Arizer Solo

It's just like the Purple Days photo contest, except horrible and depressing. Thumbs up!

VaphingApe415 said:

Ugh! Flaked on me...Been four days, going on five and no respond from Arizer...SMH!
Don't really want to contact VFW because I gave a piece of my mind so I think I burned that bridge, but it's my last resort...I'm trying to stay away but from CDS pics, it's not an isolated batch that Steve suspects....It's just a matter of time; I'd stay away from light 7!

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@ Ape 415

Sent you an e-mail.

Dammm.....its not looking like just a few users anymore. yikes!

I will apologize if my emotions were too strong but when you spend all this money only to be disappointed by a company you trust it kinda stikes a nerve. The ONLY way Arizer could make this better is by giving me every penny back since the Retailer won't. I'm not making money off of selling this thing, I spent OVER $300 for it with taxes. THEY ALL SMELL and goes away with time (although not enough for my likes).

I must say i'm killing myself inside after reading all these other issues starting to roll in. Nice beta testing.

Users with peeling orgranic ceramic, if your comfortable do you mind sharing when you purchased your solo?

Not going to bother asking from what store because fuckcombustion is pretty global.

I have only heard good things about Arizer customer service and now I can give my first hand account about how awesome it really is. Steve from Arizer contacted me 6 hours after I sent an email and explained the issue with the ceramic and offered a quick and speedy resolution. My new unit is already on it's way!

Our short term solution is a stainless steel disc insert that will fit into the bottom of the bowl, they will be ready early next week. Next, we're going to a 100% stainless steel bowl, they will be ready quickly as well, a few weeks max.

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I look forward to a 100% stainless steel bowl to ensure I wont have issues with my new unit. I have a lot of sympathy for others having the same issues as me. Thankfully Arizer has fantastic customer service, no company has ever responded to me in 6 hours and offered to ship me a new unit same day.

Arizer Solo

This portable unit seems well built at first blush. Feels solid. My mouthpieces fit quite snugly. Fully charged it, heated it to 3 and began testing.

The draw is very restrictive. Feels like an over packed PD stem. I could tell I was getting medicine delivery even if the pull was kind of hard. Would not recommend this for people who have a difficult time sucking hard.

Good flavor on the first few hits. Not really getting the lung hit that I savor as a former cigarette smoker. Kept puffing for about 5 minutes and started to pick up the electronics taste which is still in my mouth as I write this 10 minutes later.

The effect is profound. I am very medicated. I'm a little worried about the smell and taste. Perhaps it will burn off as time goes by. But the effect is there and the Solo provides efficient results.

I think my biggest issue as far as portability is the glass stems. Not that it's so hard to carry them, but that they scream "Smoking crack over here man!" The other issue for me is the heat up and loading time which makes stealth vaping more difficult. The MFLB is still the stealth leader. If you do it right no one will see it. The Iolite can hide in plain sight. The Solo is too conspicuous.

I think this thing has real possibilities for revision. It could be a great walk around the house wireless vape if the smell issue can be solved. I would really like to have a little better airflow. Mine is VERY tight. I would like a look that blends in better and does not scream "look at me!" I feel like the plastic heating cover is going to break off eventually. Overall I'm impressed on some levels, not crazy about the hit or the taste, and not really sure if it really fits my lifestyle.

I don't get it, if they're going back to a non-coated bowl doesn't that mean that we can just take off the coating once it starts to peel and essentially have the same Solo as the revised ones? If that's the case I don't really see the point in going through the trouble of getting a replacement when/if the coating on mine starts to go as well.

Anyone already modified the Solo with one of those inserts btw? I'm a bit worried that it might effect the temperature.

BossBrew said:

I have only heard good things about Arizer customer service and now I can give my first hand account about how awesome it really is. Steve from Arizer contacted me 6 hours after I sent an email and explained the issue with the ceramic and offered a quick and speedy resolution. My new unit is already on it's way!

Our short term solution is a stainless steel disc insert that will fit into the bottom of the bowl, they will be ready early next week. Next, we're going to a 100% stainless steel bowl, they will be ready quickly as well, a few weeks max.

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I look forward to a 100% stainless steel bowl to ensure I wont have issues with my new unit. I have a lot of sympathy for others having the same issues as me. Thankfully Arizer has fantastic customer service, no company has ever responded to me in 6 hours and offered to ship me a new unit same day.

