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Arymi Armor Tank Review
The minute I saw that the new KangerTech Arymi Armor Tank utilized the “top-down” coil head system I was braced for nothing but gurgling and spit-back. Nothing else mattered, blistering hot ejuice shooting, and landing, on my tongue is something I simply do not want to experience anymore. However, the Arymi Armor tank was assigned to me to review so I soldiered on, prepared to take the blunt force trauma of hot and evil ejuice assaulting me over and over.
And for the first 2 days that is exactly what happened.
But stay with me because my initial impression was not the impression I ended the review period with…
For the longest time, well, from the moment of my first spit-back attack using the 2nd generation of the Joyetech Cubis, I have hated top-down coil systems with a purple passion. (The original Cubis tank was such a good tank, but somehow the others just did not keep up) I’m not the only one either; plenty of people complain about spit-back with these types of coils. Why any other company would make their own version of the top-down coil was something I could not understand. Were these companies so desperate to create new products that they went with what I thought was a fundamentally flawed design? Seems like it. Anyway, I stuck it out with the Armor Tank for a full week and more than 30 hours of use. I learned a lot, and with the help of our own Dave Foster, I have come to respect this new tank much more than I thought I would.
KangerTech Arymi Armor Tank
CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGEThe Arymi Armor Tank by KangerTech is constructed of 304-grade stainless steel and borosilicate glass. It is available in black and stainless steel colors. (I used both, and prefer the black) With an ejuice capacity of 3ml, it passes my own minimum requirements for capacity. I simply refuse to use a 2mL tank these days. While the design of the tank is rather simple, it is a clean look. Where this tank tanks a major left-hand turn is in the coil system.
A top-down coil system with a cup-design tank, is used as a surefire way to prevent leaking, and for the most part, all top down coil tanks are essentially leak free. Kanger’s Arymi Armor tank takes this leak free design a step further; to fill the tank the user unscrews from the Delrin drip tip and lifts out the coil head, which is attached to the drip tip.
The Arymi Armor Tank drip tip is fully integrated with the Armor CHC atomizer head. Doing this allows for supposedly easy(?) e-Liquid refills by simply unscrewing the drip tip from the top cap. The Delrin drip tip also is where you will find the dual airflow slots, the rest of the cup designed tank is sealed.
The idea of easy refills with this integrated drip tip and coil design needs to be examined however. The CHC coil head is quite large. I believe that KangerTech wants you to think that you can lift up the coil head by the drip tip with one hand, and refill the tank to the Max line (more on this below), with the other hand, then screwing the coil-head-drip-tip apparatus back onto the tank and go about your vaping. In actuality it isn’t that easy.
Because the coil head is on the large size, and because the “fill line” is so incredibly vital to a good vape experience, it is my belief that the user will need to set aside the drip-tip-coil-head, then use both hands to refill the tank to the fill line, and then return the drip tip coil head to the tank and screw it down. As long as you place this integrated coil head system down on a clean, lint-free cloth or some other material that won’t allow physical contaminants to attach to the eliquid clinging to the coil head you’ll be fine.
So, What’s The Deal Then?
Never before has the “fill line” been this critical to a successful vape experience. I learned this the hard way. About halfway up the side of the tank there is the word MAX that indicates where you can safely fill the tank to. Going even slightly past that line will not only result in ejuice being forced up and over the top of the tank, it will create many hours of spit-back vaping.
With Dave’s help, we looked into why this overfill couldn’t simply be blown out through the drip tip to stop the spit-back and gurgling. What we found was that because the coil head is as wide as it is, and extends from the bottom of the tank into the drip tip, there is a lot of space inside the coil head and what happens is the coil and cotton becomes overly saturated to a fault, and no amount of blowing out the juice from the tank will un-saturate the inside of the coil head. The user can blow through the drip tip until they are blue in the face, and the ejuice will remain inside the coil head.
Spit-Back as User Error
In and of itself, the Arymi Armor Tank is a very good tank, and very affordable ($16.99 at Vapor Authority) tank. It is an excellent “Flavor” tank despite its stainless steel heating element. (that was a surprise) e-liquids taste like I’m vaping through Kanthal and Ceramic while vaping in power mode, making this tank one of the best under-$20 tanks for flavor. Vaping in TC mode isn’t quite as good, but TC vaping is not all that anyway. Vapor production is plenty, especially for a .5Ω coil made of 316SS and rated at 15W-50W. (best performance for my vaping needs was 36W).
