Have you ever tried an oil/concentrate pen you actually LOVED ?

waxdab23 said:

W9 Alpha Centauri v1 and v2 with dual ceramic/Gr2 Ti coil (sometimes with a black ceramic donut placed on top)

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Hey I'll have to try that! Cool idea.

I answered NO. By and large, I don't really like Wax Pens. They are super great for convenience, and IMO a worthy addition to any collection just so you have an option, but I would be hard pressed to recommend anyone a wax pen first and foremost or as a daily driver or anything like that.

My gripes are, that atomizers are expensive and disposable. Individually they are cheap but the atty's add up over time if you are constantly using them.

Other gripe is wax in threads. Most pens I've used, get waxy threads. This makes dissassembly for cleaning a real PiTA. I had an Alpha Centauri V1, and an atomizer was stuck in it. Could not get it out for life of me. Couldn't really torch it either because of this plastic piece on the base. Ended up just tossing it.

I had a Dr. Dabber (an older style when they had silica wicks), a Source Orb V3, and the AC V1. All of them worked well at the start but over time diminished in quality. Couldn't ever get my atomizers cleaned up to like new again. Issues unscrewing them. Also seconded that the battery most of them come with is weak.

I have an Omicron V4 now that is really nice, I like it alot for the conveinence. The battery is strong enough for some extended use (2100 mah) but not big form factor. I charged it once on a 7 day vacation. I really really like the top how it twists off and is secured via Orings rather than threads. This also gives me more surface area to twist the atty out and I haven't had any stuck in here.

And, cool down hits iMO are good for all wax pens but is something rarely talked about. I take a hit or two off the Omicron, then I draw cool until I feel a lot of resistance. Resolidified a bit in the ceramic. I didn't use to do that, and felt that was why wax would leak down since hot.

I do really like the Hercules but again it is a bit of a pain regarding disassembly sometimes regarding wax in the threads. And the screen up top gets gunked up incredbly fast from my experience. I actually have only had to really clean the rest of the Herc maybe one time, but the top mouthpiece requires a lot of maintenance from my experience. I paid no where near list price for mine and would be ultimately disappointed in it for $130 or whatever but I scored one for roughly $65-$70 and its great for that price.

May actually bust my Herc out, I've been low on wax lately so I haven't been using it. But when I was using it often, I would actually weigh my globs out and believe my total through is something like 6.4 grams so far. Still works great! Just top screen maintenance.

Guess I should add too, I fucked up my OG screen for the Herc, while pushing it out, forgot I had to unscrew another part and my dabber went through screen. Works better actually LOL, but for awhile I was trying a standard SS screen and it gunked up as fast as the OG with marginally better airflow imo.

Cool down hits are inconvenient though because while it takes maybe 30 seconds to cool my Omicron, takes a solid 2 minutes to cool the Herc.

Friend has a Yocan Nyx and this hits the most like a rig of any wax pen I've used. For that alone it gets worthy mention, I really do like it. Don't have enough experience with it/own one to be able to comment on any issues.

@nosmoking The Herc is a rod and "coil", but it's way different than standard atomizers. In a standard atty, you have TI wire wrapped around and heating a ceramic rod. In the Herc, you have a giant ceramic rod (similar in structure to what Seventh Floor uses kind of) that goes up the body with Stainless Steel (maybe TI I forget) pads that go around the rod. The ceramic rod heats up and vapes your concentrate, the SS pads are just a medium to hold the concentrate around the rods. That's why cool down hits are required because else it will all just melt out of the SS pad since it's right next to a relatively hot ceramic rod and drip the whole way down to the reclaim catcher.

HellsWindStaff said:

And, cool down hits iMO are good for all wax pens but is something rarely talked about. I take a hit or two off the Omicron, then I draw cool until I feel a lot of resistance. Resolidified a bit in the ceramic. I didn't use to do that, and felt that was why wax would leak down since hot.

Cool down hits are inconvenient though because while it takes maybe 30 seconds to cool my Omicron, takes a solid 2 minutes to cool the Herc.

Friend has a Yocan Nyx and this hits the most like a rig of any wax pen I've used. For that alone it gets worthy mention, I really do like it. Don't have enough experience with it/own one to be able to comment on any issues.

