Anthony Vapes: Kensei RTA Review. Hype Met or Overrated?

[SirRichardRear]

Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the Vandy Vape Kensei RTA

Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from Elementvape.com

Review Disclaimer
I review products for what they are with no account of where it comes from or who makes it. The test results are the results for what is in my hand. Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary. There is no way for myself or anyone to predict if a device will last 6 months, 1 year, 5 years etc. Any manufactured item from cars to phones to computers to mods have a possibility of arriving DOA or having a small percent failure rate. There is no way to predict this or quantify this. That’s why warranties and lemon laws exist. I can only review what I have in my hand for better or for worse. Contrary to popular belief, there is no special review samples of higher quality. Most of the time personally i get retail versions, the few times i’ve gotten early releases they are usually worse than the final retail version.

Reviewer Disclaimer
I decided to add this disclaimer in as i feel it’s important for people to know their source of the review. I’ve been vaping since late 2011. I’ve vaped all the styles from MTL to RLH to DTL. tanks, RTAs, RDAs, you name it. I do prefer the DTL and RLH style over MTL personally. My main focus from an atomizer is flavor. For mods i’ve used mechs and regulated mods. I’m an avid temp control vaper but enjoy power mode as well and the occasion mech useage for nostalgia. I’ve been doing reviews since late 2016. As of Jan 2018 I’ve done over 100 written reviews and done over 150 video reviews on my channel, Although i’ve taken a break from videos in the past few months to focus on written reviews.

I spend a lot of time helping vapers on forums as well and try to answer all the questions and comments on my reviews. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested. At times if needed i’ll disassemble them as well. Rebuildables get multiple builds in them. Tanks i use all coils until the die or a minimum of 2 weeks if they don’t die sooner. I do this for the community to help people find good products and avoid bad ones. In my opinion a reviewer works for the community and nobody else. It’s our job to inform vapers of issues and not be advertisers as well as provide constructive criticism from a place of knowledge back to companies with these reviews so they can improve and make better products in the future.

Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here

Youtube Channel here

Spreadhseet of Recommendations here

Best of 2017 list here

Introduction:
The Kensei RTA is a newer dual coil RTA from Vandy Vape, i’d like to say it’s the “latest” as many of my reviews are but with the crazy rate they come out with new atomizers, It’s not. Either Way it is their latest dual coil DTL RTA as their last one was the kylin. It’s available in 5 colors, Black, SS, Gold, Rainbow, and Blue

Manufacturer's Specs

• 24mm Diameter
• 2mL Standard Juice Capacity
• 4mL Maximum Juice Capacity - Bulb Glass Extension
• Superior 303 Stainless Steel Construction
• 24K Gold-Plated Build Deck
• Unique Two-Post Design - Stepped Design
• Top-Secured via Phillips Flathead Screws
• Single or Dual Coil Configuration
• Dual External Large Airslots - Fully Adjustable
• Bottom Honeycomb Airflow System
• Direct-to-Coil Chamber Effect
• 18.5mm Wide 810 Resin Widebore Drip Tip
• 18mm Wide 810 Delrin Doc Widebore Drip Tip
• 510 Drip Tip Adapter
• Gold-Plated 510 Connection

Included in box:

• 1 Kensei 24 RTA
• 1 810 Resin Widebore Drip Tip
• 1 810 Delrin Doc Widebore Drip Tip
• 1 4mL Bulb Extension Glass
• 1 510 Drip Tip Adatpter
• Spare Parts & O-Rings
• instruction Manual

Pictures:
Stock Shot Colors:

Stock Shot Exploded:

Box:

Disassembled:

Deck:

Build and Wick Pics:

Pics on mods:

Handchecks:

Initial Impressions and features
When I first got this RTA I was pretty happy with the design of it. It’s the kind of RTA that’s right up my alley. Nice build deck, bottom air, and in general i’ve liked most of the atomizers i’ve tried from vandy vape. They bursted on the scene in 2017 and never looked back becoming one of the more popular atomizer makers out there. I got the blue one and it looks great and I love the matching resin tips as well for the colored versions. Overall threw a build in it and really liked it from the start.

