Multi-brand X MAX STARRY

davesmith

Well-Known Member
Glass Blower
One advantage the Starry has over the Air/Solo is that it allows for quicker extraction. I can fully kill a Starry bowl in about 7 minutes without rushing. In the Air this takes about 2x 10min sessions with a stock stem.

Another reason my air got sold! So great to hear this as when tolerance goes up a lot of portables hit the shelf, I just can't be arsed dragging on a vape for ages for minimal effects! This vape just keeps sounding better and better!
 
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PPN

Volute of Vapor
Can anyone give me a comparison to the Alfa?
I am specifically looking to compare the taste and clean-up.

Personnaly I think the Alfa is better in both departments... about taste it's very subjective but I still think the Alfa is one of the tastier conduction vape on low setting. About cleaning the Starry mp is a pia to clean cause a lot of gunk happen like in every vape with a sort of cooling unit. With the Alfa you'll only have to take off the rubber mp and the bowl's screen and to clean the vaporpath, nothing to soak or difficult to access.

Although the Starry offers a lot of features the Alfa don't offer, totally adjustable temperature, replacable batteries, led screen and wax attachment.

In some retailers shop (Vaposhop i.e) it is listed as an hybrid convection/conduction vape.... it is not in my experience but it is a conduction vape , a good one but that's all!
 

jakeattack77

Active Member
As stated above....the POTV "Updated" version of the unit was announced as available in an email sent last night. I especially like how the updates were described along with a sale price for the older version if the updates aren't important to you. Here's the particulars:

X MAX STARRY VAPORIZER UPDATE AND DISCOUNT
X MAX has just dropped a new version of the Starry with a couple small bugs corrected and a few improvements made. We have the latest version available for you here. A big shout out to our main man @stickstones for working so closely with X MAX to help get the Starry just right for you guys.

Note: We teamed up with X-MAX to create a POTV exclusive special edition where we re-worked the style and that's what you're seeing here. All the changes detailed below are going into the regular edition X-MAX Starry available soon.

UPDATED X MAX STARRY AVAILABLE NOW: CLICK HERE
For those interested in a little discount, we will still be selling the V1 X MAX Starry here at $89.90 until all of our stock is gone.

BATTERY LID FIX
The latest version of the Starry has a nicely refined locking battery lid. On the V1 Starry the lid would not latch automatically when you pushed it closed. You can definitely get it locked with a fairly easy hold, close and release method...but X MAX have made it simple by equipping the latest Starry with a smooth push locking battery lid.

X_MAX_x_POTV_Vaporizer_Battery_29fc5dd3-da0d-4523-a68b-5df369d4904c_1024x1024.jpg


COOLER MOUTHPIECE
We noticed, as well as many of our Starry compatriots that after 10-15 minutes of straight vaping the mouthpiece of the V1 Starry the would get warm...a bit too warm. For most this isn't going to be a problem. As a solo vaporist most people don't push past 10 minutes of straight use however, in a group session this can become a bit of an issue.

Nonetheless, X MAX thought redesigning the mouthpiece was the best bet and they did so in such a way that it stays far cooler in the latest release.

X_MAX_Starry_Vaporizer_Mouthpiece_Update_1024x1024.jpg
As you can see there is not noticeable change from the outside, but looking at the underside of the mouthpiece you can see a bit more insulation and a slight tweak to the screen both of which are keeping things much cooler.

X_MAX_Starry_Vaporizer_Mouthpiece_Update_02_1024x1024.jpg


LARGER OVEN
The Starry now has an oven just about 10% bigger than the V1 Starry. Not going to change your life, but more is better right?

X_MAX_Starry_Vaporizer_Update_Oven_1024x1024.jpg


NEW DISPLAY COLORS
You'll now get a the slightly more snazzy white on black color scheme instead of the original blue on black OLED display.

X_MAX_Starry_Vaporizer_Display_Update_1024x1024.jpg


PCB BUG FIXES
PCB aka Printed Circuit Board aka the brain of the Starry had a couple small bugs that showed up on a few units. One was related to battery drain the other to some issues controlling the temperature. These issues only showed up a handful of times and of course were resolved for free immediately, but the X MAX team dug in, double checking all the coding for flawless performance.

