The Merlin Nano MTL RTA was sent to me for review directly from Augvape. Hot on the heels of the popularity of nicotine salts, low-wattage, and tight draw vaping, the Merlin Nano MTL is a rebuildable mouth-to-lung vape. I’m a huge fan of rebuildable MTL atomizers, so I’ve been really excited to share this one.
Here are some places you can get it:
Specs:
- 18mm diameter
- Bottom fill
- Two-post, single coil deck
- Material: Stainless Steel
- Colors: Black and Stainless Steel
- $24.99 in most places
In The Box:
- The Merlin Nano MTL
- 3.5ml bubble glass
- 2ml straight glass
- One 1.0 ohm kanthal coil
- One 0.6 ohm nichrome coil
- POM MTL drip tip
- Three airflow plugs
- Spare parts (o-rings, allen key, and screws)
Design
In typical Augvape fashion, there aren’t tons of colors to pick from. You have black or stainless steel. That covers the bases and keeps things simple, which I like.
And at 18mm diameter, the tank is really skinny. Augvape also includes a beauty ring, which you can use to sort of round out the base the tank. It’s not necessary and you don’t have to use it, but it helps to make the tiny 18mm tank look less weird on a bigger device.
But overall, I think the tank is pretty plain. It doesn’t look great to me. But performance is what really matters here.
Drip Tip
You get one basic 510 drip tip with the Nano. This is a slim and tall drip tip designed for a restricted draw and it’s made of POM. It fits nicely into the top cap and doesn’t wiggle around or anything. It’s also pretty comfortable to use.
Top Cap
The top cap connects directly to the glass tank. The first thing you’d expect on this piece would be the liquid fill ports, but that’s not how Augvape designed this. The fill ports are actually on the bottom of the tank. We’ll get into that later, but as far as the top cap goes, there’s nothing really to it.
Tank Sizes
You get two tubes in the box, which is common these days.
You get a bigger bubble glass tube, which holds 3.5ml of e-liquid. That’s a pretty good amount of e-liquid for an MTL tank. The drawback here is that it looks terrible in my opinion. It just sticks out way too far. And if you drop this, that glass is the first thing that hits. But you have that option if you want it.
And you also get a straight glass tube, which holds 2ml of e-liquid. This looks much better and is still a nice capacity for an MTL tank. That’s the same as most typical pod devices.
Peek Connector Chamber
Below the glass is the connector chamber which is made of PEEK plastic, so it can handle high heat. This is basically what Augvape is using to hold the glass in place and to connect the chimney. It doesn’t really do anything special other than to keep the parts together and to house the chamber.
This covers the build deck and restricts how much e-liquid gets into the deck. The chamber creates a really tight space over the deck, which is good because it prevents loss of flavor. That flavor comes straight off the coil and straight up the chimney, so it seems to work well.
This fits into two slots so you’ll know it’s in the right place when it’s seated and doesn’t turn left or right. The easiest way to line it up is just by knowing that liquid ports on the sides of the chamber line up with the wicks on the coil.
The Build Deck
As I’ve mentioned, the deck is rebuildable and it’s designed for a single coil build. There’s not a lot of room to build a big coil here. And because the raised airflow hole and the posts are all metal, you need to make sure your coil doesn’t touch any of that metal and short out. So you’re limited to around a 2mm diameter or less coil. An MTL tank doesn’t need a big coil anyway.
This is a very basic two post deck. There’s also a PEEK insulator at the bottom of the liquid well and a hole where the airflow comes up and hits the bottom of the coil.
You get two coils in the box. One is a 1.0ohm Kanthal coil and other is a 0.6 ohm Nichrome coil. They are both 24g wire, 2mm diameter, and the Kanthal coil has 8 wraps and the nichrome coil has 7 wraps.
The coils come in the same package, so you can’t tell the two apart, but the Kanthal wire is magnetic while the nichrome isn’t. I don’t know why Augvape didn’t properly label the two, but you can use a magnet to figure it out.
This tank can be a little difficult to build, just because the space is so small. You get a simple single-coil, hold it in place with your screwdriver or coil tool, which sits perfectly in those grooves on the airflow hold there. Then you position the coil legs under the screws and tighten them down.
And just to make sure it’s all built correctly, I would recommend putting it on a device and firing it. Then to wick the coil, cut the ends to about the edge of the base and tuck them down into the liquid well. I like to soak the wick a little before closing up the deck. If you’re wondering what I’m using here, it’s Pitted from the Surfs Up line from Vape Craft Inc. This is an awesome sweet melon flavor. I like it a lot.
