convection vs conduction

herbivore21

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
This thread is such an oversimplification. Convection is not necessarily better tasting than conduction. There are so many other relevant variables.

Give me conduction vaporization of whole resin glands on a sapphire enail anyday over the most coveted convection vapes ;)

The point is that each method requires different designs to function best. For example, conduction flower vapes all use a bowl which does not spread a thin layer of the flower over the conductively heated surface. Instead, we have a thick load of ground herb and the top of the herb is not necessarily in direct contact with any heat! No wonder that won't work as well as some convection setups!

Now make a long, thin bowl, fill it with well ground flower in a very thin layer with contact on all sides with a precisely heated surface (especially a material with lots of heat conductivity - say Silicone Carbide) and that is another story altogether. No combustion, super even vaporization etc. It isn't the heating method, it's how you use it ;)
 
D

david8613

Well-Known Member
I agree, stirring is a hassle thats one of the reasons i ditched the cfv for cfx, much happier now.
 
david8613,
jojo monkey

jojo monkey

Well-Known Member
Manufacturer
I just made a clip of a 5 second convection draw from a large heat source. The herb is purple and is 3" under the heater.

l44Qu1ccyy2S0bju8.gif


long vid https://vid.me/0IC6

If you are trying to make a vape with the least draw resistance and the fastest extraction speed it will probably use convection. The reason is that the heater can be so much larger than an oven.
 
hinglemccringleberry

hinglemccringleberry

Well-Known Member
herbivore21 said:
For example, conduction flower vapes all use a bowl which does not spread a thin layer of the flower over the conductively heated surface. Instead, we have a thick load of ground herb and the top of the herb is not necessarily in direct contact with any heat! No wonder that won't work as well as some convection setups!
Click to expand...
But doesn't that mean all conduction vapes are actually hybrid vapes? Only a fraction of the herb in a fully loaded oven contacts the walls. The rest is in the middle, heated only by hot air...

In any case, I would rather deal with the conduction issue of roasted flavor at the end of a load than have to deal with stirring, advanced techniques, hit-and-miss results, hot air (unless it's a FF2), risk of charring, and having to take ultra long draws.
 
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hinglemccringleberry,
Hippie Dickie

Hippie Dickie

The Herbal Cube
Manufacturer
mccringleberry said:
The rest is in the middle, heated only by hot air...
Click to expand...

but that would be a convection vape, right? i don't have much experience, but using a PAX put me off conduction vapes - if the herb wasn't smashed down, tight, it didn't vape - and cleaning was far worse than any stirring in my vape ... but for sure, very convenient and small.
 
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howie105

howie105

Well-Known Member
For some folks It really comes down to how well they use the device, give me the best vape on the market (convection or conduction) and I will need days to weeks to really get the hang of it. On the other hand the very basic vape that I have used for years and started with always works because I have learned all its mystic ways.
 
hinglemccringleberry

hinglemccringleberry

Well-Known Member
Hippie Dickie said:
but that would be a convection vape, right? i don't have much experience, but using a PAX put me off conduction vapes - if the herb wasn't smashed down, tight, it didn't vape - and cleaning was far worse than any stirring in my vape ... but for sure, very convenient and small.
Click to expand...
Disregard my previous post; radiation is what I was referring to, not convection. The herb sitting in the middle of a load in a conduction device is being heated by radiation, not convection. Don't let the Pax 1 put you off of conduction vaporizers, there are plenty of them that don't suck and are easy to clean. And tamping your herbs down is almost a requirement for all conduction vapes to perform to their full potential - having to tamp doesn't mean it's a sucky vaporizer. I actually enjoy the ritual.
 
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hinglemccringleberry

hinglemccringleberry

Well-Known Member
In another thread I asked the question "is convection as good as we think/hope". My experience with the SBJ (a 100% on-demand convection vape) goes against what everyone says about convection being superior to conduction. The initial flavor was delicious, yes, but it took on a roasted flavor that everyone says doesn't exist with convection vapes (no matter how much I stirred). And the on-demand aspect of that device does nothing to help me conserve weed. I find myself loading more herb than I normally would for a single bowl in order to really get that on-demand convection performance dialed in while avoiding charring. This isn't a knock on it, I enjoy the roasted flavor it takes on, and I don't mind that I seem to go thru as much herb as I do with my conduction vapes, I'm just saying, how much of what folks say about on demand convection "being so much better than conduction" is factual and how much of it is overly subjective and pushed by the industry to get you to spend more money on the "latest and greatest tech"?
 
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Baron23

Baron23

Well-Known Member
mccringleberry said:
The initial flavor was delicious, yes, but just like with conduction, it took on a roasted flavor that everyone says doesn't exist with convection vapes (no matter how much I stirred).
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's not my experience either. Once you get the terps out, there is still a lot of the load left and yeah...it gets a roasted taste to me whether convection or conduction. At least to me.

The main difference to me is the ease of hitting then putting down without continuing to cook your herb versus conduction which really is more of a "kill in one session" kind of tech...at least with the vapes I have used.

