OOh I have in my hand the snazzy new Eleaf Rotor sub ohm tank!
I love a good mesh sub ohm tank – I still really enjoy using the Freemax Mesh Pro and Fireluke Mesh 2 (From the Twister kit) so anything that gives me mesh coil heads and the promise of more flavour is something I am interested in!
So when the Rotor Tank appeared I instantly was curious as to how this would perform!
Does the little fan addition increase or simply dilute the output of this tank? Let’s have a good old play and find out!
What Can We Expect From The Eleaf Rotor Sub Ohm Tank?
The Eleaf Rotor Sub Ohm Tank has indeed raised a few eyeballs with one controversial feature.
Upon first glance it looks pretty conventional and has a similar design to the Eleaf Ello range – such as the Ello Pop (in the iStick Mix Kit) or the Ello Duro (in the Lexicon kit). In fact this tank still uses the same coil range as the Ello tanks – the HW coils.
So what makes this tank so curious?
Well it is the new HW-T coil head. This has a tiny little fan inside which apparently will aid air circulation and deliver extra flavour and vapour.
I am not sure if this will be the case or will it simply dilute the flavour by adding more airflow?
Also the coil should have less or little spit back as any excess e-liquid which hasn’t been vaporised will be flung back onto the heating element to be heated again.
Otherwise the tank is pretty standard mesh sub tank fare, bottom adjustable airflow and a locking slide top fill cap.
You also get the existing HW-M 0.15ohm coil in the kit. The tank is also compatible with other coils in the HW range plus Smok TFV8 Baby and Vaporesso GT.
There are 4 colours to choose from: Blue, Dazzling, Silver and Black.
As usual I will report back honestly on the tank in my possession!
This was received free of charge from Vape Sourcing (Thank You). As always my views are my own.
What’s In The Box
- Eleaf Rotor Tank
- HW-T 0.2ohm coil
- HW-M 0.15ohm coil (later kits do not have this coil and have the HW-T2 coil instead)
- Spare parts
- User manual
Eleaf Rotor Sub Ohm Tank Features
- Size: 26x56mm
- Capacity: 5.5ml (Standard) / 2ml (TPD)
- Bottom adjustable airflow
- Turbine style coil for better flavour and less spit back
- Coils: HW-T 0.2ohm turbine coil and HW coil range
- Child resistant slide top fill
Build Quality & Design
I received the Rotor tank in the black version.
Packaging and Instructions
Eleaf have gone for a different design of packaging for the Rotor tank – instead of the usual box this time you get a plastic tub. My packaging did arrive looking like it had been involved in a fight!
The tank sits in the top part of the tub and all the goodies sit in the bottom part underneath the cardboard outer.
Plenty of spares including a spare glass and all the seals – make me happy – plus an extra coil. The instructions as usual from Eleaf were great.
Tank
The tank is perfectly fine to look at but if you have the TPD version there is a very ugly glass installed – in fact it does feel like plastic. So the first job for me was to take that off and install the spare glass which came in the box.
It looks so much better with the spare glass installed!
The top cap has a release button to slide it across to access the top fill port. This has the flappy membrane thing which some people dislike but I don’t mind.
I had no issues filling the tank at all with this. Even with larger nozzles it was fine – just remove the drip tip if you have trouble getting the nozzle close enough to the membrane to open it.
The drip tip is a strange 810 fitment. I tried a Goon style drip tip (no O-rings) and this was way too loose to use.
I tried a couple of 810 tips with O-rings attached and these seemed stupidly tight and would not push in fully. So you might have to shop around for suitable drip tips or play with some O-rings to find one which fits.
There is the same knurling on the top cap as there is on the bottom part of the tank so plenty of grip for removing the tank base.
Talking of the tank base there is an adjustable airflow ring which turns perfectly fine and gives a huge range of airflow adjustment – see below.
You will need to remove the tank base to replace the coil head and I found all the threads to be perfectly fine.
On the bottom of the tank is the Eleaf Rotor branding and the required legal logos.
Airflow
With the airflow ring closed you actually get zero airflow!
Fully open there is pretty much no restriction. If you like the Smok TFV12 Prince style airflow – the wide open setting on here will be ideal.
Thankfully for those of us who like a restricted DTL vape you still get plenty of adjustment left for that!
We tell you what the term DTL means in our Guide to Vaping Styles.
Eleaf Rotor Quick Set-up Guide
It is a case of filling up, leaving to stand, setting the airflow and you are away. Oh and of course you will need a suitable mod to power it!
As these coils ideally need over 60W to perform well you may be better off with a dual battery box mod or one with a higher output than 100W. Anything less will mean the battery will be draining quickly.
Basic operation
Basic operationThankfully there is not much you need to do to get started with this tank. I cover refilling and coil replacement below.
The only other procedure is to set the airflow to your preference by simply rotating the ring on the base of the tank. Fully open and you can see through the airflow slot and fully restricted is when the slot is closed.
I will add I did have some leaks with my tank so I did replace the bottom seal between the tank base and the glass to see if that did help.
How To Fill The Eleaf Rotor Sub Ohm Tank
- Press the little lock button and the top cap slides to the left – a little arrow on the top cap instructs you where to push – not easy to see!
- Add e-liquid to the fill port – there is a membrane over the port but if you push your liquid nozzle into it it will open to allow filling.
- Watch the level through the glass.
- Slide the top cap closed until it clicks.
How To Change The Coil Head
It is possible to change the coil with some e-liquid in the tank but anything more than about 1/3rd full could leak out.
I would remove the drip tip and turn the tank upside down – with the drip tip removed it will sit steady upside down.
- Remove the base of the tank by unscrewing.
- If installed remove the existing coil.
- Screw a new coil into the tank base.
