Ascent Vaporizer by DaVinci

[Delta3DStudios]

@Ratchett That box with the - 'Glass Spacers for use with the Ascent Vaporizer ... minimize bowl size ...weighted glass screen' - markings came inside a less telling plain outer package, right? Or I may need to break into my apartment managers office.

The spacers themselves look promising. Can't wait to play with them.

Of course, mine was shipped in a white bubble envelope lol.

Did my first initial testing, using two spacers in a sandwich method. It medicated, but hits were certainly wispy (I was using my 14mm WTA as a mouthpiece to seal the vapor path for best performance). Didn't measure the load size before testing.

Today I'll try stacking the two spacers like a traditional jar method for micro packing, and put the herb directly on the bottom. I suspect this may prove more effective than a standard jar over the micro load.

 

[CarolKing]

So, with 316 pages I'm not having very good luck finding some answers to my questions amongst all of the great info. Forgive me if some of this has been asked before, my apologies. And it's also super long, apologies there, too.

First off, my experience:

I'm a really heavy smoker, kind of a 'maintenance medicator' if that makes sense; I puff all day every day but typically don't get super lit. As they say, though, slow and steady wins the race, and it could add up to 3-4 ounces of really good stuff in a month.

I have previously had a magic flight box and really liked it, but it wasn't enough control and going through batteries that quickly really kind of sucked. Ended up just sitting in a box and I used the pipe all the time. Also borrowed an older volcano for awhile, but it was simply too large of a dose at a time for the way I smoke. And I've used several friend's pens and done a little bit of dabbing. Oils are kind of recent and limited supply out here, but something I really like and want to do more of.

With that in mind, the Ascent seems like the best tool for my needs it really does seem like it. But I have the feeling that I'm not quite using it to the fullest, and might be doing some stuff wrong.

Here are my questions / issues:

• Within a day I ended up breaking one of the inside tubes with the triangle at the bottom. Actually up to three now. One was trying to get it out of the body, learned that a bamboo chopstick worked to push it out. Is there a better way to do this? Especially after using some oils, it can be gunked up and stuck in pretty good. Another one broke when poking out the holes with the little bit on the end of the metal tool. It seemed like the right size, but after that I just gave up.
  
  Is this typical? Does anyone make aftermarket ones that are more sturdy? I have a couple ideas on how it could be different and was going to have a friend who works in a glass studio try to make me some but she went on maternity leave before we got a chance...
  
  
• I noticed that a lot of people have mentioned the battery indicator being a bit off. And it was supposed to charge for 5 hours, but mine was apparently full maybe two hours after it arrived. The normal charging seems to be a lot faster than 5, too. Has anyone else noticed / had this? Is it maybe an indicator of a battery that will wear out quicker or anything?
  
  
• Now that I have started using oils more often, it's really feeling like this isn't a good device for being portable. I'm not worried about smell or anything, just mess. I'll often be out on bike rides in the middle of nowhere and want to stop and have a 'safety break' along the trail. Seemed like the jars would be awesome for that, just bring a few of the jars with and I'd be good to be out for 6 or 8 hours.
  
  Obviously, that's not going to be possible since you can't tip the vape when it's hot, and the cap for the jar comes out when it's hot so you can't really remove the jar until it's cooled down. Which is fine, I'm still able to use it at home. But I have a lot of questions about using waxes with it.
  • I've read a lot of people saying that they don't like using it because it doesn't do the super huge hits like a nail would. It seems like it's just a different kind of use. It will kind of melt down into the jar and I hit it for several minutes. The product doesn't ever completely go away.
    
    Are the leftovers there still good? I've been just putting a little more on top of it and going until it's really dense and then just tossing it in some ISO to dissolve.
    
    
  • It's super tippy when vertical, which can be really bad when it's cooling down. Does anyone make an actual stand for it? I've been using an extension tube from the flight box so I don't accidentally tilt it with oils, with the Ascent in a tumbler glass. That feels really hacky for such a stylish, expensive piece of equipment.
• For general cleaning / care, is there any cohesive FAQ or guide? I know it's just basically take it out and soak in ISO, but stuff like using a chopstick to pop out the straw or magic erasers for the bowl would be really great to have that for people with new ones.
  
