Just went through all the 24 pages of this thread and thought I could add my 2¢ worth.
I'm a n00b to the vapor world - just 3 weeks into it. In the search for a portable vaporizer I found a cheap chinese made Atmos ripoff for $30 shipped. Bought a couple for my friends who liked what they saw.
While following the manufacturer's instructions we were getting combustion so started trying different techniques and finally found one that was giving me lots of vapor. Even though I'm new to vaporizing, the flavour difference between vapor and smoke is very apparent to me, so I know that it was really vapor that I was getting and not smoke.
I packed the chamber almost to the top with well ground herb. This device did not have a screen - the herb sat directly on the heating coil. I used the packing tool to gently pack in the herb and kept the spring in place while screwing the top.
The thing about the heating element is that it gets very hot quite quickly, so the trick is to regulate the temperature by pulling the right amount of air, ensuring more or less even heating of the herb.
I press the button and wait for a couple of seconds before I start drawing short, strong puffs. I immediately blow out the puff without taking it inside my lungs - the goal is to see whether visible vapor is coming out. After maybe 3 or 4 short puffs I can see that I'm expelling vapor. That's when I let go of the button and take a long drag. This is basically full of cloudy vapor. I can repeat this cycle once more with the load before it gets dark brown. When I dump out the load, there would be a few black specs but not more than that.
If I draw less at the start or keep the button pressed a little while longer there's combustion, so it's more or less a technique to be practiced. I'll see if I can put together a video - that should add the much needed credibility to my post
Great to be here!