Arizer Solo

Dr. Soxhlet said:

Yeah. I have to admit the "extra" I got from myrubberneck was cheezy in the extreme and not even vapor related.

Click to expand...

Hahaha the watch right? So weird lol.

So I just got a response to my eBay message, apparently they will replace it, gave me an RMA code so I can mail back the unit with writing asking for a replacement. Just awaiting further clarification from them as to what exactly i shoud be shipping (like if i should semd the charger or box too, obv cant do the stems ofcourse). Guess I don't need to contact Arizer afterall! (And I guess I should wait to register warranty until its the new one, right? ). Thanks again for your help!

Shit Snacks said:

Hahaha the watch right? So weird lol.

So I just got a response to my eBay message, apparently they will replace it, gave me an RMA code so I can mail back the unit with writing asking for a replacement. Just awaiting further clarification from them as to what exactly i shoud be shipping (like if i should semd the charger or box too, obv cant do the stems ofcourse). Guess I don't need to contact Arizer afterall! (And I guess I should wait to register warranty until its the new one, right? ). Thanks again for your help!

Click to expand...

Yeah. Looked like a rubber watch, course that's to be expected considering. Glad you got ahold of the vender.

I'm ASSuming Arizer is aware of all these problems with the 2014 Solo???

FWIW my replacement stem arrived in 2 days. Patrick at easyvape has been helpful and friendly.

@OF can you explain how you manage with batteries, since chargers have to be baby-sitted to unplug a little early. If you do let it ride to full charge, what is happening in the battery, is the problem with REACHING the 4.2 charge, or keeping it there? I.e. do you lightly discharge a fully charged battery before leaving it sit? Where can I read up on the physics/chemistry of the longer life on partial charge-discharge cycles? Thanks.

OK, here are my "accessories du jour". The Dabbing Pad and the Stem Sphincter.





The Dabbing Pad is brass wool (fine), shaped and lightly torched. I don't think that at these temps there's any hazard with heating brass, but you decide. The brass almost touches the oven floor, but not quite. Warm it a bit, then dab, watch the wax melt into the pad, stick it in the oven. I think I like this better than high temp dabbing; there are different fractions you can dial in on the Solo from airy (3-4) to fully stoned (7!).

The Stem Sphincter creates a collet, so as you tighten the screw-on lid, the stem is held and won't drop out and burn your fingers. That works out since upside down is a Solo specialty. The o-ring is 21 mm OD and 16 mm ID, approx. It can be found in Ace Hardware Assorted o-Ring Kit SKU #41018, $3.99.

A brass spacer screen for vaping pinches retains shape/position better with a brass wool backing.

Maine420 said:

I'm ASSuming Arizer is aware of all these problems with the 2014 Solo???

Click to expand...

I'm sure someone has mentioned it to them.......

In companies as well run as Arizer seems to be they most definitely are watching field returns. A single return can wipe out the profit from dozens of sales. You go broke warrantying bad products.

My guess is they think they have a handle on it (they may well, our statistics are highly questionable at best), if they think it's getting out of hand all they really have to do is go back to the old, proven, software. The former model is still an option, there was noting compelling forcing the change.

Time will tell.

fernand said:

@OF can you explain how you manage with batteries, since chargers have to be baby-sitted to unplug a little early. If you do let it ride to full charge, what is happening in the battery, is the problem with REACHING the 4.2 charge, or keeping it there? I.e. do you lightly discharge a fully charged battery before leaving it sit? Where can I read up on the physics/chemistry of the longer life on partial charge-discharge cycles? Thanks.

OK, here are my "accessories du jour". The Dabbing Pad and the Stem Sphincter.

The Dabbing Pad is brass wool (fine), shaped and lightly torched. I don't think that at these temps there's any hazard with heating brass, but you decide.

The Stem Sphincter creates a collet, so as you tighten the screw-on lid, the stem is held and won't drop out and burn your fingers. The o-ring is 21 mm OD and 16 mm ID, approx. It can be found in Ace Hardware Assorted o-Ring Kit SKU #41018, $3.99.

Click to expand...

