Discontinued Pax Vaporizer by Ploom

[jambandphan03]

I ran my pax battery down for the first time last night, basically ran it off and on throughout the day, with out charging. I have not done this yet, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to cycle the battery fully. Unfortunately, I did not count how many uses I got. One of these rounds, I'll pay closer attention.

 

[willieR]

I'm having the local battery store spot weld the tabs to the battery. Then I'll do the PCB soldering.

 

[jambandphan03]

I have done some soldering, and successfully built a bottom feed ecig box mod w/color changing LED installed ( 3 years ago), but my work was very sloppy, and probably not very good. Def. no expert with a soldering iron. I should be able to put some wires on a tab though. I only have the butane powered kind. It would be nice to have a real shop to work in once in a while, when I get a wild hair to build something.

 

[willieR]

I'm more worried about busting the O-Rings, but I'll follow the Dude's advice on how he disassembled.

 

[pakalolo]

Hey I'm sorry if I'm off topic but does anyone know if they have an adapter or add in for the reservoir to make the load smaller?

Sorry if this has been discussed.

You don't need an adapter, just put in a smaller load. I've experimented with using the same amount I'd put in the LB trench, which barely covers the bottom of the oven. This works just fine even if you don't pack it. I'm really not convinced packing a small load helps much, but it's difficult to know for sure. It doesn't last anywhere near as long as in the LB (half as many hits or fewer) but I was surprised that the flavour seemed to be better than full or packed loads. I need to experiment more with this.

Putting something in the oven, even just replacing the "screen" with a real screen, is a bad idea in my opinion. The Pax was designed to work with that thin solid plate, not a mesh screen. Anything else can cause hot spots where you don't need them and result in heat distribution that the Pax wasn't designed for. This could result in anything from burnt spots in your load to failure to heat up enough to extra strain on the battery that could cause premature failure.

 

[willieR]

I very much like packing a small oven loads, maybe 1/3 full. The herb stays put nicely. I find on a low setting it more thoroughly and completely extracts to a toast than the LB ever did. I really got into this late yesterday after work. I was shocked how much vape there was on low setting. Then to the medium setting for more. Amazing.

 

[CarlosSpiceyWeiner]

I'm loving my Pax so much.

That i just ordered another onyx one for a backup.

Do you guys think if it just sits in the box unused that it will degrade the battery?

 

[willieR]

Not sure on the battery. Might depend on how long it sits. You might want to use it a bit to condition the battery

 

[jambandphan03]

I think Li-on batteries have a long shelf life, around 10 years, but I am going by memory here. I would say an ocastional use/charge would be good, couldn't hurt.

 

[CarlosSpiceyWeiner]

Not sure on the battery. Might depend on how long it sits. You might want to use it a bit to condition the battery

Thanks for the advice.

But i don't want to dirty up a new one just yet.

I guess i could take it out once in awhile and throw it on the charger?

 

[Dreamerr]

I have done some soldering, and successfully built a bottom feed ecig box mod w/color changing LED installed ( 3 years ago), but my work was very sloppy, and probably not very good. Def. no expert with a soldering iron. I should be able to put some wires on a tab though. I only have the butane powered kind. It would be nice to have a real shop to work in once in a while, when I get a wild hair to build something.

A messload of pages back they said there is a batteries r us or some name chain store that will do it for you for a small fee or flirt for free lol.

 

[pakalolo]

I think Li-on batteries have a long shelf life, around 10 years, but I am going by memory here. I would say an ocastional use/charge would be good, couldn't hurt.

Li-ion batteries start to degrade the minute they're assembled and have a shelf life of about three years whether you use them or not. They should be stored in a cool place at about 40% charge capacity for maximum shelf life. Deep discharge is not recommended, therefore I would not run my Pax until it is dead, although I would hope the Pax has a protection circuit to prevent it from discharging to the point of failure.

 

[Dreamerr]

Hmmmmmm no heat with LI-ION guess I need to move. I think sometimes my INH gets more hot off then on. I can't imagine with the smaller pax how hot it will get off.

 

[SoCalShore]

Well, my friends, my short lived euphoric moment has faded to some extent with my Pax. I left it on the charger last night and it never turned green indicating it had a full charge. It just kept flashing orange or red.....it's a little difficult for me to determine which color is which unless I am circulating the heat settings. I looked back at the previous pages here and determined that I need to chat with Ploom We tried a few things like taking off the mouthpiece and charging it, changing to a different electrical socket, and to no avail I have to pack it up and send it back. I give them lots of credit with their fantastic customer service and it didn't take them long to decide that my Pax needs to go back.

Im just kinda bummed that my beautiful Pax has to leave. Oh well, while I am out of town I will just have to stock up on the edibles.

I havent lost hope, I can't wait for my Pax to return.

 

[dudeeitsbrian]

Li-ion batteries start to degrade the minute they're assembled and have a shelf life of about three years whether you use them or not. They should be stored in a cool place at about 40% charge capacity for maximum shelf life. Deep discharge is not recommended, therefore I would not run my Pax until it is dead, although I would hope the Pax has a protection circuit to prevent it from discharging to the point of failure.

even if you discharge pax to "dead" i.e. it flashes 3 red lights upon turning it on, it is only discharged to 3.64 volts. li-ion batterys are capable of safely being discharged to much less than 3.64 volts, so even discharging the pax entirely is really only discharging the battery about ~50%.

