Since I dropped in with such aplomb :/ last time, I wanted to at least close the chapter on the bum Ion. Bruce and I exchanged emails the following day and he had a replacement unit shipped off to me. He was very friendly and seemed to genuinely understand my frustration. And if he was annoyed by my outburst he didn't let it show. And inasmuch as I was unabashedly vocal then, it is only fair that I be equally candid now.
One thing that caused me to hold off buying the Ion as long as I did was I didn't feel like I had a good sense of what I was getting. Marketing shots and YouTube videos are better than nothing, but I usually rely on hands-on reviews from similar enthusiasts when I'm buying a high-end gadget. And while there are many testimonials right here, I wanted to offer my best shot at conveying the experience of getting an Ion. So while I am an unqualified reviewer, I nonetheless present to you:
Zephyr Ion Unboxing
The packaging is simple and effective: what you see is what you get.
The first thing you see when you open the box is a foam tray containing your accessories. It took me a moment to figure out what exactly I was looking at: two valves assembled with bags, two "biomatter" baskets, and a protective cap covering the "straw."
The Ion itself was packed beneath the foam tray, along with replacement parts, a USB cable and the instruction manual. The Ion has a solid heft to it (6 lbs.), but more importantly it has a very solid and well-made feel. It rests very stably and has a low center of gravity. This is convenient for storage and filling bags, but I expect will make a really big difference with a whip.
Why the magazine, you ask? One word: scale. This is not a small piece of equipment, and it will not go unnoticed on your bookshelf. I don't think it looks bad at all. I don't love it, but I don't love the Volcano either. This, however, is portable. You can pick this thing up in one hand no problem. I was also pleased to see they put a heavy duty power cord on it.
Here is one of the bags laid out over the magazine, again for a sense of scale. The bags are about the dimensions I expected. The mouthpieces are clever bits of industrial design. This was actually one of the reasons I chose the Ion over the EQ and Volcano, and they don't disappoint. They are comfortable and work exactly like you would expect them to.
This is the chamber of mysteries where the magic happens. It has the look and feel of a well-designed device. Everything meshes together well, there's no play in the joints.
Plugged in. This thing could make a hell of a nightlight!
Power on. It is a great display. You can tell out of the corner of your eye or across the room what's going on with it. I'm not going to lie: from the press of that big button I anxiously wondered, will this one heat up?
Nervous but scientifically optimistic: I hit a stopwatch on my phone when I hit the power button on the Ion. Final reading: 1:05. It was ready before I was. Okay, you guys have way surpassed expectations on that.
This is the holiest of holies loaded up with some friendly "biomatter." The baskets are a good size. They're easy to handle and easy to fill and have a respectable capacity, which has not been the case for any other vaporizer I've owned. Even the old 1st gen Vapir baskets were hard to load and easy to fumble.
I was going to use the stopwatch when I started filling as well, but then I thought it would be more interesting to see it in action. Depending on where you call it full that's somewhere between 30 and 35 seconds. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz9B295D9ps
First bag. Wow. Thick, smooth, tasty. I suddenly wonder why I wanted the whip also? Oh yeah--in case I didn't like the bag. I like the bag, but I'm really curious to see how this works with a whip. I'm guessing it will be a different experience than my erstwhile EasyBake, uh--EasyVape.
Second bag. Looks almost as thick as the first, but is it as tasty and as strong as the first? Well, let's not jump into this too quickly here. What about these valves...can I let a bag sit?
Second bag 45 minutes later. I planned to check on it after 30, but it was feeding time and hungry monsters destroy furniture, etc. The bag looks only slightly looser. The vapor definitely looks thinner, but based on how little the volume appeared to change, I would guess that's got more to do with condensation than leakage. I don't know what that means for the quality of the vapor. It was definitely thinner in taste and effect than the first. Subsequent trials showed second-bag vapor to be nearly as thick as first-, but not quite as tasty.
Overall, I'm more surprised by how thoroughly I love the bag than how I feel about the Ion itself. I enjoyed some med-grade vapors this weekend, and both taste and effect bested the other vaporizers I've owned. Initial problems aside, this device has look and feel of solid manufacturing. Obviously defects do slip through, but looking at a working unit you would have no reason to doubt that this thing would last a good long time.