Sure. I charge when I'll be nearby when I can. The top LED lights at about the 80% charge point, sometimes a bit more, a bit over 8.0 Volts total. The charge LED stops flashing about .4 Volts later with both cells at 100% (due to the protection board preventing either battery from going over 4.3 or so (really hard on them).

Each time you take it that high does a bit more damage. Stopping short by 10% (less than one session per charge) doubles the lifespan of the battery. Twice. Drop it another 10% and it doubles again. The difference between say 300 cycles and 1200.....you do the math.

Never charge to the wall and store them that way, use it right away or don't do it. Store at about 2/3 charge. Lots of great reading on the topic here:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

Lots of other good resources out there, but Battery University reads easily and covers the topic well.

You might consider dumping the brass, many are concerned about it as a material. To make it 'free machine' so it's easy to cut into wool they add lead to it. For most of us avoiding lead when possible is a no brainer. The lead content is the problem with brass plumbing fitting and fixtures (unless you pay extra for lead free), but there you quickly get protected by calcium and other deposits, not so in this vape use. Rather, I suggest you cut a piece of the SS concentrate pads made for this use in the Volcano. Two styles, either work fine for this. This is actually .003 diameter wire, carefully woven into a tube. Very effective for the job, designed for it by the Germans and all. Be careful with letting concentrate contact the bowl, it'll stain it.

You might want to rethink the ring from a couple of angles. First off, that's the wrong material. It's soft neoprene since it's intended for household plumbing (usually Buna N). Typical maximum temperature ratings on hardware store ring is like -35° to +250° F.

I think the size may be off too, I couldn't get any metric sizes to work nearly as well as the SAE #113 size:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#9396k26/=r96e2v

Notice this material is rated for -65° to +425° F, much more suitable for us.

I'd also be very careful with the 'collet' idea, that's not what you want. The ring should grip the stem on it's own, the cap hold the ring tight enough so it doesn't rotate. Any more than that is very likely to break the thin plastic tabs where the screws are on the bottom. They were never designed to tighten a collet.

A little over a year back we collectively decided you want 1/4 to perhaps as much as 1/2 a turn after contact, no more. And 113 was the right ID, you should sand or otherwise thin the ring as needed. If not, try a thinner cord ring with that ID. Perhaps the 015 size?

Regards,

OF

OF said:

I'm sure someone has mentioned it to them.......

In companies as well run as Arizer seems to be they most definitely are watching field returns. A single return can wipe out the profit from dozens of sales. You go broke warrantying bad products.

My guess is they think they have a handle on it (they may well, our statistics are highly questionable at best), if they think it's getting out of hand all they really have to do is go back to the old, proven, software. The former model is still an option, there was noting compelling forcing the change.

Time will tell.



Sure. I charge when I'll be nearby when I can. The top LED lights at about the 80% charge point, sometimes a bit more, a bit over 8.0 Volts total. The charge LED stops flashing about .4 Volts later with both cells at 100% (due to the protection board preventing either battery from going over 4.3 or so (really hard on them).

Each time you take it that high does a bit more damage. Stopping short by 10% (less than one session per charge) doubles the lifespan of the battery. Twice. Drop it another 10% and it doubles again. The difference between say 300 cycles and 1200.....you do the math.

Never charge to the wall and store them that way, use it right away or don't do it. Store at about 2/3 charge. Lots of great reading on the topic here:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

Lots of other good resources out there, but Battery University reads easily and covers the topic well.

You might consider dumping the brass, many are concerned about it as a material. To make it 'free machine' so it's easy to cut into wool they add lead to it. For most of us avoiding lead when possible is a no brainer. The lead content is the problem with brass plumbing fitting and fixtures (unless you pay extra for lead free), but there you quickly get protected by calcium and other deposits, not so in this vape use. Rather, I suggest you cut a piece of the SS concentrate pads made for this use in the Volcano. Two styles, either work fine for this. This is actually .003 diameter wire, carefully woven into a tube. Very effective for the job, designed for it by the Germans and all. Be careful with letting concentrate contact the bowl, it'll stain it.

