Hellboy Driping Atomizer

I happen to have a legit Hellboy that I have had for a couple of months now. Last week I picked up a clone Hellboy from Catfish Atty Mods that was modified to serve as a bottom feeder for my Reo Grand mod. I decided to go ahead and do a review on the legit Hellboy,and as a bonus throw in some comparrisons with the clone. I purchased both of these atomizers, and the opinions expressed about them are my own. Your results and opinions may be different.

Before I get into the details of this atomizer, let's be clear that this thing is gimmicky. I don't say that to rip on the device, only to be honest. It's a round peg in a square hole. Other than that, it is a pretty standard 3 post 4 hole deck dripping atomizer. The airflow is nice and plentiful, but the vape isn't really different than a standard round atomizer. The point of this particular atty is for it to look nice on a box mod, and it does that well.

For my purposes, I build this atomizer at .33 to .35 ohms and vape it on my Agent mod by Conspiracy Inc at around 4.6 volts, so basically at around 60 watts. The atomizer has 12 air holes, and I vape it with 8 of them open. I like an airy draw, and this one has plenty for me. I have vaped it wide open but for flavor purposes I prefer it at the aforementioned setting. If you like a tight draw, this guy isn't for you. There is no way to close the draw down to one hole, and even with the cap completely closed there is still significant air that flows into the atomizer, somewhere in the range of the old dual coil cartos for tanks. There is really no way to shut it down more than that.

The flavor on this atomizer is good. Not great, but good. It's clearly not designed for a "flavor chaser" but it is satisfying to a guy like me who lands somewhere closer to a cloud than a flavor chaser. The flavor does improve with the drip tip top as opposed to the chuff cap, but I find it to be good enough with the chuff cap on so it is pretty solid on flavor.

The build quality of the device is good, but not great. I have a couple of issues with the device that are pretty disappointing for an atomizer in this price range. I have seen it retailing for $100 but I have a friend who lives in the Philippines who got it for me locally for $70 when it first came out. Even at that price, I expected better.

1. Upon arrival, this atomizer reeked of machine oil. I've never had one quite this bad before. A good cleaning took care of that, but I expected better.
2. The screws on this atomizer were extremely tight when I got it. 3 of them have loosened up, but the 4th is still very tight to the point where it makes it difficult to keep your coil properly positioned while having to torque this screw down.

Other than that, the atomizer appears to be well machined and it functions very well. I'm happy with it, but I do feel like you can do better for the price. In fact, I recently purchased an Atty3 for half the price and I feel like it is a better made atomizer and performs comparably. That having been said, I do still use my Hellboy daily and I enjoy it.

Now before I get into the clone, I want to address one of the "flaws" of this atomizer that I have seen people pointing out. Look, it's not rocket science folks. It's a square atomizer, and as such it may not line up perfectly on your device when the airflow is positioned correctly. You can "fix" this by using it on a mod with an adjustable or spring loaded positive pin. Then you can set the pin to sit square, or back it off (at most) a quarter of a turn to line it up correctly. This isn't a design flaw, it's just the way it's going to be if you want a square atomizer on a box mod. If you don't like that, stick with the standard cylindrical attys.

Now, on to the clone. There are several differences that you can see in the pictures below. I will lay them out for you here. First, the airflow only has a dual setting on the clone. On the legit, you can set it for single or dual coil builds. Additionally, the drip tip hole in the top cap on the legit is compatible with standard 510 tips. On the clone it is much wider, so you will need to use the drip tip that comes with it. Despite this difference, there is no extra airflow through the clone because the inner diameter of the tips is either the same, or perhaps the legit is slightly larger. However, the top caps from the legit are compatible with the clone, so if you do have both you can use your chuff cap on the clone.

Despite the interchangeable top caps, the decks are not compatible with each other. The deck on the clone is smaller than the deck on the legit. The sleeve has the same inner diameter, but on the legit there is a ridge machined out that allows the deck to slide into the sleeve and stop when it hits the top. On the clone, the deck can literally slide into the sleeve and all the way through it. This actually turns into a nice feature, however, if you have an adjustable 510. It allows you to set the mod to where the atomizer will sit square on your device, and then slide the sleeve all the way down to sit flush on on the mod despite there being a gap between the mod and the deck. IMO, they should have done that on the legit too. I didn't think of this until I got the clone, but it is a cool feature.

In summary, if you're considering getting one of these atomizers, I would recommend (brace yourself) the clone. The post holes are a little smaller, but the screws work better and are phillips head as opposed to flat. Much easier to work with. The legit fits together tighter and feels more solid, but not significantly so. With the added bonus of being able to flush the sleeve without having to flush mount the atomizer I feel like it puts the clone over the top. The flavor may be slightly better on the legit, but it's close enough that I'm not sure if it is just in my head. I'm happy with both devices, but I wouldn't pay that much for the El Diablo again. I would, however, buy another clone from Chowderhead if I needed one.

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