Thanks for checking out my review of the Cthulhu Ceto Mesh RDA which was provided by efun.top for the purpose of this review. It is on sale for $18.99 right now, you can get it here: CETO RDA Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer $18.99
If you want to find out really quick my overall conclusion you can scroll down to the Pros and Cons section and Conclusion to save you some time.
Specs:
What you get in the box:
The finish is applied well, appears to be anodized, it is a plain looking tank, no engravings.
I don't mind the look but there is nothing too distinguishing about it. The only markings are below the tank which is laser engraved:
The top cap has a nice bevel too it and there is an internal o-ring to keep you friction fit goon style 810 drip tips in place:
Top cap is also domed inside to aid in better flavor:
All in all it is a solid well designed RDA and the build quality is very nice.
My first build I cut the #300 (that stands for 300 holes per inch) SS304 mesh that was included with the Ceto to 16mm wide and 25mm long. My thinking wasn't I didn't want a ton of cotton and to keep it away from the air holes so it didn't restrict it that much.
Still takes a ton of cotton though and a lot of juice, you can easily get 75 drops to get it all soaked.
With this build the flavor was there but it is a dry vape, sort of similar to what you would get with a ceramic coil if you have ever tried that. It definitely is a different experience compared to what I am used to with a standard RDA, it intrigued me and the flavor was good but wasn't an "oh wow" moment.
With this build if you have the airflow wide open it whistles like a construction crew at lunch, a little closed off and that goes away though.
I then decided to try a normal coil build, wanted to see between mesh builds if the difference was great or not. I used Quad Parallel Fused Claptons from Advanced Vape Supply with a 4mm post. Installation wasn't bad, just had to bend the leads before hand to get them into the posts.
Quickly I noticed that I killed a lot of the airflow as the wicks get in the way so switched it to vertical using the same coil:
I thought it was OK, nothing great. I think this is mainly due to the location of the air holes in relation to the coils which is pretty far.
Back to the mesh but this time I made it bigger to get close to the air holes so I just used the 40mm length of the mesh and cut a strip 13mm wide and installed that.
Here is a little tip on installing the mesh to keep it straight, first make sure the mesh is straight when installed on the first post:
You can then install the other side and line it up so you get an even clamp down:
Now this is close to the edge but has enough space to clear the top cap:
As you can see lots and lots of cotton, you don't want it loose but not so tight that you juice has a hard time penetrating it. I always started by dripping on the top and when it got a little puddle I let it soak in and got another puddle going on the top. I kept going until I started to see juice puddling on the bottom of the well, this way I was sure the whole core of the cotton was soaked. With as much cotton as I had in there you can easily get 100 drops from a unicorn bottle, it holds that much juice. Give the juice some time to go down as well unless you like a spitty vape.
I have to say that this was my prefered build, with the cotton soaked it can be a wet vape but after that it goes back to being a little dry and the flavor was better. Definitely not a cloud chucker and in power mode can be a little tricky as the mesh ramps up pretty quick. Still not the flavor you would get with a good build in something like the CSMNT RDA but different, I can see some liking it and others not, just depends on preference. I did get use to it but mainly in TC mode, had to use a TCR to dial it in, more on that later.
The squonk mode is pretty cool and keeps the wick nice and wet. I only have one squonk mod but this makes me want to get another as the Ceto and squonking go hand in hand. The vape is the same as I have already described but just more convenient.
I also tried the TCR function on the Smoant Charon TS 218 which I reviewed here. I used TS 218 as it is one of the easiest with the touchscreen to change TCR quickly, I wound up at 65 as well to avoid dry hits completely.
For me TC was the best option as the mesh ramps up quickly so easy to get a dry hit if your not careful. The ramp up reminds me of Notch coils from Wismec if your familiar with those.
If you want to find out really quick my overall conclusion you can scroll down to the Pros and Cons section and Conclusion to save you some time.
Specs:
- 24mm Diameter
- 44mm overall length from 510 to drip tip
- 31mm tall tank portion only
- Deep Juice Well
- 304 Stainless Steel Construction
- Elongated Two-Post Design
- Squonk capable
- 5 adjustable air holes
What you get in the box:
- Ceto RDA
- (2) 55mm x 40mm #300 SS304 mesh sheets
- Ultem 810 drip tip
- 510 drip tip adapter
- Squonk pin with elongated post
- (4) spare o-rings
- (2) spare post screws
- Good ole blue philips screw driver
First impressions
I was a little worried, love Cthulhu's designs but the build quality has always left me wanting like my review of the Azathoth RDA. Well they must be listening to the vape community because the build quality on the Ceto is excellent. O-rings hold well but don't take a lot of force to remove and both posts were locked in tight, didn't have the same problems I did with the Azathoth.
