Home RBA's RTA Reviews Vandy Vape Kylin RTA Reviewed – Flavour & Cloud Chasers Rejoice!

Vandy Vape Kylin RTA Reviewed – Flavour & Cloud Chasers Rejoice!

July 20, 2017

The Vandy Vape Kylin RTA seemed to have had a bit of an early hiccup with many vapers reporting leaking issues.

The company was refreshingly swift to respond sending out replacement parts and given I’m a leaky old fellah I was pleased to receive what looks like the improved version.

I say it often but this RTA was yet another piece of vaping kit that folks were in a high state of excitement over with shops selling out as fast as they could re-stock.

Vandy Vape has produced some very desirable tanks recently – notably the Govad RTA – the Icon RDA and the Pulse 22 BF RDA all of which have been extremely well received.

So they’re a solid company with a good vaping pedigree especially given the chief designer and CEO Stefen Zhang was a member of the Geek Vape team.

So does the Kylin RTA live up to expectations?

Let’s take a closer look.

As always my thoughts and opinions are my own.

Inside the Box

Simple but colourful packaging with the Vandy Vapes monster head logo and a small window showing the Kylin RTA.

Inside you’ll find:

X1 Kylin RTA by Vandy Vape
X1 16mm Delrin Drip Tip (Pre-Installed)
X1 14mm Delrin Drip Tip
X1 17.5mm Delrin Drip Tip
X1 6ml Extension Pyrex Tube
X1 Extension Chimney
X1 510 Adapter
Spare Parts
Manual

Kylin RTA Specs

Dimensions: 36mm (Height Without Drip Tip 2ml Tube)
Dimensions: 48mm (Height Without Drip Tip 6ml Tube)
Diameter: 24mm
Thread Size: 510 (Gold Plated Pin)
E-Juice Capacity: 2ml or 6ml
Top Fill
Central Bottom and Dual Diagonal Airflow
Fully Adjustable Airflow Control
24k Gold Plated Postless Quad Terminal Deck
Supports Single Coil and Dual Coil Builds
3 Different Diameter Delrin Drip Tips Included
Compatible With Goon Style Drip Tips
Gold Plated 510 Pin
Material: Stainless Steel, Pyrex

Key Features

It’s a very clever post-less deck that will take some quite big coils and can technically be used in both dual and single coil mode.

The dual set-up is fairly obvious and you will get used to the length of legs required fairly easily – for the single coil it’s best to pop it in at an angle and then straighten it up when tightened down.

The airflow on this is vast and comes from both underneath and the sides.

The bottom airflow comes directly under the coils at two points whilst the large side airflow ports are slightly angled meaning you can raise or lower your coil to suit your build and preference.

The airflow control ring on the base has nice knurling and clicks into place with three settings.

I did read somewhere that with a single coil – the airflow turned right down and a 510 drip tip you can get a decent MTL vape.

You can – if you like an airier MTL vape as whilst there is some restriction it may be too airy for some – personally I quite liked it but this RTA shines as a DTL vape IMHO.

Wicking the Kylin RTA

There are two large – ok huge – wicking ports which means two of your wicks share them and there’s plenty of room in there to move your cotton around.

I know the original Kylin had some leaking issues which Vandy Vape were extremely quick off the mark to recognize sending out new improved decks.

I have also noticed a few vapers getting leaks through the airflow control ports however I seem to have wicked right – and I’m no expert – because I can report no leaks whatsoever.

When wicking just make sure the juice ports are covered with cotton and it has space to breath – in other words don’t jam it in just let it fall into place.

I found it also helps if you trim the ends into a slight angle and fluff them out a little – not too much as there’s a fair bit of space to fill out.

Once you’ve primed the wicks make sure the ports are covered and there’s the tiniest of gaps between the cotton and the side of the deck – I find using a small flathead screw driver and gently moving the cotton into place helps – but I must stress gently!

The Vandy Vape Kylin RTA Extension

The Kylin can indeed go from a 2ml to a 6ml capacity and it’s refreshingly simple to do.

Simply screw the extension to the chimney and replace the 2ml with the 6ml glass – as simple as that!

I would suggest beginning with the 2ml if you’re at all unsure if you’ve got the wicking right – as there’s less juice to lose if some gaps need plugging 😉

As to flavour whilst it wasn’t that noticeable I did detect the merest dip and mean the tiniest dip in flavour with the larger 6ml tank.

