Vapefly Core RTA Review by KingPin! (inc. wicking guide)

[KingPin!]

Hi Folks,

Let me ask you this…what does the Pontiac Atztek, Apple 3 and the NHS National Program for IT have in common?

Ok here’s a clue “A camel is a horse designed by committee”

…they were all projects where all ideas were welcome, concessions were made or haphazard management led to a disregard of the original requirements (that poor old camel).

However there have been successful committee projects too, for instance The Great Seal of America, The UN Headquarters, and finally my personal favourite the Full English Breakfast (just look at all the stuff that has to go right just to get that lot on the plate!) and in such cases success was borne from healthy collaboration every design team needs.

At this point your probably thinking what is this guy on? well my point with this perhaps random opening is to say we have seen numerous examples throughout history where Committee based projects have either flopped massively or succeeded, in my country anything the government touches tends to be the former but that’s beside the point, I’m talking about a large design team here “The German 103 design team” to be precise …check out the name tag:



Holy shitballs batman there’s actually 103 of them!!… That’s a lot of ideas, beer and sausages consumed in the making of this one. So is this a collaboration effort, or a committee effort? …let’s find out!

Oh before I jump in lets gets the traditional reviewers “committee agreed disclaimer out the way” ….I’m just a mindless drone borne from the will of Vapefly, a manufacturer whose eternal desire it is to sell everyone this product….excellent done, we can almost proceed! Once that is we get approval from the board, stakeholder acceptance and wait for the forms to come through before we all decide what font to use, then all we need is a rubber stamp... because we can’t possibly start without that!

Ok ok ...seriously Vapefly did kindly send it for the once over …those who have braved my other reviews know I don’t like to make recommendations, instead I'll provide you with all my findings should you be interested in the product in the hope it bolsters your research.

So without further ado...

Specification Overview & What’s in the box

• Visible Height: 46.4mm
• Diameter: 25.2mm at the base (28mm at widest part with the bubble glass)
• Capacity: 4ml with bubble tank (2ml with straight glass)
• Thread length 4.84mm (gold plated positive pin)
• Construction: 304 Stainless Steel, Pyrex Glass, PMMA Drip Tip.
• Drip Tip: 810 - Height 7mm x Width 17mm (Tapered Bore 10mm > 14mm)
• Refill Port: 2 (Kidney style Length 14mm x Width 3.2mm)
• Airflow Slots: 2 (13.5mm x 2mm)
• Chimney Bore: 6.9mm
• Chamber Width: 18mm
• Post distance for coil width: 14.4mm
• Deck length between posts: 7.92mm
• Chamber Height 11mm
• Airflow on Deck: Bottom (x 8) & side airflow (x 3)
• Wicking Hole Size: 10mm x 3mm
• Extras: Straight Glass, 510 Adaptor, O-rings, Tool, 2 spare screws, 2 spare post plates

Product Information: http://www.vapefly.net/core-rta/

Available Colours: Black, Stainless, Gold, Rainbow

Impressions, Build Quality & Assembly

My product for review was a sample version, as such my experiences may differ in some areas as a result. The Vapefly site suggests the retail version comes with a single coil plug and some cotton, however my box was missing these items so I cannot comment on them unfortunately, I did however get through some of their swanky packaged Firebolt cotton with the show lace thingies on so I’ll go through that as well in the wicking section.

Vapefly’s Quality Control has continued to improve as we progress. I’ve seen 5 of their products pass across my proverbial desk, and the Core has some of the finest machining I’ve seen so far from them, so keep continuing on this path Vapefly its good to see.



In the interest of keeping this trait improving, I noticed a couple of nicks in my post at the top and down the sides if you really zoom in, apart from that it looks clean everywhere, the threading doesn’t have any burs, the machine finishing is smooth, and assembly fit is great. For its price point I really haven’t any cause for complaint, so perhaps here Vapefly you could possibly consider a harder stainless steel in the construction to avoid surface machining blemishes, and improve the final polishing and finish process just slightly to make sure these nicks aren’t carried into the final product.



Starting at the top of the tank…I have grown more accustomed to a 510 drip tip this year to the point I’m drawn to using one on most products. As it happens I managed to get on just fine with the stock 810 tip. It’s bored perfectly to capture and funnel the vapour coming up from either of the centre post, its tall enough at 7mm to avoid burny lips with the wattage this RTA requires, it’s wide without being uncomfortable, lastly it doesn’t really attract the horrible lip scum. All in all it’s a damn good tip actually, so my review is based on its continual use (If I had a single coil plug included it’s highly likely I would have switched to using a 510 tip using its adaptor).



