Our UD Simba review takes a look at the new ceramic coil, top-filling sub ohm tank: is it the best option for flavor-chasing vapers?
Is it worth picking up?
The UD Simba is an excellent tank, overall. With the pre-built coils, it’s easy to use and still a solid performer in terms of flavor and vapor, and for anybody looking for more control over their vaping experience, the included RBA head is pretty easy to build on and takes the performance to the next level.
There may be a few minor annoyances, but they’re easy to forget about when you consider how well the Simba performs. It isn’t the cheapest tank on the market, but UD has put together another excellent offering that’s well-worth the money.
Full review
Tanks have come a long way since the days of Vivi Novas and CE5 clearomizers. Sub ohm tanks are the new norm, doing away with the problems of poor vapor production, inadequate wicking and disappointing flavor by reducing the resistance of the pre-installed coils, drastically improving the wicking and carefully tweaking the airflow design. The result is a raft of excellent tanks on the market, each boasting huge vapor production, robust flavor and brilliant performance all-round.
UD isn’t new to this game, having put out tons of excellent atomizers over their time in business, and their new Simba tank adds to their solid line-up. With pre-built, beginner-friendly coils – with both cotton and ceramic wicking – and a rebuildable atomizer head, a 4.5 ml tank, juice flow control ring and more, the Simba looks like another top-quality tank from UD.
For $42.34, though, there are definitely cheaper options on the market, so is it worth picking up? We’ve put the tank through it’s paces for our UD Simba review to find out.
This tank was provided to us for the purposes of this review by Heaven Gifts. As always, this review will be a completely honest evaluation of the tank.
What You Get
The UD Simba tank comes in a well-presented box, with an image of the tank on the front and an authentication sticker on the back. The device is held in a foam block on the top level, and underneath it, there’s a spare glass tube, a bag of O-rings, your spare ceramic coil, a card with some basic instructions and an RBA atomizer head. This is everything you need from a tank, so there are no complaints about what you get with the Simba.
The Design
The Simba has a uniform 22 mm diameter, with a glass tube in the center, an airflow control ring below it and a removable top cap above it. Inside the tank there’s a central chimney, which widens out towards the bottom to make room for the atomizer heads.
The Simba’s design is made a little more visually appealing with the addition of the lion logo on the central chimney and the faux-handwritten “Simba” underneath it, but other than that the design is very bare-bones and basic. This isn’t a bad thing; it’s better to have a no-nonsense look than be covered in unnecessary adornments. It’s a tank, not a fashion accessory.
The tank measures 49 mm (about 2 inches) from top to bottom (not counting the drip tip and 510 connection), making it fairly tall but giving plenty of space for the 4.5 ml capacity. The length is increased a little by the airflow control ring at the bottom of the device and the liquid flow control system. The airflow control is the standard slot type, with two openings measuring around 9 by 2 mm each, offering plenty of room to adjust the draw to suit your preferences but notably less than some other devices.
The juice flow control works by opening and closing two slots on the interior of the device, which you accomplish by turning the portion of the tank above the airflow control ring. This allows you to fine-tune the speed at which juice reaches your coils and shut off the supply when needed – for example, when you’re refilling the tank. For vapers like me who primarily vape higher-VG blends, this is best left all the way open and forgotten about. But hopefully, unlike me, you’ll always remember to close it off when filling up.
Refilling is very easy thanks to the top-filling design. The top cap has several groups of three grooves cut into it to help you grip it, and screws open to reveal two curved slots you fill up through. This is standard on most tanks these days, but it’s definitely an effective system and it’s been executed very well here.
The tank is also pretty easy to take apart: unscrewing the bottom section (which houses the airflow control ring) pulls out the bottom deck and coil housing, and this is the main thing you’ll need to do in day to day operation. The rest of the tank can also be disassembled, but unless you’re cleaning it or changing out the Pyrex tube for the spare, there isn’t much need to do this.
Finally, the drip tip has an airflow control system built in. Inside there are two semi-circular sections of metal laid one on top of the other, and the upper-most one can be rotated by turning the outer shell of the drip tip. This allows you to adjust from a maximum of half the area of the drip tip open for air right down to just a little slither or even completely closed off. I tend to leave this all the way open, but it’s a handy option for anybody who wants to close off their draw a little more than can be accomplished with the main airflow control.
Overall, the Simba doesn’t do too much you can’t find in other devices, but the set of design features combines to give you plenty of options for controlling your vaping experience without making things needlessly complicated. As for appearances, the tank may look fairly basic, but it definitely gets the job done.
Vapor Production and Flavor
The pre-built coils on the Simba both make use of ceramic wicks, although one uses the ceramic as a border but has cotton inserted through the center of the coils. Although the juice you’re using and your power setting has an unavoidable impact on the sort of performance you’ll get out of the tank, on the whole it must be said that both pre-built coils do an excellent job.
