Well, I've been waiting to get the Davinci Ascent for over a year now. Two days ago I finally got it. I decided to go with the Ascent over the PAX because of the glass vapor path and temp controls.
First, before even turning it on, I plugged it in for a full initial charge. After about 20 minutes it showed 100% charge. I left it plugged in for another hour to be sure. Then I performed a burn-inn procedure. I set the programmed mode for 375°, 400°, 425°, for 10 minutes at each temp. I ran this program 4 times. I then turned it on 425°and left it for a while. Then I turned it off once I couldn't sense any more "silicone" smell or taste (honestly, there wasn't really all that much of it in the first place). The unit remained plugged into the charger the entire time. My initial thoughts on build quality are very nice. The materials and packaging seem to be high quality.
It wasn't until the next day (Yesterday) that I finally tried it out. I have been anticipating this unit for a while now, and was really excited to try it. To be honest, I'm a bit underwhelmed.
First and foremost, it's not really delivering that much vapor. I have to crank it up past 400° to get anything. I'm filling the chamber about 50% with ground up herb, then compressing it with the oil jar. I've tried vaping with the oil jar left in, and I've tried it with the jar left out. I seem to get a little better results when leaving the jar in, but it's still not that great. In fact, on new-years eave, I tried it with a friend and we really couldn't get much vapor out of it at all. We wound up just smoking out of a bowl instead. Not something I felt very good about after just dropping over $250 and waiting over a year :-/.
Now I'm not saying I don't feel it it all. I do, a bit. And I realize that this is a portable unit, and can't be compared with home units in terms of vapor cloud production. I'm not doing that. I used to own an iOlite / i-Inhale, and I was able to get larger "plumes" or "vapor clouds" out of that unit than I am out of the new Ascent I just got. I haven't given up just yet. I will try to do a couple sessions with the material not-packed to see if this helps. I will also order these "glass flowers" that people seem to be having good success with. Maybe that will improve the experience.
There is another thing. This is more of an inconvenience, rather than a "show-stopper" like the earlier issue I mentioned. I really love the programmed mode. I think that is such a cool feature. I love being able to set 3 temperatures, and the time.
Here is the problem: once the time on the third temp setting runs out, it starts to power down the unit. I can't seem to override this. I find myself having to turn the unit off and on again. I would like it to just stay on the final temp setting after the time runs out, and possibly allow manual temp control.
Yes, turning the unit off and on is a viable work-around. However, I find that by the time I notice the time is up, it has already started to cool off. I'd like a way to keep this from happening. I wonder if there is any possibility of a firmware update to address this issue.....
Overall, I think this unit is OK, although I expected a lot more than just "OK" out of it. I'd be lying if I said I'm not starting to doubt my decision to go with the Ascent over the PAX.
I'd appreciate any comments any of you folks have regarding my experience.
... close enough anyways and if you keep at it you'll get pretty much all of it (maybe not all the staining)
