Drop Dead RDA review and troubleshoot for flavor

[Morgan_Drury]

This is going to be a review of the Drop Dead by Hellvape as well as a troubleshooting tutorial for getting fantastic flavor out of it.

The Drop Dead RDA is a collaboration between Heathen and The Vapor Chronicles.

It's what you get if the Drop and the Dead Rabbit had a baby.

The deck is from the Drop. The cap is from the Dead Rabbit.

The reason why I decided to write this up is because of the lack of substantial assistance I found online in building this RDA in a way that doesn't end up in muted flavor and a unrewarding vaping experience.

I've had this RDA 17 days, vaped tons of juice on it and gone through all sorts of variations of builds of dual coil and single coil setups from ranging from 2mm to 4mm of hive coils, claptons, twisted and framed staple claptons.

Regardless of placement, most of the time it was sub par and left me unsatisfied.

Ultimately, I ended up finding a solution for me that transformed this RDA from a dud to a star in terms of flavor.

Disclaimer: I paid for this RDA and have no ties to Heathen, Hellvape or The Vapor Chronicles.

**********


WHAT YOU GET

1 Drop Dead RDA

1 510 Drip Tip Adapter

1 810 Resin Drip Tip

1 810 Clear Drip Tip

1 Squonk Pin

2 Screwdrivers. 1 Phillips. 1 Flathead.

1 Allen Key

Extra O rings and Screws

1 Manual in English, German, Russian, French Spanish and Italian

A Fancy Drop Dead Sticker


**********


BUILD DECK, CAP AND WICKING

I really like this deck. Simple design and very easy to clip your coils while they are in the posts.

The main body of the cap has 14 airholes on each side. Using the top of the cap, you can adjust it to customize the airflow. Twisting the body to the right locks it in place.

The top of cap is something that I think a lot of people overlook and it seriously affects the air flow. At the airflow entry, there is a 45 degree downward ramp. This guides the air to hit the outer portion of the posts. I didn't take this into account and it was affecting the experience in a bad way.

Here's how I got around the issue and ended up with a very flavorful vape instead of giving up on it and turning the Drop Dead RDA into a paperweight.

I started with a Scottish roll for the cotton, wrapped a Stainless Steel Mesh the length of the posts around it, fit that inside a 26g prebuilt Kanthal A1 coil.

After repeating the process for the second coil, I clipped the coils so I could drop them flush on the deck and placed them very close to the wall of the RDA.

I cleared away cotton that was blocking air from hitting the SS mesh, used that cotton to build a barrier between the atomizer wall and the ends of the mesh to prevent possible shorting.

Coils came out to.34 ohms and I vaped at 70w in TCR mode with the airflow wide open.

Flavor was fantastic and the air flow is very smooth. Best experience I had gotten so far out of this RDA.


**********


FINAL THOUGHTS

As much of a hassle this was figuring out, I'm glad for the experience. It made me have to think outside the box and I'm sure what I learned with enrich my experiences in the future with other devices.

Feel free to adapt the way I built my coils to your liking. Just make sure to take into account the 45 degree angle cut into the cap when you build.

I would recommend this RDA.


**********


PROS

The design looks amazing

Build deck is simple and easy to use

Flavor is amazing if you build it right.

8 RDA color options

Reasonably priced

Cap is locking, adjustable and has a grip on it.


**********


CONS

Flavor is garbage if you don't figure out coil placement.

Ran into a lot of spitback while figuring this RDA out.

 

[dom qp]

That's going to be a no from me chief.

 

[Mark Spivey]

Personally I found myself wishing each side had 21 air holes. In fact, I plan on trying to do either that or cut open the air intakes on both sides (like the Dead Rabbit). It's just a touch too restricted for me. I too had to futz with coil placement until I found "the sweet spot". Other than the afformentioned, I like the RDA.

 

[Morgan_Drury]

That's going to be a no from me chief.

To each their own. This whole ordeal lead me to try stainless steel as a heating source. Once I get some SS wire, I don't plan on using any other metal in my builds.

Personally I found myself wishing each side had 21 air holes. In fact, I plan on trying to do either that or cut open the air intakes on both sides (like the Dead Rabbit). It's just a touch too restricted for me. I too had to futz with coil placement until I found "the sweet spot". Other than the afformentioned, I like the RDA.

I hear you there. If you're you not happy with the airflow, make it happen and modify the cap. I plan on getting something like these titanium step drill bits before I start building my own mods

Other options I've seen for more airflow with this RDA:

I'd like to try both styles to see if I prefer either over the stock cap. Just not going to drop the cash to find out.

 

[VapourFlavour]

I gave mine away, I couldn't stand this one.