The vapor production from both included coils is great, particularly with the airflow as open as possible. Although the tank is advertised primarily as a flavor-chaser’s device, most vapers will be very satisfied with the vapor production from the Simba. It might not be a cloud chasing machine, but you’ll hardly be disappointed if you crank your device up to higher wattages.
For flavor, the Simba really comes into its own. Even with a wide open airflow setting, the flavor is on par with what you’ll achieve with many RDAs, and while it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as some of the best RDAs, you won’t feel like you’re missing out in terms of flavor.
Ease of Rebuilding
For anybody looking for more rebuildable-like performance in their tank, the Simba comes with an RBA head that allows you to put together your own coil and tailor your experience even more.
The RBA head has a two-post design, which is a handy touch that gives you more space for building. The deck is still quite small, but you have plenty of space to put together a dual coil build, and there are airflow holes directly below where your coils sit to maximize the vapor production and flavor. You can get your coils directly above these holes without much effort, and you don’t have to cram everything up close to the posts either, so it’s a very comfortable building platform overall.
The post-holes aren’t huge, but there’s enough space to get two leads through each, so you’re unlikely to have any problems unless you’re trying to do something excessive like set up dual Clapton coils. The posts have Phillips-head screws in the top, and although I prefer flat-heads for RDAs, the screws work well and are easy enough to get going.
The wicking is what usually gives me problems with RTAs, especially on the types with screw-on chambers and tiny channels at various points around the bottom. On the Simba, the open nature of the RBA head and the nice wide spots for the wicks at the top of the juice channels makes everything a little more forgiving and easy to set up. You still have to give your wicks a very delicate haircut to keep them the right length, but it’s a lot easier to sort out than on other devices.
In Use
But how does the device do in practice? Are there any hidden annoyances that hold the tank back, or is it smooth sailing all the way to vaping nirvana?
The Simba’s solid vapor production and excellent flavor means that most of the time you’ll be more than happy with what it has to offer. Once you’re set up and you’ve filled the tank, everything works just as you want it to, with no problems with wicking, no leaking and generally very few problems overall. All you have to do is kick back and enjoy hassle-free vaping. 4.5 ml is a great tank size, too: you get plenty of e-juice in there so you don’t have to refill very often, but it’s also not so big that you’ve still got half a tank of juice you’re bored with to work through before you can change flavors.
The full ceramic coil is the best way to go if you’re looking for a simple vaping experience. While the cotton one works well, I had some issues with occasional dry hits when using a higher-VG juice. The ceramic one, on the other hand, drastically reduces the chances of a dry hit (I’m sure it’s possible, but I haven’t had one). If you’re comfortable with rebuilding, you’ll probably prefer the RBA head, but the ceramic option is definitely the easiest.
Things don’t get much harder even when you have to change your coil or refill the tank. The top-filling system is great, and while it basically goes without saying that this is much easier than having to invert the whole thing to refill, it’s worth stressing how simple this makes your day to day vaping experience. As for changing coils, it’s as simple as you’d expect from a tank, and it’s nothing too complex for even a beginner to get to grips with pretty quickly. When you’re using the RBA head or the cotton and ceramic option, you need to soak your wicks manually (like on an RDA) before filling up for the first time, but this is easy to do (not to mention a small price to pay to avoid a nasty dry hit).
There are a couple of little annoyances with the Simba, though. Although this is partially my fault for being careless, I’m not a big fan of the juice flow control system. Honestly, I see no benefit in reducing the juice flow to the coil on a modern tank: I’ve yet to suffer a problem with flooding on a sub ohm tank, even ones with huge wicking ports, and if you’re dumb like me and forget to close it off before refilling, prepare for juice to come streaming out of the airflow slots like a gushing wound. After one frantic clean-up as you panic about screwing up your mod, you don’t make the mistake again, but it’s still unpleasant.
The way the port opens and closes is also a bit problematic. Again, you get used to doing this, but when you absent-mindedly grab for the bottom of the tank to adjust the airflow, you can easily end up closing the juice flow or at least adjusting it a little. This doesn’t cause any issues as long as you notice, but the system would be better if it wasn’t so easy to accidentally adjust.
Some vapers may want to change the included drip tip, too, because having a half-covered tube isn’t ideal if you like big airflow. This fits well with the flavor-chasing intent of the tank, but some will still prefer a normal drip tip.
These are all ultimately minor points, though, and they don’t have much of an impact at all on your enjoyment of the device. When you get right down to it, you’re getting an excellently performing tank that is simple enough to use for someone new to vaping but still has enough flexibility to keep longer-term vapers happy.
Manufacturing Quality
The UD Simba is beautifully put together, and there were no problems whatsoever in my testing. The materials are all high-quality, all the threading works just like it should and everything connects nice and snugly.