The “voodoo” that is mentioned here can be explained by the unique air flow design of the HA. For far too long, manufacturers have focused solely on heat only, when thinking of extraction. Air flow can be just as crucial, imo.
The 18 strategically engineered & placed air ‘jets’ are found just before the air hits the herb, in the bottom of the crucible. This gives the air a turbulent flow pattern that not only mixes the heat evenly, but allows for a multi-vortex air stream that simultaneously hits the herb from all sides, allowing for such an even cooking. Most all other vapes use a laminar-type air flow that tends to focus the heat to the center of the air stream, resulting in an uneven cooking.
This flow design (especially using the pump, which pulses the air to give a hammering effect), also allows for an extremely efficient penetration of the herb. Most all other vapes need grinding because they weren’t designed to penetrate in this way, and require maximum surface area of the bud. Their air flow follows the path of least resistance, resulting in an uneven and non-penetrating extraction which also requires stirring, between hits.
The HA is pretty much opposite in that it works even better if you compact the whole buds into a ‘puck’ that plugs the air flow. This gives the air flow a ‘resistance’ that forces the turbulent air flow through all parts of the herb, resulting in complete extraction from the entire bud, inside and out, without ever grinding and stirring.
This extraction technique is so powerful that I liken it to making BHO. The liquid butane is such an effective solvent, that you must pack the herb down well, providing a resistance, and increasing the residence time of the solvent in the herb to get a good yield. If you keep the herb loosened, the butane will just go right through it too quickly, leaving a portion of the goodies behind.
One other advantage of the 18 jets is that under air flow, they create a small, local pressure drop that enables the HA to effectively vapourize at a lower temperature. The designer limited the HA to 400F or so, not only to prevent it from ever combusting (it cannot), but also to avoid the toxic compounds that can begin forming around these temperatures (especially the volatiles). These local pressure drops total up to allow the HA to vapourize as if the 400F was a higher temperature, imo.
Evidence of this can be seen in the AVB, where I’ve compared it to AVB from other vapes, under my microscope. In all cases, HA AVB is cooked more evenly, thoroughly, and darker than AVB from other vapes at the same approximate temps. In some cases, it was as dark as AVB from other vapes that ran 25-30F higher.