The top cap utilises short threading so it doesn’t take much to screw it on or off. I noticed when tightening its worth stopping almost as soon as you feel resistance as it forms a good seal there anyway. If you continue to gorilla it shut you are going to have problems removing it after the tank heats up, the knurling cut outs are ample until such an overtightening situation arises. If you do happen to overtighten it (like I did) you are likely to undo the base from the glass before the top cap shifts because it’s a real pig to undo.



The juice wells are deeply recessed inside so unless you overfill this RTA it’s very clean to use after securing the cap back on, in fact I don’t recall every having to wipe away excess juice whilst testing. The kidney shaped ports are very long at 14mm, yet narrow at 3.2mm so you may find twist top nozzles a problem unless you hold them further up and stream the juice into the tank reservoir (other nib types were fine including dropper bottles).



The RTA is big, well I say that but it’s deceptive. The core has a pretty standard 25mm base diameter, however the bubble glass extends out to 28mm which isn’t all that uncommon these days especially with the rise of the bubble glass as standard. I think it’s the way the top cap cones upwards and the size of the chamber just makes it look a lot bigger than it really is.




Actually speaking of the chamber whilst its diameter (18mm) is fairly standard for a dual coil it’s pretty tall sitting at 11mm (and that’s before taking into account its chimney). This is because the 103 team have adopted a rather large deck to fit in there. I think it’s fair to say here they have taken design que’s from the Wormhole RDA (with its post and airflow system), and the VandyVape Kensei honing them to their own tastes. This hybrid modification gives rise to Vapefly’s marketing buzzword “the Q airflow system” …I’m not quite sure how it’s a Q but there you go. Essentially you have a situation where the coil is being hugged by both bottom and side airflow inlets, which makes for a great coil sizing and positioning guide. The system works well for the most part but I’ll touch on this more in the “How’s it Vape” portion of the review.



To finish up on the chamber then; it sits on top of the deck instead of over it completely leaving the tank with a wider wicking port compared with pictures I’ve seen of the Kensei…that’s a good thing for everyone as you can stuff the cotton in this one without too much hassle.

The Airflow Control (AFC) ring is the only area I was disappointed with, whilst the ring effortlessly glides once secured onto a mod, it just feels a little loose. I would like to have seen a double O-ring securing this in place which will have helped with the condensation seeping I often witnessed under the base, in addition I think it would have helped to seal up the chamber completely as there wasn’t an airtight seal when the AFC was closed.

The tank breaks down into 14 parts for cleaning and maintenance (if you remove the screws and plates from the posts). You get a spare set of screws and plates should you lose or strip them.



I’ll end this section here by saying I would love to have seen the ability to adjust bottom and side airflow independently like I was able to do with the wormhole RDA. Doing so would have given the flexibility to really tailor my vape experience, as its stands (certainly as a dual coil) this RTA is very much for people looking for a big direct lung inhale.

 

[KingPin!]

Coil Building

Well the Core was designed by a team of 103 likeminded vapers so I expect this RTA’s build deck to be pretty special. In some ways it is and in other ways it isn’t but I do believe for the most part it’s well executed.

Keeping the posts and clamps from the Wormhole RDA was a good move, they are build friendly, can be wrenched down hard and most importantly can accommodate large coil porn builds which is great for Instagram and hobby builders out there. I do question whether this really benefits those outside of building circles, so bear this in mind.

You have access to 4mm wide clamps which is enough to sit twelve 28 gauge wire cores side by side! In addition; the clamp opens up to provide a gap of 1.8mm, that’s enough to stack two 22 gauge wires on top of each other! Ok that’s impressive for a 25mm RTA especially when you consider the posts are 14mm apart (measuring inside the posts at each end).

Putting that to one side for the moment; is this lot a little wasted? I say this because in real terms you actually have a post width of approx. 8mm before the posts start to overhang the wicking area, so you may well find, like me, you end up using just half of the clamp space available at any one time (even with 28g quad core claptons side by side) leaving the clamp plate pissed to one side. The plate is thick enough so it won’t bend under tension, I just think they could have cut these post down in size as I find they get in the way of wicking a little. Who knows it might be helping to improve flavour and airflow inside? but without being on the team I cannot speculate as to their thinking.

