Welcome everyone to the first creative writing I’ve done in almost 30 years and certainly a first for me in the vape world. Last time I wrote anything was a few book reports in High School on Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, so please go easy on me.
@Heaven Gifts hosted a contest to win the OBS Crius 2 Dual Coil and I happened to be the lucky winner. HG asked if I would kindly post my real thoughts on the RTA after spending some time with it and so here we are. A big thank you to HG and their contact. They have been an absolute pleasure deal with. They were prompt in their response when I messaged them with my info and shipped the Crius 2 out right away. Delivery from China took a mere five days to the US mid west and like an eager kid at Christmas time, I was literally waiting for the DHL van to pull up to my house so I could get started tinkering with my newest toy. The package arrived safely wrapped in bubble wrap which is always fun to play with... especially fun to irritate the family dog with. Yeah, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to torment an innocent soul despite my love for that adorable creature.
So what is in the box? The usual suspects... Well almost.
Package of O-rings
Organic Cotton pad
Extra glass for the tank
1 resin drip tip. Very cool looking if I may say so.
2 unspecified fused clapton coils
1 phillips head screw driver and not the dainty little thing that came with my Goon rda. This screw driver is actually effective in tightening down the clamp... Which is nice.
And that is it. Disappointed with not getting an extra screw for the clamp on the deck. Nobody ever plans on losing the little buggers but it does happen and would prevent the daunting task of running out to the hardware store endlessly searching through the plethora of fasteners to find the right size.
Dimensions
Diameter: 25mm
Height: 57mm
Weight: 63g
Tank Capacity: 4ml
Taking the Crius 2 apart
Simply unscrew the base base from the chamber to access the build deck. The chimney resides under the top juice fill and connects to the chamber. Slide up the juice fill to expose the filling hole and grip it there with the right hand while gripping the base of the glass with the left and unscrew the chimney from the chamber. The Crius 2 breaks down into five pieces that are very easy to reassemble.
The chamber is rather tall due to the height of the mounting post but that makes for a short chimney, I mean short! The chamber does not have much of a conical or domed shape but it is polished to help the vapor flow smoothly.
After breaking it all down I was shocked by one thing. Not a hint of machine oil anywhere. Every piece was dry to the touch and could not smell anything which is a nice touch considering the Geekvape Zeus single coil I recently picked up reeked of machine oil and needed a hot soapy bath. Not the Crius 2 though. I did give it a brief soaking in hot water just to be sure but skipped the soap, dried it off and was ready to build. Well done OBS on cleaning the rta prior to packaging. Would be nice if all manufacturers did this.
The Build
Before I launch into the build aspect of this. I want to point out that the Crius 2 is designated to a mod that is one of my “babies” so it spends its time in the bedroom always upright for when the wifey and I are hanging out chilling to movies, video games etc. The reason I point this out now is because it relates to how I wicked the Crius 2 which we will get to in a moment.
First I’d like to address the coils that came with the rta. They look to be 26*2/32 fused claptons but please do not quote me on that or fault me for not being sure. After all, OBS does not know either since it was not stated anywhere. For shits and giggles I did install them to see what the ramp up time would be like. Lets just say too damn slow for my cup o tea. I rarely use the provided coils so this was no big deal to me since I started making my own about a month ago and have a small stock pile. Still worth mentioning for those that may want to use the provided coils. For me, a slow ramp up coincides with a slow ramp down which allows heat to build in the chamber faster. Not good for those that like to chain vape or even having a short sit down for a quick nic fix. Fine, now that’s out of the way let’s get to the fun stuff shall we.
Since the chimney is somewhat shielded from the height of the posts I decided to go with coils that are two 28/40ga claptons twisted together and helixed with 40ga wire running between the twists. A little more angry than the 28*2/40 fused claptons I was contemplating on using. I prefer a wetter vape and knew these coils would provide that for me. Forgive me for the pic not being instagram quality but the camera I’m working with is not the best and all I have to work with. The coils pictured are a 2.5ID 6 wraps @ .38 ohms.
Wicking the Crius 2 was not difficult for me because it’s wicking channels are very similar to another bottom airflow rta with juice flow control that I already have. My preferred choice of wicking is Cotton Bacon V2. I Tried it, liked it so stuck with it. I ran the cotton through the coils just snug enough so that the wraps did not move out of place while pulling the cotton through. That was the easy part. Getting the tails the right thickness is the important part and attention to detail is needed. Too much cotton will slow down wicking which I cannot afford to do with the 75-80% VG juices I use. So after cutting the tails to just a bit longer than I need, I use my finger tips to lightly pull on the ends of the tails to thin them out to somewhat loosely fill the wicking channels. This why I earlier pointed out that this atty and mod will always be sitting upright. Honestly, I would not trust this way of wicking if the mod/atty was going to be sitting in a gym bag, purse, brief case etc. Even with closing off the Juice flow control. Here are a few pics of the way I wicked the coils and then saturated with juice. You’ll see that I try to leave plenty of space in the channel for juice to sit and keep those wicks saturated.
Now that the coils are juiced up its time to reassemble everything and get the Crius 2 ready for juice. Take notice of the small triangle pointing up underneath the fill port. X marks the spot for filling. Slide the top piece up as pictured below to expose the fill port.
END PAGE 1/2
@Heaven Gifts hosted a contest to win the OBS Crius 2 Dual Coil and I happened to be the lucky winner. HG asked if I would kindly post my real thoughts on the RTA after spending some time with it and so here we are. A big thank you to HG and their contact. They have been an absolute pleasure deal with. They were prompt in their response when I messaged them with my info and shipped the Crius 2 out right away. Delivery from China took a mere five days to the US mid west and like an eager kid at Christmas time, I was literally waiting for the DHL van to pull up to my house so I could get started tinkering with my newest toy. The package arrived safely wrapped in bubble wrap which is always fun to play with... especially fun to irritate the family dog with. Yeah, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to torment an innocent soul despite my love for that adorable creature.
So what is in the box? The usual suspects... Well almost.
Package of O-rings
Organic Cotton pad
Extra glass for the tank
1 resin drip tip. Very cool looking if I may say so.
2 unspecified fused clapton coils
1 phillips head screw driver and not the dainty little thing that came with my Goon rda. This screw driver is actually effective in tightening down the clamp... Which is nice.
And that is it. Disappointed with not getting an extra screw for the clamp on the deck. Nobody ever plans on losing the little buggers but it does happen and would prevent the daunting task of running out to the hardware store endlessly searching through the plethora of fasteners to find the right size.
Dimensions
Diameter: 25mm
Height: 57mm
Weight: 63g
Tank Capacity: 4ml
Taking the Crius 2 apart
Simply unscrew the base base from the chamber to access the build deck. The chimney resides under the top juice fill and connects to the chamber. Slide up the juice fill to expose the filling hole and grip it there with the right hand while gripping the base of the glass with the left and unscrew the chimney from the chamber. The Crius 2 breaks down into five pieces that are very easy to reassemble.
The chamber is rather tall due to the height of the mounting post but that makes for a short chimney, I mean short! The chamber does not have much of a conical or domed shape but it is polished to help the vapor flow smoothly.
After breaking it all down I was shocked by one thing. Not a hint of machine oil anywhere. Every piece was dry to the touch and could not smell anything which is a nice touch considering the Geekvape Zeus single coil I recently picked up reeked of machine oil and needed a hot soapy bath. Not the Crius 2 though. I did give it a brief soaking in hot water just to be sure but skipped the soap, dried it off and was ready to build. Well done OBS on cleaning the rta prior to packaging. Would be nice if all manufacturers did this.
The Build
Before I launch into the build aspect of this. I want to point out that the Crius 2 is designated to a mod that is one of my “babies” so it spends its time in the bedroom always upright for when the wifey and I are hanging out chilling to movies, video games etc. The reason I point this out now is because it relates to how I wicked the Crius 2 which we will get to in a moment.
First I’d like to address the coils that came with the rta. They look to be 26*2/32 fused claptons but please do not quote me on that or fault me for not being sure. After all, OBS does not know either since it was not stated anywhere. For shits and giggles I did install them to see what the ramp up time would be like. Lets just say too damn slow for my cup o tea. I rarely use the provided coils so this was no big deal to me since I started making my own about a month ago and have a small stock pile. Still worth mentioning for those that may want to use the provided coils. For me, a slow ramp up coincides with a slow ramp down which allows heat to build in the chamber faster. Not good for those that like to chain vape or even having a short sit down for a quick nic fix. Fine, now that’s out of the way let’s get to the fun stuff shall we.
Since the chimney is somewhat shielded from the height of the posts I decided to go with coils that are two 28/40ga claptons twisted together and helixed with 40ga wire running between the twists. A little more angry than the 28*2/40 fused claptons I was contemplating on using. I prefer a wetter vape and knew these coils would provide that for me. Forgive me for the pic not being instagram quality but the camera I’m working with is not the best and all I have to work with. The coils pictured are a 2.5ID 6 wraps @ .38 ohms.
Wicking the Crius 2 was not difficult for me because it’s wicking channels are very similar to another bottom airflow rta with juice flow control that I already have. My preferred choice of wicking is Cotton Bacon V2. I Tried it, liked it so stuck with it. I ran the cotton through the coils just snug enough so that the wraps did not move out of place while pulling the cotton through. That was the easy part. Getting the tails the right thickness is the important part and attention to detail is needed. Too much cotton will slow down wicking which I cannot afford to do with the 75-80% VG juices I use. So after cutting the tails to just a bit longer than I need, I use my finger tips to lightly pull on the ends of the tails to thin them out to somewhat loosely fill the wicking channels. This why I earlier pointed out that this atty and mod will always be sitting upright. Honestly, I would not trust this way of wicking if the mod/atty was going to be sitting in a gym bag, purse, brief case etc. Even with closing off the Juice flow control. Here are a few pics of the way I wicked the coils and then saturated with juice. You’ll see that I try to leave plenty of space in the channel for juice to sit and keep those wicks saturated.
Now that the coils are juiced up its time to reassemble everything and get the Crius 2 ready for juice. Take notice of the small triangle pointing up underneath the fill port. X marks the spot for filling. Slide the top piece up as pictured below to expose the fill port.
END PAGE 1/2
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