Here is my GREATEST question at the time of purchase, since I am a first time vaporizer user, and I think ANYONE who is wondering this question as I still do, is asking:
How do I know whether I will not be introducing any metallic, plastic, or rubber elements into my lungs?
If anything... I think this IS the question to ask since, if this were true, smoking out of a glass pipe or using a joint might be considered by others to be the healthier alternative, especially if your occupation deals have high levels of hazardous chemical dealing with rubber, plastics, paint, and such.
I could not find any information on this topic online after days of searching, and decided to ask the representative online what they thought, knowing they would have to say something positive, and decided to just go with it and buy it anyways. As far as I can see, the bowl is made of ceramic and the transport is made of glass. So if you taste no rubber or plastic, nor smell anything weird, you are fine.
If your device has been defectively made in such a way that the hole of the bottom chamber does not match perfectly with the hole on the top in perfect dimension, might I mention probably very rarely, a portion of the rubber? surrounding the heating bowl, may get introduced into the heating chamber equation, and you may introduce that black material surrounding your heating chamber into your lungs. So if you do taste a GOOD amount of something weird or smell something weird, immediately return it to get a new one. I do recall a few people mentioning having tasted or smelled rubber, and I can see why.
The easiest way to see just how much rubber? inhalation you are getting is by taking your glass stem and placing it directly over the ceramic heating chamber, like it would sit as if it were closed. Take a flashlight then shine it over too see how much light is able to pass through directly. Since the glass stem is not made of clear transparency, if you see any portion of the ceramic chamber on the bottom, that gives you an idea just how much space is being allowed to expose with the black rubber? when heating.
I think this is a flaw in design DaVinci probably knows about, the fact they they will try to get the bottom and top circle to perfectly match when closing, instead of just making the top circle larger with a larger glass stem.
The design of how the vapor from the ceramic bowl to your glass stem gets transported is very much comparable to how neurotransmitters send signals to our neurons. Imagine the bottom of this neuron to be the heating element, the neurotransmitters your vapor, the top neuron is your glass stem in which you will be inhaling the vapor.
The only difference is DaVinci tries to exactly match the upper nerve with the bottom nerve. So... as we know from Basic Physics Lab 1A, there is always that error of margin you get introduced into your result, no matter how many times, or what sophisticated tools you have.
Let's say, the dimensions from the top glass stem don't match the bottom circular ceramic chamber perfectly, and just imagine the white area in this picture to be the black rubber surrounding the chamber... that amount of error, or space as you will, gets introduced into your vapor concentration every hit you get. The more imperfect that circle is made, the more rubber gets exposed to the heating space and into your vapor. Especially at high temperatures like 390 in such an enclosed space.... you can imagine yourself inhaling a good amount of rubber if not made in perfect dimension, which nothing ever is.
As far as I can tell, all vaporizers will introduce something external into the vapor concentration equation... just look at V2 Pro Series 3 Loose Leaf Cartridge, hell, the bottom of the rubber cap even uses metal?:
You can clearly see some of that black rubber? material will get exposed to the chamber space.
I advise to just continuously look at the black rubber area surrounding your chamber to see if there is any heat degradation, because if you see it, then you know you are introducing a large amount, rather than a minute amount, into your lungs.
But who's to say... when you smoke regularly using combustion with a glass pipe, joint, cigarette, whatever, you are still introducing external elements into your lungs in different variations, concentration, and amount and probably a lot other additional chemicals, and what say you will, into your lungs.
So yes, while you will be introducing some contamination, using the Ascent compared to a glass pipe or joint, vaporizing is still the much healthier alternative. Of course, the healthiest alternative would be not to smoke at all!
