Discontinued Thermovape Cera

PhotoRider said:

OF,
What happens with the 4000mA batteries? Is the SR to high? Not high draw, just high storage?
Not that I'm looking at them just wondering for future reference.

I have noticed depending on the material it is different to load. I have tried 3 types of wax, all passed the foil test. One is pretty thick at room temp and is harder to load, but still preforms the same after. Real slow to melt through the disk. I have learned patience is good here and not to over heat as OF correctly advised me.

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Not OF

Loading thicker oils I find it best to do some hits on the Cera or pre heat until core is warm to the touch before loading. Then some 3-5 sec button presses should load the oil in less then 2min. If I am in a hurry I just warm my dabber and use that to heat the oil by stirring along with 3-5 sec button presses (with 5-10 sec off button) .

Lately I just load .05-.1g at a time and this takes less then 30 sec with above method even with hard shatter.

GR said:

Not OF

Loading thicker oils I find it best to do some hits on the Cera or pre heat until core is warm to the touch before loading. Then some 3-5 sec button presses should load the oil in less then 2min. If I am in a hurry I just warm my dabber and use that to heat the oil by stirring along with 3-5 sec button presses (with 5-10 sec off button) .

Lately I just load .05-.1g at a time and this takes less then 30 sec with above method even with hard shatter.

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So now that i see your loading method maybe i needed to fully charge the battery and try again. I'll try loading the amount i usually put in my Dart and have patience , i think i was just used to my dart melting the concentrate quick that i forgot that i read the cera take a tad bit longer

Ricardooayee said:

So now that i see your loading method maybe i needed to fully charge the battery and try again. I'll try loading the amount i usually put in my Dart and have patience , i think i was just used to my dart melting the concentrate quick that i forgot that i read the cera take a tad bit longer

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The Cera has a large thermo mass aka a lot of metal there so a big heat sink which works both ways


OF - understood on the battery. what I thought marketing numbers...

So I went back to my T1 & AVA, holy fuck does this thing put the Cera EL to shame in every way. I was so focused on keeping everything on one platform and using my latest investment that I was basically wasting a bunch of time and energy in a pointless pursuit. The Cera "works" like a busted ass fixie works compared to a high speed road bike with a million gears, ceramic disc brakes with hydraulic lines, carbon fiber body, etc.

I will also say that the restricted delrin tip is not only an awful idea to ship with the EO core because it looks cheap and stupid, but it clogs like a motherfucker. You will be blue in the face with .001 gram of concentrate in the countersunk draw hole, unable to pull vapor in or out until it is clean. If you thought the little draw holes on the UFO built into the Dart were bad when clogged, imagine just one of those in-line with the tube, and way closer to the ceramic.

I am beginning to feel that this entire product was a more... academic, rather than practical design endeavor at this point? If you want to redesign the UFO cap offerings and this that or whatever, fine, but putting a restricted draw tip in that scenario speaks of lack of foresight or testing.

I now only use the EO core with the "straight" delrin tip, until I get some in from another manufacturer that are stainless and also unrestricted.

Going to mfg an adapter to throw this cart on another power handle as soon as possible. Planning on SS for the threaded body with a brass center pin pressed in to pass the current.

Cheerful Dub said:

I will also say that the restricted delrin tip is not only an awful idea to ship with the EO core because it looks cheap and stupid, but it clogs like a motherfucker. You will be blue in the face with .001 gram of concentrate in the countersunk draw hole, unable to pull vapor in or out until it is clean. If you thought the little draw holes on the UFO built into the Dart were bad when clogged, imagine just one of those in-line with the tube, and way closer to the ceramic.

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Not very cheerful this morning, eh dub? I know the feeling..

I have been using a restricted tip for a while now with lots of different concentrates and I don't have a clogging problem. It takes a little time, but if you load the cart slowly and let everything soak in completely, I think you can avoid this. I found it also helps to not pull too hard when trying to get things moving in the cart/airpath. Also, I think storing the carts vertically helps to get things going faster from a cold start.

Been using my Cera body and EO carts for quite a while now and honestly could not be happier with this purchase. I would definitely recommend to anyone who has a little patience and a positive attitude (obviously would not recommend to myself). I still want a thread adapter and a mini body, but love everything else about my CEO.

