Dead Rabbit Solo RDA Review: Single Coil Goodness

Hellvape is a company that is known for their awesome rebuildable tanks. They mainly specialize in RTAs and RDAs, although they do offer a few subohm tanks as well. 

Out of all of their tanks, Hellvape is best known for their “Dead Rabbit” series of RTAs and RDAs. These tanks initially got their name due to the “rabbit-ear” style posts. They were easy to build on because you could simply drop in your coils and then cut the legs after — no precise measurement needed.

Today I’ll be reviewing the latest addition to the Dead Rabbit family; the Dead Rabbit Solo RDA. It’s a single coil RDA with two posts and a roomy build deck. However, unlike other Dead Rabbit RDAs, the Dead Rabbit Solo does not feature the rabbit-ear style posts that many vapers, including myself, have come to love. 

Is this RDA just a “Dead Rabbit” tank by name, or does it live up to the high expectations that vapers have come to have of Hellvape’s tanks? I tested it to find out.

Box Contents

• 1 x Dead Rabbit Solo RDA
• 1 x 0.42Ω Ni80 Clapton Coil
• 1 x Shoelace Cotton
• 1 x 510 Adapter
• 1 x BF Squonk Pin
• 1 x Coil Cutting Tool
• 1 x Accessory Bag
• 1 x User Manual

Specifications

• Diameter: 22mm
• Height: 32.8mm (with drip tip & 510 pin)
• Single Coil Build Deck
• Dual Post, Two Terminal Deck
• Drip Tip: 810
• Includes 510 drip tip adapter
• Body Material: stainless steel
• Drip / Squonk compatible
• 5mm deep juice well
• Includes BF pin

Design & Build Quality

Just from a quick glance you can tell that the Dead Rabbit Solo is unmistakably a “Dead Rabbit” tank. The most telling feature is the dead rabbit logo that is engraved into the tank, but the rest of the design gives it away too. It’s a simple tank with just a few small design elements; a hallmark of the dead rabbit tanks.

The Dead Rabbit Solo is a small tank at just 22mm in diameter. It’s 32.8mm tall, including the drip tip and 510 pin, so it’s also rather short too. This tank will sit comfortably on most mods without overhang, so it will look right at home on pretty much any device.

There are seven color options available: stainless steel, matte black (white dead rabbit logo), matte full black, gunmetal, gold, rainbow, and blue. The matte black color is the only one with a differently colored dead rabbit icon. The rest feature an engraved logo that is not colored and so these colors are a little more subtle and low key. 

This tank is made entirely out of stainless steel and the build quality is excellent. The finish is shiny on my gunmetal colored tank and it has held up well with no chipping, scratching, or flaking of the paint.

In the box you get an 810 resin drip tip as well as a 510 drip tip adapter. I personally think that DL airflow tanks like this one are best used with an 810 drip tip but the adapter is there if you want to use a 510.

The Dead Rabbit Solo disassembles into four parts: the drip tip, the top cap/airflow control, the body cap/deck reducer, and the build deck. The body cap has a deck reducer built into it. This makes it so that the inside of the tank is really only your coils and wicks, with no other extra space. It’s done this way to concentrate the flavor and make the airflow more effective and it does its purpose.

There are notches on the cap that line up with notches on the build deck. This ensures that you fit the cap properly onto the deck and that the condensing block doesn’t interfere with your wicks or coils.

Airflow

On each side of the tank there are three rows of airflow holes. There are five airflow holes on each row for a total of fifteen airflow holes per side; 30 airflow holes in total. The top cap can be turned in order to adjust the airflow. At first it’s a little stiff but once it’s been lubricated with some ejuice it turns nice and smoothly.

The Dead Rabbit Solo allows you to set the airflow in a number of ways. You can turn the top cap to close off one row at a time, allowing you to close either just the top row or the top two rows of airflow holes. You can also close all three rows at the same time from left to right, allowing you to leave just half of the airflow holes open. The most restricted way you can set the airflow is down to just one and a half holes open on the bottom row.

With the airflow completely open there’s a touch of restriction. It’s a direct lung draw no doubt but it’s not super airy as you might expect. This comes down to the compact build deck and small airflow holes, which are only Ø1.2mm. 

