If only I knew what I know now..

[PrematureEvaporation]

So I was having a vape and thinking about my personal journey vaping. The things I’ve learnt, the devices I’ve tried. How those experiences have shaped the knowledge and opinions current me has compared to first time vaporist me.

More specifically, if I could take a few “benefit of hindsight/experience” lessons and send them back in time to myself, which of them would have the most value to me at that time.

I think the most important lesson has come from fits of horrendous VAS and a LOT of money spent, which is the lesson that the hardest hitting vape is the one you hit with a well managed tolerance. I’ve spent a lot chasing my tolerance, getting a new device that can keep up until it can’t, then getting another vape and repeating the process.

Blasting some sort of mega desktop with a high tolerance absolutely pales in intensity to the experience of hitting something like even a cheap dynavap with a managed tolerance.

On that same train of thought, my next one would be that I don’t need tons of vapes as a non collector. A good butane on demand and a good electric session portable cover all the bases for me. Everything else past that is hype, FOMO, marketing and just plain curiosity on my part. Every time I’ve engaged with those thoughts I’ve been left with a lighter wallet and not much else to show for it.

I think with these advices I’d have settled into the position I’m at much earlier and much cheaper.

What about you all? What would you send back to yourself on your first day?

 

[eyevape]

What about you all? What would you send back to yourself on your first day?

25 years ago
- Trying vaping, it’s fun.

This didn’t happen, so:

3 years ago
- Conduction Hybrids will satisfy you, pure convection won’t.
- One day without combustion makes a big difference in vaping capabilities.
- Keep spending a shit ton of money, you’ll enjoy this stuff forever. But I don’t need to tell you that, you’re doin just fine on that bro

 

[simba]

I'd tell myself to go back and buy the Lotus when I first saw it at some ridiculously cheap prices and to also have given the vaponic a real try after having the opportunity to try one but not bothering because I thought it was weird

 

[Photonic]

- Conduction will satisfy you, pure convection won’t.

Not true for me!

I get why many people want/need conduction, but I'm 100% satisfied without those effects.

I agree with not necessarily needing to own a lot of vapes, and my daily rituals have reduced down to switching between only two devices (both convection heavy), with some rare, situation-specific use of live rosin carts and homemade tinctures.

 

[PrematureEvaporation]

Not true for me!

I get why many people want/need conduction, but I'm 100% satisfied without those effects.

I agree with not necessarily needing to own a lot of vapes, and my daily rituals have reduced down to switching between only two devices (both convection heavy), with some rare, situation-specific use of live rosin carts and homemade tinctures.

True for me! I’m definitely in the needs conduction to feel satisfied camp. Never got on with pure convection.

It’s interesting how some need it and some are fine without. I often wonder why that is.

I’m glad the top end of the market has so many great options for both now though. It used to be so convection heavy outside of a few select devices.

 

[eyevape]

Not true for me!

I get why many people want/need conduction, but I'm 100% satisfied without those effects.

Did you ever smoke joints for longer periods? What are your devices?

I’d love to be satisfied by those effects and just go with my beautiful and well crafted TM2. It’s just not happening and I wish I had discovered missing conduction for the reason earlier. Thought it’s only my brain that has to learn to be satisfied with the effects I perceived to happen from vaping in general.

 

[Cheebsy]

Conduction isn't needed for me either, i really do prefer convection. I was a heavy joint smoker for 30 years before stopping. Strain choice makes much more difference than the vape IME. Having said that I do fancy a heated glass bowl to add to the tool chest.

I would tell my newbie self to skip the cheap vapes I started with and just spend good money on the most highly regarded devices. They will vastly outlive the pain you feel in your wallet. I would also tell myself to be critical of the materials used because the ones I still use today are all the cleanest with least metal. Pretty much all my metallic vapes are in a drawer, with the exception of the anvil that comes out to play once a month or so. Discovering the very well priced elev8r was the game changer for me.

 

[simba]

with some rare, situation-specific use of live rosin carts

Being pedantic here but carts are conduction

 

[Photonic]

Did you ever smoke joints for longer periods? What are your devices?

Yeah, started with cannabis about 35 years ago. All we had were pipes, bowls and bongs... Although I did build my own custom vaporizer in '95 which worked (but not very well).

