Flowermate v3 Air

[Copacetic]

Would you say that this is a worthwhile upgrade from an Inhalater 05?
I now find myself a little tempted by the features/form factor/size, but the non replacable battery and plastic heater element (!) is really putting me off.

I'm still holding on to the hope that Puffitup got it wrong about the coil being plastic, and that it's some kind of ceramic that could be mistaken for plasic?, faint hope I know.

 

[PPN]

To be honnest it can't be compared to the 05, even if I'm not a fan of the 05 it is a step forward the v3.0Air .

Although, vapor quality and clouds are decent, taste is not the better but will improve with time.

I got better results with the wax capsule, there is 2 ways to load it in the user guide:
-for e-liquid/oil you unscrew the top part and put some drops on the coton
-for wax/shatter/crumble you unscrew the bottom part and you put a dab in the recessed hole (as a nail cup), carefull to not overload cause oil will fall in the heater!

The second way seems very nice but I didn't get a lot of visible vapor using it while the first one produces better clouds and taste.

I like the temp settings: 185-200-215, if I compare to the Imag the lower setting of the V3.0air is cloudier and the highest setting is cooler.

I think they need to do something about battery life/charging time, if battery life is short charging time might be short as well, actually charging time is too long for this kind of battery life (i.e the ESV get a short battery life but charges very quickly).

All in all it's a good contender to the Imag/X-mas/Storm, but it's certainly not the convection chinese contender of the Grasshopper we are waiting for (without even tried the GH)!!

edit: Don't know about the "plastic heater", I think PIU blog was speaking about the spiral airpath around the bowl, is it the heater itself?...not really sure....

 

[Copacetic]

Thanks for the reply PPN, from what I saw on reddit and elsewhere, the heater is a 'pad' which is wrapped around the bowl as in some other vapes (like my INH), but instead of being optimized to heat the bowl inside, it 'faces out' to heat that black spiral, which in turn heats the air which eventually enters the bottom of the oven.
I can see this having the advantage of causing a lot less accidental cooking of the herb in the oven, but if the vape deliberately heats a plastic element then that's a total turn off for me as I'd like to get away from plastics.
If the spiral heat exchanger were made of glass, titanium or some other taste free/safe material then I'd be more enthusiastic.

The small capacity non-replaceable battery really doesn't help either.
I wouldn't mind a small battery if it were easy to swap out for a new one.
One of my reasons for buying the INH 05 was that the battery was supposed to easy to swap out, but problems reported by others attempting to do this has totally put me off trying more than once (I am VERY 'handy' and didn't find it easy, and could see how it would eventually damage the vape).

Sorry, but it's unclear from your first sentence whether you think the V3 Air or the INH 05 is the better vape?:

To be honnest it can't be compared to the 05, even if I'm not a fan of the 05 it is a step forward the v3.0Air .

 

[KeroZen]

It's strange because the FlowerMate VT1.0 has a rather good battery life (but it also takes a long time to charge) I think they had to select a smaller cell in order to reduce further the form factor of this model but in the process they killed the autonomy...

I'm sure they will say this plastic is perfectly safe, and it probably is. When S&B claims theirs is safe, we believe them... I'm unsure the same happens when it's a chinese company haha! See how biased we can be?

But I would prefer of course if it was a more neutral material like @Copacetic said above.

 

[whereskarlo]

I just received mine. Does anyone else experience the air flow to be severely restricted? Once I turned on the heater I could barely draw air through it and I hear popping sounds when pulling hard, as if something is blocking the flow. If I pull slowly a small amount if air comes through but if I pull hard it almost ceases to flow completely.

 

[PPN]

I just received mine. Does anyone else experience the air flow to be severely restricted? Once I turned on the heater I could barely draw air through it and I hear popping sounds when pulling hard, as if something is blocking the flow. If I pull slowly a small amount if air comes through but if I pull hard it almost ceases to flow completely.

My unit airflow is pretty unrestricted, I didn't experienced your issues.

I don't know why but it seems to me heating time is a bit faster now.....as battery life!!!!?!?! Although it's still not a fast heating time (it's more than 40s at the best) and 4-5 sessions before to charge again.

Clouds and extraction are impressive but taste is not the better (very comparable to the Imag+)...somebody else experienced a strange taste sometimes or it's my mind?

I still reserve my final opinion about it cause, even if it is very well built (and a cloud machine), I'm afraid some parts are overheated...any opinion?

 

[PPN]

Is there some users here?

Do you experiment a strange taste with this unit? it's not plastic but something like an acid/metallic feeling on my tongue and my nose...

Although it taste better than my old unregretted herbstick Deluxe (the worst taste I ever experienced!) and clouds are definitly giants. I use it like my old regretted Imag+ at low and medium level only cause higher is very close to combustion (black abv).

Combusters friends like it cause the cigar design and the thick clouds.

 

[KeroZen]

Hey @PPN I don't recall if you had the FlowerMate VT1.0 to compare with this one? I think I'll pass on the FM3 Air as there are new upcoming products from Smiss that look way more interesting (ex: FM5 Mini-Pro)

The VT1.0 is also quite a good cloud machine but at high temps it's starts getting borderline too.

 

[smutman]

I'm not real impressed with this but haven't used it much. I got this, Aura Hybrid and the iHit from Flowermate along with 5 other new vapes so it'll be a few before I truly get to it. One thing so far is the pods initially suck so far but I haven't messed with them much. Hopefully I'll mess with this more over the weekend. This iHit Dual Enail/Dry Herb system is freaking sweet.