Playing around with the airflow allows you to restrict the draw more and more and I liked it best with the top row of airflow holes closed. This makes it slightly more restricted and concentrates the flavor a bit more. Closing down the top two rows of airflow holes makes it much more restricted and also mutes the flavor. It also makes it much too hot of a draw for my liking.

Build Deck

The Dead Rabbit Solo does not feature the same rabbit ear style posts as found on the dual coil dead rabbit RDAs. Instead, it’s a two post, two terminal deck where you have to cut your leads before installing the coils. This makes it more difficult to build on but I still found it to be straightforward once I figured out the right length for my coil legs. 

There’s a flat head screw on each post which is used to secure your coil legs. You also get two allen head screws in the package which you can install instead. The Dead Rabbit Solo comes with one Ni80 coil that comes out to ~0.4Ω when installed, as well as a strand of shoelace cotton.

Because of how high the airflow holes are on the body cap of the Dead Rabbit Solo, the best length to cut your coil legs to is 5mm. This makes it so that your coil lines up perfectly with the airflow holes; the top airflow hits the top of the coils, the middle row hits the middle of your coil, and the bottom row hits underneath the coil. Once installed, it’s the perfect height to get the most out of what this tank can offer.

Installing a coil is fairly simple once you have the coil legs cut. Just drop your coil legs into the posts and secure them down. There are only two posts and two terminals, so it’s impossible to install your coils the “wrong” way. 

Once the coil is installed, you’ll want to dry burn the coil at a low wattage (~10-15W) to remove any hot spots. If the coil isn’t glowing evenly, simply strum it with some tweezers to work out the hot spots.

Allow your coil to cool down and you can now wick the coil. I draped my wicks over the side of the build deck and cut them to a little higher than the bottom of the deck. Now, tuck the cotton into the deck and you’re ready to juice it up.

The juice well on the Dead Rabbit Solo is nice and deep at 5mm, so you can drip a lot of ejuice without flooding or leaking. You can also install the included squonking pin and squonk liberally thanks to the deep juice well.

The squonk hole is located right in the center of the build deck and it’s raised up a bit from the rest of the deck. It works well and waterfalls ejuice down to the wicks, which rest on the floor of the build deck. While it doesn’t directly channel ejuice to the wicks, I’ve found it to work well enough while squonking and haven’t had any dry hits.

Performance

When a dual coil RDA is popular and the brand behind it comes out with a single coil version, what you usually see is the same tank but with fewer posts and no improvement in performance. That’s not the case here. While there are fewer posts, the Dead Rabbit Solo feels like it was created from the ground up and not just made as a reduced, smaller version of the dual coil Dead Rabbit tanks.

I especially like what the condenser block does for the flavor and airflow. It really reduces the space in the deck, which in turn provides better flavor. The chimney is also domed for further enhancement of the flavor from my ejuices.

While the Dead Rabbit Solo doesn’t provide flavor that is as good as its dual coil brothers (it is a single coil RDA after all), it’s excellent for a single coil tank.

I also very much like the airflow. It’s not loud, it doesn’t whistle, and it isn’t turbulent. The airflow is quiet and doesn’t feel like it’s going through multiple sections to reach the coil (even though it is). Each draw feels like the airflow is hitting the coil directly, but the flavor is concentrated and full.

As I mentioned earlier, closing off the top row of airflow holes is what I found to be best for the included coil. This coil comes out to around 0.4Ω when installed and about 45W did it for me to get the best flavor possible. Any higher wattage makes the vape much hotter and doesn’t improve the flavor, but at 45W it’s a truly great vape.

Verdict

The Dead Rabbit Solo is another great “Dead Rabbit” tank from Hellvape and an all-around excellent single coil RDA. It’s not just a hastily done redesign of the dual coil Dead Rabbit tanks, but instead has been redesigned from the ground up to provide a great single coil rebuildable experience.

Although there are no rabbit ear style posts, cutting your coil legs to 5mm is easy enough to do and installing the coil is a piece of cake. The build deck is roomy enough to build on, but the cap and condenser greatly reduce the space in order to bring better flavor and great airflow.

I think that the Dead Rabbit Solo is definitely one of the best single coil RDAs that are out at the moment and there are really no cons that I can find with it; the flavor, draw, ease of building, and build quality are all excellent.

If you’re in the market for a new single coil RDA, do yourself a favor and check out the Dead Rabbit Solo. Highly recommended.

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