Been lurking while reading the whole thread. I thought I would give you my thoughts on the IQ. I have a few vapes after I starting vaping with the original Iolite, I don't miss butane, that thing was like a little bomb now that I look back at it, also have two Pax 1's and a Pax 2, I picked up the IQ about 2 weeks ago. I have exclusively used a Pax as my daily driver / only means of consumption for the last 3+ years since the Pax 1 was first released.
The packaging and build quality of the IQ is on par with the Pax, at least the exterior. The interior of the mouth piece area in the IQ is a little cheap looking and seems just a little bit flimsy for a $275 unit. I was happy that the unit came with so many good quality accessories for cleaning and charging. The gift of the carry can was nice but a second battery would have been a better gift.
Now that I have the IQ, I still find myself reaching for my Pax 2 a lot of the time. I really want to like the IQ but I feel the I get inconsistent results from it. I can pack one bowl get great results and the pack the same amount of the same herb and get almost no results or very thin vapor. Most of the time I can get some results but not without fiddling with it, stirring it and temp changes ect. I am packing full bowls and using a firm pack. Let me know if you have any tips for me. I don't seem to every have this issue with the Pax.
I have tried a range of grinds from very coarse to very fine and feel that a medium fine is the best balance between draw and vapor production. With the IQ if you grind too fine you get some bits of herb in your mouth when you draw.
In term of efficiency again have to give the edge to the Pax 2. Even on low temps 1-2 petals, I get consistent even brown AVB. I do stir between sessions with both the Pax 2 and the IQ, but the IQ no matter how much a vape or how high the temp goes with IQ the AVB is not as dark. I seem to get more hits as well with the Pax 2 for the same amount of herb. I find I can also get ok results with a less than full pack for a short session with the Pax 2 but have a hard time getting similar results with a small pack in the IQ. Spacers may fix this.
I find that I rarely take the IQ out of the house as I'm not sure that it will work consistently without a lot of stirring or messing with it, which ruins the stealth and can be difficult in the dark. The IQ is also kind of more complex to use than the Pax. As far as ease of operations, Pax has just one button and it only requires 1 press to turn on/off, opposed to the 5 quick presses on the IQ.
In terms of stealth there is no question the Pax 2 is better, at least with 10mm mouth piece on the IQ. Size wise the units are similar volume but dissimilar shape. I feel that the Pax still feels smaller, more easily concealable, and easier to use discreetly in a public place. The Pax is certainly lighter too.
IQ has better flavor, no question about that, that first hit is perfect. The flavor seems to stick around for a few more hits and at higher temps with IQ too. I don't put anything in the flavor chamber anymore after doing it once. I found even a small bud restrict the airflow too and didn't really improve flavor IMO. I don't personally have any issues with the flavor of the Pax as long as you keep is clean so the resin doesn't go rancid inside the unit.
As far a cleaning goes the IQ is not hard to clean but it’s harder to clean then the Pax. The IQ has lot of little parts to take out of the unit. In some ways this is a plus as you can clean almost the entire air path by soaking in ISO and removing all the residue. In my unit the flavor chamber falls out when you open the mouth piece door. It never seems to lock into place I think by design but not sure. The main issue I have with cleaning the IQ is the area under the oven past the rubber gasket. Resin seems to build up in this area and there is not great way to clean it. I use q-tip with ISO and the brush suppled with the unit, but it never gets fully clean and overtime I think it will affect the flavor as this resin goes rancid. Let me know anyone has found a good tool or way to clean this area.
The removable battery was one of the main selling point for the IQ, but the battery doesn't last that long. You have to have at least two batteries with you just to equal the battery life of a fully charged Pax 2. I also have a 20+ 18650 batteries for my scuba lights but they don't fit in the IQ
, this is not the IQ's or Davinci's fault but it is frustrating. The Pax 2's battery can get me thru a week without recharging but it would be nice if it was hot swappable or if the unit had a USB charging port like the IQ.
The other main selling point for the IQ over the Pax 3 was the "smart paths" which sounded cool on paper, but I rarely use now, unless I'm with friends that don't know how to use the IQ. I find it easier to adjust the temp manually as the vapor thins, more efficient too as sometimes there are still good hits at the lower temps left, but with the smart paths the unit just keeps rising the temp indiscriminately.
The IQ heats up pretty quick, I haven't timed it or anything but 45-60 seconds to get to 370 degrees seem about right. I usually give it another 15-30 seconds to build up the vapor before hitting it. Pax 2 may heat up just a little bit quicker but it’s not an appreciable difference. I also like that the Pax 2 goes into standby mode after 20-30 seconds when not in use, and turns off on its own quicker than the 10 mins on the IQ. I have forgotten the IQ on and came back to a wasted bowl.
