The Innokin Ares Finale is the fourth iteration in Innokin’s series of Ares RTA tanks. It’s not yet released and is only available for pre-order from various places online.
This is a tank designed in collaboration with two well-known vape personalities, Phil Busardo and Dimitris Agrafiotis, both of whom dedicate their time to helping smokers quit. For years, Phil Busardo has reviewed products solely targeted to smokers, so you’ll see mainly products that are affordable and that have tight draw, moderate vapor, and are easy to use. And that’s what you can expect from the Ares Finale.
Comparison Between Other Ares RTA Tanks
All of the Ares tanks are very similar to each other, with only small changes made between each one. They are all 24mm, single-coil tanks, top-fill, and have bottom adjustable airflow, a slim removable mouthpiece, and an easy to use build deck.
The first three models have what Innokin calls a drop-in coil sky build deck. The drop-in coil system simply means that you can drop a pre-built coil down into the build deck and tighten the screws.
All models also feature a distinct chimney section inside the tank shaped like a bell.
The original Ares RTA was a 5ml tank (or 2ml for TPD compliance) with a slim straight mouthpiece and a deck with two posts opposite of each other.
The Ares 2 was dropped to a 4ml capacity but improved on the design of the original with an updated look on the outside and a slim flared mouthpiece for better comfort.
It also added a new cross air flow system built into the deck, right beneath the coil. It’s a round dial that you can turn to adjust. There were some complaints about this dial being hard to get to and turn without using a tool to reach in there to turn it.
The Ares 2 still had adjustable airflow on the outside of the tank, but the new cross air allowed you to adjust the velocity and air flow pattern that would hit the coil. The top cap was also now removable and all seals were improved to prevent leaking.
Then came a slight upgrade to the Ares 2 with the Ares 2 RTA LE.
This tank removed the etching on the outside of the tank and replaced it with a smooth matte sandblasted high-end look. The branding on the bell was also reduced. The mouthpiece kept its flared stye, but was replaced with metal and given an improved design with an ultem tip to match the new style of the tank.
And lastly, the Ares RTA Finale, which is a 4.5ml tank.
This tank looks more like the original model on the outside, with the straight slim mouthpiece and glass tank, but the features are very different from the previous three models.
The deck has been completely redesigned with two posts side by side and it appears to be much shorter, or closer to the base, than previous models. This new post style also seems to get rid of the “drop-in” style that the other models had. Now you slide the coil legs into the posts to tighten them down. So that does make this a little more difficult to install coils.
The cross air flow dial has been modified to make it easier to turn. There’s now a tab that slides across the deck. This makes adjusting the deck airflow much easier.
The top cap is now a twist-off cap, rather than a sliding cap. That isn’t more user-friendly, but it may fix issues that sliding top caps have, like leaking, seals getting caught in the cap, difficulty changing seals, and loose caps that open by accident.
The Build Deck
Previous version of the Ares were purposely designed so that you can remove the build deck while the tank is full of e-liquid. You need to keep the tank upside down to do this, but still a great feature to have. I don’t know if the new model keeps this feature but I would assume so.
The side-by-side posts now require a different method of installation. Rather than dropping the coils down into the posts, you need to insert the coil legs into the posts and screw them down. This is a very old school style deck, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work well. We’ll have to see once the tank is released.
Since the coils are next to each other, that also means the coil legs need to be facing in the same direction.
You still get “Phil’s Build Tool” and “Dimi’s Build Tool” in the kit; the same as the older models, so coil building and coil sizes are likely the same. Phil’s tool creates contact coils of either 2.5mm or 3mm in diameter, and Dimi’s creates 3mm diameter spaced coils. They recommend spaced coils in the Ares RTA but included Phil’s tool if you prefer contact coils.
One other notable feature of the new build deck is that there are small walls on both sides of the airflow intake beneath the coil. This is likely to prevent liquid from dropping down into the airflow.
Final Thoughts
It’s a simple RTA, which is exactly what Innokin is going for here. It seems a little more difficult to use than previous models, and the deck looks a little dated, but the real deciding factor here will be how it performs. I would assume that the airflow is a great MTL, since that’s what Phil, Dmitri, and Innokin excel at, but we need to learn more about performance like possible flooding, leaking, and flavor output.