Discontinued Pax Vaporizer by Ploom

you are probably heating it up enough with your breath to soften the residue. I think what is happening is the mouth piece gets gummy inside the tube very quickly, when you close it down and it cools, the residue hardens and sticks the tubes together. Mine started feeling sticky the first day. I have since cleaned the inside of the ss tube on the mouth piece every few loads with a dry q tip, with some of the cotton pulled off so it will fit inside the tube. I have not had my mouthpiece stick since, and even have had it shoot off the pax a few times when popping up. I have also been removing it as the pax cools, and again have not had any kind of sticking or drag. I imagine a twisted up paper towel would also work in a pinch with no q tips around.

Sounds like the blowing is warming, as JBP03 said

kronickidd said:

make a video... i have a hard time following.. i just medicated

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Haha here you go;

^ nice video, but what happened to your screen? did you not put it on after you cleaned?

Funny story. I was cleaning the tube from the mouthpiece side while I had flowers in there and I displaced it while it was still running. I was driving as I went to cash the oven out the window and as I did I heard the little dink dink on 59 north H town. My new pack should arrive when vw sends them out, which probably will be a while :/.

i7weenie said:

Funny story. I was cleaning the tube from the mouthpiece side while I had flowers in there and I displaced it while it was still running. I was driving as I went to cash the oven out the window and as I did I heard the little dink dink on 59 north H town. My new pack should arrive when vw sends them out, which probably will be a while :/.

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can you find a fine mesh SS screen you can cut to fit in town while you wait? I used to live in Houston, there are quite a few head shops around, but you want a super fine mesh if you want to use a temporary screen in there, or maybe double up on them if you can't find a tight mesh. Sorry to hear it, good lesson for us all, don't cash out the window!

Yah it was a hard lesson but I got over it quickly. I don't really mind not using the screen besides the fact that the oven gets a little dirty and there is the occasional flower that gets stuck. It's manageable if I'm alone using the pax but it's a little irritating if I'm trying to "impress" friends.

I'm more inclined to believe it was just the fact you were pushing down the mouth piece so slow that opened it. I don't think the blowing would be enough to heat up the resin that's on the outside were the ring is. Whenever mine got stuck, I just clicked it down really slow like you did and it always worked for me. When you push it down and let it up really slow like that, it gives the slow moving, gunked up ring a chance to move.

Great explanation!! And I think more plausible that our breath warmup concept.

That's true but every time I would try just the slow motion I wouldn't budge. The only tried and true method for ME was blowing before popping the mouth piece open.

Either way, more of us will try and report in. It's great the level of undderstanding that's gained by all of this. This thing can be tweaked to perfection.

we all learn our lessons (damn thing gets stuck behind a wall haha)

Some random thoughts.....
Who ever posted "A clean PAX is a happy PAX" is 100% correct. Keep it clean.

I do not put any iso on or near the temperature button. The area under the mouth piece should be cleaned with a dry q tip. I had to return one because of this. It won't happen to me again.

I charge upside down. I believe this helps keep the mouthpiece clean.

I scrape the screen with a razor to remove resinous build up. I am definitely going to order some replacements when they become availible (especially after reading about the guy that tapped his screen out the window) but I have been able to keep this one looking like new.

I dry clean the stainless steel airpath when the PAX is hot with a dry pipe cleaner.

I have to used a metal utensil (stainless steel paper clip bent straight) for removing stubborn or burnt deposits in the oven.

After scraping I clean the oven with iso and q tips but leave pipe cleaner in the shaft. This prevents iso from getting down shaft where it might inadvertantly get on the temp switch. Which is bad.

I have had my mouthpiece refuse to come up at times on my first unit until I started applying pressure not to the center of the PAX but directly over the airpath (or the right side with the temperature light facing you). Additionally I have experienced my unit only showing the temperature with the mouthpiece up. When this happens the unit doesn't heat up - bad. I quickly figured out that the mouthpiece was somehow not ejecting enough - a slight push upwards, not quite ejecting the mouthpiece always restored the unit to working order.

I stepped up my mouthpiece cleaning procedure following the suggestions of FC posters and used a qtip to clean up the stem of the mouth piece (I had been soaking and using the pipecleaner) and could see a significant deposit on the q tip afterwards. I am always scared when I do this because it's a fine line between taking off enough cotton on the q tip to fit or jamming the mutilated q tip up there and have the stick come out and leave a wad of cotton up there, but it really works. Anyway this was the cure for me. I keep my mouthpiece clean now and I don't have problems.

