Vandy Vape Berserker V3
Si goes berserk over the new Vandy Vape Berserker V3 (B3) MTL RTA!
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by Si Davies
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Supplied by Sourcemore for review
https://www.sourcemore.com/vandy-vape-berserker-v3-mtl-rta.html
$24.89 – Using Code: V3BR
At A Glance
- 2 Capacity/Height Configurations:
- Short Tube Size Φ24mm*31.5mm
- Long Tube Size Φ24mm*43.5mm
- Capacity: 2ml (short tube)/6ml(long tube)
- Colours: Matte Black, SS, Gunmetal, Frosted Grey, Gold
- 3 Different MTL 510 drip-tips included
- Easy change push pit base airflow pin
So the Berserker gets yet another version, but this is hardly a tweak on the old design as it has completely changed literally from the bottom up, Vandy Vape have really gone to town on this design and produced a really interesting customisable RTA as a result.
Unboxing
The presentation packaging is superb and offers a glimpse of what the B3 (Berserker 3) has to offer, with three different proper MTL drip-tips and three additional airflow pins, but there’s even more underneath that bottom cover.
You also get three tank glass/PEI pieces which was a really welcome addition and makes the B3 more versatile, but there’s more; underneath that are the accessories.
There’s a bag of spare seals and screws along with an allen-key, two coils (Ni80 0.74ohm fused Clapton) and the chimney extension tube for the tall glass. You don’t get any cotton included but everything else is there for your first build.
First Impressions
As you can see from the bundle, the B3 has plenty of options. The short configuration looks superb but I’m glad they included a more practical tall option with a whopping 6ml capacity. The 3 MTL 510 Drip-tips are all excellent and include the now traditional Berserker ribbed drip-tip.
The first thing I do with any new tank is to tear it down and check out the assembly. The B3 was a little fiddly as the base was a bit tight at first but it all unscrewed into a familiar configuration and I noticed there is now a removable ring on the build deck.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. One of the B3’s most innovative features is the removable airflow pin, this is fascinating as it is a simple press fit which simply pulls out and pushes in which might not sound that big a deal but considering that it’s the main positive connection pin, it still makes a good contact somehow. You get four pins included: 0.8, 1.2, 1.4 and 2mm, I went straight for the 0.8mm but the beauty of this design is you can easily swap it over after building it.
Choosing which height/capacity configuration has its own pros and cons, while the short configuration looks compact and is a bit more stylish, it only holds 2ml and the short glass makes juice visibility ridiculously difficult. The tall option can make it look that bit too tall and the additional chimney height can affect the flavour.
To use the tall glass, you will need to add the chimney extension piece, this is very easy and is well machined, it simply screws into place and the knurling helps you screw it all the way down.
I was surprised how good the B3 looked in all four configurations, the PEI tint is a bright amber rather than that frozen piss delrin style you often see on MTL tanks, my favourite turned out to be the clear tall glass which looked better once you add your e-liquid.
Building
I pretty much winged it on my first build, but I found it very intuitive and the easiest Berserker so far, though you will need to remove the base ring which just pulls off, this is to allow you to adjust the coil with a rod.
Once removed, the build deck looks really bare and has loads of access, this made it so much easier to lob a coil in and tweak it, the two post screws are well machined and have enough room at the back for coil leg trimming.
The included coils give you a hint of the coil’s intended height as the legs are pre-bent towards the centre, once clamped down it makes sense as it all sits central. You just need to make sure the coil is sat centred over the airflow pin but it all just makes visual sense as you build.
Once you clamp it down, you just need to snip off the coil legs, tweak it all to sit central and dry burn the coil at around 8 watts, pulsing the power and strum out any hot-spots.
It all took a couple of minutes and I found it one of the easiest RTAs to build that I have tried, I was pretty impressed with the intuitive design so far. I turned my attention to the wicking which required a little more attention.
You need to consider the ring and where the juice enters the deck, you will need enough wick to dam the juice ports so it required longer wick legs than the norm, in fact my first effort was too short (which will result in flooding) so as a rule of thumb, longer is best at first as you can always trim afterwards.
Fit the ring before you tuck your cotton in (making sure you don’t trap any cotton underneath), you should have enough cotton to tuck into the juice wells and also pack up against the ports, it should fit snuggly and slightly pushing outwards, if you can see any gaps through the slots then it’s too loose and risks flooding. I’m making it sound harder than it is in reality, basically more is best and stuff the cotton in but don’t ram it in too tight. If you struggle at this point, you can always poke some cotton into the port from the inside but trim any excess from the outer ring.
Once wicked, then add a few drops of e-liquid to the coil and wick to fully saturate it, I always drip and pulse while doing this until I can see all of the wick is soaked. That’s the build compete, screw everything back together and it’s time to fill her up.
The B3 is top fill and is a far better design than the awkward Berserker V2 which had a clumsy bell-cap that unscrewed clock-wise (what were they thinking?), the B3 is back to how it should be, and a half turn counter-clockwise to remove. This isn’t perfect as you can start unscrewing the glass section if you’re not careful, I found it easier to ‘snap’ twist it with a short action and it pops off easily.
