Home RBA's Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus V3 RDTA Review – Third Time Perfect?

Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus V3 RDTA Review – Third Time Perfect?

August 19, 2022

In for review is the Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus V3 RDTA!

The Aromamizer line by Steam Crave is pretty much their flagship. In fact, their Aromamizer Plus V2 was reviewed by Will Jameson back in 2020 and his summary was very strong:

Steam Crave describe the Aromamizer Plus V2 as “The Most Versatile RTA!” and I can see why. With loads of well thought out options, and bullet-proof build quality, this is a seriously impressive bit of kit.

Not to mention Will also gave the Plus V2 a solid 9.1/10.

In a straight comparison, at a glance there doesn’t seem to be many major differences between the V2 and the V3.

Visually the airflow options have changed but I’m very interested to see what’s been improved/changed in order for them to justify the release of the Plus V3.

Not to mention I also got the chance to review the Plus V2 within my Steam Crave Hadron Plus Combo Review so I have a fair bit of experience with the Plus V2 myself!

Oh and before I forget – All Plus V1 and V2 parts are cross-compatible with the V3. Result!

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What Can We Expect From the Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus V3 ?

If you’ve not owned or tried an Aromamizer RDTA before here’s the basics.

The Aromamizer Plus V3 is a 30mm RDTA with a bit of a twist. It’s an RDTA in the aspect that e-liquid wicks from under the deck, but the tank is above the deck. So I still struggle to call the Aromamizer an RDTA.

Secondly, the Aromamizer doubles up as an RDA. With the removal of the chimney and the glass, you’re able to convert the Aromamizer Plus V3 into a 35mm tall (plus drip tip) RDA! Clever stuff.

Lastly, the standard kit comes with a tidy dual coil post-less deck with honeycomb airflow. But there is also a Mesh-deck-kit available along with a number of other deck styles including single coil, velocity and series deck.

Plus there is a full glass extension kit available too! Loads of choice!

There are 2 types of airflow and both are adjustable. The side airflow provides 80% of the total flow and the bottom airflow is the remaining 20%.

There are 3 colours to choose from: SS, Black and Gunmetal.

Let’s crack on and see how the Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus V3 performs!

In the Box

Aromamizer Plus V3 RDTA
12ml Spare Glass
Spare parts bag
Tri-Tool
User Manual
Steam Crave Band
Steam Crave Sticker.

Specs and Features

Height: 59mm (in 12ml mode) / 43mm (in RDA Mode)
Diameter: 30mm
Dual/Single & Mesh builds available.
Capacity: 12ml / 3ml (also you can buy extension kit which offers 14ml and 18ml glasses with extension chimney)
Large top fill kidney ports
810 Drip-Tip
Multiple deck options including new Postless deck (included) – Single coil, Mesh, Velocity and Series decks can be purchased separately.
Multi-Adjustable airflow
Juice flow control

Key Features

The Aromamizer Plus V3 breaks down into 11 separate pieces when in RDTA mode, so this isn’t your regular RTA or RDTA. No Sir!

Steam Crave are also calling this, the ‘Ragnar Mini’ which is a chunky 35mm in diameter, a 18/28mm capacity but a very similar airflow style.

The beauty of the Aromamizer RDTA’s is that although they’re large, they can be somewhat practical, especially in comparison to the Titan or Hadron variants. Meaning someone not looking to fork out fairly serious money for a Steam Crave monster, can still enjoy the build quality and experience of a Steam Crave product day to day, without carrying a separate bag to carry it around in.

Design and Build Quality

I received the gunmetal variant of the Aromamizer Plus V3 and quite frankly, I like it. And as a touch of luck, it also matches perfectly with my Hadron Plus DNA250C device along with my Vaperz Cloud Sceptre although the gunmetal finish on that is a little different.

Drip-Tip and Top-Cap

Firstly the 810 drip-tip itself is a little unusual in style compared to anything I’ve tried before, with an odd groove around the middle. You can feel it on the lips but it’s not exactly uncomfortable, just a little odd. Nonetheless the marbling effect and general colour of the drip tip is really nice.

The top cap has the expected Steam Crave branding and is removable by unscrewing anti-clockwise to allow filling into the massive kidney shaped ports.

Inner Chamber

The inner chamber/tube is removable in order to convert the RDTA into an RDA and is fairly easy to remove, screwing into the top and bottom of the RDTA and includes a tidy O-ring at its base.

Deck

Steam Crave have designed a slightly different style of their generic post-less deck to allow for bottom airflow that the Aromamizer Plus V3 includes. Apart from that it’s a fairly similar deck, with the usual Allen grub screws. The deck itself is actually fairly small but still sizeable enough to allow for a dual coil build with some 3mm ID coils. More on building later.

The wicking ports are small but also just enough to allow for your two strips of cotton on either side to fill the ports.

Juice Flow Control

Steam Crave and the Aromamizer line are well known for including juice flow control. In Steam Craves case – I strongly feel JFC (Juice Flow Control) is mostly in place to limit the pressure being put on the wicking ports when filling with e-liquid. Mainly because of the weight behind a full tank of e-liquid for a tank this size.

On the side of the RDTA are two padlocks, one locked and the other unlocked. Obviously the locked lock means the JFC is shut off. However, it’s quite possible some of you may prefer to run your JFC half, or quarter open to try and limit the pressure of e-liquid on the deck.

Nonetheless the JFC works very well and although I found adjusting it means using all fingers and thumbs to stop other parts from turning, it still operated very well and JFC is a great addition to any RTA/RDTA.

Airflow

The airflow ring offers major adjustability to the airflow, designed to offer 80% side and 20% bottom airflow, the adjustments are pretty crazy and vast.

