El Cheapo (Top Vapor) Vaporizer not living up to expectations?

[TomatoThief]

This is what I got.

It was like $45 on ebay but from what I heard/read these things should be just as effective as the much more expensive ones as long as you know how to use it correctly.

So.. It appears that I do not know how to use it correctly. The amount I vaped (untill it was dark brown colored) was probably enough to get me to like [8] two times over when smoking, but I barely got to like [5] maybe using the vape.

I got the best results when drawing *extremely* slowly. I tried temps ranging from 365f to 395f without feeling much difference. I also got the best results when basically holding the unit in a vertical position and kinda shaking it so that the herb was definitely in the "airway" (kind of like a volcano).

One thing I was not quite sure on.. Do you take the whip off the unit in between hits? Not sure if that would make a big difference because even the first hits felt pretty weak.

I packed it pretty lightly. Probably about 1.5g total over 3 "loads".

Any tips? They have a 7 day no questions asked return policy so I'd like to see if I can get more out of it before returning it.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

question about the temperature display: is that the actual current temperature, or is that the desired temperature?

suggestion: let it heat up for about 30 minutes before using - so it gets totally heat saturated at the desired temperature.

 

[TomatoThief]

question about the temperature display: is that the actual current temperature, or is that the desired temperature?

suggestion: let it heat up for about 30 minutes before using - so it gets totally heat saturated at the desired temperature.

That's the "desired" temperature. I let it heat up for quite a while. At least 10 minutes the first time but then I had it running for like 2-3 hours total without turning it off, for another 2 fresh loads.

I'm guessing that when you say that do you mean heat it up with the whip unattached?

 

[Seek]

This is a convection vape right? So I think you don't have to take off the whip between hits. I wouldn't trust a vape for this little cash, but it seems it works good for you. For ALL vapes, there are some basic trues:
-herb should be airy, not packed.
-herb should be dry.
-herb should be ground fine.
-slow draws

0.5g per bowl seems like a lot. Have you tried less?

 

[TomatoThief]

This is a convection vape right? So I think you don't have to take off the whip between hits. I wouldn't trust a vape for this little cash, but it seems it works good for you. For ALL vapes, there are some basic trues:
-herb should be airy, not packed.
-herb should be dry.
-herb should be ground fine.
-slow draws

0.5g per bowl seems like a lot. Have you tried less?

I might be pulling that 0.5g out of nowhere. Either way I'd say it was not packed very tightly at all. Maybe 2mm thick or so, ground up pretty fine and very dry.

Edit: I'm pulling that 0.5 figure based on that I weighted the already vaped weed and it was a total of 0.9g. Then I just kinda assumed it lost some of it's weight through vaporizing and guess that the total was 1.5g / 3 = 0.5. Might be entirely incorrect.

 

[Seek]

If your herb is browning (not staying green nor blackening), you are inhaling the vapor, you hold them depp in lungs for a few secs - you are vaping. You have said your herb is dark brown (evenly?) so that means you have vaped, unless there are leaks.

Also: good vapes conserve herbs - I use about 0.2 in EQ or Iolite, 0.1 in MFLB also does it's magic. I vape daily, so I think I already have some tolerance. So that 0.5 seemed like too much for me.

 

[nr-cole]

Try running it at it's max temperature for a while before turning it down to your desired temp. I do this even with my Extreme Q so there's probably value in doing it with yours. Other than that, what you said about super slow draws sounds about right. Odds are it's heat retaining abilities aren't stellar, so too much/too fast drawing will probably lower it to temps where it won't vape at all. Leave some time between your hits. If you get fed up and hit it over and over it's only going to cool it down.

Great deal if you can get it working! I think with some of these lower-end vapes it's just a matter of experimenting with all aspects of technique (grind, pack, bowl size, draw, temp) until you find something that works.

 

[TomatoThief]

Try running it at it's max temperature for a while before turning it down to your desired temp. I do this even with my Extreme Q so there's probably value in doing it with yours. Other than that, what you said about super slow draws sounds about right. Odds are it's heat retaining abilities aren't stellar, so too much/too fast drawing will probably lower it to temps where it won't vape at all. Leave some time between your hits. If you get fed up and hit it over and over it's only going to cool it down.

Great deal if you can get it working! I think with some of these lower-end vapes it's just a matter of experimenting with all aspects of technique (grind, pack, bowl size, draw, temp) until you find something that works.

Thanks. I'll give that a try (maxing it out and then lowering) next time.

 

[Seek]

420F is also looking high, but a lot of convection vapes display higher desired temperature, than the passing air actually has. If it's correct, you should lower it. Also dark brown ABV means high temp on prolonged vaping.