Nowadays I'm a die hard microdoser. I've settled on the TM2 and just started playing around with the Tempest.

Being pedantic here but carts are conduction

Yeah. Tinctures aren't convection either. Not saying I won't do conduction or even that I dislike it... just don't need it and usually prefer a more convection leaning effect. I still bust out my dynavaps every now and then. I've given away most other devices I've owned.

I agree with @Cheebsy that strain is most important. I grow lot's of different varieties and often have a good idea which ones will work best for me based on genetics.

 

[Octavia]

So my background is that I started as a pipe smoker who’d mostly just smoke occasionally. Would always feel super gutted the day after smoking, so ended up getting a MFLB soon after I left college and used that off and on for the next decade until l discovered my old batteries wouldn’t hold a charge.

My main things I wished I knew when I started:
- Conduction is not necessary. Had some very bland experiences with my first pure convection devices (neo prrl, firefly 2+) which left me thinking pure convection was just a fad. Got a Toad recently which has completely changed my perspective and quickly tied with my Firewood 9 as my favourite device.

- Pure conduction vapes can be nice. While I don’t prefer a pure conduction experience I do really enjoy my Dynavaps, and I really enjoy my IQ2 when I don’t really care about efficiency. I do understand why folks hate on pure conduction though since a lot of low end devices are pure conduction which probably is why it’s such a popular myth.

- Quality of material matters a LOT. When it comes to alcohol I usually buy pricier small batch drinks since I don’t drink often and it’s worth the higher up front cost. However until recently I would just buy whatever was on sale at the dispensary, until I tried some top shelf herb and was shocked that weed had a taste other than citrus and funk.

 

[simba]

As soon as my usage switched to vaping I've always tried to get quality organic weed. I've found that vaping highlights any deficiencies and because I need less it means I can afford to pay more.

 

[TigoleBitties]

I live in Canada so at least since 2018, I've been able to get very high quality flower. I was a joint/bong smoker for about 20 years before I discovered DHV and I absolutely embraced it with the OG Solo even though it was far from perfect back then.

I was shocked at just how flavorful flower could be. I never looked back.

Vaping since around 2010, I've discovered that the type of heater I like the most may be a halogen. This is very heavily convection but there is no doubt a conduction component as well as radiant heat. A hybrid I suppose.

I've enjoyed both pure conduction and pure convection devices but I'm starting to feel that the proper hybrid can give you the best experience. Maybe I would've told my past self that .

I really enjoyed my journey getting to this point though. Sure, I made a few missteps but I have relatively few vapes that I completely regret buying. You end up learning something, even from the misses. You'll still get high. Cheers!

 

[cx714]

You only need one vapcap. The rest is just stems.*

Convection for head. Conduction for body.

Cheap conduction sucks. Good conduction rocks.

Look for quality growers. Cultivator > cultivar.

Materials safety is never a productive conversation.

Dan Morrison does not own a calendar.



* That may not be true of the latest designs but I’ll never know bc I already own a vapcap.

 

[Moody]

So I was having a vape and thinking about my personal journey vaping. The things I’ve learnt, the devices I’ve tried. How those experiences have shaped the knowledge and opinions current me has compared to first time vaporist me.

More specifically, if I could take a few “benefit of hindsight/experience” lessons and send them back in time to myself, which of them would have the most value to me at that time.

I think the most important lesson has come from fits of horrendous VAS and a LOT of money spent, which is the lesson that the hardest hitting vape is the one you hit with a well managed tolerance. I’ve spent a lot chasing my tolerance, getting a new device that can keep up until it can’t, then getting another vape and repeating the process.

Blasting some sort of mega desktop with a high tolerance absolutely pales in intensity to the experience of hitting something like even a cheap dynavap with a managed tolerance.

On that same train of thought, my next one would be that I don’t need tons of vapes as a non collector. A good butane on demand and a good electric session portable cover all the bases for me. Everything else past that is hype, FOMO, marketing and just plain curiosity on my part. Every time I’ve engaged with those thoughts I’ve been left with a lighter wallet and not much else to show for it.

I think with these advices I’d have settled into the position I’m at much earlier and much cheaper.

