Discontinued A Hot Pod

[OhTheAgony]

Wow those photos look fantastic! That was a fun session. I barely remember riding my bicycle home...

Something else we figured out while I was there. Some of you beta testers might have noticed that I wrote "hand warmer" on the customs declaration. While we were playing with the pod we realised that putting my mouth over the heatport and blowing causes warm air to come out of all the holes. It really is a hand warmer! Not much use to me at the moment considering its 39C here, but for those of you in colder climates it might actually be useful for this purpose. The wood on top of the pod doesnt get too warm so it's easy to put your mouth on there. The whole design of the pod can be explained away if it is used like this

Haha, i actually do this too!

Unlike Australia it's dead winter over here, & I don't like turning up the heat to high but rather wear an extra sweater instead after I noticed it saves me over 500 bucks on gas a year (hey, I'm dutch, we're suppose to be cheap, right). So that little hand-warmer sure comes in handy right now!

And it's starting to get a little redundant I guess, but again, fantastic pictures Bleak!

I'm kinda kicking myself in the head for not taking advantage of your skills while you were in NL and have you take some shots of my bikes

 

[gvape]

Just wanted to share some very overdue pictures. I shot a video too, just need to upload that later.

Still loving the pod. Only one problem has frustrated me and may need to be looked in to. That is the port that fits the stem is too snug. My stems keep getting stuck inside and I have to use some force to get them out. Its not a a huge problem, its just a bit frustrating. I dont know if its due to expansion of the pod or something else, but just a tad bigger opening may prevent this in the future.

End cap that falls off of cord.


Closeup of the pod


Bottom Glue



Size comparison shot (Left to Right: TT, EV2, HOT POD, HI, PD, UD, Solo)

 

[OhTheAgony]

Funny (well, not for you of course), with which stem do you have that problem SD?

The widest one I have is the medium size, & that has at least a mm (25th of an inch) playroom to the side. Idk about other stems, but I really wouldn't want mine wider than this. It's perfect for the medium stem & already a bit on the wide side for the HS.

And yeah, you got a shitty cord, but those were already taken out of commission I believe.

How are those GonG-HS stems coming along btw Hazy, are they available already?

 

[hazy]

I've had a bit of a slowdown here lately, so no I haven't put the glass order in yet They will be coming though, "trust me!".

On a few of the pods the top hole was slightly smaller than the rest for some reason. I need to discuss this with my woodturner as I would like to improve consistency in this area. When coupled with a slightly oversized stem this can create problems. Unfortunately there iis nothing I can do about variations in the stem diameter, it's the way they come from the factory. I've thought about weeding out those stems that are oversize but that could prove to be expensive and wasteful. I thought I tried matching the stems to the pods before I sent them out, so I must have mixed them up in the rush to get the packages to the post office on time.

 

[OhTheAgony]

Haha, no worries. I am remarkably patience these days

 

[gvape]

I got no complaints about it, just noting it so that future pod owners dont experience what I have. Just trying to help hazy make the best product possible.

The one that I use the most and it gets stuck with is the 14mm GONG. Im not huge on the taste of anything after the first hit with the higher voltage. Therefore pairing the higher temps with a water pipe really makes up for this. I can take a huge rip, much more then I could do direct and the flavor and harshness from the heat is mellowed out from the water... especially with a Dave Goldstein.

 

[gvape]

Ok I had some time to upload the video that I took.

The first video is with my itza with the pod on at 14v. I usually get about 1-3 hits out of a bowl depending on how big I pack it. I usually take one to two hits, and stir for a second or third.

The second hit is with the mobius reti. It was the second hit on the bowl so you can see it die out towards the end of the hit.

Either way both the videos can show you how well this thing milks out of glass. Hope you enjoy

 

[natural farmer]

Great vids @gvape!!!

I, on the other hand, must be the unluckiest person when it comes to receiving DOA products! I won't mention past DOA's... During the last weeks I got the FlashVAPE batteries and charger which were off in a couple of days and the just received VVPS (TPN-023) arrived today broken as well! When connected only to the mains it's ok but when I plug in the Hot Pod's cable, the display flashes all kinds of different readings and won't give any power!!!


Why, oh why you damn spirits of high-tech???

 

[stickstones]

farmer...sounds like your cable is bad. You can fix it.

 

[natural farmer]

really????? tell me more! tell me more mate!

 

[hazy]

Oh no, not another shitty cable...

 

[natural farmer]

Are we sure it's a shitty cable? What could be wrong? It looks fine...

EDIT: I guess it should be a problem with the resistance of the cable? Is there a way to measure it with a multimeter? And if so, is there a way to fix it?

 

[stickstones]

I think you have a short in the plug end that goes into the POD. Pop it apart and you will probably find that the metal crimping has pierced one of the sheathings. Undo the crimp, inspect the wires, and if you think they are still fine, recrimp and put back together. Then watch it like a hawk, because what you are supposed to do is all that after restripping and resoldering. I got mine to work, but I don't use it since I have another one I am not worried about.

 

[natural farmer]

I think you have a short in the plug end that goes into the POD. Pop it apart and you will probably find that the metal crimping has pierced one of the sheathings. Undo the crimp, inspect the wires, and if you think they are still fine, recrimp and put back together. Then watch it like a hawk, because what you are supposed to do is all that after restripping and resoldering. I got mine to work, but I don't use it since I have another one I am not worried about.

