Wotofo & Mike Vapes Recurve RDA Review
The Wotofo Recurve is a 24 mm single-coil RDA. It is designed by Mike Vapes, the popular YouTube reviewer behind the Vandy Vape Icon and Iconic RDAs. The Recurve’s side airflow design is a departure from Mike’s earlier RDAs which all featured bottom airflow. It is also his first collaboration with Wotofo.
The Recurve RDA takes its name from its curvy outer design – in fact, even its two 810 drip tips are curvy. One could even say that the build deck’s half pipe shape is loyal to the name. Curves, curves everywhere.
Price: ~$25
Colors: stainless steel, black, gunmetal, blue, gold, rainbow
- Height: 35 mm
- Net Weight: 45 g
- Gross Weight: 135 g
- Spare 810 drip tip
- 510 drip tip adapter
- User manual
- Three comp wire coils
- Japanese cotton
- Extra screws & O-rings
Build quality and design
I got the black one with the red resin drip tip. The first thing I noticed about the Recurve is that it is heavy. Its weight makes it feel like a well-built RDA even before getting the top cap off. As for the top cap, the curvy design may not be for everyone, but I got used to it pretty fast. When it comes to the drip tips, the curves are addictive. I haven’t used any other drip tip for the last two weeks, and I don’t plan on doing so any time soon. I love them.
One of my favorite features on the Recurve is the top cap locking mechanism. You just set the top cap on the RDA and turn it until the notches lock on the build deck. That will center it to a fully open airflow. You can then adjust it, but more on that later. The top cap will also stop when turned fully in the other direction, making unscrewing the RDA a very easy process. I am a fan of locking mechanisms on drippers, they just make everyone’s life easier.
Not the biggest fan of the engraving on the side which seems to gather dust like a magnet. It’s also hard to clean with all those thin lines involved. Maybe it will look alright on the other editions, but for my black one, I just wish they weren’t there. Outside of this minor inconvenience, I am very happy with the build quality and design of the Recurve.
Build deck
The Recurve has a postless deck that will easily fit large coils. It is shaped like a half-pipe and seems to be sand-blasted. Wotofo offers two very useful coil tools which will help with measuring the length of the coil legs. I’d advise using them, at least for the first couple of builds. After that, you will know more or less where to cut the legs.
Building the Recurve is easy as 1-2-3. Insert your coil legs in two of the four holes on the deck, secure them with the Philips/flat head screws and that’s it for coil placement. Cotton can then be stuffed in the two large wicking ports, one on each side of the deck. Everything falls into place. As you might have noticed, I am a fan of the Recurve’s build deck as well. It is clean and intuitive.
Airflow
The top cap features six angled holes on each side, on a 2 x 3 grid formation. The air goes through the holes of the top cap to a set of corresponding holes placed on the top of each side of the build deck. The shape of the build deck guides the air entering the bottom holes to the lower part of the coil and the air entering the top holes directly to the middle of the coil. I am not sure which out of all those factors is the culprit, but the Recurve features one of the best airflow designs I have ever encountered.
With all six holes open on each side, the Recurve has the perfect amount of restriction for me – not super airy but not by any means tight. There is absolutely zero whistling, and the draw is smooth like butter. Closing two of the six holes adds a bit of restriction, and leaving only two holes on each side was only good for a couple of puffs for me – I quickly went back to having it fully open. It is worth mentioning that you can’t use it as an MTL RDA even at its tightest setting. For RDAs with an MTL draw, check the Vandy Vape Berserker or the Vapefly Galaxies.
Performance
For my first build on the Wotofo Recurve I went with the supplied coils. They are listed as quad-core nichrome Claptons on Wotofo’s website, and came out at 0.25 ohms. I got some fancy colors out of those but, to be honest, they didn’t seem to last for long. I soon replaced them with my favorite handmade aliens.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Recurve is that it really vapes like a dual-coil RDA. The vape is dense and saturated. It seems like Mike and Wotofo managed to strike the perfect balance when it comes to chamber size and airflow distribution. Flavor is top-notch, and vapor production has been very satisfying with exotic builds, especially considering it is a single-coil RDA.
The angled airflow design makes this one very hard to leak. You can still do it if you over-squonk, but even then it won’t be a disastrous leak. Talking about squonking, I found that the deck and general design of the Recurve favor it. Liquid coming from the squonk pin gets distributed in the wicking channels evenly. The Recurve also wicks like a champ from the bottom so I’d say it's a squonk-first RDA that can also be easily used as a dripping RDA.
Likes
Dislikes
Verdict
The hype is real with this one – coming up with cons for the Recurve RDA was not easy at all. It manages to perform like a dual-coil RDA with the lower power requirements of vaping on one coil. At the price this one comes at, it’s a no-brainer: pair the Recurve with any of the single-battery squonk mods out there, and you got yourself a killer setup. In my opinion, this is the single-coil RDA to beat in 2018.
What do you think? Will the Wotofo Recurve be your next single-coil RDA? Let me know in the comment section.
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