It seems like every time I review an RDA, it’s a special “celebrity-edition” device, complete with personalized branding and gold-matte signatures from these industry rock stars. And to be honest, few of them ever live up to the hype – after all, there’s only so much you can do with an RDA, right? But this one – the Aequitas RDA – comes from Hellvape, the makers of my current favorite dripper, the Dead Rabbit.

What does this mean? Well, even though an RDA is still very much “an RDA,” there’s enough innovation in the minimalist format to warrant some digital ink, so let’s get to it.

Though it looks bigger than its long-eared brethren, the Aequitas RDA is actually 24mm in diameter, and only a hair (hare?) taller as well. The matte black exterior cap has very little adornment, outside of some Celtic-like embossing, and some slight knurling on the top cap to ease opening the RDA. Sure, the random colorway drip tips are nice, but knowing the RDA audience, there’s nothing special worth going out of your way to get.

Hell, even on the inside there’s little we haven’t seen before. The Aequitas RDA build deck is alarmingly similar to the Dead Rabbit, with four individual posts that allow for single- or dual-coil builds, and a lot of creative coil placement. The top-feeding design gives users a good amount of flexibility, and the raised format means you can place and position wire before snipping the leads.

At least in theory, if not in practice. Through countless coil types, I could only successfully feed the leads through a handful of times. I found it to be more effective to snip as usual, rather than perform endless bending to shoehorn ill-fitting coils.

But, once they’re seated, the coils hold in place nicely, and users will have plenty of room above the gold-plated deck to position the coils as desired. Of course, placement won’t be as much of a concern on the Aequitas RDA as on other RDAs, thanks to the device’s true standout feature.

Indeed, Hellvape added a little innovation to the standard RDA by offering a flippable barrel section that allows users to choose from top- or bottom-diagonal airflow. In other words, you can have airflow coming from either above or below your deck to create different flavor and vapor output.

Though I was skeptical about what basically amounts to a gimmicky slot placement in a metal cap, the two positions on the Aequitas offer distinct experiences. Not “earth-shattering” differences, mind you. But I found that the lower positioning offered richer, more nuanced flavor with my more complicated e-liquids, wheres the top positioning created more muted (but thicker) clouds.

Personal preference will ultimately determine how you position your Aequitas RDA. But keep in mind that the lower airflow position will make leaking a virtual certainty – drip smart, friends.

Also impressive was the deceptive 3mm juice well, which held a decent amount of juice, allowing me to puff for extended periods before having to refill. I was able to use a decent amount of cotton here, and it never dried out ahead of schedule, even at higher wattages. Though it’s not nearly as spacious as the Dead Rabbit, the Aequitas is hardly the neediest RDA in my collection.

Vaping the Hellvape Aequitas was a comfortable, flavorful, and altogether predictable experience. And that’s not a bad thing in my eyes. It’s safe to say we’re reaching a point of diminishing returns in RDA design, and build deck innovations are going to arrive less frequently with each passing month. Yet, it’s comforting to see a company simply put out a better, more versatile mousetrap, that simply works.

Building on the Aequitas, I first used a standard RDA Kanthal build – 0.20-ohm resistance – and attached it to my current favorite mod, the Uwell Ironfist. The Aequitas sat flush on the mod, as it did on several other mods from my collection.

With this configuration the Aequitas RDA performed admirably. I quickly enjoyed fast ramping, powerful draws, with adequate airflow and flavor.

But considering the single-coil build options, I was intrigued to see how the Aequitas would perform as a MTL-focused RDA. Using the nicely knurled top cap, I closed down the airflow, moved to a 510 drip tip, and installed a the same spaced, 1.1-ohm kanthal build I used on the Dead Rabbit. It was broad enough to keep the vapor flowing, but restrictive enough to intensify flavor. The results were shockingly good.

I don’t see myself using the Aequitas for these purposes that often, but it’s nice to know Hellvape continues to include all types of vapers into their products, and not just the cloud nuts.

I hadn’t used my squonker in a while, so I installed the included gold hexagon squonk pin, attached it to my iJOY Capo Squonk, and really enjoyed the rich flavor put out by the combination. In fact, if I was Hellvape, I’d strongly consider promoting the Aequitas more heavily as a BF RDA, since the squonk performance was near flawless – something I can’t say about most RDAs in this category.

Though the deck is shallow, moving the barrel to the top-positioned airflow ensured strong performance with no leaking to be had no matter how heavily I dripped.

The Aequitas is a unique entry into the stagnant RDA market. While it’s seemingly the heir apparent to the Dead Rabbit throne, and certainly shares a lot of similarities with its predecessor, the Aequitas ultimately performs better as a squonker, and manages to get similar capacity from a significantly shallower juice well.

Is the Hellvape Aequitas a “must buy RDA?” No, but I’m not sure one exists in this day and age. Instead, the Aequitas DOES qualify as a versatile, solidly performing dripper with strong flavor and adequate vapor production. For those who just need to own every dripper on the market, that’s likely more than enough. And for those who are just getting into the RDA game, the Aequitas is as good a choice as any to get started.

Score: A-

Hellvape x AmbitionZ VapeR Aequitas RDA is Available Now at Element Vape