The Base

The base has the usual branding ‘Designed By BJ Shi’ and serial numbers.

With these RDTA’s, you will need to unscrew the base in order to remove the deck. So Steam Crave have included a lovely O-ring on the base to limit/remove the chance for leaking. And it works really well.

Overall Build Quality

This RDTA is wonderfully built to the expected high standards we assume to come from Steam Crave. The machining is clean and tidy and considering the amount of moving parts, the Aromamizer Plus V3 manages to operate each part independently. If not with a little help from multiple fingers and thumbs.

How Does The Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus V3 RDTA Perform?

Building

I opted for a set of Fused Claptons by Proper Coils over the included coils.

Cutting the coil legs at 5mm length allows for the coils to sit nicely above the deck, whilst being close enough to the bottom airflow to allow for the air to travel in between and around the outside of both coils.

Gently unscrew the grub screws, as they can be a little stiff on the first build

The dual Fused Claptons coils came out at 0.11Ω and have a 3mm inner diameter. I feel 3mm ID is the optimum size for this deck, any smaller and you’ll really have to dial down the airflow. Any larger inner diameter and you may not get enough airflow, particularly from the bottom of the deck.

Place your coils and tighten the grub screws up. Once tight, gently bend your coils into position, ensuring the bottom airflow isn’t blocked but the coils are centred to allow for optimum airflow.

Once positioned, gently pulse your coils ensuring they glow evenly from the centre. This can take a while with chunky coils but a light scrape over the surface usually eeks out the hot spots and leaves you with perfectly glowing coils.

Wicking The RDTA

The post-less deck offers a tight yet usable wicking port which for me is a little on the small side, yet after a few trials, it’s more than enough for a decent amount of cotton.

I tend to cut my cotton lengths just past the end of the deck, with a decent comb out you end up with a lovely arcing rainbow of cotton into the ports. Not too tight, not too loose.

Once complete, saturate your coils and cotton with e-liquid, but not too much. Fitting the deck back into the RDTA can be a little messy if your cotton is dripping with e-liquid and it can be a little squeeze if you’ve rammed too much cotton in the deck. So just a light saturation will do.

Fill the tank once the deck is fitted, ensuring the juice flow control is locked OFF, then once filled, slowly open the juice flow control to allow the e-liquid to reach the bottom of the deck.

How to Fill

Filling the ginormous capacity of the Aromamizer Plus V3 is simple enough. Firstly make sure the juice flow control ring is locked OFF. Then remove the top cap by screwing it anti-clockwise.

Once opened you have two massive kidney shaped slots to fill into, however – I strongly recommend filling your newly built RDTA half full or even less. This will allow you to check for any leaks before taking the plunge and filling completely.

Once you’ve either half, or completely filled the tank, re-fit the top-cap and slowly, carefully open the juice flow control and watch the mass of bubbles as your e-liquid filters under the deck. It’s a little therapeutic to be honest.

Flavour and Clouds

For the duration of my testing on the Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus V3 I used an array of e-liquids. Mostly fruits but also a small number of dessert flavours. All of which were 70VG / 30PG at 3mg. Although my wattage varied during my time with the RDTA, generally speaking I worked between 100W and 140W.

All Airflow Open

At 140 watts I found the airflow wide open was more than acceptable, if not a little airy, but the extra wattage helped to pull out every ounce of vapour and boy does this thing chuck clouds. For sure the airflow is slightly loud and a-plenty but it’s still usable and a nice flavour filled vape.

Bottom Airflow only

Nope – don’t do it. Especially with two large coils, the 20% bottom airflow just isn’t enough to work all by itself. You certainly need the side airflow.

Top Airflow Half Open and Bottom Airflow open

At 120 watts the restriction is still a little tight for me personally, but it still provides a fairly airy draw with just a slight restriction. Flavour wise it’s still very good but personally it’s a little too tight for me. Nonetheless, it does push the noise level down a little and is still enjoyable.

RDA Mode

The Steam Crave Aromamizer Plus V3 may be a little OTT to be used as an RDA, mostly because of the sheer bulk in RDA mode. Nonetheless it still performs quite well and the airflow customisability is very handy, something we don’t generally get with RDA’s. Sure we get limited airflow adjustment, but nothing like the Plus V3 can offer.

Pros

Excellent build quality
Vast airflow configurations
Easy to build & wick
Giant capacity
Not OTT in size for day to day
Plenty of deck options for purchase

Cons

Perhaps a little large for some
Tight wicking port
Weird in RDA mode but usable. I guess.
Drip-Tip feel is a little odd

Final Review Verdict

Steam Crave have pretty much nailed the Aromamizer Plus series. I never had the chance to try the V1, but the V2 was excellent. So I’m a little stumped on what to call the V3, Super Excellent? Well… not quite.

For sure the Aromamizer Plus V3 is an improvement over the V2, offering a bottom airflow to improve performance and more airflow adjustability but its still, a big 30mm tank to carry around with a 12/18ml capacity. So it’s not going to be for everyone.

The Steam Crave nuts in the world will probably be creaming all over the Plus V3 and I am a little also! But for me it’s just a little Over The Top for a daily driver so you seriously need to consider just how much you will use this tank. Depending on your job, your way of life and also your budget.

Let’s not forget all the options that you have – multiple deck options including a single coil and mesh along with the crazy number of airflow adjustments available. Oh and of course all the capacity options!

Don’t forget ‘You get what you pay for’ and with the Aromamizer Plus V3, you’re paying for that high build quality which will certainly last a lot longer than a number of cheaper RTA/RDTA’s

So what could possibly be next for the Aromamizer series? Personally I think they should call it a day, what else could they possibly do? Time for a change Steam Crave. But thank you for making a tank which has amazing options, a great build and lovely flavour and performance.