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First off, thanks a lot for your very informative post. You have made a lot of good points about pens and their flaws. I think the tech is changing rapidly in 2016 on these however and you may have missed out on some of it. I still have to look into the Omicron V4 and Herc more to understand them and see if I want to try them or not, however the Yocan Nyx and Evolve have well sealed ceramic heating chambers set inside Titanium atomizers which provides for great flavor from a clean atty. This type of atomizer build has advanced but only in a few devices from what I have seen. The Kandypens Elite, Dr. Dabber Aurora and the Puffco Plus are the only pens out there with the latest tech for these atomizers IMO and these new atomizers don't require air flow to come from the 510 threaded pin connector so they don't have leaks at the bottoms and they don't require cool down hits as you mentioned. Even the Evolve Plus I used for months never leaked out the bottom. The Puffco is tall enough that I rarely have wax in the threads either but it does happen. A taller and wider version of the Puffco atomizer with variable airflow would really be the next level of tech needed to advance the latest versions of these pens IMO.

I sound like a broken record but I absolutely adore my Yocan Evolve Plus. I have been using it exclusively as my concentrate vape since April, still using the same ceramic coil and quartz double coil (I alternate depending on whether I want more intense flavor or more intense impact). It was $45 and came with two extra coils.

I have stopped using my rig completely in favor of this amazing little vape. Extremely portable with a built-in concentrate stash, I've used this at concerts, hikes, beaches, and while skiing and it worked perfectly except in very cold environments (I learned to slide into my shirt pocket under my jacket when skiing to keep it warm).

I can't overstate the deep flavor I get from the ceramic coil, I never tasted so much subtlety and complexity in shatter before!

I'm surprised you say it's replaced your rig, isn't the battery only 4.8v? Not enough juice to really power the ceramic donuts in my experience.

I don't mean to sound negative, genuinely curious; might pick one up if it's worth it, they are under $30. Was more so thinking the Evic basic + Divine Tribe 3.0 though. About $55 combo.

Anybody using the source nail?

invertedisdead said:

I'm surprised you say it's replaced your rig, isn't the battery only 4.8v? Not enough juice to really power the ceramic donuts in my experience.

I don't mean to sound negative, genuinely curious; might pick one up if it's worth it, they are under $30. Was more so thinking the Evic basic + Divine Tribe 3.0 though. About $55 combo.

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I can't speak about the power requirements unfortunately, I haven't messed with using other power sources other than an istick. I've done some low temp dabbing but nothing has captured the wide range of flavors and seeming complexity that the evolve pro has. I'm stunned but my experience is limited to glass, titanium, and ceramic nails/bangers and a w9 pen, so perhaps ignorance is bliss, but I can't deny the increased flavor

AVENTUS said:

I can safely add Kandypens Elite to my list of pens I actually love now. It's their best yet, and I move it past the Puffco Plus, into a solid tie so far with the Linx. But it's got a bigger chamber and all four temps seem usable to me with the ceramic disc chamber, so I may soon rank it on top, if it holds up long term like the Linx has so well.

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Will the Puffco Plus mouthpiece fit on the Kandypens Elite by chance? I was thinking about buying just the atty to try but I was not sure if I have to buy a mouthpiece too

Lately, I have been running the puffco plus chamber on my Omicron battery. Only issue I have with puffco+ so far is battery life but this seems to have solved it without adding the bulk of a mod. Also, the three highest settings on the Omicron work really well with the puffco+ chamber. Been calling it my Pufficron.

This puffco+ chamber is the first vape setup I have been able to use daily without water filtration. So smooth on my sensitive throat. Really loving puffco+ so far and hard to see myself going back to exposed coils.

I'vehad to test a buttload of pens in the last few months. I've been a fan of the Yocan Evolve + and the Linx Zero. I also really like the Nexus Cloudup. It's got a good, original feel.

toros23 said:

Lately, I have been running the puffco plus chamber on my Omicron battery. Only issue I have with puffco+ so far is battery life but this seems to have solved it without adding the bulk of a mod. Also, the three highest settings on the Omicron work really well with the puffco+ chamber. Been calling it my Pufficron.

This puffco+ chamber is the first vape setup I have been able to use daily without water filtration. So smooth on my sensitive throat. Really loving puffco+ so far and hard to see myself going back to exposed coils.

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Wow is this the Omicron V4 you are using (I assume so, given you mention different heat settings)?

Have you ever had the Puffco+ clog on you or any of the heat related issues people have mentioned - or are the heat issues just battery related? This is sounding like an appealing option!

Is an adapter required to connect the puffco plus atomizer to the Omicron base?

Last night I decided to try hash in my Puffco Plus just for you @herbivore21 It wasn't full melt hand pressed beauty like you have shown on here. It was more of a hand pressed hardened ball of clay but it actually worked pretty well. Of course I had some sludge to clean out after, but I kept the watts down at 9 and never really got a smoke/combustion flavor. Today I used the same atty for Rosin and it tasted great still!