- Replace the tank base.
- Fill the tank as described above and leave to stand for 10-15 minutes for the wicking in the coil to absorb the e-liquid. Skipping this step will result in the vape from hell as you dry burn the mesh coil!
How Does the Eleaf Rotor Sub Ohm Tank Perform?
Seeing as this is a proper sub ohm tank I chose my e-liquid accordingly. I will test both included coils with the same e-liquid.
These kinds of tanks are designed for thicker e-liquid (higher than 60%VG) and lower nicotine strengths.
I filled up with my usual Stika Bombz Fruit Salad which has 80%VG and 6mg Nicotine Strength.
Further reading:
I mainly used the Rotor on my Smoant Naboo mod as I had some leaks from the tank and was worried about damaging my precious Augvape V200 mod!
As I enjoy a restricted DTL vape I set the airflow mostly in the middle position.
HW-T Coil – Rotor Operation
One massive question for me was “does the rotor fan turn when you press fire on the mod?” Or does it just spin from the airflow when you inhale? I could not find the answer to this anywhere and ended up messaging Eleaf to clarify.
The reason I say this is my fan didn’t appear to be turning – even after taking a vape I looked quickly to see if I could catch it still spinning? I could turn it manually when the coil was removed so it wasn’t seized.
Anyway I have had a reply from Eleaf and the rotor fan turns when you inhale from the turbulence of the airflow so it is not powered in any way.
Performance
Stamped on this coil is the resistance of 0.2ohm and power range of 40-90W.
I started at 40W already some slight flavour and plenty of vapour. But having the power rating of 40W stamped on the coil is a bit misleading as it does work but feels well underpowered at this setting.
For me this coil didn’t come alive until over 65W. Already loving the vape at 80W – plenty of flavour and tons of vapour. I would say the flavour isn’t quite up to Freemax standards but it is very very acceptable!
At 90W the vapour is a bit too hot for me but there are no wicking problems and nothing in the way of dry hits at all. It is a very “moist” (urgh vile word) vape. Just to be a rebel I tried this at 95W and it is starting to get drier now so I wouldn’t really want to push the power any higher.
80W is the real sweet spot for my vaping style. Nice coil this Eleaf!
Does The Turbo Increase The Flavour Though?
Does the “Turbo” add much flavour wise? Well to test if it was just the Rotor improving the flavour or the actual tank and airflow which had made the difference I tried the same coil in my Ello Duro tank at 80W!
I was not a massive “fan” of the Ello Duro tank and found it way too airy for my liking. If the HW-T performs as well in here it is definitely the coil making the improvement. If the flavour is still muted in this tank I would say the airflow in the Rotor tank is the biggest improvement!
So the conclusion is – not very conclusive sadly! The flavour from this coil is way better than anything else I have used in the Ello tank but still not as good as this coil gives in the Rotor tank.
It must be a combination of a great coil and great airflow design in the Rotor tank!
HW-M Coil Performance
It is worth stating here that later kits will not have this coil as they will have the HW-T2 upgraded Rotor head coil – I didn’t as mine was an early version.
I have already used the HW-M coil in the Ello Vate tank in the Eleaf iStick Pico S review and found that tank way too airy and the performance not great. So hopefully the more restricted airflow in the Rotor tank should suit this coil (and me) better!
Stamped on this coil is the resistance of 0.15ohm and power range of 50-100W.
So I started at 50W and already plenty of vapour and a surprisingly warm vape! I moved up the power range all the way up to 100W.
Even at 100W despite the vape being a bit too warm for my liking there is still lots of flavour and a fog of vapour (remember I am a MTL vaper with tobacco knackered lungs!).
There were no wicking issues at all and it vaped like a champ… cough…
I found I enjoyed this coil most at 75W – this coil is so much better in the Rotor tank but I do prefer the HW-T as it is smoother and slightly more flavour.
Pros
- Nice looking tank
- All threads and moving parts felt well machined
- Lots of spares including glass, O-rings and an extra coil – brownie points there Eleaf!
- Much better airflow control than with the Ello tanks – to suit ALL DTL vapers – wide open and restricted DTL are available
- Flavour much better on the Rotor tank than other tanks which use the HW coils
- Both coils performed excellently – flavour and vapour both exceeded my expectations!
Cons
- I kept getting leaks if the tank wasn’t vertical – despite changing coil and bottom seal.
- New packaging arrived quite battered so not as robust as usual box packaging
- Slightly odd drip tip fitment
Final Review Verdict
I have not been a fan of many Eleaf tanks lately apart from the incredible Melo 4 used in the iStick Melo Kit and the iStick Pico X.
Anything which uses the HW coils has generally left me disappointed. To me the choice of a more restricted airflow option in the Rotor tank is a massive improvement on other Eleaf tanks which use the HW coil range.
I always felt they were way too airy and the flavour was sacrificed. But if you want airy you can still have that too!
This led me to ask myself if the HW-T coil was the biggest improvement or whether it was the tank design that increased the flavour?
I would say in this case it is both.
Using the HW-T coil in the Ello Duro was definitely a huge step up in performance to the other HW coils in there but still not quite as good as using that coil in the Rotor tank. So it seems Eleaf have nailed the coil and the tank design here!
I dropped a couple of marks for build quality as there seemed to be a leak when the tank was anything but vertical. As I was using the larger glass which I think is over 5ml this could be quite a substantial puddle of liquid pouring out.
Also this influenced the choice of mod I used the tank on as I didn’t want to spoil some of my favourite mods – I had to pick which one I was willing to sacrifice if the leak continued.
The leak was not constant but would catch me out sometimes. I had changed the lower seal on the tank plus even with a different coil I still got the problem.
So have you used or did you buy the Eleaf Rotor Tank? We would ove to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
