Last Updated on April 16, 2024 by Team Spinfuel
In Japanese, Tsu means ‘harbor‘ and ‘nami’ means ‘wave, which refers to the devastating ocean waves caused by an undersea quake that decimates parts of countries around the world. I would define the Geek Vape Tsunami RDA as a vapor wave caused by an inexpensive, easy to build RDA erupting huge clouds and emitting volcanic flavor!
Even though the Geek Vape Tsunami has been out since March of this year, I’m thankful to revisit the original in this review. With the Tsunami 24 also in my collection, I own three original Tsunamis as I prefer the flavor, simple but huge two-post deck and the ridiculously good performance from only a 22mm Atomizer! Available in both Black and Stainless Steel, the Tsunami looks really good on just about any mod you attach it to.
The first RDA from the company Geek Vape (known for the Griffin RTA and Avocado RDTA) is essentially a Kennedy RDA making sweet love to a Velocity RDA and out comes the Tsunami RDA! Crafted out of Stainless Steel and is 22mm in diameter, the top cap measures 29.5mm tall and 39mm with the 510 supplied adapter and drip tip. It’s not a low-pro design obviously but still gets two thumbs up for the simplistic and sleek appearance.
Tsunami RDA Highlights
The standout feature for me is the 20mm Velocity-style build deck. Talk about easy to build on; a hole for each lead makes the whole coil installing process simple and straightforward. With experience or not, building on the Geek Vape Tsunami RDA is enjoyable and rewarding.
The side-tension, dual posts (which are very well machined and 4mm thick) can chew up and swallow any size coil you can muster up with the 3mm x 2.1mm rectangle terminal post holes. I attempted to find a coil that wouldn’t fit through these enormous post holes but failed miserably; even Staple Staggered Fused Clapton’s fit with ease!
The clamping is done with the provided hex tool (I prefer the Orange tri-tool that comes with the Griffin RTA) thanks to the SS316 hardened 1200°C Nitrogen surface treated grub screws. Huh? In other words they’re strong, hold your leads very firm and won’t lose tension or cut your leads even when cranked down hard.
The Negative deck post is milled into the deck and the Positive post is PEEK-insulated (made in the USA) which can be removed by unscrewing the adjustable, Gold-Plated 510 pin. I wish Geek Vape would’ve included a bottom-feeding 510 pin (they did with the big brother Tsunami 24) but luckily can be purchased separately.
With a 6.8mm juice well, I was able to fit a full milliliter of eJuice without it overflowing into the air tubes. Pouring your eJuice straight into the juice well after the coil is wicked will give you several great pulls without the cotton drying up, if wicked correctly.
The two 7.5mm x 3.5mm milled airflow holes on the bottom of the build deck provide an excellent airy draw, which feeds up through the 3.4mm ID quad ‘stove-pipe’ airflow tubes allowing air to shoot straight to the coil.
Instantly when I think of Kennedy-style bottom airflow I predict leaking with plenty of eJuice dripping down the air pipes out the bottom, flowing like lava all over my mod. But surprisingly, I’ve had no such issues!
Occasionally I have a drip or two in the airflow caverns but since they’re machined at a slight downward angle, the liquid just lingers down there and a Q-tip does the cleanup job perfectly! I drip my bottle straight through the drip tip and even doing that, I don’t and haven’t got any leaking at all.
The top cap has a total of three airflow holes giving you the option to run single or dual coils. Simply spin the top cap and slide it over the build deck on the side where your coils located, blocking off the other two slots in the top cap.
The single coil system works great and I’ve installed several builds since I’ve owned a Geek Vape Tsunami and if you plan on picking one up, I definitely advise you get it a try. Tsunami is elegantly engraved between the two O-rings and even though it’s covered most of the time, is still a nice touch.
The top cap is held on by two stiff O-rings that make it hard to squeeze it over the deck without any lubrication. Give the O-rings some eJuice and will slide like butter with no problem taking it off or throwing it back on.
