Vapor shelf life in the bag

[phenry]

I use an HerbalAire with good quality strains (white widow, bubble berry, kush, sugar plum, etc.) and usually fill 3 bags in a session, off of a solid nugget about the size of a kidney bean. First bag is nice and strong, white vapor, second bag less so and third bag not very visible, but still good stuff.

When I take them all in fresh, I can tell they are all potent (albeit decreasing in strength from bag to bag as expected). Sometimes I will be busy doing other stuff and put a cork in bags 2 and 3 for later consumption.

I find that if they sit for more than an hour or two, they lose all potency. Is this a common experience? Is there any practical way to "save" a vapor bag for later use?

Or should I just shut the vaporizer off after the first bag and then fire it up (with the same nugget in it) later to fill bags 2 and 3? Will the product in the crucible still be viable if I shut it down and fire it up again?

 

[lwien]

I find that if they sit for more than an hour or two, they lose all potency. Is this a common experience?

Yes.

Is there any practical way to "save" a vapor bag for later use?

No

Or should I just shut the vaporizer off after the first bag and then fire it up (with the same nugget in it) later to fill bags 2 and 3?

Yes

Will the product in the crucible still be viable if I shut it down and fire it up again?

Yes

 

[weedemon]

Is there any practical way to "save" a vapor bag for later use?

you can reclaim the resin built up in your bag by making hot chocolate or some weed butter with it later on.

i've done the hot chocolate method and it rocked my fuckin socks! simmer milk/creme and the bag cut up into strips for 20-30 min with sirting, and then add some mix.

 

[lwien]

^^ Agreed. I thought the OP was asking about saving the vapor that is in the bag for later use. It's really one of the things I don't like about bag vapes. It's happened more than once where I didn't want to finish a bag because I was already high enough, so whatever vapor was in that bag was totally wasted.

 

[weedemon]

^^ Agreed. I thought the OP was asking about saving the vapor that is in the bag for later use. It's really one of the things I don't like about bag vapes. It's happened more than once where I didn't want to finish a bag because I was already high enough, so whatever vapor was in that bag was totally wasted.

i think your right and that's what he meant too. it would be cool to take a bag with you in a backpack or w/e but generally after 20-30 min or so and i think i can tell a difference in the quality of whats still in there.

and i have wasted a bag or 2 in my day also. the volcano is used now to just toast off my abv these days though.

 

[max]

An archaic definition of 'vapor' is "something insubstantial or transitory". Transitory is defined as "lasting only a short time; brief; short-lived; temporary." That's certainly the way we should think of vapor. The longer you take to inhale a bag, the less there is to inhale.

 

[phenry]

Thanks for clearing this up for me!

yes, I was referring to deferring the inhalation of vapor.

It never occurred to me that there might be value in doing anything with the bag itself other than toss it in the garbage. The hot chocolate method is intriguing...I will give it a go (big fan of the edible format!). I know this is going off topic from my original query, but how do others decide when it is time to fabricate a new bag? I tend to let them go until they get a little annoyingly sticky on the inside, or until I forget one is filling and it blows out and needs to be replaced.

 

[weedemon]

well some say the flavor is better when the bags are changed often, but i find i change mine once the inside is sticky like you said. this means you wil lget a great kick form the hot chocolate too then be careful

 

[Egzoset]

Hi Phenry,

The vapor which has condensed on the inside wall of a bag can still be reclaimed later, much later if you like! My story here:

Reclaim from bag, Egzoset, 2011-Apr-22

 

[gobbly]

assuming the bag was sealed and could withstand the temps, I would imagine that if you continued to heat the vapor at the same temp it was vaped at that it would remain in gas state. So for instance, vape at 380f into an oven bag, seal it up and stick it in the oven at 390-400f (the oven bags I have say they are good up to 400f). I can't imagine trying this so no idea if it works in practice, but it seems like it 'should'

 

[PhishCactus]

^ yes, but the thc would degrade over time. Not to contradict myself, but i seem to recall hearing some talk, probably only hypothetical, of aerosolizing cannabis vapor in containers like asthma inhalers so you could take an instant hit any time, certainly possible, but probably not under our current legal system. I make this connection because there are many parallels between storing vapor bags and this.

 

[Egzoset]

The Vapor Inhaler thread was over there:

http://www.fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php?id=2906

 

[gobbly]

^ yes, but the thc would degrade over time. Not to contradict myself, but i seem to recall hearing some talk, probably only hypothetical, of aerosolizing cannabis vapor in containers like asthma inhalers so you could take an instant hit any time, certainly possible, but probably not under our current legal system. I make this connection because there are many parallels between storing vapor bags and this.

That's a good point...

 

[vapeguy]

I noticed you said "with the same nugget", are you putting a whole nugget of non ground herb? The herb MUST be ground and quite finely otherwise you're probably getting no more than 10% of the THC content since only the surfaces of the nugget will vaporize and not the inside.

About vapor shelf life, you;re gonna loose a lot of it after even 2 minutes, so inhale it ASAP, I remember from my volcano days this isn't always obvious and the reason why I went to a bagless system and got the EQ. The vapor will immediately start condensing on the bag surfaces as soon as it enters the bag that's why you should consume it ASAP. If you don't mind wasting a bag (or use cheaper herb for the test) set your temperature to get thick vapor so it's clearly visible in the bag and leave the vapor there. Look at the bag every 5-10 minutes and you'll notice the vapor rapidly dissapearing until there's none left.

 

[max]

I noticed you said "with the same nugget", are you putting a whole nugget of non ground herb? The herb MUST be ground and quite finely otherwise you're probably getting no more than 10% of the THC content since only the surfaces of the nugget will vaporize and not the inside.

With a conduction vape that's normally the case, but most convection models do a good job penetrating unground herb. If it's compressed/bricked, you probably need to break it up at some point. The same goes for loading pieces. Once you've hit it a few times and it's nice and dry, breaking it up, even within the bowl, usually does the trick. With a vape like the herbalAire, using bag fill, grinding is not only unnecessary, but causes problems unless you add a 2nd screen over the top of the herb. And with some models that do need ground herb, grinding it finely is not needed and can even be counter productive to efficiency and ease of vaping. Grinding to a fine consistency is not a good idea with the VapeXhale Cloud, for example. The bowl is made of screen material and fine ground herb can escape through the holes, and a packed bowl will also restrict air flow, and with that bowl design your goal should be to avoid having to uncap the bowl and stir. Saying all herb must be finely ground with all vapes just isn't true. With all the different designs on the market now, it's important to know the best way to prepare herb for a particular model, and one size doesn't fit all.