Table of Contents
The OBS T-VCT Sub Ohm Tank Review
Including the new RBA Kit
Vaping With Julia
After vaping with way too many sub-ohm tanks this year it takes a lot to leave an impression on me. Some tanks have earned a place in my vape gear collection while others have not. Today I want to tell you about a sub-ohm tank that has impressed me so much that I found myself using it almost exclusively…almost, for the better part of the month.
My initial interest in the tank was caused by, now I’m just being honest here, the 
universally accepted face of a space alien. See photos. In a sea of sub-ohm tanks the T-VCT, from OBS, stood out because of that face. Whatever works, right?
While the three ‘colors’ of the OBS T-VCT tanks are gorgeous, and the overall design is intriguing and and attractive, they are not as aggressive looking as the Aspire Triton. That said, as much as I like the Triton there’s just no way I can use it as an all-day-tank. The OBS T-VCT tanks ARE comfortable enough to use all day, and the performance is exceptional. And that’s what counts when you shop for a new sub-ohm tank. If you pay good money for a tank you want to be able to use it, a lot. Otherwise, you’re just collecting tanks.
Let’s look at some of the specs and features so we can get them out of the way and I can delve into my personal experiences with these tanks, as well as the T-VCT’s RBA, which is an optional kit that is now available for just a few bucks more than the non-RBA tank kit.
The Technical
Factoid: OBS T-VCT stands for “Top (filling) Vapor Chasers Tank.
Color Options: Silver, Black, White
Material: Stainless steel and Glass
Thread Type: 510
Tank Capacity: 6.0ml
Removable Drip Tip
Weight: 0.067 kg
Size (L x W x H): 2.89 x 0.86 x 0.86 inches
Continuing…
Price: $32.99 Generally – Add $4 or $5 for the RBA Tank Kit.
Top Filling
Wattage Range: 10-35W (0.5ohm coil) 10-50W (0.25ohm coil)
Tank Capacity: A whopping 6ml
Coil type: 0.5 ohm (single coil, 10-35W), 0.2-0.5-ohm (dual coil ,10-50W)
Wicking material: 100% Organic Japanese Extra-Absorbent Cotton
Diameter: 22mm
RBA – Yes
Note* – For the first few hits you need to vape at 25W or below… the coils need to suck the liquid in slowly to fully saturate the cotton and coils, after that vaping at 30W-35W (0.5-ohms), and 35-40w (0.02-ohms) provides the best flavor and excellent vapor production.
Important – Using the same coil for two differently flavored eliquids will shorten the life of the coil dramatically. Staying with the same eliquid you can expect to vape anywhere from 50mL to 100mL before the coil needs to be changed. In terms of actual time, it depends on how long it takes you to vape 50-100mL.
What Comes With The T-VCT Tank
1x T-VCT Tank
1x T-VCT Quickstart/manual
1x 0.5-ohm BVC Coil – Single Coil
1x 0.25-ohm BTDC Bottom Triangle Dual Coil
What Comes With The T-VCT RBA Kit:
1x RBA Coil head Body
1x Coil Wrap
1x RBA Instruction Manual
1x Screwdriver, O-Rings, Extra wire to build your own coils.
Plus:
1x T-VCT Tank
1x T-VCT Manual
1x 0.5-ohm Single Coil Coil head
1x 0.25 Dual Coil Coil head
Okay then, now I can really talk about my experiences with these tanks. There is a lot to say actually, too much for a review, so bear with while I cover the most important aspects of the OBS T-VCT tanks.
I’ve used each of the three tanks equally, all with different eliquids but each having the same PG/VG ratio of 70:30 (70% VG). The white and the black tanks are identical in all ways except for the color, obviously. The silver tank however, came with the long-awaited RBA, an easy-to-use rebuildable coil head that many OBS fans have been patiently waiting for.
For this review I used my Sigelei TC 150W mod. I wanted more than enough leeway to see exactly what these tanks and the various coil heads I received could do.
Below I’ll go over each one and what I found was the sweet spots in wattage for each of the coil heads. I did not need that much wattage however. I could have used any 60w device with enough amperage to fire down to 0.25-ohms. The eLeaf iStick TC60W or the eVic-VT and eVic-VTC Mini would have worked fine.