I mainly stick to fairly low temp vaping 350-390. If I use a smart path I mainly use smart path 1-2 I do use 3 occasionally. I have to say even on smart path 3 it is still enjoyable both from a taste and vapor temp standpoint, I wish I could say the same for the Pax 2 on the 3rd petal heat setting. I used path 4 with a someone who combusts this weekend and they felt the vapor was too hot which it is, but the clouds were huge, I'm sure if you are running the vape thru water path 4 is great.
I was hoping that the boost mode would allow the unit to be used as a one hitter which it would if you could set an upper limit for the temp on the app (Please add this to your next update
@Davinci_vaporizer)
The IQ is a good unit but it needs some fixes / tweaks. If you're a session vaper and enjoy 10-20+ mins sessions to casually vape a full .3g bowl you will be extremely happy with the IQ. I think someone else on this thread said it best in an earlier post. The IQ is a good vape if you want to GET high, but the Pax 2 will remain my choice for when I want to BE high. I typically a take a few hits over 3-6 mins then put it away for later, I still feel that the Pax 2 works better for this style of vaping. I glad I have both units but also kinda wish I have gotten the Pax 3 just as I think it would suit my vaping style better.
Overall I would put like this, the IQ is a top of the line Android phone while the Pax is iPhone. They both do their job and offer a good user experience, IQ/ Android phone may have some additional features that the Pax / iPhone doesn't, but there is something to be said about just working and simplicity of the design of the Pax / iPhone.
Pros:
• Exterior build quality on par with the pax. Interior battery compartment looks a little cheap but the unit feels good in your hand.
• Ceramic vapor path gives best in-class flavor.
• Removable vapor path makes those parts easy to clean.
• Hot Swappable battery that isn't property.
• USB charing.
• Integrated stir stick (why doesn't every vape have this) Brilliant.
• Innovative display
Cons:
• 5 Presses turn the unit on and off.
• Bowl is huge and micro loads are not effective, there are spacers but hard to get where I live in the islands.
• The adjustable pearl is a great idea very poorly executed I stoped messing with it after hearing others broke their posts or lost / broke their pearls.
• Hard to unload especially when hot, watch that pearl it burns me almost every time.
• Lots of small pieces to fall out and get lost or broken in the wild.
• Putting herb in flavor chamber restricts the draw too much and really didn't improve the flavor
• Area under the oven past the gasket holds tons of resin and is nearly imposable to clean. I think it will over time effect flavor as this area never gets truly clean.
• Flat mouth piece is nearly useless and the 10mm adapter doesn't allow the unit to sit upright without being removed to load unload or stir. could be fixed with a shorter 10MM mouth piece as suggested by another user earlier in the thread.
• Flavor chamber falls out when you open the mouth piece door and never seem to lock into place (I think by design but not sure)
• Battery door latch can be difficult to get to lock at times.
• Battery life is short and battery indicator is wildly inaccurate. They say 50 mins but it’s more like 30-40 mins of run time with real world use.
• When using the IQ with the app your phone keeps playing the tritone sound with no way to silence it without silencing your whole phone.
Suggestions for
@Davinci_vaporizer:
• 5 Presses turn on or off come on. How about two long presses?
• Add a user defined upper temp limit for boost mode. this would make a one hitter mode Pretty please fix in the next update
@Davinci_vaporizer)
• How about a hit counter in the app. It would be easy to do, I can see the temp drops slightly on the draw when looking at the app dashboard then the temp rises again it could be recored on the app and give you stats for that bowl.
• Allow unlimited temp adjustment for smart paths currently limited to 3 adjustments. Also allow smart paths that at less then 10 mins.
• Option to silence sounds phone plays when getting to temp when using the app.
• Is it possible to reset the counter for the smart paths?
A majority of my friends have the Pax so I wanted to try something different, and after researching extensively I decided this one had the most added value.
. Jason from IMR wrote back again seeming peeved that he had to repeat the vague answer he gave me once before. Anyway I'll just deal with it. Not worth all the stress of getting into a long drawn out fight over something that costed me $15. Just a little disappointed bc a lot of people on this thread recommends IMR, I would have figured they would be a little more concern towards an inquiry about something that can be dangerous. Thanks for answering my question 
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![:\](/i/s/hmm.gif "Hmm :\")
. I hope things work out soon for you, can't understand why it's taking so long. Is it too personal to ask what the problem with your unit is?
. The good life, that's the only other thing I need besides more Dynavap everything and that masterpiece 
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