The finish is applied well, appears to be anodized, it is a plain looking tank, no engravings.
I don't mind the look but there is nothing too distinguishing about it. The only markings are below the tank which is laser engraved:
The top cap has a nice bevel too it and there is an internal o-ring to keep you friction fit goon style 810 drip tips in place:
Top cap is also domed inside to aid in better flavor:
All in all it is a solid well designed RDA and the build quality is very nice.
Builds
I tried 5 different builds to see what I would like the best, 3 mesh and 2 regular single coils, 1 horizontal and 1 vertical. One of the mesh builds was with the Squonk pin and post installed, that will be covered in the next section.
My first build I cut the #300 (that stands for 300 holes per inch) SS304 mesh that was included with the Ceto to 16mm wide and 25mm long. My thinking wasn't I didn't want a ton of cotton and to keep it away from the air holes so it didn't restrict it that much.
Still takes a ton of cotton though and a lot of juice, you can easily get 75 drops to get it all soaked.
With this build the flavor was there but it is a dry vape, sort of similar to what you would get with a ceramic coil if you have ever tried that. It definitely is a different experience compared to what I am used to with a standard RDA, it intrigued me and the flavor was good but wasn't an "oh wow" moment.
With this build if you have the airflow wide open it whistles like a construction crew at lunch, a little closed off and that goes away though.
I then decided to try a normal coil build, wanted to see between mesh builds if the difference was great or not. I used Quad Parallel Fused Claptons from Advanced Vape Supply with a 4mm post. Installation wasn't bad, just had to bend the leads before hand to get them into the posts.
Quickly I noticed that I killed a lot of the airflow as the wicks get in the way so switched it to vertical using the same coil:
I thought it was OK, nothing great. I think this is mainly due to the location of the air holes in relation to the coils which is pretty far.
Back to the mesh but this time I made it bigger to get close to the air holes so I just used the 40mm length of the mesh and cut a strip 13mm wide and installed that.
Here is a little tip on installing the mesh to keep it straight, first make sure the mesh is straight when installed on the first post:
You can then install the other side and line it up so you get an even clamp down:
Now this is close to the edge but has enough space to clear the top cap:
As you can see lots and lots of cotton, you don't want it loose but not so tight that you juice has a hard time penetrating it. I always started by dripping on the top and when it got a little puddle I let it soak in and got another puddle going on the top. I kept going until I started to see juice puddling on the bottom of the well, this way I was sure the whole core of the cotton was soaked. With as much cotton as I had in there you can easily get 100 drops from a unicorn bottle, it holds that much juice. Give the juice some time to go down as well unless you like a spitty vape.
I have to say that this was my prefered build, with the cotton soaked it can be a wet vape but after that it goes back to being a little dry and the flavor was better. Definitely not a cloud chucker and in power mode can be a little tricky as the mesh ramps up pretty quick. Still not the flavor you would get with a good build in something like the CSMNT RDA but different, I can see some liking it and others not, just depends on preference. I did get use to it but mainly in TC mode, had to use a TCR to dial it in, more on that later.
Squonk Mode
I installed the squonk pin but you have to make sure and really crank down with the screwdriver as you need it to protrude enough so the inside flow post has threads to grab onto. I really felt like the Sqounk pin could have been just a mm longer as it barely offered enough threads on the inside, could have just been mine though. Once installed the inside post did not move though, it stayed in place nicely.
The squonk mode is pretty cool and keeps the wick nice and wet. I only have one squonk mod but this makes me want to get another as the Ceto and squonking go hand in hand. The vape is the same as I have already described but just more convenient.
Using SS304 mesh in TC mode
Now this is tricky as the normal TCR for SS 304 is 0.00105 but that wasn't working out so well for me, was easy to get dry hits. I started off with my SXMini G Class and began lowering the TCR until I was able to avoid dry hits at 430f and ended up at 0.00065. I was sometimes able to vape at 70 but to avoid dry hits all together 65 in the TCR was were I settled, I was able to vape the cotton nearly completely dry with just some juice in the core of the cotton.
I also tried the TCR function on the Smoant Charon TS 218 which I reviewed here. I used TS 218 as it is one of the easiest with the touchscreen to change TCR quickly, I wound up at 65 as well to avoid dry hits completely.
For me TC was the best option as the mesh ramps up quickly so easy to get a dry hit if your not careful. The ramp up reminds me of Notch coils from Wismec if your familiar with those.
