I'm leaning towards buying the mighty or pax3 but I want some of your expertise in selecting.
If you are choosing between those 2 then you probably don't yet exactly know what you want and indeed would benefit from some expertise in selecting. BEcause those 2 are very very different. One is based on convection and one on conduction, and that provides very different usage.
Heating:
1) Conduction
- Heats up the bowl with herbs inside to make them hot and evaporate and lets you inhale cold air through to get in in your lungs.
- It vapes the herbs touching the bowl sides quicker than the inside. Usually need a couple of stirs between hits until it's finished.
- Makes more vapor if you wait a little between hits.
- When you hit it, dense vapor starts flowing immediately, but quickly fades into wispy low-temp vapor as you cool down the oven with room temperature air. Therefore it's best to take numerous small puffs with little waits in between to get best results.
2) Convection
- Heats up a heat exchanger separate from the bowl and you inhale the air through it then the heated air goes through the bowl making it hot and evaporate.
- It vapes a tunnel in the middle of the bowl, leaving the sides green. You stir it about 2 times max per bowl, the high quiality ones don't need stirring at all.
- You don't have to wait between hits for it to reheat (unless the heat exchanger is really small, like E-Nano).
- When you hit it, it may take few seconds for the vapor density to gradually build up, but it will keep being dense until the end of the hit (unless the bowl is finished). So you get a huge cloud if you take a long hit.
3) Radiation
- Shines on the transparent bowl, heating it up.
- Similar to conduction, heats up the sides, but more evenly.
One vape can also combine two or all of them.
Dynamics:
1) Session
- Has conduction or radiation heating and heats up slowly and cool down slowly.
- You turn it on, let it heat up, then take hits until finished, then turn it off.
- Not good for taking single hits.
Some examples: Mighty, Pax, davinci...
2) On-demand vapor
- Pure convection vapes, that take a while to heat up.
- You turn it on, and then you can take single hits. It won't vape when you are not hitting it.
- Can be used like session vape, but also for single hits, but it has to be preheated.
Some examples: EVO, E-Nano, SSV, DBV, LSV, EQ, Volcano...
3) On-demand heat
- Can be any type of heating, but has to heat up and cool down within seconds.
- You can take it from your pocket, push button, take a hit and then put it back in pocket.
- You have to be much miore carefull hitting it right, at right speed with right ammount of seconds of preheat. The 1 and 2 are easier and more consistent. On-demand heating ones can be tricky to master.
Some examples: MFLB (concuction and radiation), Grasshopper Ghost Milaana Splinter (convection)
I personally like pure convection vapes the most, which also means on-demand vapor.
Specifically the E-Nano, having it powered 24/7 on my desk and taking hits whenever I want.
Volcano and minivap have medical certification if that means anything to you.
That means they have the money and will to get these certifications. I'm pretty sure most good vapes would pass it too if they wanted and put the money in it. I think it should be the last deal-breaking thing you check. First, pick a vape that you would like, like I described above. Then check if their materials are questionable. All the popular vapes here have the consensus of being safe. If you really have to be sure, then pick the ones that only have stainless, ceramic or glass anywhere near the hot parts.
