Discontinued Herbstick Deluxe

First Impressions

Packaging is nice, on par with the other Chinese vapes I have. Thick printing, luxury finish box, faux velvet inside with a compartment hiding the charger, manual and accessories. It stinks like a new car, but perhaps less than my Ascent packaging.

The charger didn't come with a euro-plug nor any adapter (but I imagine the retail version surely will) No big deal because the charger is 110/240V switching, so you just need any cheap plug adapter and no converter box. Besides you can plug the device directly to any USB port on your computer.

The charger outputs 1.5A at 5V, and it kinda surprised me because on the side of the device one can read near the mini USB port "charge limitation 5V 1A". That made me wonder if the extra 0.5A was there just for safety or if it was there for extra power when using the device when charging. Reading the manual gave me the answer: you can indeed use the device while charging and that's a very good surprise! That and USB charging together, this is really nice.

The manual is quite substantial, a little 12 pages booklet color printed. English is not the best, but seeing how much I butcher Shakespeare's tongue myself, I'm not the one to complain!

In the accessory bag there's a metal brush (that is, metal handle and metal "hair"), a bunch of straight pipe cleaners, 3 spare bowl screens (possibly stainless steel) and a weird knife looking more like a woman nails file than anything else, dunno what this one is for...

So far so good, onto the beast itself now!

Design and Physical Build

The thing is small. It's the smallest of all my portables so far. I don't own either but I think only the Pax and MFLB come smaller than this. Here's a couple pictures for reference:





The body is I think made of aluminium, with a brushed finish and black coating. Angles are a bit sharp but the sides are beveled (so they are not 90° angles) It doesn't feel as good in the hand as my other portable vapes (FW2.1, Ascent, FM5S, FM8) but it's not that bad either.

It's a nice object and it's quite stealthy. When you look at it it's clear that it's a modern electronic device of some kind but you wouldn't imagine it's a vaporizer on first glance. The only thing that annoyed me was that it has "Herbstick" printed in white on its front panel, so I kinda vandalized the thing and took a black marker to make that less obvious! The first FM5 had a silly ganja leaf on the logo, thanksfully they removed that later on. Here I wish there was no herbstick logo as it's the only thing that could make someone ask questions.

Speaking of vandalizing the device, I first tried to remove that ugly looking false diamond below the screen as I hate anything bling-bling... well, don't do that! This thing is actually the multi-color indicator LED!



Having a single battery the vape is on the light side, a mere 122 grams (conversion to other units left to the reader) Form factor is nice, as I said earlier almost palmable and definitely pocketable. It's a nice looking object overall, well built, everything tight. I don't know how to gut it yet, but I'm sure we'll figure the way soon.

When I checked the mouthpiece I was a bit sceptical at first, then I re-read @mrweed's review and managed to pull it out, then the entire thing made a lot of sense to me!



Above you can see the entire retractable mouthpiece. It's spring-loaded. You draw from a small hole located on the left side of the picture, and the straw on the right side (which can be unscrewed for cleaning) goes inside the vape and plugs directly into another metal tube that runs the entire height of the device.

Cleaning the straw part should be easy, cleaning the mouth-piece on the other hand will be more difficult. I don't know what metal this is made of, I'd prefer if it was stainless steel rather than aluminium or any other plated metal. At least it smells pretty inert.



Here we can see a top down view of the device with mouthpiece removed. The black housing is plastic. Inside there is the top part of the metal tube and the spring-loading mechanism sitting around it. This part appears to be completely sealed but anyways seeing how the mouthpiece straw part mates with the metal tube, I don't think any air can be drawn from this area.



Seen from below we have the metal bowl, with fitted bowl screen, and the bottom of the metal tube. The bowl door is held by magnets when closed but also when opened if you stick it to the bottom of the device as pictured. The black housing is again plastic, and the door is the same shiny metal as the mouthpiece on one side, and plastic on the other. The bowl looks like stainless steel and is less shiny.



What I really like about this device so far is that it seems to have a no bullshit, no bad surprise vapor path! I don't know where fresh air enters but I imagine it's around the bowl door which is only loosely fitting, then it goes through the load, then to the metal tube upwards, and finally to the metal mouthpiece, and that's all! No funky plastic, no silicone, no exposed electronics components, that's worth a lof of points in my book!

