I'll confess right up front that I have never owned a top feeder, so you may want to take this advice with a grain of salt. I can, however, qualify my opinion with the following: I am a fellow reonaut of about 5 months. I am also an atty only kinda guy. I also put in a lot of thought to getting a top feeder. As you guessed, I decided against it and here is why....
You see, along with the reo, I have this provari that mainly sits around gathering dust (I kinda went mod happy when I started). It's a nice mod and all, but it really only gets used when I need to test an atty, when I am testing a battery, and when I am experimenting with a new DIY juice and I want a clean system with spot on accuracy. I thought to myself....."What could I do to make this mod more appealing to me where it might actually get some day to day use instead of sitting there looking pretty? Perhaps a Vapemate?"
I looked it up. If you are unfamiliar with the device, it's made my SuperTManufacturing. Basically, it's a top feeder add on. I read
reviews, I talked to people in the live chat, and what I heard was mixed
reviews. The thing has a learning curve that some either never quite catch, or never take the time to discover. Folks end up over feeding and either getting a mouth full of juice, or juice running out of the vents all over the mod ect, ect. Of course I hear a lot of stellar
reviews as well. I've heard of folks getting sick of the thing and buying a bottom feeder. What I have NOT heard (and I'm not saying it hasn't happened) is this: someone owning a nice bottom feeder and converting in to a daily top feeder kinda vapist with the Vapemate. Like you said, to me, bottom feeding tastes and performs every bit as well as dripping. Added bonus, it's easy. If you over feed, it goes in to the cup and you vape through that as well all in good time. Now the counter argument (gotta be fair now): There exists such a thing as a drip shield. Basically, it's a device that will slip on over the atty and keep the juice that runs out from going all over the place. My decision was to stick with bottom feeding. After all, why should I fix a system that has flaws when there is an available system that works just fine for me with out additional modifications?
There are a few mods out there that top feed automatically, theoretically fixing the over feeding problem, but I consider those to be an entirely different animal that might have more merit than bottom feeding. One day, maybe my 1 year vapaversary, I'll do some research and maybe give one a go. In the mean time, RippSpeed is coming out with a bottom feeder that will attach to the provari and other mods that I plan on purchasing for use with said provari.
Anyway, if you do decide to pick up that new GLV that can be used as either a top or bottom feeder (it DOES look sweet doesn't it?), be sure to drop me a PM and let me know which configuration you wind up using daily.....even though I bet I can guess ahead of time