 

[PPN]

My unit provides me thick and large clouds even on low setting, I use fine grind for heavy hits and unground flowers for a better taste. I use mine mainly with water tools cause it shines to whitewall my bubblers, taste is a bit borderline, similar to the Imag+ but lower setting is higher for the V3.0Air I think, at higher setting it is on combustion edge for flowers but perfect for concentrates.

I use it everyday for a cloudy session with a bowl of flowers mixed with kief/reclaim/wax, I start for 5mn on low and another 5mn on medium (sometime i cash my load using higher setting at the end).

A good device for cloud chaser!

Flowermate is working on the Pro version of this vape with better battery life and totally adjustable temperature, nice!

 

[Harmoniousliving]

My unit provides me thick and large clouds even on low setting, I use fine grind for heavy hits and unground flowers for a better taste. I use mine mainly with water tools cause it shines to whitewall my bubblers, taste is a bit borderline, similar to the Imag+ but lower setting is higher for the V3.0Air I think, at higher setting it is on combustion edge for flowers but perfect for concentrates.

I use it everyday for a cloudy session with a bowl of flowers mixed with kief/reclaim/wax, I start for 5mn on low and another 5mn on medium (sometime i cash my load using higher setting at the end).

A good device for cloud chaser!

Flowermate is working on the Pro version of this vape with better battery life and totally adjustable temperature, nice!

I would definitely get the pro in that case

 

[sickmanfraud]

not sure how a vape moves from here to the portable vaporizer section, but this vape is available for purchase at puffitup (where it is on sale)

 

[whereskarlo]

I should try to get mine replaced, it's just a bit of a hassle.

 

[amethystwolf]

Received this today. Lightning fast shipping from puffitup.com. Literally three days from order to my door!

I really like the Flowermate v3 air. It feels solid and it's easy to use. Works great so far. It's more convenient for me to use than the DBV. Ironically, Da Buddha died last night! Gotta send him in for repairs now, but the timing made me laugh.

There's a little bit of a "new" taste with the Flowermate for lack of a better word. Maybe that's normal when it's new? But right now, DBV wins hands down for taste.

I'm curious to see how long the battery lasts for me. Does anyone know if it's best to let the battery drain completely or if I can just plug it into the charger in between uses (then it would never be dead when I want to use it). I don't know if that's bad for the battery or not.

I ordered some herbal blends too, to see what they taste like in it.

 

[KeroZen]

- Don't discharge fully if you can, 80% is best
- If you discharge fully don't let it sit discharged and charge it back ASAP
- Don't let it sit for too long on the charger when full
- When fully charged try to use it ASAP
- Do not store it for a long period fully charged, discharge it 20% before storing

Sounds complicated heh? It's a bit of a chore indeed. And in all cases, whether you nurture them or not, your Lithium cells will invariably degrade over time. They are rated for about 300 cycles before losing a good deal of their capacity. If you follow the above instructions, they will last for more cycles but you will get way less usable capacity out of each cycle... so it's a matter of trade offs..

 

[amethystwolf]

- Don't discharge fully if you can, 80% is best
- If you discharge fully don't let it sit discharged and charge it back ASAP
- Don't let it sit for too long on the charger when full
- When fully charged try to use it ASAP
- Do not store it for a long period fully charged, discharge it 20% before storing

Sounds complicated heh? It's a bit of a chore indeed. And in all cases, whether you nurture them or not, your Lithium cells will invariably degrade over time. They are rated for about 300 cycles before losing a good deal of their capacity. If you follow the above instructions, they will last for more cycles but you will get way less usable capacity out of each cycle... so it's a matter of trade offs..

Hella complicated. I guess I'll have to figure out how many sessions = 80%. Today I turned it on, waited for the light to go solid blue then it changed to red before I could hit it. That was annoyng.

So for a daily user, less than a year of use before the battery is toast? Hmmm - I hope the pro version has a replaceable battery. If so, I might pick that one up because I really like the design and feel of this is vape.

Oh shit, I'm coming down with VAS.

 

[KeroZen]

Well it's jut the best practice that I'm describing. And indeed without a proper battery charge indicator it's completely impossible to do and a PITA.

The 300 cycles rating is not until it's toasted as you say. I forgot the exact figure manufacturers use but it's rather 300 cycles until N percent of the capacity is lost. You'll just get less and less sessions per charge.

Anyways, stick around this place and I bet that in one year you will have so many vaporizers that you won't care anymore! The best solution to increase your device longevity is to have many in rotation and alternate between them.

 

[amethystwolf]

Well it's jut the best practice that I'm describing. And indeed without a proper battery charge indicator it's completely impossible to do and a PITA.

The 300 cycles rating is not until it's toasted as you say. I forgot the exact figure manufacturers use but it's rather 300 cycles until N percent of the capacity is lost. You'll just get less and less sessions per charge.

Anyways, stick around this place and I bet that in one year you will have so many vaporizers that you won't care anymore! The best solution to increase your device longevity is to have many in rotation and alternate between them.

Thanks! I'm relieved that it just doesn't say F off after 300 cycles - I took that way too literally.

Good idea about alternating between them, and what a fun excuse to buy more

 

[amethystwolf]

I've been using this for a few days now and, while I like the way it looks and feels, I am really bummed about the battery life. I was warned, so my bad - I guess I didn't consider what a hassle that would be. Does anyone know if there is a power adapter that can be used to charge while using the FV3? I'm getting 3 sessions then back on the charger it goes.

Also, I timed the heat up - on a full charge it takes 1:45 minutes to be ready. Just in case that info helps someone.