Sometimes, I get annoyed with branding and trademarks. Because, thanks to SMOK’s marketing team, I have to find a different way of describing the Anarchist Riot RDA. Ah, the heck with it. I’ll take my chances – the 24mm Anarchist Riot RDA is an absolute cloud- and flavor-producing BEAST. While we await legal counsel, let’s dive in and see what sets the Riot apart from the ever-growing collection of high-airflow drippers flooding the market.

Your new favorite dripper has arrived

I think we’ve all had it with cardboard boxes and pre-cut foam, right? The nice folks at Anarchist (which is a subsidiary of Digiflavor) chose to package this memorable RDA in an equally memorable – and handy – hard-shell zipper pouch. At first, I didn’t see the benefit to having it, until a week later, when 100 other test items were spread all over my desk, while my Riot parts were nicely contained.

Yes, I’ll be keeping this one.

Inside the pouch you’ll find one of the smoothest, most nicely machined, stainless steel RDAs to date. With a high polish, and the classic “anarchy” symbol emblazoned on the barrel, it’s difficult to see the offset airflow slots above. But they’re there, and they do their job well.

The rest of the package includes a standard array of spare parts, O-rings – nothing noteworthy, but worth a mention.

Unlike so many RDAs that arrive practically fused together, the Anarchist Riot features smooth threads, durable O-rings, and velvet-smooth machining throughout. One immediately noticeable item is the Delrin top-cap, which is wide-bore, but nicely tapered for a good feel in the mouth. One of my ongoing concerns with newer RDAs is how lower-ohm builds turns them into furnaces. This drip-tip went a long way toward rectifying that concern.

When disassembling the Riot, you’ll love ogling the beefy, gold-plated base, and accompanying gold-plated dual posts. The posts themselves are standard fare, except for the absolutely gargantuan screws atop each of them. Unlike the usual grub screw allotment found in RDA packages, these feel like legitimate pieces of hardware that will hold your builds like soccer moms hold their children.

The deck itself is tremendous, without being needlessly complicated, so beginning drippers will find a lot to love here. The posts are space far apart, and the terminals are huge, so virtually any kind of build will fit here with ease.

Plus, because of the spacing and the shape of the deck/juice well configuration, users can drip directly down the center of the device, eliminating any awkward tilting and subsequent leakage.

This is a good thing, mind you, because you’ll be dripping often. The one primary complaint I have about the Anarchist Riot RDA is the practically nonexistent juice well. It’s extremely shallow by modern standards, and I encountered quite a bit of spillage when first juicing my coils.

Once I had the process down, and became accustomed to the frequency at which I would drip, it didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the Riot. But all the same, with the high-end performance I experienced, the shallow well was a notable black mark.

Thankfully, wicking the Riot was as easy as can be, thanks to the absence of bottom airflow slots. I found using a touch more cotton than usual was a good plan, to hold a little more e-liquid than the well would normally allow.

As an infrequent RDA user, I expected to be nonplussed by the Riot. I expected clouds. I expected massive juice consumption. I expected a hot vape.

Instead, I’m now questioning if I ever really tasted my e-liquid before. Because the flavor of the Anarchist Riot RDA is second to none. And this is coming from a device with side airflow, rather than the typically more flavorful bottom AFC.

The Riot has airflow for days, with nice positioning that prevents leaks in most situations. And because the wide post position allows you to drip down the center, those random drops down the sidewall of the barrel are practically non-existent.

The top cap is a little too snug for my tastes, but you can drip traditionally, as well. Still, with the amount of dripping you’ll have to do, it’s best to enjoy the convenience of refilling through the broad drip tip.

I used a pair of 0.3-ohm Clapton coils to start, along with a fresh dose of Native Wicks cotton, and attached it to my beloved Realeaux RX Gen 3. Starting at 70 watts, I was immediately floored by the rush of rich flavor that coincided with the voluminous clouds filling my office. It wasn’t overly warm, but remained completely satisfying.

Of course, at Spinfuel we don’t stop at merely “satisfying,” so I kept moving up in 10-watt increments until finally hitting my personal breaking point at 120 watts. But the Riot could have kept going for another 40-50 watts, I’m sure. It was cool to the touch, and never stopped being flavorful. But at these wattages, I found myself re-dripping every 3-4 hits, rather than the 10 or so I enjoyed at lower settings.

I swapped out the traditional Clapton’s for a fused Clapton setup at 0.15 ohms, and prepared to push the Anarchist Riot RDA a little higher. Just as predicted, the Riot kept up with this lower build with nary a whimper, and allowed me to vape near 170 watts before things got a little hot in the chimney. But my mouth never suffered for it – the Delrin top cap kept things comfortable, even when approaching ridiculous wattages.

More importantly, the flavor and vapor never suffered either. The Riot RDA did nothing but deliver unbelievably flavorful plumes of vapor with every draw, regardless of how high I pushed things. Though I still preferred keeping wattage settings closer to earth, at 90-100 watts, the Riot produced unparalleled vape quality.

It says a lot about an RDA when my biggest complaint is that I wanted to vape it longer without stopping. Yes, the uber-shallow juice well is a drawback, but with rich, nuanced flavor and ridiculous vapor production, you’ll likely be too busy enjoying the experience to care.

The Anarchist Riot RDA isn’t cheap, nor should it be. In a marketplace full of “me-too” atomizers, the Riot stands out for being, at once, simple to use, thoughtfully designed, and extremely enjoyable for vapers seeking massive clouds and flavor to spare.

Anarchist Riot RDA Score: A