That being said I could still detect some robot fart smell on the top plastic housing and around the bowl, so I'm going to thoroughly ISO clean it, and continue doing a few empty burn-ins just to be sure. Then hopefully I'll be able to test this little guy and see how it performs!

Ah and before I forget, another good point goes to the fact the screen displays the cell voltage while charging. As we discussed with @OF recently in the Ascent thread, it's best if you can stop charging before it reaches 4.2V per cell, as it can litterally double your battery life. Well here we got two good things: first you can stop charging at the voltage you want because it's displayed, and secondly during my initial charge I noticed it stopped charging reading 4.1V (exact figure to be confirmed) and not 4.2V, so they are not pushing the cell to get a few extra minutes worth of run-time and instead they chose to increase battery life by lowering the cutoff point, kudos for that!

hey guys, im bringing the thread back from the dead.

I just received my herbstick deluxe in the mail!
Looking forward to giving this guy a test drive!
Very impressed so far by the packaging, accessories, and the unit itself.
The HD is charging up right now via micro USB.
Will be back with a quick summary after its charged, I do a burn off and run through a few chambers!

Mod note: Moved from Herbstick thread

Attempted delivery, tracking had said tomorrow so I didnt leave a signed note today... Guess I'll get mine tomorrow then

It arrived today.Sofar i like it..Taste could have been better but i guess thats the deal with conduction vapes.. But two things are getting me out of my mind... That diamond .... and the vibration.. just woke up my gf and she has to go to work early.. felt really crappy about that.... Soon i will contribute with a review too,first wanna test how this thing beheaves at party ,,i dont have full impressions on batterylife but i think it might be good.. anyway.. if it manages to vape .5 bowls x 0.5 i will be happy (i think it can swallow even more.. not joking but works with almost any ammout .
I also am puzzled about cleaning the moutpiece tried to dissasemble it with no luck.. (top part).
I managed to fit silicon tubing where mouthpiece connects and it really milks my bubbler on high temps.. airlow is almost the best i've experienced with a vape.. (or maybe i should wait till screen gets clogged )
Anyway more to come soon..

Ok guys, as I am initially charging the HD I am tinkering with it of course, its what I do!

I found the screen does not like to stay in place, it likes to stick to the magnet by the lid.
So instead of having to deal with that I came up with a quick fix.

If anyone else is having this issue with the screen I hope this helps you out.

First I got the HD stock square screen and an Indica screen.
I cut out a square in the Indica screen just a hair larger than the HD screen, clipping a tiny bit off of each corner from the Indica screen (just a tiny snip off the corners).


Then I placed the Indica screen at the bottom of the chamber. You could just use the Indica screen and call it a day.


I opted to put the HD screen on top of the Indica screen to keep it from coming off of the bottom of the chamber and possibly keep the unit cleaner. It fits like a glove!


Either way will work and keep the screen from moving around in the chamber.


Here is a pic of the HD next to a fake PAX to show you how small the HD really is.


I am all charged up and ready for a test drive.

I have to say I am impressed with the unit, but have not tried it yet.

The HD looks like it could be a winner, but I won't know for sure until I use it.

I will put it through it's paces and be back with my results.

Got one coming! I will report back. Looks pretty interesting especially at this price point.

You guys are killing me. A good new vape every month. I got to hide the credit cards.

So I am bored and I thought I'd throw this out there incase anyone is interested.

The Indica Noir silicon hygenic tip fits on the Herbstick Deluxe mouthpiece.
With some slight trimming it fits like a glove!

Now keep in mind the mouthpiece in the HD will not depress down flush with the silicon tip on, but it's an idea for those using the HD in a session, or if it's cold out!

You could even leave it on since the mouthpiece isn't the turn on button like the PAX.

Just a thought......

HD with stock silicon Indica tip.



Indica silicon tip with 1/8" trimmed off the bottom.



Just a thought for those that have to deal with cold weather and a metal mouth piece.
Also, it is very stealthy!


Still waiting....doing burn offs. So far so good. No weird smells or tastes.


I just found out if you charge your HD through the computer it takes you to their website.
Hopefully this means upgradeable software in the future!

Alright I promised to do a fair review in exchange of a free sample, so I have to point the negative aspects too, as we don't want FC to turn into a giant "infomercial", don't we?

