Is that with the full melt man? I've never found either of my SiC nails to taste better than either of my sapphire nails with full melt or anything I want to taste. The only exceptions I've found are with oils that had a generic errl taste (SiC gives more clouds, more quickly so the less than delicious dabs are ideally placed here since they're quicker) or a taste that I don't like.
With some oils, the taste difference is very minor (especially low terp typical solvent extracts and some lesser rosins) between SiC and Sapphire, but I find the difference very large when it comes to full melt and high end rosins. SiC just doesn't do them justice IME. These days, since it is all full melt for me, I only use SiC for torch dabs (I use the d-nail SiC for this, no need to fuck up the anodized finish on my Liger dish when the d-nail SiC does not require you to torch metal
).
The man who came up with the idea to use SiC and Sapphire nails himself has always said that some terp profiles shine on SiC whereas others do on Sapphire. Maybe what I'm saying above is my version of that? My material is extremely consistent in quality (all full melts) and generally the same variety most of the time.
If you only dab full melt like me (or high end rosin, or HTFSE or you're dipping in blue river terps or similar), then you want sapphire. SiC is for backup or torch use in this scenario IME. However like the guys say above, whether sapphire is justified at all may actually depend on more than your budget. If you don't dab connoisseur quality extracts, then do you really need a sapphire dish? Does that low-cost run of the mill BHO shatter that tastes like every other overpurged shatter you ever dabbed (but gets the job done!) need to be experienced on sapphire for 5 times the asking price of SiC? IMO in this case you save your hard-earned cash and get more efficient medication with SiC, since enjoying the flavor is not the priority/in any case is not going to happen?
This is something that is seldom discussed on FC: Sometimes we need to decide which vape is best for our needs by looking at the quality of what is available to us. This goes for flowers too! Do you want to use an evo for a variety of flower whose taste you can't stand, but which is good medicine for you/all that is available? Of course not!
Why spend money on tasting more of something you don't necessarily want to taste in the first place! lol I have definitely experienced this with flowers too back when that was mainly what I vaped. Could only get some absolutely terrible low quality black market flowers for a little while years ago. I'd find myself putting them into the haze and max temping them through a lot of water to avoid tasting it!
SiC can serve this purpose very well because it is the quickest to vaporize your oil, but it also provides the extra benefit that it tastes better than anything but sapphire (jack the temp up a bit if you really don't wanna taste your dab for any reason).
Here is a very incomplete buyer's guide based on some simple descriptions of usage needs below:
Is your budget low? Buy SiC
Do you only dab average BHO/QWISO/QWET etc? Buy SiC
Do you use a torch? Buy SiC
Do you dab full melt with any regularity? Buy Sapphire
Do you dab high end rosin/HTFSE or something similarly stand-out? Buy Sapphire
Do you expect that you'll do either of the above in the future and have spare change laying around? Buy sapphire
As for size of dish, see the above. I definitely can see the argument for the 20mm in cases where one is mostly dabbing oil that can be accurately applied with a dabber (unless you are really taking monstrous big dabs which may overflow the insert lol). The more restricted airflow that comes with a narrower bucket will equate to the clouds getting to you slightly more quickly and there'll be less chance of vapor escaping into the air before you get the cap on.
If you are scooping unpressed full melt or crumble or anything similar, then I'd want the 30mm. The problem with the 20mm for these ones is that there is comparatively a lot of vertical distance in the banger bucket before your dab hits the insert. In the 20mm variant there is much more chance due to narrower bucket that your scooped material may hit the titanium sides of the banger, go down the side of your insert and taste less than ideal as a result.
Also if you are videoing melt shots, get the 30mm lol
. The 20 with the sapphire is a whole other level though. I think the 20 is where the sapphire insert really shines over the SiC. I loves me some sapphire dabs in the 20 =p
Ain't no substitute for better quality meds as I'm sure you have noticed.