My Wattage Test
Single Bottom Vertical Coil 0.5-ohm Coil head
The 0.5ohm BVC coil has a recommended wattage of 10-35W.
10W – Not that I expected the tank to actually work at 10W, I had to start somewhere. As was expected, my Sigelei couldn’t drive the tank at 10w.
20W – At 20 watts the tank came alive, somewhat, but the small amount of vapor was quite cool and the flavor was mediocre at best.
30W – And here we begin to see just how good this tank can be with the 0.5-ohm coil. 
Generous amount of vapor production at 30 watts, slightly warm vapor with good flavor notes coming in. This was nice, really nice.
35W – A much nicer vape at 35 watts. The flavor popped, and all the delicate flavor components came alive. My eliquid was going pretty quickly now but the intense flavors and massive clouds of vapor made it worth it. This was my sweet spot, but I pushed on.
40W – 40 watts is too much for this half-ohm coil. Very warm vapor, the danger of a dry hit seemed very real, and the flavor was this side of being scorched with huge lung hits. The fact is, with a big lung hit at 40w you’ll suck up more eliquid than can be sent to the coil/cotton, which can lead to a nasty dry hit.
35 watts is both the sweet spot for me, and the maximum level for this coil head.
The Dual Coil 0.25-ohm BDTC Coil head
The recommend wattage for this coil is: 10- 50W. Quite the spread, and not exactly accurate.
10W – Starting again at 10w I knew there wasn’t enough power to push the tank. But I wanted to be consistent in my tests. If you can’t get a half-ohm coil to fire at 10w cutting it in half to a quarter of an ohm certainly isn’t going to fire.
20W – 20 watts barely worked. I was able to tease out a bit of vapor, but the flavor was almost tasteless.
30W – The 0.25 coil head was able to work well at 30 watts but less well than the 0.5-ohm for sure. Vapor was nearly decent, but very cool, although it was enough to identify the flavors in my eliquid.
40W – 40 watts was nice. A nice warm vape with enormous curls of warm vapor and nice flavor. I could make out the smallest flavor notes at 40 watts, and I could stay at 40 watts all day long and not complain. As good as it was at 40 watts, I don’t think it was the sweet spot for this thick eliquid.
50W – 50 watts was where I expected the sweet spot to be, and I wasn’t wrong. Warm vapor and plenty of it, and the flavor components could be pulled apart and identified individually. This is where peak performance stands with this coil head and my Sigelei 150w. The problem is that it was too intense for an all-day-tank. After a while I backed down to 40 watts and decided that with this coil, 40 watts is where it best performs for continuous vaping.
60W – Despite the very warm vapor at 50 watts I wanted to push it a little more so I took it to 60 watts. 60 watts is just too much power for this coil head. 60 watts is quickly becoming the standard with mid-level variable wattage temperature control devices.
Ni200 Coil heads
OBS now offers Nickel coil heads for the T-VCT tank. I was not able to test the tank with these coils, but we can assume excellent performance only if the right TC device is being used.
Coil head Conclusions
If I had to choose between the 0.5-ohm coil and the 0.25-ohm coil I’m still not sure which of the two I would choose. Both output tremendous flavor and vapor at their respective ‘sweet spots’. However, whenever you’re using more power you’re burning through your battery life faster. In addition, when you’re vaping at a higher wattage you’re also vaporizing more eliquid, so if I was basing my decision on economics I would have to say the 0.5-ohm coil head would be the coil of my choice, especially if I was vaping an expensive eliquid.
The OBS T-VCT With RBA
The new Rebuildable is quite nice. It is slightly wider than the prebuild coil heads and the outside holes for eliquid saturation are half the size, which makes sense considering the cotton in the rebuildable sits very differently in the RBA than it does in the prebuilt coil heads. It is also very easy to use.
The Rebuildable holds a single coil that you build. Like many other Rebuildable sub-ohm tank setups this one does come with a wrapped coil, but it is not already installed, so you’ll need to attach it, and later build your coils in order to use it. The RBA T-VCT kit comes with a few inches of coil wire.
If you build coils you’d want to do build them anyway, but for vapers looking to take advantage of a Rebuildable experience the one pre-wrapped coil will get them started.
The two-post Rebuildable deck is completely exposed after popping off the well wall, which makes attaching the coil and threading it with cotton remarkably easy. Once threaded, snip off the excess cotton, pop the well back on, and vape away.
