Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 R(D)TA | Reviews by Z-Lee

[Z-Lee]

Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 rta

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Hello and welcome back to another review. Today we have the Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 R(D)TA sent to me by Joyi over at Sourcemore. Even though this is labeled an rta, it's bottom fed via stainless steel cables which to me, would indicate it's an RDTA. The 1o3 is their third installment of the Brunhilde line of atomizers and incorporates some innovations that I haven't seen before which is always great to see.

If you've purchased a Vapefly product in the past, your expectations are probably pretty high like it is for me. The machining is top notch and I'm a huge fan of their style and aesthetics. With that in mind, there are a few considerations that I wouldn't necessarily consider cons, but definitely things to factor in if you're looking to purchase this atomizer. If you're a fan of versatility and/or you like to tinker, then you'll probably enjoy this RDTA even more. As always, I will conduct this review in a fair and honest manner.

Without further ado, let's get into it.

(photos can be clicked on to get a closer look and text will be added in case the photos do not load)

- COLOR OPTIONS -

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• Silver
• Gunmetal
• Black

- IN THE BOX -

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• Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 rta
• 7 mL Glass Tube
• 2x 0.35 Ohm Pre-built Coils
• 2x Firebolt Shoelace Cotton
• L-shaped Allen Driver
• T-Shaped Triple-sided Driver (2 Flat Heads, 1 Phillips)
• User Manual
• 4 Allen Screws
• 2 Screws
• 510 Drip Tip Adapter
• Slotted Airflow Insert (Honeycomb Insert Comes Pre-installed)
• Rubber Plug for Single Coil Configuration
• 4 Stainless Steel Wires
• Spare O-rings

- SPECS -

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Diameter: 25.2 mm
Height: 69.9 mm
Drip Tip: 810
Coil Configurations: Single, Dual Coils, & Quad Coil
Capacity: 7 mL

- AIRFLOW OPTIONS -

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There are tons of airflow options with this atomizer. Instead of the posts being open in the center, an interchangeable airflow insert can be used to direct airflow onto the coils directly via the insert. You can also twist the airflow ring to close off the airflow brought into the insert if you want to cut down the airflow to a Restricted Direct Lung (RDL) type vape.

- COIL CONFIGURATIONS -

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This deck is intended for single and dual coil builds via a rubber insert that comes with the kit to close off one side if you so choose. Later in the review, you'll see that this deck is large enough to accommodate a quad coil build, but the airflow becomes tricky. More on that below.

- REFILLING -

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One of my biggest gripes with both the MTL and DL Brunhildes in the past was the refill hole. They've opened up the refill hole and changed it to a spring-loaded system that still comes with its flaws, but fits a Chubby Gorilla bottle nozzle very easily.

- WICK FEEDING -

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Out of the box, 4 of the 6 stainless steel wires will be installed with two Allen screws plugging the middle hole on each side. This has become fairly standard for RDTAs with larger tanks like the Wotofo Profile 1.5, Vandy Vape Mato, ThunderHead Creations Artemis, and the Hellvape Helheim S to name a few. If you find the wicking to be insufficient, you can remove the two Allen screws and install two additional stainless steel wires to provide more juice to the wicks.

- COMPONENTS -

- CUSTOMER FEEDBACK -

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Like the upgrade made to the enlarged spring-loaded refill hole as I mentioned before, Vapefly continues to listen to customer feedback and find ways to improve their already well-made atomizers.

 

[Z-Lee]

- MY REVIEW EXPERIENCES & OBSERVATIONS -

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The packaging and looks upon opening the box are are impressive. Not to mention, the plethora of goodies you get with this atomizer kit feels like nothing short of Christmas. I wasn't expecting this RDTA to be as versatile as it is, so it's no surprise there are all sorts of inserts and spare parts to make it all work. I'll be getting more into this, below.

I've had this RDTA for about a month now. The testing has been rather extensive due to the experimentation of a quad coil build and all of the airflow settings at various power settings. Admittedly, I wasn't able to achieve as much flavor as I was anticipating with so much airflow being directed straight to the coils. For anyone that's spent some time rebuilding, they know that flavor output can be drastically affected by something as simple as moving the coils a millimeter or two, changing coil ID (inner diameter), or simply the power setting and/or airflow. That could be the case here, so unlike a coil head "sub ohm" tank with premade coils, my opinion on this matter is completely subjective. Not all coils and coil resistances vape the same. Regardless, the Brunhilde 1o3 has been fun experimenting with.