The Airflow, both bottom and side, are concave which gives you a really handy guide as to where you position the coil, so it was a no brainer for me on this one and I didn’t really feel the need to muck about with positioning at all setting the coils “almost” bang in the middle of two airflows like so (the top red line sits just above the top of the side airflow on the centre post)



This deck is screaming for those wide flat coil builds like the quad cores pictured below, or fewer cores and just adding more wraps because there is so much airflow surrounding the coil, but doing so does generate heat which doesn’t seem to disperse quickly on the draw …so my advice on this one is unless you like roasting hot vapes; aim for a build where you aren’t going to try and go above 80W with it because above you’ll really notice in that it feels like your vaping at 100W+.




Personally I really rate a 3mm inner diameter with quad cores using 28 gauge N80, with 38 gauge N80 outer wrap using it between 60-70watts for a nice warm vape. I reckon you’ll get away with 4mm ID coil on this deck but I didn’t try it as I prefer 3mm for the most part, plus it was getting a bit dicey with the temp as it was.

I found the post screws to be decent, but I like flat heads anyway especially when the screw recesses into the post as there’s no chance of the screwdriver slipping out to one side.

Finally with the coil legs placed side by side it means you invariably always get even heating through both coils, so there a lot less mucking about trying to get even glows out of the gate. So as I said at the beginning of this section a bit of a mish mash of ideas coming together.

 

[KingPin!]

Wicking

Wicking time… ok let’s get this bit out of the way; I’m not plugging this cotton as you’re supposed to get in the box anyway, as I said I’m missing some of the extras that were supposed to come with it, so Vapefly sent a packet to try, at least now you know what it is you are going to get instead of some random bit of rag usually provided.



Cotton Bacon V2 is my usual go to cotton for RTA’s …and I like Koh Gen Do and sometimes Muji for RDA’s, yeah I’m weird and have OCD issues.

So what’s this firebolt about? …by the looks of it really close up …it’s pretty damn close to cotton bacon, similar fibres, no smell or oily surface, similar colouration (edited below), its fluffier though almost as if it’s already been combed through?, it breaks in very quickly, has no sort of funny after taste and comes with a handy applicator to get it through the coil…all in all I actually like it a lot…….BUT ….



Cotton Bacon (CB) V2 comes with 10 pads in a pack and each pad is slighter longer. I reckon you’ll be able to split each CB pad into 3 pieces, each giving you a similar amount of material as one of these pre-prepared Firebolt pieces (which has 20 in its pack by the way), So it’s a bit of a false economy you are paying for an applicator and get 10 fewer bits of cotton as a result.



In addition with a CB pad you tear enough away depending on the size of your coil, the firebolt cotton is specifically made for 3mm inner diameter coils (well at least I think it is)….whilst I can rake some away for smaller ID’s why should I? I’ve got a shoe lace thingy applicator and want to be lazy here……what if I want a 4mm coil as well? See you messed with my OCD see what happens …..So if you: like using 3mm coils, want an easy time of it, happen to like cotton bacon, don’t mind getting a bit less for your money these are bang on …..

Right with that out of the way onto how you wick the Core…I’m using a firebolt cotton for this (it should be in your pack, if not check my picture above because that’s how much you need to peel off if using CB). Coil size is 3mm

1. Pull it through and loop it round …you should have enough to wick both coils with a single piece. Move each side back and forth a little bit to settle it into each coil. Then snip the connected part in half



2. Now with your scissors push your cotton to make a dent in it at the bottom of the deck area. This will become your cut line



3. Straight cut along that line …you should end up with something like this



4. Now angle cut towards the centre of the cotton



5. You should end up with something like this



6. Now the pads are actually quite thick still despite how little material it looks like there was in the picture above. Starting from the bottom feed it in bit by bit make sure to push it’s all the way through so you don’t end up with a ball. I managed to tuck the whole lot in without raking anything away and it wicks like a champ….If you are using Cotton bacon at this stage you might need to rake a little excess away depending on how much you tore off earlier.



7. What it should look like when you’re done…notice it still looks fluffy in the juice opening, in addition notice I’ve not left a gap under that post area …being the well is a single large cut out your cotton legs should join in the middle otherwise you’ll get leaking



8. Juice her up, check for gaps and sculpt the cotton back carefully if needed to make sure there’s nothing obstructing the threading

9. Reverse thread the chamber to make sure there’s no cotton snagging and re-assemble. Quarter fill the tank and you should be good to go

How’s it Vape?