I don't love my Puffco Plus quite as much as a Dab Rig, but it's just as important to me. I am the go way to much to not have a convenient and effective way to medicate.

Dafni said:

I tried many pens, but the only one that is a keeper is the Hercules for me. Awesome product.

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This, exactly this. It is truly in a league of its own.

herbivore21 said:

Wow is this the Omicron V4 you are using (I assume so, given you mention different heat settings)?

Have you ever had the Puffco+ clog on you or any of the heat related issues people have mentioned - or are the heat issues just battery related? This is sounding like an appealing option!

Is an adapter required to connect the puffco plus atomizer to the Omicron base?

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Yes, the v4 Omicron. As you prob already know, needs to be a battery that can support sub-ohm for the puffco+ carts. Only been using this setup on the go for about 4 weeks and have not had any issues with clogs or e excessive heat. I am rotating between 4 carts.

Also, I only run rosin through the carts and it is almost always rosin pressed from bubble hash. Taste is incredible, never thought it could get this good.

toros23 said:

Yes, the v4 Omicron. As you prob already know, needs to be a battery that can support sub-ohm for the puffco+ carts. Only been using this setup on the go for about 4 weeks and have not had any issues with clogs or e excessive heat. I am rotating between 4 carts.

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Does it require a thread adapter man? It looks like the Puffco+ cart wouldn't screw straight onto the female thread on the omicron battery?

This setup really sounds ideal for me, so I greatly appreciate your input

herbivore21 said:

Does it require a thread adapter man? It looks like the Puffco+ cart wouldn't screw straight onto the female thread on the omicron battery?

This setup really sounds ideal for me, so I greatly appreciate your input

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Sorry, missed that question. Yes, requires a 510 to ego/510 like this one: link

The 510 on the puffco is recessed, so this adapter is needed to extend the 510 and make it flush with bottom of puffco cart. With this adapter, the puffco will sit flush on any battery with 510 threads.

Hope it works out for you! I was actually searching for a compact battery that would drive the puffco cart for a day or two and it was under my nose the entire time!

toros23 said:

Sorry, missed that question. Yes, requires a 510 to ego/510 like this one: link

The 510 on the puffco is recessed, so this adapter is needed to extend the 510 and make it flush with bottom of puffco cart. With this adapter, the puffco will sit flush on any battery with 510 threads.

Hope it works out for you! I was actually searching for a compact battery that would drive the puffco cart for a day or two and it was under my nose the entire time!

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Thanks for that brother, the missing piece of the puzzle lol. Now you've got my wondering if I might just go ahead and buy a few different carts and try them out on my Omicron v4 lol. The Kandypens, the Linx, why not all of them lol they're not so expensive if I'm not buying a battery!

herbivore21 said:

Thanks for that brother, the missing piece of the puzzle lol. Now you've got my wondering if I might just go ahead and buy a few different carts and try them out on my Omicron v4 lol. The Kandypens, the Linx, why not all of them lol they're not so expensive if I'm not buying a battery!

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The only problem is you would have to buy mouthpieces too which brings the cost back up to half the cost of the pen. I am not sure if the mouthpieces will work on other branded attys. You can always use a female 18mm glass adapter in lieu of the mouthpiece just to get a try but it would not be idea for out and about obviously. Vapecritic has a 30% discount code on his site for Kandypens and I have a 15% discount code for Puffco that might still work.

Personally, I use a Pico Mega box mod or battery to run my Puffco. Its a little on the thick/fat side but I can go the entire week on a single charge and I can choose the watts that best suit my materials! It would be great to have these atomizers operate in TC mode.

nosmoking said:

The only problem is you would have to buy mouthpieces too which brings the cost back up to half the cost of the pen. I am not sure if the mouthpieces will work on other branded attys. You can always use a female 18mm glass adapter in lieu of the mouthpiece just to get a try but it would not be idea for out and about obviously. Vapecritic has a 30% discount code on his site for Kandypens and I have a 15% discount code for Puffco that might still work.

Personally, I use a Pico Mega box mod or battery to run my Puffco. Its a little on the thick/fat side but I can go the entire week on a single charge and I can choose the watts that best suit my materials! It would be great to have these atomizers operate in TC mode.

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I got no problems with paying half the price of each whole pen to get the carts with mouthpieces bro, if they're each good and durable then that's a fair price that I'm prepared to spend. In the end I'm gonna try out the Puffco Plus cart on my omicron V4 and see how that goes first If the battery life is shitty, I'll have to get my hands on a nice temp controlled mod.

