Thank YOU to an
extremely kind member for loaning a Bowle to this
highly opinionated critic to evaluate!
I’ve made a
lot of jokes about this vape, so I appreciate the sincerity to eat crow.
Ran about ~10 bowles and two charges through it so far, and a few people have gotten to try it with me. These are my first impressions:
The puck is quite a bit heavier and more solid than I expected it to be, it’s actually got some heft to it which I think is a good thing. When attaching the stem, a small button inside the top of the oven chamber is depressed upon insertion, travels over a tiny groove, and then sits inside a small recessed dimple on the stem, which seats this attachment. Similar to the type of button mechanism used to adjust the height of a cane, or crutches - but easier to operate. It’s simple and effective, secure, but easy to remove. Even when holding the vaporizer just by the stem, it doesn't feel like it will accidentally come out without physically pulling the stem outwards yourself. A good example of leverage.
Both the puck and stem appear to be made from cast aluminum.
At the bowl end, the stem has contoured on both sides to allow your hand to more easily grab the rim of the pot when removing it. Pretty clever.
The design seems pretty effective at containing the vapor to the stem which should allow for very simple cleaning. The oven chamber in the puck so far has gotten a crumb here or there, but otherwise this appears to be a pretty low maintenance device. The pots themselves get dirty fairly quickly, but I've been reusing the same one to test that theory. When swapping between four pots it probably takes longer to notice. I would say the pots benefit from a quick brushing after each load. I brush the inside of the pots first, then using my pinky to hold the screen down, I give a quick brush to the bottom. After maybe 5 bowls yeserday I found I needed to actually remove the screen and brush some crumbs out that had lodged themselves in between the screen and pot. Very easy to get the screen back in. This vape reminds me a lot of a Mighty that has been re-designed for faster heatup and lower maintenance. The difference is that seating screens in the Mighty is a PITA, and this is very easy. What I'm trying to say is for people that have dexterity issues, this is an easier vaporizer to use. I haven't used the potter yet, but I can imagine the same thing with that - instead of the old way of loading dosing capsules by hand, it fills them for you. Not a huge deal to me, but I could see it being a big deal for users with mobility disabilities.
The pots are smaller than I expected, but that’s not a bad thing. Seems to hold around .1-.15, maybe a bit more if packed or ground finer.
Getting into vapor quality, taste wise, I have to admit I haven’t quite been blown away in this department, though if you know me, as a glass-snob/puritan, I was always going to be tough on this category. That said, I wouldn’t consider it bad, but definitely a bit "muted" to my tastes. I would say it's better than a DynaVap, but maybe not top tier desktop roadtrips to flavortown market.
That said, where this thing excels is being extremely simple to use. I read the manual on the website before my first use (there wasn’t any user information at all in the box?) While reading the online manual, I was thinking, “Wow, this things kind of complicated”
But it’s really not. 3 clicks on or off. A lot of people struggle with getting 5 clicks fast enough, so as diminutive as it may sound, this was actually a really smart move going to three clicks.
There’s two buttons on the puck - the bottom button toggles your temperature which is based on one of four LEDs in the puck, and you just press the button above it to heat up. Push the two buttons together to check the battery life. Very simple.
As many have stated, the vapor is surprisingly cool, I’m a
sensitive bitch when it comes to dry convection vapor, and even I have been handling it fine so far. The internal heat sink design seems effective at cooling without appearing difficult to clean as some cooling units can be. You can feel the aluminum stem warm up a bit during use, conducting heat out of the vapor . The device gets a little warm, but never anything uncomfortable.
The Bowle hits pretty hard for a mass market electronic portable. I think the pretty effective dry cooling helps deliver the effects. However based on my first initial impressions I have to detract a star for efficiency. I re-vaped the ABV from the Tafee in my desktop vape at a relatively modest temperature, and so far every load has given me a pretty big additional rip. This vape really seems to benefit from a stir, wish there was a stir stick built in somewhere. I admit I kind of expected it to vape more evenly based on who is involved, also kind of surprised at the lack of implementing any conduction as I do tend to see green crumbs on the sides. The hybrid vapor from the Mighty does seem denser and easier to get a hit off of as far as inhalation time.
The packaging might be a little over the top, it’s a bit of a Daruma doll. But 5 included pots, that’s pretty sweet! The Mighty only came with one dosing capsule.... nice long charging cord included with built in pull tabs so you dont yank on the connector, pretty nice. Too bad they made the power brick horizontal instead of vertical like an Apple plug. It doesn't "sit" nicely next to others on my power strip.
Kind of surprised it doesn’t include an oil pad, as they do advertise it working for extracts. Though to be honest, I don’t really like convection extracts at all.
I have not used the potter yet.
I did find the flat mouthpiece kind of weird, and struggled to get a hit a few times with it. Lifted it up a bit but that seemed too airy, so I ended up sliding it back to its normal position. The two buttons on the puck are a LITTLE clanky janky, if I'm being nitpicky, but overall the build quality is pretty good, especially next to the Mighty, which is who I see this vape gunning for.
As everyone else has already touched on, battery life is not incredible, but I guess this is user dependant. For someone who doesnt vape a ton, I could see this lasting them a few days between charges, but for sharing with others, or heavier users, you would probably want a backup vape. Will check in to see how it adapts after the initial break-in period. It's been on the charger for an hour with one light left, so charging time is pretty respectable.
What about the cup? Well you do get thirsty while vaping, so I see why they did it. After using it, I actually don't hate the cup, but its usefulness probably depends on how you vape. If you like to crush a bowl quickly and move along the cup makes less sense, but if you like to load a pot and sip on it over the course of a movie and I could definitely see it fitting. I have to admit when using the cup, every time I went to reload a pot, I genuinely could not find the vape...... it consistently took me a moment to remember it was actually built into the damn cup, its so discrete even I forget it's a vape....
I admit after reading some comments about folks not realizing how big of a hit they were actually getting, I was expecting it to really pump out the vapor. Even starting in on the higher two temp levels I wouldn't necessarily call the Tafee Bowle a fog factory. Not that you can't get good sized hits, but so far I would say it's not quite a desktop killer as far as absolutely massive extraction goes.
Where I see this vape excelling at is ease of use. It's very simple to operate paired with nearly instant heatup time, makes it a crowd pleaser, especially for the average the non-vape initiated cannabis user looking to get into vaporizing. The "wax pen" style heatup time has impressed everyone I have shown it to. Of course this isn't the first vape to heat up fast with the push of a button. But compared to devices like the Hopper, the Bowle certainly outputs cooler vapor, and being a closed system allows it to be more foolproof than most of the on demand 510 box mod offerings.
I do see this vape being here to stay for a while as it will take many sales from Crafty/Mighty for the simple fact that everybody wants instant heatup. TBH I could also see this drawing in some prospective DV/induction customers too considering the price, although the two setups would probably actually pair well together.
Well I think that's about it so far, if you have any questions feel free to yell them at me
my plan for the bowle is visiting my cousin for a session and being able to leave all my regular crap at home! Will save me from having to carry a armful of stuff home when I'm baked, love the simplicity of it. Already have grand schemes of using it doing Maple syrup this spring which is just around the corner.
