KingPin!
In my defence, I was left unsupervised ^^
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Platinum Contributor
Member For 4 Years
VU Challenge Team
Reviewer
Hello Folks,
Today I’ll be reviewing an RDA with the tag line “No More Fear, No More Phobias”…. That’ll be the casually named Phobia RDA from Alex MD and VandyVape. So unless you suffer from Sidonglobophobia, Metallophobia, Panophobia, or even happen to fear I’ve listed Phobias (Phobophobia) then let’s get to it.
Before I do though I better drop the usual review clause “I was sent this RDA from VandyVape”. I don’t like to make recommendations in my reviews; instead I’ll present you with my findings to help bolster your research should you be interested in the product.
I tell you what….. I think I’m starting to develop a phobia of writing that every time! So before Allodoxaphobia sets in let’s really get on with it.
Manufacturer’s specification
Product Details: http://www.vandyvape.com/detail/atomizer/66/
Kits Includes
Please note this review is based on a sample version so my experiences may differ to yours.
The Phobia comes with two different top chamber assemblies. One is an all-in-one design with a milled conical chamber inside, the other utilises a removable chuff cap which steps in a little bit but overall maintains a similar conical shape into the mould.
Only the black version comes with Delrin, the other colour variants come with Utlem. Despite the knurling on the chuff cap it’s comfortable to vape into the higher wattage ranges without any significant heat transfer which is something the all-in-one didn’t offer. Whilst using the Phobia in the low to mid ranges (35-80W) I prefer the stock all-in -one with a removable drip tip as I like its narrower bore size.
Whilst the Phobia comes with a 510 Drip tip adaptor, I didn’t feel it added any benefit using it. This RDA is more suited to an 810 in my opinion.
I happen to own Alex’s other joint venture project… the “Skill RDA” with Twisted Messes. To this day it’s one of my favourites RDA’s although he does seem to favour tight O-Rings and the Phobia is no exception. They are a little too tight even when “lubed”, this translates into tightening or losing the RDA on the mod as I adjust airflow. In order to avoid this, just like the Skill RDA I try to decide where I want the airflow before plonking on the top cap.
The paintwork was great on the top assemblies; however I was not as impressed with the deck itself. There are multiple areas either the paint chipped or it was left too thin especially in the juice well corners (these pics were taken after an ultrasonic cleaning). The black variant looks great but to be honest if mine is anything to go by I’d say pick one of the other colour options, since none of the others come with a black base.
Looking inside the base VandyVape can’t quite move away from their standard assembly template choosing to stick with that plastic insert. They have positioned and angled it so half of the intake goes to each post evenly. They have also kept their signature two part positive pin which is prone to snapping when tightened too hard or just being a pain to remove.
The RDA sports two bottom airflow slots each measuring 14mm x 2mm, these sit very close to the base, in fact if you look at it in conjunction with the low position the airflow outlets on the deck over squonking or dripping with the tiny juice well is a real concern. To be honest I found this RDA to be pretty useless as a dripper. I was able to take literally 2-3 pulls before I needed to re-drip, so squonking was the only viable option for me.
Also let’s talk about the positioning of the postless deck here; it’s not worth running a massive single coil due to the distance between the airflow posts, so for me personally its dual coil only. Whilst the design makes it very easy to pre-measure, mount and position I’m left with coils that don’t actually sit over the juice well ……< So what I hear you ask?> This does somewhat limit the size of coil I can run because I’m having to fold the cotton sideways, if I rake too much away I won’t be supplying enough juice to the coil - so 3mm ID is the maximum I’d be looking to run on here.
You definitely do not want to stuff cotton too far towards the centre of the deck when squonking. I try to limit wicking so its stops before the straight channel. If you go past this point you just get a situation where juice puddles too quickly and causes it to pour out the bottom airflow slots. Knowing this though meant I treated it much like my Hadaly RDA which only requires a light “push and hold” of the squonk bottle every couple of pulls. I never had a problem with leaking whilst taking this approach.
With the little cap on top of the bottom feeding pin it distributes juice evenly both sides of the deck which I liked.
Build Flexibility and Ease of Use
The Phobia is very easy to build on thanks to the open design of the side mounting screws. I was able to measure and cut my leads with precision. The screws are the same M4 type used in the Kylin Mini so you can really wrench these if you want, plus if you hate phillips screws they give you allen key alternatives.
You have approximately 12mm of coil length to play with but only have airflow hitting the centre 3mm of your coil. I’d say big builds aren’t the way to go, the Phobia laps up fast ramp up/cool down coils such as simple parallel wound wire, fused Clapton’s or thinner gauge aliens.
