Wow, I've reached the end of the thread!
I started reading this at the beginning of December, after discovering the Launch Box online and loving the simple flame-less design, and in my spare moments since I've enjoyed following all the fun and games here in this thread. After a few pages of reviews and generally being blown away by the level of customer service offered by Magic-Flight, I sent off for my very own Launch Box. Being Christmas, it took a while, but was well worth the wait. I've had it a few weeks now, love it, and never leave home without it!
I picked-up a couple of 4-packs of cheap 3200mAh "Profitexx" NiMH Batteries (in advance), which sounds like a rip-off of some other cell, but turned out not only to be nice and powerful, but also a perfect fit for the Launch-Box (and when not vaping, the copper ring sits firmly in the battery's rim). They (4) take around two hours to charge in my Gomko fast charger, and hold their charge pretty well, so far. One battery will easily do a full trough (split over a half dozen or more long hits). Plenty batteries and a fast charger is definitely the way to go.
Stealth-wise, the Launch-Box has been everything I wished for and more. I've vaped in buses, taxis, the cinema, high street, in shops, nightclubs and more. No one was any the wiser! I even took my Launch-Box with me to a Metal gig last weekend (not my usual scene, but I know some of the band).
When I first got in, I sat down at one of the back tables, took a couple of small hits and then asked a girl sitting over from me if she liked to smoke weed. After establishing that I wasn't an LEO (I mean, who would ask a complete stranger that! haha!), I introduced the box. I told her it was so stealthy that you could take a hit and the person sitting next to you would have no clue. She didn't believe me. I said, "I've had two since I've been sitting here" We laugh. No way, she says. Way! And I give her a hit. She loves it. The FLAVOUR!!! And the rest of the trough goes like that over the next half hour or so, passing around the table as interested folk gather, talking up the box and getting very baked. It was a lot of fun!
I've had no problems showing people how to use it; emphasising the "pull slowly" seems to do the trick (telling them that only THEY can control the temperature, and to lift the tip of their tongue for more accuracy - thanks to whoever dropped that tip, by the way). And I always run it native, no tubes, for better control. Also, I kinda like the idea of lots of different people kissing the wood! Respect the wood! Pretty much everyone who sees it, wants it. Stealthy, simple and small; what more could you want in a portable vape?
I notice some people run out of puff before they finish a hit, because they aren't breathing in enough air. The solution is to simply breath in a little through your nose while you are hitting, so your lungs go back to feeling natural, and you can keep on sucking, sometimes for a very long time.
While I'm here, I wanted to expand on something aero18 touched upon (many many pages ago!), which was an extremely efficient cyclic breathing technique for inhaling vapour. No one has mentioned it since, which is a shame because isn't efficiency what this thing is all about?
What he/she roughly describes is a martial arts exercise designed to keep stocks of air (and power) in reserve. Coupled with a Full Yogic Breath, which I will describe, you have pretty much the perfect vapour inhalation system, 100% efficient, and 100% smell-free!
A full breath, like babies do naturally, starts in the base of the lungs (think groin when pulling the air in and down) and fills the lungs upwards, naturally, swelling out the stomach, then the chest (the stomach will naturally pull in slightly) until the lungs are completely full. Additionally, at the very top of the inhalation, you may raise your shoulders up to get air into those rarely-used pockets of lung infections love.
Now do that with VAPOUR!
If you go all the way and do the shoulder lift, you will likely cough buckets, at least the first couple of times, until you clear your mucus out (THC is a most powerful expectorant, after all).
Now comes aero18's martial-arts breathing. Once you have inflated your lungs completely with vapour-filled air, hold it a moment, and then slowly release air from only the top 10-20% of your lungs (this area should already be free of vapour). Then you breath only that amount back in again; repeat; effectively using only the top 10-20% of your lungs to supply your body's oxygen needs, while giving the vapour-filled air in the rest of your lungs time to fully absorb into the bloodstream. Slowly, you increase the volume of air breathed until, in a minute or so, you are again using all your lungs. NO VAPOUR IS EXHALED, EVER!
Obviously exhaling vapour is wasteful, but it's also not very stealthy, as people can smell it. But with an LB and the right technique, there's no reason one microgram of THC should be wasted! You can use the same trick with smoke, if you must, though it takes longer to absorb (you can exhale smoke many minutes after the joint has been put out!).
Anyways, thanks Magic-Flight for a great product (a vape for life!), and perhaps more importantly, for being such an exemplary company. Long Live Magic-Flight!
-mu
out
