I saw this at my local vape shop, went home and looked into it and decided I'd give it a go. It wasn't cheap, but as cannabis vapes go, you're getting a fair bit for what you're paying.
In my opinion, this is a better sesh vape than a solo one. The oven is rather too large and as I understand it conduction isn't ideal for a solo, multi-session vape. It can be wasteful. I personally do 2-4 seshes, or I just put a little fresh herb in the oven and pack the rest with ABV if I'm not fussy about the experience.
On to the review.
Crucial tech specs:
- Full conduction, ~0.35g oven (they claim 0.5g but that's definitely not true)
- 60-minute battery life (about 5-10 5min sessions depending on heat level)
- Precise temp control
- Included WPA and quite a lot of other accessories
I like to start with my first impression, which is of course the box. I was impressed. The retail packaging has a slip cover that slides up to reveal a teal and black box. This lifts open to reveal your new Boundless CFC 2.0 along with a tall, thin box of accessories. Inside the box is 3 oven screens (the ones with the solid circular plate in the middle), 2 mouthpiece screens (the ones that are just a mesh), water pipe adapter (!), USB cord, digger/dab tool, dig-out brush and instruction manual.
I'd like to highlight that for a second because that's a lot of stuff to come bundled with a vaporizer at such a low price point. Another thing that's nice? A 3-year warranty. This tells me Boundless is very confident their stuff will last you at least that long.
Moving along, let's fire it up. Five clicks to turn on and it starts heating automatically. You can hold the button for 2 seconds to make it stop or start heating, or click 5 times to turn it off again. Regardless of how you turn the heating element off it goes back to the temperature you had it set at when you turn the heat back on. You get full temperature control, though I have a pretty good suspicion it's about 10 degrees C higher on the screen than it is in the oven. It's to be expected with such a low-cost unit so I'm not worried, I just turn the temp up.
It goes from powered off to 175 degrees C (about 360 F) in about 30-40 seconds. You need to let it sit another 20-30 seconds (the lower your temp, the longer it needs) so the oven has time to really vaporize what you're wanting from your herb; if you don't you're going to get a really weak hit. That brings the total heat time to about a minute to 90 seconds. That's acceptable to me unless I'm in significant pain and need it now, in which case I have my Splinter.
Now for the experience. Once you've let the oven warm up enough, just drag. The flavour from the first hit is rather intense and often very vegetal. It's not as good as the pure flavour from my Splinter Z nor the roasted, cooked flavour from my DynaVap; it's solidly mid-tier though. I'm not complaining. The clouds are average and very smooth if you keep it below 200C; turn it much over that and you'll get some pretty gigantic clouds but a lot of throat death too.
As for other features this thing has: none. No haptic feedback or chime for when it's up to temp, no blinking LEDs, no frivolities at all. Sneaky Pete described this as a "meat and potatoes" vape and I can't help but agree. It's a durable device aimed at people who value simplicity in all areas but still need that precise temp control. If you don't need the precise temp control, look at the CFC Lite.
Now for the downsides. The vapor path is an atrocity for anyone who values purity. It first goes through metal, then silicone, and THEN plastic before it gets into you. I didn't exactly expect glass at this price point but silicone? SILICONE? Yuck. At least it's easy to clean. The mouthpiece is also not great. I have to wiggle it down to force it to make a proper seal every time I put it back on. The charge time is stupendously long; up to 3 hours from dead. Yikes. I also don't like how long it takes the oven to properly vaporize stuff when it's below 190C.
So would I recommend this vape? Yeah, I think so. It's not a hard yes but the downsides aren't bad enough to say no. It really depends on your use case. If you value flavour and a high-tech feature set, no. Increase your budget and go for something designed for that. This is a really basic vape for a really basic price and you have to be realistic. If you sometimes need a lot at once, vape with 1-3 buddies, value durability and a solid warranty and/or need something that's easy and just works then this is a unit you should definitely consider. There aren't really many vapes at this price point that come with as many goodies as this one does and the actual unit itself is pretty great, so you're getting a pretty screaming value here. You can get a better experience out of other things on the market but some of them have fragile glass parts; the CFC 2 can stand up to more knocks than a Utilitan 420, for example, though the Utilitan 420 will give you better flavour for a similar price.
TL;DR and rating:
I'd personally give the Boundless CFC 2.0 a rating of 7/10. I've deducted points for the weak flavour quality, bad build quality on the mouthpiece and kinda disgustingly artificial vapor path. However, the strong points are strong; precise TC, very good battery life for the size, moderate pocketability, durable, inexpensive and backed up by a 3-year warranty. A good or bad point is the simplicity, or lack of features, depending on what's important to you. All in all, Boundless did a good job here.
