I love the HA and use it pretty much daily......but I couldn't disagree more with this statement. The HerbalAire heating chamber and it's little crucible is like an oven -- and if you leave your herb in there it will get baked. It won't combust but you'll have lost most of your vapor and will find it condensed on the insides of the crucible.
Again, I love the HerbalAire, but it's not one you can leave your herb in for long. And given the design (super hot metal all around your herb) I don't see how it could be any other way...
OK, so I understand what your theory is, but have you ever actually tested it? I have, and just did again and encourage you to try my experiment as well and report your results.
I put a small load in a new crucible and let it sit idle through two 'full blast' sessions. That's what, 40 minutes? I'm not sure, I just let it run. After cool down the herb was, of course, much darker (and fairly uniformly so) as before. But inspection at 45X showed a lot of the trichomes intact. And I didn't notice any real smell coming out while sitting a few feet away.
Putting the load back in, and running it at maximum temperature gave the usual 6 or 8 full hits I'd get from this amount, but the 'first hit' taste was missing. IMO I got normal deliver of the THC loaded.
I think you're right but didn't take your thinking far enough. The THC did indeed condense on the (slightly) cooler spots in the load and elsewhere. It didn't go anywhere, nor degrade. It was still there, awaiting my evil doing. IMO no real penalty for letting it idle within reason.
Unlike the (IMO) similar situation with PD and other log vapes where a forgotten stem still has potency the next day after sitting in the port, HA also offers an automatic power down if you get totally lost. IMO both are handy features.
I agree, I would never let a load of herb sit idle in my herbalaire for too long without hitting it.
Your call, of course. And I too see no reason to and generally don't...but it does happen sometimes. I'm not sure what "too long" is, but if it exists (by my standards, of course) it must be longer that two time outs. That is 'you can't get there from here'? I think the load cools off enough so there's no real harm going on once you stop pulling for a bit. The remaining THC just migrates around a bit.
OF