3CVape & Vape GeekQ8 Sahara RDA Review by KingPin!

[KingPin!]

Hi Folks,

What comes to mind when you say the word Sahara? Desert, Camels, Dry, Hot, Sand… here’s the thing, I was going to try and be a smart arse and tie this opener in to the designer’s location, but he’s from Kuwait, so that’s ballsed things right up for me.

So today I’m going to review the “Arabian RDA” a collaboration between 3CVape and Vape GeekQ8 ……Aaaand relax, smooth moves right there, bet they didn’t even notice.

Actually why is it we use the word “desert” to describe somewhere inhospitable and use the same word albeit with one extra “S” to describe something sweet you eat after a meal? For the sake of a single “S” we’ve managed to take that word and mould it into a taste tingling sensation. Even the sound when spoken transitions from something harsh sounding “Des-urt” to something Nigella would say “Des-eerrT”…I wonder where the origins came from? I’d like to imagine it was some poor sod on the brink of extreme dehydration and starvation looking for an oasis….but I’m going waaaay of topic here.

Sooo what have we got then with the Sahara RDA, let’s get the usual lot out of the way first before I tuck in…3CVAPE sent this over for the once over. As always I don’t like to make recommendations in my reviews, instead I provide you with all my findings should you be interested in the product, in the hope it helps bolster your research.

(If you happen to be viewing this review from a phone, photos appear normal size when logged in)

RDA Specification Overview & What’s in the box

• Visible Height: 30.6mm
• Diameter: 24mm at the base
• Well Depth: 3.5mm
• Thread length 4.8mm (gold plated positive pin)
• Construction: 304 Stainless Steel, Ultem Drip Tip, Ultem Top cap
• Stock Drip tip 810: Visible Height 7.5mm x Width 17mm (Straight Bore 10mm)
• Airflow: 2 side areas in chamber housing (each side contains 4 x 1.7mm holes)
• Deck Diameter: 21.3mm
• Chamber Height: 11.9mm
• Post width for coil width: 7mm
• Post height for coil size: 5.3mm

Extras: O-rings, screwdriver, 4 spare screws, dripper positive pin,

Available Colours: Black/Ultem, Stainless/PMMA



Impressions, Build Quality & Assembly

Ok first things first lets address the elephant in the room here…is this the OBS Engine 2 design or not?, it’s probably been mentioned so many times by the time I drop this review, I expect you’re all probably board silly of it by now, perhaps even thinking of lobbing rotten fruit or veg in my general direction!…I tried not to go there but these are just too similar, so unfortunately it’s difficult to avoid discussing them side by side. What I’ll do is address my Engine 2 review cons to see if they fixed these areas and carry on from there;

So here’s the OBS Engine 2 deck:



....I reviewed this RTA a while back if you were interested), if not fear not; I’ll save you some time searching for it and reading through me crapping on….here was my cons:

• [Personal] I wasn’t a fan of the stock drip tip although its comfortable to use
• Building can be frustrating
• Flavour was ok
• Limited as to the size and type of coils it will take

And here is the new Sahara deck



You can see he’s changed the layout slightly which improves the building experience;

• No longer are the screws ejecting the coil leads as you tighten, instead the leads are pushed towards the centre area which keep everything snug…so that’s fixed.
• He’s narrowed the gap in the middle allowing for a square area in which vapour passes through, or for you to drip between. This had to be done due to reversing the mounts. For the most part I found it makes little difference, but I’ve observed at times it can create a restriction for the airflow by not having the wider central channel …call me on the fence on this one.

• The screws don’t get in the way anymore because the bottom airflow isn’t jostling for the same space as the coil, actually this time around they even act as a visual aid for coil positioning…so that’s fixed.
• Coil diameter is still important on the Sahara, you are still limited because of the hanging post system. I personally wouldn’t go for anything over 3 mm diameter on this which is ample….same as before
• Coil Positioning is relatively easy depending on how tight you want the draw, the tighter you want it; the trickier this area becomes in terms balancing things with the narrow airflow gap I mentioned above…again I’m on the fence with this one
• Flavour – this has extreme variances and it’s largely dependent on restriction and positioning which I’ll cover more in a bit.

So actually just by making those few tweaks he has looked to improve the experience over the Engine 2 which has paid off to address some of its flaws, however I do think there are some areas of contention in his approach.

The drip tip you get is an 810 and matches the RDA top cap material (which ever option you go for), so it’ll be either Ultem or frosted PMMA…at the time of this review. Out of the gate it’s very comfortable to use, and you certainly won’t feel any heat from this one thanks to the plastic approach which is great.




