Anthony Vapes: Vandy Vape Mutant RDA Review

[SirRichardRear]

Hi All, Anthony Vapes back here with my review of the Vandy Vape Mutant RDA, please see the bottom for disclaimers and links. Note: This is marked as a sample version.

Introduction:
The Vandy Vape Mutant RDA is the latest RDA from popular vape manufacturer Vandy Vape. Vandy Vape started in 2017 and since then have become very popular and pumped out a ton of products. I’ve reviewed over 20 of their products over the past year or so personally and they are pretty hit and miss overall making some really good stuff and also some really bad stuff. It’s basically a coin flip at this point. In 2019 they have continued to be hit and miss so far releasing a really good rugged mod in the jackaroo, a good MTL RTA in the berserker V1.5 mini, and a good affordable mech tube in the bonza. However they had their missteps with the AP kit, pairing the bonza mech with an unsuitable RDA, and a bad tank with the jackaroo, and a bad trident kit due to the pairing and coils, and of course the really awful kylin m RTA that shouldn’t have existed. So let's see which side of the fence this falls on. The Mutant RDA is a Vertical Dual coil DTL RDA with an included squonk pin and was designed in collaboration with popular youtube reviewer vapingwithtwisted420. It’s available in 4 colors SS, Matte Black, Gunmetal, and Rainbow. Looking around online it’s on pre-order only to release late june to early july and around 30-35 bucks online so standard price point

Manufacturer's Specs

• Diameter: 25mm
• Length: 26mm
• Capacity: 1.2mL
• Vertical Coil Installation
• 4 Airflow Option Patterns
• Top Filling Squonk / Bottom Juice Return
• Collaboration: Vapingwithtwisted420
• 4 Colors: Gunmetal, Matte Black, Rainbow, SS

Included in box:

• 1 x Mutant RDA
• 2 x .39 Ohm Coils
• 1 x Accessory Bag
• 1 x User Manual

Picture Album
album



Build Deck and Wicking
Let’s talk about the build deck now. This is one thing I really want to give them credit for. Lots of the attempts at a vertical coil RDA have had poor build decks. I think that VV and VWT420 really designed this one nicely and easy to use for vertical coils. 1 major note though is you want to wrap your coils counterclockwise, not clockwise or you are gonna have a bad time. Outside of that though it’s essentially a simple 2 post with the negative and positive each having a “high and low” slit so that 1 end takes the low and the other the high. The slits are nice and large and accomodate big fancy wires or simple round wires really easily. All you do is drop the coils in the slits then tighten the post screws to install. Really easy and easy to cut off the excess leads afterwards. The post screws are good quality hex grub screws and they come in from the side so won’t twist flat wires. There is plenty of room to fit a 4mm ID coil as well. Overall it’s a very easy to build deck that is well done for vertical coils

Wicking on it is quite easy. It’s an RDA so nothing fancy just drop your wick leads to the bottom where the wick cutouts are. The only extra degree of difficulty here comes from it being vertical. Personally i like to feed it through the top then grab it at the bottom with some angled tweezers to pull it through then do your typical “flossing” of the coil. You want some cotton on the bottom in the well so make sure to pull enough through for that and for the top i like to leave a little extra outside of the coil and fluff it out

Performance
Performance wise, I used it as a Dual Coil RDA only as intended by the design. I ran 4 builds in this 1 fancy 3mm ID build, 1 fancy 3.5 mm ID build, 1 fancy 4mm ID build and 1 simple round 4mm ID build. With that said, sadly it’s a pretty mediocre dual coil RDA. There are lots of air options as ill explain in the next section but none make much of a difference. It’s best to use one of the honeycomb options and pull the coils out as far as you can towards the air and use a 4mm ID but even in that case the intensity is lacking and it’s pretty muted. Really lacking though compared to others. Overall it’s a mediocre performer as a dual coil RDA

 

[SirRichardRear]

Airflow, Misc. Details, and Extras
Let’s talk about the airflow now. This RDA is side airflow and it’s one of the features all the options it has. It has 4 main options. 2 are honeycomb style, 1 is horizontal lines, and 1 like 3 angled lines with 2 small holes. You need to choose which one you want and line it up on the base as you can’t switch it by turning it. You have to take off the top piece to change them which is easy but just pointing it out. The thing is like most of these there really isn’t any major difference or noticeable difference overall in which one you choose. Some are slightly more restricted than others but simple choosing one of the honeycomb ones allows you to adjust it down the most so really there si a best option and it’s the honeycomb one with the most holes in it. It offers the most open air ass well as the least open air and the most meaningful adjustments making the others simply a gimmick like we often see on these. I’d stick with that one. With that said it’s a solid DTL vape that can be adjusted down to a restricted DTL vape.

