I've become quite a fan of Cthulhu’s range of products. So when I heard there was a new mouth to lung RTA dropping, I got quite excited. So with the excitement noted, Will the new Valor MTL RTA live up to the hype? Let’s have a look and find out!
What's in the box?
Upon removing the nice little sleeve around the box, It will reveal the Cthulhu logo with a kind of gold foil inlay which looks rather smart actually and reminds me of a jewellery box. Inside the box itself you will get a little information card, some colourful spare O-rings to customise the look of the tank, Some more O-rings in a different bag, a baby blue Phillips head screwdriver and some two screws for the deck, Two alternative 510 drip tips (the bore on the base of these tips is about 4mm), a frosted glass section and Six different airflow pins. The airflow pins are 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm, 1.4mm, 1.6mm and 1.8mm. Without any airflow pin you have a 2.5mm airflow hole which is how I’ve been using mine. With the feast of extras of course we have the main event itself, the Valor MTL RTA.
A closer look with the Valor MTL RTA.
I've received mine in the stainless colour variant but is also available in black. The tank is 22mm in diameter and 30mm in height excluding the drip tip. It’s manufactured using a high quality’s 304 food grade stainless steel meaning structure wise this tank is built to last and can genuinely feel the quality in the tank.
At the bottom you've got your 510 pin which is not spring loaded with the Valor MTL RTA at the top in writing. There’s also a little serial number at the bottom too to which I've got number 521.
The drip tip on top is a removable 510 drip tip with the pre-installed tip being a slightly stubbier height in design so I’ve decided I'm going to swap it over to the slightly taller one included in the box shortly.
There are no visible dinks or anything like that and it has been really nicely machined and finished. There is a slight bit of visible knurling around the outside of the top cap to give you a bit of extra grip when you're wanting to open your top cap. The top cap is fully threaded top cap here with no fancy push button to open mechanism or anything of the sort keeping it nice and old school and just on the top side itself when you’ve removed the cap, You’ve got a slight doming on the inside edge, And three rather nicely sized filling ports. Personally I wasn’t sure what the doming was for but I think it helps contribute towards easing the pressure off on the inside of the tank when popping the cap back on.
On the outside of the chamber section you will find the Cthulhu logo with nothing else plastered anywhere else keeping it nice and simple. I personally like this as I don't like it when tanks look too busy as It kind of makes it look a bit tacky which this definitely does not. Looking at the build deck on the inside you have two nice little Phillip’s head screws which clamp your wires in place with plenty of room to get a nice little MTL/RDL Alien in there as I have installed mine. The airflow pin is central to the base directly underneath the coil which is easily removed with a flathead screwdriver and some tweezers to lift it out and with the 2.5mm air hole as I have been using it gives a really nice RDL vape.
I would say 2.5mm coils are the way to go with this deck for certain as 3.0mm ID would be a bit of a squeeze and may cause the tank to get rather hot. The deck has a nice little outer wall to stop your coil slipping out and aid the building process to which I had no problems with building and has plenty of room behind the deck to actually snip the legs off your coils which is a nice bonus. I’ve been using steam crave cotton laces to wick up the Valor as they're really easy to use and it just speeds up the entire process for me. Make sure that the cotton isn't too tight in the inside of the coil and if you snip it in line with the outer edge of the deck, it'll be the perfect length for you. Only a tiny bit of cotton tickling is needed, if any at all. And then just lightly tuck your cotton legs in and that is all there is to it. It's a really, really simple deck to use and it's quite forgiving as well.
There is one airflow slot present with no other airflow slots the entire way around and to add on to this, The airflow on the bottom here is not adjustable so this is all down to your build and which airflow pin you chose (if any). On the inside of the chamber you've got quite a lot of room if you want to raise your coil a little bit too.
To summarise the Valor MTL RTA.
Straight from the box you get everything that you are going to need to have a beautiful MTL set up right from the off with a choice of six different airflow pins with the 0.8mm giving you a really nice tight MTL draw, and then all the way up to not having an airflow pin in there at all with 2.5mm worth of airflow for a more RDL experience, which is what I'm using it as and in my opinion has the perfect restriction.
I like the knurling on the top cap giving you that nice bit of grip which is a helpful addition and I like the fact that the drip tips are interchangeable and not proprietary meaning customisation is a lot easier. Speaking of customisation I like the fact that they've chucked in coloured o-rings as well as the frosted glass. The finish is genuinely flawless with not a single blemish, scrape or mark in sight. The actual building of it is super easy and minimalistic and rather old school in style which I love. The whole experience actually putting in your own coil and wicking it up is extremely, EXTREMELY simple.
The fact that there adjustable airflow and just a singular airflow hole is not a con to myself in the slightest as It is indeed a MTL/RDL focused tank so it’s not going to have blisteringly wide open airflow that you would expect to see on other RTA’s, And why should it? Less is definitely more in this situation and they’ve done a cracking job.
How does it vape? The coil I've been using came out at 0.35 and I've been vaping it at 20w with the 2.5 pinless airflow. I'm telling you now, I've probably said this previously, but this tank delivers flavour that I have not experienced with any other MTL RTA to date. I can't quite tell you how good this is in words. Just know that I like it a LOT. If there are any RDL vapers out there like myself reading this… You are going to LOVE this. It has genuinely made me speechless on how well this performs and I am genuinely going to give this a 10 out of 10. I can't fault it at all.
If you’ve grabbed yourself a Cthulhu Valor MTL RTA, let me know what you think of this in the comments! Look forward to seeing what you all think.
