Hey Everyone,

About a month ago, the folks over at Smoant reached out to me here on reddit about doing some reviews on their products. I had been eyeing Smoant for a while, admiring their products and as you can imagine, I was more than happy to oblige. Most of you are probably already familiar with Smoant. They have seen much success with the Battlestar mod,Charon Mods,Battlestar RDA and RTA. All around, I think that Smoant is making a great effort at listening to what their customer base has to say. Smoant does not seem to push new products out the door every other week, rather taking their time developing a quality product.

I will be doing two reviews for Smoant,the first one, this one, is for the Battlestar RTA . I had lost touch with RTA's over the last year or so as I was really focused on RDA's. I was pretty excited to get my hands on the Battlestar RTA and get a build into it as fast as possible. I have been using it for around 3 weeks now and I feel comfortable giving an honest opinion on it. Keep reading on and let me tell you why I think the Battlestar RTA is the best RTA I have used in recent memory.

Manufacturers Specifications

• Size: 24.5mm (Diameters) *34mm (Height)
• Capacity:3.5ML
• Top Filling Juice, cleaner and easier.
• 17.5mm big velocity deck
• 304SS Quartz Glass tube PEEK insulator
• Easy to Clean, all components can be disassembled
• Adjustable Airflow Control system

Package Contents

• Battlestar RTA
• Spare glass tube
• Screw driver
• Screws
• Spare Silicone o-rings
• User manual

Full Album Of Photos

Packaging

Smoants packaging on the Battlestar RTA is quite minimal but eye catching. The sleeve that fits over the entire box is a bright yellow with an image of the Battlestar RTA coming from the bottom corner.Color indication in the top right corner and Battlestar RTA and Smoant in opposing corners. The front sleeve slides off the box to reveal a nice gift style box with Smoant in silver lettering written across the center of it. Take off the cover to reveal a card which just has an image of the broken down sections of the tank. Underneath the card is the Battlestar RTA packaged in a foam cutout with the spare glass and spares bag right along side of it. Well presented, nice and clean, just what I would have expected.

First Impressions

The does not feel overly heavy like some of the more recent RTAs that I have gotten my hands on. The finish appears to be really well bonded to the stainless body and from what I can see there are no signs or visible areas containing paint where there should not be. The top cap threaded off really easily but the chamber/glass section was really on there. I had to grab a cloth to get a better grip on it so I could turn it off. There was some squeaking as I was unthreading the chamber section and it felt like the threads may have caught a time or two getting it off for the first time. The threads appear to be well cut, nice ridges and there is no play at all when I tried to wiggle it while it was still half threaded on. I couldn't smell or see any machine oil residue on this tank, which I sort of knew ahead of time anyway because of the squeaking as I was unthreading. The deck looks really nice, the posts are nice and tight and the 510 is secured. Airflow Control moves fluidly with no resistance full open to full close. Overall design of the Battlestar is attractive. The AFC ring has some little engravings going around it that look like the lines on a heart beat monitor. The outside walls of the chamber have Smoant engraved into it as well as a little skull. My first impression of the Battlestar is that even though it does not have that heft in weight,everything else looks and feels well made.

The Finer Details

The Battlestar RTA is fairly low profile. Sitting at 24.5mm in diameter and standing up at 34mm in height,the Battlestar RTA holds a maximum of 3.5ml of ejuice. The juice capacity put me off a tiny bit. I chain vape,fairly heavily. I would fill this tank up and it would be empty 10 minutes later. Some folks may not be bothered by this but I found myself refilling the tank very frequently. To fill the tank you simply remove the top cap and inside is two very large kidney shaped fill ports. Glass dropper fits in there no problem.

It's been a while but the Battlestar RTA comes equipped with a Velocity style build deck. I honestly forgot how simple of a deck they are to build on. I got bored of velocity decks to be honest. I started using clamp snag decks,spring loaded clamp decks,postless and so on. Going back to a velocity now, I was able to install the coils so quickly. It made me appreciate the simplicity of a velocity style deck.

