The Petri RTA by Dotmod - A Review of the 22mm, Black Chrome Clone by Kindbright

 Hello again vapestars! Hope you all are doing well on this fine Tuesday. If not, maybe this will put a little cheer back into your vape: The Pti RTA!! (Petri RTA Clone)

                                          

Description (Listed on 3fVape):

510 threading connection;

Beautiful glass drip-tip for unmatched heat dissipation

Easy to wick deck

Elevated Airflow holes to prevent leaking

Tank Capacity: 2mL

Fully Adjustable Airflow

Diameter: 22mm

I had to add this quote because it is funny to me:

"If you find a product to be authentic, then it is not a clone." Huh, Duh😏

 Let's get something out of the way first. Yes, this is a clone. There seems to be quite a bit of controversy over the whole clone issue. We won't get into that can o' worms during this review, as I plan to cover the "clone wars" in a future article. Suffice it to say, IMHO clones allow the masses to experience vaping bliss without forcing them to to sell a kidney or take out a second mortgage on their homes. Certainly comment and let me know how you feel on this issue.


Now, on the this little beauty. I purchased this from 3fVape out of China for the price of lunch for two at MickeyDs. Not surprisingly, all of the Kindbright versions are currently sold out. You can see the different versions they have available here. I bought this under the guise that it was black. When I opened the package, I was pleasantly surprised. It is actually gun metal black!! Matches my v1 Arctic Dolphin perfectly (seen above). They do have an actual black version on there (see 2nd picture down on the left <+++), as well as gold and silver. Plus, there are two sizes available, 22mm and 24mm. For this review, I am covering the 22mm. I did purchase the gold 24mm as well, but had an issue (dropped a deck piece down the drain😢 ) when cleaning it. Let's just hope these things are 1:1, because I've ordered a replacement through Dotmod... SSSHHH.
  Update: I found out last night these clones are not, in fact, 1:1. I received my positive terminal from Dotmod yesterday and went to install it, but the screw to secure it to the base was smaller than the original. Farts. There is a plus though, the actual 510 pin theads are a perfect match and they give you a replacement pin, so all I need to do is drill and tap one of them so the other screws into it. Not sure if all of this is worth it but I enjoy these kinds of projects. It may be worth it just to say I have the only hybrid (Clone/Authentic) version of the Petri RTA!! More to come...

The initial inspection and breakdown needs to start at the 510 pin. I didn't read any reviews before tackling this baby, but I did learn that everything is easier when you loosen that 510 pin. The reason, it actually secures the deck to the base. You'll see the two opposing grooves that the sides of the deck slide into. This is the reason for loosening the 510. Those groves will ensure the deck stays where it needs to inside the chimney. Once the base and deck are removed, go ahead and tighten that 510 pin back up. This will keep the deck from swiveling on you when building. I feel I need to mention that others have reported needing to completely remove the 510 pin on the gold plated 24mm clone in order to get the deck out easily. We'll look at this when I review that one next.

Once the deck is exposed, you'll see the four post grub screws seated horizontally. This allows for their raised, "postless" deck space. Well designed, IMHO. Compared to the Sigelei Moonshot RTA, this design is so much esaier to work with, building and wicking wise. I have attempted several builds with varying results. The first pic on the right shows some fused, decored clapton wrap (stretched) I had sitting around waiting to be "aliened". Thought it would be fun to try, but it wasn't what I had hoped. Then I tried some left over twisted clapton/naked wire, but the ramp time was just too much to wait for.

 I finally settled on a nice and easy naked 27 gauge stainless steel. I love my odd gauge wires for some reason. Once the legs are to length, the screws secure the wire very well and the post holes are decent size. If I had to guess I'd say 1.5 mm x 2.5 mm (rectangular holes). Once secured, I find the coils sit at the bottom edge of the air intakes. The placement helps to accommodate wicking, but may not be as efficient since they aren't sitting directly and evenly over the airflow.

Once you have some desirable coil setup, you move to wicking. You will need to take your time and have some patience here. I found it easy and just made my usual cotton rolls (scottish roll technique), placed them through the coils, cut to where they just start to trail down into the side juice "wells" but spread out enough to prevent juice from getting through to the air flow. Too much wick covering those juice intakes didn't allow for proper wicking in a couple of instances, but normal wicking practices IMO. The only leaking I get is on fill-up. The process: remove top cap, fill, close top cap and quickly flip. I notice about 5-10 drops of juice leak out, normally. When no more drips, flip back over and vape it a few time to remove excess juice around deck. Has worked everytime. I heard mention on ECF of someone needing to pack some cotton around the deck and juice intake to prevent the leak on fill-up. I will give this a shot soon and update my results.

 All-in-all, I am glad I sprung for the clone instead of the authentic. It is a great RTA for clouds with it's massive airflow, but only so/so in the flavor department. The 510 pin assembly is a little wonky, there are some leaking issues on fill up (for me) and the fact that it only holds 2mL (22mm version) makes me want to shy away from the authentic. Interested to see a v2 in the future though!

Hope you enjoyed my review of the Petri RTA clone. If you have anything to mention, please comment below! Take care and vape on!

-LWClouder