Discontinued The Firefly Vaporizer

[rendar1970]

Hey all, been reading through this thread and its been a lot of help. I just got into vaping (never smoked, never vaped, never done anything before, this is all new for me). Been getting a lot of my questions answered, but still had a few specifics regarding the firefly.

1. I read and have seen videos where it is recommended you use about .15g of material in your bowl. This means almost nothing to me. I have a digital food scale, but nothing meant to measure out that small, so have no way of knowing how much that really is. Does anyone have a good example of size comparison or a picture even?

2. My current technique is the hold the button down for 2 seconds (pre-heat) and then draw while continuing to hold the button down, I then release the button when my throat starts to tickle/get scratch but keep drawing with no heat for a few more seconds. This usually ends up being a 15 - 20 second draw, with only the last 5 seconds with no button pushed. I always end my draw by inhaling air through my nose to "push" any vapor down. Seems to be working ok. I want to work up to full 30 second powered draws, but im new to this so my lungs/throat are still getting used to it. Sound decent enough?

3. Usually by 2 draws with the above mentioned technique, my material is completely brown, with the bottom layer almost black. I hear of people getting 8-10 draws off 1 bowl. But for me by the 4th draw (I stir every 2 draws or so) my material is black it affects the feel and taste of the material. Is this normal and is it worth vaping if my material looks black and charred. When do you usually repack a bowl? I heard some people swap out as soon as the material looks too brown, while others dont repack until the current bowl produces no vapor.

4. My Battery usually only lasts 5-6 draws with the above mentioned technique, I have only had my FF for 3 days. Does it sound like I got a bad battery?

5. I know this question will vary greatly based on quality of material and personal tolerance. But how many draws do people usually need to get where they need to be. 4 or 5 20-second draws is what it takes for me to really feel any effects. But I constantly read of people getting locked down after 2 draws.

Thank you all for the help, love this forum so far.

 

[mitchgo61]

1. .15 is probably a bit much. Take medium-ground, or even unground material and pack the FF bowl fairly densely, even with the top edge of the glass bowl. That will measure around .11-.13 in my experience. This is plenty, and a bigger bowl than many users like. Just fill the bowl as much as you like and see what results you get.

2. Whatever works for you. If you are getting good results with 20 second hits, you don't necessarily need to work up to 30, unless you explicitly want larger hits. Sounds like you are doing fine.

3. If your material is black (ie charred) and spent in so few 20 second hits, I am guessing you aren't putting much in the bowl. Try using more and stirring every three hits. But yes, if your material is dark brown or even black, and tasting not so great, you are pretty much at the end. The FF won't vape at high temps, and if you're getting charring you are probably extracting everything of value and then some. I keep going until I can't pull anymore vapor. Sometimes the material is darker than others...but when long button pushes and stirring won't produce more vapor, I'm done. There are things you can do with the ABV, even put it in a high temp vape to get the last bits, but for all FF purposes you are done.

4. Your battery sounds bad. 6 twenty second hits is not normal. You should be getting four times that. Call FF and get a new one.

5. Personal preference, mood, time of day, strain (obviously)...no one answer here. Sometimes I'm fine with one or two hits. Sometimes it takes ten. So many variables affect it.

Get a new battery and maybe try to use more material in the bowl to prevent charring and give yourself more hits per bowl but otherwise you sound like you're off to an excellent start. Have fun, experiment, let us know how you get on.

 

[EveryDayAmnesiac]

with the bottom layer almost black

Yikes. Even on my slowest inhales, my material doesn't end up looking almost black but only a good roasted dark brown. Might also be an issue of the level and steadiness of your inhale.

Only if I use unground herb do I ever end up with charring - because in that case, I must inhale much faster and briefer for the first few hits and sometimes I forget. Especially with a leafy piece in there does that happen.

With a little more practice you should start to get a feel for the heater and the right inhalation for you.

 

[HellsWindStaff]

Honestly @rendar1970 , based on what you are describing, I'm going to say all of your issues are either based on your battery, specifically its running too hot too fast, this is either because of you or the battery, or maybe a little of both.

Reasoning: you are saying your material is basically vaped and done with after 2 of your "hits", and that you also are having black bits in your bowl. That, just seems way to fast and hot imo, its likely a problem with your battery, because I described the method I was using of hitting my FireFly a few posts above (slow pulse essentially) and that makes it run pretty hot....I still am able to get 4-5 healthy flavorful full rips and like 2 additional rips after stirring it. I also inhale dreadfully slow....so I doubt based on your hit technique it would be hot enough to cash it in two inhalations.....since I'm not able too. So your battery or something is causing it to run too hot.