I'm glad you finally like yours, but what other rda's do you have to compare it to?

 

[Morgan_Drury]

I gave mine away, I couldn't stand this one.

I'm glad you finally like yours, but what other rda's do you have to compare it to?

I don't blame you. I was giving myself another two weeks to crack it. By Christmas, the plan was to modify the cap and grind away that 45 degree angle if it still vaped like trash.

Only other RDA I've been vaping on lately is a Twisted Messes v1.

 

[Mark Spivey]

I have to get on my computer to get the list. I have a total of 18 RDAs.

 

[dom qp]

The drop dead is like the dead rabbit moreso than the drop when it comes to build. You mention you haven't owned either, so you probably didn't get to work out the kinks. They're opposites, and I think it's why people love one and hate the other. They build one style and that style is either long and far or short and close.

I'm posting this in case someone googles and ends up here.

The Drop
You need to build as low as possible, then push the coils over the centre of the deck. The air comes through the sides and then up, you want it to catch that air. Your wicking also needs to be clean to make sure you don't obstruct the flow.

The Dead Rabbit/Drop Dead
You need your coils to sit as far on the edges as possible of the deck. They should almost be shorting and directly underneath the airflow. Your coils should be sitting extremely high.

Disclaimer: The coils should be sitting even HIGHER up. The legs should be roughly as long as the height of the coil itself. I don't have any pictures to show this.






Personally I like the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit more because you can squonk a lot more. But there's a huge problem with the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit.

If you're the kind of person looking to use one of these, you're likely hoping to use gigantic coils for gigantic clouds. If you use small coils it won't work that well, there's too much space. Assuming you're using NI80 with multicore claptons, you'll probably looking at 0.13-0.26ish in resistance. Because the coils are so chunky, let's say you're hitting it at 4.4V. That means you're hitting it somewhere in the range of 75W to 150W. If your looking to say "hey Big D, that's wrong! I use my Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop at 50W using round wire or simple claptons" then you would be far better off using a different RDA. If you don't believe me than it's because you haven't tried much outside of those 3 RDAs.

To get flavour your coils need to be sitting up extremely high and kissing the airflow. If you put them too low, not only do you get bad flavour, but your coils turn black and your cotton caramelizes -- exactly like in your picture. You're setting your coils too low. If your coils are kissing the airflow for flavour, each one of the coils is only getting one sided airflow. Your top cap is going to turn molten in only a couple hits. The airflow isn't sufficient for two coils to nearly be touching the barrel, close to your mouth, at 75W to 150W.

The Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop are what put the nail in the coffin for me when it comes to RDAs. They forced me to go single coil. If you take a look at something like the B2K, it's a single coil RDA with sufficient airflow to hit it at 110W. The airflow means cloud production and the ability to cool down the coil quickly. The quick cooling allows for smaller chambers. The smaller chamber means more flavour.

What is the best dual coil RDA? The B2K - it competes directly with them. It's more like a dual coil than a traditional small chamber single coil and I would compare it more to the Drop Dead than, for example, the KRMA or Citadel.

This is a triple 26G clapton. It's 0.16 resistance (similar to what you would put in a Drop Dead) and I occasionally hit it in the 90-110W range when I really want to cloud chase. It puts out more flavour than any build i've had in the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop, and it puts out the same clouds.

Bonus:
Green is Airflow
Blue is Coils
Red is Problem

 

[Skeebo]

Is that the robot from Lost in Space?

 

[dom qp]

Is that the robot from Lost in Space?

 

[GamblerMagic]

The drop dead is like the dead rabbit moreso than the drop when it comes to build. You mention you haven't owned either, so you probably didn't get to work out the kinks. They're opposites, and I think it's why people love one and hate the other. They build one style and that style is either long and far or short and close.

I'm posting this in case someone googles and ends up here.

The Drop
You need to build as low as possible, then push the coils over the centre of the deck. The air comes through the sides and then up, you want it to catch that air. Your wicking also needs to be clean to make sure you don't obstruct the flow.

View attachment 785359


The Dead Rabbit/Drop Dead
You need your coils to sit as far on the edges as possible of the deck. They should almost be shorting and directly underneath the airflow. Your coils should be sitting extremely high.

View attachment 785361

Disclaimer: The coils should be sitting even HIGHER up. The legs should be roughly as long as the height of the coil itself. I don't have any pictures to show this.


Personally I like the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit more because you can squonk a lot more. But there's a huge problem with the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit.

