All right, I've received everything.
I received it all yesterday morning, but I had to go to work. By the time I came back, I realized that I should have charged the batteries for the MFLB in the morning, which led to my being unable to try the MFLB right away (the papers were quite insistent on the fact that I shouldn't use just any battery, so I got nervous about sticking a regular battery in there). In any case, I intended to try the HA first anyway.
So, I set up the HA and set up some bags, since I'd read that the HA is at its best when using bags. I stuck about as much cannabis in the receptacle as it would let me without packing anything, and I turned the thing on and set it to 325 to start out (more on this later), and then I waited a bit. The light was green at first, and then at one point it flickered and became green with a very subtle hint of red in it. I knew the light was supposed to turn amber, so I figured that this was a sign that it was going to turn amber any second now, but nothing happened. Several minutes passed, and nothing. Still green with the tiniest hint of a reddish tone in it. Certainly not amber, and I'm very far from being colour-blind. I tried to turn the knob down just a tiny little bit, and the light flashed to real amber for a quick second, then went to red. I put it back up, and it went right back to being that green with a tiny little bit of a hint of red in it. Confused, I turned the temperature up a bit, and it became brighter green. I then put it right back to 325, shrugged, and figured that either their definition of "amber" differed from mine, or that the little light indicator on my HA was slightly defective. Whatever the issue was, I'd waited several minutes (I'd lost track of how many) and figured it was time to put a bag on it and turn on the pump.
As soon as I turned it on, I saw some vapour pour right into the bag. Within less than a minute, my bag was full enough, so I took it off, set up another bag, and tried vape for the first time in my life, from my very own vaporizer. It tasted okay, if a little plastic-ish, and I quickly felt a bit of a tingle, telling me that if I kept at it, I'd have a bona-fide buzz secured soon enough. The other bag was getting ready, so I quickly took in what was left of this one, and switched them again. To my surprise, this bag was still getting some vapour, even though I hadn't turned up the heat yet. I guess I should explain now: My plan was to start off around 325, go until no vapour came out, turn it up to 350, repeat, and then to 375 for one last sweep.
By the time I was on my fourth bag, there was still vapour coming in, albeit a little less abundantly than before. I decided not to wait until the vapour density became absurdly low, and to turn it up to 350 right away. Once again, the vapour looked thick enough until the fourth bag. By then, I definitely had a nice buzz on. It was different from a smoking buzz, as I'd read here and other places, but it was definitely intense enough in its own way. I then turned it up to 375, and got another 3 good bags out of it, plus one weaker fourth bag. This vapour was a bit harsher to the stuff that came out at lower temperature. I figure it's because I was getting closer to combustion level.
I was amazed at the efficiency of the thing. Granted, the bags are a bit small and I wasn't filling them to the point where there was stress on them, but I was still amazed at how many bags I got out of the same amount I would have put into a joint. I also had to admit that while the buzz was different in nature, it was actually stronger than what I would have gotten out of a joint with the same exact quantity of weed in it.
A little later, I decided to put another, somewhat smaller load in it to try the whip out. This time, I was wise to the light, so I didn't waste any time. I wanted to use the same approach as with the bags in terms of my temperature scheme, so I started off at 325 again. When the light changed a bit, I took a hit from the whip. I tasted a little bit of weed, but I really couldn't tell if anything was coming in. I thought I saw a little vapour go through the whip at first, but it quickly faded and it looked like I was just taking in air. It kind of tasted like that too, so I decided to jump the gun and set it to 350 right away.
The same thing happened at 350 within a few short seconds. Getting frustrated, I removed the whip and try to draw directly from the mouthpiece. It was pretty subtle, but I could tell it was working better than the whip. I turned it up to 375 and forgot about the whip, taking in my last hits as a direct draw. Even though it was better than the whip, I really felt like it didn't take long at all before I was getting nothing out of it. I'd worked up a buzz again (which, it should be said, is actually tough to do on your second joint of the evening, so that's a definite plus), but I felt that this experience was altogether much less satisfactory than the bags had been.
While I'm sure a vaporizer like the SSV is great for the direct draw or whip approach, it appears that this is not the HA's forte. Not once did I see the same cloud of vapour come out of my mouth as I did with the bag approach, and it was just less fun, a bit hotter on the lips, and for some reason I can't understand, it seemed to be much less efficient that way. Maybe I wasn't doing it properly.
Either way, the HerbalAire was thoroughly enjoyable when used with bags. In my last session of the night, I went back to bags and had a great time of it. Amazingly, once again I'd managed to recapture my buzz. I don't know if this was because I'm still new to vaporizing, or if that's just the nature of the beast, but I definitely appreciate this part so far.
I realize that this post has grown well beyond what I'd intended in terms of length, so I'll cut it short here and talk about my MFLB in my next post. That one should at least be shorter.
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great to hear, dorkus. You certainly didn't hang around 'umming and ahhing' about you purchase first! From unaware to delighted in less than a week!