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Zathog Rda Review by VelvetFog82

cthulhumod

Postman
Joined
Mar 5, 2017
Messages
199
Hello there again everyone here in ECR land. I have returned once again with a brand new Foggy Memories review. This time, we are gonna be taking a look at the Zathog Rda which is 30mm monster of a rda designed by Morten Oen and made by Cthulhu Mod who sent this item to me for review. That doesn't effect my opinion of the device but I want to thank them for sending it to me so we can discuss it here today.

I apologize for this review being close to other reviews of the same item. I guess it's a byproduct of multiple reviewers getting the same item, sorry. I have a photo album incase you don't want to go through my review and just want to see pictures but if you have come this far, let's ride it out to the end together.

Packaging
The Zathog Rda come is a cool screw top tin with a drawing of Morten Oen in a south park art style and a small black sticker in the corner indicating the color inside. Screw that top off and you find a draw string felt bag with the Zathog inside. Pull that out and there will be accessories bags containing extra o-rings, extra set of flat head grub screws, classic blue screw driver, 510 drip tip adapter, Allen wrench and a squonk pin. Another bag has a back up ceramic insulator and you will get a user manual.

Zathog Rda
The Zathog rda is a 30mm, dual coil, top airflow atty. It has two different airflow holes on each side that are angled down towards the deck. It's hard to see because there because the paint is so incredibly black. The bottom airflow hole is angled directly towards the coils and the top airflow goes through a channel and is supposed to be directed straight down towards the coil. The top has a smooth black 810 drip tip and my other 810's have fit snuggly. At the top of the barrel is a airflow adjustment ring and that is removable for cleaning. There is no markings on the barrel and it's a thick and hefty peice. Looks well machined. Pop that big ol cap off and you are looking at the deck and I'm pretty sure it's like nothing you've ever seen. It's been described as two half pipes and that's a accurate description. In the bottom of each half pipe is holes for your coil leads. To the side of the half pipes, on each side is three flat head screws . The two outer screws are recessed and open the lead holes on the deck for your coils. The center screws on each side will release the deck from the base and allow you to disassemble the rda into a base, a ceramic insulator and the half pipe deck. This could be handy for thoroughly cleaning the rda and if you use it for squonking, this will be necessary. There are squonk holes on each side of the deck above the juice well for squonking juice. It's right under the center of the half pipes and Because of this position, juice won't be sucked back into the bottle but the juice will go directly onto the cotton and is above a massive juice well so it shouldn't be a huge problem. So, you loosen the flat head screws to install your coils and leave your leads long so you can put them in the holes and figure where you need to clip your leads. It's deeper than you think. Once you've got the coils where you feel they will hit the most airflow. With the four airflow holes angled down into the coil "half pipes" it's supposed to create a vortex of flavor

Coil Installation
Installing coils on the Zathog wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Most post less decks aren't that hard, it comes down to clipping your leads the right length. Well, I started with long legs and put them into the deck holes and cutting the leads until I got them trimmed down to what I thought was the proper length. Once I had them all cut to what I thought is the proper length I put them in the lead slots and it felt like they was at the bottom, I held them down and tightened the flat head screws, which is hard to do while holding the coil down because the screw is a recessed flathead. You would really need to get another turn on the screw and your screw driver would end up beside the screw, stuck back in the hole. I think a Philips or Allen would have been 100% better. So when I had all the leads tightened, I went to glow the coils and saw bright hot spots down in the lead slots. I tugged on the coils and the leads started popping out of the holes so I had to go back and reattach each lead and eventually got them connected and glowing evenly. They ended up looking good but was a few millimeters lower than I had intended. Cutting your leads longer than you think will make this easier and my builds after this wasn't as hard once I got used to the deck.

Performance
Once I got the coils installed and wicked, I chose to use the Zathog as a dripper instead of a squonk. Everything has been squonk crazy for like 8 months and it's nice to go old school and just drip on this and the NADA Rda I just reviewed. With the top airflow being so high set, you can just drop juice through the top and if it hits the center of the "half pipe" juice will spread to both sides easily. The juice wells are large and bottom o-rings have great tolerances so you really can dump juice in this thing. If you choose to squonk, the squonk hole is gonna put juice in the middle of your wicks so capillary action shouldn't take super long. Airflow is very smooth with this giant of an rda. It's lots a airflow having the four airflow holes but, there is enough restriction to give what I considered, a satisfying vape. It isn't loud or noisy. Adjusting the airflow is can be done on two locations, the barrel and that air goes through the top of the half pipe, thru the barrel and the ring on the top that adjusts airflow thru the channel that is supposed to shoot downwards towards the coils. I don't know if it actually creates a vortex of airflow but it's smooth at the least. When I first put juice in the thing and vaped on it, I got great flavor. The next day when I picked it up expecting great flavor, it was weak. It was strange. It seemed some days I got more flavor than others. If the cotton is super juicy, I could really taste my juice but as the cotton got dryer, flavor would decrease. Clouds would still be massive just not as punch you in the mouth flavorful.

Conclusion
The Zathog Rda is one massive and unique rda. I first want to say that it seems built pretty well. Not amazing but everything with the top cap and half pipes line up well and o-rings fit the peices together good. The paint or coating on the black looks really nice. The plain barrel may appeal to some people who are tired of skulls and tribal engravings logos all over most rdas these day. I think the biggest thing the Zathog suffers from is being 30mm even though that's also its appeal. I think a 25mm version would have given more consistent flavor and been open to a wider range of people. The problems I had with coil installation didn't happen the 2nd time because I learned the tricks but making the screws Phillips head so it's easier to hook your screwdriver to it without looking would be nice. All in all, it's not horrible or amazing. It gives a very smooth vape that produces massive vapor production and good flavor when you just juiced it up. Could be what your looking for if your into 30mm rdas and you want something unique. I don't believe I buy into the "flavor vortex" but something is definitely happening inside with airflow that can make enough vapor to fog the hell out of a room in record time. In the end, I'd say if you like 30mm rdas then you will probably have fun playing around with this. 30mm is kinda a of niche area though more and more mods are can hold them, most people don't like to go past 25mm.

Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it. I really want to thank Cthulhu mods for providing the item for us to discuss here today. They make very unique items and I liked checking this out. I've got a bunch more Foggy Memories coming very soon so I'll be back. In the meantime you can see what I'm up to on Instagram as Velvetfog_ or find me on Twitter or Facebook. I also just started a YouTube channel for video Foggy Memories so subscribe if you want to be notified of future videos! I'll be back soon and everyone have a great evening.


 
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