 

[Beezleb]

Am I correct in that you put 1.5grams in a wand?

I think that is way to much. Less is more in this respect. You want even air flow so the herb is evenly vaporized.

Try this.
Turn temp to 380 degrees, adjust up or down depending on your preference in the future.
Let that heat up for say 10 minutes though I see you got this covered.
Vape and inhale slowly, the opposite of smoking. The faster you inhale the cooler the vapor, the slower the more vapor.
Stir about every 3 draws and remove the wand between draws. Once you learn how much is needed for a session it will go faster for you.

Hope that helps but in short I suspect you are packing the wand to tight. It should be loose but sort of firm. Not compact.

 

[TomatoThief]

Am I correct in that you put 1.5grams in a wand?

I think that is way to much. Less is more in this respect. You want even air flow so the herb is evenly vaporized.

Try this.
Turn temp to 380 degrees, adjust up or down depending on your preference in the future.
Let that heat up for say 10 minutes though I see you got this covered.
Vape and inhale slowly, the opposite of smoking. The faster you inhale the cooler the vapor, the slower the more vapor.
Stir about every 3 draws and remove the wand between draws. Once you learn how much is needed for a session it will go faster for you.

Hope that helps but in short I suspect you are packing the wand to tight. It should be loose but sort of firm. Not compact.

Oh no I did not put 1.5g in. I put at most (probably not that much) 0.5g, but 3 times. (emptying it out in between).

I'll give it another try, thanks.

 

[Beezleb]

A half a gram is still a lot in my view. I do not believe its the vaporizer wholly. I often recommend people try a cheap vaporizer if they cannot try one out first as in my experience the main difference is not so much getting good vapor but how long and how well they work over all.

I see it more like cars. Their are cheap cars and expensive ones and they tend to get to you where you want to go but they are certainly made different and with different views of quality in mind.

Also, some herb simply does not vape well. It is uncommon though but not unheard of but I suspect the above is possibly more your issue.

About how long does your session last? What is the quality of the herb? Would we call it medical or medium type of quality?

Is the abv brown to black? Is their any green in it or even dark burned bits? To do a test on how much your leaving in your abv I recommend trying out swamp water with your abv. If you get good effects from it than you are leaving good stuff in the abv, this is a regular thing for many as making a product from abv is sort of popular by vapist. This has enabled to tailor my sessions to a certain point where I stop and save some for swamp water, an even light brown abv color.

 

[TomatoThief]

420f was just the picture of the unit. I didn't use that high temps.

Anyway it's possible that it was the herb. It was the last of my stuff and it was a bit different than the rest. It was a very long stem (compared to everything else I had) and was very dry and full of seeds. Quite possible that it just wasn't very potent due to the seeds, none of my other buds had seeds.

 

[Seek]

Seeds just limit the potantial mass of the bud, not it's quality IMO. But still I know the herb type you described. Then I belive your 0.5 grams. I use this much of shitty weed also. But not 3 times in a row.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

I'm guessing that when you say that do you mean heat it up with the whip unattached?

i don't know about that style vaporizer -- the bud is inserted into the end of the whip, right?

try it both ways.

 

[Seek]

I think every vape like this has the same design. So I assumed it has loadable end of the whip.

 

[jeffp]

If you're not getting good hits after isolating all the issues the other posters mentioned, then the heater may be crap and the internal wiring crimped. Bottom line is that it should work even if the airpath is potentially toxic and the components low grade. I tried one of the cheap Chinese box vapes once that a friend had. It was satisfactory, it worked but it was not a very enjoyable experience, but it worked.
Honestly I would see if you could get a refund or exchange and possibly look toward something better even if it's used by a real vaporizer company that stands behind its product.
In my area i see a used Vapor Bros on Craigslist for $75 and that's the asking price.
The best, in my opinion, "value vaporizer" of that ilk is this -
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Vapor-Box-H...760?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2562671920
I have one, it's one of my favorites and I've sent it back for repair when the heater stopped working right - the company provides a lifetime warranty.
By the way you don't need the digital temp display - it's almost always inaccurate; it's hamburger helper when you get down to it.

 

[weedemon]

I am a fan of removing the whip and stirring my bowl after each rip! i recommend it unless you are confident you are getting even heating already that is.

like others said a smaller load is probably better. with mine i like to fill it about half way with fresh herb. Once i hit that it shrinks down a good 25% after the first rip. with my SSV wand i'd imagine i pah a 0.3 or so in mine and that's a fairly big rip that should last a while.

 

[OhTheAgony]

I'm not saying that you shouldn't send it back, but the seedy weed doesn't sound good at all to me. If the vape does get it nice and brown you should have gotten most of what was in there out of it. But I've always learned that the plants stops THC production or at least lowers it significantly as soon as it starts putting it's energy towards producing seeds. Not sure how true this is, but it always sounded logical to me.