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good to hear, so will the organic ceramic be gone in the new units? should people with old units chip the rest of the organic ceramic away? or will they receive a unit with a stainless steel screen? or will they just get a stainless steel bowl?

i apologize if i'm asking a lot of questions.

Right on Vaped Ape, I'll try again!
Damn, vaporizerforweed.net just pretty much stated to go to Arizer! WTF! For those that steered me wrong, where is the support at? That is mad BULL! Mad disGruntled right now! FUCK VFW!

Edit: I thought I had at least 1yr warranty with them! SMFH! Going on day five and still no word from Arizer....Yo, I'm a mad polite person and I do drank that act right for those haters that think I don't know how to ASK politely...Those haters that chime in on the thread; don't even own a solo, so fuck ya couch!
-Rick James BIOTCH

August West said:

Dammm.....its not looking like just a few users anymore. yikes!

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Sooo... I'm guessing that the 3% defect rate that Arizer Steve quoted is inaccurate.

Very disappointing. I've only had my Solo for two weeks. So far I love it... but I can't keep my self from expecting mine to flake too.

The 3% is probably accurate. How many people have showed up here with the problem, like ten? It would only take 300 Solos to make that a three percent number.

I remember communicating with Steve a while back and it became clear to me that what happens here on fc is just a small percentage of the vape world. There are shittons of sales of units we never hear about here.

I agree with stickstones, a lot of vaporist's don't know about FC.

A lot of consumers avoid doing anything over the internet because they don't want things traced back and etc.

And hell some vaporist's might not have computers.

blackbur said:

good to hear, so will the organic ceramic be gone in the new units? should people with old units chip the rest of the organic ceramic away? or will they receive a unit with a stainless steel screen? or will they just get a stainless steel bowl?

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Yes, it seems that they are going to use a 100% stainless steel bowl for future units. I wouldn't start chipping away at the ceramic until we get more information about the new stainless steel inserts.

VaphingApe415 said:

I thought I had at least 1yr warranty with them! SMFH! Going on day five and still no word from Arizer.

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I am sorry to hear that. They actually responded to my email in 6 hours, maybe your email got lost somewhere.

If you can't reach them by email, try calling.

I believe its a 2 year warranty on anything that involves the heating element, that's what i read on a couple sites that sell the solo.

@Boss thanks for the knowledge man, the stainless steel insert sounds good. Defiantly would make one feel more comfortable with heavy packed stems or worrying about stuff falling directly into the unit.Hopefully this thing can act as a safety net.

"Our short term solution is a stainless steel disc insert that will fit into the bottom of the bowl, they will be ready early next week. Next, we're going to a 100% stainless steel bowl, they will be ready quickly as well, a few weeks max."


Hope the 100% stainless chambers can be made available and retro fitted to the earlier v1.0. I haven't looked inside a Solo but my guess is this upgrade would call for someone skilled to solder the internal connections.

After all, we are the beta testers.

Da Ape

Count me to the list of people that has organic peeling on the inside of my bowl. Just contacted Arizer about the problem and hopefully I'll receive a quick response and have this problem resolved.

I am with you all that feel we are the beta testers.

This all just sounds too weird , it's been in the works for what 2 years at least and the problems just now show?? And this is such a small % problem yet they are completely redesigning the bowl ???? I really like the way my solo works ( no stink or chipping yet ) but man it just sucks to feel like the crash test dummies.
We'll see what happens.

I think we all got betaed too.

So since a switch to a 100% stainless steel bowl is in the works, I've asked Steve if I can just exchange my warrantied model for a new, stainless bowled one. I would of simply asked to wait for the new model if I'd known it was coming, but it wasn't mentioned in emails until I sent my photos of the new unit in. I hope he's receptive to that, because I just want nothing to do with this ceramic. I don't want a retrofitted steel insert sitting on top of the offgassing, peeling, vaporizing ceramic, no matter how non toxic it is - I'd much rather just have a full steel bowl.

He also commented on the smell, and he thinks that all Solos have a certain smell to them, the same way any electronics do. He said only really sensitive people really pick up on it, and that its one of the reasons the Solo has its electronics sealed off from the heating chamber. My question is, then why do you get a massive taste of it when you take a inhalation off an empty stem when the temperature is up there? It's not just ambient, it's in the bowl, it's everywhere... Anyway, hope I get a stainless.