The restriction is perfect with the ability to rotate the airflow if you decide that’s necessary. Personally, I keep my airflow wide open and with the cloudy dense vapor already achieved, I don’t plan on adjusting the airflow anytime soon. Just in case you break an O-ring which could easily happen, Geek Vape sends plenty additional stock along with some grub screws.
The cap never gets blistering hot even at wattages in triple digits, but will definitely heat up depending on the build.
Another huge bonus with the GeekVape Tsunami RDA is the three included drip tips. They don’t press into place by O-rings (besides the SS 510 drip tip into the screwed in 510 adapter), they screw into place easily thanks to the well machined threading on the top cap.
All three are held in tight and neither have any play. My go-to option is the 12.4mm diagonal (conical shaped) Delrin drip tip that comes preinstalled. The top of the drip tip measures 9.5mm ID and tapers down to 10.8mm ID providing a very comfortable mouthpiece to vape from. The flavor, heat dissipation and limited spit back are standout features with the conical shaped drip tip.
It really depends on your resistance and other factors but running 0.11Ω coils at 110W, I was still able to take 2-3 second rips without scorching my mouth.
The 14.2mm wide bore Delrin drip tip is the ‘competition’ option as the 11.2mm ID provides a wide open access to your coils giving you more than enough cloud production. You’re going to see some eJuice fireworks flying from the top initially when firing and because of the spit back, my use was limited with this tip option.
Also available is the low-pro 510 adapter that’s screwed directly into the top where a supplied 12.5mm Stainless Steel drip tip held on by one O-ring slides into place snug. The 510 drip tip will provide the flavor you expect but comparing it to the other two choices, it rarely gets used.
The advantage of the wide bore options is the ability to drip your eJuice right through the drip tip without removing the cap every time. I like to paint my coils like the best of them but as a quicker alternative, the Geek Vape Tsunami gives us that opportunity.
The first build I tasked myself with was a single 0.21Ω SS316L Alien Clapton coil. Despite the leads being beefy, the Tsunami’s rectangle post holes absorbed them up with room to spare! Flavor upon flavor (ZOUR Apple eJuice, yum!) with a nice touch of warmth on the palate but burns juice very quickly, or what vapers call a ‘juice hog.’
I mainly used the wide bore Delrin drip tip at 90W and was blowing unbelievably large plumes of vapor; I swore my neighbor thought there was a fire in my backyard! After rewicking the single coil multiple times, I went with a simple 22g 7-wrap dual Kanthal configuration also at 90W giving me smaller cloud production but the flavor profile was on point with the 510 drip tip.
Sometimes going back to my roots of building and throwing together a simple dual setup is a nice refresher from time to time.
When installing your coils, you definitely want to place each coil right over, but not touching the airflow tubes for maximum performance. The higher the coils are from the air tubes means a less dense flavor profile; still a good vape just not as good as it could be.
One of my only subjective cons with the GeekVape Tsunami RDA is the tight space you’re left with to tuck your cotton ends into. After wicking the coils and cutting the cotton right along the floor of the build deck, you direct your cotton ends in between the air tube and circumference of the deck. If you don’t jam a bunch of cotton in that crevice, you should have no troubles and will have a saturated vape.
Like with any other RDA, you’re going to get plenty of condensation buildup and sporadic spit back depending on your build; nothing out of the ordinary. My experience with the GeekVape Tsunami RDA has been stellar since day one with really nothing that would steer me away from continuing to use it and highly recommend it.
Tsunami RDA Final Grade – A
“The GeekVape Tsunami RDA is an ‘everybody RDA’ handling builds from simple to complex and providing outstanding performance at a low price. For only $18.95 at Element Vape (my local B&M has it for $35 bucks), it’s definitely a must-have Atomizer if you enjoy building and the whole RDA dripping experience is your cup of tea. Simple and effective design that delivers Tsunami-sized clouds!”
Team Spinfuel
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