OBS Engine - quick
OBS Engine - quick

Rating:

9.0
What Could Be Better

bottom of tank can heat up if heavily chain vaping due to no bottom air port

Pros

  • innovative, controllable top down airflow and chamber/chimney design that provides dense, flavorful vapor
  • build deck design features the familiar velocity style two post deck but has fast bottom wicking with the deck locking into the chimney.  This provides juice coming around and under the chimney.  This deck inspired the Troll RTA.
  • The juice fill port is located behind a sliding ring at the top of the tank (5+ml capacity)
  • These design elements combined perform admirably and NO LEAKS!  The top down airflow prevents flooding seen on bottom airflow tanks but there is no seepage either.

Review


The OBS Engine is one of the most highly regarded tank of 2016 and has inspired many spin off tanks, including a sub-ohm tank, smaller rta and even a single coil version.

The Engine provides a familiar two post velocity style build deck with 4 channel bottom wicking in a top airflow, top filling 25mm body style.

This is a great all-around RTA that provides great flavor and pretty good vapor production. 

OBS Engine - front with box
obs engine - tank with accessories
OBS Engine - deck and tip
OBS Engine - velocity deck

Design and Build Quality

Overall, this tank has a very bold design with some features that haven't been seen before its release.  In fact there are several tanks later released that seem to tank some design cues from this tank.  

OBS has also released several other tanks that follow this design, including a smaller version (Mini), a single coil version (Nano) and even a sub-ohm version.

The general look of this tank is striking just due to the aesthetic layout.  The sloped tip placed on top of the controlled top airflow ports just jumps out as different.  The airflow swoops down from the top to the chamber through two channels and back up the chimney.  This provides some pretty good flavor, a smooth draw and warm clouds of vapor.

The top fill port has very nice milling with the company name and some nice channels wrapping around the tank to provide the grip necessary to pop open the juice port.

OBS engine RTA top fill juice port and controllable top air flow channel

top airflow control and juice port

The general look of this tank is striking just due to the aesthetic layout.  The sloped tip placed on top of the controlled top airflow ports just jumps out as different.  

The airflow swoops down from the top to the chamber through two channels and back up the chimney.  This provides some pretty good flavor, a smooth draw and warm clouds of vapor.

The top fill port has very nice milling with the company name and some nice channels wrapping around the tank to provide the grip necessary to pop open the juice port.

Popping open the juice port is easy enough and does provide a nice seal which prevents leaking when tipped over.  Filling tank is a bit weird with a glass dripper (which I prefer). The tank has to be leaned to a 45 degree angle or more.  Tipping the tank like this prevents you from knowing how high the tank is filled without bringing it back to upright. I found that I don't always fill to the top but there is nothing to unscrew so the procedure is quick and easy.

The middle section where there is normally just vacant space around the glass, there is a metal extension shrouding the chimney, but it is inside the glass so it doesn't provide any glass protection but provides some structural integrity and a unique look.

obs engine rta velocity deck build with bottom wicking

velocity deck build and wicking

The deck is quite interesting. It is the regular style two post velocity deck but the wicking channels are right into the deck. The deck then slides into the chimney.  When fully assembled the juice is stored outside of the chimney but goes around and under the deck; the juice gets sucked up through the cotton protruding from the deck just like an RDTA.

Removing the deck for building is easy as it doesn't have any juice flow control. Just flip the tank over and unscrew the bottom.

Building on the deck is very familiar. Wicking is also straight forward: clip the wicks at a length long enough to touch the bottom cup portion of the deck section and then tuck the wicks through the channels.  

The deck arms have perfectly circular wire holes so a flat wire build or a flat clapton build probably won't work as well as plain wire, twisted wire or even single cored clapton coils.

I have found that 3mm coils provide right amount of cotton.  The deck needs enough cotton to pack the juice channel and too much cotton won't have enough space to even been pushed through.

This bottom wicking deck style seems to have inspired some other well regarded clearomizer style tanks such as the Troll RTA.

The bottom of the tank acts like a cup that hold the deck and juice.  This design keeps the tank from seeping any juice at all! 

It is a huge bonus of the design to keep that annoying juice build up off the mod and out the connector area. It also has the down side of not being able to cool itself as rapidly since there is no airflow in this area.  It can get noticeably hot after some heavy vaping.

Final Thoughts and Performance

Would I buy this again?

For sure!  At around thirty bucks this tank provides a huge value as it will easily become a favorite.  It can take a lot of heavy usage with out any of the parts failing.  

This RTA is very enjoyable to vape on when just sitting around the house.  It gives great flavor and really nice warm vapor with a smooth draw.  It is easy to fill (even if not all the way to the top), easy to build and wick.

A huge bonus feature of this tank is no juice seepage out of the bottom of the tank.  Not many other tanks can claim that.

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