Steve K's Vaping World

The DS3 Versi Tank is trying to bridge the world of e-cigarette tanks in a single device.  Some people like dual coil cartomizer tanks, others like to use single coil cartomizers in the same tanks.  There’s also the top coil style tanks like the Vivi Nova which have become extremely popular.  The DS3 Versi tank attempts to bridge all of those features in a single product. Sound weird?  I’ll review the DS3 Versi Tank to see if it’s a stroke of brilliance or idiocy.

Details

DS3 Design

From the intro, you’ve probably gathered the Versi Tank is a strange bird. Essentially, it is a modular tank system that allows it to switch between these different styles of e-cigarette tanks.  The tank itself is fairly straight forward.

There are aluminum end caps on either end of the tank tube which screw on to the tube directly via threads built into the tank, similar to a Vivi Nova. Also like the Vivi Nova, there are graduated markings on the tank. The markings up to about 5ml but are only labeled to 3ml for some reason. Filling the tank is a simple matter of unscrewing the top cap and pouring e-liquid in.

The tank itself is skinnier and taller than a Vivi Nova tank.  The DS3 looks like it can accommodate a standard drip tip, but it can’t.  The opening appears to be slightly narrow to accommodate any other drip tip I tried in the tank.

At the other side of the tank, the bottom end cap is what begins to tell the story of how the DS3 Versi Tank does its thing.  Rather than being a simple hole through which a cartomizer is inserted, or having a stem for replaceable heads, the end cap has battery connector threads but is hollow inside the connector area.

A set of threads can be found on the inside of the end cap.  This is for the different types of components to screw in.  I’m not exactly sure what to call them, they’re almost like their own cartomizers.  Anyway, these cartomizers (posts?) have a pin at the bottom instead of a traditional battery connector.  The pin goes into the hole in the end cap and the post is screwed down making a complete battery connector.

The DS3 ships with three different types of assemblies.  The first is essentially a small single coil cartomizer with a hole for feeding e-liquid and a top cap that matches up with the top of the cartomizer to seal the connection.  The second is essentially a top coil modular head system like the Nova tanks.

Finally, the last configuration, and the one that ships preinstalled is the hybrid. It combines the first two types into a dual coil setup using two different technologies.

The basic idea is that you can swap between the different technologies depending on your mood or what e-liquid you’re using.

Using the Versi Tank System

Now that we know the theory behind this strange Frankenstein device, the question is how well (or does) it work.  I found each mode had different characteristics since the technologies are different in each.  I’ll go through each one individually.

First up is the hybrid mode which is the default option and sort of the headline act for this device. From a pure performance standpoint, it worked great.  It did require some dry pulls to get the bottom “cartomizer” saturated with e-liquid.  After that, it was smooth sailing.  The device came in under 2 ohms, I found the best vapor came around 4.5volts.

Production was amazing. The vapor had a good flavor as well. There was some warmth to the vapor, while the tank itself also got pretty warm.  However, there was a show stopping problem with this setup.

Leakage.  The setup was prone to a little gurgling, which can happen.  However, when I left the device upright on my Vamo overnight, I found most of the tank drained the next morning.  Since the DS3 is modular, I tried making sure everything was tight (it was a little loose). I cleaned up and reattached everything and repeated the steps to find the leaking was still happening.

To be fair, this could simply be one bad assembly, it happens.  But, you can’t combine the other two into the same setup, and I only had the one, so I can’t confirm or deny its being a systematic problem.

Moving along, next up is the regular cartomizer assembly.  This particular setup was probably the least impressive from a performance standard.  Vapor production was alright, but nothing to write home about.  Cranking up the volts didn’t help because it started to taste burnt fairly quickly. The good news is this setup had no leaking issues.

I don’t think I really need to mention much else about the cartomizer. So, how about the Nova clone?  That one seems pretty decent too actually. Good vapor production and flavor. The generous 4 wick setup does a good job of delivering e-liquid. While it doesn’t belt out quite as much vapor as the hybrid setup, I’d say it’s pretty equivalent to a garden-variety nova.

The DS3 is also less expensive than the Vivi Nova, so that might make it a reasonable option despite the other downsides to this device.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

The DS3 Versi Tank is an interesting device. It promises to let you switch between cartomizer, nova-style or hybrid dual coil tanks.  The cartomizer mode was underwhelming, while my unit leaked with the hybrid stuff installed. The nova mode worked very well. If the leaking was just a fluke, this device is still very compelling, if the leaking isn’t, well, it’s a less expensive version of the Vivi Nova. You can grab one at Vapor Alley.

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Disclosure: I received this item for review from VaporAlley, I feature affiliate links for VaporAlley

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