To “fix” the over saturated coil head I removed it from the tank, laid it out on a lint-free cloth and allowed it to ‘drain’ for several hours. I was surprised to see almost a half mL of ejuice (approximate of course) seep onto the cloth over the course of half a dozen hours. Dave assured me that this was the problem because he went through the very same thing with his Arymi Armor.
Once we were sure that no more ejuice would be seeping out we wiped the outside of the coil head, made sure to fill the tank just a hair under the Max fill line, and then screwed the integrated drip tip coil head back into the tank.
Dave informed me (needlessly) that there was no need to wait for the coil head to become saturated because it already was, so I immediately set the eVic Dual to 36w and began vaping. The spit-back was minimal immediately, and by the 4th pull on the drip tip the gurgling and spit-back was completely gone. It appeared that Dave was right; these coil heads will collect more eliquid than it needs, especially when the tank is overly filled and the drip tip coil head structure forces excess eliquid into the coil chamber.
For the rest of the review period I took special precautions to make sure I never passed the Max fill line. While this sounds easy, remember that there are many situations where we all fill our tanks in dim lighting, or other situations where seeing the Max fill line is not that easy. I was continuously shining my iPhone at the tank so I could find that ever-important line. To do otherwise is inviting spit-back.
The KangerTech Arymi Armor Tank comes with a single coil head/drip tip. The price point of $16.99 is well below other sub-ohm tanks, so I suppose complaining about a single coil head can be seen as nitpicking. Replacement coils, in .3Ω and .5Ω (both 316SS) cost $2.95 apiece, buying 5 works out as $14.75 plus taxes and shipping. I strongly recommend buying a few replacement coils when buying the tank.
Wrapping Up
If the user pays attention to the vital Max fill line, this budget priced sub-ohm tank is a very good value. This is the first 316SS coils that provided me with a Kanthal/Ceramic flavor, which I found to be a major plus when scoring the tank. After 9 days of use the coil head shows no sign of giving up the ghost, so the life of the coils, I believe, will be excellent.
With the drip tip airflow set to the widest opening the “draw” is somewhat tighter than tanks with airflow slots at the base, or on the top cap like the Freemax Starre Pure. The “cup design” works every bit as good as the Cubis cup design, so the only time you’ll see eliquid outside the tank is when you overfill it and force eliquid out of the top of the tank.
The Delrin drip tip and the borosilicate glass tube stay lukewarm even at 50W. The only time the drip tip will feel uncomfortably warm is when its vaped aggressively, pull after pull after pull. Otherwise heat will not be an issue.
When considering the life of the tank, keep in mind that this stainless steel and glass tank acts as one unit. Your only interaction will be the complete replacement of the coil head and drip tip. This is a good indicator that the Arymi Armor could last a lot longer than you’ll need it to.
The KangerTech Arymi Armor is a very affordable flavor tank that when used properly will provide many, many months of pleasant vaping.
A HUGE thank you to Dave Foster, our den-mother, for helping me put aside my bias to top-down coils and showing me these types of coils do not have to cause spit-back or gurgling. Had Dave not intervened the Arymi Armor would have received a D- grade.
AVAILABLE NOW AT VAPOR AUTHORITY
Final Grade: B+
“As long as the Arymi Armor tank is not filled past the Max fill line you’ll enjoy an excellent flavor tank for well under twenty bucks. Unless you consider yourself a cloud chaser you won’t be complaining about cloud production either. Recommended!”
Julia Hartley-Barnes
Arymi Armor Features & Specs
- Manufactured by: Arymi (KangerTech)
- E-Juice Capacity: 3ml
- Body Material: 304 Stainless Steel
- Tank Material: Pyrex (Borosilicate) Glass
- Threading: 510
- Available Colors: Black, Stainless
- Height: 2.12 Inches (53.8mm)
- Diameter: 0.87 Inches (22mm)
Arymi Armor Tank in The Box:
- 1 x Arymi Armor Tank by KangerTech
- 1 x Arymi Armor CHC (SS316L) Atomizer Head (0.5 Ohms)
- 1 x Set of Replacement O-Rings
- 1 x User Manual
