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Worth switching to RTA?

dud3r

Member For 4 Years
I switched to sub-ohm tanks around the time orchids were big. Haven't looked back until now. I'm curious though. Tired of buying coils. I drive a semi and since I almost never go home coming across coils can be a pain. If I had a little kit for rebuilding that could be more convenient then hunting coils in a 70 foot truck. How are today's RTA's in comparison to sub-ohm tanks? Any recommendations?


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Jim_MDP

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They're great.
And I think even I'm getting better at RTA/RBA wicking
Got several running right now without leaks, all at once... it's a miracle. :p

Obviously, besides the convenience, a nickels' worth of wick and wire is better than using up yet another $1.50 factory head.

Bellus, Bachelor, Aromamizer. And a couple of finicky little RBA heads too (Crown etc).
I'm enjoying all of mine, but there are plenty of others, and some better as well.

Big time recommendations incoming in 3...2...1...

:D
 

f1r3b1rd

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I have a subohm tank.... but use it only for travel.
everything else is primarly an rda for all day and an rta at night when I'm relaxing.
I prefer my build over anything out the box, I guess I'm a control affocianado.
 

JERUS

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I switched to sub-ohm tanks around the time orchids were big. Haven't looked back until now. I'm curious though. Tired of buying coils. I drive a semi and since I almost never go home coming across coils can be a pain. If I had a little kit for rebuilding that could be more convenient then hunting coils in a 70 foot truck. How are today's RTA's in comparison to sub-ohm tanks? Any recommendations?


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RTAs can be fickle little bastards until you figure out just how to give it the love it needs. I'm talking wicking. Once you get it down, well there's no looking back.

For your situation I'd highly recommend one of the Atlantis coil type fitting tanks as a general suggestion as they're super common, any smoke or vape shop will likely have at least something you can use be it atlantis, herekles, silo, or whatever option.

But, if you're up for a little challenge in your free time while learning, RTAs will treat you very well. I get about 5 days out of the wick in my Griffin with coils that will last months. Wicking takes me all of 10 minutes from start to finish, this includes wiping out the tank, dry burning the coil, wicking, priming, filling and then off to vaping. So once you get it down you're going to love RTAs, but it's a learning curve, just don't get frustrated, set it down and walk back to your normal tank if you start to get annoyed, it'll be there when you get back... and grab some cheap juice to work with initially so you don't waste a bunch of expensive stuff while you figure out the wicking.
 

Jim_MDP

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Member For 4 Years
I have a subohm tank.... but use it only for travel.
everything else is primarly an rda for all day and an rta at night when I'm relaxing.
I prefer my build over anything out the box, I guess I'm a control affocianado.


You're not helping, Birdman. :p
 

dud3r

Member For 4 Years
Yeah I started on a kayfun before there were even clones. Used many RTAs between that and I think the most recent was the orchid. Had foggers, kayfun, orchids, etc. Wicking some was a bitch but I got it down. Just been so long since I've used them I wondered if it was worth the trouble. I think I'm going to order a couple Griffins. Maybe another RX200.


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f1r3b1rd

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well, then you've already seen that once you get the build and wicking nailed down, its really another level.
The griffin, and that class, - 2 post, big build deck, and deep juice channels are SO MUCH BETTER than a subtank imho.
Especially the griffin, since it is designed for use with Clapton wire or the ther "fancy" builds.
the wicking may take a minute to nail down, but once you do, yes it is well worth it in my opnion.
 

JERUS

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The Griffin's wicking is the easiest I've come across, just remember less is more. The downside is if you're like me with the coils I'm using in it, well you end up having to fill it quite often :oops:
 

Zamazam

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yea, I've done some monster clapton builds in my Griffin. It is in a class I call Super RTA's. I recommend it highly.
 

pulsevape

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anything you can build on is going to give you a helluva alot more options for tailoring your vape than the stuff that comes out of a cracker jacks box.
 

jefx

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I switched to sub-ohm tanks around the time orchids were big. Haven't looked back until now. I'm curious though. Tired of buying coils. I drive a semi and since I almost never go home coming across coils can be a pain. If I had a little kit for rebuilding that could be more convenient then hunting coils in a 70 foot truck. How are today's RTA's in comparison to sub-ohm tanks? Any recommendations?


