RBA Reviews

Vapefly 1o3

Antony checks out the tallest tank of '22: the Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 RDTA!

by Michelle (Purplefowler)
Oct 6, 2022

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Vapefly and the German 103 team continue their latest round of releases with the Brunhilde 1o3 which our friends at Sourcemore were kind enough to send our way for review. This time is a RDTA designed for single or dual coil use with a whopping 7ml tank sat below the rda style build deck…. This should be fun.

Specifications

Diameter: 25.2mm
Height: 54.5mm (excluding the 510 and drip tip)
Drip tip: 810
Single or dual coil deck
Tank Capacity: 7ml

Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 RDTA unboxing and contents

My first impression of the Brunhilde 1o3 itself once I’d taken it out of the box is that those crazy Germans still seem to be stuck in 2016 because this is by far and away the tallest tank I’ve used in years, with the included drip tip installed this is 65 mm tall and looks slightly ridiculous even on a fairly hefty dual battery mod. Does anyone happen to know the German for "bubble tank" because the 103 team certainly don’t seem to have heard of it!

Having said that, I have to give Vapefly their due, the build quality is excellent as always and there are always plenty of extras included with their rebuildable atomisers. This includes some very nice multi core fused claptons to get you started and these are kanthal which means I can actually use them for once as well.

Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 RDTA drip tip and airflow

Starting at the top, we have a standard 810 drip tip and an adjustable upper airflow ring. This has twelve honeycomb airflow slots on either side but the arrangement of the cutouts on the top cap means that you can only employ up to eight on each side at any given point, it’s still pretty airy though.

Adjusting the airflow could be better as well as I did find that the top cap tends to bind up, and I’ve had to pop it out from below several times to make any adjustments despite liberally lubricating the o-ring.

Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 RDTA airflow to the coil

There is also a lower airflow adjustment which is fed to the centre posts to deliver air to both sides of your coil. This post is removable and you get a second slotted airflow included in one of the bags of extras. In use I didn’t find much difference between them, although the slotted one does add a slight whistle so I opted for the honeycomb one in the end.

The fill port is located on the opposite side of the lower airflow and is accessed by turning the barrel 180 degrees. This uses a push to fill valve system which I found a little awkward in use. As the tank is so tall, it’s difficult to keep a hold of everything and apply enough pressure to open the valve so keep a tissue handy as you’ll often need to wipe the side of the tank off once you’re done.

Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 RDTA stripped down

The Brunhilde 1o3 can be completely disassembled for cleaning or to enable you to get at the stainless steel wicks which feed e-liquid up to the build deck. Out of the box you have four cables fitted (two for each coil), and there is room for a third cable on each side which is blanked off by a grub screw. Vapefly have even gone old school on the single coil option by supplying a silicone bung to block off one side of the build deck, you’ll need to remove both cables and the blanking screw to use this.

Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 RDTA build

The build deck reminds me of an old velocity style deck but installing a coil was easy enough and the lower screw didn’t mangle the coil too badly either. As a single coil build was an option, I thought I’d start there, and the included coil came out to 0.36ohms.

After a little experimentation, I found this worked best at 50 watts. Adjusting the airflow didn’t seem to make much difference to the flavour or alter the amount of air much either unless you completely shut off the lower airflow and choose the most restricted upper airflow option and then it gets too restricted with a drop in flavour. Long story short, if you prefer a more restricted vape then walk away because this really is designed for bags of air and cloud chucking.

With a dual coil setup you’ll need to be punching 100 watts or above and you might want to remove the two hex screws on the deck and break out the extra two stainless steel cables for faster wicking as I found it really couldn’t keep up with just four fitted. The flavour really kicks up a gear here and really this would be my preferred way of using the Brunhilde 1o3.

For either setup, you want the ends of the cotton to just rest on top of the stainless steel cables. The cables do just about manage to keep up with the wicking but this benefits from occasionally tipping the rta on its side to saturate the cotton wicks above, and in truth I haven’t quite managed to get this to work consistently. Before someone suggests that I’m doing it wrong, I’ve been using the Stubby for the last couple of weeks which employs the same system and I've got on fine with that.

Pros

Good flavour if you can get the wicking right
Large tank capacity

Cons

Stupidly tall
Difficult to wick consistently

Conclusion

Whilst I appreciate the large 7ml tank capacity, I think Vapefly and the 103 team need to rethink their strategy of releasing ever taller tanks, this is simply verging on ridiculous and looks out of place on modern compact box mods. I’ve also struggled to get this to wick consistently as well so unless you’re well versed in the use of stainless steel wicks, you might want to steer clear. I certainly wouldn’t recommend this to someone just starting out with RTAs for example. Get things right and the flavour is there to be found, but for me this one is a bit of a miss unlike the Lindwurm and Alberich RTAs I reviewed recently, both of which I would heartily recommend.

As always Sourcemore has sent me a code for you to use if the Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 looks like your cup of tea: $25.39 Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 RTA Code: 1O3R

Vapefly Brunhilde 1o3 RDTA handcheck

Michelle (Purplefowler)

Reviewer at POTV

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When her usual forum closed, Michelle found herself in a brave new world full of excitement that something fresh and new was happening. A few days later she somehow found herself on the moderating team and is still not really sure how that happened. Even stranger, she slowly worked her way up to admin and now helps behind the scenes, liasing with vendors and coordinating social media but she can still be found making smutty comments on the forum. If all that wasn't enough, she also is a proud member of the Potv review team specialising in E-liquid reviews for the discerning vaper.