Wow, I'm surprised there hasn't been much discussion on the Flower Wand! Mininail is a decently big player in the concentrate vape side of things. The ball vape market has become pretty oversaturated lately though, it's just such a great design.
I got mine about 3wks ago from VapeNorth in Canada. My consumption has unfortunately skyrocketed because of the ease of use (which isn't exclusive to the FW, it's down to the design of ball vapes) but I've been very happy with the performance. My only "complaint" is that the coil temp can drop by up to 25F depending on your desired temp (higher temp = more drop) but it recovers before *I've* recovered from the last hit.
The flavour and depth of extraction are excellent but I do need to stir halfway through sometimes. Build quality is outstanding (the handle aside, but I'll get into that). I've taken the ball head apart to see how it's constructed and the threading on it is buttery smooth. No problems with fit on anything either.
However, it's not a good microdoser. At least not from what I'm finding. To get a good microdose extraction I either need to pack it fairly tight in the bottom of the Ti bowl (which is great btw), modulate my inhale speed in a way that feels unnatural due to having more airflow than plant matter, or turn the temp up by about 20-30F. I feel like the glass bowl would be a better fit for microdosers; the Ti bowl's big airflow is ideal for large amounts ime. I'm also not a huge fan of the handle. Like, at all. It feels like high quality silicone, but I really dislike the way it fits onto the stand, it's very difficult to do in the dark unless you're looking right at it.
For the curious I prefer a smaller American style dab rig with it, the low-slung kind with a 90deg joint and a leanback mouthpiece. Most are in the area of 6-10". I kinda need to use water due to asthma and I find I get the best hits from recyclers/incyclers with (relatively) uncomplicated percs. It works great with larger bongs (I have a couple Hoss Build-a-bong bases with a shorty top piece that work nicely) but using a heavy glass piece with a lightweight ball vape seems a bit incongruous. I vary my temp pretty widely, from 420F to 550F, but I usually stick to the 420-500F range. With a smaller piece like I mentioned I do cough sometimes but taking into account the volume of the hits I get it's relatively minimal.
If you're looking for a smaller ball vape that heat soaks and cools down relatively quickly to other ball vapes this is a solid contender and that's what influenced my decision to go with this one over the wide selection of others out now. I get great vapour out of it starting when the coil gets up to my desired temp (note that the quartz inside won't be at temp immediately but it does still give great hits even before it fully heat soaks). They say on their site it takes 3min to heat and 10min to cool down; those figures are both accurate in my experience.
That weird bowl caught my attention as well. I am wondering if they really developed a novel/novel-ish system of interest or just tossed together old stock. Not that those things are mutually exlcusive...
From my scant knowledge of other ball vapes this one seems to work pretty much the same, but it's definitely not an 18mm head. I haven't measured but it's 20-22mm iirc. I'm guessing they did this to cut down on overall size/weight of the ball head; I've heard this called a "diffuser" rather than an "injector" which visually makes sense to me. All I care about is that it manages to stay in pretty securely even if I wave the piece it's in around like if my arm jerks when I cough or something.
If anyone has any questions about it feel free to ask!
Edit to add: I forgot to note that the price relative to other similarly competent ball vapes on the market is rather high. You get the benefit of a smaller overall footprint though; I'm assuming in good faith that the higher cost can be due to R&D to get a smaller ball head than most of what's on the market. If you're happy to go with a more conventional 18mm injector style ball vape there are great performers out there for much less and offer similar (or better) performance. Even some DIY ones for around the $100-150USD mark which is so cool to see!