Build Deck and Wicking (pics above)
Let’s talk about the build deck now. It’s a 2 post 2 hole per post deck that’s staggered out so essentially a modified version of the velocity deck. Nothing innovative I seen similar decks before, but it is one of the best designs for ease of building IMO. each lead gets their own hole and you can installed each coil by itself. The post holes are nice and large. By default it comes with phillip screws. I really dislike phillip screws but they are good quality. Luckily they also come with a set of good quality hex screws as well which i prefer. If i wasn’t a reviewer and planned on using this as an everyday driver I would have swapped them out, but since i sadly have to put it away after this review, I just left the phillips in. Pictured above you’ll see builds of 3mm and 3.5mm. It’s possible to fit 4mm ID coils in but it’ll be a tight squeeze so i didn't bother doing one. Personally i’d recommend 3 or 3.5 as the best size ID. Overall a very nice build deck that’s easy to build on

Wicking is pretty easy overall but can be a bit tricky due to having to wrap the leads around the post to get to the wick holes. The wick holes are large with plenty of room for cotton. Pictured above was the 2 best ways I’ve found in doing it personally. Way 1 was to angle cut the cotton then tuck in the cut parts and cut off the excess. Way 2 was to not angle cut but instead pull the cotton through the wick holes then cut so it sits flush and use your tweezers to fluff out the cotton so it’s not tightly packed. Both ways worked well but i felt the angle cut worked a little better as far as being able to chain vape. Both ways provided me with 0 leaks as well.

 

[SirRichardRear]

Performance
Performance wise, I used it as a dual coil RTA only. I only ran 4 builds in this. It’s a pretty straightforward RTA. 3 different fancy ones (1 at 3mmID 1 at 3.5mm ID 1 at 2.5mm ID) and 1 simple round build (3mm ID) I found it worked good with all the builds. 3.5mm is the max i’d recommend for this RTA. The deck pretty much automatically lines up the coils for you over the air so no need to worry there. It’s a bottom airflow so just put the coils as low as you can without touching. I prefer the 3mm ones personally but the smaller one and larger one were both really good as well. Overall the flavor was well above average for a dual coil RTA. It has a good amount of air definitely a full DTL RTA but doesn't need a ton of watts. Really anything above 50 will kick out good flavor. You probably could go lower if you shut the air down a lot but really if that’s what you want there are RTAs made for that so i wouldn’t try it on this one personally.

Overall Impressions, Details, and Extras
It’s a bottom airflow RTA and the AFC is smooth and it’s on a stopper, however i found it tight and hard to adjust especially when on a mod. It has a standard top full where you unscrew the top cap and expose the 2 large fill holes. The top cap has some knurling on it as well and is easy to grip and unscrew. It’s easy to fill with any bottle type or just pouring juice right in. I’ve used 70/30, 80/20 and “max VG” juices in it. All of them worked well. It comes with a delrin 810 “doc” drip tip as well as a matching resing 810 tip which is really nice, and a 510 adapter. The quality is ok all the threading is really nice and smooth. It’s mostly easy to take apart in 4 (5 if you include the glass) pieces total. The one issue i had is with the fill hole part. It’s really thin with nothing to grip onto. I wish they would have made it bigger with some knurling or even done it like the kylin v2 where it’s ribbed. Instead they included a tool that you use to unscrew it by putting it in the foll holes to get a grip. I’m not a fan of needing and extra tool to take a tank apart. It’s a 24mm diameter so should not overhang on most mods The 2ml capacity is IMO way too small for a dual coil RTA however they include a bubble glass for 4ml capacity which isn’t that bad at all however I would have liked a bigger capacity personally. At least 5ml would have been better. The JFC is smooth and on a stopper as well and works really great. Easy to adjust at any time. Just grip on the glass and spin it while it’s on a mod it’s really smooth and works great. I had no leaking or flooding issues and it handled chain vaping pretty good as well. The airflow uses the honeycomb style on the inside. It’s not a loud RTA and the airflow is really smooth.

Pros:

• Build Quality
• Top Fill
• matching resin 810 tip included as well as 510 adapter
• good quality hex post screws included (comes with phillips installed)
• easy to build and wick
• price point
• color options
• excellent flavor
• JFC is smooth and on a stopper
• no leaks

Cons:

• small capacity (2ml or 4ml with included bubble glass)
• top fill section is hard to unscrew without tool
• AFC is hard to adjust especially when on a mod

Conclusion
So with all that said, do I recommend this RTA?I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, this one i’m going to lean heavily towards the yes. It’s not perfect and has a few minor cons but it pumps out flavor, looks great, and is easy to build and wick. Had i gotten this earlier I would have found a way to add it into my best of 2017 post. I’ll be adding this to my list as a dual coil RTA.

It can be purchased here for 29.95 in the US

This is Anthony Vapes just keeping it honest, hopefully you all can say the same and i’ll catch you on my next review.