Why?
Two reasons: firstly I've never owned a Hellfire device, and secondly, I fancied a second "designed for vertical coils" rda. The Raptor seemed a good choice, and when I looked there were some on the Attysmith website.
I arrived very quickly too...
What did I get?
No fancy packaging here, I got some bubble wrap containing the atomiser and a spare o-ring:
The atomiser is neat and plain - here are side, top and bottom views:
The top cap has a flat but ridged, inside. The chamber is quite small:
Here is a view of the "working bits" showing the centre post and insulator, the air-intake holes and the negative screws/posts:
In this second shot of the deck you can see the holes in bottom of the deck which are used to "centre" the vertical coils during a build:
Here is a shot of one of the airflow adjustment "knobs" which have the fully open and fully closed positions clearly marked:
This show shows the chamber's air-intake in an "open" setting:
And this one in a "closed" setting:
the external air intakes are very large and are capable of providing a lot of air:
Building the Raptor
I decided to go for a single coil build and a focus on flavour for my build. It occurred to me that my Marquis has come with building rods and I was pleased to find these fitted very nicely in the holes at the bottom of the Raptor's deck:
I started by trying coils using 28awg twisted kanthal on the 4mm rod, but the coil was too wide for the available space, I then tried the same with the 3.5mm rod - this looked ok and measured out ok on my ohmmeter, but when I fired it up and the kanthal expanded I got a short. I moved to the 3mm rod and 30awg twisted Kanthal (mix of round and ribbon). This measured out at 0.58ohms and worked splendidly:
Vaping the Raptor
Having wicked the Raptor with Japanese cotton (I used a very thin strip folded over a small screwdriver to wick inside the coil and then filled the other half of the deck with cotton across to the bottom of the coil), I fitted the Raptor to my ELA and, having closed the "empty" side of the airflow, adjusted the other control until I had a "fairly tight" draw. Because the air intakes are in the deck and not the cap, it means that once the draw is set it will stay that way and it doesn't matter in what orientation you fit the cap.
I am very pleased with the vape I got from this build and setting. Very good dense vapour in goodly quantity plus excellent flavour. Overall, I found the Raptor takes care, but isn't difficult to build, is very well (and robustly) made and provides a vape I like. So, job done
The Raptor and Marquis
Some people have made remarks about the Raptor "borrowing" from the Marquis (which in turn has been accused of doing the same from the Veritas). I don't agree (and suspect the Raptor and Marquis were probably developed independly much around the same time). Nevertheless I though it would be worth look at the two atties side by side and seeing how they differ...
The Raptor is the smaller of the two:
In terms of building, the Raptor won't take as large a coil as the Marquis and lacks the "crown" positive pole screw of the Marquis which makes trapping the wires so easy. Having said that the Raptor's deck is "open" in terms of access to the screws.
In terms of airflow, the Raptor provides a much wider range especially at the "wide open" end (even in single coil build it is capable of good clouds) but the Marquis is probably easier to get a "super tight" draw from. The Raptor provides a genuine "set the draw to what you want and forget it" experience as the draw won't change when the cap is removed, or slip when the atty is unscrewed from the mod - a great feature. The Marquis has the large removable drip tip holder which means that those who like a good view when dripping don't need to remove the atomiser top cap.
So, apart from being mainly aimed at vertical coils, these are two quite distinctive atomisers and are both very good at what they do. I have them both in action and, with the same juice, they each give an individual vape.
Two reasons: firstly I've never owned a Hellfire device, and secondly, I fancied a second "designed for vertical coils" rda. The Raptor seemed a good choice, and when I looked there were some on the Attysmith website.
I arrived very quickly too...
What did I get?
No fancy packaging here, I got some bubble wrap containing the atomiser and a spare o-ring:
The atomiser is neat and plain - here are side, top and bottom views:
The top cap has a flat but ridged, inside. The chamber is quite small:
Here is a view of the "working bits" showing the centre post and insulator, the air-intake holes and the negative screws/posts:
In this second shot of the deck you can see the holes in bottom of the deck which are used to "centre" the vertical coils during a build:
Here is a shot of one of the airflow adjustment "knobs" which have the fully open and fully closed positions clearly marked:
This show shows the chamber's air-intake in an "open" setting:
And this one in a "closed" setting:
the external air intakes are very large and are capable of providing a lot of air:
Building the Raptor
I decided to go for a single coil build and a focus on flavour for my build. It occurred to me that my Marquis has come with building rods and I was pleased to find these fitted very nicely in the holes at the bottom of the Raptor's deck:
I started by trying coils using 28awg twisted kanthal on the 4mm rod, but the coil was too wide for the available space, I then tried the same with the 3.5mm rod - this looked ok and measured out ok on my ohmmeter, but when I fired it up and the kanthal expanded I got a short. I moved to the 3mm rod and 30awg twisted Kanthal (mix of round and ribbon). This measured out at 0.58ohms and worked splendidly:
Vaping the Raptor
Having wicked the Raptor with Japanese cotton (I used a very thin strip folded over a small screwdriver to wick inside the coil and then filled the other half of the deck with cotton across to the bottom of the coil), I fitted the Raptor to my ELA and, having closed the "empty" side of the airflow, adjusted the other control until I had a "fairly tight" draw. Because the air intakes are in the deck and not the cap, it means that once the draw is set it will stay that way and it doesn't matter in what orientation you fit the cap.
I am very pleased with the vape I got from this build and setting. Very good dense vapour in goodly quantity plus excellent flavour. Overall, I found the Raptor takes care, but isn't difficult to build, is very well (and robustly) made and provides a vape I like. So, job done
The Raptor and Marquis
Some people have made remarks about the Raptor "borrowing" from the Marquis (which in turn has been accused of doing the same from the Veritas). I don't agree (and suspect the Raptor and Marquis were probably developed independly much around the same time). Nevertheless I though it would be worth look at the two atties side by side and seeing how they differ...
The Raptor is the smaller of the two:
In terms of building, the Raptor won't take as large a coil as the Marquis and lacks the "crown" positive pole screw of the Marquis which makes trapping the wires so easy. Having said that the Raptor's deck is "open" in terms of access to the screws.
In terms of airflow, the Raptor provides a much wider range especially at the "wide open" end (even in single coil build it is capable of good clouds) but the Marquis is probably easier to get a "super tight" draw from. The Raptor provides a genuine "set the draw to what you want and forget it" experience as the draw won't change when the cap is removed, or slip when the atty is unscrewed from the mod - a great feature. The Marquis has the large removable drip tip holder which means that those who like a good view when dripping don't need to remove the atomiser top cap.
So, apart from being mainly aimed at vertical coils, these are two quite distinctive atomisers and are both very good at what they do. I have them both in action and, with the same juice, they each give an individual vape.
