Beginner guide / Newbie questions for wax pen. Source or w9?

First is there any recent beginner guide explaining what the key points in making a purchase are? I am looking for a wax pen.

I remember from yr + ago wickless was mandatory, but I'm getting confused now about quartz/titanium/ceramic atomizers, and which one do I want.

People on reddit have recommended either w9tech or source orb are the way to go. I'm comfortable around the $100 price point, but I want something that will be durable, efficient, replaceable, and especially safe for my lungs.

Will either of the two wax pens above meet those criteria?
I made a few purchases last year with an atmos, gpen, and a gentlemen v2 carts, but I found them all to be lacking in either safety, durability or taste.

Just wondering if there is a guide somewhere to help me make a choice.

Or if you guys think source orb (signature or XL travel) or the w9 omnicron would be better?

I'd probably get extra atomizers, battery eventually as well.

Thanks for any pointers.

I have been doing a lot of window shopping, but plan on my next pen to be a w9 primarily due to their involvement on FC and all the support I know I can receive from fellow members.

I think of w9 as a modular system. Its line of pens, like the omicron and the shorter minicron, are more or less typical battery powered pens that run some variation of their proprietary KISS cart design: titanium coils that in my experience have proved very resilient. The heavyweights of the w9 lineup are the Persei with the Herc cart system. These are unique among battery powered concentrate vaporizers (RIP Thermovape), i think. Theyre much bigger than the typical pen and can hold as much as a gram in a coil-less heating reservoir. It can handle a variety of concentrates and can go quite a while between refills. W9's threading is not compatible with other vape pens, however. Any of the w9 vapes should be a step up for you. I havent used a Source Orb, so no comment on that.

I delved into the wax pen world in Jan of this year and still have many questions, this is a useful thread for me and I appreciate all the other responses to it as well.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but perhaps this info can also be helpful: I'm still trying to figure out whether I'd use or prefer a Persei with Herc given that I already have an Omicron 2 with a few KISS carts and the default EO cart. I like the portability and the functionality of my current setup but learning more about the Herc's oil capacity intrigues me although I have no (known or immediate) care for tinkering with the Persei's power output...

zor said:

I delved into the wax pen world in Jan of this year and still have many questions, this is a useful thread for me and I appreciate all the other responses to it as well.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but perhaps this info can also be helpful: I'm still trying to figure out whether I'd use or prefer a Persei with Herc given that I already have an Omicron 2 with a few KISS carts and the default EO cart. I like the portability and the functionality of my current setup but learning more about the Herc's oil capacity intrigues me although I have no (known or immediate) care for tinkering with the Persei's power output...

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I consider the Persei/Herc to be more of an at-home portable, since it's a lot bigger and thicker than most of the other W9 pens. But I like that it doesn't rely on a wire wick and has a much larger capacity than the others, which are fine as portable, load as you go vapor pens. I haven't needed to do any tinkering with the Herc 74x.