Digiflavor Drop V2 RDA
9.6
PROS
- 24mm size fits great on most mods
- Space-capsule design looks great
- Top cap spins smoothly to adjust airflow
- Airflow can be set in many ways
- Airflow is smooth and free of turbulence
- Knurling on top cap makes it easier to adjust airflow
- Build deck is easy to build on
- Includes 4 coils and cotton laces
- Tank produces excellent flavor
- 5mm deep juice well can handle over-dripping or over-squonking
- Great for squonking with
CONS
- Top cap can't be removed
- Have to pre-cut coil legs
Our Verdict
The Drop V2 has been given a complete redesign from the original and it’s all for the better. I personally like the space-capsule design and I think that it looks modern, clean, and attractive. It’s also super functional too, as turning the top cap to adjust the airflow is super smooth and easy.
From a performance standpoint, that’s also seen an improvement from the original. As long as you cut your coil legs to the right length (~5mm), flavor is excellent. The airflow is also free of any turbulence and feels direct, allowing you to achieve anywhere from a DL draw to a slightly restricted DL draw.
Things have changed, but with the Drop V2 they’re nothing but positive changes. If you’re looking for a new dual coil RDA to add to your collection, I highly suggest picking one up. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
If you’ve only recently started using rebuildable tanks then you may not have heard of Digiflavor. They’re a brand that, at one point in time, produced one of the best RDAs that you could get; the Drop RDA. The Drop RDA was released more than five years ago, so a version two has been long overdue for some time now.
The Drop V2 RDA is very different from the original. One major change is that it no longer features posts which allow you to trim your leads afterwards. Instead, the Drop V2 features a four-post build deck which requires you to premeasure and precut your leads.
The design has also completely changed for the V2. It’s a 24mm RDA that features a one-piece body cap that Digiflavor calls a “space-capsuled metallic body”. It features stepped adjustable airflow that can be adjusted for a DL to a RDL draw and there are plenty of ways to set the airflow.
With all of these changes to what was once the best RDA available, is the Drop V2 RDA worth adding to your collection?
Box Contents
- 1 x Drop V2 RDA
- 1 x BF Pin
- 1 x Triangular Tool
- 2 x Cotton
- 4 x Coils
- 1 x Spare Parts Pack
Specifications
- Diameter: 24.4mm
- Height: 35mm (including drip tip)
- Dual Coil Build Deck
- Quad Post, Four Terminal Deck
- Drip Tip: 810
- Body Material: stainless steel
- Drip / Squonk compatible
- 5mm deep juice well
- Includes BF pin
Design & Build Quality
Comparing the original Drop RDA to the Drop V2 RDA, they look completely different. Unless you were told that this was the same series of tanks, you wouldn’t be able to tell just from looking at them.
The Drop V2 RDA is a much nicer tank than the original, at least in my opinion. It looks modern and sports a clean design that is simple and attractive. It’s a 24mm tank, so it should be right at home on most mods, and it’s 35mm tall.
The Drop V2 is available in six colors: Violet, Black, Gunmetal, Rainbow, Blue, and Silver. The first three of these colors feature a matte finish, while the last three features a shiny finish. I’m using the Gunmetal color for this review and the matte body looks great.
Digiflavor calls the design a “space-capsuled metallic body” and it’s honestly a pretty good description. The top cap and body cannot be separated from one another, and this means that you can’t remove the top cap to drip. This makes it more difficult to avoid making a mess when dripping, but the 810 drip tip is wide enough that, if you’re careful, it can be done.
While the top cap and body don’t separate, the top cap still spins independently to allow you to adjust the airflow. There’s knurling along the outer edge of the top cap to make adjustments easy, and the top cap spins smoothly and effortlessly.
There are six airflow slots on each side of the Drop V2, arranged in a 2×3 layout. By turning the top cap, you can close off the top two slots, the top four slots, or half of the top two slots. By adjusting the airflow you can get anywhere from a direct-lung draw down to a slightly restricted DL draw.
The bottom of the tank is beveled, which can give it the illusion that it’s not sitting flush on your mod. I personally don’t have an issue with this design and I think that it looks great, but I thought that it was worth mentioning.
The Drop V2 can be disassembled into three parts: the drip tip, the top cap/body cap, and the build deck. The top cap/body cap features a domed chimney for better flavor, something that I always like to see on an RDA. There are notches on the inside of the body cap which line up with notches on the build deck to ensure a proper fit onto the build deck.
