Griffin RTA (Mini Review)

This has been reviewed before I'm sure, and I'm happy for anyone to add their 2 bahts worth, as long as it's not @Darth Vaper don't worry it's a running joke between he and I, he'll get it ...

@Longtail1 suggested me looking at Rebuildable Tank Attomisers, and was kind enough to give me a go on his Aromamizer. One thing is I can see the sense in something when someone explains it, and also great to try something out personally.

So, yesterday my Griffin arrived. I chose in preference to Aromamizer, as I wasn't sure of the longevity of the airflow bands, Griffin has a stainless steel band. Price was the same from @Big by-pass , thanks to big once again, reliable, honest, and quick delivery.

Today I've built dual 3mm ID, 24g/0.5mm 9 wrap coils on kanthal. Vaping range seems to be ok at 25-50w. Wicking, not sure if I got it right, as there's a leak, for now I blame my wicking not the Griffin. Also, no idea quite what to do with adjustable juice flow holes, I guess I'll figure that out later. (Edit leak seems to have cleared up, so I might have got some juice in the chimney when filling, doh ! )

Vape, so far, far far superior to what I'm used to on my kangers, a much cleaner vape, flavours are more present and distinct. Possible my coil building has improved at the same time, but, nevertheless a noticeable step up in vape quality, vs my kanger experience so far.

Pros - nice deck for building, volicity style vertical posts great love the concept and practice. Seems built well stainless and glass components. Nice vape, best I've owned so far.

Cons - little on pricey side 1700THB delivered. Didn't like the plastic drip tip which still had bits of plastic swarf, would have much preferred delrin, which is rigid like metal but doesn't conduct heat, and personally would like to have an included 510 size drip tip, as I don't like sucking on massive nipples, more than a mouthful is a waste they say, drip tip the size of scania starting buttons really not needed. Also not yet used to using Allen key with grub screw for coils, so a little fiddly, but arguably a better solution than screws which tend to get heads destroyed with use. Lastly, the box and packaging, well look geekvape, call me I'll design you better packaging in about 10 minutes, when it arrived I was disappointed looking at the packaging. But, it's worth persisting, don't judge a book by its cover they say.

Overall, for me, 8/10 because of noticeable improvement in vape quality. And great build deck. And top fill. Cheap plastic drip tip and not very glamorous box let it down a little, Uwell and Aspire geekvape could learn a lot from in this respect.

Bottom line, happy with my purchase it's my new favourite tank and vape.

 

Totally agree.... Mine arrived today and well happy with it. I love to build on the velocity style deck. Absolutely my favourite tank to date. Same nit picky complaint about the plastic drip tip. I watched rip trippers review for building and wicking and I have had no leaks or dry hits (even when chain vaping). I installed a dual standard coil, comes out at 0.37ohms and I'm vaping it at 40w. Lots of flavour and vapor.

 

do share link for video, I struggled a little with the wicking for some reason and think that may be why I'm leaking, a little ...

**Updated**

Ps mine just says 0.3 ohms, kanger doesn't do any more detail than that on subox

 

I am wondering if your cotton is touching the airhole allowing the juice to find its way down in to the base. Forgot to mention I am using 80VG/20PG so it's quite thick. If you are using a thin based juice that might be the reason why.

 

as an ex scania driver I have to ask about the scania starting buttons comment?

 

Thanks for vid ... I didn't tuck my wick in wet, it was dry, so perhaps that's where I went wrong ... Does seem to have settled down, so I keep fiddling with it till I find the problem.

Adlib, I only *ever* write creatively, so unlikely you'll find preciseness, accuracy or science in what I write ... Well unless you get very lucky ...

That said, I once heard the expression "nipples to size of scania starting buttons", and quite liked it, so gets included as and where I feel like.

 

Been using it for two weeks and I'm having a love/hate relationship with it at the moment. Flavour is great, cloud is great, building is easy but what I don't like is how each parts fit together. If you screw it too tight then you are screwed trying to disassemble it. The top chimney disconnected from the deck cover on a few occasions because I screwed the bottom chimney on to the deck too tight. The smooth design looks great but I wish they add some more accent or knurling for better grip when screwing and unscrewing. Also not a big fan of how the glass just sit on top of the o-ring because the glass doesn't stay upright and sometime tiny amount of juice seep out on to the juice control ring, not really a waste of juice but it is annoyance when turning the juice flow ring. Airflow ring got really loose once it get some moisture inside. That should cover all my nitpicking ... I think.

 

@all - I found out why it was leaking, you have to close the juice holes prior to top filling, otherwise juice leaks ... DOH !

@Jared S - yes, I'm noticing little quirks like that too. These guys have a really nice product on their hands, BUT they really need to look at quality control, glamming up their packaging and generally refining the details ...

On the video it seems this RTA was available in U.S. for $25 so dunno why we're paying 1650THB ... I don't care about margins for our retailers, they deserve to be getting paid, but I do care about paying over the odds where there's little quality issues.

**Updated**

PS, but still an awesome tank, nevertheless

 

Like the vape well enough but don't like the looseness of the JFC on my copy and the tendency for the top cap to want to stick to the top ring assembly and loosen the entire tank. Pretty much the same as has been mentioned here. It's another tank that seems to have been rushed out a little too quickly and needs either stronger QC checks or a version 2 model. Oh and forgot to mention that like I read in other reports, grub screws can be too easily stripped. One of mine stripped the very first time I tightened it down.

 

@Scuba Vaper Yup, still an awesome tank.

@Scratchy One of mine striped too.

Another thing I forgot to mention is my box is missing the 510 driptip adapter that should've been inside the o-rings bag. @Scuba Vaper if you have this piece then you can use any driptip you want.

 

My Juice Flow Control is the opposite. It is very tight, even if I add a bit of juice to it it is still hard to adjust. I was already aware about the grub screws prone to stripping so I was very careful when tightening them down.

 

Lots of reports of similar in other forums. Pity they make a decent tank but then mess up the execution. I wouldn't doubt they will or have taken notice and will update and improve in future production runs or a new revision.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Starting to feel good about blowing my vape budget before Big got these in. lol Think I might stick with the Aromamizer after all and not worry about these for a while longer.

 

Found the adapter in mine, prefer using 510 as airflow control than the ring at the bottom, it's using my black kanger delrin drip tip, work ok ...

Mine is reassuringly little difficult to turn, but not tight. I turn the whole top section with the glass, and JFC works ok

Yup, agree on that, shame really as it's awesome vape

Perhaps better build quality on Aromamizer , my only bugbear was the silicone band for air flow, but I realise now my 510 drip tip limits airflow to about how I like it so probably could use Aromamizer without the air flow control ... At least budget safe, more money for beer

 

I don't actually use it as an airflow control. I put it round the tank as a vape band. lol Well if you only ever havre it on full airflow there is no need for it.