Hi guys. Normally I wouldn’t review a clone of anything but a mech mod. In this case, however, I was too impressed not to.
I purchased the Cera RDA clone from Fasttech for $23.10. I see the original posted online elsewhere for a similar price. Now I have no idea what an actual authentic one costs, neither have I used or even seen one up close. So this review is strictly based on the merits of this clone and not a comparison to anything else. Also, I purchased this outright from Fasttech and unless someone points them to this review they won’t even know about it. It’s simply for the community. Let’s get started.
First, let me say I have never been a huge fan of dripping. I think more so the last year I have enjoyed it than in times past.
Nothing fancy with packaging. It comes in a box with Steam Tribe on it. No booklet or instructions, just the RDA and a packet of extras.
When I first opened it and took the cap off the base, I was a little taken aback in that one of the o-rings was adhered to the cap. Fortunately their extras packet had a spare o-ring, so I was back in business.
Also, as you can see above, they already had a build/wick in the thing so it came ready to vape. Being the OCD person I am when it comes to builds, I just tore it out and started over.
Once the build was removed I did some inspecting. First thing I noticed was a deep juice well. My rudimentary measuring logged it in as 7mm deep.
Everything was super clean. Not a trace of anything foreign such as oil or other debris. Of course you wouldn’t expect oil anyway since this is not a milled RDA. The base and top cap are made of what they call Zirconian Ceramic. Huh? Whatever that is, it’s not metallic. Rumor has it that this material dissipates heat exceptionally well. We’ll get more into that in a moment.
So let’s not over-complicate things, especially since a dripper is most always a rather simple device. You have a 3 post deck design. What’s unique (not that uniqueness is always a good thing) is the center post has a slot that your wire will slide down into rather than a post hole. A top screw/nut type thing will then pinch down on the positive post coil leads. I don’t know the measurement of this slot but it’s fairly narrow. It will accommodate 22ga titanium though, and my current build is dual 24/32 claptons. This is a very tight fit both in the post holes and the slot on the center pin. I will say this is the maximum size clapton you would be able to use.
Just thread one lead into a negative post and let the positive lead stay loose. Once the negative lead is in place, then put the other load over the slot and push it down. This can get a little precarious because if you use a tool such as a screwdriver, you run the risk of spreading that slot making it impossible to get the nut started back on. I found using a bamboo toothpick worked fairly well, but still it was a very, very tight fit so my smallest precision screwdriver got the last little bit of work. Even with that there was not much thread left to play with.
But I did manage to get that nut installed. Here’s where you need to be careful. It’s kind of easy to crossthread this thing. At the same time if you’re using a wire that will barely fit, it’s tough to get the nut started properly. I found using a screwdriver on this nut (yeah, they put a slot on it) worked good as I could apply pressure as I’m gently turning. I may be making this sound more difficult than it really is, but at the same time I want to express the importance of not cross threading this thing. It would likely be the death of both positive pin and nut.
All tightened down -
One of the things you may notice in the photo above is the imperfections in the ceramic base. I don’t know if that’s just the nature of the manufacturing or what, but it doesn’t take away from the performance of this thing nor its looks as the only time you see it is with the cap off. And then you need to be up close like this. So let’s wick this bad boy and see what we got.
Those are the tails trimmed. Yes, they’re long. But that juice well is deep. I used a Scottish Roll wick and the ends are laying fairly flat to the bottom of the well. Doesn’t seem like they would be but they are. One thing I’d like to mention is that when wicking this RDA, be sure the wick is as far from the air intake as possible. This uses bottom air flow and if built properly the coil should be directly above the air intake. So keep the wick to the side so as to avoid juice making it’s way to those air holes and leaking out the bottom -
Speaking of which, the airflow on this RDA is excellent. There is no adjustment but I find the airflow to be perfect just the way it is. Aside from the air intake ports in the base, there are also 8 intake holes on the top. Those actually go down the sides of the top cap about 1/3 the way via little tubes molded into the ceramic. How this might hurt or help flavor I cannot say, but all in all the air is just right!
Also, that 510 pin is not adjustable. It holds the positive deck pin in place as is most common with the 3 post design. So does it work? Seems to.
Now to the good part - vaping! I found that when juicing up it’s best to apply juice directly between the posts rather than on the coils themselves. You can add a few drops to the coils but too much and it just will go right down the air intake. This clone does not come with a drip tip. I have some black acrylic tips so I slapped one in it and took my first pull on this clone. Wow! Flavor is so good. Vapor production is not like what many RDA’s have. In fact I believe my dual 22ga titanium build did better. And no doubt the flavor was better with the Ti build as well. But I wanted to run this thing through its paces. So I went up and down the power band and found that with this clapton build I’m getting the best flavor/vapor at 93 watts. I went from 45 - 115 watts with this build. Unfortunately I didn’t track my dual 22ga build but I can certainly come back with that info on my next rebuild. Still, this little dual clapton hits nice and gives great flavor, so I can say without hesitation that anyone who likes a dripper but doesn’t need MASSIVE clouds will like it. One thing I did notice is that even with the higher wattage the cap stayed much cooler than any metal dripper I’ve used - period. It did get warm but never really hot, and never too hot to touch.
Also, while this has a matte finish as opposed to the authentic Cera’s slick, glazed finish, it does look good on my Reuleaux
Now let’s look at some pros and cons
PROS
Clean from the factory
Huge juice well
Easy to build on (with wires of appropriate size)
Stays cooler than metal drippers
Flavor is really good
Decent vapor production
Accepts all 510 drip tips
Doesn’t matter how you put the top cap on - nothing to align
CONS
Silly center pin nut. This will be no big deal to some, a deal breaker to others
No air flow control
Made of ceramic, so it’s breakable (not sure how breakable though 
)
Wire size limitation - 22 ga is the largest that will fit comfortably
Slight imperfection in the base’s ceramic (hidden during use)
Potential for leaking if wick/dripping technique is not done just right.
Overall I find this to be a great little topper. To me it’s different from every other RDA I’ve used, and I actually quite like it. For people who use RDAs most of the time, you may not think much of it. It’s not going to give you those massive clouds like many others will. At the same time it will provide a great taste experience and when coupled with TC wire, well it’s just that much better. For my style it suits me to a T, and because of that I can honestly recommend this RDA to any flavor chaser who likes to drip.