That could obviously be down to either more area for the vapour to cover or more than likely my mind playing tricks telling me that!

To be perfectly honest I think it was the latter…

Design and Build Quality

I’m extremely impressed with the machining on the Vandy Vape Kylin with everything fitting quite beautifully.

All of the threads are silky smooth and the O rings are certainly tight enough though when screwing on the extension I did notice you need a little bit of pressure to get past the quite large O ring.

The deck is not only wonderfully designed but also well machined with pretty tough grub screws that look like they’ll last.

I did manage to unscrew one completely but even clumsy old me found it pretty easy to get back in!

As to the design of the Kylin it’s certainly a looker and comes in a variety of colours including the rather ‘snazzy’ purple that I received.

I’m glad Vandy Vapes has added a collection of black drip tips because quite honestly darling piddle yellow clashed terribly with the purple!

I do think aesthetically the knurling on both the top and the bottom is a little shall we say exaggerated but once again that’s just my opinion and maybe stands out more on the colour I’ve received.

The chimney is a nice shape with plenty of room to cover your builds and comes with Kylin etched one side and the Star Wars look-e-likey logo on the other.

Overall it’s put together well and looks good.

How Does the Vandy Vape Kylin RTA Perform?

OK filling is about as simple as it gets- unscrew the top cap and fill via the generous kidney shaped holes.

But do close the juice flow and air control ports – I did fill with them open to check and whilst I didn’t get a leak sods law says at some time we will!

Once filled open up the juice flow and set the airflow to your preferred position and I was using the 2ml set-up.

I popped in a couple of UD Alien coils getting a 0.11ohm reading and vaped at 77watts using a 70/30 VG/PG e-juice that I know very well indeed.

First up the flavour was absolutely banging with the profile I was expecting and the vape was reasonably warm.

Bumped up to 87 watts and the Kylin really did pop the flavour and started chucking some serious clouds.

Impressive.

As to the single coil I couldn’t help but notice the flavour dipped considerably as did the vapour – so once re-wicked I popped in some 18mg tobacco e-liquid added my own MTL drip tip and closed the air and juice flow down.

I got what I’d call an airy MTL vape which I can live with however if pushed I wouldn’t say this would suit someone who enjoys a much tighter draw.

So for me this is more of a dual coil RTA that delivers superb flavour and throws out excellent clouds – however this depends entirely on your build – cotton and of course your choice of e-liquid.

What I Like

I love the deck and it’s a pleasure to work on and those huge wicking ports certainly makes life a lot easier.

The Vandy Vape Kylin RTA design is good – not so sure about the purple lol – but it certainly is a looker and passed the ‘young blokes in the vape shop test’ with flying colours.

Taking it in there was a bit like taking a new born baby into a room full of grannies – lots of coos and ‘can I hold it’!

The flavour is incredible and I was seriously impressed – is that the domed top cap effect again?

If you’re a cloud chaser and you pop in the right kind of build and e-liquid you will be seeing clouds for days – the Kylin chucks!

The inclusion of three drip tips is a great touch as is the fact it will take those popular Goon styles and of course using the 510 adaptor means you can use one of those too.

There’s not a lot to not like about the Kylin!

What I Don’t Like

This is purely subjective but if there’s one thing that spoils the look of the Kylin RTA is the over knurling if there’s such a term!

It’s a striking looking tank that should look extremely elegant – almost sports-car-esque – however the chunky knurling makes it look as though you’ve added tractor tyres to a Ferrari if that makes sense!

It is a 24mm [slightly shy of that] diameter however you will notice the tank section bulges out a good 2mm and the purists might dislike that – I’m easy about it just pointing it out 🙂

Final Review Verdict

I’m a little late to the Vandy Vape Kylin party but I guess in this case that’s a good thing as I appear to have received the newer and improved version.

I’ve had zero leaks – and I am known for leakage lol – it also seems this version has the kidney shaped fill ports – earlier versions seemed to have a wide open fill method.

I absolutely love this RTA mainly due to the perfect balance of superb flavour and fantastic clouds – this is a fun and thoroughly enjoyable RTA that has been a pleasure to vape on and not a juice guzzler either!

Flavour chasers rejoice!

Cloud chasers rejoice!

If you’re looking for a RTA that delivers on every level I highly – yes highly – recommend the Kylin – wow!
Pros