Vandy Vape Berserker Mini MTL RTA Review – Fall Back In Love With MTL Vaping!

The Vandy Vape Berserker Mini MTL RTA is a hell of a mouthful for such a little tank!

Let me tell you a bit about it before I get stuck into using it!

This is a MTL tank – basically designed for those who use the MTL (Mouth To Lung) vaping style. This is usually the default method that ex-smokers use – basically inhaling the vapour into the mouth and then “taking it back” into the lungs. We go into more details about vaping styles in our guide to MTL and DTL.

So a MTL tank usually requires a more restricted and controllable airflow system.

The Berserker range are a design collaboration between Vandy Vape and the YouTube vape reviewer Alex from Vapers MD. They also recently collaborated on the excellent Vandy Vape Berserker MTL RDA.

This is a RTA – a rebuildable tank atomiser – which basically means you install your own coil and wicking onto the build deck. So not for beginners really.

The deck is a single coil configuration with two posts and two clamp screws.

There is a top filling cap and you can adjust the airflow using the airflow control ring on the base of the tank.

There are 4 colours to choose from – Black, Stainless Steel, Rainbow and Gold.In addition to the main stainless steel tank and black Delrin drip tip this kit also includes a clear glass tank, plus Ultem drip tip and Ultem tank. A pack of spare parts completes this generous little kit.

Right then let’s get me tool kit out!

What’s In The Box

• Vandy Vape Berserker Mini MTL RTA with steel tank installed
• Black Delrin tip
• Glass tank section
• Ultem tank section
• Spare Ultem drip tip
• Full spares pack (including spare screws, 510 pin, O-rings and screwdriver)
• User guide

Features

• Top fill design
• Steel tank or glass or Ultem window
• Stainless steel construction
• 2ml capacity
• Six step external adjustable air flow from 0.8mm – 1.6mm
• Excellent flavour MTL style vaping
• Diameter: 22mm
• Length: 31.7mm (not including 510 thread or tip)
• Capacity: 2ml

Build Quality & Design

I received the Silver Stainless Steel version of the Berserker Mini MTL RTA.

As usual you find Vandy Vape are pretty generous with their kit contents and this is no exception!

As stated above you get different tanks, drip tips, screws and even some pre-wound coils to get you started – well done VV!

On the top cap there is some writing engraved – which I do find a bit odd…

“Enter a state of wild fury”…

This is a low power MTL tank – not exactly furious. I wouldn’t say this was even slightly moody!

Looks wise it is a real stunner. With the stainless steel tank installed and black drip tip it is at its finest. However the steel tank isn’t practical so that went back in the box.

You get a wee coloured Ultem tank and drip tip – I put these on long enough to take a photo and the nausea from just looking at them made me remove them and hide them away in the box.

I stuck with the clear glass and the black drip tip – which still is beautiful.

This is a really small tank – super well made, all the o-rings are tight – which is annoying but at the end of the day it shows they are doing their job – plus you get plenty of spares too.

This just looks in perfect proportion – some tanks look top heavy or a bit bulgy – this is just spot on.

There is some branding on the base of the tank.

Here it is on my Wismec Sinuous P80 mod.

How Does the Vandy Vape Berserker Mini MTL RTA Perform?

Basic operation

You have different tank and drip tip options.

To change the tank you must pull out the top part which is held in with tight o-rings and remove the glass/steel tank section. Add the replacement tank, install the top part and screw the top cap back on.

This can also use standard 510 drip tips – the ones with o-rings on the base – see I tried!

How to Fill

Ooh I do wish this was a bit easier! The top cap is so hard to grip!

• Grab the top cap and turn it – in reality you will end up using a jumper, tissue or anything to hand to try to grasp it better.
• Add e-liquid into the smile shaped slots and watch the level through the side of the tank – not easy if you have the steel tank installed!
• Replace the top cap.

Build Deck

There are two posts and two screws. The screws clamp the coil legs by the legs sitting under the screw head.

You get a small phillips screwdriver in the kit for these screws.

There are two little wicking ports which I put the cotton into and made sure it was clear of the outside of the deck so it didn’t trap the tank when it was replaced.

You will only get small diameter coils in here – the supplied coils are around 4mm OD and they have very little space to spare. So perhaps 3.5 might be the way forward.

I have very little in stock of that diameter – mine are all multi core big buggers! So I haven’t been able to try any other builds on this sadly.

Coils Supplied In Kit

I have been trying to find out more about the coils which came with the kit. The box and Vandy Vape website do not tell you what material or configuration they are.

However after a bit of mooching about the Vandy Vape coils pages show a few “Superfine MTL” wires. In pre-built coils or wire spools.They are either Ni80 Fused Claptons or possibly one of the other superfine wires in SS316L or Kanthal.

The only pre-built MTL coils on the website are the Ni80 fused clapton, which say they are 0.7ohm. My resistance tester showed the coils I have as 0.51 ohm however now installed on a mod it is saying they are 0.71 so perhaps these are the ones? I have got some on order to see!

Vandy Vape Coils

I did indeed order some of these coils and they arrived today so here they are to compare and so far from what I can make out they are the same coils.

Airflow

The airflow inlet is a hole with a teardrop shaped restrictor. Rotating the airflow ring uncovers graduating airflow inlet holes – from small to large. I did think there was only one hole to start with – but keep rotating that ring and you will see more!

