If you’ve never heard of, or decided to purchase a Voltrove, you MIGHT want to read this review. This one is claimed to be a real flavor chucker, AND in either Single, or Dual coil mode, so we will just see about that. Hang on, buckle up, grab a drink, and enjoy the ride !!!
Specs:
- 304 stainless steel construction.
- 810 Wide bore, shorty Delrin drip tip.
- Easy to build on postless deck design.
- Glass straight tank = 4mL
- Glass bubble tank = 6mL
- Tinted glass on black RTAs won’t peel.
- Removable AFC
- Keyed top cap
What’s Included:
- 25mm v3 RTA (straight tank installed)
- Bubble tank section
- Spare o-ring/screw kit
- O-ring sizer
I decided to pick the 25v3, and a few juices from Joe over at Royal Vapes in the UK. I also decided to use 3 of his juices to test this RTA out, and I’ll link to EVERYTHING in the “Linkage” section below the review.
Now NORMALLY I’d just “Blah, blah, blah”, and gloss over the box, but this one, was a work of art …
And, because Mark KNEW how hard these boxes in boxes can be to slide out, he included a pull tab …
Included were an o-ring guide card, spare o-rings, and grub screws …
Wait, where’s the instructions, and what’s a o-ring guide card ??
Even THOUGH there were NO coils, instructions, or tips and tricks included, the o-rings, grub screws, and driver were ABOVE average, especially the grub screws …
I chose the Black over the Stainless, as the black came with tinted glass, that was almost reflective, and VERY hard to photograph. The 4ml flat glass came pre-installed, along with the spare 6ml bubble glass …
Even while briefly checking the bottom plate you could tell this was designed by a machinist …
The Voltrove name on the bottom was almost the only branding on the unit, which kept it slick, and monolithic. The plated 510 screw protruded slightly …
A nice 810 chuffer for the flavor exhaust …
And it was held in snugly by the thick top cap o-ring …
While not a threaded cap, and not being a fan of “twist offs”, this quarter turn-er was snug and did not seem like it would accidentally twist off in a pocket …
A close-er up of the keyed top cap, that was VERY well machined, and double o-ringed …
A look at the keyed top retention plate, with generous dual fill ports …
A closeup of the bottom of the retention plate, with buttery smooth threads, and again, double o-ringed …
A look at the chimney section attached to the deck, with one of the dual airflow ports visible …
On the side you can now see one of the integrated juice flow slots (half open), which were super smooth, and had stops when fully open, and closed …
A closeup of the airflow port (one on each side), open at full bore …
A better look at the dual juice flow ports …
The chimney was perfectly threaded, and was also smoothly domed …
With the deck exposed, you could really take in the huge juice wells, that were fed by the juice flow ports, as well as the bottom, and side air flow ports …
A rotated view …
A closeup …
With no specs in the box, I test fit a 3.0mm I.D. and it fell RIGHT into the pocket, Clearly even a 4.0mm I.D. would work …
As mentioned both the grub screws and included driver were quite above average …
The single, tripple core Ni80 clapton landed …
I chose a 3.0 because I wanted it surrounded by the bottom and side airflow ports …
A little pulsing and strumming to clear the hot spots …
For the tails, I folded the cotton over, and cut them even with the bottom of the juice wells …
Fluffed, and tucked, never stuffed …
Because I’ve purchased from Joe at Royal Vapes over the years, and picked up the 25v3 from him, I decided to use THREE of his excellent juices for this review, (Custard Loops, Raspberry Custard, and Ice Cream Wafers) …
Saucing the coil …
YES, hehe, this WAS going to be GOOD …
While generous the dual fill ports weren’t quite big enough to FULLY accommodate Cosmo twist tops (they still worked), using needle tips were no issue, You could ALMOST get a feel for how the reflective tinting looked on the glass (black only, not stainless steel models), As with ALL gravity fed tanks, shutting OFF the juice flow before filling is the way to go …
Oh yes, it IS go time …
Testing and Usage:
While I was disappointed that there were no coils, or instructions included, setup, loading and using was pretty easy. The juiceflow port while not very visible when using the bubble glass, was easily viewable when using the straight tank, and after realizing the counter clockwise direction CLOSED the juice flow, as well as OPENED the twist top (and the clockwise direction OPENED the juice flow, and CLOSED the top cap), physically needing to SEE the flow ports wasn’t needed. The added 2ml capacity of the bubble glass was nice, but even with the better looking (IMHO), 4ml straight glass, filling was a non issue, and it wasn’t overly juice hungry. The minimal branding, and monolithic look of it was RIGHT up my alley, as I’d rather focus on flavor, rather than flashy flash, bling, bling. Wicking was surprisingly stupid simple, using both single, and dual coils, with only minor thinning required with dual coils/tails. I never had any dry hits, leaking, flooding of any kind, across NUMEROUS fills. Airflow was fairly open at full bore, with only minor restriction. Flavor was OFF THE CHARTS good on this one, and it was actually SOO GOOD using a single 3.0mm I.D. coil, that when switching to dual 2.5mm I.D. coils, the flavor DID improve, but not dramatically. YES, you read that right. The reflective glass, while almost impossible to photograph, and partially obscuring the juice flow ports with the bubble glass, WAS a solid addition to the overall stealthy look of the 25v3.