If you're the kind of person looking to use one of these, you're likely hoping to use gigantic coils for gigantic clouds. If you use small coils it won't work that well, there's too much space. Assuming you're using NI80 with multicore claptons, you'll probably looking at 0.13-0.26ish in resistance. Because the coils are so chunky, let's say you're hitting it at 4.4V. That means you're hitting it somewhere in the range of 75W to 150W. If your looking to say "hey Big D, that's wrong! I use my Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop at 50W using round wire or simple claptons" then you would be far better off using a different RDA. If you don't believe me than it's because you haven't tried much outside of those 3 RDAs.

To get flavour your coils need to be sitting up extremely high and kissing the airflow. If you put them too low, not only do you get bad flavour, but your coils turn black and your cotton caramelizes -- exactly like in your picture. You're setting your coils too low. If your coils are kissing the airflow for flavour, each one of the coils is only getting one sided airflow. Your top cap is going to turn molten in only a couple hits. The airflow isn't sufficient for two coils to nearly be touching the barrel, close to your mouth, at 75W to 150W.

The Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop are what put the nail in the coffin for me when it comes to RDAs. They forced me to go single coil. If you take a look at something like the B2K, it's a single coil RDA with sufficient airflow to hit it at 110W. The airflow means cloud production and the ability to cool down the coil quickly. The quick cooling allows for smaller chambers. The smaller chamber means more flavour.

What is the best dual coil RDA? The B2K - it competes directly with them. It's more like a dual coil than a traditional small chamber single coil and I would compare it more to the Drop Dead than, for example, the KRMA or Citadel.

This is a triple 26G clapton. It's 0.16 resistance (similar to what you would put in a Drop Dead) and I occasionally hit it in the 90-110W range when I really want to cloud chase. It puts out more flavour than any build i've had in the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop, and it puts out the same clouds.

View attachment 785363


Bonus:
Green is Airflow
Blue is Coils
Red is Problem

View attachment 785365

I concur, I own both the drop dead and drop and other RDAs, I have no problem getting amazing flavor out of them. On the drop I've actually had good luck "stacking" the coils. I leave the legs long enough to be able to bend them into and down in the middle of the deck.

Frame staples work well for me

 

[Morgan_Drury]

The drop dead is like the dead rabbit moreso than the drop when it comes to build. You mention you haven't owned either, so you probably didn't get to work out the kinks. They're opposites, and I think it's why people love one and hate the other. They build one style and that style is either long and far or short and close.

I'm posting this in case someone googles and ends up here.

The Drop
You need to build as low as possible, then push the coils over the centre of the deck. The air comes through the sides and then up, you want it to catch that air. Your wicking also needs to be clean to make sure you don't obstruct the flow.

View attachment 785359


The Dead Rabbit/Drop Dead
You need your coils to sit as far on the edges as possible of the deck. They should almost be shorting and directly underneath the airflow. Your coils should be sitting extremely high.

View attachment 785361

Disclaimer: The coils should be sitting even HIGHER up. The legs should be roughly as long as the height of the coil itself. I don't have any pictures to show this.

If you're the kind of person looking to use one of these, you're likely hoping to use gigantic coils for gigantic clouds. If you use small coils it won't work that well, there's too much space. Assuming you're using NI80 with multicore claptons, you'll probably looking at 0.13-0.26ish in resistance. Because the coils are so chunky, let's say you're hitting it at 4.4V. That means you're hitting it somewhere in the range of 75W to 150W. If your looking to say "hey Big D, that's wrong! I use my Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop at 50W using round wire or simple claptons" then you would be far better off using a different RDA. If you don't believe me than it's because you haven't tried much outside of those 3 RDAs.

To get flavour your coils need to be sitting up extremely high and kissing the airflow. If you put them too low, not only do you get bad flavour, but your coils turn black and your cotton caramelizes -- exactly like in your picture. You're setting your coils too low. If your coils are kissing the airflow for flavour, each one of the coils is only getting one sided airflow. Your top cap is going to turn molten in only a couple hits. The airflow isn't sufficient for two coils to nearly be touching the barrel, close to your mouth, at 75W to 150W.

The Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop are what put the nail in the coffin for me when it comes to RDAs. They forced me to go single coil. If you take a look at something like the B2K, it's a single coil RDA with sufficient airflow to hit it at 110W. The airflow means cloud production and the ability to cool down the coil quickly. The quick cooling allows for smaller chambers. The smaller chamber means more flavour.

What is the best dual coil RDA? The B2K - it competes directly with them. It's more like a dual coil than a traditional small chamber single coil and I would compare it more to the Drop Dead than, for example, the KRMA or Citadel.

This is a triple 26G clapton. It's 0.16 resistance (similar to what you would put in a Drop Dead) and I occasionally hit it in the 90-110W range when I really want to cloud chase. It puts out more flavour than any build i've had in the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop, and it puts out the same clouds.