You might want to rethink the ring from a couple of angles. First off, that's the wrong material. It's soft neoprene since it's intended for household plumbing (usually Buna N). Typical maximum temperature ratings on hardware store ring is like -35° to +250° F.

I think the size may be off too, I couldn't get any metric sizes to work nearly as well as the SAE #113 size:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#9396k26/=r96e2v

Notice this material is rated for -65° to +425° F, much more suitable for us.

I'd also be very careful with the 'collet' idea, that's not what you want. The ring should grip the stem on it's own, the cap hold the ring tight enough so it doesn't rotate. Any more than that is very likely to break the thin plastic tabs where the screws are on the bottom. They were never designed to tighten a collet.

A little over a year back we collectively decided you want 1/4 to perhaps as much as 1/2 a turn after contact, no more. And 113 was the right ID, you should sand or otherwise thin the ring as needed. If not, try a thinner cord ring with that ID. Perhaps the 015 size?

Regards,

OF

Click to expand...

@OF What am I missing?

What is all the hype about charging and using the SOLO at the same time?

Big Deal!

I don't care about that?

My old SOLO's are fine.

ARISER did a COKE move changing a formula that worked!

Am I not seeing this new change correctly?

The engineers always say:
"If it's not broke don't fix it"!

Did ARISER fix something that wasn't broken?

@ataxian, I feel that they did try to fix something that wasn't broken. Adding charge+use feature caused some battery issues. They may not be AS noticeable in the Solo but the same info applies to other vapes that use these types of batteries and it's a bit more noticeable there I'd say.


Re: brass for oil, like @OF said once again, I'd find something safer to use. Organic cotton works pretty decently actually, I was just doing a bit of that last night. I also like to mix oil with kief/herb in sandwiches to vaporize, but unfortunately that's not just oil!

ataxian said:

@OF What am I missing?

What is all the hype about charging and using the SOLO at the same time?

Big Deal!

Did ARISER fix something that wasn't broken?

Click to expand...

One way of looking at it I guess.

Or you might see it from the 'giving the customer what he demands' side? They have to get past that to make the next sale. And they, like sharks, must make sales every day.

My take on it is their engineers did a bang up job on the original design, they understood the fine points of the battery (that's why they shifted the 'calibration' of the battery charge display). But most customers don't understand that.

"If only it would heat from the charger" (thinking that meant they didn't have to buy a PA?) was heard at Arizer. In finest Capitalist manner, they met the demand even if that demand might be ill advised. I find it kind of ironic that those who demanded this 'improvement' were coming from the ignorant end of things. Not only didn't they understand (or appreciate) the more complex scheme used but basically none of them had ever tried that ('defective') design personally.

Two ideas come to mind. First, despite the cliche the customer is not always right.....just opinionated. And holding the bucks. Secondly we could well be witnessing another great example of "be careful what you wish for, you might get it". In the long run we'll no doubt come to find which really is better for the average customer, hopefully the downside won't be too bad. As of now, I'm with you, my older models are humming along just fine, thank you very much. It ain't broke that way.

OF

Quetzalcoatl said:

@ataxian, I feel that they did try to fix something that wasn't broken. Adding charge+use feature caused some battery issues. They may not be AS noticeable in the Solo but the same info applies to other vapes that use these types of batteries and it's a bit more noticeable there I'd say.


Re: brass for oil, like @OF said once again, I'd find something safer to use. Organic cotton works pretty decently actually, I was just doing a bit of that last night. I also like to mix oil with kief/herb in sandwiches to vaporize, but unfortunately that's not just oil!

Click to expand...

Tomorrow I will use the cotton wrapped around some crumbled blond wax.
Tonight I'm medicating with wax and it looks like I have a deep sleep coming on!

ataxian said:

Tonight I'm medicating with wax and it looks like I have a deep sleep coming on!

Click to expand...

That is no doubt good news for the neighbors. But just to be on the safe side I suggest the women keep their daughters locked up until the all clear.......

OF

OF said:

One way of looking at it I guess.

Or you might see it from the 'giving the customer what he demands' side? They have to get past that to make the next sale. And they, like sharks, must make sales every day.

