Cthulhu RTA, courtesy of Cthulhumod.com!

What up vapefam!

Sirrisc is back with another RTA review courtesy of Cthulhumod.com!

I’m a little late to the party, but I finally managed to make time to write the review for the Cthulhu RTA. (Sorry guys!)

Allow me to spoil the entire thing by saying in advance, it’s fucking awesome.


Premise

“The Thing cannot be described - there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order. A mountain walked or stumbled.
If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing.
A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful.”

Cthulhu Mod is a relatively new player on the vaping market, but their introduction hasn’t gone unnoticed.

With the Cthulhu RTA they set the bar high and they deliver a high quality RTA that’ll blow your socks off.

http://i.imgur.com/EW1vIMF.jpg

The impressiveness starts at the packaging, continues on with the amount of extra o-rings and grub screws, and then there’s the RTA itself…


Cthulhu RTA

http://i.imgur.com/s14ssql.jpg

Specifications:

  • Medical Grade Stainless Steel
  • Pyrex/glass tank with 4ml capacity.
  • Adjustable 3mm airflow holes
  • Bottom fill screw
  • Top fill mechanism with 4 fill holes
  • Copper 510 connection
  • Laser etched Cthulhu in the chimney
  • 2*3mm independent airflow holes in the deck
  • 3 post design, 4*1.6mm wireholes
  • Dual coil design
  • Can take high VG liquids (I tested up to 95%VG)

Unpacking

As I mentioned above, even the packaging is impressive.
The entire RTA and its accessories come in a plastic casing with the logo printed on top, and a QR code you can scan with your smartphone.
The QR code points you to their website where you can find all info on the RTA.

http://i.imgur.com/MVlMj6D.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YRD4pGn.jpg

The casing is strong, clean and fits comfortably in my vapecase. It’s now the permanent home to my hex keys, coil jig and a couple of spare driptips.

http://i.imgur.com/koOufch.jpg

The casing holds 3 plastic bags.

http://i.imgur.com/AOh6nws.jpg

One with the RTA itself, one with a couple of spare screws, and one with a bunch of spare o-rings, another set of screws, 2 prebuilt coils, a hex key and the infamous blue screwdriver. (Yay, another one for the collection!)
On the bottom of the casing is a piece of cardboard with the code to check authenticity, and a link to the website. Again, a QR code is printed for easy access.

http://i.imgur.com/ugD0cAn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/RujVkHf.jpg

Performance

Ok, I don’t know where to start on this because it compares to pretty much any dual coil RTA out there.
It does what it’s supposed to do, and it does so in true Cthulhu fashion: f’ing great.

The first time you screw everything apart it may seem a little daunting, because there are a lot of parts.
It’s nowhere near as bad as the KFL4 though, that one is just plain ridiculous.
Once you screw everything back together it just makes sense, the design was done like this for a reason.

http://i.imgur.com/hcwXMuX.jpg

Is it worth all the hype? Yes, it is. Just because the performance is so good, it’s no wonder people are raving on about this RTA.

Could it be improved? Yes, definitely. There are a few things that irk me, but considering the guys from Cthulhumod are very active in the community they have also fixed a few of these issues in the second and third batch of the RTA.

One of the major issues for me was the airflow ring. Holy shit, that thing is tighter than an anti-vaping politicians asshole.
The guys at Cthulhumod state that you need to close off the airflow to fill the tank from the top, but you’ll need some brute force to move the airflow ring.
A somewhat unorthodox fix is to sand down the o-ring a little bit, or more conventionally replace the o-ring with a thinner model.
It’ll still be tight enough to hold the airflow ring in place, but at least it’ll be able to move.
This has been reported as fixed in the second batch. Good one, Cthulhu guys!

Another issue I ran into was the screw that threads onto the chimney to hold the tank together.
It’s easy to grab and once it’s tightened it won’t move, which is good. It’s getting it to thread that’s the hard part.
The threading at the top seems to be a little too loose making the screw tip over on the threads, effectively increasing the risk of crossthreading your chimney.
Again the guys at Cthulhumod fixed this in a later batch. These guys don’t play around, they want this RTA to be a success. (and quite frankly, they’re doing a stellar job)

Leaking? Yes, sometimes it’ll leak a bit from the airflow holes when I just filled it from the top.
Why this happens is beyond me, I’ve had comments that it must be my wicking but I’ve not found a solution to it yet. No matter how I wick it, it’ll leak sometimes.
Once I take a few toots however, it stops leaking and works perfect for the rest of the tank.

Aesthetics

The Cthulhu RTA is a beauty. It’s simple, yet so pretty.
The medical grade steel used has a hazy finish and seems to be fairly scratchproof.
The glass is fairly thick (though that of the Goblin is thicker), and shows the laser etched Cthulhu on the chimney.

http://i.imgur.com/pGdrN7R.jpg

For those of you wondering about replacing parts: No, the KFL style bellcaps do NOT fit, and neither do the Goblin accessories.
The Cthulhu also comes with a driptip with a fairly wide bore. The bore is the same as the chimney, making it one straight opening to the chamber.
The driptip is plain steel, no logo or anything but it looks good.

http://i.imgur.com/fAYQqi2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Bv5NfK1.jpg

Building

I could go into detail on how to build this thing, but I’ll happily point you to Ironhammer5’s tutorial for this.
His wicking technique works fine, and seems to take up to 95%VG without dryhits.

