Oh bless you guys! Glad to see so many enjoying sapphire now!
Just wanted to fill anyone interested in on where I'm at with concentrate consumption techniques now. I've really changed my methods of consumption quite a bit over recent times to maximize efficiency and flavor.
I find steam from a steam wand (or anything you can get steam out of really) is the absolute best way to clean the sapphire halo. I have not taken the heat on my sapphire halo beyond 540f for a very long time indeed!
Take the sapphire dish off of the nail, place it inside a nogoo silicone container (perfect snug fit!), get some heat proof gloves on to avoid nasty steam burns on your hands and hold the nogoo with the sapphire halo inside under the steam wand (use one from a cheap espresso machine, make sure it has a good bit of pressure!) and apply the steam for as long as necessary. The sapphire will get hot very quick hence the gloves and silicone. You'll see the residue literally blow away! Gets your sapphire looking as new very quickly without spending your coil or scraping with anything at all!
This same technique works wonders with oil pen cartridges. Even the most residue filled ones! Iso is almost useless in comparison for cleaning these!
This same technique is also amazing for cleaning glass, metal accessories, dab tools and just about anything else you can think of.
I definitely still use the SiC for torch use and when I'm out of the house (same reason as my man
@Monsoon explained above), although my quartz halo has remained unused for a year or so. I don't care at all for quartz anymore, but must point out for those that do use quartz still that nothing else cleans quartz like steam!
I've had an Evo for a while now too and have actually found that concentrates taste better convection vaped in an ELB sandwiched between 316L SS wool than when dabbed on the quartz or SiC halo. A major benefit of this setup over a quartz enail is that you will not miss a single drop of your concentrate vapor to trails drifting off into the air above your nail in-between hits. This is very efficient and ensures that you get all of the goods out of your material, with the ability to avoid cooking of the material in-between hits by simply removing the ELB.
This is my favorite way to hit 4-5 star bubble hashes too. Of course, 5 star hash is dabbable, but the excess residue from contaminant (like resin gland membranes and trichome stalks) gets funky and harsh toward the end of the dab - not so much in a vape. For 4 star bubble, which is not dabbable, I find this as enjoyable to vape in the evo as full melt! I would never rosin 4 star bubble hash now!
Of course, I am still dabbing 6 star full melt and rosin (although I use rosin less and less these days) on my sapphire halo though - it is hands down the best in these usage scenarios.
If you predominately use rosin, the sapphire halo is the best option money can buy right now IMO. If you predominately use hash and rarely get six star super melty stuff - or use any other concentrates but simply don't have the considerable cash required for a sapphire halo setup - consider the evo instead using the SS sandwich tek in the ELB's (I don't bother with vapexnails)! I understand that the Evo is not exactly cheap itself, but IIRC it can be had cheaper than a d-nail controller with a quartz or sic halo and all the required accessories, let alone sapphire.
Also yes folks, you guys just saw me recommend a non d-nail product over a few d-nail products lol. I know - I just pinched myself too! Of course, I hope this helps some of you guys, especially any fellow hash aficionados lurking about. There's not enough good info for hash vaporists out there!
