Wismec Cylin Plus Review
The Wismec Cylin Plus is an innovative atomizer that aims to replicate the satisfying vaping experience of dripping, without the user actually having to drip juice over the coils every few puffs. You might say ‘well, we already have RTAs for that,’ and you’d technically be right, but most RTA systems pull the e-liquid from a reservoir under the build deck, while the Cylin design actually has the juice dripping on the cotton from a tank positioned on top of the RDA section. It’s a bold concept that actually works great IF set up right, which I can tell you right now is a huge challenge even for experienced vapers.
I’ve been a huge fan of Wismec ever since the Reuleaux RX200 came out and took mod battery life to a whole new level, and I’ve loved every device they’ve come up with since – I’m working on a review of the Reuleaux RX Mini, by the way – but I had yet to try one of their atomizers. So, when presented with the chance to test the new Cylin Plus RTA, I just jumped at the opportunity. After all, it’s designed by Jay Bo, the man who brought us the awesome TOBH atomizer, and who has been working with Wismec on most of their awesome products.
But I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The concept behind the Cylin Plus looks great on paper, but in reality, it has the most complicated design of any atomizer I have ever used, by far. From the way the components of this RTA need to be assembled and disassembled, to the way it has to be wicked to prevent leaking, the Cylin Plus presents huge challenges. I like to think of this as the Mount Everest of RTAs. If you can figure it out and master it, than you’re probably going to find working with other rebuildable atomizer a breeze.
A Look at the Contents
The Wismec Cylin Plus comes in a nice plastic box with a clear lid that allows you to get a good view of the device inside. On the back, you’ll find a short description of the atomizer, a list of contents and company info.
Inside the box, we have the assembled Cylin Plus sitting snug in a foam holder, next to a spare glass tube and a box labeled “Accessories”. Inside this box you’ll find two Clapton coils, a couple of spare Philips head screws for the build deck, a bunch of o-rings, a mini screwdriver and a plastic top cap for using the Cylin as a simple RDA. Underneath the foam holder you’ll also find a bag of organic cotton and a user manual. The latter, though helpful, is not nearly enough to understand the way this very complex atomizer works.
Overall, the Wismec Cylin Plus kit is a very generous one, offering plenty of extra parts to keep you vaping even if you happen to break or lose some of the tank’s components.
Design and Build Quality
Like the original Cylin RTA, the Wismec Cylin Plus is 57.2 mm tall from the base to the tip of the drip tip, has a diameter of 22 mm and an e-liquid capacity of 3.5 mm. Truth be told, the Plus version of this atomizer looks pretty much identical to the original, at least at first glance. The only notable changes have been made to the airflow system and the build deck.
Made primarily of stainless steel and tempered glass, the Cylin Plus has a visually appealing design in my opinion. The “Jay Bo” and “Cylin+” logos etched into the barrel of the RDA section are a nice touch, as are the turquoise o-rings of the tank, but what I appreciated most about it was the quality of the machining. Everything from the threading to the knurling on the top cap and the airflow control ring at the bottom is nice and smooth, and the same is true for the inner components as well. My sample had no scratches or stains of any kind, it was in pristine condition.
The Wismec Cylin Plus is a fairly complex atomizer. At first glance, it is made up of a 3.5 ml juice tank that sits atop a stainless steel RDA section, but there’s a lot more to it than that. So much, in fact, that I don’t even know where to begin.
Let’s start with the tank. It was easier for me to figure out than the RDA part, but I did have some trouble with it as well. First of all, I had a bit of trouble taking the top cap off. It doesn’t screw on to the glass section, as the caps of most tanks do. You just have to pull it off, but until I figured that out, I spent quite a bit of time trying to screw it off. What confused me the most was that the top cap did seem to move from left to right partially, but not to the point where it would come off. I later found that the partial twisting plays a different part all together. Anyway, don’t try to twist it off, just pull on it.
Once you take out the top cap you notice a square pattern on the chimney that aligns with these notches on the inside of the top cap. So when you put it back on, you have to make sure that these notches align with the sides of the square, not the corners, otherwise you won’t be able to press it back on.
This square section allows you to rotate the chimney of the Cylin Plus by turning the top cap clockwise and counterclockwise, to open and close the two juice flow control slots on the bottom of the tank. It’s important to remember that turning the top cap clockwise closes the slots and counterclockwise opens them, because there is no way to check when you’re vaping. So knowing which way is which can mean the difference between an enjoyable vaping experience and a lot of leaked juice.
The stainless steel drip tip of the Cylin Plus is fused to the top cap, but the tank does come with a Delrin sleeve that prevents lip burning when vaping at high wattages. You can also fit a 510 drip tip inside the tip of the tank, but that makes a bit too long for my taste.
The RDA section is a lot more complicated, in my opinion. I struggled for a good 20 minutes trying to figure out how to remove the metal barrel from the build deck, in order to mount my coil. It was a really frustrating experience that could have been avoided had Wismec been very clear about how to do it, in the user manual. There’s nothing about this in there.
In the case of most RDAs, the metal barrel is held in place over the deck with the help of o-rings, so you just have to apply some pressure on the deck to remove the barrel. That’s not how the Cylin or Cylin Plus work. To have any chance of removing the barrel, you have to keep turning the metal airflow ring under the deck after it has hit the metal stopper in order to turn the deck and only then yank it out. It’s an unnecessarily system that just makes the learning curve of this atomizer even steeper than it already is. After I finally managed to take it, I was equally relieved and pissed off about how much time and neurons I had lost over this stupid system.
