Sense Hydra
The Hydra by Sense is the smaller brother to the impressive Herakles tank. The Hydra is designed for vaping with a standard Kanthal coil as well as an included Ni200 coil which must be used with a temperature control device. It features a desirable small form factor, has top filling and excellent airflow. Check out our review to find out more!
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by VapeMaster
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Sense Hydra
The Hydra by Sense is the smaller brother to the impressive Herakles tank. It comes pre-fitted with a 1.8ohm coil and also includes a 0.2ohm Ni200 coil for use with temperature control mods. Featuring a 2ml tank capacity and top filling this 20mm diameter tank is intended for people who prefer a compact set up. The question is does it perform as well as the larger Herakles? Let’s dive into the review and take a look.
Sense Hydra features
- Wattage Range: 1.8ohm Kanthal coil (15-50W).
- Tank Capacity: 2ml.
- Coils Available: 1.8ohm Kanthal & 0.2ohm Ni200.
- Wicking material: 100% Organic Cotton.
- Diameter: 20mm.
- Top filling. Can also be filled from the bottom if you wish.
- Adjustable airflow. (Allows for both mouth to lung and direct lung inhale vaping).
- Stainless steel and Pyrex construction.
- Copper 510 contact pin.
- Wide bore stainless steel drip tip with Delrin insert.
What’s in the box?
- 1x Sense Hydra.
- 1x 1.8ohm Kanthal coil pre-fitted.
- 1x 0.2ohm Ni200 coil. (For use with temperature control mods).
- Replacement glass tube.
- Instruction card.
Sense Hydra looks and build quality
In terms of build quality I would say the Hydra is pretty much the same standard as the Herakles. The main body of the Hydra is made from stainless steel and the tube is Pyrex.
Everything fits together well and I could find no issues with it. The glass is reasonably thick and the O-rings are decent. The drip tip is of the wide bore variety with a Delrin insert to keep heat away from your lips when vaping at high wattage. Thankfully the drip tip is wobble free and the other drip tips I tried all fitted the tank without any problems. The 510 pin is made from copper to ensure excellent conductivity. The Hydra fitted well on all my devices and for a 20mm tank it really does look quite smart!
The top cap is engraved with “Herakles” which is a little strange but then the Hydra is really just a smaller version of that tank. The main chimney does have a different engraving and features a snake’s head. The tank can be completely stripped down for cleaning. If you should ever need to replace the glass it can be accomplished very quickly.
Airflow
The Hydra tank airflow has 3 settings: Two 1.8mm holes, dual 3.0mm x 2.3mm holes, or dual 5.5mm x 2.3mm holes. The airflow control is easily adjustable and not at all loose with each setting nicely clicking into place. The heat sink fins that featured on the Herakles are not present on this tank and in my opinion that is a good thing because it was always a pain to see which airflow setting you had selected.
Filling
The Hydra can be filled by unscrewing the top which makes it very easy to use and re-fill. The top comes off easily and I certainly didn’t run into any leaking problems.
If you really want to you can remove the base then turn the tank upside down and fill that way. Just be mindful of the glass because it can loosen from the top cap when using this method.
How does the Sense Hydra vape?
I first primed the coil and then filled up the Hydra with Manabush’s Powwow Sauce. I allowed at least ten minutes for the coil to fully saturate and I started my first vape at 20W.
At this wattage it was a cool vape and the flavour while adequate wasn’t coming through as well as I liked. I then tried it at 25W and it was definitely far more flavoursome with some reasonable vapour being produced for such a small tank. I increased the wattage and at 30W I found that I was very happy with the flavour and the vapour production. Flavour was extremely good and I must admit that I do find it interesting how Powwow Sauce in particular changes depending on what tank I use it in. With the Hydra I got far more of the custard and the biscuit undertones which was really delicious! There was still a slight hint of tobacco and a subtle sweetness of maple and although it was very different I really did enjoy it a lot!
The one funny thing is that the 1.8ohm coil is rated to be able to handle up to 50W but I did not find that true of the coil I received. If I pushed the coil higher than 32W I started to get a slightly off taste, not really a dry hit but more of a synthetic quality and I felt that the coil was possibly burning. I ceased vaping and took the coil out to investigate but I could find no signs of burnt cotton which was very strange. I replaced the coil and restricted myself to vaping at 30W just to be on the safe side because it is possible I simply got a dud coil.
Personally I found 28-30W to be just right for this coil and it was a lovely warm flavoursome vape with the real surprise being how much vapour it put out. Please understand it isn’t what you would call cloud chaser levels of vapour but it is considerable when you take into account the very small size of the tank.
I took the Hydra out with me while I went for a walk using it on the Apollo Reliant which I also received for review. I often try to break up all the writing I do with at least a 60-90 minute walk. I was vaping at 28W and I was just casually vaping and certainly not chaining away on it but the 2ml capacity was almost completely drained within the hour. Now that might be an issue for some people but it is a price you will definitely pay for a more compact tank. On the other hand the top filling means it is very easy to top up the juice!
Moving on to the 0.2ohm Ni200 coil (requires a temperature control device) I continued using Powwow Sauce because I love that juice and I can’t stop myself vaping it any opportunity! The Ni200 coil in my opinion is miles better than the 1.8ohm. At 240°C and 30W this was a cracking vape that was very warm with superb flavour! In some respects I think it is probably slightly better than the Herakles no doubt due to the reduced overall size and smaller chimney.
The Hydra has some really good airflow settings and I am really pleased that they didn’t keep the heat sink fins as I previously mentioned. Depending on how you like to vape you can have it fully opened up for direct lung inhales or really closed down for a mouth to lung inhale or you can select the other setting for a happy middle ground between the two. Bear in mind even fully closed down it is still a slightly loose and somewhat airy draw and some people may prefer it to be a little tighter and more restrictive. You can of course get around this to an extent by fitting a drip tip with a smaller inner diameter.
Conclusion
Very much like the excellent Sense Herakles the Hydra is a superb tank that is a very nice vape with the 1.8ohm Kanthal coil and an absolutely stellar vape with the 0.2ohm Ni200 coil. The only downside is the 2ml capacity but depending on how heavy a vaper you are your juice may last considerably longer than it does for me. If I had one gripe it would be that the tank should have a slightly larger capacity considering the Kanger Subtank Nano can hold 3ml.
As someone who loves the Herakles (I have two) I would say that if you want the smaller form factor then this tank is brilliant! When you also factor in its ease of use it would be a very good choice for someone who wants to get their first Sub-Ohm tank or who wants to try out temperature controlled vapes.
We were given this tank to review by the team at Sense when we saw them at TabExpo last month. If you are a vendor interested in stocking their products check out http://www.szsensetech.com/ and contact Michael Zeng for more information. A quick search for me has found this item on Vaperama and Ecigone currently for sale. Both these sites run offers for POTV readers so check out our vaping discount codes page for current deals.
VapeMaster
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