With all the Russians/RDTA I've picked up over the last few months, I figured I'd do a light review of all of them before I start my next "table purge."
In general, I found ALL of the bottom-feeding style tanks I've tried to be far superior in flavor to pop-in coil tanks like the Naut or any cartomizer tanks, including Zen's cartos.
My measurement is personal experience (i.e. "your mileage WILL vary") based foremost on flavor (Jolly Cherry was used for 11 out of 13 of these, all were vaped at around 1.2 ohms off of a Provari, except for the Big Dripper), then on personal ease of build, then on machining/tank quality, with that order sometimes being shuffled if something stands out in particular.
The only popular pieces I'm missing seem to be the Orchid and the Rose. Would be open to looking into other "Russian styles" and especially RDTA's I may not yet know about. Here's my ratings so far:
1. Pontus RDTA from EHPro - The popular Youtuber "Rip Trippers" was correct when he said this was a bad dripper. But with the cool vape and easy build/use (and craftmanship better than some $100+ units) this is a badass *tank*. Better vape than moderately priced gennies. Build is on a TOBH base, which is easy to do apart from maneuvering the coils around to the airflow.
2. Big Buddha 26650 Kayfun - gusty, cold, and flavorful on the King Kong. Surprisingly easy to build.
3. Ruzgar - Flavor more than makes up for very little airflow. Difficult build with a teeny chamber, but worth the effort.
4. Expromizer - best overall vape from a standard 18xx Russian style. Leaky but others seemed to have found a fix with wicking it differently.
5. Fogger - Impossibly frustrating build yields a unique profile that has a neat, oddly pleasant "Rice Krispies" sound.
6. Squape - Fat, juicy vape that chucks more vapor than you'd expect on the draw. Easiest of all to build; hardest of all to wick.
7. Kayfun Lite - best value and ease overall. Light enough to use on my sensitive 510 pins on my pipes which is a huge plus, as well as its sneaky small stature. I hate the color options.
8 and 9. Russian 91%/Kayfun 3.1 (tie) - yes, I think the KFL is zippier than these. The adjustable pin and sleek black look of my 91% will make this hard to give up, although my 3.1 is long gone (the good quality couldn't make up for the brick weight).
10. Kayfun Mini (Infinite Clone) - High quality for an EGo sized unit, blows even a hand-built coil on a Gladius away. Inherited most of SVM's problems that led to the original's discontinuing; will end up dry hitting if you try chain vaping it.
11. UD - AG7 - I just can't master the stacked coils and wicking the HUGE chamber to maximize both juice containing AND airflow. I think it could be better, but it's a good sign that it works so well with my crappy builds, which generally take forever to do.
12. Gamma - High-quality titanium piece is a cinch to wire and wick, and the juice flow control is awesome - I vaped 100% VG out of it tonight. But it is a dripper's tank all the way, with a warm and very flavorful flow. I dig cooler, so I'll put this up on the block for dealing soon.
13. Big Dripper RDTA - The clone of this, at least, was awful to build, and the single coil dripping on a dual coil piece makes no sense. Rip talked this up over the EHPro, and it *is* a dripper's paradise when it works, and dripping is something I do occasionally, not all day.
14. EHPro Aqua - A superb quality vape was utterly ruined by frustrating usage; the adjustable tank (for airflow) would often get stuck, and I was done with it after slicing my finger messing with it. Leaked like no other, and couldn't find a way out of it.
Looking forward to seeing some suggestions and cross-comparisons from other members here!
In general, I found ALL of the bottom-feeding style tanks I've tried to be far superior in flavor to pop-in coil tanks like the Naut or any cartomizer tanks, including Zen's cartos.
My measurement is personal experience (i.e. "your mileage WILL vary") based foremost on flavor (Jolly Cherry was used for 11 out of 13 of these, all were vaped at around 1.2 ohms off of a Provari, except for the Big Dripper), then on personal ease of build, then on machining/tank quality, with that order sometimes being shuffled if something stands out in particular.
The only popular pieces I'm missing seem to be the Orchid and the Rose. Would be open to looking into other "Russian styles" and especially RDTA's I may not yet know about. Here's my ratings so far:
1. Pontus RDTA from EHPro - The popular Youtuber "Rip Trippers" was correct when he said this was a bad dripper. But with the cool vape and easy build/use (and craftmanship better than some $100+ units) this is a badass *tank*. Better vape than moderately priced gennies. Build is on a TOBH base, which is easy to do apart from maneuvering the coils around to the airflow.
2. Big Buddha 26650 Kayfun - gusty, cold, and flavorful on the King Kong. Surprisingly easy to build.
3. Ruzgar - Flavor more than makes up for very little airflow. Difficult build with a teeny chamber, but worth the effort.
4. Expromizer - best overall vape from a standard 18xx Russian style. Leaky but others seemed to have found a fix with wicking it differently.
5. Fogger - Impossibly frustrating build yields a unique profile that has a neat, oddly pleasant "Rice Krispies" sound.
6. Squape - Fat, juicy vape that chucks more vapor than you'd expect on the draw. Easiest of all to build; hardest of all to wick.
7. Kayfun Lite - best value and ease overall. Light enough to use on my sensitive 510 pins on my pipes which is a huge plus, as well as its sneaky small stature. I hate the color options.
8 and 9. Russian 91%/Kayfun 3.1 (tie) - yes, I think the KFL is zippier than these. The adjustable pin and sleek black look of my 91% will make this hard to give up, although my 3.1 is long gone (the good quality couldn't make up for the brick weight).
10. Kayfun Mini (Infinite Clone) - High quality for an EGo sized unit, blows even a hand-built coil on a Gladius away. Inherited most of SVM's problems that led to the original's discontinuing; will end up dry hitting if you try chain vaping it.
11. UD - AG7 - I just can't master the stacked coils and wicking the HUGE chamber to maximize both juice containing AND airflow. I think it could be better, but it's a good sign that it works so well with my crappy builds, which generally take forever to do.
12. Gamma - High-quality titanium piece is a cinch to wire and wick, and the juice flow control is awesome - I vaped 100% VG out of it tonight. But it is a dripper's tank all the way, with a warm and very flavorful flow. I dig cooler, so I'll put this up on the block for dealing soon.
13. Big Dripper RDTA - The clone of this, at least, was awful to build, and the single coil dripping on a dual coil piece makes no sense. Rip talked this up over the EHPro, and it *is* a dripper's paradise when it works, and dripping is something I do occasionally, not all day.
14. EHPro Aqua - A superb quality vape was utterly ruined by frustrating usage; the adjustable tank (for airflow) would often get stuck, and I was done with it after slicing my finger messing with it. Leaked like no other, and couldn't find a way out of it.
Looking forward to seeing some suggestions and cross-comparisons from other members here!
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