Hellvape MD MTL RTA Review – Spin Those Discs To Tailor Your Airflow

The Hellvape MD MTL RTA is causing a bit of a stir thanks to those interchangeable and spinnable airflow inserts.

The company is calling them ‘turntables’, which I guess makes sense, as to if they work, or are just innovative for the sake of it – we shall see.

Hellvape began as more of an atomizer manufacturer with well received releases such as the recent Passage RDA – the now iconic Dead Rabbit dripper and of course the recently reviewed Fat Rabbit sub ohm tank.

However, in the past they’ve released the Trishul mech mod and have just recently released the Grimm pod kit – a collaboration with US YouTube reviewer Grimm Green.

It will be good to see more mod/kit releases from a relatively young company that in general makes excellent vape products.

Read more: Mouth To Lung (MTL) VS Direct To Lung (DTL) Vaping: What’s The Difference?

What Can We Expect From the Hellvape MD MTL RTA?

Given this is an MTL RTA, we should expect an easy build and wick giving good flavour.

Looking at it straight out of the box, and there’s a nicely domed chamber which suggests this will indeed make those flavours pop.

Key here are those airflow inserts/turntables.

Are they a gimmick or combined with the x6 bottom airflow settings – do they actually allow you to tailor your vape?

We shall of course find out.

OK, this was sent in free of charge for the purpose of this review – thank you – and as always my thoughts and opinions are not influenced by freebies.

Incidentally there’s no word as to what MD stands for though the most common term is for a Doctor of Medicine.

Though given the turntables and the music connotation, it could also be short for Main Droite – a term used in piano scores!

So…after tinkling on this one for a while is it music to my vaping ears?

Let’s see.

For the record and through this review I used the delicious Pachamama Nic Salts Sorbet for the taste test – bloody LOVE that flavour!

Inside the Box

Very smart design on the cover and inside you’ll find:

• 1 x HellVape MD RTA
• 1 x Extra glass at 4ml
• 1 x User manual
• 1 x screwdriver
• 1 x accessory bag
• 1 x extra airflow insert
• 1 x 0.7 ohm coil
• 1 x 1.2 ohm coil

Hellvape MD MTL RTA Specs

• Diameter: 24mm
• Capacity: 2ml/4ml
• Drip tip: 510 drip tip
• Thread: 510

Key Features

It’s all about the airflow with the MD MTL RTA and in particular those interchangeable inserts or ‘turntables’.

There’s two in the box – one already installed – both have x2 different sizes and styles of airflow.

One has a wider open cyclops style slot than the other and each has a different honeycomb configuration.

These can be spun when building – or with a bit of fiddling about, can be spun 180 degrees whilst on a full build and in action.

There’s also x6 airflow ports on the bottom of the RTA, which reduce in size considerably.

More on the airflow combos in a wee while.

The rest of the tank is pretty straight forward with a 24mm width – it’s a top-fill and features a childproof lock – it won’t open until you remove the 510 drip tip.

BTW there is a spare lower profile drip tip in the box which hints at the possibility of an extremely restricted lung hit – we shall see.

Design and Build Quality

Hellvape tend to make good quality vape devices and atomizers, and the MD MTL RTA is no different.

It’s made from excellent quality materials with superb machining.

Straight out of the box all the moving parts, whilst not buttery smooth were good, and now after use they have loosened up nicely.

The top cap filling system is very good indeed with a nice action – simply remove the drip tip and push.

The fill port whilst smallish is adequate and I have been able to get chubbier nozzles to fit.

Design wise it’s certainly a looker to say the least with a refreshing lack of the company name plastered everywhere.

The MD logo sits nicely and not in your face, on the very well domed chamber which suggests good flavour – we shall see.

Can’t say I like the look of the black and gold version I received – but hey beggars can’t be choosers!

There are a total of 6 colours to chose from: black and gold – black – stainless steel – gun metal – gun metal and purple and blue and gold.

So a decent quality build – innovative airflow and it looks good – let’s put a couple of builds in.

How Does the Hellvape MD MTL RTA Perform?

There’s plenty of room on the deck and the two posts are dead simple to insert your legs and the flat head screws seem solid enough.

Place the coil dead centre of whatever airflow option you’ve gone for and I set mine at about 1 to 2mm above it.

I used the 1.20 ohm coil which actually read as 1.5ohm and vaped at about 14.5w – more on that in a moment.

Wicking the MD MTL RTA

Now this is where you need to be careful, as I found to my cost.

Despite being an MTL RTA, the juice wells are quite wide and deep.

On my first build I used what I at first thought was going to be a bit too much cotton cutting the legs level with the side of the deck.

I had it just sat a small way into the well covering it completely – the pros call that the ‘half-dam method’ I think.

Oops and Nope!

I dumped almost a full tank out of the airflow port and flooded the chamber getting spit-back and gurgling.