  
• The temperature adjustment is pretty awesome, are there any guides on using this for maximum use of the bud? With the flight box, I ended up with a lot of kind of 'lightly toasted' plant, then used that to make some buddah. The more cerebral stuff came from puffing, and the cookies were straight up body / melt into the couch. Dosing was super easy, and I got to use it basically twice.
  
  It seems like you could maybe use it at about 160-165C and only vape the actual THC and mostly leave the other cannaboids for edibles. But at that level it feels like there's no actual vapor at that temp. Hoping that those new spacers help.
  
  I was looking at this for a guide on temps:
  http://www.zamnesia.com/content/284-vaporizer-temperatures-for-cannabis
  
  
• On the subject of maximizing use of product, it seems like saving and drying the ISO that the glass is soaked in to leave the last bits. I had done this when making buddah awhile ago, when I used ISO to clean the caked on crystals off the coffee grinder. That worked great, a few days later and it was basically just a layer of white to scrape off with a razor blade, then sprinkle on a bowl and fly away.
  
  When I tried it with the ISO in the cleaning jar, it ended up only ever getting to a sticky residue. Which makes sense since it's basically resin to begin with. Still smelled of ISO a bit, so I just washed it away down the sink.
  
  It sounds like a couple people have tried this with everclear? Does that actually evaporate away completely? It seems like a little bit of everclear wouldn't be as bad to inhale as ISO, but I'm not sure.
  
  Is smoking even the best way to capture that? Or would it eventually become kind of a tincture with everclear? Take a little jar every so often and top off with some fresh stuff.

Ooof. So many questions. Thanks for any help!

@Ed's TnT Makes a wonderful WonG for the Ascent. You can use it like a mouthpiece. Also the GonG that's made for the Ascent is thicker and it works better IMO. I haven't used the 2 glass stems that fit inside each other that are the stock ones for quite a while.

I didn't have good luck with the jars. I put my wax and shatter in the middle of some cannabis. It's not so messy.

EDIT
Most folks have had a difficult time using the jars.

 

[Silvercloud538]

The Zamnesia thread www.zamnesia.com/content/284-vaporizer-

temperatures-for-cannabis introduced @hereNT is a

useful tool which encapsulates all phases of THC (A) ,CBn ,CBd ,terps ,flavonoids

,etc ,exhibiting various degrees

of head/ body focus thus yielding full breakdown of temperatuire parameters

for optimum cerebral and/or physical responses ~

All should find it helpful to better dial in full/ partial experiences of each ~ Well

done

 

[JamesTiberiousKirk]

I only caught a word here and there @silvercloud358 the rest of the message is blank. I hope if there is something important in between the widely spaced visible words someone with better eyesight will let me know.

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

 

[CarolKing]

I wonder if the rest of us will get our spacers the end of the week? I am looking forward to trying it out. I would imagine to load, then put the spacer over the herb like a shell, just using one. Since the way @Ratchett tried it, that didn't work well.

This will add to portability if this works well. It's hard with the tiny glass flowers, but they work.

I thank @OF for figuring it out & @nigel too. I would have put my unit away if I wasn't able to get it to work right or I would have tried to sell it. In fact early on I was ready to give up on the Ascent because I couldn't get it to work very well. Thanks for the members here. The Ascent has a steep learning curve, but it's worth it in the end. It produces such great flavor.

 

[OF]

I wonder if the rest of us will get our spacers the end of the week? I am looking forward to trying it out. I would imagine to load, then put the spacer over the herb like a shell, just using one.

Perhaps, but I kinda doubt it. As I understand it they still haven't made contact/got addresses and name from the rest of us? Logically (and I believe was stated by DV?) they'll go out as a batch, but that means collecting/verifying addresses.

Are there still folks who haven't done that? My guess is when that process is complete we'll get a collective heads up here. Maybe that happens by end of week???

Given the time we've been waiting, percentage wise a week is not that much longer to wait? Gives me more time to daydream and scheme about how to use and test them.........

OF

 

[Delta3DStudios]

I wonder if the rest of us will get our spacers the end of the week? I am looking forward to trying it out. I would imagine to load, then put the spacer over the herb like a shell, just using one. Since the way @Ratchett tried it, that didn't work well.

Tested a larger load this time, with herbs on bottom, spacer on top. Much better vapor production. But I have noticed an increase in draw resistance when using these as opposed to glass flowers.

