Hello! I am a new member though I have been lurking here for a long while. I have learnt a lot here and thought it was finally time to join in and share my own experiences and thoughts, and some pictures I hope you enjoy.
I was a long time smoker (18 years, daily/near daily for majority of that) until August 2018, when I got a Pax 3, and very shortly afterwards a 2018 M(when I realised the Pax wasn't going to work for my daily use) and I haven't smoked since. I have a few other vapes now too but vapcaps are what I use (by far) the most. I don't know if I'd have managed to fuck combustion so completely without this invention. The vapcap makes it so quick and easy to vape.
I like wooden stems the best and I virtually always use them with an Omni XL condenser:
On the left with the SS tip is possibly my favourite stem to use, the Zen8 bird's eye maple stem I bought from Vapewellness. I love the organic knuckle-y shape and the way it sits in my hand, very comfortable, and easy to find the airport. The mouthpiece end is cut slightly crooked though it functions just fine. No condenser in the pic but I'd use it with an Omni condenser, always.
The walnut stem second from left is another favourite, which came from Etsy (BranchingOutProjects). I love the hourglass shape, it feels very smooth and light and I think it looks great too. The walnut adds a slight sweet woody/nutty taste when it gets hot on repeated cycles, I find it very pleasant. Shown with a Ti tip and mouthpiece above which I heat treated a while ago, which is fading in the wash a bit somehow.
In the middle with the uncoloured Omni setup is my padauk stem from
@DynaBox via Etsy. It's a really nicely crafted stem which functions as a 14mm vong adaptor. The wood has a lovely orange glow which I try to preserve by keeping it out of UV, so this one only comes out at night. The padauk does add a woody spicyness when it gets hot, I do like it for variety but not all the time.
On the right are my Dynavap wooden stems. The Nonavong is where my love affair with wood started, I ordered it at a bargain price, primarily for a spare Omni setup, not expecting much of the stem. When it arrived I just loved the way the wood looked and felt, very light, and it got less hot than a metal stem particularly with an IH. I got the Hydravong at a bargain price too, it's my least favourite not least because the tip end is a bit loose (easily solved with a tiny amount of hemp fibre). The gnarly shape is good for rotating with a flame but I prefer the smoother feel of my other stems generally.
I have some glass too, less exciting maybe and my apologies that it is dirty:
The Hula stems are great, I bought a couple because they were very cheap at the time. I think these are XL v 1. The grey one is a perfect fit for vapcap tips. The blue one is a bit loose, which can be fixed with hemp fibre or I have some slightly thicker o-rings, which I just swap the final end one for. The glass is nice and thick.
I bought a longer Glass Charlie stem with a carb hole. I do enjoy using this one though I don't use it so often. It's much thinner glass so seems much more fragile, though it is half the weight of a Hula stem despite being longer.
My other stems:
I have a meerschaum stem I bought from CPW Pipes in Turkey via ebay (they are also on Etsy). The internal diameter wasn't wide enough, so I put the tip in without any o-rings besides the top one. At first it was necessary to grind away at the meerschaum a little bit, gently, to get it to fit. I say to do it gently because I actually bought two stems very cheaply, I tried first with the smaller one and with too much force, and cracked it. Meerschaum is very fragile but it does give a different experience. I like it very much. The channel inside the stem is pretty narrow so the vapour flows quickly through, so it is fairly cool but quite throat-y, to my mind quite a lot like a large joint (though it's so long since I've had a large joint, so take that with a pinch of salt!). I don't really like the plastic mouthpiece but I could possibly replace that, it just screws out. Because of the fragility I am going to save this one and use it as my Christmas stem.
And then there's my original Omni stem, what more could I say that's not already written already in this thread? I love it. The Omni was an upgrade I bought after 9 months of 2018 M use. I think it's a good upgrade, I appreciate the adjustable airflow though it is expensive, which makes me worry more when I think I've lost it on camping trips etc. I do prefer the Ti tip over the SS, the primary reason is the quicker cooldown helping to get through cycles quickly and avoid burning the load, also quicker heat up and better airflow. I haven't tried more recent versions of the SS tip. When I bought the Omni, the 2018 M stem and condenser went on long term loan, along with a Ti tip and fresh-ish cap to a friend who was interested in vaping but didn't have spare money to invest. I wanted to keep the SS tip for variety.
I don't have tips for every stem. All I have now are in the first picture with the wooden stems - four tips and four caps. Actually, only two of the caps work properly any more. Two have cracked disks, and they are slow to click, especially to cool down. They cause combustion if you go by the click but I can use them if I time the heat-up by some other method. In reality I don't use them, besides to pack the basket screens in the Milaana, a perfect size! I don't know why they cracked. I did used to go past the click by a regular amount when using my SJK IH, but my first cap was nearly exclusively heated by torch. I do use them heavily, perhaps they have just wore out? In both cases I just noticed the cool down click gradually get slower and slower over several weeks or months. My first cap is now takes minutes and minutes to get the second cool down click, it will be completely cold first. But I have two good caps, both 'normal' types (not captive of low temp) but with their own personalities - one cooks hotter in the IH, three cycles for full extraction vs five or six with the other. I think it is to do with the different crimping position in the newest cap I have, but I appreciate having the variety available to me.
In summary then, I love vapcaps especially wooden Omnis, and I'm very glad to become part of a like-minded community of people here
