The Hellvape Drop Dead 2 RDA makes some fairly large, and welcome, changes to the original Drop Dead, which was already a huge direction change from the original Alabama baby between the Dead Rabbit and Drop, both of which were insanely good RDAs for their time. A deeper juice well and the removal of the bunny ear posts turns the Drop Dead into a traditional RDA and honestly, I’m all for it.
Hellvape Drop Dead 2 Verdict – 92%
Back when vaping was all about massive clouds and pod systems were but a dream, the Dead Rabbit and Drop RDAs turned the vaping world upside down.
Both these atties were so wild that I remember thinking they were nothing but a gimmick. The Dead Rabbit had the weirdest build deck I’ve ever seen, with posts resembling bunny ears, it made no sense, but somehow, it was one of the best performing RDAs for years after. Shortly after its release, I was introduced to the Drop RDA by TVC, another atty that was conjured up by a madman, but somehow worked flawlessly. Both devices were so well received that they had a cult following, Hellvape noticed this and has been churning out Dead Rabbits one after the other. The latest iteration though, could just be their best.
Design
The Drop Dead 2 has more aesthetic similarities to the Dead Rabbit than the Drop, it’s a stunner and I much prefer the stubbier styling of the Rabbit over the previous version that resembled the Drop.
It’s shorter than the original Drop and only a few mm taller than the DR, but the general look and feel is very much DR thanks to the thick, removable and top cap. The entire thing comes in around 24mm and not surprisingly, still dual coil.
The outer ring, that acts as the airflow along with the slatted top cap is completely removable, allowing easy access to the build deck.
The deck, now here it gets interesting. It may be called the Drop Dead, but it has no similarities, outside of being dual coil, to either the Drop or the Dead Rabbit, hell, even the original Drop Dead was vastly different inside.
Hellvape have dropped (see what I did there) the towering bunny ear post design in favour of a traditional postless deck design. A complete removal of uniquiness of the series for a traditional approach. I should be annoyed by this change, but the postless deck adds some serious old school vibes to the Drop Dead 2; I couldn’t help missing my Apocalypse RDA while using the DD2.
Airflow adjustment has been changed to a multirow system that according to Hellvape allow for up to 15 settings, but in reality, it’s just another slider style adjustment. Changing the airflow is the same as both the Drop and Dead Rabbit and involves turning the top cap to expose more holes. Previously I found the top cap to be quite stiff during the first few fills and this remains on the DD2.
Performance
The Drop Dead would be nothing if it performed like trash, performance is what the original versions offered and what made them so successful.
With a more traditional deck, comes a slightly easier build experience. The biggest issue I had with both the Dead Rabbit and Drop was getting the coil leg length just so and the wick hanging the perfect amount down the well. If you got these lengths ever so slightly wrong, the difference in performance was greatly noticeable. Less so on the Dead Rabbit than the Drop, but it was there.
With this new 24mm build deck, it’s way easier to get consistent results. Cut your coil to the desired length using the included tool, drop your coils down the posts, tighten up the easily accessible screws and get your wick hovering just above the bottom of the juice well. The DD2 is stupidly easy to build on and the result is thick, flavour filled Lucious clouds. The Drop Dead 2 proves that we don’t need gimmicks for RDAs to perform well.
The airflow works just fine, but I do feel that Hellvape could have kept it simple here as well. The original Drop airflow worked fine and did not need fixing. Sure, the airflow works on the DD2 and it’s smooth, but it feels like Hellvape is doing things here for the sake of doing things.
Specs:
- Size: POD – 24.5×27 mm
- Materials: Zinc Alloy
- Coil Type: Dual Coil
- Wight: 42g
Hellvape Drop Dead 2 Conclusion
The Drop Dead 2 is a complete 180 from the previous version and it’s not often that big changes like this work, but in the case of the DD2, Hellvape have succeed. The Drop Dead 2 is easier to build on, easy to get consistent results and looks fantastic. An all-round banger of a device.
I wish Hellvape would call it quits on the series now, they’ve reached peak performance.
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