Mini DID Clone

We had a hell of a time trying to figure out what to call this little Genesis atomizer in the title.  In most cases, it’s a relatively simple matter of just naming the manufacturer and model names, but in the case of the mini-DID clone, it’s just not clear what either one of those names is.

A Little Clone-on-Clone Action

Everyone, including the suppliers in China, seems to just refer to this atomizer as the “mini-DID clone,” named after the real mini-DID atomizer, built by Jim Damianidis of Metal Madness Vapors, which it clearly emulates.  Occasionally you’ll see the names given to it by American vendors, such as the “Griffin” name it was given by Discount Vapers.  We’ll just stick with calling it the mini-DID clone for the time being, for lack of a better name.

Our mini-DID clones came in metal display boxes containing the atomizer, a drip tip, a spare poly tank, enough stainless steel mesh of indeterminate grade for two wicks, and a few feet of roughly 32-gauge coil wire.  For the purposes of this review, we used the supplied materials.

The mini-DID clone is, as the name implies, very small.  The diameter of the base is about 18mm, giving it one of the smallest footprints we’ve seen on a Genesis atomizer — for reference, it has a slightly smaller base than the slanted top of a Provari or eVic, and about the same diameter of the top of the Kamry K100, pictured.

Under the cap is a standard single-wick setup, with a wick hole, an air hole, a grounding screw and a center post.  The center post is adjustable with the use of knurled nuts at the top of the post, allowing it to sit flush with any PV.  The grounding screw, and the screw present in the air hole when it arrived, are very small, with a hex socket. No hex wrench is supplied with the atomizer, and rather than go looking for one, we just used a pair of needle-nose pliers.  Hey, it worked. Don’t give us that look like you always know where you last left your hex wrenches.

The clear tank is polycarbonate, so we have to assume that harsher juices like citrus and cinnamon will eat right through it.  Thankfully, they gave us a spare to use after the first time we forget about that and throw something like Pluid in it, triggering a little plastic Chernobyl.

The cap screws on. Normally we’re not fans of that in a Genesis, as it’s not often we find screw-on caps that allow the wick hole to line up with the wick, and it also generally prevents adjusting the air hole’s position if you happen to like a stronger throat hit. While it is the case that, when screwed all the way down, the hole did not line up on our clones, a rubber O-ring that sits under the cap does provide a bit of grip on the cap and allows some adjustment, and we found it to be enough to move the cap roughly a quarter turn before it got too loose or too tight.  We had no problem with lining up the air hole, and the cap stayed in place after the adjustment.

The wick hole, as expected on an atomizer this small, as pretty tight, and required a pretty thin wick. Using the supplied mesh we had to avoid rolling the wick too tight to get it to the right diameter, but it has been wicking fairly effectively — more on that below.  We wrapped the wick with a 4/5 wrap of the mystery wire supplied with the atomizer, which gave us a 1.7 ohm coil.

Performance-wise, the mini-DID clone did fairly well.  The narrow diameter of the wick does seem to somewhat limit the amount of juice supplied to the coil, so we weren’t producing massive clouds of vapor, but vapor production was still pretty good, and flavor was excellent.

The scores:

Build Quality: 5/10

The mini-DID clone is constructed of stainless steel, and seems solid enough. The unthreaded tank could easily have been produced in glass, though we understand that this could drive the price up somewhat.  The air hole wick did not line up with the wick when fully tightened, but there is some degree of adjustability built in, via on O-ring under the cap, to allow some leeway. The use of hex screws under the cap may be a hurdle for people looking to set this device up.

Looks: 6/10

The mini-DID is not a particularly handsome atomizer, but it’s not ugly, either. The use of knurling at the top and bottom of the tank may be viewed by some as an eyesore; the general trend these days seems to be moving away from it.

The supplied drip dip is strikingly similar to a “traditional style” tip we obtained a while back from Super-T Manufacturing that cost us more than this atomizer did.

Flexibility: 6/10

The mini-DID clone is a bare-bones Genesis. There is only the option of a single wick, and a narrow one at that. However, its small size may make it more practical on some PVs than other Genesis-type devices, which are generally quite a bit larger.

Performance: 7/10

Considering the small size of the device, it performed adequately.  Vapor production was fairly average, and flavor was very good.  A larger wick hole would probably increase output, but there is little room for that in such a small device.

Price: 9/10

The mini-DID clone retails under various names for a price of anywhere from about $17.00 to $20.00.  We obtained ours from a co-op on Facebook for just over $13 each, shipped. Honestly, for all its other drawbacks, it’s hard to find a problem with that kind of price.

Overall Score: 6.6

Mini DID Clone