Ok, so let’s quickly talk about this airflow insert under the coil. One thing I’ve noticed with how they affect building the deck is that they can really get in the way. The coils need to be really tiny to fit in between the space or you need to raise the coils above the inserts if the coils are too wide, otherwise, they’ll touch the metal and short out. This definitely makes building the deck a little more difficult.
But once you have that all sorted out, then you put the chamber back over the deck and make sure it’s tight in its slots.
Then put the tank together and then you can fill it up.
Bottom Fill
So like I mentioned earlier, this is a bottom fill tank. Which is weird to see these days. So with the deck off, you’ll see the big liquid fill ports. Those holes are pretty big, but the problem I’ve had is that it’s so deep. A little fine-tip bottle can’t reach the fill holes, so I have to drip the liquid into them, which can get a little messy. I’ve accidentally dropped liquid into the chimney section so watch out for that.
Anyway, about the bottom-fill, it’s not as convenient as top-fill, that’s for sure because it means you have to take the tank off the device and then remove the entire base. It’s just not as easy at it could be. But from what I understand, the reason for this is to prevent the tank from flooding while filling it, and that’s definitely one of the drawbacks of other MTL tanks like the Expromizer.
Another benefit of the way this tank is filled is that it’s really easy to take the tank off of the deck and change out the coil or airflow insert without having to empty to the tank or worry about it spilling.
So there are benefits to this filling method too.
The Airflow System and Airflow Inserts
Let’s talk about the airflow system.
Augvape is calling this a hidden airflow design, and that’s because you can barely tell that it’s there. This thin line at the bottom of the base is actually where the airflow comes in. It’s interesting.
But you’ll also notice that there isn’t an airflow control ring here. So you can’t adjust airflow from the outside. To adjust the airflow, you have to use one of the three adjustable airflow inserts included in the box.
- 1.0mm
- 1.2mm
- 1.0mm dual holes
Those inserts press fit into the deck. They’re held only with a single o-ring, so you need to make sure they’re pressed in as tight as you can get so they don’t fall out. And they’re a little wobbly. You really want to make sure they’re in as good as you can get them. I would have liked for these to screw in as they do on the original Merlin MTL RTA.
So clearly, this isn’t as easy to use as an adjustable airflow ring. And I have to admit, it’s a bit of a pain to have to deal with. But once you find the airflow control insert that you like, you won’t have to deal with it again. You’ll always know that it’s set in the right place.
You can take the inserts in and out with the coil still in place if you really don’t want to take the coil out to change the airflow, but it’s definitely easier to just pull the coil out.
With the smallest 1.0mm airflow insert, the draw is extremely tight. It’s so tight, that it pulls liquid into the deck and causes it to flood a little. So this one isn’t really for chain-vaping. I don’t get any liquid in my mouth or anything, but I can hear the liquid gurgling in the deck. You definitely can’t do a lung hit here.
With the 1.2mm airflow insert, It’s still quite restricted, but there’s noticeably more airflow than with the 1.0mm insert.
With the dual 1.0mm airflow insert, you get a much looser tight draw. You can actually get a very restricted lung draw with this insert, but I mean very restricted. I’m guessing it’s still going to appeal mostly to mouth-to-lung vapers. You could use this one if you want a tight draw and bigger hits.
Out of all three inserts, my favorite is the 1.2mm insert. The restriction is just perfect for how I like to vape.
Flavor and Throat Hit
So the two most important things for vapers who use MTL devices; the flavor and the throat hit.
The flavor is really good. The small chamber seems to deliver the flavor straight to the top without losing anything in-between. I think the flavor out of this is really good.
And the throat hit is exactly what I’d expect from the liquid I’m vaping. It’s not muting anything and it’s really satisfying.
Final Thoughts
The looks of the tank really aren’t great looking. It’s pretty plain in my opinion. It’s also really skinny and tall, so it doesn’t look great on a lot of devices. If you care about looks, you’ll want to use it on something really small, but it’s nice that Augvape included a beauty ring to help make it look better on bigger devices.
Building the tank and adjusting the airflow is also a lot more challenging than most rebuildable, or at least I think so. This tank definitely requires some extra work to get used to. But I found that after doing a few builds, it becomes much easier to work with. I’m not a big fan of the wobbly airflow inserts either, but I haven’t had a problem with them in my use.
As far as performance goes, the Merlin Nano MTL RTA is awesome. The flavor is very good, the draw is really smooth and comfortable, you have several airflow options to pick from, it doesn’t leak (or at least it hasn’t on me), and it has no problems with wicking whatsoever.
With all of these things said, I think this tank will appeal more to people who like to tinker, but it probably won’t appeal to a beginner looking for an easy-to-use MTL tank.
This was sent to me for review from Augvape. Here are some places you can get it: