Biochemist
Postman
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2018
- Messages
- 282
I like what this company does. I always thought the non-high end gear looks bad, haven't tried a lot of them because in the end we buy with our eyes along with our brains. So what they do is have good designers and build the gear in China for very reasonable prices and no shortage of stock.
So as a sucker for German RTAs, and already owning an original Corona V8, and clones of the GSV Genius2 and Vapor Giant Extreme I had to get that one too. When an offer for 35 euros came along I hit it and just received it today so here's a short review.
It comes in a good box, and no shortage of spares (why do most high end gear for which you pay an arm and a leg come with nothing, how hard is it to put a replacement glass tank? it is simply a bit of glass from a long tube, just cut a second piece...). The machining is not the best in the known universe, but it is fine - I'd have preferred it a tad less matte. It came spotlessly clean but I cleaned it regardless out of habit, the drops of VG in the pics are from me.
https://ibb.co/BK48NFz
https://ibb.co/wsy0BzP
I thought the prewrapped stock it comes with could, or should have one more wrap but I'll use the whole thing as it came, when I rebuild it will be with my homemade Ni80 fused Claptons. The coils Ohmed at 0.14 (the little envelop they come in said 0.3 Ohms but I bet this is for one of them, can't believe both the coilmaster and Drag2 read Ohms that wrong - I'd have blown up by now). The cotton is fine too, but I have been using Muji pads for 2 years and still have about 90% of them left.
https://ibb.co/mRYscYz
The deck is a classic velocity-style deck, and dead easy to build on. My suspicion that the supplied coils needed an extra wrap was true. The 510 is extremely safe for hybrid mech mods, looks a bit overkill but there is no gap in any of my mods, regulated or not.
https://ibb.co/JChN3QG
The filling is very easy, as expected, and the airflow options very adequate. It is not the airflow monster I was afraid it would be, with the back AFC open, and the front AFC at 50% I can dial it to exactly what I like in a clouder. I'd been starved from clouding for at least a month because I made a lot of juice at 6mg nic (normally vape at 1.5mg) which was unvapable for me outside of MTL tanks. MTL is good but I always have a "dragon" setup at hand, so the 2-month aged Claire's Ambrosia custard at 1.5mg nice I had fit it to a T.
https://ibb.co/fMYHtXz
The flavour is amazing, I can almost chew the custard. The cap's doming helps, and I think this is the reason why it produces much better flavour than the Vapor Giant Extreme, which costs twice as much before any discounts. Really full, thick flavourful vape, excellent in fact. On par with the Corona V8 which I rarely say for any clouder - then again I run the Corona at 40W with simple round wire and get both intense and layered flavour, while this needs 75-80 to shine and drinks juice like a fish.
Sits nicely on both the Drag2 and Kennedy vindicator: https://ibb.co/RjrLYDG, and will probably be married to this drip tip because I dislike Mickey mouse colours: https://ibb.co/Jc6BCTj
The cables are not new to me, but it seems a lot of people get baffled, and get dry hits. I never ever got a dry hit with them, or SS mesh tubes like I used on the Taifun GSL. It is a very old way of wicking, still popular in Germany and not a gimmick at all. It really works extremely well and doesn't need tilting, voodoo or anything else, just not to be stuffed with cotton. I dunno, maybe I am an oddity, I find the GSL extremely easy to build while STILL can't build an SXK Rose3.
Final thoughts, this is an amazing R(D)TA, looks at the Corona V8 straight in the eye, at (with the discount I found) 1/4 of the cost and better than the Vapor Giant Extreme in every respect. More companies should go that way: design in Europe/North America/Philippines (some good vape gear from there...), build in China and sell for reasonable prices without super secret FB groups and arm-and-leg prices. Then again, I will certainly buy anything Smokerstore makes because I am a fanboy but what the hell, at least they aren't hard to get, just expensive.
So as a sucker for German RTAs, and already owning an original Corona V8, and clones of the GSV Genius2 and Vapor Giant Extreme I had to get that one too. When an offer for 35 euros came along I hit it and just received it today so here's a short review.
It comes in a good box, and no shortage of spares (why do most high end gear for which you pay an arm and a leg come with nothing, how hard is it to put a replacement glass tank? it is simply a bit of glass from a long tube, just cut a second piece...). The machining is not the best in the known universe, but it is fine - I'd have preferred it a tad less matte. It came spotlessly clean but I cleaned it regardless out of habit, the drops of VG in the pics are from me.
https://ibb.co/BK48NFz
https://ibb.co/wsy0BzP
I thought the prewrapped stock it comes with could, or should have one more wrap but I'll use the whole thing as it came, when I rebuild it will be with my homemade Ni80 fused Claptons. The coils Ohmed at 0.14 (the little envelop they come in said 0.3 Ohms but I bet this is for one of them, can't believe both the coilmaster and Drag2 read Ohms that wrong - I'd have blown up by now). The cotton is fine too, but I have been using Muji pads for 2 years and still have about 90% of them left.
https://ibb.co/mRYscYz
The deck is a classic velocity-style deck, and dead easy to build on. My suspicion that the supplied coils needed an extra wrap was true. The 510 is extremely safe for hybrid mech mods, looks a bit overkill but there is no gap in any of my mods, regulated or not.
https://ibb.co/JChN3QG
The filling is very easy, as expected, and the airflow options very adequate. It is not the airflow monster I was afraid it would be, with the back AFC open, and the front AFC at 50% I can dial it to exactly what I like in a clouder. I'd been starved from clouding for at least a month because I made a lot of juice at 6mg nic (normally vape at 1.5mg) which was unvapable for me outside of MTL tanks. MTL is good but I always have a "dragon" setup at hand, so the 2-month aged Claire's Ambrosia custard at 1.5mg nice I had fit it to a T.
https://ibb.co/fMYHtXz
The flavour is amazing, I can almost chew the custard. The cap's doming helps, and I think this is the reason why it produces much better flavour than the Vapor Giant Extreme, which costs twice as much before any discounts. Really full, thick flavourful vape, excellent in fact. On par with the Corona V8 which I rarely say for any clouder - then again I run the Corona at 40W with simple round wire and get both intense and layered flavour, while this needs 75-80 to shine and drinks juice like a fish.
Sits nicely on both the Drag2 and Kennedy vindicator: https://ibb.co/RjrLYDG, and will probably be married to this drip tip because I dislike Mickey mouse colours: https://ibb.co/Jc6BCTj
The cables are not new to me, but it seems a lot of people get baffled, and get dry hits. I never ever got a dry hit with them, or SS mesh tubes like I used on the Taifun GSL. It is a very old way of wicking, still popular in Germany and not a gimmick at all. It really works extremely well and doesn't need tilting, voodoo or anything else, just not to be stuffed with cotton. I dunno, maybe I am an oddity, I find the GSL extremely easy to build while STILL can't build an SXK Rose3.
Final thoughts, this is an amazing R(D)TA, looks at the Corona V8 straight in the eye, at (with the discount I found) 1/4 of the cost and better than the Vapor Giant Extreme in every respect. More companies should go that way: design in Europe/North America/Philippines (some good vape gear from there...), build in China and sell for reasonable prices without super secret FB groups and arm-and-leg prices. Then again, I will certainly buy anything Smokerstore makes because I am a fanboy but what the hell, at least they aren't hard to get, just expensive.
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