When it comes to its bore size though; let’s just say I feel I’ve come from one airy clouds first RDA review (Wotofo Warrior) straight into another. Keeping everything stock and wide open it’s almost like the drawing on the same RDA, which is to say smooth on the draw, large clouds but flavour takes a backseat somewhat. The thing is I can’t push the Sahara in the same way as the Warrior (with the larger builds to improve on flavour), as a result I just feel the airflow is wildly too much for an RDA of this size (taking into consideration; the post system, fixed central airflow, shallow well and limited coil size you can utilise).

I know it’s not customary to mention a 510 tip on a product that doesn’t actually come with an adaptor (which is going down as a con), but I did fit one from one of my other products because I just felt this RDA was crying out to be used in a more restricted manner, and I’m glad I did because it completely transformed the whole experience. By turning down the airflow to just under one and half holes open, and not going crazy on the coil type…the draw restriction became similar to the Recurve RDA (how I vape it anyway), but most importantly it started really chucking out the flavour! And this I dare to add is much better performance than I was ever able to get from the Engine 2. Being it only comes with an 810 option, I’m going to have to stick to that size (since you might not have an adaptor) therefore its comfortable to use, but for the way I vape and chasing the flavour; as I said I just think the bore is a little too much at 10mm and doesn’t aid to condense the vapour enough for my personal tastes.

I don’t every recall reviewing or experiencing an RDA that has such wide extremes before with it lacking a middle ground. There seems to be restrictions working against me in one form or another, so unless I’m aiming for an airy vape or restricted lung hit, I kind of have to force the RDA to work for me, rather than just setting it up and dialling things in with a bit of airflow tuning, so be prepared for tweaking the Sahara to dial it in to your preferences because it takes time.

When it comes to fit and finish, I’ve come to expect a lot from 3CVAPE, their products I’ve used are well made, and their final finish is usually top notch. Sadly with this RDA my experience was not so great.

• Firstly I was unable to remove the negative post during strip down, its stuck fast
• The top of my posts looked like someone had hammered them in

• The information card it comes with was left in with the RDA itself (instead of on top of the foam layer), so it left a friction mark on the black coating, it also looks to have removed parts of the paint during transit. I was able to remove most of the mark, but couldn’t remove it entirely from the edges.

• Looking at those edges of the housing out of the box, I didn’t feel confident to put this in the ultrasonic cleaner, I just went with a toothbrush and soap to clean it.
• The stops located inside the housing chamber which slot onto the deck to keep the airflow central aren’t big enough and pop out of position far too easily.

• The O-Rings on the base don’t offer enough resistance. They aren’t ridiculously lose where the cap falls off when I pick it up, but enough for me to note it.
• I’m not noticing any O-ring around my negative screw, it might not need one to be fair with the post being stuck in place, but I’m just highlighting this in case you see leaking from it.

These observations could be a single unit thing. Outside of these areas though the rest of the RDA was very well machined, as was the finish and fit of the main pieces together, so I think it’s a QC problem I have here.

 

[KingPin!]

Impressions, Build Quality & Assembly Continued

Working around the rest of the RDA then;

The top cap as I mention before is plastic, fear not the coils won’t ever get too close to the edges to cause distortion under normal use, as it sits over the top of the metal chamber housing, and it’s also protected vertically from the post themselves. I’ve not had any problems to report with Ultem version. It has a pretty shallow dome, I think they could have done more with this but it suits wide open vaping well. It’s thick and therefore rigid when squeezing.



The chamber housing, other than having the tiny stops located inside, features 4 large 1.7mm diameter holes on each side. They are all angled straight on but pointed down at what looks like 30 degrees.




Here’s my main bone of contention with this RDA…look at the spacing of these airflow inlets ….it’s right up to the limit of what the atty can realistically hold



…you aren’t going to be putting in huge coils in this RDA, so why so much wide airflow? If the designer angled both of the outer most holes to hit a similar point to the centre then closing the AFC wouldn’t really make a difference in the mid-range.



….but this isn’t the case and means if I want to restrict my draw to half or under; I need to offset the coil in a small deck area with posts in the way causing disruption to the airflow on the draw… you can see why that might be an issue. As I said further up I’m on the fence about the design tweaks in several areas and this is why.

The deck features a shallow well (just 3.5mm deep); with it being 24mm in diameter, and dual coil its drinks fairly rapidly. I’d like to have seen the squonk pin sitting flush with the deck in order to suck excess juice back in the bottle, it’s very easy to flood this RDA especially as you can’t go crazy with wicking, actually on this note it’s not really suited to dripping in my opinion, this is a squonk only RDA.



Other than that not much left to say about the RDA in this area other than the positive pin is hybrid safe, and it breaks down into 19 pieces (if you include O-rings, insulators and manage to get that negative post out).

 

[KingPin!]