POTV Note: when buying a V1 Starry from our old stock you are still entitled to full warranty service and our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee just as you are buying any of our products.
oh wow thats pretty cool

anyone know if the one puffitup got is the same fixes just without the branding?
im sure PotV is good but would rather buy from randy, puffitup seems more community driven


also any increase in vapor production?
 
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StonerSloth

cui bono?
What temp are you vaping at generally?

Generally start around ~370-375 and temp step to ~405. I can get a few more flavor hits if I start lower.

This vape would benefit tremendously from programming like the DaVinci smart paths, but you can't have it all for $100



oh wow thats pretty cool

anyone know if the one puffitup got is the same fixes just without the branding?
im sure PotV is good but would rather buy from randy, puffitup seems more community driven


also any increase in vapor production?

As far as I can tell the version I got from PIU is identical to the POTV version except for the branding.
 
StonerSloth,

His_Highness

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
I order from PIU and POTV. Both will take awesome care of you. I personally like the POTV version better. It's color and branding makes it a bit stealthier since it doesn't have the brighter logo.
 
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jakeattack77

Active Member
I order from PIU and POTV. Both will take awesome care of you. I personally like the POTV version better. It's color and branding makes it a bit stealthier since it doesn't have the brighter logo.
Sorry, another question
Some are saying the vapor production is a bit less than the Alfa for example

How does it compare to the older max v2?
Still an upgrade?
 

His_Highness

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
Sorry, another question
Some are saying the vapor production is a bit less than the Alfa for example

How does it compare to the older max v2?
Still an upgrade?

I don't know the Alfa but you can see from my signature I have two Xmax V2 Pros......These are my opinions and your mileage may vary. The price difference tells a story too.

The Xmax V2 Pro is not nearly the same build quality as the Starry. I've always been leery of the button and some other areas on the Xmax V2 Pro. The Xmax V2 Pro also has lousy battery life in comparison to the Starry. I'm not sure about vapor production between the two units. I don't think one is better than the other....they are different. The Xmax V2 Pro hits hard but unrefined and not smooth. The Starry hits pretty hard as well if the temp is 390 to 410 but I think it's more subtle....I might even say smoother. As far as taste...they're both conduction vapes so taste wanes pretty quickly unless you go low temp and then sacrifice vapor production and that's true of either unit..... but I'd give the edge here to Starry as well in terms of smoothness.

When I got involved with the Xmax V2 Pro the theory was there was no such thing as a vape pen...cigar or otherwise, that dealt nicely with flowers. There were plenty of folk who tried to tell me I was wasting my time with it but for the price I decided to give it a try. I wrote a detailed review telling folks it not only worked but worked well but that the build quality was circumspect. I said something like "I'm in love but time will tell if it's a long term relationship". Occasionally the button still flakes on me but has always reset if I remove the battery.

For stealth purposes, and that's really where the Starry fits in my arsenal, it's Starry all the way.

These are my opinions but the real question may be how much the difference in price means to the purchaser.
 

Shit Snacks

Milaana. Lana. LANA. LANAAAA! (TM2/TP80/BAK/FW9)
I was generously offered a free PotV Starry to review and it arrived yesterday (coincidentally my test unit from Topgreen/xmax was just sent out as well) and PotV definitely have great service shipping wise at least! I can see how the unit is a bit more stealth with no white text like the Storm, and yeah the build and such is all quite nice, solid and very compact.

However, I have not been able to use it yet due to stinky fumes... Went through a whole battery of 5min burn off before I looked at manual (which is perfectly done btw, not like the old Chinese manuals of the past!) and saw how to change to 10min. It also shows how to go to Celsius which could be more accurate? Is this thing really going up to 464F?! Anyway so yeah I iso swabbed it a lot around the silicone ring above the oven, and soaked the rest of the mouthpiece taken apart (even put the filter silicone ring in some almond milk after to better neutralize it). Stink coming from the oven when on is persisting though, and with a flashlight in the dark I can see faint wispy fumes...

