Introduction
While I might review other products and try to put myself the shoes of a new vaper or someone who loves DTL vaping, MTL has become my passion and it makes the reviews easier – all I’m concerned with is if I enjoy it or not.
Every new MTL RTA seems to have different take on how to deal with how the airflow hits the coil, some give you fixed airflow, airflow pins, deck inserts, etc. On the Vertex, Hellvape has decided to go with a rotating disk that offers three different airflow settings.
More Images can be found here
What do you get?
What’s it like?
If I designed an RTA, it would look like the vertex – minimal branding, subtle design with a little knurling – in matte black, mine looks great.
Ignoring the airflow for a moment, the deck is quite conventional with a standard two post setup.
The knurled airflow control ring has a series of five holes and then a larger slot for those who like a loose MTL vape.
The top-cap is quite deep and screws off to expose two nicely sized refill ports.
The drip-tip is a two part design, I’m not sure about performance, but this style looks nice.
In order to change the Vertex from 2ml to 3.5ml you have to firstly use the provided tool to remove a small screw holding the chamber in place and then remove the tank. This is where I encountered a problem, the glass tank is held very securely in place and requires more pressure to remove than I’d be willing to use, if I had just purchased this with my own money. My advice is to decide if you want to live with the Vertex as a 2ml or 3.5ml RTA and do this only once.
Build
This is a spectacularly easy build, I tried both 2.5mm and 3mm coils with no issues – just make sure the coil is high enough to clear the airflow and you’re good.
Wicking the Vertex is just as easy, I cut my cotton a fraction shorter than the outside of the base, combed, fluffed, trimmed and thinned it, then put the cotton into the wicking ports.
There wasn’t any major preference for coil size when it came to wicking, it just works without dry hits or leaks.
Usually, I find that MTL RTAs work really well with tobacco and pastry flavors, however the Vertex is really good with fruits, I’ve put multiple tanks of frozen blackcurrant through it and have just moved onto a mango juice.
Airflow
This is where Hellvape have tried to be a little different in offering an airflow disk as well as an airflow control ring.
The ring has the choices of 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm, 1.4mm, 1.6mm and 1.7×5.8mm, while the disk has 1×0.8mm, 3×0.8mm and a single 1.0mm×3.2mm slot.
This system works well, I ended up choosing the airflow on the disk based on my coil and then fine tuned the vape with the airflow control ring – the options from tight MTL to (very) RDL were all good.
But not all is perfect, while the airflow disk is adjustable with a build in place, it’s not exactly easy to turn precisely, so it’s hard to line up the airflow directly under the coil. You can do it, I just found myself deciding which setting I was going to use before I put a build in and then leaving it alone most of the time. I’d love to see a Vertex V2 where each airflow setting clicked into place rather than just rotating.
So, overall the airflow is slightly awkward but very effective – that’s a trade off that I’m more than happy to accept.
Conclusion
A versatile and attractive MTL RTA, that is easy to build on and does especially well with fruit, what’s not to like?
Disclaimer
The Hellvape Vertex was supplied by Sourcemore for the purposes of this review.
Sourcemore currently have the Vertex for sale for $20.09, reduced from $34.99 - no promo code required
While I might review other products and try to put myself the shoes of a new vaper or someone who loves DTL vaping, MTL has become my passion and it makes the reviews easier – all I’m concerned with is if I enjoy it or not.
Every new MTL RTA seems to have different take on how to deal with how the airflow hits the coil, some give you fixed airflow, airflow pins, deck inserts, etc. On the Vertex, Hellvape has decided to go with a rotating disk that offers three different airflow settings.
More Images can be found here
What do you get?
- Vertex MTL RTA (fitted with 2ml tank).
- 3.5ml tank, chamber extender and extender removal tool.
- 5×26g 0.6ohm A1 coils.
- 5×28g 1.0ohm A1 coils.
- Organic cotton pad.
- Spares.
What’s it like?
If I designed an RTA, it would look like the vertex – minimal branding, subtle design with a little knurling – in matte black, mine looks great.
Ignoring the airflow for a moment, the deck is quite conventional with a standard two post setup.
The knurled airflow control ring has a series of five holes and then a larger slot for those who like a loose MTL vape.
The top-cap is quite deep and screws off to expose two nicely sized refill ports.
The drip-tip is a two part design, I’m not sure about performance, but this style looks nice.
In order to change the Vertex from 2ml to 3.5ml you have to firstly use the provided tool to remove a small screw holding the chamber in place and then remove the tank. This is where I encountered a problem, the glass tank is held very securely in place and requires more pressure to remove than I’d be willing to use, if I had just purchased this with my own money. My advice is to decide if you want to live with the Vertex as a 2ml or 3.5ml RTA and do this only once.
Build
This is a spectacularly easy build, I tried both 2.5mm and 3mm coils with no issues – just make sure the coil is high enough to clear the airflow and you’re good.
Wicking the Vertex is just as easy, I cut my cotton a fraction shorter than the outside of the base, combed, fluffed, trimmed and thinned it, then put the cotton into the wicking ports.
There wasn’t any major preference for coil size when it came to wicking, it just works without dry hits or leaks.
- Build one - ignoring the provided coils for a moment, I went for a 3.0mm 28g clapton build, which is what I use when I’m looking for RDL or super loose MTL. Airflow was on full open everything for this build. The flavor was excellent with this build, but the vape was a touch too toasty for my liking, however swapping out the stock drip-tip for something a little longer and with a wider bore made it better and very much RDL.
- Build two - seeing as I had already ticked the RDL box, I used one of the 0.6ohm 2.5mm A1 coils that came with the Vertex. This build worked well with the two tightest airflow settings on the airflow disk, when combined with any of the first five holes on the airflow control ring. This was a nice MTL vape, the throat hit is good, as is the flavor.
- Build three - for this build I went with a 2.5mm 30g superfine MTL fused clapton at about 0.75ohms, I used the largest setting on the airflow disk and airflow either fully open or using the largest of the five previous holes. At 22w with everything open, I was getting a very nice RDL vape, if I closed the airflow ring a little and take the power down to 18w, then I was getting loose MTL with a touch more flavor and throat hit. So far, this is my favorite build.
Usually, I find that MTL RTAs work really well with tobacco and pastry flavors, however the Vertex is really good with fruits, I’ve put multiple tanks of frozen blackcurrant through it and have just moved onto a mango juice.
Airflow
This is where Hellvape have tried to be a little different in offering an airflow disk as well as an airflow control ring.
The ring has the choices of 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm, 1.4mm, 1.6mm and 1.7×5.8mm, while the disk has 1×0.8mm, 3×0.8mm and a single 1.0mm×3.2mm slot.
This system works well, I ended up choosing the airflow on the disk based on my coil and then fine tuned the vape with the airflow control ring – the options from tight MTL to (very) RDL were all good.
But not all is perfect, while the airflow disk is adjustable with a build in place, it’s not exactly easy to turn precisely, so it’s hard to line up the airflow directly under the coil. You can do it, I just found myself deciding which setting I was going to use before I put a build in and then leaving it alone most of the time. I’d love to see a Vertex V2 where each airflow setting clicked into place rather than just rotating.
So, overall the airflow is slightly awkward but very effective – that’s a trade off that I’m more than happy to accept.
Conclusion
A versatile and attractive MTL RTA, that is easy to build on and does especially well with fruit, what’s not to like?
Disclaimer
The Hellvape Vertex was supplied by Sourcemore for the purposes of this review.
Sourcemore currently have the Vertex for sale for $20.09, reduced from $34.99 - no promo code required
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