Coil Building & Wicking



I’ve alluded to is so far but the build area seems tight….it’s certainly workable for 3mm ID coils or below though, just be mindful not to go crazy with big complex coils ..alien’s, fused or multicore claptons should be fine, don’t worry too much about the coil lead thickness, he has made it so the screws can be undone all the way out without touching the housing (despite how it may look in some of the pics).

You have an area where the width of the coil can be up to 7mm, and an allowable height of 5.3mm (between the overhanging posts and the rim on the deck) ... If you go above 3mm ID it’s going to start getting a bit tight with wicking.

With the fixed airflow approach, the best bet is to first figure out what sort of draw you want and go from there…want it nice and lose go centre position and try to add enough wraps to cover the airflow, want it more restricted like I have it …. then I found it best to shift the coil over to one side, or the other depending on how you want to twist the cap (just make sure to do the opposite with the coil on the other side)



…the result you are looking for here is to try and make sure you get as much airflow hitting the bottom half of the coil as possible. The only downside is if you go for just one hole; you need to plan ahead with mounting to make sure you leave the leg length long enough to pull it over but space for wicking is going to be really tight for you at this point.



The other thing to look out for is positioning, I found it best not to snip the legs flush too early while figuring it all out, you might need to come back and reposition at some point!. When securing the coil I like it sitting them roughly in the middle like so



….notice I place the edge of the coil so its line with the edge of my post screw, this way you can be assured it won’t be shorting ….just plonk the housing over the top to make sure there’s a gap though before wicking so you don’t have to come back and do it again.



When it comes to wicking you won’t have too much space left, its why I think squonking is the way to go because you don’t really want cotton resting underneath the coil getting in the way of airflow…with this in mind I cut the cotton at the edge of the deck and literally poke the ends down so they touch the bottom of the well, nothing fancy beyond that.



Do I like this deck? It’s not bad building on it really, once that is you accept the limitations presented with it and figure out positioning, it’s certainly less of a hassle than the Engine 2 was that for sure. I still think recessed hex screws are the way to go, but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it; at the end of the day I was able to use them as a reference point and they caught the leads well.

How’s it Vape

Extremes really is the best way to describe the experience on this RDA …want airy with clouds and background flavour then open it all up, want something in the middle …well that’s a little harder to dial in, but want something on the restricted side with plenty of flavour go for the side position like I showed above.

The draw is a similar experience throughout very smooth and almost noise free, except I did notice in some positions with the top cap; airflow suddenly became choppy and noisy …but literally a minor twist of the top cap seemed to adjust for it…it’s like the posts are getting in the way at points.

I didn’t enjoy vaping this wide open, or even half way, I “only” enjoyed vaping on this RDA in a more restricted style, as I showed in the coil building section of the review. With it built this way I’m getting similar flavour and draw from it as the recurve RDA which is pretty solid by itself, and I find it suits the fruity flavours the best.

The well is too shallow really, they state 4 mm but I’m measuring 3.5mm…I’ve over squonked this RDA more times than I can count, that’s my fault and not the RDA, but for some reason I find it difficult to gauge when enough is enough on this one; especially because the pin isn’t sucking juice back into the bottle because its sitting so high into the deck. Unfortunately this invariable leads to spells of spitting and/or mess to clear up.

Pro’s

• Doesn’t get hot
• Great flavour when you dial it in with a tighter draw
• Capable of very quiet and smooth airflow (although the polar opposite can be true as well)
• Is capable of cloudy vape
• Easier to build on than the Engine 2 was
• Suits Squonking much more so than dripping if that’s your thing
• Easier to build on that the OBS Engine 2 was

Cons

• [Personal] I wasn’t a fan of the stock drip tips bore size
• Stops for the housing to the deck pop out of position too easily
• Lack of 510 drip tip adaptor
• Finish & quality control left a little to be desired across a few areas
• O-rings a little too lose on the base
• Black paint looks to damage easily careful with the ultrasonic cleaner
• Not ideal for Dripping: It’s difficult to access the deck for more wicking
• Well is a little too shallow and easy to over squonk.
• Extreme variations in the draw and flavour experience - airflow covers too much of a wide area.

Final Conclusion

I’ve tried two inverted post system products now, whilst the Sahara does offer improvements over the Engine 2, it also introduces some of its own limitations into the mix. This RDA is capable of very good flavour, but to get to it just be prepared to want a fairly restricted draw and temperamental positing of the coil/airflow.

It seems the designer was going for a cloudy airy vape which is not how I ended up wanting to use it, so apologies if I was using the RDA in a way you didn’t intend me to, unfortunately I just struggled to settle vaping it that way. I was left feeling somewhere down the line a decision was made to try and cater for a wider audience, falling short of mastering any one thing…don’t get me wrong it’s still capable of kicking out the either the plumage or flavour, but I just felt there are a areas working against each other in either camp.



Thanks for taking the time to read my review, I hope the information serves you well…. until next time KingPin!