Steam Crave Hadron Lite Combo Kit Review – Is Side By Side The Way Forward?

In for review this week we have the Steam Crave Hadron Lite Combo Kit which is an RDTA and mod kit.

The Steam Crave name is mostly associated with some of the biggest tanks and mods on the market, such as the Hadron 220 mod and the Ragnar RDTA, or more recently the Hadron Plus Combo Kit. They have occasionally made smaller things, like one of their very rare MTL RTAs I reviewed back at the end of 2019, the Glaz Mini.

This time they’ve decided to enter the side-by-side field, with what looks to be a very interesting kit!

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What Can We Expect From The Steam Crave Hadron Lite Combo Kit?

The Hadron Lite kit is made up of two parts, you’ve got the single 21700 side by side mod, the Hadron Lite, and also the Aromamizer Supreme V3.

I’m a massive fan of side by side mods, so I was very excited to get my hands on this. It’s got all the things that I want in a modern device, a 21700 battery, and USB C charging, couple that with an interesting fire button placement, and you’ve got an intriguing mod.

The RDTA part of the kit will hold no surprises for long term Steam Crave fans. In fact, we first previewed the Aromamizer Supreme V3 back in September of 2020, so it’s quite a known quantity by now. You get all the bells and whistles that Steam Crave are known for, with interchangeable chimneys, 3 choices of deck, juice flow control and rock solid build quality.

The reason for including this RDTA in the kit is mostly down to size. Steamcrave are known for their large tanks (28mm+) and this just doesn’t work well with the side by side form factor. Hence why there’s a slightly older (but smaller) RDTA on this new mod.

In The Box

Ok, there are a lot of things in this box.

• Hadron Lite Mod
• Aromamizer Supreme V3 RDTA
• Mesh Deck and Dual Coil Postless deck (Single Coil Deck Pre-installed)
• 7mm Chimney (5mm Chimney Pre-installed)
• 7ml Bubble Glass (6ml Straight Glass Pre-installed)
• 18650 Adapter (Pre-installed inside mod)
• 510 Drip Tip Adapter (810 Drip Tip pre-installed)
• USB C Charging Cable
• Battery Wraps (2x 21700, 1x 18650)
• 2x 510 Protection Discs
• Squonk Pins for Mesh Deck and Postless deck
• User Manual
• Steamcrave Sticker
• Spares Bag
• T-Piece Tool
• Spare Seal
• Mesh forming tool
• 2x Dual fused Clapton Ni80, 0.5Ω 3mm ID
• 2x Cotton laces
• 2x Kanthal Square mesh strips, 0.15Ω
• 2x SS mesh strips, 0.18Ω

Steam Crave Hadron Lite Combo Kit Specs

Tank

• Dimensions – 25mm x 59mm
• Capacity – 6ml / 7ml Bubble Glass
• Deck – Single coil / Dual Coil Post-less / Mesh
• Drip Tip – 810

Mod

• Dimensions – 28mm x 52.5mm x 89mm
• Battery – Single 2X700 (18650 with adapter)
• Output Wattage – 5-100W
• Output Voltage – 1.0V-8.0V
• Resistance Range – 0.1Ω-3.0Ω
• Modes – Wattage/Voltage/Temp Control (Ni, Ti, SS)/Bypass

Design and Build Quality

The Hadron Lite Combo Kit comes in two colour ways. Either Gunmetal, or Black (which I received).

Also a special note goes out to the lovely box it comes in. It feels like a quality kit when you open it up. Always a nice feeling!

The Aromamizer Supreme V3 RDTA

This is a lovely RDTA in the Steam Crave style, and whilst it may not be as recent as some of their other designs, it is still quite a little performer with plenty of options.

With Steam Crave RDTAs, the deck is at the bottom of the tank, with airflow coming in from the sides. The deck has the 510 connector on it, and is held in place by a screw on section at the base.

The Decks

I was delighted to see that you get three different deck options with the Aromamizer in this kit. Whereas previously you would have had to buy the advanced kit to get the mesh deck, this is now bundled in.

