I think that the ascent may produce visible clouds more consistently with a smaller load size. But this is complicated by the fact that the load wants to creep away from the bottom of the bowl. I really want to love my ascent. It seems to be issue free as far as off-gassing and some of the cosmetic inconsistencies others have been reporting, and if there's a gap in the airpath I can't detect it.
But I am not sure if my unit is functioning correctly. The display doesn't seem to represent what's going on as far as battery life and temperature, which is only partially solved by an off/on reset. But the issue that bothers me the most is when it just quits heating up. It's not the auto-shutoff, it usually happens when I try to adjust the temperature upwards but the temp keeps going down. This has been solved with resets so far.
Unfortunately, the temperature display issue is not helped by a reset. I will set it to 390f for example, and it will climb slowly from say 345 to 359, maybe 363 or something, and then jump right to 390 with the coffee cup when I know it's not there because there's no difference. Worse, it seems to give up or something because it never gets to 390 unless I set it to 420, but it's quite inconsistent so these again are just examples and nothing to rely on. These issues can be confirmed with a quick reset, which will usually give me a current temperature display.
What seems to be going on the ascent will display the desired temperature rather than the actual one, even if they are grossly different. So I never know where it's at in its seeming struggle to keep up with where it's supposed to be. I will experiment more with smaller load size and my pipestone spacer, but so far the only thing that my ascent is doing for me consistently and anywhere near satisfyingly, is re-vaping abv herb. Which is nice at bedtime, it's great that I can take a couple of bowls that I didn't feel I got as much out of as I should have and put them together at the end of the evening for a nice nightcap, but I was hoping for more versatility than that.
It just seems to sit there and cook the herb, but I am not getting the vapor. It doesn't matter how much herb you have lying around, if you're not getting results you're not getting results. Nobody likes turning green herb brown without any satisfaction, which for me means consistent, visible vapor production. I also have experienced the issue of not getting visible vapor when inhaling but getting it out the bottom if I blow, not very much and pardon the pun but it still sucks.
When I woke up in the middle of the night recently and the plug-in units were off or inconvenient, I went for the vapor genie instead of the ascent because I knew it would medicate me with green herb. I have used a lot of material with the ascent, but the results have been inconsistent to frustrating and the only thing I can count on it for is to take light abv and make it darker. It will give me relatively consistent visible vapor when I do it that way which is satisfying at bedtime.
One positive thing is that the ascent does not seem to have any combustion issues but I wonder if they may have somehow erred in the opposite direction.
I realize that my technique could probably improve, but as I said I am not sure if my unit is functioning properly. I will make a final assessment when the cotton gets here, but it looks like at least an eventual exchange for sure. As far as technique goes it may just be me with battery-operated portables, because I tried a small log vape today for the first time and it got me high right out of the gate just like the vapor genie did, and like a battery-operated unit never does. Maybe the only one that would satisfy me is a Minivap but it makes the solo look tiny.
So I'll probably, and reluctantly, send my ascent back at some point, give the replacement a try, and if there's no difference pass it on to someone else because it must be me. But my ascent's display and the logic functions behind it are acting mighty strange so who knows.
someone should try it out if it works