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I would suggest one of the numerous tanks that use both coil heads and RBA bases. That way if your build goes bad while you are on the road, you could always have a set of fail-safe coil heads to swap out until you get a chance to rebuild the RBA.
 

pescadore

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I have RTA's on all my mods now and don't want to ever have to buy another coil. Wire and wicking is cheap and building is fun. It can be as simple or complicated as you want but I stay pretty much on the simple side. I recently bought some SS Clapton wire and that's about all I use now. I run TC most of the time on my DNA's. I need to have a big tank sale for all the tanks I have laying around unused. I don't think you will regret getting a RTA.
 

Everpresentnewb

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Look into the Boreas by Augvape... It comes with two build decks so you can build two completely different buids and it only tanks 30 seconds or so to switch. the thing is killer, great flavor and vape production. the two decks have slightly different juice flow hole diameter for different builds. I have both of mine built now, on the 2.5mm hole deck I have dual fused clapton that i run at 150+, nad on teh other deck with the smaller 2mm juice holes i have a simple dual 26G kanthal build that runs great at 50 watts.... this way if something goes hokey with one build you could just drop in your other deck and keep on driving.

I have small pencil case that I bought in the school supply seection of walmart, mayby 5X8x3 and in it I keep an ohm meter, scissors, tweezers, different rods to wrap coils on, couple paperclips to poke tails with, few random coils that i made and never mounted and a few different spools of wire and a couple pads of KGD. Everything i need to rebuild. fits in my glove box and if a coils goes south at work it isnt hard to rebuild it quickly.

I think RTAs are great on the road. easy to maintain and cheap as heck to keep running.
 

smacksy

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Don't rule out the awesome Griffin RTA..It's the best performing, easiest building RTA I've ever owned...just a thought

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r055co

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I switched to sub-ohm tanks around the time orchids were big. Haven't looked back until now. I'm curious though. Tired of buying coils. I drive a semi and since I almost never go home coming across coils can be a pain. If I had a little kit for rebuilding that could be more convenient then hunting coils in a 70 foot truck. How are today's RTA's in comparison to sub-ohm tanks? Any recommendations?


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Do it.

I was on the fence for a while until I finally took the leap and haven't looked back.

My favorite RTA to date is the Boreas, 8ml juice, very, very easy to wick and flavor and vapor production is out of the park. I have a number of RTA's, Griffin, Bellus, VCMT, Crius, Hannya and have the RBA deck for my Crowns. The Boreas is as close to perfection as you can get.
 

Scratch88683

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Thanks for the info guys. I'm going to order a Boreas and a Griffin when I request my home time so it'll be there waiting


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Yea that's a good choice you can't go wrong with a griffin once you get the wicking down and I've heard only good things about the boreas. Once you get good a building you will never look back at premade coils. Building actually turns into a hobby that can be simple or complicated. You picked a good time to switch it's been the year of the rta it seems like every week there's another great tank coming out. Enjoy!
 

dud3r

Member For 4 Years
I switched back to premade coils right around the time people started twisting kanthal. That's how long it's been lol. I'm going to order some stainless Clapton wire though.


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StereoFreeze

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Solid choices on the tanks. Since you've done RTA's before, these should be a piece of cake. Tip on the Griffin, don't run the wick all the way down the juice channel, make them just long enough to tuck into the top of the channel.
 

JERUS

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I switched back to premade coils right around the time people started twisting kanthal. That's how long it's been lol. I'm going to order some stainless Clapton wire though.


