Discontinued Minicron, Minicron Lite and Ophos Oil Vaporizers

wakeboard3584

New Member
How many KISS carts will you buy at $26 a pop? I bought my Hercules SR-71 when they first came out 8-10 months ago for $100. I've put an easy oz of oil through it during that time. I've yet to have a part break on me.

That's why I'm looking at other options. I won't buy any more KISS carts lol. Looking into rebuilding them myself.
 
wakeboard3584,

Caligula

Maximus
My point is that these are all inferior, consumable carts. Once you absorb the cost of a Hercules cart, you never have to make another purchase again. That alone ends up paying for itself over time... and this isn't even counting the other variables in the equation such as flavor retention and load size.
 

StickyShisha2

Well-Known Member
My point is that these are all inferior, consumable carts. Once you absorb the cost of a Hercules cart, you never have to make another purchase again. That alone ends up paying for itself over time... and this isn't even counting the other variables in the equation such as flavor retention and load size.


since this is the Ophos/Omi-lite thread, I'll ask here.
will the new Ophos be able to run the Herc 3.7v rod??
 
StickyShisha2,

wakeboard3584

New Member
My point is that these are all inferior, consumable carts. Once you absorb the cost of a Hercules cart, you never have to make another purchase again. That alone ends up paying for itself over time... and this isn't even counting the other variables in the equation such as flavor retention and load size.

So the Hercules SR-71 never burns out any parts? I can buy alot of ceramic wick and wire for $100.
 
wakeboard3584,

Caligula

Maximus
since this is the Ophos/Omi-lite thread, I'll ask here.
will the new Ophos be able to run the Herc 3.7v rod??

Oh yeaaa.... sorry. I thought this was the Omi thread for some reason, lol sidetracked.

And no, I dont think so. Couple of dudes running the 3.7 on inexpensive mods though.

So the Hercules SR-71 never burns out any parts? I can buy alot of ceramic wick and wire for $100.

I dont know of anyone who has "burnt out" a Hercules. And there is a rather large performance gap between the Hercules cart and wire/wick setups. Hercules doesn't use wire. Only thing that heats up directly is the ceramic rod itself. That's a game changer compared to wire wrapped around a wick of any kind.
 

Jman5280

Well-Known Member
how does the herc compare to a dab off of a nail?

I opted to get the KISS and omi lite instead of the herc set up because the herc was so much money. But now after breaking two KISS in two months I see the investment of the herc being worthwhile.

I am at the point where I am considering herc or nail and torch...if the herc could work on the omi-lite i would get one. The persei is not very stealth.

I totally forgot about that video. Good call G.

im trying to find this video...where is it?
 
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Jman5280,

StickyShisha2

Well-Known Member
how does the herc compare to a dab off of a nail?

i can get as thick a hit from my Herc (@7.4v) as you can get off a nail and i swear it tastes better than any nail.
@3.7v, the taste will be there, but getting a thick hit will most likely require slow milking. (I didn't have much success at 3.7v but as it turned out, my rod was defective)
 

Jman5280

Well-Known Member
i can get as thick a hit from my Herc (@7.4v) as you can get off a nail and i swear it tastes better than any nail.
@3.7v, the taste will be there, but getting a thick hit will most likely require slow milking. (I didn't have much success at 3.7v but as it turned out, my rod was defective)

Will the 3.7v Herc work on a Omicron Lite? Where do you buy a 3.7v Herc, I only see 7.4v...
 
Jman5280,

kushcabbage

vapor nerd
since this is the Ophos/Omi-lite thread, I'll ask here.
will the new Ophos be able to run the Herc 3.7v rod??
hey mate, check out
and
the old ophos and lite works but the hercules is better suited to a pen without a timeout feature, and a larger battery. I've even got my herc to work on a shitty ego mini something rather,
 

Jman5280

Well-Known Member
hey mate, check out
and
the old ophos and lite works but the hercules is better suited to a pen without a timeout feature, and a larger battery. I've even got my herc to work on a shitty ego mini something rather,

is that the herc 7.4? what would i need for it to work with my omicron lite? thanks!
 
Jman5280,

215z

Well-Known Member
The Hercules looks awesome but man, that's a steep price tag haha.

Not really. I made the mistake of thinking that way when the Herc first became popular here. Since then, I ended up spending far more than $100 on gadgets that did not meet my needs. I certainly wasted more than $100 of concentrate, burning it on coils or losing it through messy loading.

The yin and the yang of the Hercules is electrical power. Tiny filament wire heating elements (like an incandescent bulb) run real nice at the 9W limit of Ovale Ego clones. The Hercules uses a ceramic rod heating element (like a soldering iron) that runs at 20W to 40W.