- ALL THE GOODIES -

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From top left to bottom right, you have a spare bag of O-rings and the single coil plug, a pair of Firebolt shoelace cotton strips along with a pair of 0.35 Ohm 3 mm ID coils, the 510 drip tip adapter, and an accessories bag full of spare screws, grub screws, stainless steel wire cables, the slotted airflow insert, and an Allen wrench along with a triple-sided flat and phillips head key.

- THE 1O3 EXTERIOR -

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If you scroll back up to the exploded view, you'll notice that there are a lot of components to this atomizer. How you see it in these photos isn't how it may look to you simply because many of these parts can be rotated to gain access to various different features, or in the case of the metal shield that partially covers and protects the glass, it can be spun to be positioned however you wish.

I love the medieval warrior aesthetic that Vapefly showcases in their designs. The name Brunhilde appears to derive from Dutch and German origin meaning armor/protection and battle/fight. Norse mythology states that Brunhyld was a valkyrie chief. The winged helmet engravings on the sides of this atomizer along with "Brunhilde" would support this mythology and the overall theme Vapefly continues to run with. I realize this isn't for everyone, but I really like it.

The 810 drip tip has an outward curvature that fits very comfortably in the lips. 810 drip tips often feel too wide at the opening for me where sealing it between my lips can be difficult at times. It is possible to use your own 810 drip tip since there's an O-ring on the inside of the top cap, but it may end up looking a bit odd. The drip tip curvature molds perfectly down into the grooved airflow ring. Spinning this part of the top cap has cutouts that will change the airflow opening from 8 holes (4x2), to 4 holes (4x1), and then to a different configuration of 4 holes (2x2).

Just below the airflow ring, you'll notice 12 honeycomb airflow holes placed symmetrically opposite of each other. Just below that, a hole that's placed adjacent to the airflow holes on each side. Everything above this larger single hole makes up the entire top cap and can be spun 180 degrees when placed onto the deck. This 180 degree twist spins the hole in the top cap between the airflow hole that supplies the inner insert airflow, and the spring-loaded refill hole when you're getting low on juice. The 3 drops shown on one side of the outer ring of the deck indicate the side in which to spin the top and middle cap to refill.

The new spring-loaded refill method has been hit or miss. In some cases, I've had a bit of a drippy mess when refilling, and other times it's worked flawlessly. I think the biggest thing to remember is to leave the nozzle in the hole when you stop squeezing your bottle, so that your bottle sucks back in any remaining juice in the refill hole.

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In the picture on the left, is what I'm calling the airflow ring. The second pictures shows how the 510 adapter can be used to shrink the drip tip size down from an 810 to a 510. On the right is where you'll see the 3 different cutouts that plug and expose holes in the middle portion of the cap. When the airflow ring is placed down into the middle cap, the O-ring placed on outer side of the airflow ring is too thick for the machining tolerances making it extremely difficult to spin without taking the top cap off and pushing the airflow ring out of the middle cap before turning it. I've tried putting a little juice on the O-ring to see if it loosened up a bit, but it doesn't help enough to be able to spin the top cap while it's seated. I'm hoping with more use that this may get better over time, but for now it's been a pain.

- THE AIRFLOW, DECK, AND TANK -

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The deck is where we really start to see how this RDTA differs from other RDTAs with a similar assembly. Unlike the traditional velocity style decks you may be used to seeing (two vertical posts), the Brunhilde 1o3 has an airflow insert placed between them. One insert has an open slot, and the other has honeycomb arranged airholes with 6 holes to a side. You may also notice that the grub screws that secure the coils are placed both on the outer side of the posts, and on the top.

I do want to make note that the airflow insert doesn't seat very tightly. If your mod tips over or is bumped in the right way, the airflow insert may come ajar and end up cockeyed. Oddly enough, this hasn't shorted anything, but I'm going to assume that for the side the insert was pressing up against the coil, that coil wasn't heating properly. I did tighten the 510 pin a tiny bit and it's seemed to help some, but the insert is still very easy to move around. I think in future iterations of this style of deck, additional screws should be added facing the outer side of the posts that screw into the insert, or have the insert seat deeper into the center cutout.

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As mentioned before, you will notice there are 6 holes available for stainless steel cables, but two of them can be plugged with grub crews. This is how the atomizer comes out of the box. This grouping of photos was mostly added to give you a better idea of the assembly if this type of RDTA is new to you.

