RDAs come in a variety of sizes and styles. They range in size from a diminutive 14 mm in diameter to 40 mm or more, with the most common diameters being 22 mm and 24 mm. The build deck may allow for one up to 8 coils, though most are single or dual-coil designed. Many RDAs work well for both horizontal or vertical coil builds. Airflow may be suitable for mouth to lung (MTL) or direct lung (DL) vaping styles. They are available in a variety of metal types, from stainless steel to brass or copper, and most offer several color options.

Build decks can also be found in a great variety of configurations. In the past, most RDAs had three posts, two on the sides of the deck and a shared post in the middle. Two-post Velocity style RDAs were the first big evolution of the triple-post, and many of the RDAs that came out in the previous years implemented some variation of this deck. We have seen a plethora of innovations in the build deck department since then, with drop-down and post-less RDA decks becoming very popular, and even more interesting designs appearing every day.

Most RDAs nowadays come with an optional hollow positive pin, to allow their use on special bottom-feeding mods called squonkers. A squonk mod has a plastic bottle for e-liquid that a vaper squeezes to channel juice to the bottom-fed (BF) atomizer. Although they have always been used to alleviate the constant dripping of juice, they have spiked in popularity in 2017, and a huge number of squonkers have come to market recently by several manufacturers.