My approach is very similar to how I approach builds on the Oumier Wasp Nano which is to space the coils out to reach each post without adding too many wraps keeping my overall resistance between 0.15 - 0.25 which is where I like it for my regulated mods. I position the coils so they are siting like so…
This coil approach helps should you be using temperature control, leaves the ends of coil in the right position so you can simply fold the cotton and due to the smaller size means you don’t have to worry about thinning the cotton for it to keep up with wicking.
How’s it Vape?
The flavour production is very good especially with those airflow posts almost hugging the coil. Cloud production is plentiful and the draw is fairly restricted even wide open which suits my style.
The problem is wide open it’s noisy, the harder you pull the louder it gets which won’t suit cloud chasers. I’ve settled on vaping this RDA with temp control only closing up the airflow to provide a tight draw to reduce the noise. I was also running a different drip tip to the one provided as I felt it was just too wide and short to get the most from it.
To me this does make it a little bit of a one trick pony, but if you are comfortable with a tight draw, running lower wattages and not using massive builds then this can be quite the flavourful RDA, that’s not to say it isn’t when open at high wattage you’ll just be refilling every single pull.
Pro’s
I really liked the Skill RDA and it’s only natural for me to compare to Alex's past project being I own it. Whilst the Phobia has the potential to be equal to or perhaps better in the flavour department, it misses the mark across a lot of the other areas in comparison. For this reason I still feel the Skill is the superior RDA of the two (although it’s a lot more expensive).
For a restricted dual coil squonk option; the bottom line is the Phobia is a decent RDA and does kick out great flavour. I just felt there are parts in the design that don’t play well together ultimately holding the RDA back. On the one hand you have this amazingly large and easy to work with build deck, but then you are limited by other factors. It’s as though it’s trying to be too many things without realy targetting a specific audience.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review, I hope the information serves you well…. until next time KingPin!
Today I’ll be reviewing an RDA with the tag line “No More Fear, No More Phobias”…. That’ll be the casually named Phobia RDA from Alex MD and VandyVape. So unless you suffer from Sidonglobophobia, Metallophobia, Panophobia, or even happen to fear I’ve listed Phobias (Phobophobia) then let’s get to it.
Before I do though I better drop the usual review clause “I was sent this RDA from VandyVape”. I don’t like to make recommendations in my reviews; instead I’ll present you with my findings to help bolster your research should you be interested in the product.
I tell you what….. I think I’m starting to develop a phobia of writing that every time! So before Allodoxaphobia sets in let’s really get on with it.
Manufacturer’s specification
- Height: 24mm (30mm with drip tip)
- Diameter: 24mm
- Thread: 510
- Gold Plated Positive Pin
- Metal: 304 Stainless Steel
- Airflow Slots : 2 Adjustable Bottom Airflow (14mm x 2mm)
- Assembly: 3 and 4 Piece Design
- Weight: 134g
- Bottom Feeding or Dripper
- Drip tip: 11mm bore 810 or a 12mm bore 24mm Drip Cap (plus a 510 drip tip adaptor included)
Product Details: http://www.vandyvape.com/detail/atomizer/66/
Kits Includes
- 1x Phobia RDA
- 1 x Alternative Airflow Ring
- 1 x Alternative Top Cap
- 1x Spare kit (4 x spare screws, Spare O-rings, Allen key, BF Pin, screwdriver, 510 driptip adaptor)
- 1x User Manual
Please note this review is based on a sample version so my experiences may differ to yours.
The Phobia comes with two different top chamber assemblies. One is an all-in-one design with a milled conical chamber inside, the other utilises a removable chuff cap which steps in a little bit but overall maintains a similar conical shape into the mould.
Only the black version comes with Delrin, the other colour variants come with Utlem. Despite the knurling on the chuff cap it’s comfortable to vape into the higher wattage ranges without any significant heat transfer which is something the all-in-one didn’t offer. Whilst using the Phobia in the low to mid ranges (35-80W) I prefer the stock all-in -one with a removable drip tip as I like its narrower bore size.
Whilst the Phobia comes with a 510 Drip tip adaptor, I didn’t feel it added any benefit using it. This RDA is more suited to an 810 in my opinion.
I happen to own Alex’s other joint venture project… the “Skill RDA” with Twisted Messes. To this day it’s one of my favourites RDA’s although he does seem to favour tight O-Rings and the Phobia is no exception. They are a little too tight even when “lubed”, this translates into tightening or losing the RDA on the mod as I adjust airflow. In order to avoid this, just like the Skill RDA I try to decide where I want the airflow before plonking on the top cap.
The paintwork was great on the top assemblies; however I was not as impressed with the deck itself. There are multiple areas either the paint chipped or it was left too thin especially in the juice well corners (these pics were taken after an ultrasonic cleaning). The black variant looks great but to be honest if mine is anything to go by I’d say pick one of the other colour options, since none of the others come with a black base.