VFW.net, which did not respond for about 9 days when I asked for a cash refund, finally responded to my second request. They said that since I went through Arizer for a RMA, that I can't get a refund from them, which is just what I wish I had done now.

^^^Big Homie, they just saying that! Their intentions were never to give out any refunds; I even asked them for a refund. But they declined, even tried to redeem the RMA through them! All they sent me was ask Arizer and no reply back even when I stated that they had an obligation to a 1yr warranty. Mad fuckery my dude! Mad Fuckery!

I just ran my first bowl through my new warrantied black solo. Prior to this I burned it off for maybe 10 cycles, a very, very long time. I enjoyed a bowl very thoroughly on power setting 4. It tasted pretty good and only had a very slight electricy after taste in the last half of the bowl. Then I thought it was time to crank it up to power 7, so I let it heat for a whole cycle then had ad it. The first two hits were pretty tasty, but after that all I could taste was a very strong, burning dust like taste. I'd never experienced as negative of a taste so strongly on my previous solo, It was literally a 'disgusting' rip. Nothing like I'd experienced on my previous solo. I'm a little surprised, and disappointed. My theory is the reason is when I first got my other solo I was using mostly hashes and kief when I'd first got it which greatly overpowered any electric taste. Then, stale vapor that accumulates inside the unit between hits condensed all over the insides of the solo, creating a THC coating over everything in the airpath essentially removing any taste and replacing it with a 'oily, used vape' taste. I had also done a full-battery life burn off before using that first Solo. I was really hoping the solo could hold me off till the cloud. I think I'll have to continue using my older one, which had some chipping, gently through my bong until the cloud rolls through in november. Maybe I'll let the thing burn off for another battery cycle and see how it tastes after that. My theory is it doesn't need more burn off to taste better, but more THC coating. But is it actually better than even simple combustion.. ?

Thank you all for your input on the Solo , pros and cons .
I've decided to wait until they work out the issues with the Solo before I buy it .
There seemed to be some real issues for a few , enough for Arizer to make changes and respond to
them . ( I'm still a big admirer of their EQ , possibly my next purchase for home use )

I was impressed with the size and stealthness of the Solo as a portable .
But I'm glad I went with the NO2 as a portable . ( yes there were issues with the first Gen. models
too )

Happy Vaping

,NO2,VC

This was my experience with my original solo. At times I had to just stop in my tracks and go WTF? What did I just vape...that didn't taste right? Reminds me of Vapir's earlier days. What kills me is that *I* was the first person with the flaking/peeling problem, they NEVER heard of it...and the smell issue, never heard of that ever either.

Willeh said:

It was literally a 'disgusting' rip. Nothing like I'd experienced on my previous solo. I'm a little surprised, and disappointed.

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+1

"This all just sounds too weird , it's been in the works for what 2 years at least and the problems just now show?? And this is such a small % problem yet they are completely redesigning the bowl ???? I really like the way my solo works ( no stink or chipping yet ) but man it just sucks to feel like the crash test dummies.
We'll see what happens.

I think we all got betaed too."

As a long-time early adopter in the consumer electronics industry, I really don't connect with you guys on the whole beta testing thing. It's a brand new product in a niche industry. Of course there are going to be problems. Steve seems absolutely willing to work and make sure you have a safe, functional unit in your hands and in some cases he's given out free extras to make it up to you! That's more than I've gotten in the past from companies like HTC and ASUS.

It's not like there's no precedent for first models of vaporizers having issues, especially with portables. The I-inhale had the melting mouthpiece and the NO2 had the stink, off the top of my head. If you wanted a perfect vape you should have waited a year for it to gain a reputation re: its reliability instead of buying at launch. I'm sure plenty of people who wanted a Solo have done just that and are now happy they waited.

In a perfect world every company would have the resources to extensively test their products before officially "releasing" them. Not everybody can be Magic-Flight, who charge a significant markup on a relatively simple product in order to be the kind of business they are. Its a stellar model, but would you pay $400 for an Extreme-Q instead of $300? Would you have dropped $500 on the Solo? Probably not.

It's a shame that the forum's opinion of the solo seems to have reversed so sharply. I remember the tidal wave of enthusiastic reviews that appeared at first, but lately all the positive feedback has been overpowered by complaints relating to stench and flaking. Am I correct in assuming that when these troubles are resolved the solo will once again be an excellent vaporizer?