and it only gets slightly more restrictive. You also can’t close off 1 hole either. Pretty disappointed in the lack of options there so really it’s best to just be used fully open. The air adjustment is also not on a stopper. The top cap does not lock into place either which would have made it easy to screw on and off your mod but instead many times trying to do so just spins the sop cap so you need to remove the top cap and unscrew it from the deck. A couple of notches could have fixed that and made it better. The top cap also gets very hot especially when chain vaping. Does Not dissipate heat well at all.
It comes with only 1 standard 510 drip tip. It’s a simple basic black delrin one. Obviously being 510 no adapter is needed but for an expensive RDA they should have had more tips then 1 simple black delrin one. The Drip tip does fit very well in the RDA. snug, not loose, not tight. You can use your own as well and most should work just fine. The quality on the Psyclone Citadel RDA is overall ok. 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 post screws are good quality as well and 4 spare screws are included (spares are flathead only). The top cap though feels a bit light and dinky for a 75 dollar RDA. Really that’s my only complaint and had it been a 30 dollar RDA wouldn’t have really cared but the quality here is no better than many good RDAs at half the price. It comes only with a squonk pin and no separate pin for not squonking and the positive pin isn’t even gold plated and they don’t list the material either. In order to use it as a dripper there is a plug screw that is screwed into the bottom of the deck. You unscrew that (which is a hex grub screw) and screw it into the positive pin to plug the hole. No issues with that personally but they really should have had gold plated positive pin.
The juice well is a decent size. Due to the airflow being kind of high up on the side it creates a decent sized juice well. The over squonk protection and Over drip protection is pretty good. I used it as both a dripper and a squonker and it worked better as a squonker. As a dripper you can drip right down the drip tip without taking off the top cap but that does lead to spitback and you can’t drip a lot a the well isn’t that big. As a squonker though it worked very well.
It’s a 22mm 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, and 1 allen wrench so pretty bare on accessories. Branding is really nice on this RDA. no visible branding on the outside. It just looks like a plain RDA and all the branding is on the bottom so well done there.
Pros:
- standard positive squonk pin and plug for dripping included
- plenty of spare o-rings
- great quality post screws
- Good over squonk protection
- Good enough Juice Well
- great flavor for large fancy builds
- Great easy to build on build deck
- nice simple looks
- flavor lacks with simple round wire builds
- lack of accessories
- only 1 standard 510 drip tip
- AFC lacks meaningful adjustment
- Top cap gets really hot
- Top cap doesn’t lock into place
- only 1 Color Option
- does not work great as a dripper
- good build quality overall doesn’t feel worth the price tag
- Price point (75 USD) - isn’t justified by anything tangible.
- positive pin not gold plated
So with all that said, do I recommend this RDA?I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, and this one was a bit tough for me as the performance is there for a single coil RDA with the right build, but in the same sense the lack of performance with simpler builds, the lack of accessories, the feel of the quality and many other things really don’t justify the price tag. I’m going to mark it at 50/50. I wouldn’t say avoid by any means it’s not a bad RDA and if you wanted one, don’t mind the price tag, and planned to squonk with it and use fancy builds, I think you’ll enjoy it. Outside of that though it still isn’t anything better and often has some worse qualities of RDAs at half the price so I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it either. 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 Element Vape
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
Spreadsheet of Recommendations here
Best of 2018 so far list here
Best of 2017 list here