The Deck

So, the Velocity deck on this RTA is just that. No need to cover the details on it, other than it's about the easiest deck to build on. I love the advancements that some companies have made in wicking on RTA's. I think back over the last few years remembering trying to learn new wicking methods for tanks,fitting wick ends into little notches above wicking channels, etc. It was a pain. The velocity deck on this RTA is slightly raised above the airflow section,with a small juice well sitting right under it. To wick this deck you just run your cotton through the coils,trim to lenth and fit them into the little grooves cut out of the deck. I found that stuffing the juice well with cotton worked by far the best. Sort of backwards from what I would have normally expected but even if you under wick it, the results are still very good.

Here is my only beef with the Battlestar. The screws on the posts are awful. They are a flat head post screw and the only screwdriver that I could get to work in it was the little blue one that came with it. Those little blue screwdrivers are a pain, they do not provide enough surface area to really get a grip on anything and for how tight I made these screws, the screwdriver was just too small. I tried all the screwdriver I had, precision and specialty driver and none would fit past the edges of the threaded hold. Allen grub screws may have stripping issues but I will take one of those over a flat head screw any day of the week.

The first build that I put into the Battlestar was a set of 3mm N80 Fused Claptons. I have grown accustomed to using 3mm diameter coils in everything. The tolerance for space between the outside edge of the coil and the inside wall of the chamber, with a 3mm coil,is tight. Anyone using a 2.5mm coil will not have any issues but with the 3mm coil, I had to run the coil hard up against the posts and than just bring them back a hair so they were not shorting on the posts. Even after than I had to do some repositioning as I was getting a short after reassembling the tank. This is not the first RTA that I have used where I had to really get the proper positioning on the deck to fit a big set of coils so figuring out how to get them to fit with enough room was not overly tough.

Overall, the battlestar build deck is pretty nice,basic and functonal. It made me want to build on velocity style decks again as theyare just so simple to use. The wicking is a breeze and pretty difficult to completely mess it up. Anyone could pick this up and be up in running in a short while.

The Airflow

Nothing too crazy here but the airflow on the Battlestar is quite nice. I run it full open all the time. If you look on the deck, the airflow holes are quite large so when the tank is on full open, there is quite a bit of air. Even with all that air coming in, the vape is still nice and warm around 75W. Some bigger tanks out there are too airy and loud when running them full open but the Battlestar really seems to suit my preference for airflow and noise level for a tank.

Performance

So, Im going to put it out there folks, the Battlestar RTA brought me back into the RTA world full time. I was stuck on RDA's for quite a while as I loved the flavor that RDAs offer up. I bought a few RTAs along the way and had some for review that were very close but nothing kept me entertained. When you get this tank built and wicked up,the flavor that it rewards you with is pretty incredible. I honestly was not expecting it at all. I have not put this down since I got it. It's been my daily work tank and still gets used frequently through the night aside from when I am testing juice for reviews. It has never once leaked even a single drop from anywhere. I have left it sitting on its side,upside down resting on the drip tip and no liquid has escaped. One thing I really disliked about RTA's in my line of work(im a farmer) is I always have them in my pocket. I have had many RTAs over the years that leak out an entire tank in my pocket. A tank is most ideal for me because I am always doing something making using an RDA a bit of a pain. After a few days with the Battlestar and no leaks, I took it to work with me for the real test and at the end of the day my work clothes did not smell like cheesecake and custard. So, overall,performance of this tank is absolutely fantastic.

Conclusion

The battlestar RTA is a great choice for vapers both new,intermediate and seasoned. The flavor offered up is very comparable to an RDA and the vapor production is huge. The deck could not be any easier to build on,aside from a small bit of cramped space. The aesthetic appeal is quite nice with the engravings on the AFC and inner chamber. Overall, the Battlestar RTA is a major winner in my books. Not only has it made it into my regular rotation,it is the tank I take with me every morning for work. I have already recommended this to many people and will continue to do so! I am confident that anyone who chooses to pick this up will not be disappointed! Thanks to /u/Smoant_Official for hooking me up with this incredible RTA!