I'd like to try it out this weekend but I am one of those sensitive tasters and never really can use these Chinese vapes anymore as a result, xmax have been some of the best and I have worked with them in the past to isolate airpath for the v2 pro for example, but here it seems air can come in and exit through the USB port not just the side intake holes? No idea if that means it's all open to electronics, but so far smell and fumes persist... I will not try it like this because I know I will not enjoy it and do not believe in "running herb through first to break it in" which potentially just masks the issue, especially when I can actually see fumes pouring out of an empty oven. Difficult thing to get past

Since I will have another new Starry soon I guess I can wait and see how that one is, could just be an off unit, but if it's the design I will have a problem personally. This is nowhere near as bad as the Imag Zolo was for me, but still not really useable unfortunately. I saw some said burn off got rid of the smell, but no mention of fumes and maybe I am just more sensitive. I haven't smoked in years and I like to flavor chase my herb, for reference.

Any help much appreciated, I know this can be a touchy topic for some as we've seen other threads where it leads to controversy. Not trying to start anything since I do trust Topgreen /xmax in general (+PotV), but wanted to report my experience so far... Will keep updating how it goes, the fumes have thinned out a bit over time I think, but still present, smell also may be improving (or maybe just better at 450 vs 464?) battery life does seem to be pretty decent
 
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Adobewan

Well-Known Member
I received my review Xmax a day early, Merry Xmax!
I went to charge as the manual suggests, but realized I could just toss the battery on the Intellicharger and slip in a fresh 18650 but had a bit of an issue with the battery door(see below).
All worked out and I was able to get right to the initial burn offs.

Pros:
- Excellent heat up time, seconds to top temp of 464°F.

- Very smooth, clear draw(Crafty-like mouth piece), wonder how cleaning the thin mouthpiece will be though.

- Effortless, voluminous vapor production with a full, but not packed(almost loose), load on 380°F. I’ve read posts of wispy vapor, but I believe that may have been because of a smaller load in the chamber. It does small loads, but they’re wispy as opposed to the punch of a loaded chamber.

- Exceptionally even extraction with no stirring(cannot see how a stir would get anything more out of the load.) Impressive!

- Runs on removable/replaceable 18650s!!

- Easy to load and dump(a more accessible DaVinci Ascent-like chamber) with the loose pack.

- Oh so pocketable. Cool Pax-like style, neat to hold in your hand, but slips into your pocket easily. I recommend a snack-sized ziplock to smell proof it and give it some scratch resistance in your pocket.

- Strong magnet on lid, doubt it’s coming loose anytime soon.

- Digital readout features a countdown for the 5 min session timer, so you know when it’s going to shut down before hand. Five minutes may be short for some, but the unit is efficient and when I check the chamber after the five mins, it looks spent. Starting it up again provides another volley of slightly less robust clouds, and it’s only now that you’ll even start to approach popcorn taste.
It keeps going!!

- Unfortunately I didn’t keep count, but I believe I ran 6-7 chambers off one battery charge.


Cons:
- The issue I referred to at the top of this post.
Very tricky battery door(DaVinci IQ-like battery door), almost couldn’t close with any 18650 other than the one supplied with the unit but with some elbow grease, I was able to close over another. May be an issue with patients with RA or limited hand/finger strength.

- Very strong “new vape” smell/taste to start, 75% gone after 3 burn offs on highest temp. As I mentioned, the chamber is very Ascent-like and I wasn’t able to use that but the smell/taste isn’t as strong on this as the Ascent. My smell/taste sensitivity isn’t settled on the XMax just yet but the 25% was negligible so I moved forward with the testing.
@sticks Any information on the air-path?


Being aware I have a sensitivity to smells/tastes and wouldn’t represent the majority of vaporists, I would still recommend the unit to those that don’t share this sensitivity, and let those that do, know to proceed with caution until and unless the chamber/air-path material is investigated. After reading @Shit Snacks review I checked mine and unfortunately, the air does seem to pass through the area of the USB port.
<edit> A few days into testing and I’m not finding the taste/smell to be an issue, but can’t help but wonder if I haven’t just covered the (small) remaining smell with resin.