In my opinion, this is a better sesh vape than a solo one. The oven is rather too large and as I understand it conduction isn't ideal for a solo, multi-session vape. It can be wasteful. I personally do 2-4 seshes, or I just put a little fresh herb in the oven and pack the rest with ABV if I'm not fussy about the experience.
On to the review.
Crucial tech specs:
- Full conduction, ~0.35g oven (they claim 0.5g but that's definitely not true)
- 60-minute battery life (about 5-10 5min sessions depending on heat level)
- Precise temp control
- Included WPA and quite a lot of other accessories
I like to start with my first impression, which is of course the box. I was impressed. The retail packaging has a slip cover that slides up to reveal a teal and black box. This lifts open to reveal your new Boundless CFC 2.0 along with a tall, thin box of accessories. Inside the box is 3 oven screens (the ones with the solid circular plate in the middle), 2 mouthpiece screens (the ones that are just a mesh), water pipe adapter (!), USB cord, digger/dab tool, dig-out brush and instruction manual.
I'd like to highlight that for a second because that's a lot of stuff to come bundled with a vaporizer at such a low price point. Another thing that's nice? A 3-year warranty. This tells me Boundless is very confident their stuff will last you at least that long.
Moving along, let's fire it up. Five clicks to turn on and it starts heating automatically. You can hold the button for 2 seconds to make it stop or start heating, or click 5 times to turn it off again. Regardless of how you turn the heating element off it goes back to the temperature you had it set at when you turn the heat back on. You get full temperature control, though I have a pretty good suspicion it's about 10 degrees C higher on the screen than it is in the oven. It's to be expected with such a low-cost unit so I'm not worried, I just turn the temp up.
It goes from powered off to 175 degrees C (about 360 F) in about 30-40 seconds. You need to let it sit another 20-30 seconds (the lower your temp, the longer it needs) so the oven has time to really vaporize what you're wanting from your herb; if you don't you're going to get a really weak hit. That brings the total heat time to about a minute to 90 seconds. That's acceptable to me unless I'm in significant pain and need it now, in which case I have my Splinter.
Now for the experience. Once you've let the oven warm up enough, just drag. The flavour from the first hit is rather intense and often very vegetal. It's not as good as the pure flavour from my Splinter Z nor the roasted, cooked flavour from my DynaVap; it's solidly mid-tier though. I'm not complaining. The clouds are average and very smooth if you keep it below 200C; turn it much over that and you'll get some pretty gigantic clouds but a lot of throat death too.
As for other features this thing has: none. No haptic feedback or chime for when it's up to temp, no blinking LEDs, no frivolities at all. Sneaky Pete described this as a "meat and potatoes" vape and I can't help but agree. It's a durable device aimed at people who value simplicity in all areas but still need that precise temp control. If you don't need the precise temp control, look at the CFC Lite.
Now for the downsides. The vapor path is an atrocity for anyone who values purity. It first goes through metal, then silicone, and THEN plastic before it gets into you. I didn't exactly expect glass at this price point but silicone? SILICONE? Yuck. At least it's easy to clean. The mouthpiece is also not great. I have to wiggle it down to force it to make a proper seal every time I put it back on. The charge time is stupendously long; up to 3 hours from dead. Yikes. I also don't like how long it takes the oven to properly vaporize stuff when it's below 190C.
So would I recommend this vape? Yeah, I think so. It's not a hard yes but the downsides aren't bad enough to say no. It really depends on your use case. If you value flavour and a high-tech feature set, no. Increase your budget and go for something designed for that. This is a really basic vape for a really basic price and you have to be realistic. If you sometimes need a lot at once, vape with 1-3 buddies, value durability and a solid warranty and/or need something that's easy and just works then this is a unit you should definitely consider. There aren't really many vapes at this price point that come with as many goodies as this one does and the actual unit itself is pretty great, so you're getting a pretty screaming value here. You can get a better experience out of other things on the market but some of them have fragile glass parts; the CFC 2 can stand up to more knocks than a Utilitan 420, for example, though the Utilitan 420 will give you better flavour for a similar price.
TL;DR and rating:
I'd personally give the Boundless CFC 2.0 a rating of 7/10. I've deducted points for the weak flavour quality, bad build quality on the mouthpiece and kinda disgustingly artificial vapor path. However, the strong points are strong; precise TC, very good battery life for the size, moderate pocketability, durable, inexpensive and backed up by a 3-year warranty. A good or bad point is the simplicity, or lack of features, depending on what's important to you. All in all, Boundless did a good job here.
