OXVA Arbiter Solo RTA Review

We’ve all heard of OXVA by now, they blasted onto the vape scene over a year ago now, with their ‘Origin‘ series Pod Mod device, and have gone from strength to strength with every product that they release.

A little while back they released a product called the ‘Arbiter RTA’, a dual coil top airflow tank, that was both leak-proof and pushed out some pretty impressive flavour. I’ve only tried one once, I don’t actually own one unfortunately, but it received some pretty rave reviews, and has a large following still.

Fast forward a bit and OXVA got in touch with me about a new version of their Arbiter RTA, this one with a little bit more to it than the original. To say I was intrigued was an understatement, let’s just say this, I have been using the sample version they sent me for about 3 weeks now, and now the final retail version for about a week, and I have used nothing else as my main vape for that entire time!

So now that I’ve pumped up your curiosity a bunch, let’s check out OXVA’s latest, the Arbiter Solo RTA!

Big thanks goes to OXVA, who sent this out for the purposes of review!

Photos

General Info

The new Arbiter Solo RTA is of course constructed of stainless steel, with Pyrex glass for the tank section. It’s a neat piece of engineering once you pull it all apart and look at the innards, they’ve managed to do some really nice things with this tank, and of course all of top notch build quality, as you’d expect from OXVA.

Catering toward those who gravitate to Mouth to Lung vaping, or restricted Direct to Lung, the Arbiter Solo has a nice dense chamber and so many airflow options, you’re guaranteed to find an airflow that you like.

It’s a medium sized tank running at around 56.5mm in height with drip tip, with a 24mm base, making sure it’ll look great on pretty much any device you run it on.

From top to bottom, first is the top cap, which not only houses the drip tip and MTL/RDTL switch, but unscrews cleanly to expose the filling ports when you remove the cap. You’ll receive 2 different 510 drip tips in the pack, one designed for MTL (Mouth to lung) use the other for RDTL (Restricted Direct to Lung) vaping, both are quality little tips, that sit really nicely in the lips.

Below the drip tip is your MTL/RDTL switch, which allows you to change the airflow from a more airy RDTL to a tighter MTL style vape, I’ll explain this a little further on. Underneath the top cap is an airflow control ring, sporting a heap of different airflow adjustments, from a wide cyclops style airflow port, right down to a 0.8mm MTL port.

There are 2 different glass sections, straight and bubble, with the straight giving you a 2ml e-liquid capacity, and the bubble glass giving you 4ml.

The bottom piece, with deck is the last on the list. The two post design of the deck is nice and clean, with ample room to move when building, while keeping the chamber for the single coil really tight so that you can get a really dense vape from it. The airflow is clever and allows air to come in from the sides of your coil as well as underneath too.

You’ll find a gold plated 510 pin underneath, that protrudes quite a way also, making sure that it’s safe to use this on a hybrid mechanical device, or device that makes direct connection to your battery without risk of a short.

Multi-Use Airflow

This is the part that sells this tank, and I don’t think this has ever been done before. The bi-directional and switchable airflow options. Not only does OXVA provide you with a bunch of settings, but those settings also affect how the airflow is directed at your coil too, not just how much air gets into the tank like many others do.

Up top you’ll find the MTL/RDTL switch, it’s a rotating switch around the top cap that allows you to switch between a MTL draw and a restricted DTL draw. Looking closer at the chimney and base, you’ll quickly realise that how it does it is quite ingenious. There is an inner chimney that spins when moving the MTL/RDTL switch which moves the air intake that comes from the top airflow ring, and how that airflow lines up with the deck.

In MTL mode, the airflow comes in through the top, down the inside, through a port in the side of the deck where it then comes up from underneath the coil via the x3 1.5mm holes.

In RDTL mode, the airflow comes in through the top, down the inside, and through not only under the deck, but also in from both sides through the deck posts, allowing even more air, and creating a 3 dimensional airflow from all sides.

Besides this engineering feat, which completely changes the airflow game, you also have an airflow ring around the air inlet at the top of the tank. Not only does it offer you a selection of airflow levels on one side of the airflow ring more for DTL style vaping, but spinning it around the opposite direction, also allows you to fine tune to a much tighter MTL experience if you so need to with a single hole adjustment.

OXVA have gone above and beyond with the airflow options here, and I really do doubt that anybody would be able to not find their perfect airflow with it.

Filling

Super simple, smooth and effective. OXVA have chosen to go with a screw down design for the top cap, which is my preference, over slide caps or any other type of fill cap. The cap and opposite fill port area is machined really well, with meshing ridges to maximise the seal that it has, therefore also minimising any positive pressure inside the tank to keep your wicking working as it should.

The fill ports are your usual x2 large kidney shaped holes that will allow any type of bottle nozzle into which also have a little depth to them. To easily fill to 100%, push your nozzle into one hole while keeping an eye on the other, and squeeze your bottle. When you see a little e-liquid begin to rise up in the opposite hole, stop. You’re done. Simple as that.

Deck and Building

As I mentioned earlier, the deck is a 2 post/block single coil deck, with hex screws to hold your coil legs down, and airflow options galore. Have a closer look at these photos and you’ll be able to see not only the 3 MTL airflow holes under the coil, but the 2 large airflow holes that come in at both sides of the coil, giving even more air for the RDTL option. Working seamlessly with the chimney the deck is the final piece of the puzzle, connecting all of the air inlets to push air onto your coil from 3 different directions.

If you look closely at the chimney to the deck, you’ll notice that there really isn’t a lot of room in there, in fact there is just enough room for a single coil (2.5mm diameter coil is perfect), which makes this a flavour machine due to the small vapourisation chamber.

Building on the Arbiter Solo is super simple. With a coil tool push the provided clapton coil (2.5mm) into place and secure each leg under each hex screw block. Pulse and strum your coil, then go to town with wicking.
You’ll notice that wicking is actually really forgiving on the Arbiter Solo, you can either stuff the wick ends into the large wicking holes, or place them on top, it’s really up to you. Flooding and leaking is impossible due to it being top airflow too. Like I said, a really forgiving build deck.

Any Leaks?

None, not at all. This is a top airflow tank after all!

Pros:

• Excellent dense flavour
• Versatile airflow options
• Switch between MTL to RDTL easily
• Great e-liquid capacity
• Simple to build on
• Forgiving wicking (really easy to wick)
  

Cons:

• None
  

Where to Buy:

You can pick up the OXVA Arbiter Solo RTA directly through OXVA’s online store for approximately $34.99. You’ll likely be able to purchase this locally in a short time too, I can see this being picked up by most vape stores around the country, so keep and eye out for it!

Conclusion

The Arbiter Solo is a brilliant little tank, that is not only fantastic for beginners due to it’s forgiving wicking, but a pleasure to use too, with a lovely dense vape and excellent flavour.

OXVA’s dedication to innovation, particularly to the airflow, is nothing short of extraordinary, they’ve got to be so happy with the result of their hard work. The airflow is truly fantastic. That’s not to say that the rest of the tank isn’t great, in fact it’s basically flawless. It just works, and that is the ultimate target you could hit for any product.

Absolutely fantastic work OXVA, I think I’ll be using this for quite some time to come, it’s definitely going to be the RTA that I recommend for those who like a restricted DTL vape!

Now I just need to pick up the original ‘Arbiter RTA’ so that I can compare them 😉

Shane Presser

Shane Presser has been vaping since 2013, and has extensive experience with advanced equipment, coil builds and DIY mixing. He is the man behind VapersGarage, and also more recently Aussie Vape Stores, a resource to help vapers find their nearest Vape Shops, and eLiquid Vendors.