The AFC is smooth and easy to adjust but not on a stopper. You adjust the air by spinning the whole top cop just like the Mjölnir RDA, and ti’s stiff enough that going clockwise allows you to adjust it down and counter clockwise will unscrew it off your mod so easy to use and works well. The top cap is quite nice and thick though and dissipates heat really well and doesn't get too hot while chain vaping all things considered. The top cap is easy to pop on and off and the o-rings are nice. It’s not too tight or too loose by any means. To put the cap on you do need to line up the notches to get it into place. It’s not hard to do and not a big deal but it’s worth the mention.

It comes with 1 drip tip only though which is odd these days especially for vandy vape. They should have included 2. It’s a standard 810 dip tip and my matte black comes with a nice red one as does the gunmetal, the rainbow one from the picks looks to be rainbow and the SS one comes with green. It’s a nice resin tip but they should have had 2 options included. It’s also short and conical which makes it hard to pull off due to its shape. Not a big fan of it personally but no complaints. They do include 510 adapter though. The Drip tip fits very well in the RDA. snug, not loose, not tight. You can use your own as well and most should work just fine. I tried a couple other 810 tips with no issues personally. The quality on the Vandy Vape Mutant RDA is good as you would expect from VV. The paint job shows no signs of damage or chipping on my Matte Black one, The o-rings all fit good, the airflow adjustment is simple and easy, and the post screws are nice and they include a spare set of flat head ones if you don’t like hex so nice to have both options. It comes with a standard 510 pin and a BF 510 pin like most RDAs these days as well.

The juice well is a nice size actually. The well is pretty deep. They list it at 1.2ml which is a pretty solid size. I used it as a squonker and a dripper. As a squonker it squonks out the top right over the coils which is nice and it’ll suck back juice over the well (but not in the well) in case you over squonk. It works great and goes right over the coil which soe love. Not sure about the suck back need but many like it. As a dripper it works the same, you can drip right down the middle and it’ll land on the squonk post and go over the coils. So it works well both ways.

It’s a 25mm diameter so should not overhang on most mods on the market today. There is plenty of spare o-rings and 4 spare post screws, 2 allen wrenches, 1 810 drip tip, and 2 coils. No cotton though. The accessories do feel a little bare for these days, mostly the lack of a 2nd drip tip. Usually vandy vape includes that. Maybe it’s just because mine is a sample? The coils are clearly labeled as well so good job there, they are triple core fused claptons 28gx3+38g 5 wraps 3mm ID ni80 wire at .39 ohms each (about .19-.2 ohms installed in dual coil). Branding is pretty well done. There is a small printed mutant that is small and on the bottom of the top cap between the 2 airflows on 1 side. It does stand out in light grey though an engraved matching color would have been nicer IMO.

Pros:

• standard positive and squonk pin included
• plenty of spare o-rings
• Color Options (4)
• Good over squonk protection
• good build quality
• Price point (around 30 USD)
• Good simple branding
• easy to adjust airflow
• dissipates heat really well
• nice build deck for vertical coils
• top cap is easy to pop on and off
• easy to screw on and off mod
• 510 drip tip adapter included
• good quality hex grub post screws (and a spare set of flat head grub screws)
• works well as a dripper and squonker
• Includes 2 coils and clearly labeled.

Cons:

• Flavor is mediocre for a dual coil RDA
• airflow options are gimmicks and not needed
• Only 1 drip tip included

Conclusion
So with all that said, do I recommend this RDA?I don’t like to do a hard yes or no, but this one has to lean a little towards the no for me. I mean i feel really bad giving this a no TBH as it’s not a bad RDA and not a cheap ass lame cash grab recycled RDA like we see a lot of. VV and VWT420 did do a nice job designing this overall especially the deck (outside of the useless gimmick airflow options) but vertical coils just don’t seem to perform as well as horizontal so you take a big flavor loss. At least as it stands now until someone makes one that works better which can be possible. I just can’t recommend a subpar flavor performer for an RDA when there are many better ones out there and my reviews for rebuildables always lean more towards flavor. So i want to say good job overall on the design, it just lacks flavor sadly. I won’t be adding this to my sheet of recs linked down below. Check out that spreadsheet when considering a purchase as I keep it up to date with all the latest and greatest stuff on the market.

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

Product Disclaimer
This product was sent to me from Vandy Vape

Official Site Link
I'm a link

Review Disclaimer
Due to possible QC difference your experience may vary.

Reviewer Disclaimer
I’ve been doing vape reviews since late 2016 and have done over 400 reviews to date including for almost 2 years written reviews across the largest vape forums. I enjoy helping vapers on forums as well and helping contribute to the great vape community. I’m not an “out of the box” reviewer. I do my best to be thorough at all times and have enough experience with many products to tell what’s good and what’s not. All mods get tested with an oscilloscope and stress tested and results are posted in my reviews.

Recommendations and Past Review Links
written reviews list here

Youtube Channel here

Spreadsheet of Recommendations here

Best of 2018 list here

Best of 2017 list here