The deck and the barrel both have some indentations on the sides, so when you press them together and turn the deck to align its posts with the juice flow control holes of the tank, you essentially lock them together. Out of the box, they are locked, and I didn’t know this, so I was trying to detach them by brute force. It was a futile effort.
Anyway, once you manage to detach the deck, you notice the differences between the original Wismec Cylin and the Cylin Plus. The new version comes with clamp-style posts, somewhat similar to those we’ve seen in the Goon RDA and in the Digiflavor Lynx. The deck looks large enough to fit a dual-coil build, but because of the way that the tank has to align with the RDA base, you can only use a single coil in RTA mode.
The good news is that the Cylin Plus can also be used in RDA mode by simply taking the RDA section and using the included plastic top cap, instead of the tank.
Another noticeable difference has to do with the airflow. The original Wismec Cylin RTA had the same bottom airflow control ring, but inside, the air slots were positioned on the side of the deck. This time around the two slots are on the bottom, so they hit the coils from underneath, for improved flavor intensity. However, when using the atomizer in single-coil mode, due to the positioning of the slots , the air only hits the edges of the coil, but not the center. In dual-coil/RDA mode, the coils are aligned perfectly above the airflow slots, so the air hits them perfectly.
Finally, when putting the RDA section and the tank together to assemble the Wismec Cylin Plus RTA, you have to align the two visible notches on the inside of the barrel, with the two small grooves on the edge of the tank base. If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to push the tank all the way into the barrel.
As I said in the beginning, I like the idea of a more convenient alternative to dripping, but the convoluted design of the Cylin Plus is anything but that. And we haven’t even mentioned wicking yet!
Setting Up
After you’ve managed to take apart the Cylin Plus, I suggest you give all the parts a good rinse, to remove any leftover machining oil. Mine, for example, had visible droplets of oil on the inside of the chimney, and you definitely don’t want to be inhaling that stuff.
Installing a coil – or two – is a lot easier on the Wismec Cylin Plus than on the original Cylin, thanks to the the new clamp-style posts. Just unscrew the Philips head screws on top of the posts to loosen the clamps, insert the coil leads and tighten the screws to lock them in place. That’s pretty much all it takes. Now comes the hard part.
Wicking is essential when using an RTA device. Do it right and you’ll enjoy a pleasurable vaping experience, mess up and you’ll have to deal with either dry burns or constant leaking. But a good wicking job is even more critical when using the Cylin Plus, because otherwise gravity will literally empty the juice tank and leave your mod and hands covered in sticky e-liquid.
However, properly wicking the Cylin Plus is easier said than done, and even after reading these instructions and watching Jay Bo’s instructional video (for the original Wismec Cylin, but it works for the Plus too), chances are you’ll still mess up the first time.
All I can do is give you some simple pointers on how to go about wicking this little monster. First of all, you want to leave your cotton leads a bit longer than usual, because you’re going to have to turn the ends downwards and place them right next to the raised airflow slots, so that the cotton strands form a bow. You want the arched section of the cotton to be sitting a bit higher than the coil, but just under those two little notches on the side of the RDA barrel. If they are too low under the juice flow control hole of the tank, they won’t be able to stop the flow of juice, and if they are too high, they will just jam these holes and make wicking less efficient. Basically, you have to do a perfect wicking job to prevent a disastrous vaping experience.
My first time wicking the Cylin Plus resulted in a wasted tank of juice and a big mess to clean up. I managed to get it right the second time, but only after watching Jay Bo’s video, and I’m not sure that I’ll be able to do it again next time. It’s pretty hard, even for an advanced vaper, so I have no idea how someone without plenty of experience with RTAs can handle it.
How It Vapes
When you eventually figure out how to properly set up the Wismec Cylin Plus, you can actually enjoy a pleasurable vaping experience. Is it as good as a dripper? I would say so, yes, because that’s what it is, essentially, a dripper that constantly does the dripping for you. As long as the cotton wicking is nice and saturated, this thing really does perform really well.
The vapor production varies according to what coil build and e-liquid you’re using, but I got some really great clouds with a Geek Vape pre-made fused Clapton coil (0.25Ω), vaping some delicious Fried Cream Cakes e-liquid. Thanks to the improved airflow slot design, the flavor is amazing as well, right up there with some of my best RDAs.
I really have nothing to complain about regarding performance, but the fact that it’s so prone to serious problems, makes it hard for me to recommend it to anyone, except the most adventurous of advanced vapers. For example, forgetting to close off the juice flow control holes when refilling the tank or taking it off results in disaster. The juice just leaks out and you’re left with a mess.
Forgetting to shut off the juice flow is more common than you think, but with RTAs that have the juice tank on the bottom, the consequences are not so disastrous.
Conclusion
I really like the idea of an RTA that faithfully replicates the vaping experience of using a dripper, but, at the same time, I just can’t ignore the issues of Jay Bo’s design. The Wismec Cylin Plus is really tough to figure out, from the way it has to be assembled and disassembled, to the wicking, and I just don’t think it’s worth all the hassle, to be honest.
I have nothing negative to say about the build quality and the performance of the Cylin, it’s obvious that both its designer and the manufacturer put a lot of effort into making it, but it’s simply way to complicated and risky for me. If you’re looking for a challenge, go for it, otherwise, there are simpler atomizers to choose from.
The Wismec Reuleaux RX Mini was provided free of charge for the purpose of this review by VapeSourcing.