What about you all? What would you send back to yourself on your first day

If you are in a situation where finances are kinda limited for this sort of thing and you need to make the best pick immediately, otherwise you feel buyer's remorse etc...then I understand where you are at.

However, for me, the experience of my first hit off of a vape was sooo much fun and looking back on it now it was such a positive change from combustion. That first vape a few years ago was a Mighty+. That is my least used vape now.

With each purchase I learn a bit more and have the fun of trying something new. I don't have many other hobbies (play an instrument). So the funds are there for this. I rotate them and use them for different situations.

Dynavaps (I spent a couple hundred just on stems from Eric - Turning Happiness) during the week. I love having a variety of stems to choose from and swap out. Makes every part of the ritual fun. sometimes I use the Solo2Max instead of the Dynavap if I have more time and feel like enjoying more flavor.

Weekends I use the XL WPA Solo3 to blast off beyond coherence.

And now I'm already planning my next purchase for dog walks. And after that maybe a desktop.....


The point is, after some time, hopefully, you will figure out a way to use all your stuff, or at least most of it. And if something is a bust, chalk it up to a learning experience. I bought some glassware for my Dynavaps from "shack"something that was a total bust. Think you need to use a torch instead of the wand and I don't want to use it. So it sits with my other items. Maybe someday in the future I'll change my mind or taste and use it.

Don't overthink it. Have fun and sell it to a friend, or try to find a situation where whatever you don't use, could come in handy.

Have fun. Life is short.

 

[PrematureEvaporation]

Strain choice makes much more difference than the vape IME.

I agree with @Cheebsy that strain is most important.

It was interesting to read you both saying this, as I’ve sort of experimented with this idea before and found that my experience differs to yourselves. Not to say yours are invalid, just that mine is different.

I can take the same strain, for the same amount and load it into my TA3 (heating for convection bias) and my Solo 3 and I will get markedly different effects. The TA is much headier, uplifting so to speak. The Solo 3 I feel it much more in the body with a more sort of stony profile.

I also find that different flavour profiles seem to show themselves better in certain vapes. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[BushRanger]

I'd like to add to the conduction/convection discussion, that type of herb should also play a role.
Like, fluffy sativa for convection, dense indica for conduction.

 

[Photonic]

It was interesting to read you both saying this, as I’ve sort of experimented with this idea before and found that my experience differs to yourselves. Not to say yours are invalid, just that mine is different.

I can take the same strain, for the same amount and load it into my TA3 (heating for convection bias) and my Solo 3 and I will get markedly different effects. The TA is much headier, uplifting so to speak. The Solo 3 I feel it much more in the body with a more sort of stony profile.

I also find that different flavour profiles seem to show themselves better in certain vapes. Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes, I believe what your describing to be true and a primary reason for highlighting the differences between conduction and convention vapes. Method of extraction, device design, materials used, temperature, user preferences/biology, etc all factor into the experience.

The cannabis variety (i.e., genetics) and cultivation environment when growing it determine the types/levels of cannabinoids and secondary metabolites present in the flower. Different combinations of these compounds, combined with how they are ingested, interact with the user's endocannabinoid system to produce the effects. Different cultivars have different types and levels of cannabis compounds, which is why the strain directly impacts the experience, especially when using the same method of delivery as a baseline.

 

[PrematureEvaporation]

Yes, I believe what your describing to be true and a primary reason for highlighting the differences between conduction and convention vapes. Method of extraction, device design, materials used, temperature, user preferences/biology, etc all factor into the experience.

The cannabis variety (i.e., genetics) and cultivation environment when growing it determine the types/levels of cannabinoids and secondary metabolites present in the flower. Different combinations of these compounds, combined with how they are ingested, interact with the user's endocannabinoid system to produce the effects. Different cultivars have different types and levels of cannabis compounds, which is why the strain directly impacts the experience, especially when using the same method of delivery as a baseline.

Absolutely.

There are so many variables that go into the experience as a whole. All of which have a great bearing on the outcome, which is of course the effects we feel, and the flavours we taste whilst doing so. The fact even something like mindset and anticipating how the effects will manifest can colour the experience before it’s even happened, makes it so hard to quantify in a meaningful way.

