OK, finally got my vape in the mail today. I gotta say right up front, that this is the first vaporizer I've ever seen or used. So, I got nuttin' to compare it against.
When I picked it up at the P.O., I checked the shipping label, and it was shipped on the 23rd. So, the extra mail time was the post office, and not the seller. These guys do have speedy shipping, just like they promise. Out of the box, it was complete, undamaged, packed well, and everything they advertised was perfectly in place. A word about the grinder and brush they included as freebies: The brush was a metal-bristled tool, like you'd want to clean out a grinder. The grinder was prepared to grind. Nothing earth-shattering about the two, like the hype on the seller's page implied.
The instructions that came with it were, indeed, useless. Talking all about aroma-therapy, and nothing about "smoking" dope. I had watched enough clips on YouTube about vaping, that I knew how to proceed. I turned the heat all the way up to max, and let it sit about 5 minutes, to burn off any "shipping oils", etc, that they say may be on the element. A horrible smell, like a soldering iron came off the element right away, and lasted a minute or two. After that it just had a very faint "hot metal" smell. That's probably not a good thing, and this heating element may be the downfall in the whole thing. Hopefully its made of ceramic and not metal. I have a lazer heat gun, and I checked the temps in several places around the element, and could not get very high readings anywhere on the outside. Temps in the range of 280-290F was the most I read, when the indicator light went out, and the dial was set to 560. I guess the inside of the element must be where all the heat is. I turned it down to read 360 on the readout, and waited about 3 minutes. Loaded the bowl up with a very light hit (don't wanna waste too much primo weed experimenting) put the Whip on the element and watched. The end of the whip, that slides over the end of the heating element is the ground-glass fitting. That makes this a "hands free" device, and I don't recall that that was mentioned in the ebay add.
So, I'm sitting here watching the weed in the bowl and the temp reading saying 360. Nothing happened. I thought maybe some visable wisps of vapor would start appearing, but I didn't see anything. I thought the color of the weed might start turning a tan color, but didn't see anything like that at all. I tried taking a couple of different hits or 'draws' off the mouthpiece, some slow and easy, some long and strong. I noticed a long, steady, medium kinda draw brought enough vapor that I could just faintly see it when I exhaled. So, I tried turning the temp of the unit up, and I think I was in the 450 area on the read-out. I let the thing set for about a minute, and tried drawing again. Got more visable vapor at that temp with a kinda light steady draw. So, I'm guessing that the weed, sitting in the bowl, on the element won't get hot by itself. Ya gotta draw the hot air off the element, into the bowl, to actaully vape the weed.
I only had enough weed in the bowl, that if it was in a pipe would be about 2 good hits. I took many draws off the vape, but have no idea if I was vaping the weed or not. Probably 8-9 good draws. I noticed that the weed was turning a very dark brown right in the center, so I'm guessing I was using too high a temp and/or drawing too hard. Best first-use guess is: 360 is not hot enough, and 450 is too hot. Might be somewhere in between, huh? The taste of the weed was very different. My weed (bagseed) is apparantly lemon/shunk, and the taste was a kinda mild variation of that, with just a hint of popcorn taste added in. Interesting.
I think I did the weed about 20 mintues ago, I think, and I'm pretty baked right now. Typing and spelling is pretty difficult. After the first use, my conclusion is the machine does exactly what its advertised to do, and does it well. I feel like it was well worth the $59.99, not being able to compare it to any other machine. I feel like I got exactly what I was expecting for the price, and I'm happy with it. My only complaint would be the lack of instructions. If it weren't for having seen YouTube clips, I would have never figured it out. As far as finding the right temp/draw combinations, I think YouTube will get ya in the right area, and experimentation will dial it in for ya. I don't think it would be possible to put that in writing anyway. Each person will just have to fiddle with it, to get it where they want it.
I guess it is not necessary to have actual visable vapor to be getting effect off the weed? My next test will probably be to try a lower temp and a few draws, and then wait and see if I'm getting baked before I get visable vapor.
I also saw on YouTube that you can save the residue out of the bowl, and use it it cooking, and there's enough goodness left to make it worthwhile. Anyone have any experience with that aspect?
I'm feeling very good right now, and have this incredible craving for some nuked hot dogs. More ramblings later.
It was then that I no longer missed my bong as much...there is no coughing fits with the vape and the taste of the bud is awesome...the only thing I really miss about my bong was the whole ritual that I hve with packing the bowl and firing up the lighter etc...I think after using the vape for a while though I will hve a ritual in place for it and then the bong will be almost obsolete for me...it takes a cpl minutes for it to reach the desired temp and me and the wife get like 4 pulls each off a small amount of bud...
