RBA Reviews

Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3

Hellvape seem to be back on track with their latest tank, the Dead Rabbit 3 RTA

by Antony Lord
Jun 13, 2022

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Hellvape have dusted down the Dead Rabbit name again and given it a 2022 overhaul for their latest Dead Rabbit 3 RTA. Whilst this is still a dual coil top airflow design, it’s a radical departure from the earlier versions so I was looking forward to putting this through its paces.

Specifications

25mm diameter
38.8mm tall (excluding drip tip and 510)
59.2 grams
Top to bottom airflow with honeycomb and slotted airflow
Postless dual coil build deck
3.5ml straight glass / 5.5ml bubble glass (2ml for TPD regions)
810 drip tip

Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3 RTA unboxing and contents

The international version of Dead Rabbit 3 comes in Hellvape's signature black and red packaging with the RTA prominently displayed behind a clear window allowing you to see which of the eight available colour options you’re buying, the TPD versions don’t seem to share the same windowed box (probably due to the need for prominent nicotine warning labelling on the packaging) so you’ll need to check the box for the colour.

Out of the box you get a 3.5ml straight glass installed with a 5.5ml bubble glass included but this will be limited to a paltry 2ml in TPD regions with two versions being available, one with the bubble glass included and one without, so check with your vendor before purchasing. You get the usual pack-ins I’ve come to expect from Hellvape like coils, cotton, tools, and spares.

Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3 RTA airflow and base

Externally the Dead Rabbit 3 is quite a departure from previous releases, whilst it retains the signature top down airflow, the Celtic ring motif has been dropped for a more chunky industrial look with sharp angular facets and large cutouts. The base of the RTA is a standard 25mm but this quickly flares out to 26.5mm making the tank look much more bulky, add in the bubble glass and you’re not much shy of 30mm so this is definitely no shrinking violet! I quite like the design though and it looks good on top of most dual 18650 mods.

Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3 RTA top cap

The top cap features a standard 810 drip tip with a quarter turn release system; those large cutouts make it easy to get a grip here as well. The top airflow ring has seven diagonal cutouts for smoother airflow with stops at the full open and fully closed positions, behind this though there’s still the large cyclops style inlets with a sharp angle directing the air down the sides of the chamber. One downside of this sort of airflow is that the size of the fill ports is often compromised, but that’s not the case here and I’ve had no issues on that front.

Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3 RTA build deck

The build deck is a big departure from earlier designs, the old “bunny ears” posts with air being directed from the top of the coils has been replaced with a modern postless deck design with air being redirected to both the sides and bottom of the coils.

Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3 RTA coils

Installing the coils was a doddle with easy access to the post screws, and the 5mm leg length suggested by the supplied coil trimming tool seemed about right. There’s plenty of room for bigger builds here as well so there was ample room for my signature 2.5mm inner diameter spaced fused claptons.

Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3 RTA wicking

You will need to trim and thin your wicks out a fair bit. The sides of the build deck effectively create a channel that you have to position the wicks into, and the postless deck means that there’s a fair distance between the wicking ports at the base and your coil so you’ll be relying on capillary action to feed the wicks as well. Having said that, I seemed to get this right on my first attempt and it kept up like a trooper with no leaking or flooding evident.

Flavour was well above average and I settled on 75 watts with five air slots open on my 0.22ohm build. The wicking was even able to keep up with chain vaping, and you’re able to drain every last drop of liquid from the tank with the wick ports being right at the base of the build deck.

Pros

Easy to build
Large capacity

Cons

You’ll need a fairly big mod for this to look balanced
Check which version of the TPD edition you’re getting, you want the one with the bubble glass included!

Conclusion

It’s nice to see that Hellvape has got their mojo back with the Dead Rabbit 3 RTA as I was a little disappointed with a few aspects of their more recent RDAs. You have a nice, big, modern postless deck and good capacity especially with the bubble glass installed. Be aware though that although it’s only 25mm at the base, it’s quite chunky and it can look a bit unbalanced on smaller mods. A worthy successor to the Dead Rabbit RTA lineup.

Many thanks to Hellvape for sending the Dead Rabbit 3 rta over for review.

Hellvape Dead Rabbit 3 RTA juiced up

Antony Lord

Reviewer at POTV

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I was a twenty a day smoker for 25 years and like most smokers I was always going to quit "next week". Having hit my mid forties and having the usual smokers cough and difficulty with anything more than moderate exercise it was obviously time to give up the cancer sticks. I bought my first e-cigarette in 2013 when they were expensive, difficult to find and quite frankly... crap. I used it for about a week then went back to the roll ups, mark up another failed quit attempt. The fact that I had just changed jobs and was under quite a lot of stress probably didn't help. Move on to 2016 and whilst I was browsing eBay I noticed that one of the suggested items that would occasionally pop up was for a cheap e-cigarette. It looked similar to the one I'd bought 3 years earlier but it was only £5 (about 8 times cheaper than before) so I decided to give it another go on a whim. Once the kit arrived I managed to gradually replace the cigarettes with my new kit over a two month period and got into watching YouTube reviews for newer kit. My cheap and cheerful kit was replaced by a more upmarket affair, and being a noob I made a mistake once it arrived... I put in the supplied direct lung coil, this was of course a complete revelation and I haven't touched a cigarette since. Oh and I no longer spend the first five minutes of every day having a coughing fit either.