I've been using my XL for a few weeks now, and man I've really been enjoying it. It took some playing around with, not to get it to function well, but to find where it functions the best.
I'm coming from an Herborizer as my daily driver which hits harder than I could ever need. I wanted the XL because I wanted less exposed hot parts, and wanted something that I could easily take with me when I go somewhere (herborizer has too many glass pieces) and still be powerful enough.
The XL has shown that it can easily be a daily driver for me. I've used my Herborizer just a few times since, and have now turned it off. The XL has great flavor, provides huge hits, and is just fun to use.
I replaced the stock bowl with
@Ed's TnT 's stem and I like it significantly more. Brought out what I originally wanted from the vape, and is just all around more convenient to use (it stands up without a lean and makes a seal easily).
I have found with these tube style bowls that stack higher as opposed to wider (vs an injector-style bowl), there are a few tradeoffs but some huge benefits. The flavor is very strong, especially with how the airflow makes super dense vapor, but I find to preserve flavor, you should take your hits in bursts. Because of the nature of a longer bowl as opposed to wider, there is a section of herb exposed significantly closer to the heater and soaks up heat before reaching the deeper parts of the bowl.
This causes longer draws in my experience to start to darken the top significantly faster than the bottom, to the point of dark brown and light green. I only notice this to a significant degree when I prolong my hits and draw them out. The easiest way for me to tell it's happening is as soon as I notice the vapor is getting thinner as opposed to thicker, I pull off. If I continue, I'm mostly just cooking the top layer at that point as it's taking most of the heat.
This method provides me still very thick, satisfyingly large hits, while maintaining great flavor throughout the entire bowl until I eventually hold out the final hit to finish it off. The abv is basically perfect this way.
(all of this is assuming you're stirring between hits, which you should be ime).
Of course, every variable affects this. The more bud you pack, the more significant the gradient in herb if you prolong your hits. If you have a higher temp, you can get thicker vapor faster, almost instantly, but you'll need to pull off faster to avoid darkening the top layer. If you lower your temp, it won't be as quick to milk, but you can draw your hits out longer without risk of browning the top too much. If you pack a smaller amount, you can just nuke it in one or two nice thick long hits.
I find that following those main principles and how the variables interact, this vape is incredibly satisfying, flavorful, and powerful. Can it do those nice long drawn out hits? Absolutely, but I just think there are vapes that specialize in that job, and would miss out on the potential this vape has to offer. The vape is very versatile though, and will perform adequately almost no matter what way you use it.
I don't think of this vape as an XL version of the E-Nano. It just seems like a full blown improvement. The vape is just amazing, and is much more capable than any other log I've used. They all have their place and offer something unique, but the XL just rips.
The power dial is my favorite part of the vape. I've never had so much fun having one on my desk. It sits on the corner, is heavy and absolutely never moves, and you can see where the dial is no matter where you're looking at it from. It is truly built with the user in mind. With the right cord management, they fit seamlessly together on the desk.
Just so pleased with this thing.
and once again I have clean glass!
