Hi Ecigssa members, In this review i take a look at the Brunhilde MTL RTA 5ml/2ml from Vapefly. The Brunhilde MTL RTA 5ml/2ml was supplied for the purpose of this review by Mindy from Vapefly.
http://www.vapefly.com/vapefly-brunhilde-mtl-rta/
Introduction
Vapefly was about the most underrated vaping manufacturer mostly going underneath the Radar with their first few releases despite bringing us some seriously good products which showed they were not going to shy away from trying to be innovative. Now the cat is out the bag and most vapers recognise Vapefly as an excellent manufacturer leading the way when it comes to innovative products especially regarding airflow designs that actually work and improve flavour. The German 103 Team were founded by Martin Hartkopf who has been a Youtube reviewer since 2013 with his channel DampfWolke7. The team comprises of 103 mainly German speaking members headed by Martin who's goal is to think outside the box however crazy the idea to design innovative products and in Vapefly they have a perfect partner. The Brunhilde Top Coiler MTL RTA is the third project, the first being the Core RTA and the second the Brunhilde MTL RTA's big brother, the original which is a DL version. The Brunhilde MTL RTA is quite correctly named by vapefly being a top coiler RTA rather than an RDTA as dripping just wouldn't be practical, in my opinion over half the RDTA's that are released should be called top coiler RTA's for the same practical reason, nobody drips on the deck! It's an interesting RTA which uses Steel replenishing rods to transfer e-liquid from the tank to the deck before cotton takes over to wick the coil. It features a side fill method, large capacity and airflow inserts to get the precise MTL draw you are looking for. I am a big fan of the original Brunhilde top coiler RTA so let's give it's MTL brother a good look!
___________________________________________________________________
In The Box
Contents:
1×Brunhilde MTL RTA
1×Extra Glass tube
1×Long drip tip(resin)
2×Stainless steel wires
6×Screw airflow sets
9×O-rings
2×Pre-built 1.0ohm 26GA (Ni 80)
1×Allen Key
1×T-type screwdriver
8×Screws
2×Firebolt Cotton
1×User manual
___________________________________________________________________
Aesthetics
The Brunhilde comes in a cardboard box with a sleeve which is a rather nice shade of beige. I received the Stainless Steel version and while i have no complaints i must say the Gunmetal is the pick for me. The colour options are Stainless Steel, Black and Gunmetal, up top is a short shapely 510 drip tip which is Black on all versions and looks to be delrin. The Brunhilde is 23.00mm in diameter and a whopping 65.5mm in height, it's a skyscraper like it's bigger brother just with a smaller diameter. The tallness and overall look of the Brunhilde will separate people into three camps, those that think it's a monstrosity, those that really like it and those like me who like it but strictly not to be seen in public, just too tall for out and about. The RTA has a hell of a lot of metal to it and all machining and quality of finish is top notch, not just on the outside but also deck and inside the tank itself. I'm not going to get into an argument whats high end but does it need to have at least 3 figures to join the club. The bottom 40% is the glass section which has an outer cage which is 2 crests one on the front and the same on the back which shape leaves plenty of cutout sections to see both your liquid and the Steel replenishing rods, the crests also have some nice engraving on them, very nice. We then see the joint of the metal sleeve and further up what looks to be another joint but is just a machined groove for aesthetics. On the sleeve low down to one side we have a 3.2mm diameter hole, this gets either lined up with the airflow hole which directs air under the deck or can be turned 180 degrees to line up with the fill port. At the top of the sleeve/top-cap we have a ring of round indentations which from any sort of distance looks like studding, above this the top-cap steps to the drip tip.
___________________________________________________________________
Brunhilde MTL RTA Specs and Features:
Diameter: 23.0mm
Height with Drip Tip: 65.50mm
Coil Rebuildable: single Coil Building
Capacity: 2ml(TPD Edition) / 5ml(Standard Edition)
Airflow Adjustable: bottom
Fill Liquid: Side
Automatic e-juice transfer
Six levels airflow meet your different needs
Premium Stainless steel wires from Germany
Easy single coil building, best coil position
Convenient side filling design
5ml large capacity for all day vaping (TPD 2ml version available, silicone reduction section fitted)
Thread: 510
Colours: Stainless Steel, Gunmetal, Black
___________________________________________________________________
What You Get?