I need to stop and talk out loud about where that power goes. The power heats up the heating element, which in turn heats up the concentrate in contact with the heating element, which in turn heats up the concentrate adjacent to the now-hot concentrate. So, if you have a glob of wax, the edge of the glob touching the heating element gets heated. The hot melty wax heats up the wax in the core of the glob... eventually all of it gets vaporized. Well, not all of it; if that heating element is super hot, some oil is going to get toasted.

Think of toasting a slice of bread. The machine has hot filaments on each side of cold bread. Eventually the slice of bread gets really nice and warm, the surfaces of the bread facing the elements get dry, and horizontal grill marks appear on the bread. That is the delicious essence of toast, the toasty marks on them. As long as very little of the bread is charred, the toast tastes fabulous with salted butter. If too much of the bread is charred, the toast will taste like ass. On the other hand, you could heat a cold slice of bread on a hot skillet over the stove. The bread will get hot - very hot if needed - but you're not going to get any grill marks, and your kids will reject it as "not toasty".

Back to getting medicated. A very small, thin, hot coil will ultimately burn concentrate that it is in contact with. A tiny 30g coil will run at 750F, heating and bubbling wax away until the wax sublimates. A bigger, heavier coil (say 28 triple twisted) can run at a lower temperature, yet still deliver as much heat to the wax. But, a bigger heavier coil needs more energy to run. Taking this to the extreme, the Hercules uses a huge heavy ceramic rod instead of tiny filaments. It is not efficient in the sense that it requires a humongous amount of energy to run. But, it can be driven at a relatively low temperature, while delivering all the heat needed to the wax. Wax that is in contact with the hot Hercules rod is alot less likely to burn/char than wax that is in contact with a very hot filament coil. The yin.

The KISS cart is the best filament/coil setup out there for either burning wax or vaping wax. (There is a local firm outright ripping off G's designs, it is the only thing on the market that is comparable.) Yeah, alot of people just lay wax on top of the coil and pull the trigger, leaving their coil crusty at the end of the night. I prime my KISS wick by pulsing the power just enough to warm the coils, then dab it with concentrate, letting the wax melt and flow into the wick without getting hot enough to vape. Then I vape off the wax in the wick - all vapor no smoke. But I know the temptation to drop wax on the coil, because I too was chasing bigger hits. I was abusing those KISS carts until my Herc arrived. The Herc has since paid for itself, as measured by all the concentrate I burned and got on my fingers abusing the KISS.

The yang of the Herc is its power requirements. You can't drive it with a small compact inexpensive battery. The price for entry is a battery/vape that can deliver 20W to 40W. That's alot of power, even for ecig users. You'll also end up with gear that is nowhere as stealthy as an Ophos or Omicron Lite. If you take dabs off the nail before leaving the house, and use the KISS to stay on the level with hits every few hours, you probably will want the Ophos/OmiLite over any million dollar megavape. But if you need a portable daily driver, you're going to want a Persei+Herc. I wish I hadn't wasted a bunch of time, energy, and money trying to improve, improvise, or make do with lesser gear.

Edit: You'll kill an Ophos/OmiLite quick trying to drive a Herc, that is battery abuse. You will get miniscule runtime, and wispy hits. I swear the dude on the video vaping on his OmiLite got lucky, not even G can reproduce it on his office units.
 
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wakeboard3584

New Member
great explanation, @215z. grassy-ass! just ordered another Ti KISS cart and gonna see about trying to rebuild my old one. i just can't justify another $265 for another setup, even when it's as BA as the Persei+Herc :)
 
wakeboard3584,

Caligula

Maximus
You can use a Persei/Omicron cart on an Ophos but not the other way around. There's an Ophos specific KISS cart which has a collar that extends to cover the external ego style threads. That collar would prevent the cart from fitting on an Omicron/Omicron-Lite/Persei.
 

Chill Dude

Well-Known Member
How often are you guy s cleaning your Kiss carts? I know it's variable, and depends on the quality of concentrate and other factors. I'm thinking every 2 grams or so?? Here is my understanding of the cleaning process for Kiss carts:

Soak and agitate the entire Kiss cart in ISO maybe 20 minutes
Let dry for a couple hours
Do a couple 2 second dry burns to make sure all ISO has evaporated.

Is that correct?

Has anyone experienced damage to the cartridge from multiple ISO soaks? The reason I ask is I'm kind of a clean freak and will probably clean my carts more frequently than most as long as it won't damage or diminish the life of the carts....
 
Chill Dude,

Caligula

Maximus
I soak mine in warm 99% iso after every gram or so. Quick blast of compressed air followed by about 15 minute of dry time and a second or so dry burn. Never had a problem. I've only been able to kill a cart by digging at the solid concentrate pooled in the ceramic cup. Managed to twist the cup, which broke a wire connection somewhere.
 
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