You got it right mate!!! Luckily I didn't need any re-soldering and the problem was easily fixed by opening up the metal crimps/tabs a bit and put some insulating tape around the pierced part of the cable. Hazy had an idea of putting a blob of silicone in the plug's housing to secure everything in place and I am already waiting for it to dry completely. I am pretty confident it will withstand the temps involved... It is a good enough solution for me but I also know hazy will eventually come up with a better plug solution in the future Pods.

VVPS is working great now and I will be going through different combinations of draw speed and voltage for the next few days and try to pinpoint a couple of good points for my final review that might not have been mentioned before.
The Pod is my favourite vape for the moment when at home, with the FlashVAPE close-by for when out and about or next to my bed or the garden (anywhere without a plug but private actually!). My beloved INH is there for everywhere discretion is needed and the Solo is the back up for all the above uses when one of the others stop working at some point. Pretty well covered all bases here with my small collection! I feel so content I might stop talking about vaporizers...

Just joking!!! VAS is suspended for good for the moment as well as GAS though! I wonder what could trigger them again in the future...

 

[BUZZHEAD]

What's the inside look like? What's the heat chamber made of, will it eventually charr the wood inside, ect.




PD, MZ.

 

[hazy]

There is a post in another thread where I show the internals of the pod. I experimented with the distance that the chamber's inner wall needed to be from the centre tube to prevent charring. Although I've tested the pods at higher voltages for several days at a time, I can't honestly say what the outcome would be over long periods at very high voltages. It is however worth noting that the air inlet is at the relatively cool lower portion of the pod, so any charring that could potentially occur should not affect the quality of the vapor.

 

[natural farmer]

Sooo... In spite of my smug face in my previous post, while the silicone withstood the temps involved in the socket area, it wouldn't stick to the plug's plastic housing as it seems to be of the non-stick quality. What was eventually achieved was just a nice cover of silicone for the welds and wires inside the housing. Two small tie-wraps came to the rescue immediately (next best thing to duct tape for fixing everything!!! ) and the plug is now rock solid!

 

[hazy]

Very neat job

 

[natural farmer]

This humble setup will keep me going for years...

To be continued...

 

[OhTheAgony]

Haha, glad you managed to MacGyver your way out of that one Farmer

I've been rocking a similar Ehle but without ice notches for 2 years now I believe btw, I love these things

 

[natural farmer]

Haha, glad you managed to MacGyver your way out of that one Farmer

I've been rocking a similar Ehle but without ice notches for 2 years now I believe btw, I love these things

Oh yeah, it's even smoother than my Saxo 10-arm tree and it makes me wonder... My routine is so smooth with the EHLE and the POD that any other vape in my collection is trumped in comparison. No teeth pain, no throat irritation, no nothing. The taste is great and I don't know what else I could ask for??? World peace maybe... I 've got the way by the way but few listen!

 

[stickstones]

What's the inside look like? What's the heat chamber made of, will it eventually charr the wood inside, ect.

While Hazy is being technically correct here by saying he doesn't know what will happen long term, the fact is that this construction is so different from the PD that I don't see how charring will occur. The PD had a huge heat sink that was in constant contact with the wood...thus the charring. This unit's heat core is nowhere near touching any walls of the seed pod.

 

[hazy]

While it's true that there aren't any super-hot parts actually in contact with the wood, in my experiments I found that the heat from the heating element is so intense, it is able to char wood through radiant energy alone. There is a certain zone around the heating element within which wood will get charred. I haven't had the chance to test how much the char zone expands with increasing voltage. Having said that, the size of the bore was chosen to be well outside the char zone, so there should be some leeway.

 

[natural farmer]

Size comparison shot (Left to Right: TT, EV2, HOT POD, HI, PD, UD, Solo)

Hey gvape... How do you find the Pod compared to your HI? OTA? Feel free to answer too after all this time with both...

 

[gvape]

I know the pod is my newest piece in the collection, but its currently the only vape I am using for home use. It just milks the most consistently and the most ease to use. I do have one of the first HI's so its not built perfect, I know its gotten better with the later models. Mine creates hot spots, and although its a great device, the POD easily takes the win for me.

My Epicvape is my Party vape of logs, its so I can just pack a nice big bowl and lets from friends go at it without having to repack and stir as often. My PD sits in storage, cant remember the last time I used it. My underdog still gets used here or there, just since I like how it hits and the ease of use of the silicone bowl, but really has been just sitting unused since I got the POD. As well as the TT, I love the device, but I like a larger load now, so the best device for this is the POD. I can pack a fairly large bowl get a couple huge hits off it, adjust the temp to my perfect spot, and just go at it.

Additionally If the POD does not char at all, its going to be a clear winner in my book for the best log vape I own. My HI has yet to char due to the amount of time I use it, just plug it in and go, I dont let it sit on 24/7. All the other logs have sat on for plenty of time 24/7 and have some sort of charring involved. However, I have a Epicvape Nano on the way so that will be in close competition with the POD, but maybe not. I have yet to try it.

Either way the POD is a clear winner for log vapes in my eyes. Best taste, most control, perfect match for Vaping through glass. Only thing I think it could work on is a a finer screen. Its not horrible, but I think a finer screen would work a little better. I just feel that too much material gets through.