View attachment 785363


Bonus:
Green is Airflow
Blue is Coils
Red is Problem

View attachment 785365

I'm going to chalk this up to not actually reading what I wrote.

Also I'm guessing you didn't read what I based this off of. You might want to read:

Drop Dead RDA Flavor Fix



You said this: "coils turn black and your cotton caramelizes -- exactly like in your picture"

Was just freshly wicked and coiled. Hadn't fired yet. Discoloration is from the juice and the way stainless steel looks when you impose a shadow on it.



Let me back up what I said with science:

Air is pulled in from the outside of the RDA. Air meets the cap which has a wedge. The direction of the air changes in relation to the angle of that wedge. It continues to travel in that angle's direction until it hits the posts.

 

[dom qp]

I'm going to chalk this up to not actually reading what I wrote.

View attachment 785383



Also I'm guessing you didn't read what I based this off of. You might want to read:

Drop Dead RDA Flavor Fix



You said this: "coils turn black and your cotton caramelizes -- exactly like in your picture"

Was just freshly wicked and coiled. Hadn't fired yet. Discoloration is from the juice and the way stainless steel looks when you impose a shadow on it.



Let me back up what I said with science:

View attachment 785387

View attachment 785385

View attachment 785389

View attachment 785395



Air is pulled in from the outside of the RDA. Air meets the cap which has a wedge. The direction of the air changes in relation to the angle of that wedge. It continues to travel in that angle's direction until it hits the posts.

I'm super glad you found something that worked for you. Hopefully the thousands of people using a Drop Dead every day and that are satisfied see your build and try it out. If they've never tried anything else, they might not know what they are missing.

Also happy to know that these are a fresh wicks and coils. I was worried for your well being.

I wouldn't know any better, since my stainless turns blue/purple/orange. When it does turn black it doesn't have the chalky coal residue. I hear it can be from contaminants.

Also didn't realize the negative pressure you create while sucking out of your drip tip won't affect the airflow down into the deck. I feel like there's an opportunity to create a vacuum system based on that amazing nugget of knowledge.

Thank you for enlightening me Morgan.

 

[VapourFlavour]

The drop dead is like the dead rabbit moreso than the drop when it comes to build. You mention you haven't owned either, so you probably didn't get to work out the kinks. They're opposites, and I think it's why people love one and hate the other. They build one style and that style is either long and far or short and close.

I'm posting this in case someone googles and ends up here.

The Drop
You need to build as low as possible, then push the coils over the centre of the deck. The air comes through the sides and then up, you want it to catch that air. Your wicking also needs to be clean to make sure you don't obstruct the flow.

View attachment 785359


The Dead Rabbit/Drop Dead
You need your coils to sit as far on the edges as possible of the deck. They should almost be shorting and directly underneath the airflow. Your coils should be sitting extremely high.

View attachment 785361

Disclaimer: The coils should be sitting even HIGHER up. The legs should be roughly as long as the height of the coil itself. I don't have any pictures to show this.






Personally I like the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit more because you can squonk a lot more. But there's a huge problem with the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit.

If you're the kind of person looking to use one of these, you're likely hoping to use gigantic coils for gigantic clouds. If you use small coils it won't work that well, there's too much space. Assuming you're using NI80 with multicore claptons, you'll probably looking at 0.13-0.26ish in resistance. Because the coils are so chunky, let's say you're hitting it at 4.4V. That means you're hitting it somewhere in the range of 75W to 150W. If your looking to say "hey Big D, that's wrong! I use my Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop at 50W using round wire or simple claptons" then you would be far better off using a different RDA. If you don't believe me than it's because you haven't tried much outside of those 3 RDAs.

To get flavour your coils need to be sitting up extremely high and kissing the airflow. If you put them too low, not only do you get bad flavour, but your coils turn black and your cotton caramelizes -- exactly like in your picture. You're setting your coils too low. If your coils are kissing the airflow for flavour, each one of the coils is only getting one sided airflow. Your top cap is going to turn molten in only a couple hits. The airflow isn't sufficient for two coils to nearly be touching the barrel, close to your mouth, at 75W to 150W.

The Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop are what put the nail in the coffin for me when it comes to RDAs. They forced me to go single coil. If you take a look at something like the B2K, it's a single coil RDA with sufficient airflow to hit it at 110W. The airflow means cloud production and the ability to cool down the coil quickly. The quick cooling allows for smaller chambers. The smaller chamber means more flavour.

What is the best dual coil RDA? The B2K - it competes directly with them. It's more like a dual coil than a traditional small chamber single coil and I would compare it more to the Drop Dead than, for example, the KRMA or Citadel.