The overall design and build quality of the Drop V2 RDA are impressive. It’s a nice tank and the body has held up well to daily-use. There are no obvious scratches or wear on the tank after a few weeks of use, so I think that it will hold up nicely in the long-term.
Build Deck
Unlike the original Drop RDA which allowed you to trim your leads after your coils were installed, the Drop V2 RDA required you to pre-cut your coil legs. This means that there is more preparation required to build, but I still found it to be easy enough once I figured out the correct length to cut my leads.
What’s nice about this tank is that it comes with everything needed to build. You get four 0.4Ω Ni80 fused clapton coils, four cotton laces, replacement screws, and replacement o-rings. That’s enough to build twice, which is good just in-case you mess up your first build.
On the build deck there are four terminals. You can build either single coil or dual coil builds on this deck but I suggest sticking with dual coil builds to get the most out of this tank.
Since you have to pre-measure your leads, what is the best length to cut your coils to? For my first attempt at building, I cut my coil legs to 6mm. While they sat on the deck correctly and didn’t interfere with the top cap, they were still raised up off of the posts a bit too much for my liking.
I removed my coils and cut my legs to 5mm and once they were installed, they sat much better on the deck. This is where I ended up settling with the coil length as I found 5mm to be the perfect length. Coils sit nice and near to the top of the posts, while still allowing enough room to be pushed towards the center of the deck. If you don’t push your coils towards the center, you could probably get away with cutting your coils to 4.5mm instead.
With your coils trimmed to the correct length, installing them is simply a matter of dropping them into the top of the posts and securing them. The coils are secured by flat head screws on the side of the posts. Three of the four screws on my deck were smooth, but one of them was a bit crunchy and gave me some difficulty.
Once the coil is installed you should dry burn the coil in order to work out any hot spots. This can be done by pulsing the coil at a low wattage of around ~20W while running a pair of tweezers over the coils.
Once the hot spots are worked out and the coil is glowing evenly, give the coils a few minutes to cool down.
When your coils are cool, you can move on to wicking. I cut my cotton just a little lower than the first o-ring on the side of the build deck and found this length to be perfect. Comb out your cotton, cut it to size, and then tuck it into the build deck.
The juice well here is 5mm deep, so there’s plenty of room for error with over-dripping or over-squonking. The Drop V2 includes a BF 510 pin for squonking so you can squonk right out of the box. The squonk hole is right on the floor of the deck so any ejuice that you squonk will flow to your cotton as long as it is touching the deck floor.
Performance
The all-new design and build deck are all good and well, but this doesn’t mean anything if the performance is lacking. Thankfully, the Drop V2 delivers flavor that is, as far as I can recall, as good as the original.
I spent most of my time with the Drop V2 using the included Ni80 coils that you get in the package. I mentioned earlier that although you can use single coil builds, dual coil builds do the best in the Drop V2. I shortly tested using just a single coil and although it was okay, dual coil builds perform much better.
The way the airflow holes are positioned, they are lined up with the posts on the deck and not with the coils. You would think that this would hurt the flavor from this tank, but I didn’t find this to be the case. It might be because the airflow is hitting the underneath of the coil no matter how you set the airflow, and the domed chimney concentrates the flavor. In any case, the flavor is really good.
Closing the top airflow slots and leaving just the bottom four slots open is my preferred way to use the Drop V2. The installed dual coil build came out to 0.19Ω and so I stayed around 70W when vaping.
The airflow is smooth and relatively quiet, with no whistling or turbulence to speak of. It feels very direct, with airflow going straight through the slots, to the coils, and then out the drip tip into my mouth.
All the way open there’s plenty of airflow but a slight reduction in flavor. Closing the airflow down to my preferred setting (closing the top row of airflow) is a nice balance of a restricted draw and flavor.
Verdict
The Drop V2 has been given a complete redesign from the original and it’s all for the better. I personally like the space-capsule design and I think that it looks modern, clean, and attractive. It’s also super functional too, as turning the top cap to adjust the airflow is super smooth and easy.
From a performance standpoint, that’s also seen an improvement from the original. As long as you cut your coil legs to the right length (~5mm), flavor is excellent. The airflow is also free of any turbulence and feels direct, allowing you to achieve anywhere from a DL draw to a slightly restricted DL draw.
Things have changed, but with the Drop V2 they’re nothing but positive changes. If you’re looking for a new dual coil RDA to add to your collection, I highly suggest picking one up. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
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