I have been looking into dry herb vaping as a reusable some what healthy way to consume trees but I have seen some mixed reviews. Some say that vaping is even more potent that combustion while others claim that most dry herb vapes suck and only giant ball vapes can compare to a bong hit. Is it purely subjective or are there ways to figure out what is a worth while rig before buying it?
I started smoking with massive bong hits and I’ll never move away from that, so I needed to find a vaporizer that was able to provide what I was looking for. I’ve been through a long list, all with their own pros and cons and various “best” ways to use them.
I started with the FM V5.0s, then the Grasshopper, Arizer Air, Solo 2, VapeXhale Evo, then Mighty family with the Volcano and Plenty, Arizer V-Tower, then the Fury and the Tiny Might.
For bongs, most of these suck or have shortcomings. The Grasshopper (no longer available and should honestly be avoided) was incredible and served me very well, but the company was mishandled and effectively scammed people. However, it was the pinnacle of portable bong vaporizers - seriously unparalleled and its only shortcoming for me was you’d have to reload it if you wanted more than ~2 or 3 very large dense hits (i.e. group sessions). It’s too bad it’s unavailable, because it really was the best (“when it worked”, as the users memed).
The VapeXhale Evo, also no longer available sadly is the next best, only “second” to the Grasshopper for bong rips because it’s a desktop vape and it has a heatup time. But the pros outweigh those “cons” that make it “second”, easily reloadable baskets and the best convection bong rips on the market at the time. Alas, the company grew old and repurchased and rebranded until a new unit never released and they folded. The biggest loss aside is the ez-load bowls, since they are compatible with a number of devices. Anyway… it was nifty, it heated a glass element that heated the air and made it a full convection vape.
The Mighty is ok for bongs. I differentiate them via the actual glass and pressure of the bongs. Imagine a beaker bong or any bong that you hit and the smoke/vapor condenses in the glass before you carb it and get it all. The Mighty does not do that at all. The Mighty is a bubbler that you when you hit it you get some smoke/vapor - no condensing. It’s not my preference, so I personally am not very satisfied with the Mighty as a bong ripper when compared to my other options.
The Volcano is just loud. It’s fine, it’s fun to have the bong percolate itself but, well meh. It’s expensive and loud, it uses a lot of bud but it does put out a lot of vapor. The older V-Tower model is in a similar boat, it’s quieter but a little less efficient than the Volcano. I use them for gatherings. The Plenty is fairly disappointing.
The Arizer portables (I have the Air 1 and Solo 2) are weaker than the Mighty through glass so not what you’re looking for for bong rips.
Finally, for portables worth mentioning that leaves the Tiny Might. It’s a great vaporizer, I find it fairly comparable to the Grasshopper and I’m pleased with it overall. My only shortcoming for it is that I’m constantly reloading bowls, but otherwise it’s a strong consistent vaporizer.
But for you OP, I would suggest looking into Ball Vapes. I personally can’t 100% recommend any particular one as I’m unfamiliar with the specifics of each and what they all entail, but as a brief overview; ball vapes are desktop vapes controlled by an e-nail PiD controller and are essentially e-nails for convection heating. It’s actually just the exact concept of the VapeXhale Evo just inverted, since we are moving the heating elements to the top of the bowl (rather than it being confined).
You can build your own for about $100, but there are plenty of kits available from Cannabis Hardware or Vgoodiez (and I’m sure others, but you can’t go wrong with these two.)
Aw, I’ve been using my evo for a while and didn’t realize they’d gone out of business. They were always great to deal with for me. It’s a nifty device, and I like the all glass air flow. That really only stayed true when using it with extracts in the glass nails though.
Have you found a reasonable clone for the baskets? I love those little things and used them in my portable as well.
I’ve yet to unfortunately, I bought the very last stock available and inquired a few sellers (like Vgoodiez) for any potential but no luck. Treat the ones you have with care :(
Actually, I should reach out to the company though. They may have the contact for the basket manufacturer. I was lucky enough to always have good experiences with them as well, near the end I bought some glass from them and one of their shipments was eternally delayed but I was talking with the owner and they sent me a more expensive piece for free, which I still use today (the “Halley”). Really a shame their other version didn’t release, although, it didn’t look particularly… well ahem, it was more unique.
For now if I ever run low my solution is going to be something along the lines of Tiny Might/Arizer “ELB” basket screens (the small lids that we use as the cap) with some metal mesh and figuring out how to fashion it to work lol. Not looking forward to that sad day.
Do you mean combustion vs. vaporisation? Because you can run a dry herb vape through a bong no problem.
Ok, well combustion and vaporisation are 2 very different things.
If you want a big cloud hit off a vaporizer, you look at vapes like the cloud evo, volcano, the tiny might 2, ball vapes, log vapes. You can either attach or not attach any of these to a bong.
Ball vapes are top of the line for fast extraction of vapour, but you can get large cloud hits off the other style of vapes i mentioned.
But i wouldn’t expect to get massive clouds off sipper vapes like a mighty, crafty, mflb, vmax, potv one, etc.
You’ll likely get higher off a dry herb vape, because you can control the temperature while extracting the active compounds, instead of just buring them up into carbon like with combustion.
But i wouldn’t expect to get massive clouds off sipper vapes like a mighty, crafty, mflb, vmax, potv one, etc.
While generally true I’ve gotten some pretty thicc clouds off my potv one with a long draw. Regardless, a couple hits from my Arizer xq2 or my potv one get me pretty solidly high even if I’m not getting big ol clouds.
My own experience has been wax pens and edibles. I was watching this youtube guy called Cewpins complain about dry herb vapes. He claimed he couldnt get as high as when he used a combustion bong.
There are vaporizers that you can connect into a bong and get the best of both. But for a single device, a Volcano is the vape equivalent of a bong rip. The sensation and flavor are different but, to me, it feels cleaner than smoking out of a bong.
As an owner of two Volcanos and an Arizer Extreme Q, I don’t really think the cost justifies the marginal improvement in vapor quality over the Q.
That said, if money really is no object, the Volcano can’t be beat in terms of quality and feature set. Replacement parts are wildly pricey too.
After decades of nearly exclusive use of a bong and very occasional disappointing experimentation with various vaporizers, I never really found a vape device that could replace a bong for me.
That changed about a year ago. I bought a Tiny Might 2 and don’t use anything else now.
The device is expensive but is a great piece of hardware that works very well. Most importantly it can deliver massive hits. With a good cooling stem you can use it anywhere and it will allow you to do a hit that will rival a good bong hit and it tastes so much better.
But the best is that it comes with a glass water pipe attachment (WPA) that allows you to use it with a bong or water pipe. When I’m at home I use it exclusively with a bong. It uses less herb than combustion for the same or better effect with dramatically better flavor. It will produce very thick vapor and will give you a very satisfying bong hit - at higher temperatures it will produce very thick clouds. In fact you can turn the temperature up enough to combust whatever is in the chamber if you are so inclined. Another benefit is that your bong stays cleaner too.
I use the dosing capsules which keeps the device clean and helps a bit with efficiency. Specifically I use .10 grams in a dosing capsule and am often unable to finish in one hit. (I am a runner and can do huge hits) On the same bong with the same herb I would use a little bit more - maybe .13 grams if I were combusting it.
For me it is pretty close to the ideal device. It absolutely improved every aspect of my herbal experience. Of course YMMV but I’m a convert.
Dry herb vape through a bubbler/bong >>>>>