Pre-installed in the tank you’ll find the single coil deck. This gives you both side and bottom airflow, with your coil legs going in horizontally into the posts.

Next up is the postless deck, you can run this either as a single coil or a dual coil, and the air hits the coils directly from the side.

Finally you have the mesh deck, with a couple of different mesh types to try. Like the postless deck, the airflow comes in from the side for this one.

In both of the last two options you also have the option to install a squonk pin (that comes supplied) so you’ve got plenty of options here!

Airflow Control

The Steam Crave airflow control ring hasn’t changed much in its time, so if you’ve owned one before you’ll be very familiar with it here. It’s a dual sided honeycomb airflow, with 3 different selections of cyclops slots to control the amount. Either 1 line, 2 lines or 3 lines.

To add to this, you can also invert the airflow control ring, so the two lines can either be the bottom two, or the upper two collection of holes in the honeycomb.

Juice Flow Control

Just above the Airflow Control is the Juice Flow control.

This is one of the things I really like about these tanks. A really well built, reliable juice flow control. You’ve got very clear markings to let you know when it is open and when it is closed, and you can use it both to totally shut off the e-liquid, but also adjust it dependent on how much freedom you want to give it.

For example with thicker e-liquid (80/20 and above) you will likely want it fully open, however with thinner e-liquid, you may need to close it off some more.

Chimney Options

You actually also get two chimney options in the kit, a 7mm for greater airflow and vapour production (useful for dual coils) and a 5mm that restricts this slightly, more designed for single coiling which is pre-installed

How To Fill The Steam Crave Aromamizer Supreme V3

Filling is nice and simple with top fill.

• Close the juice flow control
• Quarter turn the top cap to remove it and expose the 2 big fill holes
• Fill with you preferred e-liquid
• Replace the top cap
• Open the juice flow control

Base of RDTA

The base of the RDTA has your usual regulatory marks, as well as “Designed by BJSHI”.

The Hadron Lite Mod

As I’ve said before I’m a big fan of side-by-side mods, and this one ticks a lot of boxes. I think it’s a really handsome looking mod, quite sleek with a lot of curves to it.

Charging

USB C charging should be compulsory for any mod that does internal charging, however it still seems to be a bit of a rarity. Happily not only do you have a USB C port on this device, it is a “proper” USB C port.

One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of other supposed “USB C” chargeable devices, is that you actually have to charge them with a USB A to C cable. They don’t charge with a C to C cable. Happily that’s not the case here!

I’m not sure what the charging speed is, but the Steam Crave Hadron Plus charges at 3A, and was released at a similar time, so it bodes well!

Screen and Controls

You only got 3 buttons on the mod. The fire button is unusually placed at the highest point, directly on top of the battery compartment. Side by side mods seem to have quite a variety in terms of where they put the fire button.

It’s often on the short front of the mod, under the tank, occasionally on the long side, level with the top of the tank, but this is the first time I’ve seen it placed here. I’ll go over how this is in use later in the review.

The + and – buttons are underneath the base of the mod.

The controls are as follows:

• 5 Clicks – Power On/Off
• 3 Click – Switch between Wattage/Voltage/TC SS/TC Ni/TC Ti/Bypass
• “-” and Fire (2 seconds) – Lock/Unlock adjustment buttons
• “+” and Fire (2 seconds) – Clear puff counter (Yes/No)
• “-” and “+” – Flip Screen

It’s a clear little monochromatic screen with your battery shown at the far left, with the current coil resistance over the puff counter next to it.

Then there is you main changeable value (Variable Wattage, Variable Voltage, Temperature Control, etc) with a symbol denoting which mode you are in. Finally you have the volts being drawn (or watts being drawn if you are in voltage mode) and length of draw.

Adjustment

Changing your wattage, or voltage/temperature dependent on mode, is controlled by the two little buttons on the base. Clicking a button once will raise it in 1 full watt, pressing and holding with scroll, going into a faster scroll after a short delay.

One thing that I noticed though, is that unlike almost every mod I’ve used, it does not round robin. You get to the maximum wattage, it says “Max Power” and then stops. The only way to get from 100W to 5W, is to scroll all the way down.

