The name may be hard to pronounce (SI’PHO’NOPH’OR’) and has a great meaning (“Life-form characterized by an amalgamation of individual marine animals forming a colony.”), but this is one unique and well thought out RDA. Not to mention it is damn sexy to look at. We are always on the lookout for new and interesting Atty designs and this one definitely caught our interest!
Don’t let its looks fool you, its easy to build and use. Looking at the posts and outer rings you may beg to differ or just think it looks too complicated… well it’s not. Actually it functions very well and offers some unique qualities for an RDA. It really behaves like most RDAs but allows you to monitor your juice level like a tank, access your build easily, and get a flavour quality that is very different from the norm.
This is one angry little atty, she hits hard and produces some quality vapor thanks to some great conductivity. She goes through juice fast as this atty likes to play in the high wattages. The design is very different and works very well. Essentially it’s a chamber within a chamber, the outer ring acts as an airflow and juice level/tank monitoring system. This helps keep the atty very cool and the materials are all quality and also lightweight. The only con on materials is the use of plastic for the see-through section (may crack with some juices). The inner chamber is nice and small and threads to the top of the out ring/chamber (the threads are nice and smooth). This helps create great flavour and an interesting take on a sort of AFC, you can raise and lower the inner chamber to get a bit of bottom airflow to your coils. However there are 4 airflow holes on its side, 2 Direct to your coils and 2 coming in perpendicular to them that are not adjustable (we wish there was a second inner chamber provided with only 2 direct holes) so there isn’t really an AFC to reduce airflow.
Flavour is good, but also different than the average, it’s hard to quantify it really. There is a slight turbulence created by the design and the heat sinks on the inner chamber that help create an almost aromatic vapor. It’s light and airy yet rich with flavour, odd right? Not to mention the design keeps the vapor at a cool temperature (you can get it warm, but not as warm as you can with other attys). Basically it’s a unique vapor coming out of a unique design, it’s in its own category really. We like it, it gives you a difference perspective on some of your favourite flavour profiles. Dry hits are also hard to get as the Siphonophorae is very good/acurate at letting you taste it going dry.
Building is a lot easier than it looks. It is sort of a hybrid between a 3 and 4 (T post) post deck, there are 4 holes diagonally drilled into the centre post that do a great job of holding your leads from each coil. The negative posts are low and so your leads just get longer. That’s really all there is to it. As many of you know by now we are fans of spaced or open coils, we found that a 2mm, 6 wrap, 26ga, dual setup coming in around 0.3 Ohms produces some great flavour with a decent amounts of cloud. Run it anywhere from 50-60W and you’re going to be a happy camper. One note, get your coils aligned with the height of the airflow holes (in the last pic in the gallery the coils are actually too low, you want them to hit the top of the center post) as much as you can for best flavour production (be careful though as the inner chamber as a tight ceiling on it). One important note, make sure to align the top of the outer ring’s airflow holes with your coils, we found this helps in aligning the inner chamber so that you can get some direct airflow to your coils for best flavour production.
Wicking is just as easy, loop your wicks underneath your coils with enough room for them to clear the inner chamber. Don’t go crazy with the cotton, less is more here for sure. The design again works really well, wicking is awesome and it’s great to be able to see your juice level by giving it a quick tilt to see if you can see some juice.
The key to great performance is not over filling this atty. The design looks like it can take a ton of juice but that’s not really true. You can use the inner airflow holes to gage your fill level, you don’t want to drown them or it will be gurgle city. 12-15 drops seems about perfect, another way to look at it, it takes about a half full dropper per fill. We like to fill it by removing the inner chamber, this is done quite easily by using your drip tip as a knob, it also allows you to keep tabs on the condition of your build. Another fill method is to remove your drip tip and drip away, however you will need to raise your inner chamber a little to release the build up of juice inside the chamber and then lower it again (so why not just remove it to drip). The fill method really adds a nice little ceremony to your whole vape experience, we like it.
The Siphonophorae is a damn fine atty. The folks over at Cephalon Vapes need to be applauded for their originality! There is no other atty like it, and it produces a vapor with a flavour quality all it’s own. You really do taste under/overtones in your juices that you may have not experienced before. All this said we wish we could kill the indirect airflow, we think it would lead to richer and possibly denser flavour. That’s the one quality lacking here for us, it’s an airy vape, but don’t get us wrong, it tastes great. It’s just very different than we are sure many of us have become accustom to. Oh and we can’t forget, this is one very dope looking atty, the aesthetics are clean and sophisticated and it looks very good on a high end mod.
If you are like us and are on a quest for find the best flavourchasing attys then you need to experience the Siphonophorae for yourself, it may be the atty you’ve been looking for!
Pros:
– Great Build Quality
– Unique Design
– Dope Design Aesthetic
– Condensed Vapor Chamber
– Easy Access to your Build
– Good/Different Flavour
– Cool Vapor & Device
– Smooth Slightly Restricted Airflow
– Great Conductivity
– Good Vapor Production
– Great Wicking
– Good Juice Capacity (12-15 Drops)
– Juice Level Window
– Spare Parts
– Easy to Build
– Lightweight
– Awesome Packaging
Cons:
– No Drip Tip
– No AFC & Non Adjustable Indirect Airflow
– Plastic Tank Section
– Not Cheap
Buy: $89 (USA) Cephalon Vapes
Website: Cephalon Vapes
Very well done review. Could not have done it better! I mean that literally, not as a figure of speech.
Thanks Jeremy!
How goes the site redesign? You guys done? You guys do a pretty good job yourselves!