 

[pakalolo]

even if you discharge pax to "dead" i.e. it flashes 3 red lights upon turning it on, it is only discharged to 3.64 volts. li-ion batterys are capable of safely being discharged to much less than 3.64 volts, so even discharging the pax entirely is really only discharging the battery about ~50%.

So you can't even reduce it to the commonly recommended storage level? That's rich, but it makes sense if you want to make money replacing batteries.

 

[willieR]

Always something, eh Paka?

 

[Bortz]

I know for a fact that batteries plus will do it for a small charge. I used to work there back in the day.

Just FYI, the battery tabs are NOT soldered to the battery. They are spot welded to the top of the battery. I would highly recommend against soldering as that is too much thermal energy around a highly flammable substance for me. Soldering the tabs to the board should be fine, just be careful not to overheat the circuit board (pretty easy to avoid if you are careful).

I plan to do this as soon as I buy a pax for myself.

Hope that helps some!

 

[dudeeitsbrian]

I know for a fact that batteries plus will do it for a small charge. I used to work there back in the day.

Just FYI, the battery tabs are NOT soldered to the battery. They are spot welded to the top of the battery. I would highly recommend against soldering as that is too much thermal energy around a highly flammable substance for me. Soldering the tabs to the board should be fine, just be careful not to overheat the circuit board (pretty easy to avoid if you are careful).

I plan to do this as soon as I buy a pax for myself.

Hope that helps some!

no need to even mess with the connection to the pcb, i simply desoldered the stock battery from the wires already in place and soldered in my new one, quite simple

 

[willieR]

Dude, I haven't opened the Pax yet, but I thought there was one wire from the spot-weld to the PCB. So if you're installing a bat with spot-welded leads, these two leads would have to be soldered to the PCB, yes?

 

[dudeeitsbrian]

Dude, I haven't opened the Pax yet, but I thought there was one wire from the spot-weld to the PCB. So if you're installing a bat with spot-welded leads, these two leads would have to be soldered to the PCB, yes?

you're soldering wires that are already attached to the pcb (printed circuit board) to the tabs that batteries+ is going to spot weld to your battery. all you need to do is desolder the wires from the tabs on the stock battery, and resolder the wires to the tabs on your new battery.

hopefully that clarifies what needs to be done

 

[willieR]

Sweet. I've never seen a battery tab. I assumed it was a disc with a lead wire. So I can just solder right to the tab and hopefully not create too much heat.

Excellent. Thanks Dude!

 

[CuttyBuddy]

You don't need an adapter, just put in a smaller load. I've experimented with using the same amount I'd put in the LB trench, which barely covers the bottom of the oven. This works just fine even if you don't pack it. I'm really not convinced packing a small load helps much, but it's difficult to know for sure. It doesn't last anywhere near as long as in the LB (half as many hits or fewer) but I was surprised that the flavour seemed to be better than full or packed loads. I need to experiment more with this.

Putting something in the oven, even just replacing the "screen" with a real screen, is a bad idea in my opinion. The Pax was designed to work with that thin solid plate, not a mesh screen. Anything else can cause hot spots where you don't need them and result in heat distribution that the Pax wasn't designed for. This could result in anything from burnt spots in your load to failure to heat up enough to extra strain on the battery that could cause premature failure.

Wow thanks for the response guys. I'm getting a little more warmed up to the idea of a purchase. I was just concerned about having to pack monster bowls. If it still hits good with a 1/3rd pack then I'm happy. The Zaps and Purple days help.. very little herb and I was able to save lots of money bc of it.

I like that. Talk soon

 

[CarlosSpiceyWeiner]

I just finished cleaning my Pax for the first time in a week.

I found that soaking the screen in Iso doesn't get it clean enough.

So i took a Brillo pad put the screen in my sink and it easily shined up like new with no effort at all.

Then i pulled off a little piece of the Brillo rolled it up into a ball. Put it inside the oven ( I also had a pipe cleaner in the vapor path so no debris got in.)

I used a chopstick to move around the piece of Brillo. Toothpicks were also used to push around the Brillo to get in the tight corners.

The oven is shiny new again. It didn't scratch up anything.

I use to do this to my iolites's heating chamber

My only gripe was the Brillo fibers kept sticking to the magnets.

I cleaned out all of the Brillo fibers with Iso and did a high temp burn just to make sure i got everything.

So if your OCD like me, sorry JKA. It will be good as new.

I wish i took before and after pics. Maybe next time.

 

[Bluntcrush]

I just got my replacement pack of screens in the mail! Quick question though for all of you more experienced users: I have been starting on medium with a full sized load and then about halfway through I give it a little stir and continue for several more on High (less tasty, but still thick hits) Has anyone determined how many loads are average on Medium, how many on the first setting, and how many average sessions you get while running it on High? It seems like by switching temps in the middle of the load that it uses more power. Anyone have any insight on this??

Thanks in advance!