Ehpro Panther RDA Review - Photo Album with more photos
Hi everyone!
I've been sent this RDA to review by Heaven Gifts. I've been using it for about two weeks. It's a dual coil, two post, bottom airflow RDA. It's a pretty barebones RDA, comes in simple packaging with the bare minimum spares and a piece of cotton.
I have the SS version with the silver logo. I quite like the no-frills, streamlined look. The included drip tip is quite wide but very comfortable to use. It's low profile but doesn't get hot, and it looks pretty great on the RDA too!
While it comes with a solid and a bottom feeding pin, I think this is more of a squonk RDA as the juice well can't hold that much juice. Plus with a bottom airflow RDA it's always risky to have a lot of juice in the well, so I feel it's better to squonk than to drip.
What makes it stand out?
Nothing. Design and feature wise this is as plain as it gets in 2018.
This is bad news if like every RDA to try to do something new. Thankfully there are plenty of new RDAs that are all trying to do something different.
It's good news if you don't care for "gimmicks" and want a tried and tested design. The Panther does a lot of things well. It uses well machined slotted screws. It has big post holes that won't bend coil leads and a raised squonk pin. The airflow slots inside the deck are wide enough to cover most coils. More on those below!
Builds
My first build was with 5 wraps, 3mm ID 28g x 3 + 38g SS316L fused clapton coils placed directly above the airflow slots. Pretty intense flavor and great vapor production.
Then I tried to go a little lower with a 6 wraps, 2.5mm ID 28g x 2 + 32g SS316L fused claptons. This wasn't as great as the first build. The flavor took a slight hit, I'm guessing it needs 3mm ID or bigger.
I tried a 3.5mm ID coil as well but went back to 3mm as it seems to give me the best flavor.
Flavor & Clouds
Air channels underneath the coils take up most of the available room in the deck. You have two narrow-ish channels to guide your wick through down to the well. It almost feels like an RDTA to wick. When the air comes in from under the coil it has pretty much nowhere to hang out or to travel to but up. The domed roof inside the barrel doesn't sit too high above the posts.
Because of the tiny chamber and air hitting the coils from the bottom I get pretty good flavor from this RDA. The Panther chucks pretty big and dense clouds as well thanks to the big airflow slots on the deck. It reminds me a lot of the Crius 2 RDA, with slightly better flavor.
You can close down the airflow for a restricted yet very smooth draw, or leave it open more than a third way for an unrestricted draw. It's a little loud either way.
Pros
Fantastic build quality
If you're familiar with Ehpro from back in the days you know their clones were pretty high quality stuff compared to the rest. It's no different with this one.
No sharp edges anywhere. The airflow channels are machined superbly. The posts, screws and everything else are just top notch. The deck is actually quite pretty to look at.
O-ring tolerance of the deck is just perfect although most drip tips I tried could've fit tighter. Mine came with a bit of machine oil that went away after a wash.
Super reduced chamber leads to great flavor and thick clouds
As mentioned in the flavor section, the airflow slots and the wicks cover up most of the deck. It greatly reduces the open area inside the RDA. Combine that with a very nice domed cap and you can see why it leads to pretty good flavor and dense vapor production.
Beefy post holes
The post holes are big enough to accommodate the fattest of your wires. The screw comes down from the top so it won't twist your flat wires either. The holes are so big that I've been using just the two center holes to mount my dual coils. It's a little trickier to set up but I like it better because I don't have to bend my leads.
Squonk pin leaves some juice in the well
So many squonking RDAs only saturate the wicks and leave nothing in the well. I like when one has an elevated squonk pin that leaves a little bit in the well. It doesn't make the RDA a lot more likely to leak, and you have a few more puffs till the next squonk. It's handy in this RDA because you can't put big fat wicks in here.
Cons
Easy to make a mess if you over squonk / over drip
Well it's the standard problem with the bottom airflow design. If you over squonk and go above the airflow slots, or drip a few drops too many then gravity will take care of the rest and make a mess on your mod. Like any RDA with posts in the middle it's hard to see the juice level in the well.
I wish they had at least tried to combat this problem in the design.
Loud-ish airflow
You probably guessed this one would be on the louder side just by looking at the airflow design. You'd be right, because the short and wide slots on the barrel crams a lot of air into the gradually narrower channels that lead to the deck. It whistles a little bit when it's two-thirds or more closed. It's not too loud or bothersome, but you'll definitely notice it switching from another atty.
Wicking is not very convenient
As mentioned earlier because of the airflow slots there isn't a lot of room for the wicks to squeeze through to the bottom of the deck. Again I get why it is the way it is, but it's still not very convenient to wick this RDA. It wouldn't be a complaint if this were an RDA or an RDTA, but I'm just used to having more room in the deck in an RDA.
~TLDR
Barebones packaging and a no-frills design. Doesn't try anything new but the design is tried and tested. It's a well made RDA that has decent flavor and vapor production but it's prone to leaking if you're not careful.
It's available for only $22 at Heaven Gifts. They usually have 10-35% coupon, potentially making it closer to 15 which is not a bad price for this.
Giveaway
I'm giving away 3 sets on behalf of Heaven Gifts over at Reddit. If you have an account just go to that thread and post a comment to enter. Giveaway ends at 9:59 PM EST on Saturday, June 2nd.
Specs
- Size: 24 x 30mm(with thread)
- Type: Dual Coil RDA
- Material: Stainless Steel
- Thread: 510 thread
- Gold-plated deck for perfect conductivity
- Bottom-up direct airflow for flawless flavor
- Regular 510 pin and BF pin included
- Adjustable bottom airflow
- 1 x Panther RDA
- 1 x Squonk pin
- 2 x Pre-made coils
- 1 x Screwdriver
- 2 x Flat head screws
- O-rings
- Cottons
They usually have sales on all the time so you'll likely be able to pick one up for much less.
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