After a long day sitting by the mailbox waiting for nothing yesterday it is finally here, and it's sweet!
First impression & charging:
It's smaller than I expected and after what I read here the glass tubes are also a lot smaller than I expected. They also feel pretty sturdy for tiny glass tubes, almost a bit plasticy. I'm not really worried about breaking those if I pack 'm properly in my man-purse (yes, I gave in this summer and bought one just big enough to carry my Galaxy-Tab, sunglasses, camera, ear plugs and other paraphernalia).
Like Shadowlink I also have one tube that won't fit (it might if I push hard enough, but that would require more force than I feel comfortable using, so I'm not gonna try it) so I guess I do have a chance to test Vapoworld's after sales services after all. The other one pops in easily without feeling loose as it stays in place when the device is turned upside down, but it will turn around voluntarily when handling the Solo. I can see this becoming a little annoying at times in the future.
When I first put it on charge the lights 1 to 4 lit up so I guess it was about half full. Cleaned up the good glass stem and fitted it with a SSV screen (the only other vape I won or have owned so far) right away for a first try after charging which took about an hour and a half before the charging light turned to a solid green.
First bowl:
I roughly grounded up about 0.2 grams of really White Widow but could only get half of it in there without packing it which made for a loosely packed but full bowl. Then set the temperature to two and it was ready for a first hit within a minute or so. I got some mild but very tasty vapor so I immediately set it to 3 which proved more satisfying. After another 3 good hits I set it to 4 and bam, already up there in higher temp vaping judging by the taste and effects. Took it up to five after another two good hits which also gave me two good hits but now the hotter are started slightly irritate my throat. Needless to say I at least had to try all the setting just once, so up to six we went and after 3 more hits or so I started to taste an ever so slight popcorny taste. Time to hit 7! Immediately after putting it on 7 there was a loud beep and the damn thing quit on me.
At first I thought I got one with a bad battery or something but after a minute or so I realized I had reached to 12 minute limit
Turned it back on and took two hits at 7 but the heat at that point was kinda overshadowing the taste so I turned it back to down to 6 to drain the rest of the goodies out of my first Solo bowl. At this point (I'm writing this 'live' as I go along) I'm pretty much amazed that the device is still able get some vapor out of this tiny bowl. I got another 3 hits at 6 and then another 3 at 7 before I got to curious about the color of the ABV and turned it off to inspect the bowl.
This is what I ended up with:
I'm not sure if you're able to tell from the picture but half of it is very dark brown, close to black, and the other half is a bit more tan or golden. I should have taken a picture with the ABV still in the bowl so you guys could see, but logically the dark half was closest to the heater.
Conclusion:
Pardon my French, but after only using it once the only can thing I can say is, it's fucking awesome!
I lost count in there and I'm pretty vaked right now, but I roughly guess I got almost 20 good hits out of that little bit of weed and there was still some left if I would have given it a stir or two. Even though the hits may be slightly larger; I need at about twice that much for the same results with my SSV (standard heater cover, no mods). I did notice the device is a little slow in it's response to input of the buttons, that pushing two buttons at the same time to turn it on can be a little bit clumsy when impatiently holding a filled tube in the other hand, and the involuntary turning/swirling of the mouthpiece could be slightly annoying as well, but otherwise I think it does what it's suppose to do pretty well.
Heat up time is pretty good, heat retention is acceptable and the flavor and efficiency seems way above par. I do think Arizers quality control should up the ante just a little bit since not all glass stems seem to fit the device as well as they should, and I do think they should give us the option to turn off the 12 min time limit or even alter it to a preferred time on a future or updated model. And make a simple battery change possible and throw in a a car charger for this kind of pricing please while you're at it. Otherwise; thanks a lot for this nifty little device.
So far I'm happy, but of course we'll need to do a lot of testing
Now please sod off and leave me alone for few minutes so I can enjoy a second bowl all by myself, without this annoying typing bit putting me off, and perhaps I'll tell you soon how it performs with ungrounded nugs and some of this here oily dark black hash I got waiting to evaporate.
edit:
I really had a lot of fun testing the Solo yesterday, ended up doing an 11-bowl-evening. I'm also very surprised how much weed I still have left from the 3 grams I started with after that. After converting from smoking to vaping with the SSV I think I can finally bring down my consumption with this one. Also, this little vap is just so easy and fun to use that it really adds to the experience imo.
Just a few more things from the top of my head:
I wasn't to successful using hash in the Solo. I tried a thin layer between two screens at different positions in the bowl but I couldn't get a lot of visible vapor out of it. Perhaps it was the hash, perhaps it was my drawing speed that still needs more refinement with this vaporizer, perhaps it needs higher temps. It's to early to tell yet but so far I wouldn't call it ideal for concentrates.
I absolutely loved vapor-bonging with the Solo. Even though the clouds aren't as dense or rich in flavor as they can be with a large bowl on high temps in the SSV, the Solo still packs a pretty good punch and the lack of a whip is just so much more practical. I think I'm gonna buy another Ehle just to go with this vape. I already have a bend neck 500ml with ice notches and a carb hole and it works great with the SSV, but for this one I would like a slightly smaller one so it's easier to bring along with me on the road and this time I want one without carb hole or ice notches.
Oh, the Solo is also at least a little water proof I found, after having a pretty dumb incident which resulted in bong water entering the vape via the glass stem
My favorite thing is putting an ungrounded nug in the bowl and just vape away. I usually start at 4 or 5 and take it all the way up to 7 until my weed is evenly dark brown or as close to black as I can get it, stirring the bowl just once after the first two or three draws @ 6. To my surprise I take this one a little further than I normally do my SSV, the ABV is quit a bit darker then my SSV ABV. Yet I don't think it's possible to combust with the Solo, at least not with mine as I had several bowls on 7 for way over 12 minutes (which for me is just to short).
Oh, I don't have a Dremel so I did a little flint-napping on the two holes in my glass stem and made them just slightly bigger. It helps a bit with the air restriction, especially with a clogged up screen in there after an attempt at vaping hash.