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Check out Purecoils.com(@CrazyChef) or hit up @raymo2u, you can get some pretty damn nice coils that will last months. I say this mainly because the factory made clapton stuff is quite disappointing IMO. They generally use 32g wrap which is just damn thick for a wrap and means a lot of ramp up time which is a pain. 36g or higher and it's not too noticeable, I personally like 40g (though I might go higher when it's time to order wire again). If you're going to order prefabricated stuff might as well get something that'll treat you right and all. I've been vaping these Alien coils I got from Chef for about 2 months now (200mL+) and they seem to still have plenty of life left in them (use them in the Griffin). I also got some Fused claptons in my Avocado. Then I got a handful of coils from Raymo... was a dope with one set and fried them, but the others are quite nice. Anyways, I don't want to sound like an Ad, that's not my point, it's just that I feel prefab clapton wire is a ripoff and while maybe better than single wire builds it's just subpar to me and well worth the money to grab some decent coils from one of these guys if you can't wrap your own more complex coils(or if like me, too lazy to do so sometimes). You won't regret it unless you like a more subtle vape which is perfectly fine, just if you like that nice DL hit with a ton of vapor these things are nice and well worth the money. I wrap my own coils for most of my toys, but I'm glad I grabbed what I did as they treat me well and they're what I vape most often.

Anyways, the only downside is at least personally I have to be careful while driving to avoid blinding myself with vapor, blow to the side with the air conditioning blasting to blow it out of the way :teehee:
 

CrazyChef

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because the factory made clapton stuff is quite disappointing IMO.

@dud3r
Most of that stuff is made with cheap Chinese wire(s) that are of inferior quality. Enough so that it can noticeably diminish the quality of your vape - and who knows what else? Vaping with Chinese wire is like vaping with Chinese ejuice. I strongly recommend against it.

I've recently made the switch from using all American made wire to using all Sandvik wire, which is smelted in Sweden and processed into wire here in the United States. It is the purest wire available globally. Nothing beats it. There are others that are good, such as Lightning Vapes, but nothing comes close to the purity of Sandvik. There are some extremely inexpensive wire sellers on eBay - I have chosen not to use them anymore. I charge a premium price for my coils, and believe that people should get what they pay for.

That being said, PLEASE don't put yourself in a position where you will have wasted your money on cheap Clapton wire. You will never regret buying good quality wire.
 

r055co

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@dud3r
Most of that stuff is made with cheap Chinese wire(s) that are of inferior quality. Enough so that it can noticeably diminish the quality of your vape - and who knows what else? Vaping with Chinese wire is like vaping with Chinese ejuice. I strongly recommend against it.

I've recently made the switch from using all American made wire to using all Sandvik wire, which is smelted in Sweden and processed into wire here in the United States. It is the purest wire available globally. Nothing beats it. There are others that are good, such as Lightning Vapes, but nothing comes close to the purity of Sandvik. There are some extremely inexpensive wire sellers on eBay - I have chosen not to use them anymore. I charge a premium price for my coils, and believe that people should get what they pay for.

That being said, PLEASE don't put yourself in a position where you will have wasted your money on cheap Clapton wire. You will never regret buying good quality wire.
Agreed, I've started getting my wire from Crazy Wire over in the UK and from Kidney Puncher. Great quality and decent price, no excuse to get the cheap crap. Also get a drill, some ball bearing spinners, watch a few YouTube videos and start spinning some Clapton wire. It's actually pretty damn easy.

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dud3r

Member For 4 Years
I'll do more research. I don't have time or space to make wire in a semi. Wrapping a coil on some premade wire is about as far as I'm willing to go.


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dud3r

Member For 4 Years
Caved in and bought a griffin while on the road. They didn't have their builder in so they let me have at it. I decided on 2mm micro coils, 6 wraps of 24/28 claptons. Wicked with organic cotton courtesy of the lady at the vape shop. So far so good.


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