As well as the Brunhilde MTL RTA you also receive plenty of spare o-rings and screws. You get a 5ml spare glass and this is also the case with the TPD version. The TPD version has the exact same specifications as the standard version but has a silicone piece installed in the shipped RTA reducing the capacity to 2ml so a lot of silicone is going to find it's way into the bin. You also receive a gorgeous Resin longer 510 drip tip with heat sink fins, allen key, T-piece, 2 spare replenishing rods, 2 pieces of Firebolt cotton and 2 coils. The coils are simple MTL round wire micro coils, 1.0ohm 26GA (Ni 80).
It's Various Parts
___________________________________________________________________
The Airflow
The German 103 team have managed to keep the original design by just getting rid of the honeycomb side airflow and keeping the hole on the side of the deck to allow air to travel underneath the deck and is then controlled by using inserts that screw into the deck directly underneath the coil. On the deck like the original design we have a hole each side the only difference is the holes are 3.2mm instead of 3.0mm but that is more to do with filling the tank.
One hole is your fill port and the opposite directs air as described, on the outer sleeve we have just one 3.2mm hole so to fill it gets lined up with the fill port which is indicated by liquid drops and during normal operation it needs rotating 180 degrees to line up with the airflow hole.
You receive six inserts in a case and also having the choice of not installing one gives you seven options, you can also micro manage the airflow further by slightly adjusting the outer airflow hole alignment. The different airflow outlet diameters of the inserts are:
0.9mm
1.2mm
1.4mm
1.8mm
2.1mm
2.5mm
When looking inside the top-cap we can see it's slightly domed but not as much as i am accustomed to with MTL atty's.
___________________________________________________________________
Filling
The Brunhilde uses a side fill method which means the sleeve just needs rotating 180 degrees to reveal the fill port so no need to take the sleeve off. On the outside of the deck section as mentioned in the airflow section, we have a 3.2mm hole each side and a 3.2mm hole on the outer sleeve. While vaping the hole on the outer sleeve should be lined up with the airflow hole and when you need to fill you turn the sleeve to line it up with the fill port, very simple and sounds great, but it's far from ideal.
On Vapefly sites they do emphasise the size of the fill port has been increased but we are only talking by 0.2mm which makes little difference. The problem really isn't the size of the hole it's simply side-fill isn't that practical. Most nozzles will fit you just have to really take your time and it can get a bit messy. Using a needle nose bottle is a good solution making it mess free but filling a 5ml capacity tank with a needle nose takes quite some time, at least once it's filled you don't need to refill for a while.
___________________________________________________________________
Replenishing Rods
As well as the tilt of the tank while vaping your cotton gets replenished via capillary action through Steel wire rods. The rods are made from premium German steel and is many strands of wire woven together to allow many hollows inside going from the bottom to the top. The rods are made from weaving 7 strands of Steel together, then 7 of these sections that comprise of seven strands of Steel are again woven together to complete one rod, so 49 strands of Steel in total. The Brunhilde MTL RTA comes with the two Steel rods already installed they just poke through the wicking ports and go to the bottom of the RTA. You also get two spare and can buy sets separately.
___________________________________________________________________
Replenishing
When the original Brunhilde top coiler was released some people said it wicked great and others found the replenishing rods are not doing their jobs and it only wicks the side you tilt. When i received it i couldn't help noticing the way the rods seem to of been installed in manufacturing is they are pushed through the wicking holes until they hit the bottom of the tank so the e-liquid does not go underneath the rods but just circulates them so no capillary action will take place. I took the bottom section of the tank off and just pushed the rods up by just 1mm so they are no longer touching the base. They catch the sides of the wicking ports enough that they don't drop down while doing your build and once the tank is filled the ends of the rods stay suspended in place by your e-liquid, and i found they worked fine and no difference with the MTL version.
Rods just lifted slightly!
___________________________________________________________________
The Deck and Build
It's a very user friendly deck, first make sure the steel replenishing rods are lifted slightly and also screw in place whichever insert you want to use if any.
We have 2 large posts facing each other with a terminal to either side so 4 terminals in total so it doesn't matter which way the coil is wrapped. Your coil leads just slide in the terminals from the side and then the hex screws (my favourite) are fastened from above. Holding your coil in place while fastening the leads is easy enough and a coiling rod or fit for purpose tool can be used afterwards to improve the position if needed. Then just snip your leads and wick as if you are wicking an RDA but leave enough cotton to fill the channels.
