Just got a pair of these today, with original-style round
juice holes (from STS). I had some SS316 coils laying around, having cut the legs a bit too short when winding for my Bachelors. Glad I kept them though, since the Merlin deck found them perfectly acceptable, so I started out with a spaced 9-wrap 26ga 3mm ID coil resisting at 0.68ohm, in TC. Restrictor out, wide open for air and
juice. Nice flavor, but insufficient wick led to gurgle and seep for my 70VG fluid. Re-wicked tightly with a fat swack of cotton, tucked all around, cleared away from the airflow and pushed back a tad through the
juice holes, and it's all good now.
The flavor is superb, rivaling the Bachelor. Is it better? Hard to tell, for me. Then again, the Merlin practically begs for the kinds of fancy coiling that I haven't ventured yet, so it may have more potential here. But even with this simple coil it's all too easy to make the juice disappear quickly, which has me pining for the extra mL I can squeeze into the Bachelor.
So, I wish it were bigger. I wish the little O-ring stayed tightly in its groove on the top-fill roof...I nearly lost both of mine during the rinsing phase of initial clean-up! Except for coil installation, the Bachelor beats it for convenience, due to the hinged top-fill and easier cleaning between flavors. And it would be nice if Merlin sat flush on my VTC Minis, but it gaps a little.
It's clearly a keeper, though! That velocity deck has me wanting to make the twisted, or parallel, or Clapton coils that the Bachelor's leg holes won't accommodate. I think I'll experiment with the restrictors, too, since I still enjoy MTL and have plenty of higher-nic liquid wanting some time in rotation.