I would like to thank all the people that helped me in getting my cera to work. The problem wasn't the batteries I just didn't really know how to load. I followed some of the techniques posted and loaded like .07 in cera and let it all melt in. The cera was pretty warm to the touch after that so I let it cool down for maybe 35 seconds. After that I held the button for 5 secs and drew a little test puff and cera was working great. Now I really can't wait until I get the correct batteries

Don't have a EL cart so I don't know, but on an EO cart - if you melt the wax all the way in into the disk, it never clogs the tip...

Hey FC'ers,

so far I really like my Cera LL, but I think I didn't get the entire hang of it!
I'm getting good vapor clouds and good taste and all, but I think I could get more hits out of one load after some more practice
In comparison to my Vaponic I got twice the hits out of half the amount and the ABV is more even than in my Cera! (til now)
But I'm sure practice will make the change

The Xtar VP1 is also really good. It charges the batteries reliable and safe!
The best thing about it is that you can check the battery charge every time while loading and if you're not sure how much juice they actually have while vaping, even though I found if I doubt the performance and put them in the charger to check it, they where at 3,6V- 3,7V and then just load them up to 4,2V
When they are fully charged the charger shows 4,2V and stops the process and after a while they are complete cold (you can leave them in the charger til you need them).

I'm using my 4 CGR18650CH's in circulation and think it works fine for me.
The 2 NCR18650PD's I got have a C-formed mark on the minus end, so I'm concerned to charge them:

Did someone have seen this before, OF? (sorry for the bad focus)
The mark isn't much deep, but I'm not sure if it will cause trouble?

BTW, this is the switch mod I'm currently using:


It's a rubber cap for bottles (grape juice/cider).
I cut off the little edge of it, put in a plastik stopper which press the button and had to punch in two tiny holes to avoid the vacuum when pull it off, works great!(and does not look much bad, as it has almost the same color as the O-rings)
I will make some more pics later, just have to charge the camera!

The silicone ring you can see on the mouthpiece cap is just a part from one of the thermal caps, which I cut off of it (I found it a bit tricky to get the thermal cap off, when it had the whole length, so I shortened it and this was the result- didn't really use the thermal cap til now), but this ring is good to keep you from burning your fingers when taking the mouthpiece cap off if its still hot

Another thing, that works good for me, is to use a screen to avoid debris falling through the holes in the heating chamber and maybe causing combustion(earlier dicussions), not sure if its necassary (just peace in my mind)
Pics come later, as I will also try different diameters of the screen.
Now I'm using one ultra fine on the buttom (from my Volcano, its specific for powdery stuff) and one not so fine on top of the load.
That keeps the load from lifting up and the hot air have to go through the load instead of circle around it.

I also tryed an open flow kind mouthpiece and got very good results in the first draw, much faster than with the original mouthpiece!
Maybe while the air has to go more direct through the load and get to vaping temperature sooner(just my thoughts).
I will experimenting with different mouthpieces to find what works best for ME (dont get me wrong, I like the original one too).

One thing on the end, this are just my personal subjective experiences, so dont take it too serious and make your own

Happy vaping

Herbalist23

Herbalist23 said:

I'm using my 4 CGR18650CH's in circulation and think it works fine for me.
The 2 NCR18650PD's I got have a C-formed mark on the minus end, so I'm concerned to charge them:

Did someone have seen this before, OF? (sorry for the bad focus)
The mark isn't much deep, but I'm not sure if it will cause trouble?

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No worries, that's quite normal. That crimp is common to all of them I've seen. Try it out and see how you like it.....

I'm glad to hear you're getting a handle on it, thanks for the good word. For maximum production, try dry, fine grind, and packing it in tighter.

OF

Thanks OF, fast as ever!!!

I will follow your advice and let you and all FC'ers know how it goes on!

Herbalist23

I am on the fence! about getting a Cera or obtaining An ultra for my Dart.
So worried about spending money on a Cera EO and wishing I just got an ultra. someone please help

VapoRoor said:

I am on the fence! about getting a Cera or obtaining An ultra for my Dart.
So worried about spending money on a Cera EO and wishing I just got an ultra. someone please help

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Having both, my DART doesn't get much use. Even when I decide to carry the (smaller) Ultra I put a Cera EO core on it rather than a DART usually. The DART is on an Ego Twist in fact.