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Another great feature of the 1o3 is that you can completely plug up one side of the deck to convert this into a single coil atomizer. If you do wish to go this route, the center hole on the side you want to put the rubber insert cannot have a grub screw, screwed into it.

- BUILDS -
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The Brunhilde 1o3 was meant for a single or dual coil build. With the size of the deck and inner chamber, I figured why not try a quad coil build?

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I wound 4 coils of single 24 gauge wire with a 3 mm ID - 2 with 9 wraps, 2 with 10 wraps. I did this to give them separate rates of ramp up time hoping to pick up a wider range of flavor notes. Unfortunately the build didn't leave much room for airflow and I think the overall flavor suffered because of it. If you are going to build quad coils on this deck, I'd definitely recommend trying 2.5 mm IDs.

The coil legs were cut off at 6 mm and it was a tad bit too long. My recommendation would be 5 mm unless you plan to move the coils away from the inner airflow insert.

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After I installed the 4 coils and dry burned it, I ended up calling it the X-Wing for obvious reasons.

(Photo taken from popsci.com)

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The end result was a suffocated chamber that lacked airflow, unfortunately. The overall flavor wasn't bad, but the top cap became unbearably hot at times.

So, I installed a dual coil build with the wick and coils that came with the kit.

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I think it's worth mentioning that I find it a huge waste when people, including several reviewers, use a full shoelace cotton strip for a single coil. Unless the coils are positioned very high on the deck, there's no reason that the wick ends need to be any longer than what you see in the photo. This applies to pretty much all rebuildable decks.

The posts in this deck are very far apart for standard coils. I've resorted to wrapping my own spaced coils so that they're long enough to be comfortably placed without distorting them upon install. The coils that come in the kit are pretty wide without having to space the wraps, but even the included coils will need to be stretched a bit to fit into the post holes.

I ran with this build for a few weeks with different coil positions, different airflows, and different power settings. I noticed that the flavor was best at higher Wattages than what I'm used to running, so naturally the vape was hotter than what I prefer. As I mentioned in the intro though, I never found what I would consider to be stellar flavor output. However, it may be my fault that I wasn't able to find great flavor and that would be chalked down as user error. The best configuration I was able to find for an RDL was the 4x1 top cap airflow (bottom row) with the honeycomb airflow insert installed at 60W with a 0.43 Ohm resistance. Maybe you'll be able to find something better?

I never tried a single coil build. I figured with a deck and chamber large enough to fit a quad coil in it, there's almost no chance that a single coil would put out better flavor than a dual coil build. I'm not sure why you'd want to purchase an RDTA this large for a single coil build.

- PROS/CONS/CONSIDERATIONS -
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++ Pros ++

• Cool aesthetic
• 810 drip tip is comfortable
• Build quality is top notch
• Machining is tight
• Large 7 mL tank
• Innovative airflow design
• Butter smooth airflow
• Airflow range is pretty decent (RDL to slightly restricted DL)
• Large deck gives a lot of room to play with
• Stainless steel wicks can be added to improve wicking if needed

-- Cons --

• Airflow Ring is extremely difficult to turn
• Airflow insert doesn't secure very well

+- Preferential Considerations -+

• Hard to achieve great flavor
• Atomizer is pretty tall
• Deck posts are fairly far apart
• Using your own drip tip may end up looking odd

- OVERALL RATING -
8
(Continued innovation & versatility improved this rating)
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Again, I want to thank Joyi over at Sourcemore for providing me the Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 R(D)TA for this review. I hope I covered all you'd ever want to know about this atomizer. If I didn't cover something you have questions about, please feel free to respond to this thread or PM me.

Use the code "1O3R" at checkout for the price to drop to $25.39. The Brunhilde 1o3 has been dropped in price to $21.29 so the code is no longer applicable. Be sure to log into your account at Sourcemore to check out the best prices available.

Thanks for reading, and happy vape hoarding!

 

[DallasLiza]

Unfortunately, I'm just not a builder. If I was, I'd buy this Brunhilde.
Oh, and excellent review leaving me with,

 

[Z-Lee]

Unfortunately, I'm just not a builder. If I was, I'd buy this Brunhilde.
Oh, and excellent review leaving me with,

View attachment 978906

Just say the word, and I'll teach you. As always, thank you DL. (<---- not what someone would expect. )

 

[Frenkyou]

Great review, very detailed

 

[Z-Lee]

@Frenkyou Thank you, sir!