Personally I feel like my choice of vape device is a stronger indicator of the experience I’ll get than the variety of cannabis I use. I can make uplifting varieties put me to bed, and vice versa. Of course, matching the profile of a variety with a vape that complements it only enhances the effects of both flower and device. Those are some of the strongest and satisfying experiences IMO.

Which is interesting to me as I was the opposite combusting - the variety I used had much more bearing on the experience than the method (bong, pipe, spliff, blunt etc)

 

[SmokeyDope]

So I was having a vape and thinking about my personal journey vaping. The things I’ve learnt, the devices I’ve tried. How those experiences have shaped the knowledge and opinions current me has compared to first time vaporist me.

More specifically, if I could take a few “benefit of hindsight/experience” lessons and send them back in time to myself, which of them would have the most value to me at that time.

I think the most important lesson has come from fits of horrendous VAS and a LOT of money spent, which is the lesson that the hardest hitting vape is the one you hit with a well managed tolerance. I’ve spent a lot chasing my tolerance, getting a new device that can keep up until it can’t, then getting another vape and repeating the process.

Blasting some sort of mega desktop with a high tolerance absolutely pales in intensity to the experience of hitting something like even a cheap dynavap with a managed tolerance.

On that same train of thought, my next one would be that I don’t need tons of vapes as a non collector. A good butane on demand and a good electric session portable cover all the bases for me. Everything else past that is hype, FOMO, marketing and just plain curiosity on my part. Every time I’ve engaged with those thoughts I’ve been left with a lighter wallet and not much else to show for it.

I think with these advices I’d have settled into the position I’m at much earlier and much cheaper.

What about you all? What would you send back to yourself on your first day?

"You put your weed in there". A simple sentence that conveys a fundamental truth of the vaping universe. No matter how different vapes are in airflow, texture, heating mechanism, visual appeal and form factor, at the end of the day... You put your weed in there and you heat it up till it produces vapor. As long as your vape roast the herb to your liking and gives the hit you want, you're at the peak of the vaping game.

The other bit of advice is:" The best vape accessory is weed." Money spent on VAS is money you could have spent on an OZ. A fancy vape collection is useless without herb.

I dont know if I would change anything, the journey happens how and when its meant to happen. I haven't spent a whole lot of $ on vape stuff and every one of my few purchases has been a meaningful one which added something to my experience or gave new insights to preference.

I might urge myself to get a vape sooner or remind myself to dig out the extremeq desktop I was gifted years ago which I didn't understand anything about. And to look up some accessories for the EQ to be more to my preference.

But all these things happened already on their own.

Wisdom is knowledge and experience. Its sometimes just as much worth the money to learn what you don't like. Thats how you dial in what works best for you.

I'm a very minimalistic self diciplined person who is able to resist VAS very well. l work hard for my money so I make sure every cent counts. Every vape and accessory ive chosen to buy was a heavily weighed decision over weeks to months of thinking about it. That helps make sure whatever is bought has a good chance of adding something instead of just being useless crap for the drawer.

Agree with you on tolerance. I always felt like microdosing was the right way to do it for efficiency and tolerance management. Ball vapes never appealed to me and this is one of the reasons why. I didn't even like the desktop EQ until I modded it to be a one hitter device.

 

[Gorf]

Rotating strains and devices seems to keep me from developing a tolerance. Like, I was using my TM2 for several weeks and then switched devices and got absolutely zooted off of less material. So that's neat!

 

[Rodney]

Rotating strains and devices seems to keep me from developing a tolerance. Like, I was using my TM2 for several weeks and then switched devices and got absolutely zooted off of less material. So that's neat!

am exactly the same!!! I think a lot of it is in the head but as long as it works cool cool

 

[Spy Car]

If I knew what I know now, I would have joined this community sooner.

One for the good cheer.

Two, I've been able to curate a collection of vaporizers that are quite to my taste and fill certain use niches, without wasting money on mistakes, due in large measure to drawing on the collective intelligence and the expertise and experience of users here.

Bill

 

[Roffa]

Looking back, I could have found FC earlier. It's this place that got me into artisanal vaporizers. I started my journey at the Pax and S&B end. I found out that I like supporting new makers even if things don't always go slowly. And for me the bleeding edge is at butane vapes. So I meandered via dynavap to Vestratto and that's where I made my home for now. I gravitated towards the kind of vaping that suits me, apparently.