I vote Cera, there really is nothing like it when it comes to serious production......if that sort of thing interests you?

OF

VapoRoor said:

I am on the fence! about getting a Cera or obtaining An ultra for my Dart.
So worried about spending money on a Cera EO and wishing I just got an ultra. someone please help

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If you're clumsy like I am, get the Ultra. I'm getting mine back tomorrow after a weekend trip to TV because the little switch wasn't firing all the time for me. I use it heavily though. I mean every day, a lot. I'm fairly certain a 510 treaded battery like an eGo C Twist can be used with the DART (I'm assuming it's LV since Ultra) and only costs around $23. Anyways the reason I mentioned clumsiness is because I've dropped my Ultra a bunch of times now, either I forget it's on my lap when I get out of my car, or I miss my pocket somehow and it falls straight down... it's got a few little dings here and there but nothing serious, and thankfully due to the construction of it I doubt a small fall like that will cause anything to break. TBH when I drop it I'm more concerned about the ceramic inside the cart attached (usually the AVA, DART when I'm dabbing mobile or too lazy to get the torch/nail/dome or can't get out of bed) than I am about the rest of the unit. I gave it a fair bit of consideration too, but to be honest I'm probably not gonna end up with the Cera Mini because I'm paranoid I'll drop it and it will break. Ultra + thread adapter + CEO when the time comes, but that's just me.

edit: that's not to say that the Cera isn't good, it can hold multiple times more oil than the DART can. Half a gram plus at once compared to ~.15g oil in DART... DART doesn't produce the clouds that CEO does either, but considering the form factor it can definitely hold its own.

Quetz & OF Thank you

Clumsiness is not much a factor for me as I usually vape indoors and not as much on the go, But I also consider the facts of vapor production, quality of materials and sturdiness of materials.

A few hiccups have been stated from FC members about the problematic functioning of Cera. Could be more attention & hype focused on Cera which makes weak points appear visible, but I've only read things about Cera & only tried the Ultra/Dart Combo a few times and those few times were a blast. Great vapor quality, easy to use once you know the proper technique, So Yes, I am a fan of the Dart.
I really haven't heard of any problems with the Ultra series besides a few spring issues popping up, but like Quetz stated, HEAVY USE was the cause.

My only resistance to the ultra is how many times the Dart has to be cleaned in order to obtain maximum efficiency.
Do Cera and Dart owners find themselves cleaning the Cera as much as the Dart?

I love the eo cera, and I was very frustrated with the dart for exactly that reason (lack of performance with build up) I haven't found iso cleaning to be needed at all with the cera!

Once you go cera you don't go back!

JoeKickass said:

I love the eo cera, and I was very frustrated with the dart for exactly that reason (lack of performance with build up) I haven't found iso cleaning to be needed at all with the cera!

Once you go cera you don't go back!

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Cool words of wisdom JoeKickass,

I'm just reluctant to order a Cera LLC as I already have a good enough vape for flowers when I actually vape flowers, but I prefer concentrates over flowers. So the only reason I'd get a LLC is for the mouthpiece instead of that Standard MP that comes with the CEO.
Then I'd have to buy a EO core, so my 2 boats are: Bigger wallet, more cleaning or Big Clouds, little wallet.
Oh Decisions, Decisions
Thanks to all for their input

Cera is on her way back from repair, had A body failure of some sort,anyways should get here before Monday, I cant wait to try this custom MP out!

Hey haven't been on here in awhile, and seeing lots of issues. I have had my Titanium Cera since Feb with no issues at all. Just saying...thats EO and LL btw

toros23 said:

Not very cheerful this morning, eh dub? I know the feeling..

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Ahh yes, growing pains as it were, sorry for sounding so cranky

I have been using a restricted tip for a while now with lots of different concentrates and I don't have a clogging problem. It takes a little time, but if you load the cart slowly and let everything soak in completely, I think you can avoid this. I found it also helps to not pull too hard when trying to get things moving in the cart/airpath. Also, I think storing the carts vertically helps to get things going faster from a cold start.