It turned out I wasn't completely right about the no-bullshit vapor path. The vapor path is as described but once it exits the internal metal tube, I'm afraid it can be diluted with fresh air from the exterior (as the mating between the mouthpiece straw and the metal tube is not as tight as I hoped) and worse, some of this air might come from the electronics section...

This air should be slightly warmer than room temperature, as the device body and internals get hot during the session. I know many people will answer that it poses absolutely no health threat, as I'm breathing air coming from my laptop cooling fan as I'm typing... But I had to report it.

How did I find that? Well I took one of my Ascent glass straw and plugged it where the HD mouthpiece go and I blew in it... and to my dismay I could feel some air exiting by the mini USB port on the side of the device. Please can other users confirm the issue? I double checked but we need to be sure. Please note that users reported the same problem with the Elevape and the Indica at some point (could have been fixed for the latter though)

Apart from the possible health concern, the main problem is that this dilution creates a sub-optimal vapor/air ratio. Don't get me wrong, the device works great and produces vapor, but if the mating between the mouthpiece and the internal metal tube was perfect then we would have a more concentrated vapor and thus even bigger clouds.

I don't have any easy fix in mind for now but we'll figure something I'm confident. Finding a silicone tubing of the right diameter could be a good start, or one o-ring of some kind and/or a different mouthpiece.

Then another minor negative aspect I found is that the OLED screen, while gorgeous and for once used to display useful information, appears to be quite fragile. Mine already has a few scratches. But this is cosmetic only.

I need to use it more before I can issue my verdict. First session went fine but had a slight "new vape" taste. It was clearly not as bad as my other portables, as both FM's and the Ascent required many charges worth of empty burn-ins before coming to an acceptable level, smell-wise... This one has only a light smell and is otherwise quite neutral (to date the only vape I got that had strictly no new funky taste is the Firewood 2.1, and it's the one I have 100% confidence to use)

Hey KeroZen i share your thoughts about the HD.. I have the right id silicon tubing its from a whip from a chinese box vape.. anyway.. it does the job very well and i am milking my bubbler.. also if i plug bottom hole with finger ,it is airtight ..
What bugs me more is the noisy vibration and the stupid mouthpiece top.. Has anyone opened it.. I tried with no luck. When i tried to stick a needle inside.. i felt somekind of rubber or other material... it appears to be filled with something ... i wonder now what i have inhaled trough.. and how will be cleaned once it gets clogged on the insides..
I am also using a big screen bend at cubic form as a spacer.. works really nice with small amounts too .

Indeed! There is something inside the top of the mouthpiece, not directly facing the hole but if you get the needle at an angle you can feel something rubbery... silicone maybe? But why?! This is a real problem with these Chinese vapes: they can't and don't test them with the Plant, and thus seem to have no idea how much sticky resin and oil it produces! They test their devices with dry tobacco only.

I can't manage to open the mouthpiece, it looks like it's a press-fit and I'm afraid to damage it. If they could issue a real hollow one with no built-in screen / holes, and with a better tolerance to make a tight fit with the internal metal tube, it would be perfect.

Note that everytime designers create a vape with retractable mouthpiece it tends to be problematic: in the Ascent this exact same problem exposes plastic and to some extent electronics to the vapor path, due to the loose mating between the glass straws. In the FM8 plastic is exposed too but at least not electronics. In the Haze the mouthpiece can stick and it's unclear what the vapor path is between the bowls and the end of the straw, etc...

Well, my mouthpiece stuck inside and it seems like the mechanizm bugged.. This will prevent me for testing the unit further i guess.. You gen get vapor too but air comes from the usb port when it is pressed down.. (much more than when it is popped)..So sad it fucked up after only a few uses.. just started to like it... I shot Ludo an e-mail,,hope some can help me solve this issue.. or at least they take it in account when producting next batch of herbsticks.

I had this happen this morning too, you should insist and it will finally pop out open. Try at different speeds and/or different depression heights maybe?

KeroZen said:

I had this happen this morning too, you should insist and it will finally pop out open. Try at different speeds and/or different depression heights maybe?

Click to expand...

