@Mynameismud I dunno, sorry to hear that, but I'm kind of a tweak and I
expect new things to have teething pains. It's part of the communal journey.
If your contraption gets very hot, it's possible you can remedy that by opening it up, and you don't have to wait for a replacement. Worth trying, if things go badly you can always send it back in a basket, tell 'em it just "failed", all the screws done came out one evening, and the dog ate some of the parts, you know. Kidding aside, you could open it up if you have the little Torx screwdrivers. All of 5 screws. It's a joy to deal with a piece of gear that isn't Chinese-riveted/glued together.
Nothing as I recall in the warranty verbiage said that if you attempted to service it, it voided any obligation they have. It said that if you
break it by
improperly servicing it, then they are off the hook. That's different. I can see having this device for a while, and being on intimate terms with it, the way a proctologist gets to know his patient. Are we gonna send our vape to Washington every time the slightest thing goes wrong? Are we not men? (or women), (or whatever)?
@darkrom you too! Getcha yer Torx and open it up! If your switch was OK but is misbehavin' now, take a look if you can reseat it. That's most likely the problem. If the switch or outside actuator is somehow broken or out of shape, they should send you a replacement unit. [oops just saw that you already looked. So what is happening, why does it do that?]
@Mynameismud seeing as it's computer-controlled you wouldn't expect a lot of variation in the temperature regulation, so the most likely cause of out of spec temperatures is something with the coil, like a loop shorted out, or part of it is touching something. Who knows, it could be a bad part, but it's worth a look, I'd say, you're not likely to cause any damage. You can pick up little Torx drivers very inexpensively, the body takes a T6 and the porthole a T5 or T4.
Look at the photos on page 81 of this thread as a roadmap, and check the coil. Is it somehow screwed up? Is it leaning on the ceramic so part of it is "thermally challenged"? Is there a foreign element in there, like a loose screw or a small rodent? Hey, if there's nothing you can see, you've done your best, close it back up and send it to
Them. Sound reasonable? Some people will say it's a waste of time. The way I see it, getting familiar with our equipment makes us better equipped to fully take advantage of it.
[later] The way the coil sits against the ceramic with no supports, there are a lot of possible ways for the heater assembly to settle. IMHO it's not surprising that some FireFlys are a bit hotter, and some a bit cooler. Be very careful and avoid touching the coil unless you have a clear plan.
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Since back to back msgs are apparently frowned on, here is an approach to a different issue: "
vaping concentrates on the FireFly". If the little FF could do that, I'd be veery happy. Sorry if this method has already been discussed. I was getting despondent, eying the costly propositions all around us. A Mau Deeb? Looks good. $169 list without the power adaptor that they now say is sort of mandatory. That's like a whole nother $250 chunk, another vaporizer. The not-so-converted e-cig setups are mostly unusable. They sure didn't work for herb, and they barely work for wax, they mostly burn it. All the half-assed approaches out there ... and the good ones cost mo'
So, can the FireFly do it well? The way the Plenty does it (and we know THOSE guys are German and
serious) is with a "liquid pad". The MFLB folks sell a little piece of fine screen that effectively does the same thing, for $20 (for which they also include a little soap-tray for other types of aromatherapy concentrates). With convection we need a deeper "sponge". For the FireFly, if you have some steel wool, or bronze wool, or any similar meshy thing made of metal, you can make a little pad for free. Maybe a dime's or a nickel's thickness. Disposable. The best dimensions can be experimentally determined for your specific materials. Ah, the sacrifices we make in the name of science.
Operation: a dab of wax or budder or melt or shatter is applied near the center with the appropriate tool. It can be kissed with a torch lighter, like a creme brulee, if the dab is big & loose, and you're about to go skydiving. The FF can then be used much as usual until the pad no longer emits goodnesses. A bit like sucking 1953 Chateauneuf Du Pape out of a sponge. A fine gauge metal wool offers long flat strands, and the liquified wax spreads nicely. I'm amazed at how far a little pinhead dab will go, and I think the taste is great, WAY nicer than when dabbing onto a red hot nail. Or trying to burn it on the coil in one of these "pens". The last Pen attachment I tried was emitting plastic fumes by the time the wax was fully melted.
Should a big dab bubble faster than the pad can absorb it, and melt down into the holes, not to worry. It's easy to open (5 screws, as per above) and clean up, nothing down there but ceramic and coil, no harm done. Next time use a fatter pad, or a smaller dab.
p.s. good idea to "condition" steel or bronze or whatever wool before use with a flame to burn off any chemical residues. That's where the colors came from on the one above.