In the short configuration, the glass section was bloody useless to see the juice level and I relied on seeing the e-liquid through the top and it was simple enough to judge when full, this was far easier with the tall glass for obvious reasons, but by now I wasn’t a fan of the short glass.
I know some folks will cringe at my weapon of choice, the Wismec RX G mod, but I’ve been after a 24mm Gold RTA for it and the Berserker V3 is the closest match I’ve found so far, but I was ready to give the B3 a road test.
For all of the changes over the V2 to V3, the vape was fairly similar, but I did find the airflow much smoother. My choice of the 0.8mm pin was a good guess as it gave me a nice cheek pulling tight MTL draw, the flavour was on par with most of the best MTL RTAs but I wouldn’t call it exceptional, part of this is down to the included fused claptons which I’m not a fan of, 0.7ohms is lower than I prefer and had to use a higher wattage than I would have liked.
It wasn’t long before I lobbed in another build using plain wire around 1.3ohms, on the plus side I flew through the second build and wicking, and dare I say I enjoyed doing it. The wicking is so easy to judge by eye and is fairly forgiving if you use too much. I also went for the tall configuration as the skinny glass was doing my head in due to the lack of visibility. I was much happier now, the vape was more to my liking and I barely noticed any flavour drop-off with the taller chimney (even with the tallest ‘Berserker’ drip-tip). I was starting to really enjoy the B3 and I immediately preferred it over the V2 in pretty much every way.
You begin to appreciate the improvements in the B3. The smoother airflow really stands out, and I thought nothing of swapping over the air pins. Other than having to remove the tank from the mod, the process of pulling out the pin and popping in another was so simple and easy to judge by ‘sucking and see’, I just favoured the 0.8mm in the end but the looser ones will suit others with a borderline tight RDL should you wish.
There are many subtle design features that aren’t obvious but are there on the inside making the difference, such as the juice delivery chamber; it kind of funnels down to the wicking ports and you see it more in the tall configuration as the tiny bubbles pop up in between draws, then there’s the main vapour chamber above the coil which is almost a pancake shape and compacts the vapour before travelling up into your mouth. Also the airflow path via those handy pins, while an outer adjustable airflow ring might sound easier, you often get a more turbulent airflow as a result and it’s hard to keep it the consistant, using a pin will always give you the same vape. Obviously there’s more to it, but it does show a lot of R&D has gone into the B3.
Confidence in my build led to me going back to the shorter version and I got used to the difficult juice level visibility, you can kind of see the level if you tip it over at an angle. I also enjoyed the difference the drip-tips offered, the shortest one gave more of a throat hit.
I also found a better matchup for it as it looked proper posh on my GEN Nano as long as it was in short configuration, as much as I wanted it to suit my RX G, it just suited a smaller mod more.
As with all Berserkers; you can easily view the health of your build deck by unscrewing the base upside-down without emptying the tank, this is especially useful when you’re new to the tank and need to check the wicking.
Conclusion
The B3 (Berserker V3) is well worth the upgrade and is so much better than the V2, the wealth of configuration options make it versatile, and the massive 6ml option is pretty rare for MTL RTAs. While the wicking is slightly fiddly, I found building it was ever so easy and intuitive which should appeal to novice and experienced users.
MTL purists might not like the 24mm diameter, and with the tall configuration you might struggle to match it to typical MTL suitable mods, but I actually found it to be a pro for those in-between mods where a 22mm or smaller tanks looked lost.
I think the B3 is a very interesting design overall but I don’t see anything game-changing in the way of performance, it’s all pretty good but not exceptional and hasn’t got the wow factor we all hope for. What it has got is refinement, and it incorporates a lot of features you see in many other good MTL tank designs, I’m not sure what it will take to wow me these days, but the B3 will do nicely while I wait.
Pros
- Vastly improved construction
- Intuitive build deck
- Versatile configuration options
- 6ml option
- 3 superb 510 drip-tips
- Easy swap airflow pins
- Stylish
- Smooth airflow
- Generous bundle
Cons
Well… I have been stuck here for several minutes, while I don’t think the B3 is perfect I genuinely can’t find anything wrong with it, the coil choice doesn’t suit me but they will suit others, the skinny glass is hard to see your juice level yet I now prefer it.
Final Thoughts and Score
The Berserker V3 or B3 is a very worthy upgrade over the V1 and V2, it is drastically different and not just for the sake of it as they have improved just about everything. I did like the V2, but it has sat mostly unused due to a couple of annoying quirks but the V3 doesn’t have those so I can see me getting plenty of use from the B3, especially on my mods that suit a 24mm tank.
Score: 8.5/10 – Go Berserk
Thanks to Sourcemore for providing us with this cracking RTA
https://www.sourcemore.com/vandy-vape-berserker-v3-mtl-rta.html
$24.89 – Using Code: V3BR
Si Davies
Reviewer at POTVMy background is Engineering and Professional Photography. Mostly from POTV users knowledge I learned so much about pretty much all styles of vaping and equipment, Cloud Chasing, Squonking, Mouth To Lung, Direct To Lung, Pods, Mechs, Rebuild-able tanks and atomisers etc, and have experience with many many devices and atomisers, it's become a hobby and enjoy trying out the latest gear. I like to think my reviews are plain speaking and informative without getting too technical, if I have to resort to reading the manual then I don't consider it user friendly!
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