Simple Steps To Vape With The Rebuildable
The well wall is not screwed into the deck. To remove it you pop it off. To do so easily and without frustration, do the following:
- With the batteries OUT of your device, screw in the Rebuildable head to the base of the T-VCT and attach the tank to the Vaporizer. Trust me, you’ll need to the leverage.
- The Rebuildable well wall has an O-Ring and a tiny lip that snaps the well into the Rebuildable deck. In order to remove it so you have complete access to the deck you need to pull it up and Hold the vaporizer with one hand, get a good grip on the well wall with the other, and pull straight up. It will not be easy, but you don’t want it to be. A 4 second pull popped it off for me.
- The two posts have wide enough holes for very easy coils attaching. So, attach the coil and make sure its on tight. TEST the coil. Do not bypass this step. Test Test Test. Make sure it doesn’t short circuit and that the ohms’ level of safe. Press the fire button down until the coil is burning brightly, then back off and allow it to cool off.
- Cut a strip of organic cotton (supplied) and thread the coil. The excess cotton should be snipped off. Anything extending past the length of the deck should be the amount you snip off.
- Pop the well wall back on. You’ll ‘feel’ a snap when it is in place properly.
- Fluff the cotton and then drip several drops to saturate the cotton. After a few seconds hit the Fire button. If all goes well, fill the tank with 6ML of eliquid, attach the bottom of the tank (which is still attached to the vaporizer) to the tank and vape away.
Top Filling
The OBS T-VCT comes with a top filling function. You screw off the top part of the top cap and you’ll see two holes for filling the tank. The holes aren’t all that large, so take your time filling it if you are using an eyedropper. However, if you have an eliquid bottle with needle tip it will make filling much easier and faster. Admittedly the Aspire Triton and the MELO 2 have easier top filling methods, but this one isn’t bad, its just a little slower.
Eliquid Flow Control
One of the features that make the OBS T-VCT tank a truly nice tank is the eliquid flow control feature. The middle post around the coil is adjusted by twisting the top ring on of OBS T-VCT tank.
Why would you want to control the flow of eliquid into the coil/cotton?
Thicker eliquid, or High VG eliquids, doesn’t require as much eliquid flow control because it is plenty thick, meaning plenty slow. Higher PG eliquids however, are quite thin and the eliquid can run freely, too freely. Adjusting the flow allows you to hold back the thinner eliquid so as not to flood the coil/cotton chamber. Anyone using a PG/VG ratio of 50:50 or higher PG will need to make adjustments. It’s painless, so don’t worry about it.
Bottom Line
Most of the sub ohm tanks today offer similar performance with flavor and vapor production, so where does the OBS T-VCT fit in comparison to the other sub ohm I’ve tried or still use.
In terms of vapor production, the OBS T-VCT is as good, or better, as my previous and current favorite tanks. My top 4 tanks are the Kanger Subtank Mini, a true all-day-tank, (with the 0.5-ohm vertical Kanthal coils), the Aspire Triton, the MELO 2, and the Vision MK.
That’s not to say that other, more popular tanks such as the Herakles, Delta 2, Cyclone, Arctic, and a few others are not great tanks, it’s just that for me, for my vaping style, my favorites above handle all the vape situations I find myself in very well. I have now added to that the OBS T-VCT tank with the Rebuildable option to my list of favorites. Funnily enough, as much as I love the Triton and Vision MK, they are not all-day-tanks, but when I need a powerful vape these are tanks I go to. The OBS T-VCT is an all-day-tank, just as the MELO 2 and Kanger Subtank, are, and produce an excellent experience.
I imagine some vapers, say those that have used the Kanger Subtank exclusively, may find the OBS T-VCT too much of a good thing…for a while anyway. But as they become accustomed to it that 6mL of eliquid capacity will soon be enough to lead most to the conclusion that the OBS T-VCT is the best option in the “world of all-day-tanks”.
Naturally, this review is my impression of the tanks discussed here. You may want completely different types of tanks for your vaping pleasures, which is, in my opinion, the reason there are so many choices in sub-ohm tanks.
I would love to know what your favorite sub-ohm tank is, and why. Is your favorite tank also your all-day-tank? Can a favorite tank even be a tank you can’t use all day? Sound off below, let’s start a dialog.
Julia