For good measure, I built mine to 0.7ohm at first and it performed nicely. I now have a 0.4ohm build in there and it’s even better.

This RTA was made for lower builds it seems. Given the airflow is so big and the juicechannels are humongous, it only seems logical that this will take low builds and higher wattages.

One tip I can give you is to keep your coils below 2.8mm. Anything above that will risk touching the chimney and shorting out your RTA or mod.

On that note, please use an ohmreader when building. It’s a cheap but effective way of detecting shorts and it’ll be cheaper than surgery.

Pros and cons

Pro

  • Big clouds
  • Comes with a driptip
  • Cthulhu!
  • 4ml tank
  • Easy to build
  • Easy to wick
  • Huuuuuuge juicechannels
  • Amazing airflow
  • Medical grade steel
  • Glass tank
  • Cthulhu!
  • Awesome packaging
  • Looks f’ing beautiful
  • Lots of spare o-rings and screws
  • Good value for money
  • Excellent performance

Con

  • Top screw is a little iffy (fixed)
  • Airflow ring is too tight (fixed)
  • Tastes of machining oil, wash it before use! (fixed)
  • Leaks from the airflow holes sometimes after filling
  • Less flavorful as the Goblin
  • No spare glass included
  • Some tanks had some steel residu (fixed)
  • A little hard to come by sometimes due to the limited production (Coïncidently they are still looking for distributors and retailers, so if you have a vapeshop or your favorite shop isn’t stocking them yet you should contact them at info@cthulhumod.com!)

In conclusion

The Cthulhu is worth the hype. It really is.
The performance is great and rivals RDAs in terms of vapor production, but not entirely in terms of flavor.
It looks great, the Cthulhu etched on the chimney is definitely an eyecatcher.
There are a few quirks, but most are fixed already or are being fixed in a later batch.
The guys from Cthulhumod are very actively persueing perfection by listening to the community, something other comanies should definitely improve upon.

In closing I would like to thank Joshua from Cthulhumod for sending me this RTA for review.
And of course I would like to thank all of you for reading, I wouldn’t be able to review without you.

I’m always looking for more opportunities to review, so get in touch if you want me to review something from you! Juice, RTA, RDA, mods… it’s all welcome and I’m sure we can work something out!

#staycloudy !

SirRisc disappears in a forest fruit scented cloud of vapor

9 Likes

Thanks for tormenting me with yet another device I do not own :smiley: hehe

Good work, as always @SirRisc!

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I thought you liked being teased? :wink:

Cheers mate!

I’ve got one on the way!!! Can’t wait …this review made me wanna check my tracking again for the second time this hour

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I have found that this is just the nature of the beast with most atomizers that don’t have a way for air to escape out of the tank when being refilled. The pressure of liquid and air being introduced to the tank forces juice, dormant in the juice channels, into the chimney or on to the deck. Then, if the wick(s) is already saturated with juice, the airflow hole(s) is the only place for the juice to escape.

The only tanks that aren’t going to do this are situations where the tank is entirely removed from the deck, such as the UD Goliath or the Billow V2. These have their issues as well, but the Goliath has never once splooged juice out of the air holes with me. Love that RTA!

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Honestly, it shouldn’t happen. There are 4 fillholes at the top so the air can move out of the tank easily.
The only thing I can think of is that my wicks are getting too saturated too fast and it dumps the excess in the airflow.
I’m bound to try a few other techniques for wicking though, I might even go for a quad build in this one. :wink:

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Love it bro! Nice review!

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Job well done!!Another point for the leakage could be condensation??? I notice it a lot as just another nature of the beast?? The condensation contains juice?

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It’s a little too much for it to be just condensation, and it’s colored like the juice and tastes like juice, so I’m pretty sure it’s juice flowing where it shouldn’t.
I do get some condensation in the driptip though, but not nearly enough to leak or make the RTA gurgle. (which I had constantly with my Nautilus a couple of months ago)

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oh eye see… bummer it’s still a convincing piece of gear !

Thanks for the review. I have one coming this week.

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Nice review!

Mine is awaiting coils, wicks and juice; just got delivered today!

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No way ! You guys always order weeks after me and get your stuff before me …it’s just not fair !! Lol …let me know how it is

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If @Ken_O_Where hadn’t put up that Vapecrawler link to inform (tempt) me, the good deal would have passed me by. Good eye Ken!

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When ever this happens to me it’s usually a wicking issue. It happened with my Goblin, after I got the wicking right it cleared up. Those are some large juice channels to stop from leaking.

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Nice review. I want it. Now.
I actually like the understated simple look on this. I’m too old to display skeletons, trolls, zombies and whatnot. Simple and elegant works for me.
Thanks for the review!

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Ur welcome… lol not that it matters as long as u made out good!!!

Thank you @quitter1, but, I think that @Ken_O_Where had you beat by a nose length on that post…not that it matters lol!

We all depend on folks like you to keep us abreast of the good deals!

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You and me both then. One of the things I’m starting to dislike in the industry is the fact that manufacturers are trying to win customers over with eyecandy. I prefer quality over eyecandy.
Though ironically Cthulhu would eat all those trolls, zombies and what not. :wink:

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Duhhh!!! :fearful:

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