With that in mind, if you aren't sensitive to the above stated issues, considering the performance and form factor are outstanding, and the vapes it borrows from are 2-3 x the price, I’d have to say the price is a steal for a killer little unit.
Lose the smell issue completely and this puppy is a contender.
 

KeroZen

Chronic vapaholic
Seriously guys? It's 2017 and you just casually say "air in entering through the USB port but no big deal"?!!

Your reviews are saddening how can you settle on that? Especially when they should have learnt their lesson after the X-Max 1 and the beta-testing round involving members of this very same forum, where we made them isolate the air-path in the X-Max 2. It's two step backwards!

Also saying "if you fill the bowl fully you get plenty of vapor"... well yes, even in the bloody Ascent if you spend half a gram to fill the bowl for sure you get big clouds, but it's a waste! The real question is how does it perform with a 0.05 to 0.1g load like the vast majority of our members use? In which case, I'm pretty sure you'll have to tamp it to get good results like with all conduction vapes... and with the associated hassles it create (aka rising puck, needing to fill with cotton or extra screen etc)

And how can you say "if you are not sensitive then the off-gassing will not be an issue"? Even if it's once again "only" the glue on the polyimide insulation tape, it's not something you want to inhale (it's acrylic most of the time from what I gathered) But unless someone open his unit we can't be sure, maybe they put dashes of that bloody silicone bonding glue on the circuits, in which case the smell will never dissipate.

Sorry if I sounded rude, I like you a lot @Adobewan, but with so many units in your signature I really expected that you would put the bar higher in terms of expectations.

@Shit Snacks: PM me some pix, I'm sure we'll figure how to open this bad boy out, and possibly in a non-destructive way (otherwise it means the unit is non serviceable)
 

Abysmal Vapor

Supersniffer 2000 - robot fart detection device
That is a nice teardown,but how does it shows that this is isolated airpath,well maybe separated from the electronics,but why care to do that while the heating chamber sits in a plastic cup with god knows what is that shitty fabric wrapped around it ?
starry-portable-vaporizer-ceramic-chamber-teardown.jpg


I am with KeroZen on sparing the justice on it one the reviews,i see that a lot lately. I know many of the guys that are getting many vapes for reviewing and they know their shit.. but it is in the human nature not to speak badly of GIFTS,and all in all ,everything is not that bad when you havent paid for it :D.. Not accusing anyone but i think people should concentrate more about the facts and less about their feelings,also it looks kind of funny when u get a review unit ,run it a few sessions and then say it is somewhat nice, good for the price of 0 $, and then post it in the classifieds : "Almost new,works fine XX$ " or just sell it to a friend,dont get me wrong it is a cool way of getting some spare cash for your higher end purchases but still ,i think that impacts the overall honest reviews.. in a way :D...
 
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davesmith

Well-Known Member
Glass Blower
Sad to hear this, surely this company is aware of the issues with unisolated airpaths!!

Maybe I will grab a haze......


Ps please tear the bastard apart. Maybe we could all chip in $10 and buy a unit for someone to rip apart ?
 
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Abysmal Vapor

Supersniffer 2000 - robot fart detection device

Adobewan

Well-Known Member
Seriously guys? It's 2017 and you just casually say "air in entering through the USB port but no big deal"?!!

Your reviews are saddening how can you settle on that? Especially when they should have learnt their lesson after the X-Max 1 and the beta-testing round involving members of this very same forum, where we made them isolate the air-path in the X-Max 2. It's two step backwards!

Also saying "if you fill the bowl fully you get plenty of vapor"... well yes, even in the bloody Ascent if you spend half a gram to fill the bowl for sure you get big clouds, but it's a waste! The real question is how does it perform with a 0.05 to 0.1g load like the vast majority of our members use? In which case, I'm pretty sure you'll have to tamp it to get good results like with all conduction vapes... and with the associated hassles it create (aka rising puck, needing to fill with cotton or extra screen etc)

And how can you say "if you are not sensitive then the off-gassing will not be an issue"? Even if it's once again "only" the glue on the polyimide insulation tape, it's not something you want to inhale (it's acrylic most of the time from what I gathered) But unless someone open his unit we can't be sure, maybe they put dashes of that bloody silicone bonding glue on the circuits, in which case the smell will never dissipate.

