Youde Technology Co, based in Shenzhen China, have been involved with the manufacture of rebuildable atomisers for many years now, and have a great reputation for producing low cost but great performing items.
They are now looking to take the plunge into the popular sub ohm tank market with the release of the Zephyrus.
What Can We Expect From The Zephyrus From Youde (UD)?
The Youde Zephyrus offers the option of using stock dual coil heads, or there is also an RBA deck included in the package should you wish to build your own.
The Zephyrus does boast some of the largest pre built coil heads on the market, with a dual coil set up wicked with organic cotton, and a reduced chamber to aim for excellent flavour.
Youde have released some top quality atomisers recently, most noticeably the Goblin and the Goliath, is the Zephyrus fit to rub shoulders with them?
What’s In The Box
- Youde Zephyrus tank
- 510 Heat Sink adaptor
- 1 Pre Installed 0.3 ohm stock coil optimised for 20-50 watts
- 1 RBA deck
- Clear, black, red and blue O-rings included
- 1 spare RBA screw
That’s a very impressive amount of spares included here. I love the fact that spare different coloured o-rings have been included rather than being sold separately, you can match your o-rings to the colour of your device should you wish.
There is no spare pre built coil however you do get the RBA deck included in the package. One spare screw for the RBA deck feels a little tight though, surely it wouldn’t have been much of a push to include another three spares!
Youde Zephyrus Set Up
The Youde Zephyrus can be used right out of the box as it comes pre installed with a 0.3ohm stock coil, simply ensure your device is capable of firing the coils on the Youde Zephyrus, screw in to your device of choice and you are ready to go.
You will notice there is an RBA deck included, if you wish to use this you will need to build this yourself, and have knowledge of how to do so safely.
Existing users of the Youde Goblin will feel right at home with the included RBA deck. Very much in the style of the Youde Goblin, you have a four post set up that mirrors the one you would find in the Youde Goblin, even down to the same post hole sizes. However, the juice channels and airflow holes are larger than the ones found with the Goblin.
I wouldn’t recommend the RBA deck for beginners, as the wicking is not particularly forgiving and there isn’t a particularly large amount of room to build on, but experienced rebuilders should feel right at home here.
Zephyrus Specs
- 0.3ohm stock coils available
- RBA deck included
- Stainless Steel and Pyrex Glass construction
- Stainless Steel Widebore Drip Tip
- Heatsink drip tip adaptor included
- Huge adjustable airflow
- Removeable top fill system
- PEEK Insulators
How Does The Youde Zephyrus Perform?
The top fill system works quite well, unscrew the top of the tank and there is a red seal you need to remove, the fill port will then be exposed and you fill through this.
It’s quick and easy to use. It’s a bit of a pain if you lose the red seal as there is no spare included. You can still fill from the bottom if you find that you aren’t getting on with top filling the tank!
The stock coils I have not been greatly impressed with. They need a long time to prime in my opinion, I would highly recommend priming the coils for at least half an hour before use by dripping a generous amount of juice onto the coils themselves, then filling your tank and letting it stand for an absolute minimum of half an hour.
I topped up with Beard Vape No 5 e-liquid.
I started off at 20W which is the lowest recommended setting for the coils, and flavour and vapour was negligible.
I increased my wattage to 30W after this, and the flavour and vapour did improve, things got a little warm but the flavour and vapour was still very restricted for me.
At 40W things started to get much better, flavour is getting there although muted, and some nice clouds were being produced.
The max setting of 50W is how I prefer it, really nice warm vape, flavour although still muted is above average and I was blowing some big clouds but worryingly the tank itself was getting quite hot quickly.
I did try it at 55W but the tank got so hot I couldn’t touch it, plus the dry hit that followed was pretty nasty! I have tried three different stock coils with the Youde Zephyrus and have had the same results each time.
Airflow is great with the Youde Zephyrus, provided by two 3mm x 6.5mm cyclops airflow slots on either side of the tank.
You can do some serious cloud chasing with the Youde Zephyrus!
Closing the airflow right down provides you with a restricted lung hit and better flavour, though as with any sub ohm tank there is no option for the mouth to lung vaper.
Read the difference between Mouth to Lung (MTL) and Direct to Lung (DTL) here.
Leaks are unfortunately a bit of an issue with the Youde Zephyrus, which is a bit of a let down, I experienced some quite bad leaks through the bottom of the unit.
Even after disassembling the whole unit a number of times and making sure it was securely rebuilt I still experienced some quite severe leaking issues. I have actually never had leaks this bad before with a sub ohm clearomiser.
The Youde Zephyrus gets extremely hot when using it at 40 watts and over, and it does so quite quickly, which I am a bit mystified by considering as it allegedly uses the latest PEEK insulators. Considering as it is designed to be used at up to 50 watts this is a little concerning, and I would expect the tank to not get as hot as it does at 40 watts and over.
Certainly, there are many other sub ohm tanks on the market that can handle the same power range with no heat issues at all.
The performance of the Youde Zephyrus improves considerably when using the RBA deck however, which is a real joy to use.
As mentioned above, the same four post system as present in the Goblin can be found here, along with larger juice channels and even larger airflow at the base of the deck.
You don’t have the largest amount of room, but you certainly have more room than most other RBA sections available with other sub ohm tanks, and it’s quite easy to build large coils on.
You need to make sure your wicking is spot on with this deck, as it isn’t very forgiving when it comes to wicking! I found the best way was to wick with Muji cotton and leave some wick in the top of the juice channel, this cut down on dry hits though I still experienced the odd one or two occasionally, usually when using 70VG or 80VG vape juice.
I found the flavour of my juices was much better than it was with the stock coils and I got some great vapour production as well.
Using the RBA deck however does still not cure the leaking issues nor does it stop the tank from getting very hot at over 40 watts. I hope Youde can improve on this for their next sub ohm tank release, and with a slight tweak to the stock coils to improve the flavour a bit more, they could have a real winner on their hands.
Final Thoughts
A particular highlight with the Youde Zephyrus is the excellent RBA deck, once you have got the wicking nailed down.
It definitely is a joy to use and offers a significant upgrade over the standard stock coils available for the Zephyrus, the RBA deck certainly isn’t an afterthought added onto the tank, like it seems to be with some sub ohm tanks available.
Unfortunately I don’t think the Youde Zephyrus offers anything particularly special, not compared to a fair few of the recent sub ohm tank releases.
To be honest I was expecting a lot more from the Youde Zephyrus, especially with Youde’s recent stellar track record of releases, it’s not a particularly bad tank but it’s not particularly special either, it did leave me wanting a little more!
The good points do still outweigh the bad though, and the Zephyrus does provide some massive airflow, even if the flavour isn’t anything special.
The Good
- Absolutely stellar RBA deck, one of the best available
- Generous spares included, love the fact they have included coloured o-ring options rather than selling them extra
- Top filling is a great idea
- Design looks great
- Heat-sink drip tip accessory stops the drip tip from getting too hot
- Built for high wattage
- Massive airflow
The Not So Good
- It leaks, no matter whether you use the RBA section or stock coils!
- The heat is quite concerning, the tank gets really hot really quickly at 40w and over
- Not one for beginners
- Stock coils take a long time to break in and start performing
- RBA deck is easy to build on but users may get frustrated with wicking it
I really like this tank. I would give it a solid 4.25! I would prefer a velocity style deck & I wish there was a lil more room, but other than that, everything else is great! There’s also some great replacement premade coils for those that prefer to go that route. Fasttech offers these great authentic Youde ones, there’s 1 metal casing with replacement cottons that are super inexpensive for replacement coils! Great tank! The top fill is great, great air flow & great flavor!