I cut the cotton wider at about half a centimeter and this time made sure the tails were almost touching the bottom of the juice well.

This was the way to go – for me anyway.

No leaks and no spit-back or gurgling is always a bonus!

So take your time with wicking this one – more than you think you need is the way to go.

Practice as they say makes perfect.

MD MTL RTA Airflow Options

Technically you can swap out the airflow inserts/turntables whilst on the go – you can also spin them.

It will mess up your build a little as you need to raise the coil slightly, which in turns pulls out the cotton tails from the juice wells.

With a bit of care it can be done, but personally I’d wait until the tank was empty – it got pretty messy a few times!

Right then, let’s look at the performance of each of the turntables at their honeycomb or cyclops options.

Incidentally, there are x6 airflow ports on the base ranging from 0.8mm to 2.4mm with the smallest obviously being the tightest – almost a pinprick as you can see.

Turntable A – The Smaller Of the Two

This one has a thin cyclops port and just x3 honeycomb holes.

I began with the wide open option with my 1.5ohm build at 15w and the bottom airflow port fully open.

The flavour was on the better side of good but not getting me excited – as was the vapour.

On a scale of 1:10 with 10 being as airy as it gets I was getting around a 5.5 to 6.

That borders on too tight for me – even when I opened up the bottom airflow fully.

But wait!

Spin the disc to the honeycomb option and things get way way tighter!

The flavour popped a little too – just a little – however and again even with the bottom airflow wide open this bordered on a 5!

Those of you who like a tight draw will enjoy this on both settings and trust me with the honeycomb and bottom on the smallest setting – you’ll be sucking your cheeks in on every draw!

Turntable B – The Larger Of the Two

A wider cyclops port and this time the honeycomb setting has x7 holes.

Once again I began with the open slot and with the bottom airflow opened to the max and with the same build.

To be honest I was expecting an airier vape and whilst I got that it wasn’t by very much.

I felt this was in the high sixes if that makes sense – in other words, and as you might expect, slightly looser than the previous configuration.

The flavour – and this could be just my imagination – popped a little more.

Swapped to the honeycomb and things got a little better.

A much smoother vape – as you’d expect – with the flavour back to the better side of good.

NO Turntable!

For sh*ts and giggles I popped in the lower profile drip tip and vaped with no turntable.

As you might expect the vape was obviously airier but surprisingly not by as much as I expected.

I could get a direct lung hit of sorts – but to be honest it wasn’t easy!

Without the turntable and with my second wicking – I had no leaks.

So if you lose both turntables – the MD MTL RTA is still vapable with just the slightest dip in flavour.

0.7ohm Coil

Just a quick word on this one.

I actually forgot it was in the box [old age] so did yet another build to try it out.

For me the vape off this one was superior in both flavour and vapour – what had I been missing for 10 days lol.

I was able to bump the wattage up to 18w – I tried up to 21w but things got dodgy and I felt the coil would burn out.

I found my best vape with the wider turntable set to cyclops style and the bottom wide open.

I still wasn’t able to get what you’d call a good direct to lung hit, instead I got a kind of hybrid type if that makes sense, but as I said the flavour was much better.

One things for sure, there are more airflow options than you could shake a stick at, and you’ll definitely find the perfect one for you.

Good flavour and clouds to say the least with this config and it’s how I’ve enjoyed using it the most.

Pros

• Good build and machining
• Eye-catching design
• Innovative airflow
• Numerous airflow options
• Child lock
• Top-fill
• Easy build deck
• Decent flavour and clouds

Cons

• Can be tricky to wick – for me anyway!

Final Review Verdict

You’ve got to love a bit of vaping innovation and not just for the sake of it either – this actually works!

Those inserts/turntables certainly add a little something extra and you will find yourself fiddling away to your hearts content finding the right combo for you.

The smaller disc and tighter settings meant it was a little too tight for my style of MTL vaping.

To that end I was going to mark it down a little – however remembering that 0.7ohm coil brought the MD MTL RTA to life for me.

With that coil and as open as I could get it, I really enjoyed the vape and of course the flavour.

The pros way outweigh the cons so it’s definitely a solid piece of kit – it just hasn’t lit me up – except for that 0.7ohm coil which saved it.

I’ve had the privilege of reviewing a number of MTL RTAs and tanks and still think the Augvape Merlin Nano RTA is the best I’ve tried this year, maybe even of all time.

This one certainly beats the Vandy Vape Berserker V1.5 MTL RTA – which I really didn’t enjoy at all.

So to sum up and IMHO – it’s a good not great MTL RTA, but there is a plethora of options to tailor your perfect vape.

Have you bought the Hellvape MD MTL RTA or considering it?

If you are using it, what’s the best coil and combination of airflow you’ve found?

Do let us know in the comments below 🙂