I want to thank all of the FC posters that posted these things before. I don't claim credit for any of these ideas but I wanted to summerize the things that have really worked for me.
Once again listen to the man who said "A clean PAX is a happy PAX" !

jambandphan03 said:

I'm trying to play catch up here in the PAX thread

...just found the cobalt model on the Ploom site YES! ordered!!!


So does this plug into the base for car charging? Has it been confirmed to work well yet? I would like to be able to charge in the car.

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Why not just get an adaptor from lighter (12V) to plug and you can charge anything that plugs in without having several specific things to lose/misplace/etc? They are pretty cheap and readily available.

HephziBubba said:

Some random thoughts.....
Who ever posted "A clean PAX is a happy PAX" is 100% correct. Keep it clean.

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That would be me!

And I stand by it. My Pax is still working like a charm, and I'm an early adopter. Just cleaned it this evening, in fact. More often is, well, more awesome!

Cheers!

Edit: I'll clarify as I did in an earlier post, I simply stole the language from Ploom's cleaning video, which I highly recommend.

MrNorml said:

Why not just get an adaptor from lighter (12V) to plug and you can charge anything that plugs in without having several specific things to lose/misplace/etc? They are pretty cheap and readily available.

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I got that cobra plug on ebay for $10 over a week ago, and still have not tested it yet. I don't mind keeping a cord in the car, put away when not in use. Plenty of places to stash it. I might eventually get another charger station to keep in the car, so I don't even have to think about it, always ready to plug in. We just have not been traveling as much this past year, due to relocating to a place where we walk/bike a lot. I could have gone with one of those 12v adapter plug dohickies, but we already have a 150watt inverter. I wanted a dedicated cord to charge it with. Anyway, I am just rambling here, I am sure each person will find what works for them, as long as the end result is achieved, a charged up pax

Ploom is going to send me another one thank the weed gods that i didnt void my warranty tearing the mouthpiece up

So glad to see that tig!! I keep turning my cloud off and using the pax, uh oh... maybe it's just still so new?? I love the creamy thick vapor I am getting with the pax/ion combo.

jambandphan03 said:

So glad to see that tig!! I keep turning my cloud off and using the pax, uh oh... maybe it's just still so new?? I love the creamy thick vapor I am getting with the pax/ion combo.

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Wow! That really says a lot when I look at your signature and see all your incredibly dope ass equipment. Maybe the pax is still new and shiny and you are bias.... Maybe it's just the shit. Time will tell . Glad you are happy with your setup.

jambandphan03 said:

So glad to see that tig!! I keep turning my cloud off and using the pax, uh oh... maybe it's just still so new?? I love the creamy thick vapor I am getting with the pax/ion combo.

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Wanna try something else economical? Load up a couple ELBs 1/3 full of flowers and take 2 rips from each of them. When your ready to medicate again, empty the abv into the PAX and enjoy it on high. That works great for me!

Although i was a medium temp kinda guy for the first couple weeks, now I love my Pax on high almost all the time. Nice thick 'smoke like' clouds.

Well, according to my tracking info my order still hasn't been received by USPS since yesterday...maybe they really are shipping out on the tenth and just got the postage ready to ship out as soon as the new shipment arrives.

sometimes a company will print shipping lables, which sends a tracking # to your inbox, before it ever makes it out the door. I hope it gets updated for y'allsoon!

ha, yeah. i though i got lucky and was getting it four days earlier.

Espo said:

Although i was a medium temp kinda guy for the first couple weeks, now I love my Pax on high almost all the time. Nice thick 'smoke like' clouds.

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This just happened to me yesterday. After almost a month starting it at medium and then finishing on high, medium's not doing it for me anymore. Maybe it's time for a tolerance break

tig420 said:

Ploom is going to send me another one thank the weed gods that i didnt void my warranty tearing the mouthpiece up

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I'm glad Ploom's taking care of you, even though they probably didn't have to. It speaks volumes about Ploom as a company. I've been recommending it to everyone I know and wouldn't hesitate to buy from them again.

I had some sad news on my order.
Looks like I need to find another source. I was looking forward to my PAX:

We are no longer carrying the PAX Vaporizer. Due to some non-performing and high defect issues we have mutually decided not to carry the Pax product at this time. When the company and product live up to VaporStore standards, we may offer it again.

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I might wait for the improved PAX II ?