Although I think I have begun to prefer loads of 0.25 g to 0.35 g with the Aromed, I also think I might finally be figuring out how to enjoy smaller loads (0.15 g or less). Which is how I'd rather do it, if I can figure out how to make it work (which might only require me to be a little more patient).
I would be curious to know if other Aromed owners prefer a specific load weight. If so, would you mind sharing your preferred load weight, as well as anything else you feel is relevant?
Also, I believe I would prefer the herb holder screen area to be about the same size as the stem of the herb holder, then widen above the herbs. Because significantly hot air obviously does not circulate around the outside of the herb holder. Which makes it pointless to even have that area, as far as I'm concerned.
If you can't picture exactly what I'm saying, just look at your herb holder. Imagine the screen at the exact same height, but with the tapered ( \ / ) part of the herb holder almost an inch higher. This means the screen would be significantly smaller, as would the load capacity. In my mental model of this setup (which may be 100% wrong for all I know), lots of hot air would go right through all of the herbs; not just the herbs in the center of the herb holder,
which constitutes a very small area of the screen. To me, the outer several millimeters of herb holding space in my Aromed's herb holder is just wasted space. That's considerably more than half of the area of the screen. The herbs in that section obviously do not get cooked (until after you stir).
Also, whenever I use a small load (say 0.05 g), all my herbs get pushed to the outer circumference of the herb holder, where there is no hot air; specifically because all the hot "convecting" air goes right through the middle. This wouldn't happen if the tapered part was above the screen. Or, rather, it would still happen, but it couldn't push everything to the outside, because there would be no outside.