Going to try some head to head comparisons against the standard jar and see if they have the same amount of draw restriction.

I think the best method so far is to loosely load the oven with herbs and toss a spacer on top to compress the load.

 

[hereNT]

What do you need to do to sign up?

 

[Silvercloud538]

I wonder if the rest of us will get our spacers the end of the week? I am looking forward to trying it out. I would imagine to load, then put the spacer over the herb like a shell, just using one. Since the way @Ratchett tried it, that didn't work well.

Sounds like a plan ,and besides adding more glass for better conduction/

convection ,it will provide excellent buffer from glass filter/ oven door interaction

 

[OF]

What do you need to do to sign up?

Send a PM to the maker.

OF

 

[hereNT]

Send a PM to the maker.

OF

Awesome, thank you.

 

[Amoreena]

... As I understand it they still haven't made contact/got addresses and name from the rest of us? ...

I received email on April 1 asking for my name and address.

 

[Vicki]

I have not received any emails from DV asking for my name or address as of yet.

 

[Silvercloud538]

I received email on April 1 asking for my name and address.

Hopefully ,it wasn't a request on April Fool's time ( J/K )

Reminds me of old Sunday school's proverb ,Patience is a Virtue

 

[CarolKing]

I wouldn't mind a tighter draw. I have to work hard to achieve that with a tiny o-ring, it keeps trying to pop out of the top. It's kind of a pain. This new spacer sounds promising.

 

[OF]

I received email on April 1 asking for my name and address.

I have not received any emails from DV asking for my name or address as of yet.

Thanks, sounds like it's in process. I'm sure they're too smart to move forward until Vicki's on board.......

FWIW when I've been involved in such projects in the past we'd set a deadline (say a week or so out) to get the list ready to go, then go with the names we had confirmed. Then follow that up a while later when the late responses have all 'dribbled in'. Hopefully we'll get some official word (like 'we've shipped to all the participants we've got addresses for'?) in a week or so?

I'm ready........

OF

 

[CarolKing]

I gave my address last week. I thought DV wanted names by the end of last week. But if folks wanted one just PM DV and they will add you to the list.

 

[Davinci_vaporizer]

I have not received any emails from DV asking for my name or address as of yet.

Vicki, I sent you an email to the address you provided me via private message.



The list was submitted and there will be no more spacers shipping out for testing. We have a total of 16 people after we filtered the accounts with 0 activity and the people who submitted the info by the 5:00pm PST Friday April, 3rd deadline. The objective of this is to get some good discussion and information for a new edition of the spacers so we eliminated zero activity accounts. This is a gift to you guys for being so innovative and supportive throughout it all!

Hey Everyone!!

We will be collecting emails until the end of the week, Friday, April 3rd. This gives everyone a week to get a hold of us and get their information down. Being that I am in China, the most effective way to go about this is a big list and a big shipment. That way there is less of a chance of oversight and missing people.

Please have your email address private messaged to us by Friday April, 3rd at 5:00PM PST.

They way I had the most success with the spacer is using it to cut the bowl in half, open end down, holes on top. I found the vapor production significantly increased with especially if you give it some time for the glass to heat up. I like that you can also use glass flowers with it that way too if you chose to do so as the spacer is just a spacer. It will help retain heat but does not radiate heat through the bowl the same way the flowers do. Any suggestions for an addition that would help radiate heat to these?

Another issue we have is removal. It takes a bit of time for it to cool off. What technique do you use to remove them? I used the pick tool, poked it into a hole in the spacer and used leverage to lift it out. This only worked maybe 2 dozen times before developing a crack in the glass. It could have been that the glass was hot and it also could have been that I may have dropped it a time or two. Any and all suggestions and criticism is welcome. Thank you for all the support guys!

 

[MedicatedPensioner]

Haven't gotten mine yet to test DaVinci, but have you tried the spacer bottom down? I use my oil jar that way and it worked well. It would seem that the problem of leaves lifting up from the bottom would continue with the spacer in bottom up. It is also easy to remove top up using a bamboo stick (that I also use to clean ABV out of the chamber) by leveraging the side of the jar to pull it up..

 

[KidFated.]

Hell yeah, test those things out @Vicki !!!

I'm so tempted to go back to the ascent.. For laid back flavor sipping, ascent is hard to beat..