My take on it is their engineers did a bang up job on the original design, they understood the fine points of the battery (that's why they shifted the 'calibration' of the battery charge display). But most customers don't understand that.

"If only it would heat from the charger" (thinking that meant they didn't have to buy a PA?) was heard at Arizer. In finest Capitalist manner, they met the demand even if that demand might be ill advised. I find it kind of ironic that those who demanded this 'improvement' were coming from the ignorant end of things. Not only didn't they understand (or appreciate) the more complex scheme used but basically none of them had ever tried that ('defective') design personally.

Two ideas come to mind. First, despite the cliche the customer is not always right.....just opinionated. And holding the bucks. Secondly we could well be witnessing another great example of "be careful what you wish for, you might get it". In the long run we'll no doubt come to find which really is better for the average customer, hopefully the downside won't be too bad. As of now, I'm with you, my older models are humming along just fine, thank you very much. It ain't broke that way.

OF

Click to expand...

OF said:

That is no doubt good news for the neighbors. But just to be on the safe side I suggest the women keep their daughters locked up until the all clear.......

OF

Click to expand...

Very Funny!

I'm so glad I have my old SOLO's just working fine.

Looks like ARISER ruined a successful design?

I wonder if that was arizer's purpose? Their marketing is so weird to me TBH. Most stores dont seem to be advertising this battery "feature". This feature is not advertised on arizers website. If they were doing it for sales then they would have to assume that their customers are all coming to forums like this? If they were doing it for sales wouldnt they at least advertise it? Not really sure the answer just throwing this out there.

Who knows!

What I do know is that I am about to load up another stem in a bit!

I find it odd that Arizer didn't change their directions for the newer model Solo.

Here is my take from my capitalistic pow. This design kills the battery quicker. Some will buy an aftermarket battery pack. Us the savy ones. Some will go the manufacturer. Being sololess for x days plus I think its 50$ for the battery pack plus the shipping charges when you go with arizer. And forget about the warranty there; you have to close to kill your pack for the warranty to cover it. Others will just say frack it, I'll just get a new one. Not that much more expensive than shipping it to arizer. Plus you aint sololess. Those will replace their units quicker than before. Arizer are are expending their market there.

I'm back to using my solo daily again. I stopped smoking cigs about a month ago and now my lungs feel so much better. Vapour is so much smoother. Much less coughing. I bump it to level 7 and can take huge hits without coughing, and just overall vaping is more enjoyable. Quitting smoking is a great feeling everyday I just notice improvements. I was just walking home today and a smoker passed by and just the smell disgusted me and I started thinking about how stupid I was for inhaling that shit. Never again!

Time for a stem of green crack!

ataxian said:

I'm so glad I have my old SOLO's just working fine.

Looks like ARISER ruined a successful design?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I'd say 'ruined'. After all you know what they say about sex: "When it's good it's great, when it's bad it's still pretty good".

Any model Solo is a serious contender IMO, we're talking fine points here I think?

spoutti said:

Here is my take from my capitalistic pow. This design kills the battery quicker. Some will buy an aftermarket battery pack. Us the savy ones. Some will go the manufacturer. Being sololess for x days plus I think its 50$ for the battery pack plus the shipping charges when you go with arizer.

Click to expand...

They cynical side of me agrees that that thought must have occurred to them. They make money selling your replacement batteries or a replacement unit. As long as your original stays strong the best they can hope for is you'll break a stem or loose the charger.......

Years ago I had a friend with a Chevette (remember them?). Nice little car, IMO, but at just past 49,000 miles the 'antler' (four pipe manifold that dumped air in on the outside of the exhaust valves) burned through (hot exhaust gas ate it). Way past the 12,000 mile warranty but not quite past the manditory 50,000 miles on smog related gear (gotta love California......). They cut it a bit too fine, thousands burned through a bit too early, they ran out of the service part. Serious backorder city. Chevy tried to redirect new parts from production to the dealers to quiet the riot from customers only to have the dealers pitch a fit......they wanted new cars to sell, to hell with you, they had your money.