Just have another go at with some good stuff and you'll know I guess.

 

[Ripbongs420]

But I've always learned that the plants stops THC production or at least lowers it significantly as soon as it starts putting it's energy towards producing seeds. Not sure how true this is, but it always sounded logical to me.

This is definitely true. If your bud has seeds, especially a lot, then the plant got pollenated very well. The reason female plants pump out so much THC containing trichomes is because it is its last ditch attempt to become fertilized. A plant that has no problem getting pollen will slow or stop the trichome production as it is unnecessary and energy draining. It will focus on seed development as OTA stated. Sinsemilla will always be more potent. Other than that I cant help much, as I have only used cheap box vapes a small number of times, and they have always worked fairly well.

 

[nr-cole]

In addition to everything above, any grower careless enough to not take the time to identify the sex of their plants and remove the males just sorta indicates a careless grow overall, right?

 

[djonkoman]

But I've always learned that the plants stops THC production or at least lowers it significantly as soon as it starts putting it's energy towards producing seeds. Not sure how true this is, but it always sounded logical to me.

This is definitely true. If your bud has seeds, especially a lot, then the plant got pollenated very well. The reason female plants pump out so much THC containing trichomes is because it is its last ditch attempt to become fertilized. A plant that has no problem getting pollen will slow or stop the trichome production as it is unnecessary and energy draining. It will focus on seed development as OTA stated. Sinsemilla will always be more potent. Other than that I cant help much, as I have only used cheap box vapes a small number of times, and they have always worked fairly well.

I doubt of this is really true...
what is the function of trichomes for the plant?
I think this theory comes from other smelling plants that are insect-pollinated and use their smell to atract pollinators, so if they don't get pollinated they will put out as much smell as possible

but, cannabis isn't pollinated by insects(not chiefly at least), but by the wind
from what I've read the function of the trichomes is mostly to protect the plant, the resin has UV-blocking properties, and herbivores usually don't like the parts of the plant with most trichomes(slugs can eat whole vegging plants, but on flowering plants I've only seen them eating fanleaves)
the trichomes are also placed in the areas most important for the plant to protect, the flowers were offspring is formed
maybe birds also don't like resin? (since hempseeds are popular birdfood)
and the young seeds are protected from the mutating UV-radiation

so even if the plant forms seeds, it still wants to protect it's forming seeds, I also always see plenty of trichomes on the little hide that contains a seed
it could be that the ratios of stuff in the resin changes from pollination because a seed would require other protection, but that would be just a guess until there's research into it
I've observed that if you let a seed ripe on the plant, eventually the hide containing the seed bursts open at the upside, the seed begins to ripen and gets darker, eventually the hide starts to die off and the hide with seed still in it would fall to the ground, meaning the seed still has the protection of trichomes when it falls on the ground, so the resin could still play a role then makin it seem unlikely to me that the plant would suddenly stop producing resin upon pollination
it is likely however that the plant will invest less in new flowers so the yield could be less

 

[OhTheAgony]

Good theory Djonko, sounds logical to me as well. lol

(man I'm high)

 

[mlo4sho]

To the OP: May I ask a few questions? Is this your first experience with a vaporizer? Were you a long time/heavy smoker before trying vapor? Are you familiar with the vapor high?

The reason I ask these questions is because it sounds like you are vaping correctly (allowing the unit to heat up, even browning of the herbs, slow steady draw) however you aren't feeling as high as you would if you had smoked. I had this same problem when I first started vaping. I was an every day smoker of blunts (~1-2 grams a day on average, though certainly more on certain days) and when I tried vaping it just did very little for me since my tolerance was so high and I was so used to smoking. I actually quit vaping all together because I felt I couldn't get as high as I did when I smoked and went back to smoking. It wasn't until I took a tolerance break (~2 weeks with no medicating) and then tried vaping again that it really hit me. For me, I just had to get the smoking high out of my mind and allow the vapor high to take its place on fresh ground, aka zero tolerance. The unit may not be the greatest but I have used a similar model before and you can certainly acheive a decent high. I also couldn't even imagine vaping 1.5g in one or even several sessions; that would be wayyyy too much in a vaporizer. So basically I'm just wondering if it's your tolerance and your lack of experience with vapor that could be the problem. Please correct me if I am wrong as I am only trying to help and/or relate to your problem. Vapor can really be a wonderful thing once you get your technique down and get used to the high it provides. Cheers

 

[mrweed]

please don't use these things. they might be toxic. they use fake ceramic-heating elements. no ceramic at all but lots of plastic! you should better avoid top vapor and fuzion company