I did 2 builds, the one pictured using one of the supplied round wire coils and the other using a fused clapton and both builds were a piece of cake!
___________________________________________________________________
How It Vapes And Final Thoughts
The first thing to mention is you can't swap inserts on the fly as they need screwing in and out directly underneath the coil, after saying that with a bit of use people would know which insert they prefer with which builds but at first you have to rely on an educated guess. Doing 2 builds but trying to get a good knowledge of the airflow spectrum i used the second smallest with the supplied 1.0ohm coil and the second biggest with the 0.7ohm fused clapton i used.
The draw with the second smallest insert with the hole on the sleeve fully open i got not a super tight pull but what i would consider s cigarette draw, when i closed the outer hole slightly the draw became tighter still so with a smaller insert available those that like a really tight draw should have no issues with this.
When using the second largest insert this gave me the exact loose MTL draw i prefer and with both a larger insert and the option of using no insert at all even a restricted lung hit will be perfectly possible.
The flavour i have absolutely no complaints about, i have had better but this is still giving well above average flavour with the fused clapton edging it over the tighter draw i was using with the supplied coil which surprised me slightly. When it came to wicking lifting the rods slightly seemed to do the trick again as i had no issues with my cotton getting supplied with liquid in fact apart from it's a large tank which might put some people off and time needs taken when filling i have absolutely no complaints, it's a winner!
___________________________________________________________________
Likes
Excellent build quality
Aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion)
3 Colour options (Gunmetal the pick for me)
Unique look (kind of cool seeing the woven rods through the glass)
Clearly see juice level
5ml Capacity
2ml TPD version just has easy remove silicone piece (Ssshhhhhh)
Fill without removing sleeve
Steel wire rod replenishing system
Flavour on point
Draw (full MTL spectrum plus restricted lung hit possible)
Smooth airflow
2 included 510 drip tips (one a gorgeous Resin 510)
6 airflow inserts
Easy build
Spare glass
Coils and cotton included
2 spare steel rods
Steel rods replenished cotton as they should (i had no wicking issues whatsoever)
Cons
Large
Need to take time filling else it can get messy
Can't change inserts on the fly
I would once again like to thank Mindy from Vapefly for supplying the Brunhilde MTL (top coiler) RTA for the purpose of this review.
http://www.vapefly.com/vapefly-brunhilde-mtl-rta/
___________________________________________________________________
http://www.vapefly.com/vapefly-brunhilde-mtl-rta/
Introduction
Vapefly was about the most underrated vaping manufacturer mostly going underneath the Radar with their first few releases despite bringing us some seriously good products which showed they were not going to shy away from trying to be innovative. Now the cat is out the bag and most vapers recognise Vapefly as an excellent manufacturer leading the way when it comes to innovative products especially regarding airflow designs that actually work and improve flavour. The German 103 Team were founded by Martin Hartkopf who has been a Youtube reviewer since 2013 with his channel DampfWolke7. The team comprises of 103 mainly German speaking members headed by Martin who's goal is to think outside the box however crazy the idea to design innovative products and in Vapefly they have a perfect partner. The Brunhilde Top Coiler MTL RTA is the third project, the first being the Core RTA and the second the Brunhilde MTL RTA's big brother, the original which is a DL version. The Brunhilde MTL RTA is quite correctly named by vapefly being a top coiler RTA rather than an RDTA as dripping just wouldn't be practical, in my opinion over half the RDTA's that are released should be called top coiler RTA's for the same practical reason, nobody drips on the deck! It's an interesting RTA which uses Steel replenishing rods to transfer e-liquid from the tank to the deck before cotton takes over to wick the coil. It features a side fill method, large capacity and airflow inserts to get the precise MTL draw you are looking for. I am a big fan of the original Brunhilde top coiler RTA so let's give it's MTL brother a good look!