I alluded to this earlier in my review; in my humble opinion the Core RTA has a fairly narrow wattage window. There’s a lot of airflow going over the coils, so the tank needs a decent amount of wattage to get it going. Then you have this large build area crying out for larger coils as well, so to make the most of both of worlds; selecting coils with a larger surface area seems logical to me.

Where the Core struggles though is with a set of complex coils requiring 80 watts+ you’re really going to notice it quickly since the chamber struggles to deal with the heat generated…which is unusual considering how much potential airflow there is.

With that out of the way, and assuming you build accordingly up to 80W it’s a great vape. They have managed to get the balance just right between clouds and flavour, not only that; the moistness of the vape and speed it drinks is well balanced too, it just does everything well and I’ve really enjoyed using it between 60-80W.

With it being so well balanced in all areas it’s fair to say it doesn’t push into the extreme of any one thing like a fair few other tanks on the market try to, so it depends on what you are after really.

Pro’s

• Stock 810 suits this tank perfectly
• Excellent balance of flavour & cloud
• Good machining overall, couple of minor nicks
• Airflow Control turns freely when tank is secured to the base
• Not messy to refill around the top cap
• Easy to wick (The Firebolt cotton was actually pretty good)
• Large build area (huge clamps) can take large coils (diameter and length)
• Decent recessed screws
• Easy to figure out coil positioning

Cons

• [personal] Posts seem unnecessarily large (get in the way when wicking)
• Airflow Control ring is lose (leads to condensation under the base)
• Less forgiving than some other RTA’s (in terms of what wattage and build you should use)
• Don’t overtighten the top cap, it’s a pig to undo if you do

Final Conclusion

So let’s start out addressing my opener …is this product designed by committee or by collaboration …hmmm I think there’s good arguments to be had for and against to be fair, whilst some concepts seem to work against each other, other areas work well, either way they’ve managed to land on a really well-balanced RTA ….and that’s where I think you could lead this either way in the argument.

Putting that to one side and considering I’ve given it an “all-rounder” status I don’t want to give you the impression it’s just average RTA because it not, it deserves a better closing than that which is to say I believe its positives outweigh its negatives, and once I found the right build for it and figured out its quirks I enjoyed using it.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review, I hope the information serves you well…. until next time KingPin!

 

[St.Roostifer]

Well shit fire... that's one hell of a review kingpin! Well thought out and as always very detailed.

Going by your review I'd say Vapefly, with help from Z Germans, have a winner on their hands. This should peak the interest of many dual coil rta lovers.

 

[Heartsdelight]

Coil Building

Well the Core was designed by a team of 103 likeminded vapers so I expect this RTA’s build deck to be pretty special. In some ways it is and in other ways it isn’t but I do believe for the most part it’s well executed.

Keeping the posts and clamps from the Wormhole RDA was a good move, they are build friendly, can be wrenched down hard and most importantly can accommodate large coil porn builds which is great for Instagram and hobby builders out there. I do question whether this really benefits those outside of building circles, so bear this in mind.

You have access to 4mm wide clamps which is enough to sit twelve 28 gauge wire cores side by side! In addition; the clamp opens up to provide a gap of 1.8mm, that’s enough to stack two 22 gauge wires on top of each other! Ok that’s impressive for a 25mm RTA especially when you consider the posts are 14mm apart (measuring inside the posts at each end).

Putting that to one side for the moment; is this lot a little wasted? I say this because in real terms you actually have a post width of approx. 8mm before the posts start to overhang the wicking area, so you may well find, like me, you end up using just half of the clamp space available at any one time (even with 28g quad core claptons side by side) leaving the clamp plate pissed to one side. The plate is thick enough so it won’t bend under tension, I just think they could have cut these post down in size as I find they get in the way of wicking a little. Who knows it might be helping to improve flavour and airflow inside? but without being on the team I cannot speculate as to their thinking.

The Airflow, both bottom and side, are concave which gives you a really handy guide as to where you position the coil, so it was a no brainer for me on this one and I didn’t really feel the need to muck about with positioning at all setting the coils “almost” bang in the middle of two airflows like so (the top red line sits just above the top of the side airflow on the centre post)

View attachment 118130

This deck is screaming for those wide flat coil builds like the quad cores pictured below, or fewer cores and just adding more wraps because there is so much airflow surrounding the coil, but doing so does generate heat which doesn’t seem to disperse quickly on the draw …so my advice on this one is unless you like roasting hot vapes; aim for a build where you aren’t going to try and go above 80W with it because above you’ll really notice in that it feels like your vaping at 100W+.