My hands hurt of trying... I broke 3 nails.. tried even to pull it out push it from the bowl.... Nothing it just don't clicks as it used to when pressed ... My only hope is that the unit can be opened at the clutch released from inside... It kind of sticks.. and moves slowly.. anyway i will keep trying... when i get more vigour.. at hand
But i don't thing sticking is the problem i tried to heat it up with the hairdrier it went easier but still no pop up...

Hmmm hard to help you from a distance... Could it be that the spring got stuck around the metal straw part of the mouthpiece? Can you at least push the entire thing down?

Hey all,
Ludo got a hold of me asked about joining FC as a commercial account. I sent him instructions and told him to follow them closely.

I hope he does! I love when the manufacturer's interact.

Damn scottg,

Your vapor arsenal is growing and growing. I can not follow your lead or I will be broke.

Ok, not gonna do a full review yet but I did go through 2 trenches, first off this thing needs to be PACKED to get good/decent clouds, I have been using the Imag Plus mostly and its night and day, I can throw any tiny amount into that thing and yield nice clouds. Second off the reason for this seems to be the airflow is not tight enough, this might be because of what others are saying here(Air coming from other parts, and yes the bottom piece is looser then say a pax for sure). I am slightly concerned about the air path, I might email them and see what they say exactly.

Now the good, I sense no odd taste, it does produce decent clouds when slowly inhaled(Pax style, MLFB style), the screen is nice yet somewhat delicate, the temp control is great though I feel the 380+ range is where I need to be for clouds, it never burns my lips like the pax, its rather cool from the vapor standpoint.

All in all for 75 dollars its hard to shoot it down, but so far for the price I do like the Imag Plus better, this might change with time, I am gonna wait and see what others say about the safety of the air path, honestly I have a slight throat cold right now anyways haha....trying to cut back until it goes away(Hopefully a couple days).

HillaryClinton said:

Ok, not gonna do a full review yet but I did go through 2 trenches, first off this thing needs to be PACKED to get good/decent clouds, I have been using the Imag Plus mostly and its night and day, I can throw any tiny amount into that thing and yield nice clouds. Second off the reason for this seems to be the airflow is not tight enough, this might be because of what others are saying here(Air coming from other parts, and yes the bottom piece is looser then say a pax for sure). I am slightly concerned about the air path, I might email them and see what they say exactly.

Now the good, I sense no odd taste, it does produce decent clouds when slowly inhaled(Pax style, MLFB style), the screen is nice yet somewhat delicate, the temp control is great though I feel the 380+ range is where I need to be for clouds, it never burns my lips like the pax, its rather cool from the vapor standpoint.

All in all for 75 dollars its hard to shoot it down, but so far for the price I do like the Imag Plus better, this might change with time, I am gonna wait and see what others say about the safety of the air path, honestly I have a slight throat cold right now anyways haha....trying to cut back until it goes away(Hopefully a couple days).

Click to expand...

When mine was usable.. i could make it work with small amounts.. just used a big screen cubed up as spacer

Abysmal Vapor said:

When mine was usable.. i could make it work with small amounts.. just used a big screen cubed up as spacer

Click to expand...

I see, I might try that when I give it another go, thanks.

Hehehe,... here as well..! I'll write a real testing review in a few weeks since I'm moving out and don' have much time. Here are my first impression which I wrote before messages above.

The overall quality is nice, feel good in the hands, really small. Only thing is it does make a light tinkle when shaking it (the buttons I suppose)

I love the magnet feature for the herb chamber, here they seems to solve an issue we can find on another new stealth vape. It is also super easy to load since you can attach the chamber magnet door on the other side while you load (no need to hold the "door" in your hand), no worry to loose or break it !!! The screen is not held super tight in the chamber, so you just have to shake a bit for it to fall of the chamber : here again, the magnet area all around the base of the vape make it almost impossible to lose the screen as it will be attracted on the side. Nice feature, really ! Means you can clean the chamber while your door and screen are simply sticked to the vape (no need to put on a table or in a pocket...)

There is an automatic 8min shut off and if not used during 1min the vape will go to the minimum temperature. A vibration advertise you in advance. Just take it in your hands and it will come back up to temp ! Sometime mine just shut of. The vapor path seems completely isolated from the other parts of the vape (but airinlet ???). You can see a small hole down the herb chamber and this vapor "tube" goes directly to link with the mouthpiece tube. You have pipe cleaners to clean the vapor tube.
What I'm not sure is : where is the air inlet ? There is no holes in the chamber and no holes in the chamber door, so I really wonder where does come the air to be heated ?

