The Monster v3 RTA gets a ton of hype, it’s a dope looking tank with a ton of airflow that’s easy to build. It’s the first original design offering from 528 Customs that started out modifying KayFuns. But does it live up to it all?
It’s a dope little package you receive, a nice little slide out box with everything laying in foam cutouts. It has a real premium air to it. Even though the tank is plastic it does seem to be the very best material it could be. The fit and finish on the atty is quite good, none of the threads bind or are hard to get started. The drip tip on the other hand is cheap, it’s great that you get two colour options but the base of it is cast from some rather cheap metal (aluminum?) and creates a lot of air turbulence when used (leave it in the box and use something else). Let’s face it, it’s a kayfun, there is nothing new here (other than larger airflow and juice channels) yet there is something about this tank that keeps you using it. It could be that it’s a rather pretty little number.
Flavour is pretty decent, not the best out there for sure, but enough to keep most happy. We haven’t played with either chuff kits because it doesn’t really suit our mission for flavour. The stock format is a nice large tank (5ml) that sits a little tall and we think the flavour is slightly muted thanks to the rather long chimney section. This RTA is rather unforgiving, it’s build tolerance is tight, you need to get it right to get good flavour.
Building this is very easy, throw in a nice spaced 3mm coil in 24ga coming in around 0.4-0.5 Ohms and you should be rocking. Spaced coils are key to smooth airflow, many have complained about airflow turbulence and it’s closed or micro coils that are the culprit.
Wicking isn’t hard but very particular for success, we found it’s a must to have some wick sitting in the juice channels. If you like warm vapes you will want to run your build between 35-45W and this is only possible with wick sitting in the channels in our opinion. Cut your wicks ends long, juice them up and then cut them in a V shape so that the tip sits in the channel but most of your wick sits on the top of the channels. It’s not a long process and you will be up and running in no time. Overall it’s an easy build.
Airflow is pretty open and there is no AFC so you will either like it or not. It’s a shame really, with a slightly more restricted airflow the flavour would be much improved. Using a better quality drip tip, an open or spaced coil and not too much wick gives some smooth airflow.
Filling is a little archaic, it’s a bottom fill screw that begs for a syringe, there is no where for air to escape while filling. It makes this all rather unfriendly for on the go use (unless you are cool with carrying a screwdriver and a syringe). You might be able to get away with a unicorn bottle to fill it, but it will require patience. 528 needs to look into a new solution.
It’s a decent tank, it’s not hard to learn how to get the most out of it. But it’s not the best tank out there for sure, there are tanks with better flavour and easier fill methods made from better quality materials (glass tanks). That said there is something about this tank, maybe it’s the hype or the childhood affinity to the ThunderCats logo? Either way this tank is about its aesthetics, if you like the way it looks (and they have some sexy limited edition colourways) buy one.