The Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA is a size departure from the company’s trademark huge tanks.
When people hear the name Steam Crave, they tend to think of the Titan tank and mod, or the Aromamizer series.
In the past we’ve reviewed the Aromamizer RDTA – the Steam Crave Aromamizer Supreme RDTA and way back in 2015, the Aromamizer V2 RDA.
All very well respected, but absolutely enormous!
In the back half of 2019 though, there’s been a bit of a surge in re-buildable mouth to lung tanks, so Steam Crave has gone mini with their latest offering.
What Can We Expect From The Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA?
The Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA is pretty dinky!
This little RTA has been set up as a really pure MTL device, the biggest airflow hole is only 1.6mm.
I’m a big fan of MTL RTA’s, so I’m curious to see if a company that is known for their enormous cloud chuckers, can create something interesting in this space.
Full disclosure: I’ve never owned a Steam Crave product before, though I’ve tested a couple from friends.
I’ve just never really needed tank that you can also use as a doorstop!
Having said that, when ever I’ve given them a go, I’ve always been impressed by their flavour.
Hopefully the baby brother manages just as well.
It carries on the Glaz name, by having a glass inner chamber.
We’ll discover what difference (if any!) this makes when we get into the nitty gritty.
This was sent over free of charge from NewVaping for the purposes of review – thank you.
My thoughts are my own, and I will report back honestly on what I find.
Inside The Box
- Glaz Mini MTL RTA
- 5ml Extension Tube
- Spare Glass (main tube and chamber)
- T-Piece Tool
- Spare O-rings
- Spare Deck Screws
- 2x Coil (Stainless Steel 2.5mm ID 0.4Ω)
- User Manual
Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA Specs
- Dimensions – 23mm Diameter x 40mm Heigh (2ml) or 49.6mm (5ml)
- Weight – 58g (with extension)
- Coil – Single Coil Rebuildable
- Drip Tip – 510
- Capacity – 2ml / 5ml With Supplied Extension
Design and Build Quality
At 23mm in diameter, this isn’t quite as small as the “classic” 22mm.
But with only 40mm of height, this is definitely a compact little tank.
It’s available in 3 colours, black, steel and gunmetal, and it’s the latter I have in for review.
Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA – Drip Tip
The drip tip is a double o-ringed 510, and has the part plastic/part steel design that seems to be quite popular on MTL tanks at the moment.
It’s got a couple of radiator fins underneath the screw-in delrin mouthpiece, but I’m a little sad that these are not colour matched to the tank.
I feel they look a little out of place on the gunmetal.
Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA – Top Cap
Unscrewing the top cap is how you refill the tank, and the threads are deliciously smooth!
I’m also a big fan of the fine knurling they’ve used, as it means that it’s always easy to get a grip on it.
Tank Section
The main body of the tank actually separates out into 4 separate pieces.
There’s two pieces of glass, for the main body and the inner evaporation chamber.
These are sandwiched between two pieces of metal that screw together, the lower one having a four post cage, to give the top something to screw on to.
Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA – Deck
Taking a look at the deck, it is really nicely machined and fitted together.
It’s obviously a single coil deck, with two screws to clamp your wire in place.
Special shout out goes to the quality of the screws, as the little cross headed ones they use have a really flat profile, and make trapping your wire very easy.
You have four 0.8mm holes that direct your air straight up underneath your coil, and large wicking ports on either side of your deck.
Looking from the outside, you can see your juice inlet going into the wicking ports, and it’s going to be important not to choke this with cotton when you build on it.
Airflow Control Ring
With the airflow, you have a single airflow hole on your control ring, and a choice of 4 to line it up with on the tank.
These measure 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm and 1.6mm.
The ring has the same fine knurling that is on the top cap, and the resistance is just right.
It requires just enough effort to make you feel comfortable that it’s not going to get knocked from where you set.
The AFC ring has a stop at the largest hole, but weirdly the stop turning the other way totally closes off the airflow, I would have preferred if it had stopped at the smallest, rather than twisting further.
Bottom Cap
It’s a good thing that I don’t knock off any points for the typography on the bottom of the tank, as this has to be one of the most confused collection of styles I’ve seen in a long time!
I won’t take the time to list all the different elements, but have a look and see what I mean.
Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA – Extension Piece
I love to get an extension piece in the box, as even on a tank that’s really easy to fill, it’s nice to have enough e-liquid to last a while.
However I do feel like Steam Crave went “Oh wait! We’ve missed an opportunity to put any branding on this tank!” and so they squeezed it all onto the extension ring at the last minute.
One side has the company name Steam Crave and their logo, on the other side you have “Glaz Mini” in big font, and underneath “Pure MTL RTA”.
It’s not totally obnoxious, but it does spoil the looks of what is otherwise a very elegant tank.
Not to mention the fact that I don’t think it looks nearly as sharp with the extension piece fitted.
Building The Steam Crave Glaz Mini MTL RTA
Pop your coil in the deck and tighten the screws.
The ones that are included will need half a wrap taking out as both legs are pointing the same way and you need them in opposite directions.
Snip the legs off the coil close to the deck to prevent shorts
Position your coil, and then dry fire it to get it glowing evenly, strum as required
Once it’s cooled, push one end of your cotton through the coil and pull it through
Cut your cotton so that it will fill the juice intake, but not so much that it will choke off the juice hole.
If in doubt, start with it a bit too long, as you can always cut off more
Damp your wicks with some e-liquid and then push inwards towards your coil from the outside.
If you do this right, the wicks will drop down into the juice ports without you having to push them down and compress them.
Remember, don’t clog up that little hole that lets your e-liquid in!
Screw the tank back together and fill from the top with your preferred e-liquid.
How Does the Steam Crave Glaz Mini Perform?
Since this is set up to be MTL, I loaded it up with my standard Berry Ice from Vape Simple.
Airflow
The airflow on this tank ranges from a pretty tight MTL draw at it’s widest, down to one of the tightest draws I’ve found on an RTA.
This is really reminiscent of some of the older tanks, where it feels like you’re trying to suck a golf ball through a garden hose!
That’s in no way a criticism though, as they have managed to make it an incredibly smooth draw at all four airflow settings.
It is quiet and silky, and so long as you enjoy MTL, then there’s going to be something here for you.
Even at it’s widest, there was no way I was going to manage a DTL draw, and it’s nice to see a company focus on one thing, and doing it really well.
Flavour
This little beast is capable of absolutely exceptional flavour, this is easily up there with some of the best MTL tanks I’ve tested.
It’s absolutely fine with a simple round wire coil, but it really shines with a more complex coil, like an MTL clapton.
Using the extension piece and you lose a tiny bit of flavour, but it’s really not enough for this to be the deciding factor in whether you use it or not.
Any other thoughts?
I’ve got to mention the glass inner chamber here, and how baffled I am with it.
On a big DTL tank, I can kind of see the appeal of being able to see you build.
However on this, it’s at the wrong angle, so even using very clear e-liquid, what you end up seeing is the sides of the deck screws, and a whole lot of cotton!
There’s an argument to be made that it allows the e-liquid to condense more easily, and flow back into the deck, rather than beading on the metal.
But in all honesty this feels like over engineering for the sake of it.
Also, by having a two-piece chamber with fairly long walls, it means there’s not much room to fit any doming into the top section.
In fact looking inside, there’s really no doming going on at all, just a tiny section at the top that is angled inwards.
I wonder how much more flavour they could have squeezed out of this, already tasty design, by doing away with the glass, and using a standard metal evaporation chamber with some pronounced doming.
Pros
- Great flavour
- A true MTL draw
- Ease to build and wick
Cons
- Extension piece has loads of branding
- AFC ring doesn’t stop at the smallest hole
Final Review Verdict
So you can probably tell by now that I really like little tank!
For me it ticks all the boxes, easy to build, phenomenal flavour, a really tight draw, and the fact it comes with an extension piece is just the icing on the cake.
If you’re thinking about this tank, just remember that this is as tight as almost anything out there on the mainstream.
Even fully open, it still requires some suction to get a decent draw.
So long as that doesn’t put you off, I say fill your boots!
Based on my experience with this, I can definitely see some more Steam Crave tanks in my future.
Flavour is good I’ll agree but mine leaks a moment after you refill it, regardless of wicking style. It’s the glass inner sleeve in my opinion, it just doesn’t seal properly, and never will unless you are extremely lucky and get a completely straight one. I’ve tried four different inner sleeves with no change. It only happens on refill as from dry it takes time for the liquid from first fill to seep under the sleeve to set up the flow of juice that happens when you release the vacuum on opening the excessively long threaded top cap and then the glass inner sleeve is just effectively left floating on e-juice. Any suggestions welcome or offers to take it off my hands.