I'll start my post off by saying that I only have a couple months worth of experience with tanks, so take whatever I say bearing in mind. In my experience, the cheaper tanks have not been worth the money invested. I own 6 various smoktech dct's, and I've now had 3 with broken orings, 4 of them have had a hard time holding onto cartos, and all 6 of them look like what you paid for; a cheap tank. The 2 tanks that I keep regularly in my rotation now are a m1a1 and a Phiniac. I could have gotten 3 smoktechs for the price of the m1a1 shipped, and 6 for the price of the Phiniac, but neither of these tanks have given me any real problems. I'll try and lay out the advantages and disadvantages for each one.
Smoktech DCT:
-If you buy these from the right place, they come with a dual coil carto, so the actual price of these things is around $8. You can get the 6 ml tanks for roughly the same price from vaporbeast.
-They're no more difficult to fill than any other tank in my opinion, aside from having to be careful about the cartos falling out.
-If you use the pre-punched flanged cartos, the problems with sliding aren't very severe as there is a slot the flange sits in.
-If you punch your own cartos, you need to pray you got one of the tighter models or you'll end up with juice everywhere.
-The pre-punched cartos generally have 1 or 3 holes in them, which can end up being not enough, or being too much depending on thickness of juice.
-Most of these tanks are polycarbonate, so they're very weak to certain juice types, the ingredient being responsible for most disasters being Cinnamon.
-These tanks are almost exclusively designed for the XL Smoktech length cartos, so you'll be restricted to XL Boges and Dualcoils/Resurrectors. I believe they're now making a chrome one that is standard Boge length though.
*-I've personally had issues with the orings being very weak and breaking, as well as having one of the endcaps simply snap. I'm not sure if that's a normal feature or if I have the luck of a turtle struck by lightning whilst being attacked by a shark with legs.
Phiniac:
-Quite pricy, the tank I'm using is $55 I believe. I got mine on sale so I'm not entirely sure. They offer 3 different sizes depending on your preferred carto.
-If you're dead set on pre-punched cartos, the tallboys will hold the flanged 1.7 ohm single coils, or the flanged dual coils, with a little extra sticking out of the top. There also isn't a space for the flange so it won't sit snug on your pv.
-With the previous point in mind, these tanks were designed for unflanged cartos, which sit quite snugly in the tank after you've filled it. I have yet to experience the tank moving after I set the carto.
-Pushing the carto back out can be tricky depending on tank size, so a tool or a driptip that fits flush with the carto may be mandatory.
-Filling just requires you to push the carto down and insert liquid, roughly the same as the smoktech.
-Depending on your pv and personal aesthetics, these tanks may seem either extremely beautiful, or over the top.
-This is by far the most durable tank I've touched. I've dropped it on many occasions, and nothing ever happened to the tank, not a single scratch. In fact one drop was so far down that the carto inside of it cracked, but the tank itself was pristine.
M1A1:
-In the average price zone, roughly $30 after shipping.
-2 sizes, 1" for boge standard cartos and 1.5" for xl cartos. The 1 inch tank will leave an extra space on the top between your tip and the tank top.
-The tank tube is quite durable, although I've heard can be destroyed with Cinnamon like the Smoktech.
-The end caps are anodized aluminum, allegedly corrosion resistant, and they offer an assortment of colors which match their PV offerings.
-One of the features that some find to be a huge turnoff is a side screw. This is used both for filling the tank and as an extra measure to hold the carto, although the orings definitely do that job just fine on their own.
-Filling this tank through the side screw is nearly impossible without a bottle adapter or a syringe, so if you're not into that, you'd either have to fill it normally or avoid it altogether.
-The amount of liquid this tank holds is much less than other tank offerings, and I find myself wishing it was a little wider to hold more.
There are many other tanks out there that I intend to try, like the j-tank, so just check out some
reviews and see what looks like your cup of tea.