This is a triple 26G clapton. It's 0.16 resistance (similar to what you would put in a Drop Dead) and I occasionally hit it in the 90-110W range when I really want to cloud chase. It puts out more flavour than any build i've had in the Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop, and it puts out the same clouds.

View attachment 785363


Bonus:
Green is Airflow
Blue is Coils
Red is Problem

View attachment 785365

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the challenge of a new build deck, but if I have to worry about adjusting a build that many times to get any type of flavor that deck is going in the garbage. I had a very similar build to what you're recommending in mine before I gave it away and although it was a bit better is still sucked.

 

[Morgan_Drury]

I'm super glad you found something that worked for you. Hopefully the thousands of people using a Drop Dead every day and that are satisfied see your build and try it out. If they've never tried anything else, they might not know what they are missing.

Also happy to know that these are a fresh wicks and coils. I was worried for your well being.

I wouldn't know any better, since my stainless turns blue/purple/orange. When it does turn black it doesn't have the chalky coal residue. I hear it can be from contaminants.

View attachment 785403

Also didn't realize the negative pressure you create while sucking out of your drip tip won't affect the airflow down into the deck. I feel like there's an opportunity to create a vacuum system based on that amazing nugget of knowledge.

Thank you for enlightening me Morgan.

I'm super glad you found something that worked for you. Hopefully the thousands of people using a Drop Dead every day and that are satisfied see your build and try it out. If they've never tried anything else, they might not know what they are missing.

Also happy to know that these are a fresh wicks and coils. I was worried for your well being.

I wouldn't know any better, since my stainless turns blue/purple/orange. When it does turn black it doesn't have the chalky coal residue. I hear it can be from contaminants.

View attachment 785403

Also didn't realize the negative pressure you create while sucking out of your drip tip won't affect the airflow down into the deck. I feel like there's an opportunity to create a vacuum system based on that amazing nugget of knowledge.

Thank you for enlightening me Morgan.

Hopefully the thousands of people using a Drop Dead every day and that are satisfied see your build and try it out. If they've never tried anything else, they might not know what they are missing.

Fast food is a way to get calories, but isn't the most efficient way when it comes to health.

You must have missed when I said it hadn't been fired. Stainless steel doesn't change colors without applying heat.

As for black, look at the picture quality. Add the effect of shadow on an out of focus pic and you get a misrepresentation of reality.

Example of that minus the shadow effect below.

Also didn't realize the negative pressure you create while sucking out of your drip tip won't affect the airflow down into the deck. I feel like there's an opportunity to create a vacuum system based on that amazing nugget of knowledge.

It causes the air to curve, but doesn't negate the downward motion over the distance and time it takes to travel to the posts.

 

[dom qp]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the challenge of a new build deck, but if I have to worry about adjusting a build that many times to get any type of flavor that deck is going in the garbage. I had a very similar build to what you're recommending in mine before I gave it away and although it was a bit better is still sucked.

We're on the same page man. My Drop Dead/Dead Rabbit/Drop are all in a box. Even though you've only been vaping for whatever amount of time, I think you're more experienced just from the fact that you've tried more RDAs than a lot of people who have been vaping for years.

When all you know is a couple dual coil RDAs it doesn't take much to get your mind blown, or much to get your bar raised. It's a fact we all forget.

 

[dom qp]

Hopefully the thousands of people using a Drop Dead every day and that are satisfied see your build and try it out. If they've never tried anything else, they might not know what they are missing.

Fast food is a way to get calories, but isn't the most efficient way when it comes to health.


View attachment 785409
View attachment 785411
You must have missed when I said it hadn't been fired. Stainless steel doesn't change colors without applying heat.

As for black, look at the picture quality. Add the effect of shadow on an out of focus pic and you get a misrepresentation of reality.

Example of that minus the shadow effect below.

View attachment 785417

Ah okay. Thanks Morgan. I think that's also how they faked the moon landing.

 

[Morgan_Drury]

Ah okay. Thanks Morgan. I think that's also how they faked the moon landing.

With that logic applied to what I said, travel by airplane must be faked.

 

[dom qp]

With that logic applied to what I said, travel by airplane must be faked.

Wouldn't surprise me. Although I never believed those contrail conspiracy theories, why would they go to such measures when they can just put it directly in our tap water?

 

[Morgan_Drury]

When all you know is a couple dual coil RDAs it doesn't take much to get your mind blown, or much to get your bar raised. It's a fact we all forget.

Every industry is based on hacking and tweaking the variables you can to get better results.

The point of this post was to show anyone searching to fix the flavor on this RDA how to optimize results.