RDA Reviews

DPRO RDA by Coil Art

New from Coil Art is the DPRO RDA, which stands for “Drip like a Pro.” This RDA is 24mm in diameter, has fully adjustable airflow, a post-less design and an entirely gold-plated build deck.

by VapeMaster
Nov 23, 2017

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DPRO RDA by Coil Art

New from Coil Art is the DPRO RDA, which stands for “Drip like a Pro.” This RDA is 24mm in diameter, has fully adjustable airflow, a post-less design and an entirely gold-plated build deck.

In addition the box includes a Bottom Feed pin which allows this RDA to be used with a squonking device.

So let’s have a good look at the DPRO and see how it performs!

DPRO RDA features

Height: 31mm (including drip tip)
Diameter: 24mm
Wide Bore Press-Fit ULTEM Drip Tip
Dual Adjustable Slanted Side Airflow
Airflow Hole Diameter: 3.8 mm x 3 mm
Build deck: 24K Gold-Plated Post-less Build Deck
Terminal dimensions: 2.5mm x 1. 5mm
Juice Well Depth: 3mm
Threading: 24K Gold-Plated Adjustable 510 Pin
PEEK insulator
Available Colours: Black (Anodized Aluminium), Stainless Steel, ULTEM, White, Red, Blue, Gold, Purple

What’s in the box?

DPRO RDA
2 x Fused Clapton Coils
Organic Cotton
Spare O-rings
4x Spare Grub Screws
Allen Key
Bottom Feed Pin

DPRO RDA styling and build quality

The overall quality of the machining is superb and everything fits together extremely well. The top cap is nicely secured by two decent O-rings and should they ever start to wear the box does included spares.

The materials used depend a lot on which version of this RDA you buy. We actually purchased the black version for the purposes of our review, which while retaining the stainless steel construction and gold plating, actually features an aluminium top cap with an anodized black coating. The ULTEM version which is also available has the entire top cap moulded from that material.

I thought the anodized finish was superb and looks very complimentary when the yellow ULTEM drip tip is fitted. While the top cap is very well made being constructed from aluminium it is quite thin. Now while it is very unlikely it’s going to dent unless you drop it the problem is that the aluminium gets very hot when vaping at high Wattage. This problem is of course alleviated by the ULTEM drip tip which does an excellent job of minimising heat transfer to your lips.

Speaking of the drip tip it uses a press-fit design and doesn’t actually have any O-rings but it is a really good fit and not at all loose.

The build deck is entirely gold-plated and this playing extends under the PEEK insulator on the positive terminal. As you would expect given this RDA’s post-less design you have a lot of building room which means you can use large Clapton’s, Fused Clapton’s or anything more exotic. At the base there are four grub screws. I felt that the screws were of good quality and held the wire very securely.

The well is only 3mm deep which doesn’t seem like a lot but given the overall diameter of 24mm and considering the deck is 22mm diameter you can get more juice in there than it might seem at first glance. When you factor in that you can also fit the included Bottom Feed pin and use this RDA with a squonker the size of the juice well seems far less important.

The airflow ports are positioned to the side and you might automatically think given the shallow nature of the well that this will just lead to leaking the moment you tilt it. Thankfully Coil Art have foreseen that problem and have the airflow holes actually extend 5mm into the deck and they’re also slanted at about 40 degrees. It’s a similar design that we have seen on other RDA’s before but it is still a very effective way of doing things and minimises leaking. It also means you can squeeze a little bit more juice in there, providing you don’t remove the top cap.

As I mentioned earlier the gold-plated and fully adjusted 510 pin can be removed with the included Allen Key which allows you to fit the Bottom Feed Pin.

Airflow

The airflow features two slanted holes, one on either side and caters to direct lung inhales. It becomes a restrictive lung inhale as you close down the airflow. This is not an RDA for mouth to lung users since the wide bore does contribute to making things quite airy.

To adjust the airflow you simply rotate the top cap.

Ease of Build

If this is your first post-less RDA then there will be something of a learning curve. The real trick is to get used to just how long you need to make your coil legs but that’s really the only issue you will run into. The screws work really well and providing you’re using thicker wire the coil legs won’t bend when you place them into the holes on the deck.

Now given the way the airflow set up you might immediately think this is another one of those designs that has ignored single coil fans again. In the case of the DPRO RDA this isn’t strictly true. You can actually set up a very effective coil by positioning it at a diagonal, and you ideally want the airflow to come in and just hit the bottom of the coil from both sides. Providing your coil has an internal diameter of 3mm or more the airflow seems just right but you may have to close it down a little.

Dual coil is equally straightforward except that you fit them as you traditionally would in most other RDA’s. When it comes to wicking I prefer to overdo it a little when setting the DPRO up with a single coil and tend to curve the wick tails into an “S” shape so it soaks up all the juice on the deck.

How does it vape?

My first build in the DPRO RDA was a 3mm ID coil using 26 gauged twisted Kanthal. The final Resistance of this build was 0.5ohm and I wicked the coil with Japanese cotton.

I decided that the first juice I would try was the last of my Manabush Powwow Sauce. It was a great choice to make because this RDA is extremely flavoursome in single coil mode. In fact I was really surprised just how good it actually was! The juice tasted extremely rich and was truly delicious. I really liked the swoosh of the airflow and it reminded me a lot of the CSMNT the way you get these incredibly tasty clouds of goodness that just flow into your mouth. Speaking of clouds that was also another pleasant surprise and the vapour has a lovely amount of density to it. It isn’t quite a room fogger with a single coil but I think even a modest cloud fan would be very happy!

As you would expect dual coil is even better in terms of flavour and you really do notice the full range of notes in the juice. This time I was using a dual Clapton coil build which had a Resistance of 0.3ohm. The first juice I used with this build was some Evil Cloud California Krush and I got an excellent vape. I then moved on to using some BWRD Rome Blonde Espresso which is a really delicious and cost effective QuickNic ready E-Liquid. Once again I could fault the vape and the cloud density was vastly increased.

When vaping at high Wattage you do have to take care not to touch the top cap because the black anodized version can get very hot.

In terms of flavour and vapour production this RDA is absolute class! In many ways this feels a lot like a CSMNT RDA to me for half the price.

Sadly there is only one minor issue and that’s the shallowness of the well. The juice gets vaped off ridiculously fast in dual coil mode, and still quite fast in single coil mode. Personally I think if you want to dual coil this you’d be best using it in Bottom Feed mode with a squonker.

Conclusion

This is a brilliant RDA that is extremely well made. It’s only shortcomings being that the aluminium top cap of the black version gets quite hot at high Wattage and that the juice well is a bit on the shallow side. Fortunately this latter issue can be alleviated by using a single coil build, or setting up for use with a squonker. Surprisingly the DPRO is a very good vape in single coil mode despite the impression the airflow might give you.

I think given the quality and the very reasonable price this is definitely an RDA you may want to add to your collection!

We purchased this RDA for review from Grey Haze and you can get one of your own from them. Remember to use code POTV10 at the checkout of 10% off your purchase.