___________________________________________________________________
In The Box
Contents:
1×Brunhilde MTL RTA
1×Extra Glass tube
1×Long drip tip(resin)
2×Stainless steel wires
6×Screw airflow sets
9×O-rings
2×Pre-built 1.0ohm 26GA (Ni 80)
1×Allen Key
1×T-type screwdriver
8×Screws
2×Firebolt Cotton
1×User manual
___________________________________________________________________
Aesthetics
The Brunhilde comes in a cardboard box with a sleeve which is a rather nice shade of beige. I received the Stainless Steel version and while i have no complaints i must say the Gunmetal is the pick for me. The colour options are Stainless Steel, Black and Gunmetal, up top is a short shapely 510 drip tip which is Black on all versions and looks to be delrin. The Brunhilde is 23.00mm in diameter and a whopping 65.5mm in height, it's a skyscraper like it's bigger brother just with a smaller diameter. The tallness and overall look of the Brunhilde will separate people into three camps, those that think it's a monstrosity, those that really like it and those like me who like it but strictly not to be seen in public, just too tall for out and about. The RTA has a hell of a lot of metal to it and all machining and quality of finish is top notch, not just on the outside but also deck and inside the tank itself. I'm not going to get into an argument whats high end but does it need to have at least 3 figures to join the club. The bottom 40% is the glass section which has an outer cage which is 2 crests one on the front and the same on the back which shape leaves plenty of cutout sections to see both your liquid and the Steel replenishing rods, the crests also have some nice engraving on them, very nice. We then see the joint of the metal sleeve and further up what looks to be another joint but is just a machined groove for aesthetics. On the sleeve low down to one side we have a 3.2mm diameter hole, this gets either lined up with the airflow hole which directs air under the deck or can be turned 180 degrees to line up with the fill port. At the top of the sleeve/top-cap we have a ring of round indentations which from any sort of distance looks like studding, above this the top-cap steps to the drip tip.
___________________________________________________________________
Brunhilde MTL RTA Specs and Features:
Diameter: 23.0mm
Height with Drip Tip: 65.50mm
Coil Rebuildable: single Coil Building
Capacity: 2ml(TPD Edition) / 5ml(Standard Edition)
Airflow Adjustable: bottom
Fill Liquid: Side
Automatic e-juice transfer
Six levels airflow meet your different needs
Premium Stainless steel wires from Germany
Easy single coil building, best coil position
Convenient side filling design
5ml large capacity for all day vaping (TPD 2ml version available, silicone reduction section fitted)
Thread: 510
Colours: Stainless Steel, Gunmetal, Black
___________________________________________________________________
What You Get?
As well as the Brunhilde MTL RTA you also receive plenty of spare o-rings and screws. You get a 5ml spare glass and this is also the case with the TPD version. The TPD version has the exact same specifications as the standard version but has a silicone piece installed in the shipped RTA reducing the capacity to 2ml so a lot of silicone is going to find it's way into the bin. You also receive a gorgeous Resin longer 510 drip tip with heat sink fins, allen key, T-piece, 2 spare replenishing rods, 2 pieces of Firebolt cotton and 2 coils. The coils are simple MTL round wire micro coils, 1.0ohm 26GA (Ni 80).
It's Various Parts
___________________________________________________________________
The Airflow
The German 103 team have managed to keep the original design by just getting rid of the honeycomb side airflow and keeping the hole on the side of the deck to allow air to travel underneath the deck and is then controlled by using inserts that screw into the deck directly underneath the coil. On the deck like the original design we have a hole each side the only difference is the holes are 3.2mm instead of 3.0mm but that is more to do with filling the tank.
One hole is your fill port and the opposite directs air as described, on the outer sleeve we have just one 3.2mm hole so to fill it gets lined up with the fill port which is indicated by liquid drops and during normal operation it needs rotating 180 degrees to line up with the airflow hole.
You receive six inserts in a case and also having the choice of not installing one gives you seven options, you can also micro manage the airflow further by slightly adjusting the outer airflow hole alignment. The different airflow outlet diameters of the inserts are:
0.9mm
1.2mm
1.4mm
1.8mm
2.1mm
2.5mm
When looking inside the top-cap we can see it's slightly domed but not as much as i am accustomed to with MTL atty's.
___________________________________________________________________
Filling
The Brunhilde uses a side fill method which means the sleeve just needs rotating 180 degrees to reveal the fill port so no need to take the sleeve off. On the outside of the deck section as mentioned in the airflow section, we have a 3.2mm hole each side and a 3.2mm hole on the outer sleeve. While vaping the hole on the outer sleeve should be lined up with the airflow hole and when you need to fill you turn the sleeve to line it up with the fill port, very simple and sounds great, but it's far from ideal.
On Vapefly sites they do emphasise the size of the fill port has been increased but we are only talking by 0.2mm which makes little difference. The problem really isn't the size of the hole it's simply side-fill isn't that practical. Most nozzles will fit you just have to really take your time and it can get a bit messy. Using a needle nose bottle is a good solution making it mess free but filling a 5ml capacity tank with a needle nose takes quite some time, at least once it's filled you don't need to refill for a while.
