After much research on tanks, I was looking for something that looked nice, performed well and wouldn't put me in the poorhouse. I had been using the Aspire BDC tanks and really liked them. I stumbled across Rip Trippers review of the Nautilus and thought I'd give it a try, since it met all my criteria.
As you can see in the photo, I have my Nautilus sitting atop my Lavatube 2.5 and I'm vaping it at 9 watts on the stock 1.6 ohm coil.
Packing: 5 of 5
I know packing isn't super important but it was impressive anyway. It came in a nice two piece, black box inside a plastic sleeve. Inside the box, the tank and parts were securely packed in molded plastic. There's no way anything could be jostled around during shipping. It came with the tank, an eGo ring and an extra coil (1.8 ohm), with a 1.6 ohm coil already installed! It also came with a nice little instruction booklet.
Appearance: 4 of 5
It may not be as pretty as some of the other tanks out there, such as the Kayfun or Kraken, but I really do like the look of it. It looks a lot like the tube out of a tube amplifier head. (I'm a guitarist, so that appealed to me.) The top and bottom caps are gnarled for easy grip and look pleasing enough. It's topped with a decent stainless drip tip with a nice wide opening. The reason I give it a 4 instead of a 5 is because I'm not a fan of the HUGE lettering on the glass tank. Something more subtle, like the letter on the Aspire BDC tanks, would have been more appealing to me. This is a small grip though, and personal preference.
Build Quality: 5 of 5
The Nautilus is built really well! All stainless steel and a LARGE pyrex glass tank (5 ml). Everything seals up real nicely and I haven't had any leaks as of yet. The silicone seal on top of the base where it connects to the tank was a nice touch. All the threads are smooth. I found no blemishes in the stainless, so it seems care is taken in building these nice units. The 4-way adjustable airflow works flawlessly and the ring locks in each air hole position.
Performance: 5 of 5:
Here is the fun part! Wow does this thing perform. I tend to stick with the smallest and largest holes, sometimes using the medium holes. I use the smallest hole for mouth to lung draws when I'm just sitting at my desk at work or driving in my car. On the smallest hole, I still feel like it's more airy than my Aspire BDC tanks. I also get a thicker cloud than my BDCs at this setting and the flavor is really good. When I'm at home, I open it up to the largest hole and that's where the fun begins! This is where I take my straight to lung draws. I am so impressed with the clouds I get from this tank! I can fog my band room out in a few chain draws! And the flavor is killer. I'm so happy with the performance of this tank. Well worth the $40 I spent on it. I haven't had any gurgling or spitting from this unit like I've experience with my other tanks.
I couldn't think of a heading for this next part, so I will just put my biggest gripe here, and it's a big one. Aspire seems to be continually trying to make their coils un-rebuild-able. I know this is their way of trying to make more money off the consumers and it sucks! Especially since a 5-pack of coils is around $18 at the lowest and you're already paying $40 dollars for the tank. Luckily, Rip Trippers has figured this out and posted a tutorial on YouTube for rebuilding micro coils for them. Looks pretty tedious but definitely doable. I'll definitely be rebuilding my coils.
So, overall, this thing ROCKS! I'm super impressed with it and it's quickly become my primary tank.
Hope this helps and if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Happy vaping!
