Hey guys! I've been lurking Fuckcombustion for quite some time. I've learned so much about vaporization and related subjects during my hours spent reading this forum, and I must admit you guys have made me fairly paranoid about toxic contaminants in my vapor. That's pretty much what my first post is about.
I've owned my Silver Surfer for a good while now. It's my favorite of any model I've tried, and it's been through a lot. Traveled far and wide and gotten a lot of vapor newbs very very lifted. When I had my heater cover break for the first time, I had to remove the metal cylinder connecting the heater cover to the base. Ever sense then it has never been on quite as tight and once in a blue moon it comes completely lose, forcing me to shut off the unit. Whenever this happens I push it back in and tighten it by twisting clockwise, being careful not to mess with the ceramic. What I find alarming is that sometimes whenever I power on the unit for the first time after doing this, it emits a little smoke.
When this happens I leave the unit on at full blast for like 15 minutes, much like you would when you first get it to burn off manufacturing oils. I smell the heating element and there isn't really an alarming aroma. After that I turn the unit down to the highest temperature I would reasonably use in a vaporization session and hit a wand with no screen or tubing or herb to taste test. I consider myself to have a pretty sensitive palette, and I don't detect a toxic taste, but I'm no stonemonkey.
Now, some dumb friends have blown plant matter into the heating element in the past,
so I like to think it might be just be some old plant matter or residue burning off, but that doesn't really make sense cause it all looks pretty clean. You guys have any ideas? I'm really hoping for reassurances rather than recommendations for contacting 7th floor, as I'm probably going to have to sell my Herbalaire (which I really like) for money reasons, and it's the only other desktop vape I currently own. Being without one would be kinda devastating for me :/
Last time all this happened I recorded the first time turning it on, and captured this phenomenon. The video quality is extremely poor, I recorded it with my macbook air in photo booth (lol mirror image). The smoke was more prominent in person, but it wasn't like torrents of the stuff. Just keep your eyes around the heater cover and you should see what I'm talking about though. (full screen should help)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69438833@N03/6313201234/
I'm glad to have finally joined!
I started vaping about 6 months ago, and have never looked back. I love vaping!!!!! When I started I picked up a easy vape off amazon to try it out, week later picked up the iolite. I love the iolite when I'm on the go but not for all the time.
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