Looking inside the base VandyVape can’t quite move away from their standard assembly template choosing to stick with that plastic insert. They have positioned and angled it so half of the intake goes to each post evenly. They have also kept their signature two part positive pin which is prone to snapping when tightened too hard or just being a pain to remove.
The RDA sports two bottom airflow slots each measuring 14mm x 2mm, these sit very close to the base, in fact if you look at it in conjunction with the low position the airflow outlets on the deck over squonking or dripping with the tiny juice well is a real concern. To be honest I found this RDA to be pretty useless as a dripper. I was able to take literally 2-3 pulls before I needed to re-drip, so squonking was the only viable option for me.
Also let’s talk about the positioning of the postless deck here; it’s not worth running a massive single coil due to the distance between the airflow posts, so for me personally its dual coil only. Whilst the design makes it very easy to pre-measure, mount and position I’m left with coils that don’t actually sit over the juice well ……< So what I hear you ask?> This does somewhat limit the size of coil I can run because I’m having to fold the cotton sideways, if I rake too much away I won’t be supplying enough juice to the coil - so 3mm ID is the maximum I’d be looking to run on here.
You definitely do not want to stuff cotton too far towards the centre of the deck when squonking. I try to limit wicking so its stops before the straight channel. If you go past this point you just get a situation where juice puddles too quickly and causes it to pour out the bottom airflow slots. Knowing this though meant I treated it much like my Hadaly RDA which only requires a light “push and hold” of the squonk bottle every couple of pulls. I never had a problem with leaking whilst taking this approach.
With the little cap on top of the bottom feeding pin it distributes juice evenly both sides of the deck which I liked.
Build Flexibility and Ease of Use
The Phobia is very easy to build on thanks to the open design of the side mounting screws. I was able to measure and cut my leads with precision. The screws are the same M4 type used in the Kylin Mini so you can really wrench these if you want, plus if you hate phillips screws they give you allen key alternatives.
You have approximately 12mm of coil length to play with but only have airflow hitting the centre 3mm of your coil. I’d say big builds aren’t the way to go, the Phobia laps up fast ramp up/cool down coils such as simple parallel wound wire, fused Clapton’s or thinner gauge aliens.
My approach is very similar to how I approach builds on the Oumier Wasp Nano which is to space the coils out to reach each post without adding too many wraps keeping my overall resistance between 0.15 - 0.25 which is where I like it for my regulated mods. I position the coils so they are siting like so…
This coil approach helps should you be using temperature control, leaves the ends of coil in the right position so you can simply fold the cotton and due to the smaller size means you don’t have to worry about thinning the cotton for it to keep up with wicking.
How’s it Vape?
The flavour production is very good especially with those airflow posts almost hugging the coil. Cloud production is plentiful and the draw is fairly restricted even wide open which suits my style.
The problem is wide open it’s noisy, the harder you pull the louder it gets which won’t suit cloud chasers. I’ve settled on vaping this RDA with temp control only closing up the airflow to provide a tight draw to reduce the noise. I was also running a different drip tip to the one provided as I felt it was just too wide and short to get the most from it.
To me this does make it a little bit of a one trick pony, but if you are comfortable with a tight draw, running lower wattages and not using massive builds then this can be quite the flavourful RDA, that’s not to say it isn’t when open at high wattage you’ll just be refilling every single pull.
Pro’s
- Great flavour and cloud production
- Very easy to measure and mount coils
- Two Cap options allowing access to a greater wattage range
- Even distribution of liquid across the deck when squonking
- Great looking RDA
- Noisy draw and a little turbulent
- That two part positive pin is pants as is that plastic insert in the base
- Awkward coil placement
- Not really viable as a dripper juice runs out too quickly with dual coils
- Susceptible to over squonking or dripping
- O-rings a little on the tight side
- Paint application on the black deck left a little to be desired
I really liked the Skill RDA and it’s only natural for me to compare to Alex's past project being I own it. Whilst the Phobia has the potential to be equal to or perhaps better in the flavour department, it misses the mark across a lot of the other areas in comparison. For this reason I still feel the Skill is the superior RDA of the two (although it’s a lot more expensive).
For a restricted dual coil squonk option; the bottom line is the Phobia is a decent RDA and does kick out great flavour. I just felt there are parts in the design that don’t play well together ultimately holding the RDA back. On the one hand you have this amazingly large and easy to work with build deck, but then you are limited by other factors. It’s as though it’s trying to be too many things without realy targetting a specific audience.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review, I hope the information serves you well…. until next time KingPin!
Last edited:
Glad to hear they fixed the base paint job in final retail version
