Ok... I got my FF2 last week and have spent some time with it and love it. Let me tell you my whole long story and if you don't want to read me rambling, you can skip to the end. Chatty Cathy is here-that FF2 hit that I just took must be working!
I bought the original Firefly 3 weeks before they announced the FF2. What?! I seriously KNEW that was going to happen when I ordered it. I couldn't wait though. I had just gotten my medical license and I wanted to finally get a vaporizer that I was going to like. I had tried the Vapor Brothers box and a few other old school portables before the tech got so good. I never loved any of them. I am not a good smoker. I have weak lungs and smoke bothers me so I haven't ever really used marijuana as a daily thing and I never got very medicated when I did because I barely inhaled. SO! When I decided to spend some money and get a portable vaporizer, I automatically thought the Pax 2 was the best so I almost didn't even look at anything else. My friend asked me if I knew about the Firefly and I didn't so I checked it out. After finding out that the FF excelled in taste, I knew that's what I wanted. That's why I never really liked any of the other vaporizers that I tried. They all tasted like burnt toast. When my Firefly arrived, I knew we were going to be friends forever. The taste was great and it was perfect for me to use at home to medicate. 3 weeks later, they announced the Firefly 2! I knew that I had to get it. If it was everything that the Firefly was and better, it was certainly going to be perfect for me.
The things that I was excited about while waiting for the FF2 to arrive was the lack of a screen needed on the bottom of the bowl. The OGFF had that screen and no matter how much I fussed and tried to keep it clean, it always looked like there was bud under the edges. Now that I have it, I am every bit as happy about it as I thought I would be. The glass bowl is so slick and smooth and the bottom metal piece also feels nice. It meets right at the edge so there isn't much room there for anything to get caught. I keep a brush with me and clean it out after every bowl. If you don't like to be as meticulous as that, I don't think it would be too hard to wipe it out once a day or every couple of days depending on how much you use it and that would be fine.
Another improvement that I was excited about was that there were no more grooves in the lid for the vapor path. Those grooves made it so that you could get plant matter in your mouth while inhaling if you did it too hard. Nobody likes that. So fine-you learned how to inhale so you don't get plant in your mouth so it's no big deal, right? Oh but then you would have to tell everyone a big long schpiel about how to inhale. So this new lid design has no grooves. There is also a screen in the mouthpiece that catches any plant that makes it down there. I love not worrying about getting any plant in my mouth. I think that was the biggest thing that I didn't like about OGFF.
No more grooves also means, easier to clean! It really is as easy as wiping down the top lid, the body and wiping out the bowl-all with alcohol.I use the brush to clean the bowl between sessions and I also brush down the body and lid so I haven't had to take alcohol to it yet and I've been using it for a week. I use a 6" flux brush so it is easy on the hand. That smaller brush is great for portability but do yourself a favor and get a flux brush. They are great. Those little toothpicks they gave us will be able to deep clean the bowl when you need it. It is easy to clean out the little vapor hole and mouthpiece area if you have a little toothpick or just use that little brush from both the top of the vape and from the mouthpiece area. Overall, I think this vape is super easy to clean.
Battery life was also a big thing that Firefly Vapor said that they improved so I was excited about that. The OGFF was terrible with battery life. You could not take that thing out of the house in my opinion. If you were going to be somewhere with electricity and you wanted to bring your charger, that was doable but it was not made for going out on the town or a party. The OGFF was also very heavy, which again, made it not very portable. The FF2 was advertised to be much lighter with better battery life AND an extra battery included. They definitely listened to the main complaints about the OGFF when they were designing the FF2! They really did address everything. They also redesigned the battery slightly so that it has a little tab it get it out with! If you had the OGFF, you will know how annoying it was to get that battery out. The tab on the new batteries make it easy! It's a little thing but it makes a difference. So- battery life... YES! I could only get like 10-15 pulls MAX off the OGFF battery. The FF2 battery lasted me so long that I can't even say how long. Several hours of on and off use. So with the extra battery they included, you can get a good amount of usage from the FF2 before you run out of battery. As far as recharging on the go, the FF2 is able to be recharged with a usb cable and the charger base. I went camping this weekend and was able to connect the charger base to an external battery pack and charge it easily on the table as we hung around the campfire. The OGFF would've had to be charged off my car battery if I even had the car charger that cost an extra $30. The ability to connect to a battery pack allowed me to sit there with it near me and keep it charging on the base. This factor combined with the improved battery life make this a much more portable vaporizer. The battery life of the two batteries together is still not as good as the battery life that I get from a Pax 2 charge, but it is much improved and makes battery life not much of an issue at all. The only reason that I consider it a slight issue is because you do have to 'think' about battery life and with the Pax 2, you just don't.
Well because I brought the Pax 2 into this, I may as well make my comments. There really is no comparison between the two. They are two different vapes that excel in different ways. I am very glad that I have them both. Oh yea! Did I forget to mention? I ended up buying a Pax2 to hold me over in the preorder period. I had to sell my original FF to fund the FF2 and was without a vape for just a few days before I broke down and ordered the Pax 2. The Pax 2 is great for taking out on the town or to parties. It is easy to load and I don't mix it or fuss with it at all once it is packed. It is easy to hit. I just have to tell people where the mouthpiece is and they can hit it. I can use the plant matter until it is fully vaped without having problems getting a hit or noticing any bad taste. I don't have to worry about the battery at all. I have never had it die on me. I charge it at night and then go all day. I think the Firefly is perfect to use in a relaxed environment. It is a classy experience using a FF2. It is nice to sit down and take some puffs and enjoy the flavor. The flavor from both the OGFF and the FF2 are unbeatable. I would describe the flavor from the Pax 2 like this. "Yea.. it takes good, ok, fine, not bad, not toasty, yea it's good." When talking about the flavor from FF, I get excited! My eyes light up and I take a deep breath just thinking about it. I would probably say something like "Oh. My. God. You are going to love it so much ohmygoditssogood!!" So there's a little difference there.
To me, that's the biggest difference. I want my herb to taste good. I want to inhale something delicious.
To prep the herb, I grind it in a 4 piece Santa Cruz Shredder. This was what people recommended with the OGFF and it works the same with the FF2. I read the instruction and they suggest a course grind or even just breaking apart the bud but I think it needs to be a medium grind. You can experiment with what works best for you. I fill it just up to the top of the bowl and then tamp it down lightly. You don't want it packed so tight that you can't get a pull, but it also can't be so loose that it flies around. I notice that after 3-4 pulls, I like to open the lid, give it a little stir and lightly tamp. THEN, because of a suggestion from someone at Firefly, I put the concentrate pad on top of the bud. As the bud dries out and becomes more vaped, it gets harder to get a nice hit from it. The concentrate pad holds it down and acts kind of like the Pax pusher does. I'm not sure if anyone talked about this is earlier messages, but let me know if you try it. You don't have to do this but in order to get good hits toward the back end of the bowl, you have to open the lid up and tamp the bowl frequently. The concentrate pad makes it so you don't have to do that. I think it works great.
I haven't tried using the concentrate pad yet but I talked to someone from Firefly about a couple of things and she told me that a very tiny amount of wax goes a long way. She also said that when the bowl gets sticky, you can clean it with a little white vinegar on a q-tip. I will probably give this a shot later today.
So... you made it through my words or skipped to the end. Congratulations!
TLDR; I love the Firefly 2. Buy it if you want the best tasting vapor that you can get from a portable vape. I'm so happy that it's finally here!
Anyways everyone's posts have been super helpful and I couldn't help but say "high there" and sing the praises of this little bug. 