Anyone used the puffco plus with a good mod? I'm already eyeing off an Evic vtwo mini! lol

nosmoking said:

The only problem is you would have to buy mouthpieces too which brings the cost back up to half the cost of the pen. I am not sure if the mouthpieces will work on other branded attys. You can always use a female 18mm glass adapter in lieu of the mouthpiece just to get a try but it would not be idea for out and about obviously. Vapecritic has a 30% discount code on his site for Kandypens and I have a 15% discount code for Puffco that might still work.

Personally, I use a Pico Mega box mod or battery to run my Puffco. Its a little on the thick/fat side but I can go the entire week on a single charge and I can choose the watts that best suit my materials! It would be great to have these atomizers operate in TC mode.

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Apologies for double post but edit period expired.

Nosmoking, I see you have used your Puffco plus with a mod. I may end up caving and getting a mod later. Do you know of anybody having dialled in TCR for the puffco plus yet?

I love my Hercules SR-71s. I bought 3 of them and have them in rotation as my daily drivers. I’ve been using these constantly for about 3 years. I supplement them with a flower vape just for a change of pace but 80-90% of the time it’s the Hercules.


The Herc has a true ceramic heating element, no wires anywhere in the Herc. I really like the 40W peak power of the SR-71 heater. I stocked up on SR-71s when W9 introduced the lower power SR-74.


For the past several months I’ve been vaping Guild Extracts THC powder. These are 90%+ THC content (Cherry AK which I’m vaping currently is 92% THC). While quite expensive, this is the best medication that I’ve ever had. A gram of this THC powder lasts me about a month vaping a few times every day. The downside to using THC powder is that there is almost no taste regardless of the strain it came from. Also THC powder can be kind of tricky to use in the Herc since I have to use a heat gun to melt it into the Ti sponge inside the Herc each time I load it. I load about 1/6 of a gram each time. The upside is incredible potency with very mild vapor and almost no smell.


The hits from Herc+Guild Extracts are amazing. I get big clouds with each hit. 1 hit is a good maintenance dose, 2 good hits and I’m fully medicated, 3+ hits is party time. While this extract is almost flavorless it produces the mildest vapor I’ve had. With the Herc I can get clouds in 3 seconds and since the THC powder solidifies so hard in the Herc that cool down hits are minimal.


I run the Hercs on a W9 Persei which I configure with 2 AW IMR 18350s or sometimes in a configuration with 2 AW IMR 18650s. With a single load of extract and a pair of 18650s I can medicate for maybe 4 days without reloading or changing batteries. Awesome.


I usually run the SR-71 in what I call full commando mode. No mouthpiece screen, no adjustable airflow washer, no bottom adapter and no heat shield. The cleaning of the Herc is also super simple. I described my cleaning technique in the Persei thread recently. With typical waxes I can go for 6+ grams before the taste deteriorates to the point that cleaning is required. With the THC powder I’m currently on my seventh gram without cleaning. Basically, the cleaner the extract the longer you can go between cleanings.


Oils with adulterants in them or vapes with wire heaters don’t interest me at all. Dabs don’t really interest me either. I would love to try other wax vapes but so far I haven’t found anything that compares to the Hercules. Also I have enough spare parts to keep the Herc going for decades if needed.

Hedonismbot said:

I love my Hercules SR-71s. I bought 3 of them and have them in rotation as my daily drivers. I’ve been using these constantly for about 3 years. I supplement them with a flower vape just for a change of pace but 80-90% of the time it’s the Hercules.


The Herc has a true ceramic heating element, no wires anywhere in the Herc. I really like the 40W peak power of the SR-71 heater. I stocked up on SR-71s when W9 introduced the lower power SR-74.


For the past several months I’ve been vaping Guild Extracts THC powder. These are 90%+ THC content (Cherry AK which I’m vaping currently is 92% THC). While quite expensive, this is the best medication that I’ve ever had. A gram of this THC powder lasts me about a month vaping a few times every day. The downside to using THC powder is that there is almost no taste regardless of the strain it came from. Also THC powder can be kind of tricky to use in the Herc since I have to use a heat gun to melt it into the Ti sponge inside the Herc each time I load it. I load about 1/6 of a gram each time. The upside is incredible potency with very mild vapor and almost no smell.


The hits from Herc+Guild Extracts are amazing. I get big clouds with each hit. 1 hit is a good maintenance dose, 2 good hits and I’m fully medicated, 3+ hits is party time. While this extract is almost flavorless it produces the mildest vapor I’ve had. With the Herc I can get clouds in 3 seconds and since the THC powder solidifies so hard in the Herc that cool down hits are minimal.


