Today we will be looking at the Digiflavor Drop Solo, a single coil dripping atomiser produced in collaboration with youtube reviewer The Vapor Chronicles (TVC).
There’s no denying the original Drop RDA made a splash when it was released last year, gathering an almost cult following among dual coil drippers the world over.
Almost a year later and Digiflavor have set their sights on bringing the same delight to single coil squonking fans. But is it the best single coil RDA out there?
What Can We Expect From the Digiflavor Drop Solo?
At first glance the Drop Solo appears to be a scaled down version of its big brother. Upon opening the box, I was almost doing an impression of a happy seal as I saw 2 different top caps and gleefully clapped.
Disclaimer: We received the Solo RDA for the purpose of this review. All opinions are based on my own experience and road-testing.
In the Box
- Digiflavor Drop Solo stainless steel 22mm atomiser
- 810 drip tip installed
- PMMA top cap
- Spares bag, including: O rings, 510 squonk pin, 510 drip tip adapter, grub screws
- PMMA beauty ring
- T-piece tool
- Allen key
- 2 x complex coils (Dual Core Clapton)
Features and Specs
Dimensions
Metal Cap
- Width: 22mm
- Height: 24mm (without drip tip)
- Drip tip connection: 810
PMMA cap
- Width: 22mm
- Beauty ring width: increases overall witdth to 24mm
- Height: 22.5mm (without drip tip)
- Drip tip connection: 810
Deck
- Width: 22mm
- Juice well depth: 5mm
- Connection: Protruding gold plated 510
Design and Build Quality
Size
The 22mm footprint is petite and kind of looks out of place on anything larger than a single battery mod. I had it on my trusty SX Mini G Class and it was dwarfed by the 30mm atomiser plate. With the addition of the PMMA beauty ring things began to look a little strange.
It would have been nice to have a stainless steel ring just to keep the aesthetics consistent. However, the chance to break out my Pulse BF Box is never wasted and the Drop Solo looked like it was made for the single battery squonker.
The stainless steel barrel is well proportioned whilst the PMMA barrel gives a more rugged appearance with its squat profile. I quickly found myself swapping the long drip tip on the PMMA cap with the shorter one from the metal cap and that became my default setup.
Juice Well Depth
This natty little atty boasts a 5mm juice well, which sounds more than ample for a modern dripper. However, I found the Drop Solo to be very, very thirsty in standard dripper configuration. This makes me further believe that the Drop Solo was always intended to be used with a squonker.
Post Type
Digiflavor appear to have simply removed a set of posts from the Drop Solo’s big brother and that’s not a bad thing. The width between the posts and the empty second half of the deck make it possible to place some rather large, complex coils with ease.
The grub screws are easy to access and hold the coils securely in place. The raised posts boast the facility to trim your coils once they are in place. Sadly, I found that this wasn’t possible when I had a coil with anything more than a single core, as I just couldn’t get purchase on the coil legs with my snips.
Air flow
Looking at the metal barrel first we can see the design lifted straight from the original Drop RDA and why not, after all this is one of the reasons for its success in the first place. I don’t know what else to say other than Digiflavor got it right again. Fully open the draw is not too airy and closed off to a single hole the restriction is just right. The only problem I have and it’s quite a biggy is the sheer tightness of the air flow control.
Even after running some juice around the top O rings I had 2 options: grab a spanner or pop the top cap, reposition the AFC and pop the top cap back in place.
With the PMMA barrel being shorter by 1.5mm, Digiflavor have done away with the top row of airflow but have kept the performance in every respect. The turn on the AFC is smooth and precise, further endeering this top cap and barrel to me.
Whether you opt for the metal barrel or the PMMA barrel I feel that the air flow on the Digiflavor Drop Solo sits right in the Goldilocks Zone!
In a good way I was quite shocked with how thick the metal barrel was and this happy shock extended to every other aspect of this perfectly formed little squonk dripper.
Absolutely nothing about it appears to have been manufactured to a price point. The main thing I’d pick out is the absence of a metal beauty ring seems a little stingy. A gripe I had with the choice of material/colour of the PMMA barrel is that you could see the build-up of moisture on the inside, which was a little off putting to look at.
I wonder if a solid colour would have been better than the frosted look.
One thing to be careful of is over squonking/dripping. As the air flow holes run pretty much to the top of the juice well I found that holding my mod at an angle regularly led to leaking.
A big plus for me in the design of this dripper is the inclusion of the notches with lock the barrel in place with the base. This allows for confidence that no matter how much you alter your air flow you are never going to alter the alignment of the air flow from the coil. This provides a perfectly fed draw each time.
How Does The Digiflavor Drop Solo RDA Perform?
Dripper Mode
I started using the Drop Solo RDA with the metal top cap and had it in dripper mode. After dropping in one of the included coils I was in performance review mode. I quickly mounted it on my G Class and took a draw, pulled a disgusted face and looked at my mod’s screen. I’d left the mod set at 76w.
After having a nice long drink I dropped the wattage to 40w…nice. Then 50w…better. 55w, 60w and back down to 55w.
For me this is where my sweet spot was. Obviously, this was down to the coil I was using but as these were the ones that were sent through I thought it important to include this in the review.
Two days vaping in this way did not get tiresome. I tried bakery, fruity and citrus flavoured e-liquids and found the flavour to be rounded and very enjoyable. My only gripe was that I felt like I was dripping far too regularly but seeing as this is a 22mm deck it shouldn’t be too surprising that the cotton needs feeing more often than a 24mm deck.
Squonk Mode
On day three I switched to up to my squonk mod. This is what the Digiflavor Drop Solo was designed for, of that I have no doubts. My Pulse BF has a Samsung 25r 18650 battery and after consulting ohms law I knew the 0.34ohm coil was safe to use.
From then on this is where the drop stayed. I played around with airflow on both top caps and even switched out the drip tips to see if it made a difference.
Finally, I had the perfect configuration for me: the PMMA cap with the shorter drip tip and air flow with 4 holes open. The clouds were good, I was using a 70/30 juice but the flavour was where the Drop Solo was really winning. The flavour was consistent draw after draw.
This little dripper sits proudly on my bedside table for daily use and is going nowhere soon!
Pros
- Build quality
- Choice of top caps
- Squonk mode is a winner
- Flavour
Cons
- Tight airflow control on the metal barrel and top cap
- Can see condensation on PMMA barrel
- Frequent dripping
- Leaks if over dripped/squonked
Final verdict
There is no real reason for not adding this little beauty to your collection. The flavour from the included coils was very good and with something more complex installed in the deck who knows what we’ll be greeted with. Just be careful not to be too heavy handed with the liquid, unless you want a juicy mod.
I’d definitely buy the Digiflavor Drop Solo again if I managed to lose it.
