Considered by many to be one of the best Flavourchasing RDAs of 2015, the SnapDragon by Eden Mods out of the UK is very popular and rather pricey too. Not that we like to promote clones but occasionally when it’s hard to acquire the authentic or it’s just too pricey for your vape budget they are a great way for you to still experience great design thinking. Also not to mention that clones have been stepping up their game and offering 316 Stainless Steel 1:1 copies. So is the SnapDragon as good as it’s cracked up to be? HELL YES!
Where to start? It looks great, vapes great, and once you get used to the build it’s easy to do. It also gives a very consistent vape, it really is a ‘set it up and forget it’ type of atty. Sure, it will leak a little or gurgle if you over-drip, but it’s hard to do with the great view you get of your build deck thanks to the solid one piece top cap that removes easily. The three magical qualities that make this atty so great is that top cap has a beautiful con-caved interior that truly condenses the vapor chamber, it has an awesome bottom airflow system, and it has those clamp or vice style building posts like we have seen on the Pugio and is also in the infamous M-Atty. These new style posts really make it easy to secure your wire leads and create incredible great connections that lead to amazing conductivity. The SnapDragon truly shines in Temp Control thanks to the quality of these connections.
Building takes a little getting used to, the clamps on this one are vertical making it easy for your wire leads to move around until they are secure. That really is the only challenge, once you get used to holding them in place they need very little pressure or torque to keep them in place. Depending on how wide your coils are, you can flip your posts out or in to buy you some more room for your build (nice touch). We found 2.5 mm coils are about the max you want to go with on this deck. A nice 0.3-0.7 Ohm Kanthal build (nothing thicker than 26 ga) is very nice, we like spaced coils, it get you a bit more airflow, but micro coils work great too. Throw in a Sweet Spot Vapors Titanium Build (0.4 or 0.5 mm wire) and you will be in flavour nirvana. Warm luscious tasty vapor for days! 0.13-0.2 Ohms at 470F at about 30-40W is our sweet spot.
Wicking is a piece of cake, make your wick ends long enough to just touch the deck and place them in front to the build posts. This leaves plenty of room for juice (12-15 drops) and never seems to choke, we can’t remember ever getting a dry hit. You get a surprising number of hauls off a full juice well, easy 10-15 good long hauls.
Airflow is definitely on the restricted side, it’s way more open than say a Hurricane or an Ubertoot but it is still primarily a Mouth-Lung RDA. We are happy with the AFC fully open and spaced coils, you do get a nice direct lung hit. The SnapDragon definitely is a warmer vape, but we like warm vapes, you may be able to cool it down with more Ohms and less Watts but we like it just how it is with our setups.
Flavour, Flavour, Flavour! It’s an incredible vape. It’s popular for a very good reason. It’s crisp, clean and will bring out flavour notes you haven tasted in your juices before. Eden vapes has nailed the Air to Vapor formula, it’s great on every haul.
The v1 has a peek disk that sits between the deck and the 510 AFC base, it acts like an insulator and also has 2 triangular cutouts that feed the airflow from the AFC to the build deck air holes, it has alignment issues and has also caused some connectivity issues in both the clone and authentic (thanks to the disk being a little too thick on some). There is a new version of the authentic (v1.5) that has changed this design, it has screws in the bottom of the atty that keep everything nice and tight and aligned. We have found running the clone without this disk works just fine and doesn’t hinder flavour in the least (just keep an eye on your positive connection now and then to make sure it all looks good). The upper part of the build deck secures to the lower AFC via a reverse thread, it can come loose at times and should be double checked occasionally. This too is no longer an issue on the authentic v1.5. But don’t let this stop you form picking this one up! (also there is an aesthetic change to the AFC outer ring on the v1.5)
Buy this clone if you can’t afford or get access to the authentic, but really if you can just go buy the authentic v1.5 right now! Yes its $135USD plus shipping but this atty is worth every penny! The year is over and this is still one of the top three flavourchasing RDAs you can own (If you are curious, the top 3 in our opinion are; Le Magister, the SnapDragon, and the NarDA). But either way you can now get your hands on a killer atty, this clone is sure to keep you happy for a long time to come.
We are sure when we get our hands on a v1.5 it would have a perfect rating!
Try the clone, if you love it, buy the authentic.
I’m curious about the builds you have done; when you say ‘2.5 mm coils are about the max you want to go with’, what exactly did you find with larger coils? Also, what are your recommendations on coil placement? Usually I try to put the coil as close to the air flow as possible and with these slanted airflow holes, I would think you would also want the coils slightly closer to the posts than directly centered over the air hole to compensate for that angle.
Either way, great reviews and fantastic site!
Hey Kyle!
Anything bigger than 2.5mm just doesn’t fit right and risks the chance of shorts. We are big fans of centering our coils directly over the airflow holes/slots and keeping them raised about 1-2 mm off the deck. Some spaced or open coils also help give you a bit more airflow. Try to keep you awg 26 or thinner. Hope this helps, it really is a great flavour atty!
Thanks for the response man, I appreciate it. I have been having the most success with 2mm ID coils placed less than millimeter from the airflow; for some reason whenever I use 2.4mm ID or larger coils on here, I just don’t get the flavor. And I feel ya on the 26g or higher; I started out with 24g on here and didn’t like it at all, then to 26g which was better and now 28g which is my sweet spot for this atty. It’s nice to talking to someone else who has done some experimentation on this RDA.
just did 6wraps, ni80 awg26 with 2.5mm diameter coil placed 1-2mm directly above the airflow and the flavor is awesome.
thank you for this review, you done it very well.