View attachment 118131
View attachment 118129

Personally I really rate a 3mm inner diameter with quad cores using 28 gauge N80, with 38 gauge N80 outer wrap using it between 60-70watts for a nice warm vape. I reckon you’ll get away with 4mm ID coil on this deck but I didn’t try it as I prefer 3mm for the most part, plus it was getting a bit dicey with the temp as it was.

I found the post screws to be decent, but I like flat heads anyway especially when the screw recesses into the post as there’s no chance of the screwdriver slipping out to one side.

Finally with the coil legs placed side by side it means you invariably always get even heating through both coils, so there a lot less mucking about trying to get even glows out of the gate. So as I said at the beginning of this section a bit of a mish mash of ideas coming together.

Wow the coils look beautiful!

 

[Heartsdelight]

Wow ! Extremely well done

Love all the pics on wicking! It sounds lovely for the high wattage Vapers!

 

[KingPin!]

Well shit fire... that's one hell of a review kingpin! Well thought out and as always very detailed.

Going by your review I'd say Vapefly, with help from Z Germans, have a winner on their hands. This should peak the interest of many dual coil rta lovers.

Thanks very much matey ...went a little off piste at the beginning but hey ho got there in the end lol

Wow ! Extremely well done

Love all the pics on wicking! It sounds lovely for the high wattage Vapers!

Thank you very much hearts

I’m Interested what do you both think committee or collaboration effort?

 

[Heartsdelight]

Thanks very much matey ...went a little off piste at the beginning but hey ho got there in the end lol



Thank you very much hearts

I’m Interested what do you both think committee or collaboration effort?

I think perhaps committee. Everyone out their 2 pence in lol!

 

[KingPin!]

I think perhaps committee. Everyone out their 2 pence in lol!

Haha I know it’s madness 103 people! wonder if they split into smaller groups voted or what because theres simply no way there’s enough to go round to incorporate that many suggestions

but it does make me wonder if they had instead say 2 or 3 on it whether it would have pushed into the extremes...can you imagine a few guys saying we want flavour do this, the other lot saying we want clouds do this instead

ahh sod it modify the kensei hahaha

 

[Heartsdelight]

Haha I know it’s madness 103 people! wonder if they split into smaller groups voted or what because theres simply no way there’s enough to go round to incorporate that many suggestions

but it does make me wonder if they had instead say 2 or 3 on it whether it would have pushed into the extremes...can you imagine a few guys saying we want flavour do this, the other lot saying we want clouds do this instead

ahh sod it modify the kensei hahaha

 

[jwill]

This one has been on my watch list. Thanks for the review. Going to scoop this one up next order cycle.

 

[KingPin!]

This one has been on my watch list. Thanks for the review. Going to scoop this one up next order cycle.

no problem at all mate

 

[Vape Fan]

Nice review and thanks for your detailed input.
You mention the balance between flavor and cloud.
How would you rate the flavor? Any better than or not as good as comparisons?

 

[KingPin!]

Nice review and thanks for your detailed input.
You mention the balance between flavor and cloud.
How would you rate the flavor? Any better than or not as good as comparisons?

Thanks matey it reminds me of the Wotofo Bravo in the way it vapes (very similar draw “feel” experience between the two which is a good thing) not as flavoursome though ...but much less problematic when it comes to seeping after refill and wicking, except for condensation seeping due to the lose AFC ring this atty is pretty much hassle free.

I prefer this to the obs crius 2 dual coil though ...compared with the kaees Solomon V1 and Ijoy Exo (dual coil configuration) old atties by comparison now.... they are still holding their own up there for me in flavour dept

which other attys did you have in mind for comparison purposes? Bear in mind I don’t own the fatality ....yet haha

 

[Vape Fan]

Thanks matey it reminds me of the Wotofo Bravo in the way it vapes (very similar draw “feel” experience between the two which is a good thing) not as flavoursome though ...but much less problematic when it comes to seeping after refill and wicking, except for condensation seeping due to the lose AFC ring this atty is pretty much hassle free.

I prefer this to the obs crius 2 dual coil though ...compared with the kaees Solomon V1 and Ijoy Exo (dual coil configuration) old atties by comparison now.... they are still holding their own up there for me in flavour dept

which other attys did you have in mind for comparison purposes? Bear in mind I don’t own the fatality ....yet haha

None in mind. Just always looking for that next flavor popper. Sounds like it does pretty well in that dept.