Honestly, some people might think this is a negative, but despite the fact that almost every mod does round robin, it’s not something I ever really remember using. And from a positive point of view, it does remove the possibility that using a high ohm MTL coil, you drop it all the way down to 5W and end up at 100W by mistake. Mmmm…. melty.

Battery Compartment

For those that don’t like them, I’m afraid it’s a screw down battery cap!

I’ve never really objected to them, however this one feels a little on the “cheap” side to me. It has some relatively sharp edges to it. Having said that, it does the job, and there’s some nice big venting holes as well.

When you first open the compartment, you’ll find there’s an 18650 adapter installed. But you can just slide this out and use it with your favourite 21700.

Tank Compatibility

You can fit up to a 25mm diameter tank on here, which definitely opens up the possibilities. A lot of SBS’s restrict you quite heavily on the size of thank.

One thing to note is that you can’t use the included bubble glass with the Aromamizer Supreme V3, as this won’t fit.

How Does the Steamcrave Hadron Lite Combo Kit Perform?

I’ve been using this kit for several weeks now, and whilst I like the tank, it’s probably not going to go into my permanent rotation, I have the Aromamizer Plus V2 for a bit of Steam Crave goodness.

The mod on the other hand, is definitely going to get used. In fact I’m already reviewing another RDTA from Steam Crave that fits it quite nicely!

Aromamizer Supreme V3 RDTA

As I’ve mentioned, the Aromamizer Supreme V3 is not one of Steam Crave’s recent tanks. And I think its inclusion here is more down to having something that would fit, and be more interesting to most people than one of their MTL tanks.

One big positive though is the inclusion of so many different options. Having the three different decks, plus the different chimney, gives you a lot of scope for finding out how you like to vape it.

I’ve always thought Steam Crave tanks are great for people that like to tinker and experiment, as you can play around to find what suits you.

Flavour

If you’ve ever owned a Steam Crave tank, you know what to expect. It’s got a lot of flavour, and with the options that you get, you can really spend some time tinkering to get your perfect set up.

It’s maybe not quite as impressive anymore as it was when it came out. But it still holds its own.

Cloud Production

Again, there’s no surprises here. You can quite happily fog out a room, especially if you’re using a dual coil setup on the postless deck with some chunky coils.

However I found that I actually preferred this tank using the single coil deck with a bit more restriction to the airflow.

Hadron Lite Mod

In the hand it’s a really comfortable mod, it’s got a decent amount of heft to it.

I thought at first that the top mounted fire button might be a bit of a problem, but in use it actually works surprisingly well. It’s definitely aimed at thumb firers, but if you’re a finger firer it will work ok as well.

The only thing to be careful of if you use your finger is to avoid covering the airflow to whatever tank you’re using.

Battery life is of course going to be totally dependent on the battery you use and the wattage that you run it at. But only having a small mono chromatic screen, I certainly didn’t notice any excess battery drain.

Pros

Hadron Lite Mod

• Very comfortable
• Proper USB C Charging!
• 21700 on a Side-By-Side

Aromamizer Supreme V3 Tank

• Good flavour
• Solid performer
• Wide variety of parts/deck

Cons

Hadron Lite Mod

• Battery cap feels a little cheap
• No round robin

Aromamizer Supreme V3 Tank

• Not as impressive as later (bigger!) models
• Have to be careful when inverting airflow ring

Steam Crave Hadron Lite Combo Kit Final Review Verdict

So all in all, Steam Crave have produced a cracking little combo here.

But would I recommend that you rush out and get it?

I think it comes down to two questions, do you already own a Steam Crave tank? One of the bigger brothers to the Supreme V3 RDTA. Then I’d probably skip getting the kit. The Supreme is still a cracking little tank, but it’s not quite in the same league as the big ones.

If you haven’t got a Steam Crave tank already? Then it’s a great little combo to get the mod and the tank together.

Finally if you’re just after a really nice little side by side, you can get the mod on its own.

Al in all, it’s a solid kit and I’m very pleased with it. If you like a side-by-side, then it’s a cracking one.

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