Cheers
 
hinglemccringleberry

hinglemccringleberry

Well-Known Member
I get what you mean about the "kill in 1 session" aspect of conduction, but since my sessions aren't terribly long I'm getting 4-5 sessions out of one 0.2-0.25 load, and I'm satisfied with the taste all the way up until something like hit number 20 on session #4. lol. So in that sense, conduction for me is more convenient and more efficient and more hurdleproof than convection. I'm smitten with the flavor my Linx vape is giving me. I literally daydream about low temp vaping blueberry kush with it.
And that's only in regards to the electronic ones. My Vapcap is even more efficient and makes microdosing a great experience with no learning curve. I just can't get on the convection bandwagon.
 
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Baron23

Baron23

Well-Known Member
mccringleberry said:
I get what you mean about the "kill in 1 session" aspect of conduction, but since my sessions aren't terribly long I'm getting 4-5 sessions out of one 0.2-0.25 load, and I'm satisfied with the taste all the way up until something like hit number 20 on session #4. lol. So in that sense, conduction for me is more convenient and more efficient and more hurdleproof than convection. I'm smitten with the flavor my Linx vape is giving me. I literally daydream about low temp vaping blueberry kush with it.
And that's only in regards to the electronic ones. My Vapcap is even more efficient and makes microdosing a great experience with no learning curve. I just can't get on the convection bandwagon.
Click to expand...
I'm not a micro-doser although I do control my tolerance pretty well.

I know many who do as you, but to me getting four or more sessions and twenty draws from a quarter of a gram is foreign to me.

Take care.
 
C

CloudyDayz

Active Member
I recently got into vaping again after a long time off - but I picked up a sticky brick (convection) and a vapcap (conduction) . .as well as a Vapir no2 (conduction) but that was kind of a mistake purchase, lol.

What I mostly notice is convection is better for taking a few hits at a time. The herb stays fresher. It seems to get less gunkier, too. Both the vapcap and the no2 are gunk-magnets but the Sticky Brick is remarkably . .well. .not sticky considering how much I've used it.

I remember back in the early days of my vaping I had a Volcano and a Big Daddy whip-vape and the Big Daddy was much more gunky than the Volcano was .. that was a long time ago, though.

Other than that I think they both can have good flavor, they both can work really well and be really efficient, etc. I prefer convection, I guess, just for the increased flexibility (session or tokes) and the gunk reduction.
 
herbivore21

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
CloudyDayz said:
but the Sticky Brick is remarkably . .well. .not sticky considering how much I've used it.
Click to expand...
If the sticky brick has any wooden section of the vapor path, this is likely because the wood is swelling with oils. If this is the case, eventually the wooden airpath sections will be overwhelmingly gunked and so soaked in resin that cleaning will be impossible. I am not especially familiar with the Sticky Bricks (I'm never going to use a vape that has a butane flame directly in the airpath) but I do know they use a whole lot of wood in the design which is why I mention this possibility. I have avoided all vapes with wooden sections in the vapor path for a long time now for the above reason.
 
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MonsterWithoutBorders

MonsterWithoutBorders

Philosophim
I notice that my 2 convection vapes dont induce coughing while my convection vapes all produce coughing. The iq seems to produce least.
 
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howie105

howie105

Well-Known Member
My hacking and back flushing isn't tied to convection or combustion but to time. All of my non-shelf queen vapes have made me blow real smoke while looking for those giant room fogging hits or left we wondering if I even got a puff while trying for micro load size performance. Given enough loads through the vapes I either learn what I am doing with the vape or the limits of a particular vape. Bottom line for me is that its not convection or combustion that decides the functionality of a particular vape but my abilities and preferences that count.
 
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archangelz001

archangelz001

FIRE!!
I have one convection vape: an EDIT Convector, a rebranded Weecke Fenix. I use a medium grind. The bowl holds about 0.2 gm and I do not pack at all. Convection only works well when hot air is pulled via a draw through the heater which is underneath the bowl and freely passes around and through the herb. No stirring required with this device. My Flowermates are conduction devices. They require packing the herb into a puck because heat is conducted through the material directly from the oven wall. Air spaces in loosely packed material make for uneven and generally poor extraction. Draws on a convection vape pull heated air through the material. Draws on a conduction vape pull cool air into the oven chamber and cool the oven and material, causing uneven extraction in the middle of the puck. I would think that stirring would be a more useful technique for conduction vapes as compared to convection vapes. IMHO. However I never stir no matter which vape I use, and don't see a reason to. I will say that flavor is retained longer with the convection vape as the material only cooks when you take draws.
 
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grokit

grokit

well-worn member
From what I can tell the boundless cf/cfx are like the s&b crafty/mighty, in that they are a combination of convection and conduction meaning they will all cook your load if you don't finish it so session vapes.
 
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jojo monkey

jojo monkey

Well-Known Member
Manufacturer
I made another clip...

Here is a low temp convection draw:

3ohzdI73MqRxrz12yQ.gif


I think there is a fuzzy line between cooking herb to shit and an efficient extraction of resin. On a portable I think this line is even fuzzier due to the low wattage and the sacrifices for battery life. I consider conduction to be a sacrifice for battery life. On the flip side, there are barely any conduction desktops.
 
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