What I don't like so far :
I'm now on my 3rd "empty burn off". There is a metal and "warm" thing smell, I don't want to taste that ! Seems it's not as strong as the first burn off btw.

The vibration feature isn't stealth at all !
I wonder about cleaning and air-inlet mainly. This are for the cons like the loud vibration.

On the positive side : finishing is not bad, feature seems ok but a bit cheap.
Will do some alcohol cleaning and will try different bowl size when I'll find some time.

Bvapst said:

What I don't like so far :
I'm now on my 3rd "empty burn off". There is a metal and "warm" thing smell, I don't want to taste that ! Seems it's not as strong as the first burn off btw.

The vibration feature isn't stealth at all !

Click to expand...

That smell to me is normal heat smell, sorta like the smell that comes off a new toaster oven or even the smell of a stove before you start cooking(Minus the gas smell), its pretty much a metal heating smell, not chemical imo.

As for the vibration, I like it and feel its stealth, many will disagree but I can turn this on in my pocket probably and it would vibrate like a phone would, not really something that would turn heads and if it did I would just say "Oh thats my phone".

My main concerns is the air path which is still up in the air and that it isn't solving my craving for clouds, Imag Plus gives better clouds on low...then this on high, maybe I am doing something wrong??(Don't wanna review it totally without knowing if I am using it right...)

The battery seems strong so far though

Yes I agree with the smell. I'm not used with this in a portable, this is my first temperature controlled one, all my past vapes are "manual" and I know why I prefer them. Still waiting for stealth and great control while affordable.
About airpath : the tube seems sealed till the herb chamber. Having a light behind, without the mouthpiece in, I can see all the way through.
I have written the exact same report to Bauway (Eling) and will see what are the answers. Previously I think they were telling the air gets by the side of the door, but I doubt of it since it seems tight.
I do get some air out of the air tube if blowing through usb port ...but this might come from around the air tube which seems sealed.

Didn't get great success yet. i'll try a session from cold, since I was loading right after burns off and it was cooking the load a bit. I could get some vapor passed the 200c° mark. The load was quite small and leafy and lightly packed.

Hey guys, I got into a dab session last night and was not able to try my HD.
However after reading some of the most recent posts, I decided to check out all of the issues.

First the USB: I get no air in or out of my USB port. My unit does not have any issues there.

Second: Air intake. The fresh air seems to come in through the chamber door. If I inhale and completely cover the bottom, all air is shut off.

Third: The mouthpiece.


This is where I found the main issue. Although I have not tried the HD yet, I can see it is way too restrictive where the stem screws into the mouthpiece. There are 5 very small holes.


I drilled the center hole larger for better airflow.


This is where I notice the silicon in the mouthpiece that was mentioned. you can see the white silicone on the inner wall of the mouthpiece.

I drilled the mouthpiece hole larger (like I did with my Indicas).


Now to take care of the silicon inside the mouthpiece.
Get your mouthpiece.


Unscrew the stem.


Drill out the portion with the 5 holes as wide as you possible without touching the threads.


Now with easier access (larger holes) you can get inside of the mouthpiece.
Get a safety pin and bend it like this.


With some time and some patience you can now remove the silicon (collar) around the inside of the mouthpiece.
This is what you will pull out of your mouthpiece.


It looks like a rat chewed on it. I had to pull it up through the top mouthpiece hole that I had drilled out.
In doing this there is no longer silicon in the mouthpiece. I'm not sure why it's there in the first place, my only guess is to insulate the mouthpiece similar to an inside out version of the Indica Noir hygienic MP tip.

In doing this airflow is increased drastically. This will also make cleaning the mouthpiece a breeze!
Now that the mouthpiece is much improved and the silicon is removed I am going to use the HD throughout the day.
I will post my results with the drilled out MP tonight. I can't compare it to the stock setup, but I can give my results of how I feel the HD works with this "mod".

I hope this helps!

Nice find Dr. !
I'll try to find a fix or a new MPmod too. I'm not cumfortable with it and cleaning wise.