___________________________________________________________________
Replenishing Rods
As well as the tilt of the tank while vaping your cotton gets replenished via capillary action through Steel wire rods. The rods are made from premium German steel and is many strands of wire woven together to allow many hollows inside going from the bottom to the top. The rods are made from weaving 7 strands of Steel together, then 7 of these sections that comprise of seven strands of Steel are again woven together to complete one rod, so 49 strands of Steel in total. The Brunhilde MTL RTA comes with the two Steel rods already installed they just poke through the wicking ports and go to the bottom of the RTA. You also get two spare and can buy sets separately.
___________________________________________________________________
Replenishing
When the original Brunhilde top coiler was released some people said it wicked great and others found the replenishing rods are not doing their jobs and it only wicks the side you tilt. When i received it i couldn't help noticing the way the rods seem to of been installed in manufacturing is they are pushed through the wicking holes until they hit the bottom of the tank so the e-liquid does not go underneath the rods but just circulates them so no capillary action will take place. I took the bottom section of the tank off and just pushed the rods up by just 1mm so they are no longer touching the base. They catch the sides of the wicking ports enough that they don't drop down while doing your build and once the tank is filled the ends of the rods stay suspended in place by your e-liquid, and i found they worked fine and no difference with the MTL version.
Rods just lifted slightly!
___________________________________________________________________
The Deck and Build
It's a very user friendly deck, first make sure the steel replenishing rods are lifted slightly and also screw in place whichever insert you want to use if any.
We have 2 large posts facing each other with a terminal to either side so 4 terminals in total so it doesn't matter which way the coil is wrapped. Your coil leads just slide in the terminals from the side and then the hex screws (my favourite) are fastened from above. Holding your coil in place while fastening the leads is easy enough and a coiling rod or fit for purpose tool can be used afterwards to improve the position if needed. Then just snip your leads and wick as if you are wicking an RDA but leave enough cotton to fill the channels.
I did 2 builds, the one pictured using one of the supplied round wire coils and the other using a fused clapton and both builds were a piece of cake!
___________________________________________________________________
How It Vapes And Final Thoughts
The first thing to mention is you can't swap inserts on the fly as they need screwing in and out directly underneath the coil, after saying that with a bit of use people would know which insert they prefer with which builds but at first you have to rely on an educated guess. Doing 2 builds but trying to get a good knowledge of the airflow spectrum i used the second smallest with the supplied 1.0ohm coil and the second biggest with the 0.7ohm fused clapton i used.
The draw with the second smallest insert with the hole on the sleeve fully open i got not a super tight pull but what i would consider s cigarette draw, when i closed the outer hole slightly the draw became tighter still so with a smaller insert available those that like a really tight draw should have no issues with this.
When using the second largest insert this gave me the exact loose MTL draw i prefer and with both a larger insert and the option of using no insert at all even a restricted lung hit will be perfectly possible.
The flavour i have absolutely no complaints about, i have had better but this is still giving well above average flavour with the fused clapton edging it over the tighter draw i was using with the supplied coil which surprised me slightly. When it came to wicking lifting the rods slightly seemed to do the trick again as i had no issues with my cotton getting supplied with liquid in fact apart from it's a large tank which might put some people off and time needs taken when filling i have absolutely no complaints, it's a winner!
___________________________________________________________________
Likes
Excellent build quality
Aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion)
3 Colour options (Gunmetal the pick for me)
Unique look (kind of cool seeing the woven rods through the glass)
Clearly see juice level
5ml Capacity
2ml TPD version just has easy remove silicone piece (Ssshhhhhh)
Fill without removing sleeve
Steel wire rod replenishing system
Flavour on point
Draw (full MTL spectrum plus restricted lung hit possible)
Smooth airflow
2 included 510 drip tips (one a gorgeous Resin 510)
6 airflow inserts
Easy build
Spare glass
Coils and cotton included
2 spare steel rods
Steel rods replenished cotton as they should (i had no wicking issues whatsoever)
Cons
Large
Need to take time filling else it can get messy
Can't change inserts on the fly
I would once again like to thank Mindy from Vapefly for supplying the Brunhilde MTL (top coiler) RTA for the purpose of this review.
http://www.vapefly.com/vapefly-brunhilde-mtl-rta/
___________________________________________________________________
