Norseman Mech
Member For 4 Years
I received this RDA free of charge from urvapin.com for the purpose of this review. Regardless of this, it will not color my opinion on this review in any way, shape or form.
Packaging
As with other products from Vandy Vape it comes in the typical box containing the RDA on top, together with an extra drip tip. Underneath you will find the goodie bag with extra screws for the clamps that hold the mesh, a 510 adapter, allen key, blue screwdriver and mesh in kanthal, NI80 and SS. It also comes with an extra 510 squonk pin that makes it possible to use the RDA on a squonker.
The RDA
The Mesh is a 3-piece RDA with side airflow that can supposedly be used for single coil and double coil setups. It comes in 5 different colors, SS which I received, black, gold, rainbow and blue. I can’t speak for the other colors but the SS does look really nice.
As with other Vandy Vape products this RDA says good quality and the machining is good. When it arrived though, it wasn’t very clean and it had small metal parts still in it from the machining - so I’m guessing it wasn’t cleaned at all before it went into the packaging.
After a thorough cleaning it was time to build it with the following mesh and after hearing things from others and seeing people vaping hot lava flows in this RDA, I thought I would cut the mesh short, not allowing it to get too high up in the RDA.
I think that cutting the mesh short and keeping it lower made the difference for me, since to my surprise I never vaped any hot lava flows at all with the mesh build. I had no spitting either, which also kinda surprised as I was expecting that at least.
Wicking this one was basically fairly easy in my opinion. I just measured out the length of the cotton needed, put it inside the mesh, pushed the end of the mesh down the clamp and tightened it well - and that was it.
The attached Ultem drip tip and the Doc tip are both 810 size, which means you can use any of your Goon sized drip tips on this RDA. To me, this is a big bonus - and it also tells me that the 810 size is starting to become industry standard now, since more and more manufacturers are using it.
The deck itself has a hidden clamp system that does work very well, and it really holds both the mesh and coils in place without any issues. One thing I have a little issue with is that the deck doesn’t have any juice well. If you drip and saturate the cotton and take off the top cap, it will leak on you because the deck is so shallow. On the other hand the o-rings work really well and don’t allow it to leak while the top cap is in place - which to me can only be a good thing.
The flavor from this RDA is fairly good. Not the best flavor RDA out there, but it can hold its own and the juice I used (my own creation which I know better than anything) does taste good…just maybe not as good as it would taste in a Goon.
People that have been following my reviews know by now that one of my pet peeves is dodgy o-rings and this RDA doesn’t suffer from that at all. Everything sits snugly and you need a little effort to adjust the airflow - another bonus in my book. I wish every manufacturer would make the effort to use decent o-rings on their RDA’s, RTA’s and RDTA’s, especially as it apparently isn’t that hard to make it happen.
Assessment
All in all this is a good RDA that performs as it should, and the flavor from it is more than okay. It is well built and holds a high quality - as with other things I have witnessed from Vandy Vape.
Can I recommend it to others?
Yes - as long as the buyer manages to build it correctly with the mesh to avoid the hot lava flow that can occur or he/she just uses regular coils in it. It’s a well made RDA with good flavor - and with a pricing currently under $27 at urvapin.com, it is fairly priced as well.
Pros
Machining
Quality O-rings (snug fit)
Price
Squonk ready
Flavor
Protruding 510 pin (hybrid safe)
Cons
Shallow deck
Parameters:
Diameter: 24mm
Height: 25mm without drip tip
Package Includes:
1x Mesh RDA
BF and non BF 510 pin
Extra clamp screws
1 allen key for the BF 510 pin
A blue screwdriver
Extra o-rings
3x Kanthal Mesh
3x Ni80 Mesh
3x SS316 Mesh
You can get your hands on it here:
At urvapin.com for $26.59 at the time i wrote the review.
Thanks for reading this far and Vape on!
Norseman