Pros:
- First rate design, and machining
- STUPIDLY good flavor
- Single, or dual coils performed excellently, with a minor nudge to the duals
- Stealthy, monolithic looks with minimal branding
- Twist off cap rendered a NON-issue by the use of fat/thick o-rings
- Simple juice flow, and air flow controls, with stops at full bore, and closed
- Build deck easy to build on, and only got tight(er) with large(r) dual coils
Cons:
- The mirror tinting can partially obstruct the visibillity of the juice flow ports when using the bubble glass
- Lack of knurling makes some adjustments hard, but only when using the bubble glass
- No coils, or instructions included
Conclusion:
Flavor, flavor, and MORE flavor people. There’s no other way to put it. Rich, dense, and accurate, across ALL the spectrums I tested, and I TRIED to make it fail. I’ve tested a LOT of devices, and some while producing a lot of flavor, weren’t really ACCURATE. Meaning they didn’t reproduce ALL of it, or changed it, when compared to my testing rig. The 25v3 reproduced EVERYTHING I threw at it, and just laughed. This was using a SINGLE COIL at that !!! Yes, the flavor did increase somewhat when switching to dualies, but I was surprised that it was nowhere near what I had expected. The single 3.0mm I.D. clapton had such good flavor, I almost didn’t want to remove it. I’ve seen builds where people had the coils much higher up, but I chose to keep mine lower, and almost encased or surrounded by the airflow ports, and it just, plain worked. I cannot stress how rich, and good the flavor was off of this RTA.
Minor take-offs for no knurling on the adjustments, but that was only an issue with the fatter bubble glass. The kick-ass reflective tinting DID slightly obscure the juice flow ports, BUT, again, only when using the bubble glass. With stupidly good flavor, across every juice I tested, and a simple to wick setup, it was as easy, and satisfying of an experience as I’ve ever had with an RTA, and that’s saying something.
I try to not “highly recommend” things too often, and withhold that, for just the BEST of the BEST, but I’m going to HAVE to play that card here and now. If you like flavor, and in a somewhat smaller footprint, you should RUN, not walk to buy a COUPLE of these while you can. Mark really knocked it out of the park with this one, and for my tastes, I prefer it over the 30v2 LE that I have. HIGHLY recommended.
As promised, below are the juices that I used for the entire review, from Joe over at Royal Vapes, who also has the 25v3 in stock for you UK’ers.
Linkage:
If you are in need of great coils to go WITH your new 25v3, don’t hesitate to stop on over to Coil Clout. While I was finishing this review, Coil Clout now has a 20% OFF on their site, except for coils, and I am adding a SECOND Voltrove 25v3 to my cart along with some Alien Wire Sticks, and getting FREE shipping, AND 20% OFF on everything !!! Code: ALLBUTCOILS20
Colors:
Black (with mirrored tinted glass tanks)
Stainless Steel (with clear glass tanks)
Alright, alright, enough of this flavor chucking love fest. I DID try and compress this review down, but, hehe, it was hard to do. If you have managed to make it, down here, to the END, I salute, and thank you.
You DESERVE some Bonus Shots.
Bonus:
S.D.
