Terrible taste/smell. Problem with vape or weed?

I've had my Extreme Q for a few months now with no issues up until the past few days, and overall I've been very satisfied. I don't think the blame lies with the Extreme Q, but I want to make sure.

I recently bought an eighth from a friend of a friend. The other night my girlfriend and I were using it. She was playing L4D2, and I was helping her learn. I kept on trying to offer some to her while she was playing, but she was too busy trying to not die, so I was taking the majority and getting pretty blazed in the process. I usually start at 180-185C and work my way up to 215-220C gradually, and by the time she was almost done with the game, I was at 205 or 210. Rather than leave her with weaker hits or dump weed that still had vapor left, I turned the temperature back down, ground up some more, and put it on top of what was already in there.

It was fine for the first two or three hits, but the taste and smell very quickly went from barely noticeably off to bad enough for us to stop right then and there. After it cooled down, I took the bowl and elbow joint off. The vaporizer did not smell, the bowl did not smell, but the smell lingered on strongly in the elbow joint. Thinking it might be an isolated incident or because we used partially-used weed with fresh weed, we turned it back on, but instead used a different bowl and the elbow joint normally used for the bad. We ground up some fresh weed as well. Same smell happened. The next day, we tried smoking it, and there wasn't any real peculiar taste or smell. Then we tried vaporizing a small amount again out of curiosity, and the same issue occurred.

The confusion comes from the fact that I used the weed earlier in the night and two or three times before that and there weren't the same issues. I thought the smell/taste was very slightly unusual those times, but it wasn't nearly as strong and there was nothing that couldn't be attributed to simply having a different strain of weed. The weed feels, smells, and looks consistent throughout the bag, so I don't think there's a mixture, where some is good and some is bad and where I could simply separate what's usable and what's not. It's also worth noting that the weed is dryer and denser than what I've had in the recent past.

Has anyone had this issue with the Extreme Q before, or with other vaporizers? Is the weed improperly cured? Moldy? Did something fall in the vaporizer and will I have to take it apart? I just don't know what the problem is exactly. I'd be happy to provide more information if needed. I tried to be as thorough as possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What happens when you heat it empty and take a few hits? Gross flavor? If so you can't blame the weed.

Not that I'm saying there is anything wrong with your vape, but I've had vapes that I didn't trust the safety of. One of which was an Arizer. I've never owned an Extreme Q and didn't do any research, so I'm not saying its a bad vape, in fact it generally gets good reviews on other sites.

Definitely try hitting it empty and see if there are any gross flavors. If it tastes like nothing, then it has to be the bud right?

It sounds like you just heated up the herb to the point the taste went bad, and it lingered on the elbow joint. Try cleaning it out, and see if the smell is still there.

BTW, did you use a good amount of herb when you did this?. The only time I recommend piling fresh herb on top of old herb, is when you are using a small amount, and only piling when the taste goes away. An example would be to start vaping fresh herb at around 365f, raise the temperature 5-10 degrees, then once the taste goes away, you put fresh herb on the old pile, and continue raising the temperature until you reach the temperature you want. When you lower the temperature back down, you want to start off with fresh herb, and nothing else.. If you keep the old herb in the bowl when you lower the temperature, the herb will still absorb some of that heat, and slowly give a bad taste. This is especially true with vaporizers that have the heat coming from under the bowl, because hot air rises, and will still effect the bowl even though you aren't inhaling anything.

Update here. Emailed their customer support and got a fast, helpful response. It turns out that at some point something must've spilled onto the ceramic heater and gotten burned onto it. Ran it on the maximum temperature with the fan on the highest setting twice, once when I got the email, and again just before I was going to try out the vaporizer. It worked like a charm. No weird smell at all. I also cleaned my glassware with some isopropyl alcohol I bought from the CVS down the street. Unfortunately, most of the piping reeks, with only a tiny, quarter inch long piece I found laying around unsullied. I can't use the rubbing alcohol on it without degrading it, so I'm going to have to buy more. Until then, bags are all I've got.

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.