REVIEW: New Zephyr Ion Nylon Bags
These bags are sooo much quieter than the old bags! The old bags were like crinkly cellophane, they would rattle and crinkle with every breath you take, or every second of filling up. The new bags are as quiet as the pump, you barely hear them making any noise until you hear the stretch of the material as it reaches capacity.
The new bags also have a little more 'give' to them than the old bags I think. It feels less likely to pop, but I imagine it could still happen. The material seems like a light-weight version of those beach balls you blow up - its like even when the bag is full, it could probably take a little bit more.
These bags are also customizable to size! They come in a long roll, so you just roll out however much you want, and then cut it off. Then just seal the top end, and the bottom end to a mouthpiece, and you have a new bag. With being able to cut custom size bags, you can now control how long you want to wait before your bag is full by adjusting its size, or adjust your bag based on your usage habits to waste less or wait less.
They are also heat seal-able. I used a 16" U-Line pulse heat sealer
I found setting 8 to work well at first, but after sealing repeated seams, I turned it down to 4 as it was melting through the material.
I cut off a section maybe 18 inches long, made a seal across one side, and then on the other side made two small seams from the sides of the bag to almost the middle. This made it easier to insert the nozzle of the mouthpiece into the bag and seal it without having to gather so much material.
I'll be taking orders for custom sized Nylon bags, just take a number.
The seams were great, the seal with the mouthpiece was great, and the new material.... so quiet! I'm really surprised no-one else making bag vaporizers has implemented this, at least not that I'm aware of (correct me if I'm wrong).
There are a few downsides I could see though.
1) if you don't have a means to heat seal them, you'll have to use a zip tie at the top end of the bag, which just changes the shape of your bag and maybe the aesthetics, but not the function.
2) if you enjoyed your old bags standing up straight before filling, these new bags droop over the side and start filling up to the side of your vaporizer until they fully expand and sit above the vaporizer. This could be a problem if a) you have a large bag, and/or b) you have a confined space for the vaporizer.
3) you have less audible warning of when the bag is full. I think with the old bags you could hear the sound change as it got closer to filling. With these new bags its like they sneak up on you - one second they're all quiet, and then you hear a stretching sound. This isn't really so much a problem, just a caveat to be aware of.
. Finally though I have some free time to write this out.