Click to expand...

I thought and felt the same for a while but I just recently had a bad experience with the tip clogging from the smallest amount of spatter building up over a weeks time. I suppose if you soak the tip and clean it independently it would not be an issue but eventually what pulls inside the interior "flat" of the restricted draw tip will "reflow" and solidify in that gap eventually, and when that happens it acts much like a DART with a clogged UFO.

You cannot take a draw until it is unclogged, which only happens through physically removing the material and blowing backwards, or over cooking the entire core to get the vapor to heat up the material that is "frozen" and allow it to pass through. As you can imagine this is inefficient and unproductive for many reasons.

But anyways, it's not really a problem for me anymore, because the unrestricted drip tips don't feature such a small opening and I just picked up a few more in SS from another supplier to avoid the "cheap" look of the delrin. Who knows, maybe they tested it and an unrestricted/open drip tip with the same OAL produced hot spatter on the tongue during a hit? I doubt it but either way, I use the %30 longer straight tip now. It just seems that "as shipped" it would be problematic and something prone to occurring, particularly with the way everyone loads it right off the bat, inappropriately.

OF said:

Cera was, and is I think, for the occasional users with herb and concentrates, not so much the 'all day long sippers'. The line included an attempt to 'carry over' the oil cart to that their needs but it falls short on several fronts. Too much mass in play makes it slow to react (the grab a quick hit reflexively, not build it like we do.....can you see a 'juice freak' milking a glass piece?) and the repeated heating rather than the quick flash they're used to shifts the taste and with it the enjoyment. Scaling up Revolution/DART (itself a reworked e-cig design turns out to be a screaming success....for concentrates. We turned a spirited sports car into a comfortable dump truck in the process.

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I am most reminded of this quote from OF because I feel I am one of the few users here who "attempted" or expected to have this device work all day every day in two of the three categories it was designed for.

I feel the design lesson is one of "serving too many masters" - the ceramic handle is a net loss across the board, but I could see how the ceramic shroud around the LL cart + the two piece UFO design is not only relevant to that cartridge, but helps augment its performance in every way. Whereas the heat-sink characteristics have been proven obvious in all other performance criteria for the EL/EO to be a net negative.

Pulling my "retired" T1 out of storage and getting the instant "rip", the instant vapor clouds, huge production and nicotine stone versus how much I was struggling with the Cera... well it reminded me of when an ex girl gets back in your life, it fucks with your mind and makes you question your commitments! I know that is not a valid "excuse" for my bad attitude, but it was certainly the point of origin.

But I cannot abandon the Cera EO cart, it is such a substantial improvement. I just want one woman to do everything dammit - it's not that I can't afford to have three of them around it's just too much of a hassle

My cera came with both a delrin and a ceramic mouthpiece , which do you prefer or which works better?

Ricardooayee said:

My cera came with both a delrin and a ceramic mouthpiece , which do you prefer or which works better?

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For EO cart use, the Delrin one in almost all cases. I have used the ceramic one to mate up with my bubbler, but now have a superior scheme using some silicone tube to mate up the Delrin piece. The TV WPA also works well for this, but I usually can't find it......

OF

So I got my two batteries and charger in the mail. The batteries are the 18650 2250maH posted a couple pages back and a XTAR WP2 charger. The charger has two setting a 1A and 0.5A which one is better ? Also when the batteries are fully charged how many hits or what's the average battery life with these in the cera EO?

Ricardooayee said:

The charger has two setting a 1A and 0.5A which one is better ? Also when the batteries are fully charged how many hits or what's the average battery life with these in the cera EO?

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I'd run the one Amp rate, they'll charge faster and probably a tiny bit more.

Expect something around half an hour total on time....a great plenty with EO use.

OF

Someone bumped into my while loading cera. I was using a toothpick to stir it while holding the button and I guess I stabbed it when I got bumped into and I had a question would this affect anything ? I didn't see it break or anything but I put it back how it was with the toothpick. Is it even supposed to be able to do that ?

To those selling Ceras in the classifieds, what are you now using for a portable device?