I run the Hercs on a W9 Persei which I configure with 2 AW IMR 18350s or sometimes in a configuration with 2 AW IMR 18650s. With a single load of extract and a pair of 18650s I can medicate for maybe 4 days without reloading or changing batteries. Awesome.


I usually run the SR-71 in what I call full commando mode. No mouthpiece screen, no adjustable airflow washer, no bottom adapter and no heat shield. The cleaning of the Herc is also super simple. I described my cleaning technique in the Persei thread recently. With typical waxes I can go for 6+ grams before the taste deteriorates to the point that cleaning is required. With the THC powder I’m currently on my seventh gram without cleaning. Basically, the cleaner the extract the longer you can go between cleanings.


Oils with adulterants in them or vapes with wire heaters don’t interest me at all. Dabs don’t really interest me either. I would love to try other wax vapes but so far I haven’t found anything that compares to the Hercules. Also I have enough spare parts to keep the Herc going for decades if needed.

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The newer hercs after the sr71 were never much good for me. They worked great when the centre spring pin would connect properly but these were so finnicky to put together and take apart that I lost interest in using them very quickly (if you don't put it together just right, the unit doesn't heat up at all).

The flavor was good (better than any other pen at the time no doubt - dunno about the new ceramic coil-less pens yet), but my sapphire halo completely eclipsed it (Sapphire liger does the same of course, SiC on both is better tasting too). Heater placement is a PITA in the sr74 and sr74x, even slightly wrong and the whole thing wouldn't work! I owned 2 x of each of the sr74 and sr74x for reference not the new 510 threaded one, the old 601 Persei only models.

The sr71's are better for the assembly issues from what I have heard, but SR71's have not been the current model since before I even tried dabbable concentrates for the first time!

The required buffer load is simply too expensive with the full melt I vape and I wouldn't use something cheaper as the buffer load because it overwhelmed the taste of the actual load. I also find the performance, cleaning and flavor of the herc (whilst flavor is better than almost any pen) to be inferior to my e-nails.

As above, a pen for me is for very rare usage cases, where torch noise is too loud and I don't have mains power - this means that I do not ever want to load .5g or more of my meds into a pen because by the time I finished .5g of pen hits with how rarely I use them, the material would be oxidized and deteriorated greatly (this and the corresponding flavor loss is much more noticeable with high terpene concentrates like full melt bubble, which will drastically lose flavor if just left exposed to room temp environment rather than sealed in an airtight environment).

IMO these days the herc fills some niches for those who are prepared to put up with the finnicky assembly (I am unsure if the 510 threaded sr74x's have changed at all in this regard) and who want to load large amounts of oil at a time in a pen. For most folks (especially those with no technical inclinations), I'd recommend looking elsewhere

herbivore21 said:

Apologies for double post but edit period expired.

Nosmoking, I see you have used your Puffco plus with a mod. I may end up caving and getting a mod later. Do you know of anybody having dialled in TCR for the puffco plus yet?

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No...not sure the Plus atty will work in TCR mode. The Pico Mega supports the following Output modes however I don't know how to use them: Smart/VW/Bypass/TC(Ni,Ti,SS,TCR-M1,M2,M3) mode

I just use VW which is wattage mode. I set it to 12 generally.

Anybody using a Saionara?

nosmoking said:

No...not sure the Plus atty will work in TCR mode. The Pico Mega supports the following Output modes however I don't know how to use them: Smart/VW/Bypass/TC(Ni,Ti,SS,TCR-M1,M2,M3) mode

I just use VW which is wattage mode. I set it to 12 generally.

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Cheers man Yeah definitely aware that this may be untested territory so no problem if it doesn't work in TCR. I might hold off on getting a larger battery unless the Omicron doesn't last long enough for my needs

By far the best tasting pen I've hit is an Evolab Alchemy cartridge on an adjustable-voltage 510 battery. It was actually good enough that I wanted to hit it just for the taste. It uses a refined CO2 extract with added terpenes. Strong too at 85%+.

The downside- I would say it's a ripoff at $80 after tax (for .5g). I only bought it because I was heading out on a trip and had very limited options at the time. Won't buy another though, just not worth it when good live resin is $50/g.

Speaking of that, Pax has come out with a proprietary battery and [strain specific?] live resin cartridges. According to a budtender they taste great but she also got a free one. Also not a cheap option at $60 for the battery and each half gram live resin cart.