An rda is dripper:
You drip the juice directly -or squonk the juice - onto the coil.
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An rta is a tank which holds the juice and feeds the juice to the coil.
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Personally I use an rda 99% of the time. I break glass-A lot!!
I also prefer the warmth and flavor of an rda over that of a tank. But it’s all personal preference. My wife is exactly the opposite. She hates dripping, forgets to drip or squonk and is always getting dry hits when she trys an rda.
With some of the newer tanks out there, the vape between RDAs and RTAs overall is not very dissimilar. That’s a very general statement as some rdas offer far superior flavor to anything else on the market and others offer more cloud production than a bad Halloween movie.
It’s like everything in vaping: you have to find what you prefer and enjoy it. There’s almost as much gear available as opinions on preference.