HeavenGifts.com sent the OBS Sub Engine to me for free for the purpose of review.
You can pick up the OBS Sub Engine from HeavenGifts.com for $31.00
OBS calls this a “tribute to the classic” referring to the original OBS Engine which was their very popular rebuildable tank. The OBS Engine Sub is a non-rebuildable tank that uses replaceable coil heads. So does it live up to the hype of its predecessor?
Let’s check it out!
Let’s Talk Specs
This tank is 25mm wide and 54.5mm tall and is made of 305 stainless steel. It holds 5.3ml of e-juice, it comes in either silver or black, and it uses a 0.3 ohm single coil that handles up to 100 watts.
What’s In The Box?
In the box you’ll get the OBS Engine Sub tank with a 0.3 ohm coil head installed, a spare glass tank, a second 0.3 ohm coil head, a user manual, and a bag of spare o-rings.
Machine Quality
The quality of the threads are nice. Everything fits together tight and the pieces fit together smoothly. I haven’t had any issues with the threads getting caught or anything like that. All of the parts are also made of high quality metal.
Disassembling the Tank
Taking the tank a part is very easy. There aren’t a lot of confusing parts here, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for the average person to take apart and put back together.
- Drip tip
- A top cap with an attached chimney, which screws into the coil head
- The glass tank
- A cage for the glass tank
- The coil head
- A base for the coil to screw into
The base has a 510 pin which appears to be gold plated. It doesn’t seem to be spring loaded, but putting pressure on it will cause it to move slightly inward.
The coils that originally came with this tank were notch coils. They are very large coils, with big slots for wicking e-juice. They also have a gold plated disk on the bottom to heat the coils. These notch coils had very poor flavor, but after receiving so many complaints about the lack of flavor, OBS switched to clapton coil heads.
The clapton coil heads are designed exactly the same as the notch coil heads except with clapton coils on the inside. They perform much better and have much better flavor. So if you bought one of the first runs of this tank or if you somehow end up with a first run model, order some of the new coil heads and you’ll be much happier.
Airflow and Drip Tip
The top cap has the chimney built-in, which contributes to the unique airflow design of this tank. It screws directly into the coil head and prevents e-juice from reaching the airflow holes. The air comes in from the top of the tank and comes back up through the coil and to the mouth piece.
And because the airflow is at the top of the tank, there’s no way for the tank to leak. This is a great design that works well. The airflow control ring spins infinitely without any stops. It’s also nice and snug and doesn’t spin loosely, so you won’t have to mess around with it once you find your preferred airflow.
There’s nothing really special about the drip tip. It’s made of POM and the airflow hole is about 10mm wide. It doesn’t have a large amount of airflow, but that’s not how this tank is designed anyway. I like that the drip tip has two o-rings instead of one though. It helps to keep it secure in the top cap.
Filling the Tank
Filling the tank is super simple. The tank has a pull-up ring that gives you easy access to large fill holes. The fill holes are large enough to easily use an e-juice dropper without any problems.
Performance
As for the vapor production, it’s not bad. Although it handles up to 100 watts, I’ve found that due to the size of the coil, it still doesn’t produce massive amounts of clouds. It’s not really a cloud chasing device.
With the original notch coils, the flavor was best around 60 watts in my opinion. It handled 100 watts but the flavor was practically gone and it had a slightly off-flavor.
With the new clapton coils, the flavor is much better at 100 watts, but it still seems to taste better somewhere in the range of 60-80 watts. But that’s just my opinion. The flavor is much better with the clapton coils.
Overall Thoughts
I’ve used this tank a lot and I have to say that the performance and feel of it is actually very comfortable. Even with the old notch coils that it came with, the performance is good.
The notch coils have very poor flavor and the clapton coils improve the flavor a lot, but they still don’t give me as much flavor as I would like.
What I like the most out of this tank is the design and ease of use. I also like the design of the fill hole ring. I think that’s really smart. And it’s also nice that it doesn’t leak at all. That’s a huge pro.
Overall, it’s a nice mid-range tank. It’s not a cloud chasing tank, but it still has fairly good vapor production.
I’ve seen a lot of reviewers give this one a positive review and I while I think there are some good things about it, I’m not a big fan of it. I think it really comes down to the coils. If OBS works on those coils a bit and can get a lot more flavor, I think this would be a winner.
You can pick up the OBS Sub Engine from HeavenGifts.com for $31.00 in black or stainless steel.