Building Guide

I won’t go into massive detail about how to build this as we do have some handy guides…

• Quick Guide To RBA’s – RDA’s – RDTA’s – RTA’s & Genesis Vapes
• Ultimate RDA Guide For Beginners
• Beginners Guide: How To Build Vape Coils With the Coil Master V3

Make sure to have an Ohm meter/resistance tester to make sure you have no short circuits before powering up the RTA. This is more important with this tank as there is so little space on the build deck you have to really try hard to make sure the coil isn’t touching any of the deck or posts!

I am not the greatest or most patient coil builder so please excuse my rubbish build – I also have pretty dodgy hands which doesn’t help!

You get two coils in the kit so I used one of these.

I also used the coil trimming tool Coily in helping me prepare the coils to be fitted. Basically this helps with any rebuildables where you need to pre-trim the coil legs. Usually this is utter guesswork but the Coily helps you measure and accurately cut these to length. I received the Coily from the lovely Mark at Naturevape.

So as you can see this is a weeny build deck – it is after all only a 22mm diameter tank. So in turn the coils are also weeny! Good job I got pliers and tweezers.

As expected I found it quite hard to build on – the biggest issue was getting the 2nd coil leg under the clamp screw. Also I positioned the coil but when I tightened the screws it would move slightly.

I got it as close to centre and as low to the airflow as I could manage.

This is a very tight deck – you are really struggling to make sure the supplied coil doesn’t touch the posts or the airflow inlet.

The supplied coil read 0.51 ohms on my resistance tester once installed. However later on when using on my mod it settled at 0.71ohm.

I did a quick pinch and pulse at 10W to make sure the coil was heating evenly, allowed it to cool and installed a thin piece of Muji cotton. I only made it thick enough to just go through the coil – so hopefully this is sufficient!

After filling up the tank and leaving it to stand there are no leaks so far!

Flavour & Cloud Production

I used a 12mg nicotine 50/50 VG/PG e-liquid in this as it is a MTL tank designed for higher nicotine levels.

If you don’t know what PG or VG means in relation to e-liquid have a read of our guide.

I started at 10W and already getting a great throat hit, small amount of flavour but not much vapour.

At 15W wow the taste is lovely, again not masses of vapour – but this tank is not designed for that. This high nic e-liquid I usually use in pod mods and the Berserker is bringing out a whole new flavour to it!

At 17W again more taste, a hotter feeling to the vapour too. I went up to 25W and its a bit hot now as that tiny little drip tip makes the vapour concentrate into one small outlet.

This is the most restricted airflow I have ever had on a tank without closing it off completely. It really does take some effort to inhale with this – even on the most open airflow setting. I have several pod mods I use for high nicotine e-liquid daily and this is way more restricted airflow than any of those.

There have been no leaks or dry hits at all so it is really wicking well.

I found my sweet spot was 20W.

Day 3 & 4

On day 3 I did start to notice some leakage from the air inlet. Also after filling this is flooding quite a lot – for now it is bearable – however when I get chance I will re-wick this in case it is my error.

So I re-wicked with a lot more cotton – but got dry hits, so re-wicked again with less and back to normal service.

I can only think the cotton must kind of “settle” and allow leaks after a while – it is perfect again now!

I am also using the Vandy Vape Berserker Mini MTL RTA on my Uwell Nunchaku mod and found I had to turn the wattage down a bit to 18W on here.

Day 6

Still having the odd seepage from the air inlet hole – not much but noticeable.

Also this top fill cap is driving me crazy. It’s hard to unscrew and even hard to screw back on! Yet when I dropped my mod and tank yesterday the top cap just fell off! How does that work?

Performance wise I still can’t fault this little RTA – beautiful and I am using it a lot!

Day 12

This is still going like an absolute trooper – love it and apart from when walking the dog I use this for my MTL vaping.

And yes – that top cap is still driving me mad.

Pros

• Beautiful looking tank.
• Excellent build quality.
• Such a great kit – generous contents.
• Economical low wattage vaping – saves liquid and battery life.
• Taste and throat hit were wonderful.
• Made me love MTL vaping again!

Cons

• Top cap so hard to grip to refill.
• Hard to get coil legs under screw heads.
• Tiny build deck.
• Very restricted airflow even when fully open.

Final Review Verdict

Even someone as useless at building as me managed to get a wonderful flavourful no leak vape!

The taste was so surprising – my simple high nicotine e-liquid has a great new flavour to it now!

I think you know already the Ultem wee coloured tank and drip tip were straight in the drawer. The steel tank is the best looking but not very practical for keeping an eye on the liquid level.

The top fill cap is a huge downer for me – hard to grip, tight to turn – on or off yet it fell off itself when I dropped it? That is the biggest let down in the tank for me – not a deal breaker just annoying when you use it a lot.

This is only a 2ml capacity tank – it does meet the TPD regulations and being a low power tank this is perfectly acceptable. You get through hardly any e-liquid even chain vaping this so the small capacity really is not an issue for once!

The Vandy Vape Berserker Mini MTL RTA has made me fall back in love with MTL vaping – I mainly MTL just to keep the nic cravings at bay. Whereas now I am really enjoying MTL and keep picking up the Berserker!

I am really reminded of my early days of rebuildables – a Kayfun copy and a Doggy Style tank and this is like a more modern and more refined version of those.