I much prefer to think Arizer is playing it straight. It is simpler for new owners to understand since it's just like a cell phone now?

I have to wonder if the 'quiet launch' of the new model is so they can pull it all back just as quietly if needs be?

OF

Why dont you guys use a proper grade stainless steel wool as concentrate mediums? Stainless stell mesh coils worked fine for the W9 Hercules cart before they upgraded to titanium... and that thing easily gets 2x as hot as a Solo at 7.

When reading the reviews on the solo while considering one pretty much all the reviews stated lack of using via a cord as a downside. Perhaps this is why arizer made the change?

Thanks for the battery references @OF. Are you saying the damage occurs from reaching 4.2 volts or from being shelved at 4.2 volts? In other words pulling some of the charge can or cannot undo damage? but staying at 4.2 does further damage?

The Solo is a special case with that double battery and little circuit board. I was more concerned with standalone 3.7v IMR 18650s which I have to charge regularly. Does IMR behave the same? I would say probably, judging by how it ages.

I wasn't a party to previous o-ring discussions (1000 pages!), so thanks for the info. I could be wrong but that particular o-ring (from my misc o-rings drawer) appears to be a silicone rubber, not neoprene or Buna-N. No sign of temp problems. The size works OK, though my caliper measurement is what is approximate. Not sure if it came from an Ace Hardware kit, so I shouldn't have recommended it, but I see some of that size in that particular kit.

Why do you think it would need sanding? You mean to allow the top to close completely without any pressure on the heater? If the ring is a little off-center it does the job not even being squeezed more than enough to prevent sliding. There is very little stress that I can see on anything, the o-ring material compresses so easily, and just adds a little grip to the stem. Where are the plastic tabs you are worried about?

With the cotton samples I've tried I'm not happy tasting that cotton toasting, organic or otherwise. Thanks for the ref on the stainless material. The composition of alloys always can hold some surprises. Steel and Bronze I had, stainless I didn't happen to have on hand. I didn't want to buy rolls for prototyping. But I just found some pads (same company).

cityslang said:

When reading the reviews on the solo while considering one pretty much all the reviews stated lack of using via a cord as a downside. Perhaps this is why arizer made the change?

Click to expand...

That's undoubtedly the reasoning. Somebody probably also thought you could use a LiPo battery floated off a charger, like lead-acid. Sometimes the original designer understood some issues much better, and a new guy comes on board and makes what he thinks is a harmless change.

I have a faulty Solo in my hands which I think maybe fixable with a new battery. Can anyone tell me which battery I need to purchase?

You can buy the pre built pack from vapepower it is a bigger battery and can give up to 12 8 main session tho I'm yet to see that or vapefiend In the UK will replace the battery for you for £35

fernand said:

I wasn't a party to previous o-ring discussions (1000 pages!)

Click to expand...

hehe, in this thread one does not need to read 1000 pages back aka everything, as the relevant info (especially for orings) is repeated every 10 pages at least.

going back 50 pages for a new user should cover everything, skip all the nonsense on modelnumbers tho.

Caligula said:

Why dont you guys use a proper grade stainless steel wool as concentrate mediums? Stainless stell mesh coils worked fine for the W9 Hercules cart before they upgraded to titanium... and that thing easily gets 2x as hot as a Solo at 7.

Click to expand...

Well, some of us do. Which is why I keep recommending the pads from the Volcano (designed for just this.......). The material is superior to metal wool in that it's a uniform wire with a smooth surface, stays cleaner than the rough wool surface does, and has more (and more uniform) mass for the surface area.

If you poke at it, you can find the end in the pad and pull out the long tube and cut off what you want with scissors and end up with only two cut ends.

IMO that's the material to use. And yes, I think it played into the material selection in Hercules......before marketing drove it to less useful (IMO) Titanium.

fernand said:

Thanks for the battery references @OF. Are you saying the damage occurs from reaching 4.2 volts or from being shelved at 4.2 volts? In other words pulling some of the charge can or cannot undo damage? but staying at 4.2 does further damage?

