Alright I finally took the time to make this post but it is going to be a bit long as it will combine my exchange with Smiss management and R&D, the 5S review, as well as answers to all the recent questions in the thread.
First Q&A session with the Mothership
I had the chance to talk with Smiss management recently, and to my surprise they were very receptive and open to suggestions. They answered all my questions and in fact, they proved to be eager for feedback! So if you guys have any remarks, ideas or questions, do not hesitate to express them here, as they are definitely listening to us (and reading this forum)
They will try to allocate human resources to get someone handle the comercial account over here, but they are a big company with plenty of different products, and I think most of their revenues come from e-cigs, so it's all a matter of priorities...
China has a very long history of using the Plant for traditional medicine (in fact, the earliest records found so far come from ancient China) but apart from the southern Yunnan region, its use as a recreative drug over there has always been very limited. As people evoked in the recent "Jackie Chan" thread, it is not really in their culture.
If you add to that the ultra severe laws they have in place (cf
http://www.420magazine.com/forums/china/87294-china-marijuana-laws.html ) you can understand why they litterally crave for feedback from real users! Once again, if you have any suggestions for improvements, or why not, a future other product, express them here!
Here's the first Q&A series:
Q > Is the straw really "Pyrex"?
A > No, it's just regular borosilicate glass, we will correct the wording on the packaging.
Q > Would it be possible to include a spare silicone mouthpiece in the package?
A > Yes, good idea, it will be included in the new batchs.
Q > Is it possible to use higher amps (ex: 3A) chargers with the FM?
A > Yes, but the charging current will remain the same as the charging chip IC limits it to 1A in all cases.
Q > What material is the yellow tape around the bowl?
A > This is polymide, which is the same as the capsule of the G3 or Inhalater.
Q > The device when new has a bad smell, could you do more burn-ins or something to get rid of that?
A > We already do at least 3 empty burn-in cycles to check the device function at the factory. The bad smell is not only from the polymide but also from the silicone and ceramic at high temperature. We are working to find a solution to get rid of the smells, as customers' experience is the most important for us. Meanwhile we'll be adding silica dessicant bags inside the packages, as we already do for our other products.
Q > What materials are the various parts of the vapor-path made of?
A > The bowl is ceramic, with silicone to hold it in place and insulate the heat. The base of the mouthpiece is copper (
possibly nickel-plated?) and the screens are nickel.
I then suggested them to investigate stainless steel screens instead, although I'm not really sure there is any real concern with nickel at these low temperatures (but apparetly some people are intolerant to it). As it is a rather complex subject they acknowledged they had some R&D to do before taking any decision. They also said that material price is not a problem, as their priority is their customers.
Overall I've been really pleased by their answers and their willingness to do their best to improve their products.
Using the FlowerMate 5S as my alternating daily-driver
I know you guys were awaiting 5S reviews, but I already reviewed the original V version several times earlier in this thread, and well, it's the same. The original worked well, this one works well, and has 3 temp settings, a shorter time-out and the LED outside of the vapor-path, and that's all!
Battery time is great, it extracts faster than my Ascent (read: bigger clouds in less time) almost too fast at times (the vapor flows out of the mouthpiece) and most often it's way over what my lungs can absorb, so in a way it's more wasteful. Sessions are shorter but the taste deteriorates faster (I think there is more conduction than in the Ascent)
The experience is closer to a joint, it's great for noobs and combusters alike. You have no instructions to give, just hand the device and tell them to draw, as hard as they like, and it will work. When the bowl is fresh you can really get a few lungbusters if you want and a couple of my friends who previously used only my Ascent had bad surprises! With the Ascent you have to sip, with this one you can draw pretty soft or pretty hard and it will follow you.
As I expected, more temperatures leads to longer sessions, and with the aluminium body of the device acting as a radiator, with time it gets quite hot. Sometimes I let it cool down one minute after the auto-off before engaging a new cycle, in order to ease the stress on the batteries (it cool downs pretty fast thanksfully)
The glass mouthpiece is of course a new potential failure point. My friend told me he got some cracks already, I don't know how careful he was though... Mine is fine, already coated with droplets of oil. There is some slight play between the glass and the metal base, I think it's because I took the bad habit of unscrewing it by holding the glass instead of the metal ring (but you know, that metal ring gets burning hot so....) I'll be watching this closely but I wish I had a spare silicone one in case I break it.
The device is super stealthy. Brought it to a night club, in my gf's purse. They didn't even ask what it was, but if they do, just answer that it's a hard drive. It looks completely inoffensive. We used it on the dance floor, hidden inside an opaque glass, like if we were sipping a drink. Nobody noticed, not even a single glance.
I think I would have chosen 3 slightly different temperatures and I also think that like in the Indica case, if we manage to all find a consensus, we might be able to make Smiss use new presets in the future. The current setttings are:
Blue > 385°F / 196°C
Purple > 400°F / 204°C
Red > 415°F / 213°C
What I find with daily use so far is that the Blue one is nice but already too hot for "pure flavor land". The Purple is too close to Blue, meaning that if you deplete all the Blue level, when you go to Purple there's not much left, and you usually go to Red pretty fast. So as it is, either you start at Blue or Purple or increase to Purple before Blue is depleted... but hm that could be better I think. Red is nice, not too much popcorn, I don't know if I would touch that but in theory it could be increased a bit. Note that this is a double-edged sword: higher temp = hotter device = shorter battery life (as well as more power used)
I would propose at least to have Blue somewhere closer to 185°C but if you asked me, I would even say to make it 175°C or even less! (I'm a flavor whore!) So my quick proposal, to be refined would be:
new Blue > 347°F / 175°C
new Purple > 383°F / 195°C
new Red > 419°F / 215°C
What's your take?
Forum Q&A
So how does the new 3 temp version compare to the original? How do they hit comparatively? The original doesn't seem to give thick potent hits from what I've seen...
They hit the same when you use the Red setting. I don't know what you have seen but it's the strongest portable vape in my arsenal. It's not a desktop vape for sure, but it medicates fast and you can get good clouds if you want.
I feel its sort of a bell curve in terms of operation. The first two hits are somewhat underwhelming and the third fourth and fifth are (for me anyway) superb , I can get pretty thick clouds with ease. Then it sort of tapers off again and the hits get less and less potent.
I find it gets going pretty fast, after the first two hits it's a steam machine. It's more a slow decay than a real bell curve though. Also the more you advance into the session, the harder you have to draw and the longer you have to wait (on the original V or on red on the 5S) I mean that at first you can hit it back to back very hard then after a while you get the impression it's already depleted, but if you start waiting more and draw harder at that point, you can continue extracting (although the taste is pretty much spent at this point, so it might not be to everyone's liking)
I don't think you should expect thick hits from a fixed temp vape, nor from a pocket portable. Thickest hits come at your higher temps, and most pocket vapes have a narrow diameter stem/mouthpiece, and that's going to limit hit size. For me, a pocket vape should be downsized proportionally- smaller bowl, stem, etc. A sipper instead of a gulper. You get the same potency. It just takes more hits to get it.
This is where I think you will be surprised with this little beast. The Ascent is a sipper, this one you can gulp and draw hard (but it lasts not very long, is probably less efficient, vapor path is shorter and taste not as good) And remember the V version is pretty high temp already, ours is over 200°C clearly, perhaps even 210 or 215 (reminds me I forgot to ask Smiss about that!)
on the temp issue. I think other significant issues are warranty and shipping cost, and those two are related. For the V, you can get free shipping from sellers on dhgate.com if you buy 5 units, but right now epacket shipping is the only way to get a good price on one unit. The 5S, for now, is about $110 due to high shipping cost.