"You don't know what you got, until it's gone"

 

[Vicki]

Vicki, I sent you an email to the address you provided me via private message.

I never received it, and I checked spam. Can I still participate @Davinci_vaporizer ?

Hell yeah, test those things out @Vicki !!!

I'm so tempted to go back to the ascent.. For laid back flavor sipping, ascent is hard to beat..

"You don't know what you got, until it's gone"

I can't wait to test the glass spacers. I am out going to doctors at least 3 times a week, and use my Ascents a lot!

 

[Delta3DStudios]

open end down, holes on top.

Very interesting! I'll have to try this tonight!

Another issue we have is removal. It takes a bit of time for it to cool off. What technique do you use to remove them? I used the pick tool, poked it into a hole in the spacer and used leverage to lift it out. This only worked maybe 2 dozen times before developing a crack in the glass. It could have been that the glass was hot and it also could have been that I may have dropped it a time or two.

Actually, I preheated my oven to about 275F and used a toothpick in the holes to loosen the spacer. I then turned the ascent over and dumped it into my ABV dish.

Worst case scenario, I can use a paperclip inserted from the bottom of the Ascent through the air intake holes and eject the spacer that way

Any and all suggestions and criticism is welcome. Thank you for all the support guys!

Just brainstorming What about a flat spacer with a post in the center ..... Something like this:

(No clue how possible this is, I don't work with glass, lol)

 

[Davinci_vaporizer]

Very interesting! I'll have to try this tonight!



Actually, I preheated my oven to about 275F and used a toothpick in the holes to loosen the spacer. I then turned the ascent over and dumped it into my ABV dish.

Worst case scenario, I can use a paperclip inserted from the bottom of the Ascent through the air intake holes and eject the spacer that way



Just brainstorming What about a flat spacer with a post in the center ..... Something like this:

(No clue how possible this is, I don't work with glass, lol)

I haven't found the need to preheat. Now that I think of it, I've almost always dumped it out warm unless I forgot I had the spacer in the bowl.

That would work well, but there's still not a way to remove it. Tomorrow, I can check with the engineers and see about making a piece similar to that with a hole so the pick can hook into it. It might be really fragile. The problem with glass is there is a 1mm tolerance so everything you design needs to be able to give or take 1mm for mass production.

 

[Sativape]

Vicki, I sent you an email to the address you provided me via private message.



The list was submitted and there will be no more spacers shipping out for testing. We have a total of 16 people after we filtered the accounts with 0 activity and the people who submitted the info by the 5:00pm PST Friday April, 3rd deadline. The objective of this is to get some good discussion and information for a new edition of the spacers so we eliminated zero activity accounts. This is a gift to you guys for being so innovative and supportive throughout it all!



They way I had the most success with the spacer is using it to cut the bowl in half, open end down, holes on top. I found the vapor production significantly increased with especially if you give it some time for the glass to heat up. I like that you can also use glass flowers with it that way too if you chose to do so as the spacer is just a spacer. It will help retain heat but does not radiate heat through the bowl the same way the flowers do. Any suggestions for an addition that would help radiate heat to these?

Another issue we have is removal. It takes a bit of time for it to cool off. What technique do you use to remove them? I used the pick tool, poked it into a hole in the spacer and used leverage to lift it out. This only worked maybe 2 dozen times before developing a crack in the glass. It could have been that the glass was hot and it also could have been that I may have dropped it a time or two. Any and all suggestions and criticism is welcome. Thank you for all the support guys!

@Davinci_vaporizer

For removing the spacer, I am going to try and using an IC removal/extractor tool.
Very cheap to come by, the local electronic surplus store has them for around a $1.
I'm going to grind and straighten out (slight bend) the ends to accommodate the spacer holes size.
Being able to grasp the spacer using 2 holes might make it easier to extract.
Below is a picture of the tool, and I will report back with the end results:

 

[Silvercloud538]

IMO since the spacers will not radiate using bottom as DV described : by

adding a couple GF's over vent holes alllowing for herb loading ( maybe

another GF ) ~ afterwards ,another couple of GF's topping off bowl with final

crown being 2nd spacer ( holes inward ) allowing enuf room for cotton buffer ~

In essence ,bowl capacity has been shrunk allowing for radiation ventillation