Introduction
The Mad Hatter RTA is doing a great job of flying under the radar, Advken don’t seem to be very interested in promoting it, as there are hardly any reviews or mention of this RTA on their social media.
Images are here
What is it like?
The Mad Hatter is a 24mm single-coil RTA, with asymmetrical bottom/side airflow, a 2ml tank, 810 drip-tip and slide top-fill.
A lot about the Mad Hatter is strange, firstly unlike most RTAs that are either straight tubes or bulging in the middle from bubble-glass, the Mad Hatter starts wide and tapers as it gets to the top.
The airflow is also strange, under the coil there are three large slots – expect they aren’t totally under the coil, they slope upwards, then on one side there are ten small airflow holes.
The final element of strangeness, are the screws, the Mad Hatter uses little hex screws (and thankfully provides a hex driver).
It’s all well machined and fits together well, there is very deep knurling on the top and bottom, which feels great.
At this point, I got disappointed. The accessories come in a Doctor Coil bag, so obviously I’m expecting a coil or two. I should have expected none, because that’s how many coils are in my Doctor Coil bag. To be fair, the packaging doesn’t mention coils, but it’s still disappointing.
Coiling and wicking
Due to the side airflow being opposite the posts, you have to slide the coil into the post holes at an angle (in a similar way to the Pioneer RTA), aligning the top of the coil slightly above the top of the posts.
No tricks or cunning plans are required for wicking, cut your wicks in line with the outside of the deck, fluff and trim the wicks, stuff them into the wicking ports and it’s all ready to go.
I haven’t experienced any leaks or dry hits with any build, so this falls into the easy to wick category.
Coil choice
This is where it gets hard, you can put a big fat complex coil in the Mad Hatter and push it at 65w+ however, you are then faced with refilling it far too often due to the 2ml capacity.
My most successful build was a 3.0mm ID, 0.35ohm, framed staple clapton which usually performs well at around 40-55w.
Flavor
Compared to my current favorite single-coil DTL RTAs (Druga RTA and Kylin Mini V2), the Mad Hatter falls behind a little when it comes to vapor production (mainly because the tank capacity limits the practical coil choice), however it edges both of them when it comes to flavor.
I chain vaped it at 35-45w with airflow fully open, this gave me detailed and accurate flavor, without draining my juice in thirty seconds.
It left me wondering why it uses 810 drip-tips, I put a 510 adapter and the drip-tip from the Gear RTA and it was great. I’m not 100% convinced it would have been better as a 510 drip-tip RTA, but it was good enough with a 510 that an adapter would be nice to get with it.
Either way, the flavor is excellent – detailed and intense, everything you want from a single-coil flavor banger.
Airflow
Despite the strange airflow design, it all works well, giving a smooth and restricted DTL draw.
What I like about it
This one really depends on your preferred vaping style, if you’re looking for vapor production over flavor, then there are more suitable single-coil RTAs available – however if you want a single-coil RTA that prioritizes flavor over vapor production and is great at around 40w, then the Mad Hatter is great.
I fall very much into the second category, so the Mad Hatter is a winner for me.
Disclaimer
The Mad Hatter RTA was provided for the purposes of this review by Sourcemore, if you use the code AMHR you can purchase it for $18.29 rather than the usual $29.99.
The Mad Hatter RTA is doing a great job of flying under the radar, Advken don’t seem to be very interested in promoting it, as there are hardly any reviews or mention of this RTA on their social media.
Images are here
What is it like?
The Mad Hatter is a 24mm single-coil RTA, with asymmetrical bottom/side airflow, a 2ml tank, 810 drip-tip and slide top-fill.
A lot about the Mad Hatter is strange, firstly unlike most RTAs that are either straight tubes or bulging in the middle from bubble-glass, the Mad Hatter starts wide and tapers as it gets to the top.
The airflow is also strange, under the coil there are three large slots – expect they aren’t totally under the coil, they slope upwards, then on one side there are ten small airflow holes.
The final element of strangeness, are the screws, the Mad Hatter uses little hex screws (and thankfully provides a hex driver).
It’s all well machined and fits together well, there is very deep knurling on the top and bottom, which feels great.
At this point, I got disappointed. The accessories come in a Doctor Coil bag, so obviously I’m expecting a coil or two. I should have expected none, because that’s how many coils are in my Doctor Coil bag. To be fair, the packaging doesn’t mention coils, but it’s still disappointing.
Coiling and wicking
Due to the side airflow being opposite the posts, you have to slide the coil into the post holes at an angle (in a similar way to the Pioneer RTA), aligning the top of the coil slightly above the top of the posts.
No tricks or cunning plans are required for wicking, cut your wicks in line with the outside of the deck, fluff and trim the wicks, stuff them into the wicking ports and it’s all ready to go.
I haven’t experienced any leaks or dry hits with any build, so this falls into the easy to wick category.
Coil choice
This is where it gets hard, you can put a big fat complex coil in the Mad Hatter and push it at 65w+ however, you are then faced with refilling it far too often due to the 2ml capacity.
My most successful build was a 3.0mm ID, 0.35ohm, framed staple clapton which usually performs well at around 40-55w.
Flavor
Compared to my current favorite single-coil DTL RTAs (Druga RTA and Kylin Mini V2), the Mad Hatter falls behind a little when it comes to vapor production (mainly because the tank capacity limits the practical coil choice), however it edges both of them when it comes to flavor.
I chain vaped it at 35-45w with airflow fully open, this gave me detailed and accurate flavor, without draining my juice in thirty seconds.
It left me wondering why it uses 810 drip-tips, I put a 510 adapter and the drip-tip from the Gear RTA and it was great. I’m not 100% convinced it would have been better as a 510 drip-tip RTA, but it was good enough with a 510 that an adapter would be nice to get with it.
Either way, the flavor is excellent – detailed and intense, everything you want from a single-coil flavor banger.
Airflow
Despite the strange airflow design, it all works well, giving a smooth and restricted DTL draw.
What I like about it
- Flavor - flavor banging awesomeness.
- Ease of use - build is easy, wicking is simple.
- Design - it looks and feels good.
- Hex screws - despite being tiny, they work really well and allow the chamber to remain compact, but...
- Hex screws - while they are nice to use (and do come with replacements), having to make sure that you have a hex driver to hand is annoying.
- Capacity - it comes with two tanks – both of which are 2ml, this will hold some people back.
- Coils - it would have been nice to get some, especially as my accessories were in a Doctor Coil bag.
- 510 drip-tips - coming with a 510 drip-tip adapter would have been a good thing.
This one really depends on your preferred vaping style, if you’re looking for vapor production over flavor, then there are more suitable single-coil RTAs available – however if you want a single-coil RTA that prioritizes flavor over vapor production and is great at around 40w, then the Mad Hatter is great.
I fall very much into the second category, so the Mad Hatter is a winner for me.
Disclaimer
The Mad Hatter RTA was provided for the purposes of this review by Sourcemore, if you use the code AMHR you can purchase it for $18.29 rather than the usual $29.99.