Hi fellow vaporists (is that it?). I've had my Indica Noir for almost 2 weeks now. Overall, I really like the device. Unfortunately, as of today, after 10 or 11 days of moderate to heavy use, my Indica Noir no longer heats up. I just shot Mike a message, and hopefully he can help me out. Anyway, I figure I should write somewhat of a review of the device, trying to ignore this malfunction.
To start, things didn't go too well. However, this was all cleared up after a conversation with Mike and reading posts in this thread. Originally ordered this with 2nd day air, it got sent by normal ground delivery. I now know this is because of some glitches with their software. So I wouldn't worry too much about this if you're thinking of ordering, as the problem should be cleared up by now. Tried to contact customer support through phone and email, got no responses. Talked to Mike, he pretty much instantly took care of my issues. Mike was great to work with. I'd say customer support was not great to work with, but as I got no responses, I didn't get to work with them.
Never wrote a vaporizer review before, but I hope this can help some potential shoppers out, so here we go...
Flavor: Initially, there was the typical "robot fart" taste. The silicone mouthpiece also gave off a silicone taste for the first few sessions. I never felt that silicone had a bad taste, but it was distracting. These two tastes went away quick enough that they really don't detract from the Indica at all. The lower temperature settings, cyan, blue, and green, all produce vapor which has a very pleasant taste. You can definitely get a clean taste of your herb at these temperatures. At the purple and red temperature settings the vapor has a more "roasted" flavor to it. All the different strains of herb I used would taste the same at these high temperatures. I let some seasoned smoking veterans try it out, and they were all put off by the taste at the highest temperatures. They liked the flavor of the lower temperatures just as much as anything else. I personally don't mind the roasted taste and use the highest two settings almost exclusively when using it solo.
Vapor: I was very surprised and pleased with how big of clouds were produced at the red and purple temp settings. Cyan and blue gave barely any visible vapor if you could see any at all. This is not to say that it did not produce vapor, just that when you exhale, you don't really see it. The vapor from the green setting was definitely sufficient and easy to handle. However, perhaps because I'm more used to smoking, I desired bigger clouds. Purple and, especially, red settings could produce clouds as thick as if you were smoking something rolled up. I get more vapor from the Indica at the highest settings than I ever got from using a Pax or a G-Pen (wax vaporizer). I'm surprised at how cool the vapor is, considering how small and warm the device itself gets. Even at the highest setting the vapor is cool enough to not irritate your throat much, but the vapor density can still make you choke.
Build: I've shown the Indica to quite a few people and many of them, mainly the younger people, weren't really a fan of the fact that it looks like a giant Zippo. Then I showed them how the Solo and Ascent and MFLB and other vaporizers look and they all agree that this looks much better and much more presentable. The older crowd that I showed it to actually liked the design, especially because nobody would ever guess what it is if used in public. Only the Pax I would say looks better, albeit less discreet. I love the fact that it feels like a hefty, sturdy, hunk of metal. It doesn't feel fragile and I'm not afraid if it gets bumped around a bit. No glass stems to worry about breaking either. The hinged cap is a nice way to keep the mouthpiece clean when transporting it, and it looks nice and functions well. However, when you're actually vaping, the cap sticks out of your hand and actually detracts from the stealthiness a little bit. The cap would be great if it could somehow be fabricated it so that you could store your pick/spacers/herb/whatever else in the cap. Charging through USB is great and convenient, though making it micro USB instead of mini may be an improvement, I'm not quite sure what the advantage of mini over micro is, if there any. The oven seems to get vaped herb stuck in the bottom corners of it and is hard to get fully cleaned, but getting it mostly clean is pretty easy. Loading the oven isn't too bad, but the nooks where the door latches on gets herb stuck in it. You kind of have to pour herb it, push it all into the oven and pack it down a bit with either the included pick or a spacer and then pour more in and rinse and repeat until you have your desired amount. Ratchet's loading funnel looks awesome and I was about to order one, just looking at the design, I can tell it would make things much easier. Last, but certainly not least, the oven size is fantastic. I think if you grind finely enough and pack tightly enough, you might be able to fit a whole gram. Granted, doing this will make it extremely difficult to draw from and I wouldn't recommend it, but it does seem possible.
Battery Life: The battery lasts as advertised. I've never had the battery run out before I was either done using it or able to get it to a charger. As the device turns off in 10 minutes, you essentially can get sessions out of it. However, perhaps this was a sign of my device being faulty, when the battery gets low, it doesn't seem to reach the proper temperatures and the vapor quality/density goes down. Luckily it can be used while charging, if you are careful where you put your fingers (that oven door can get really hot while used while charging). You'll go through multiple ovens before needing a recharge.
Other: The accessories bag that came with the Indica is great. Gets you started with some pipecleaners to keep things clean. More than enough spacers so that you can pack any amount of herb you want and/or replace lost spacers. The metal brush it came with doesn't appear to clean the oven too well. The pick might be better at that. The place where you would really want to scrub with the brush, the bottom corners, unfortunately can't be reached by the metal brush. How to properly use the screens isn't the most obvious or the most easy thing, but luckily they're not needed, which makes them a nice inclusion. I'd suggest to include the instructions one user posted on these forums about molding it around two spacers. The wooden box and how neatly everything was packaged inside of the box was a very nice touch. It's good as a box to stash your stuff in. While not mentioned by too many other people, a nice little carrying pouch is included. I definitely recommend this to be used during transportation, because the Indica Noir does get scratched pretty easily.
I'll post pictures if anyone wants.