The Solo is a special case with that double battery and little circuit board. I was more concerned with standalone 3.7v IMR 18650s which I have to charge regularly. Does IMR behave the same? I would say probably, judging by how it ages.

Click to expand...

You're welcome. Enjoy the reading.

Both cause damage. All damage, once done, cannot be undone. Deep discharge also causes serious damage, can be fatal in a single event, the most important part of protection circuits probably. Charging to 4.0 is quite benign, but storing it for long periods at that level will cause some loss.

There's lots of good insight in that one little paper, but it takes some reading and looking at charts and graphs to understand I think.

These are not new issues. All secondary (can be recharged, unlike say primary cells like common alkaline) degrade over time. Your car battery dies, even in a BMW. Even the ones the military buys (although they're smart enough to demand 'charge only to XX Volts' so they might have lower capacity but don't have to fear replacements in the field).

IMRs die as well, in fact considerably faster than Li ions (which is why laptops use Li ions......). They have two advantages though: They tend to have very good high current delivery and deal with deep discharge much better. For this you get a fraction (a bit over half) the capacity in the same package and much lower cycle life, even under good conditions.

fernand said:

I wasn't a party to previous o-ring discussions (1000 pages!), so thanks for the info. I could be wrong but that particular o-ring (from my misc o-rings drawer) appears to be a silicone rubber, not neoprene or Buna-N. No sign of temp problems. The size works OK, though my caliper measurement is what is approximate. Not sure if it came from an Ace Hardware kit, so I shouldn't have recommended it, but I see some of that size in that particular kit.

Why do you think it would need sanding? You mean to allow the top to close completely without any pressure on the heater? If the ring is a little off-center it does the job not even being squeezed more than enough to prevent sliding. There is very little stress that I can see on anything, the o-ring material compresses so easily, and just adds a little grip to the stem. Where are the plastic tabs you are worried about?

Click to expand...

You are wrong. Silicone rings are several times more expensive and almost always red so the inspectors can check them. And they do just that. They also don't seal raw surfaces as well, lousy choice in plumbing all around, really. Buna N is the standard (black) o-ring material. Some (hopefully few) are made of lesser rubbers. There are also, of course, lots of other materials out there suitable for chemicals (like solvents and acids) that rubber won't deal with. But hardware store rings are going to be Buna N (or less).

Dollars to doughnuts if you bought it in the US it's an SAE size ring, not metric. Metric rings are much more expensive, check it out. The whole Solo is SAE (the screws, for instance). Last year about this time I gave out 50 sets of the 113s to members as my little 4/20 celebration, not a single guy reported a problem other than being too thick for their particular Solo (and needed sanding or broke the tabs....).

I suggest sanding because "I've been there". If you had read those 1000 pages you'd know that too I guess, no sin in not having done so of course. There are only four tabs, and only four screws in the bottom, they are in the same place. LOTS of guys have broken them screwing down on rings the maker never intended. Repeat their mistake if you wish. The advice is once again, experience based.

Ideally the ring can float a bit since the stem will be off center as it goes in. You want the ring slightly undersize, that automatically says it has to move some, right? Clamp it too tight and you end up unscrewing the cap for every stem change........

funkyjunky said:

hehe, in this thread one does not need to read 1000 pages back aka everything, as the relevant info (especially for orings) is repeated every 10 pages at least.

going back 50 pages for a new user should cover everything, skip all the nonsense on modelnumbers tho.

Click to expand...

Amen to that! Hey, we've had the same question show up on the same page as the last time. IMO it's just too easy to 'just ask on the web' and let someone else do it? Lots of important folks around these days........ I move the next guy that actually says 'I'm too busy to read....' gets voted off the island.

Dreamer (bless he soul) is a big fan of 'read the last pages at least', but being special trumps that it seems.

Still, folks need reliable information to base decisions on. I'd rather waste my time repeating the same things over and over than have them not get it. As I'm sure you do?

OF

I know its been posted here before, but is this the attachment I need to hook my solo to a bong? http://www.planetvape.ca/pvhegong-high-efficiency-gong.html ... which option do I select? and can someone link me to a bong that will fit the attachment? sorry, I'm new to all this and never owned any bongs before