Aspire has owed the starter market for years with their Nautilus series tanks. Finally there is a true contender in the Nicolas MTL Tank by Vapefly. But be as good if not better, is it enough to topple the vape giant?

At first glance the Nicolas is a much more substantial tank in comparison with the original bubbly look of the Nautilus tanks (not to mention the crazy almost cartoon like appearance of the last version). Finally there is an option that looks like beefier more powerful tanks (nice to let newbies feel part of the gang) and would pair well with any mod giving new vapers a chance to buy a bigger more powerful mods to grow into as opposed to buying a tiny little mod to pair with the anemic look of the Nautilus tanks. It’s a clean design, sporting top fill, easy to change coils, and a very comfortable and compact drip tip. The Nicolas just looks better.

Flavour is good for the category, easily on par if not better than the Nautilus. These tanks shine for high nicotine or nicotine salts. There is a ton of AFC options so dialling in the flavour intensity and draw is easy. It’s a low wattage vape, nothing over 20W really with the 0.6ohm coil, so a warm vape is possible but not super warm. It’s a good vape.

Airflow as we said is good, smooth, plenty of options. We like it fully open for a very restricted lung hit (quite nice actually), but you can dial to the tightest of draw using the single AFC hole on the smallest inlet hole. Sure to keep any MTL (mouth to lung) vaper extremely happy.

The coils are pressure held into place which makes for easy and quick changes and should save BM owners a lot of hassle of dealing with improperly installed or loose coils (very common issue with new vapers). The 0.6 is our fav at around 21W for the warmest and most dense vape we can achieve. The 1.8 is good for super low cool vaping. The life is very impressive with a coil lasting us for a more than a week with several juice profile changes (all nic salts).

Juice capacity is good, 3ml goes a long way at this vape intensity, easily lasting a full day of vaping. The top fill is easy the the added knurling on the top cap makes for easy removal. We haven’t had a leak of any kind.

The Nicolas MTL Tank is sold in every way, performance, styling, and flavour. It’s priced right and the replacement coils are much more affordable than Aspire’s (last longer too). Really is comes down to supply and availability. And sadly we think the Nicolas is doomed, it’s a better product, it just doesn’t have the market penetration or history that the Nautilus tanks do (shit we started on one, sure you did too). Really this is a great option for those vapers that still like vaping a Nautilus but want something with more style and are willing to order coils and the tank and stock up as needed. Finally there is another option in a disposable MTL tank world.