It's been a while since I've been around, about a month it seems.
Other than being busy with life, I was getting to know my Ascent that I got as a Christmas present for myself.
To sum up my experience, if it came down to a choice between my Ascent and someone's life, I'd volunteer the life of whoever tried to take it from me.
This one month review is being written 'cold' not having read any comments in the past month, meaning what I write is more a matter of what I found worked best for me with only a few comments on previously mentioned discussion, which I am sure people will recognize as they are come across.
I received a Pax at the same time and although it was a hard decision as to which was better because they both are for different reasons, the Ascent definitely works better for me so, a buddy of mine found himself the new owner of a like-new Pax.
As for my Ascent, I primarily use it thrice a day, helping my mind achieve a state conducive to problem solving with solutions outside the box, organizing the day's work in a logical progression as well as benefiting from the useful kick of energy all of which I seem to receive at temps between 365F and 380F. That's not to mention the taste! The taste, pretty much is as whatever the smell was of what went in.
Then in the early evening I vape the morning's load at 390F to about 405F and then before going to bed, finishing it off at 425.
I'd usually load and found the best minimum for me to be about two "pinches" and would get a couple of "healthy" cloud producing inhales amongst a few as it cooled down.
From the Pax, I kept one of the zip-lock 'baggies' and filled it about half full with Everclear. Each night, just as I shut it off after the last session of the day, I pull the bottom tube and put it in the zip-lock flared entrance down and spin it around in the alcohol a few times.
Using one of the pipe cleaners I got with the Pax, in a spare set I ordered actually, I'd swab the tube out and having put a pre-bend in the end inserted, which straightens out when inserted but which also returns somewhat to its bent shape to the point of being able to get it to bend on the end allowing one to get into the corners, be swished around to clear the inner face and, I've gotten to the point where I can maneuver the inserted tip of the pipe clear into each of the holes to give their internal faces a bit of a swab as dark material seems to collect around them.
I'm sure that many don't clean it that often but I've got into such a rhythm doing it at the end of each day and it only takes about a minute to do, which is about the time I wait for the ABV to cool down enough to handle it and, since keeping it clean means for much less time needing to be cleaned, I find the time spent each day cleaning it to be well worth it.
On that note, this is where the Ascent stands heads and shoulders above the Pax in that cleaning my Ascent completely takes all of about 2 minutes. A much larger chunk of time was needed for the Pax before giving it to my buddy.
I found that contrary to what I had previously heard concerning packing, not packing at all produced the best results.
Packing effectively reverses the benefits of using a fine grind as packing reduces surface area, while fine grinding is intended to increase surface area so as to expose more material to the heat causing more heat transfer and faster vapor production.
I also found that instead of using glass flowers, which I tried in various configurations, what worked best for me and killed two birds with one stone was, to use the bottom of one of the glass jars as a inverted mold and formed a pipe-screen around the bottom so as to be able to just set it into the oven on top of the material and still be able to pluck it out easily with a Swiss army knife's tweezers.
Not only did it make it easy to keep the material in place but also, prevented material from being drawn up into the lower glass tube, making it easier to keep clean.
As far as screen usage goes, I also used a glass jar as a pattern to cut out a screen for the bottom. I used the same size pipe screen, the smallest available, usually.
I had to 'nibble' off a bit of one end though to be able to fit flush against the bottom instead of being partially supported by the glass-jar standoff that is found at the bottom of the oven off to one side.
I cut it just a bit large so that when I pushed it down in, it wouldn't come out easily. But, not too large that extracting it could possibly scrape the boro-silicate(?) or is it just glass, surface of the oven.
The affect is that the material is bound by screen helping to keep everything even more clean.
In the mornings, I'm mobile but in the evenings, I vape tethered. The lifetime of LiPos is determined by how many MaH (Milliamp/Hours) are put back into them over time.
That lifetime varies greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer but the ones used in the Ascent seem to be on par or slightly better than the batteries that I use with my radio control helicopters, and they don't come cheap by any means.
I don't know that from having taken apart, I know it based on the charge curves I've plotted, which to an extent reflect overall performance and longevity as well.
Long story short, if you can, and want to extend battery life to its absolute maximum, when tethering is available, do it.
On that note, if my Ascent is fully charged when I turn it on while tethered, more often then not it doesn't go into its charge cycle, i.e. vaping seems to be possible using the charger only. Sometimes the battery might go into a very brief charging mode but its been rare rare in my experience.
I did have one brief concerning experience with it once but it turned out to be a trivial thing. I turned it on one time and although it displayed, it didn't go into heat-up mode. I shut it off, put it on the charger, waited a half minute or so and tried it again. It worked perfectly and I haven't had an occurrence since that once.
When vaping, the smell of the exhale is greatly subdued to the point of not being immediately identifiable as compared to the inhaled vapor and dissipates quickly. I wouldn't necessarily try using it in public or a public place with too many people around although I would imagine that some would.
On two pinches and at the upper temps, I can get clouds that although they don't rival the clouds I get from my eGo-C e-cig, they are pretty significant and sometimes, something to cough at.
That's my story anyway and, I'm sticking to it.