Sorry if I sounded rude, I like you a lot @Adobewan, but with so many units in your signature I really expected that you would put the bar higher in terms of expectations.

@Shit Snacks: PM me some pix, I'm sure we'll figure how to open this bad boy out, and possibly in a non-destructive way (otherwise it means the unit is non serviceable)
@KeroZen
You don’t sound rude, you sound justifiably concerned and are making valuable points.
@Abysmal Vapor
Another good point, the politics of a free review unit are always on my mind when reviewing.

I’m not familiar with the history of the previous XMax’s so was not using that as any point of reference. What I was using was my experience with the Ascent and the Indica which I absolutely could not use. The smell/taste of the Starry is so much less as to be in a separate class and mine did not have the off-gassing issue @Shit Snacks unit had.
Which brings me to what I may not have been clear about in my post, I do believe, and mentioned, the air-path needs to be investigated(good to see the teardown images above), but having lower tolerances than most, and knowing the wide difference between the Ascent/Indica, and the Starry, it seemed only fair to distinguish between the two and to consider my higher sensitivities are not the norm.

But again, you both make very good points that all should consider. I do hope they take the steps to clarify the air-path because as I said, “Lose the smell issue completely and this puppy is a contender.”

Happy Father's Day to all!
 
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davesmith

Well-Known Member
Glass Blower
Sorry I can't really see clearly? dows This pic answer the question?
 
davesmith,

KeroZen

Chronic vapaholic
@davesmith: hard to say, that PIU teardown was very lean in terms of comments. We just know that they made attempts at better airpath isolation... then we see what appears to be a plastic heater housing which should be ok... perhaps, as far as these plastics are anyways (unless it's silicone? and unless it does melt... @Abysmal Vapor wink! wink!)

But then it's the first time we see this kind of black stuff for insulation. Absolutely no idea what it is. And the white powder everywhere, is it coming from the ceramic? Is it from the black strange matter? Silicone curing? Manufacturing left-overs? Who knows...

Then there is again some polyimide tape as expected, but just to hold the temp sensor in place it appears (so should be less than say the FM5 range where we got several rolls around the insulation layers and some on the battery cells) This one stinks noticeably, until all the glue on it dries and out-gasses completely (takes several discharges worth of empty burn-ins... but I'm afraid that in this vape you can't blow in the mouthpiece too much to perform said burn-ins, as it's just in front of that plastic wall that is supposed to isolate the rest of the internals)

I wish they all got rid of that shitty tape, but at least we are in known territory here and we know it's gonna fade away. I'm also relieved to see that they didn't put any of that white silicone glue elsewhere, this is a good point.

Finally the part above the bowl, is that silicone or another delrin part? Hard to tell from the pictures. If it's the former then it can be a persistent source of smell. Could be a matter of (bad) luck but so far I've found the black dyed silicones to be smellier than the clear translucid or whitish ones.

I'm nitpicking, overall it's surely on par with what we've been getting from Chinese manufacturers these past years. And if we omit these considerations, and as the reviewers said above, the other qualities are pretty good and it's an improvement over the X-Max V2.
 
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PPN

Volute of Vapor
I don't notice any airflow passing through the usb port, airflow seems to come from multiple holes on both side of the unit top around the bowl.

Personnaly I think the taste is just decent (to not say worst), the V2 Pro gave me more satifying taste... And it is far to be the most efficient vape on the market, I explain: even a dark abv is still very sticky at the end of a 10mn session using 215°C at the end.

There is a lot of qualities (stealth, design, replacable batteries, ease of use,;;;) but it is not a connoisseur unit but more a first vape to try vaporisation.

What the expert are thinking of this bowl's shape...? Personnaly I don't think that's an efficient bowl for conduction unit since there will be a sort of dead/ cold spot on the middle... stirs helps but it's not a 2017 thing, isn't it?

