Last:
Toad
See below.
Next portable:
Nomad
You’ll find new pictures of my Nomad and Toad in their respective threads soon, but if you look back through the threads you’ll already be able to see why these are my favorite pieces of functional art!
I’ve already said a lot about them there, but briefly I’ll say that these use easily swappable on demand convection heaters (he’s making low and high right now), they are maybe still the smallest battery powered convection devices around, they are well thought out designs that actually work well as portables rather than something I’d only use around the house, and the craftsmanship and attention to detail throughout are amazing!
The things that may not be ideal for everyone are that it is unregulated (you have to learn to adjust your draw speed and pre-heat time to get the results you want), and while I’ve heard people say the flavor is great I haven’t made it past good yet. I think that’s in part my need to learn it but, like every other convection portable I can think of, these do use metal heaters which I think will always affect the flavor in ways I don’t love.
It also takes some time on a waiting list and then a wait during production so these are not the best choice for people who always need instant gratification, but the fact that Dan makes all of these things including the art by himself and really cares about making every one of them as close to perfect as possible (combined with all of the other positives I’ve talked about) makes them well worth the wait if you can wait!
I don’t want to leave you with the wrong impression. In a world where changes to things like the heater material wouldn’t have their own drawbacks there are a couple of improvements I’d make to these, but that is even more true with everything else I’ve tried.
I have some great vaporizers and I do expect to use them in the future, but I haven’t used any of them since I got the Toad. I still fully expect it or the Nomad to be in my pocket every day unless I want to mix it up once in a while and grab my Firewood 7 which is also very good…but overall I just like and enjoy the Toad more, and my incoming Nomad is really awesome.
Next desktop:
Phase 3 (AKA InV1) V1.8
I already have a couple of FlowerPots (ShowerHead and VRod) and they are great desktops that I’ve recommended a lot, but I held off on buying any of the new ball-filled models because they still use metal housings and like I said I think that has some negative effect on flavor.
What I’ve been waiting for is the InV1 to mature and bring a similar design with minimal metal, and it’s finally here!
I know that these aren’t cheap and I can only base my opinions on reading, watching videos, talking to
@invertedisdead who designed it, and user reports from the small batch of 1.7s that made it out into the world, but I think that these will be at least among the best desktops in the world.
If you aren’t aware of them yet, I would check out the thread I linked above and seriously consider making this your next vape. The only way it’s going to get the attention it should and make it past more than a round or two of pre-orders is if enough people give them a shot and see how great they are.
He didn’t ask me to say this or anything, but I was encouraging other people to spread the word while there’s still time to get in, so I figured I’d better let some people know this was happening too!
If you‘re interested but not sure, feel free to talk to me or post in that thread and I think a lot of you will be glad you did. This is not one to pass over lightly in my opinion; it’s going to be great!