Lately, after the Starry, I tried several others vapes: Alfa, Fury and Alternate , honnestly all this 3 vapes are working better for me in most departments and especially about vapor quality, clouds and efficiency.

I will check my initial review but I didn't noticed a huge factory/silicone/ whatever else sort of taste if I remenber well....

edit: Just checked my initial review (in the international section ) and I didn't noticed any huge factory/silicone taste although I was still slighty sick (the flu!). @Shit Snacks do you get the final version (with bigger bowl and better battery lid) or the first one
 
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Shit Snacks

Milaana. Lana. LANA. LANAAAA! (TM2/TP80/BAK/FW9)
I don't notice any airflow passing through the usb port, airflow seems to come from multiple holes on both side of the unit top around the bowl.

Personnaly I think the taste is just decent (to not say worst), the V2 Pro gave me more satifying taste... And it is far to be the most efficient vape on the market, I explain: even a dark abv is still very sticky at the end of a 10mn session using 215°C at the end.

There is a lot of qualities (stealth, design, replacable batteries, ease of use,;;;) but it is not a connoisseur unit but more a first vape to try vaporisation.

What the expert are thinking of this bowl's shape...? Personnaly I don't think that's an efficient bowl for conduction unit since there will be a sort of dead/ cold spot on the middle... stirs helps but it's not a 2017 thing, isn't it?

Lately, after the Starry, I tried several others vapes: Alfa, Fury and Alternate , honnestly all this 3 vapes are working better for me in most departments and especially about vapor quality, clouds and efficiency.

I will check my initial review but I didn't noticed a huge factory/silicone/ whatever else sort of taste if I remenber well....

edit: Just checked my initial review (in the international section ) and I didn't noticed any huge factory/silicone taste although I was still slighty sick (the flu!). @Shit Snacks do you get the final version (with bigger bowl and better battery lid) or the first one

Yup it's the final version, and the one direct from Topgreen will arrive tomorrow. Even with my cold I couldn't miss the smell, and visible fumes (though not exactly easy to spot) are keeping my from inhaling anything through this... I am certain it would pollute the taste for me so I won't be loading herbs unless it completely goes away, I flavor chase with glass convection on demand and haven't smoked in years so that's where I am at personally. I don't know why I expect more from these vapes, but this does help cure any remaining VAS I had for Alternate and Fury though they're conv/cond hybrids :p
 

StonerSloth

cui bono?
Even though I bought the Starry for it's ultra-portable size, I have been using it around the house for the past few weeks just to get a feel for it and make sure it is dependable enough to take 'in the field' - so far it is rock solid.

But in the middle of movie night/couch sesh the other night my Starry mouthpiece was looking pretty gunky and blocked so I whipped out the ol' Air with a PlanetVape Vortex Stem and fired her up. It was the first time I had used these two vapes back-to-back and I have to say that the Air tasted a lot better than the Starry...

The Starry wins hands down on portability - but I have to give taste edge to the Air...
 

Shit Snacks

Milaana. Lana. LANA. LANAAAA! (TM2/TP80/BAK/FW9)
My Starry from Topgreen came yesterday and similarly stinky, don't really have the patience to clean and burn off this one as I am still awaiting any neturalization from burn offs in the first one from PotV... May send it to a friend who has the time, but I also emailed my xmax contact to let them know about the smell/fumes along with material and airpath concerns... Also suggested again that a deeper ceramic screen for smaller loads would be a great option to include like what Pax and IQ now offer. We shall see...
 

jakeattack77

Active Member
Even though I bought the Starry for it's ultra-portable size, I have been using it around the house for the past few weeks just to get a feel for it and make sure it is dependable enough to take 'in the field' - so far it is rock solid.

But in the middle of movie night/couch sesh the other night my Starry mouthpiece was looking pretty gunky and blocked so I whipped out the ol' Air with a PlanetVape Vortex Stem and fired her up. It was the first time I had used these two vapes back-to-back and I have to say that the Air tasted a lot better than the Starry...

The Starry wins hands down on portability - but I have to give taste edge to the Air...
And vapor production?
 
jakeattack77,
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