Keep in mind though, that # of hits to finish a bowl is kinda arbitrary. As it depends on strain. Draw technique. Sometimes I like to really really kick a bowl to the curb and get it a real dark brown, othertimes I'm happy leaving it a nice tan. That's a 3 hit difference (for myself), so with all the variables everyone can give you their opinion or what seems to be working well for them, but its really on your shoulders to figure out your preference. Hell, your weed may just be really really dry weed

For your how much to you pack it, I don't really know a weight amount, but its not a lot, basically one full pinch between my index and thumb. To the rim, sometimes its packed a little tighter sometimes its pretty loose, but always to the rim. Just one pinch, just find that is what works the best for me

Hope you manage to get everything worked out, and happy vaping on the FireFly ^_^

 

[Vinman]

...2. ...I always end my draw by inhaling air through my nose to "push" any vapor down. ...

I prefer to remove my mouth from the mouthpiece and end the draw by inhaling a little through my mouth. That way, it pushes down any vapor still in the mouth, which nasal inhalation would bypass.

 

[mitchgo61]

Yikes. Even on my slowest inhales, my material doesn't end up looking almost black but only a good roasted dark brown. Might also be an issue of the level and steadiness of your inhale.

Honestly @rendar1970 , based on what you are describing, I'm going to say all of your issues are either based on your battery, specifically its running too hot too fast, this is either because of you or the battery, or maybe a little of both.

It is weird that he's getting so much black stuff with so few hits. While I think the battery is faulty due to the small number of hits it's giving out, I doubt any problems with the battery are causing the charring...even if the battery is expending too much power too quickly, it really shouldn't allow the heating coil to get any hotter than it gets under normal circumstances. There are two possibilities...the coil is placed outside normal tolerances, in which case the unit is running a bit hot (but not hot enough for combustion, according to the description) or as EDA says, it's technique-based. Given that any of my FF's have produced charring under the right conditions, I'm assuming it's the latter.

@rendar1970....my advice is A. get a new battery and B. try again with more material, shorter hits, shorter button presses, etc. Essentially if you're getting charring, let's find a way to reduce the heat generated in the chamber. (Also make sure you are stirring enough, I get charring when material doesn't move around during the session.) You may find when you use more material that you aren't getting blackened bits.

If it turns out your FF is running a bit hot, you may still be fine...if you aren't getting combustion, and you have a little extra power in your device, well, that's a good thing...most FF users prefer the unit to run a little on the hot side, assuming there's no combustion.

 

[rendar1970]

I will give a new battery a try. Now that everyone is mentioning battery it reminds me of another oddity with my FF.

My battery only takes 10 minutes to charge. It's supposed to take around 45 minutes I believe. But my unit can die, plug the FF into the wall charger, blue light starts blinking. Within 8 to 10 minutes it's solid blue and says fully charged

 

[Quetzalcoatl]

I will give a new battery a try. Now that everyone is mentioning battery it reminds me of another oddity with my FF.

My battery only takes 10 minutes to charge. It's supposed to take around 45 minutes I believe. But my unit can die, plug the FF into the wall charger, blue light starts blinking. Within 8 to 10 minutes it's solid blue and says fully charged

it's dead as hell.

 

[mitchgo61]

I will give a new battery a try. Now that everyone is mentioning battery it reminds me of another oddity with my FF.

My battery only takes 10 minutes to charge. It's supposed to take around 45 minutes I believe. But my unit can die, plug the FF into the wall charger, blue light starts blinking. Within 8 to 10 minutes it's solid blue and says fully charged

Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser. It's possible that you are getting a "false red"..ie. your FF isn't dead, but throwing a red light in error. When it happens, toggle off and back on and continue hitting. See if you don't have normal battery life from there on.

My silver FF does this all the time. Fully charged, hit once, bam, red light. Toggle off and on, and I get another 20 full hits. Or, just as likely, Quetz is right, battery is dead as hell and won't hold even a minimal chage.

 

[rendar1970]

I'm going to go with bad battery. Unit is only 3 days old. So doubt I wore the battery out, must just be a bad one.

Is there supposed to be a red light? I don't even get that.

Blinking blue light to solid blue on charger.

When using unit, no light when off, green light when switched to on. Then after a few hits unit dies, green light shuts off, no red lights.

 

[HellsWindStaff]

I will give a new battery a try. Now that everyone is mentioning battery it reminds me of another oddity with my FF.

My battery only takes 10 minutes to charge. It's supposed to take around 45 minutes I believe. But my unit can die, plug the FF into the wall charger, blue light starts blinking. Within 8 to 10 minutes it's solid blue and says fully charged

That, is not right at all, I think a faulty battery is likely the cause to all your problems...I would contact Firefly and explain specifically the 10 minute charge/really quickly kill the battery...since they advertise 45 min they will likely immediately recognize that its faulty and send ya a new one.

Best of luck! I just had a nice little drive with my FF to my rents, heading to the casino. Hopefully I get some cash for my VAS

 

[mitchgo61]

I'm going to go with bad battery. Unit is only 3 days old. So doubt I wore the battery out, must just be a bad one.

Is there supposed to be a red light? I don't even get that.

Blinking blue light to solid blue on charger.

When using unit, no light when off, green light when switched to on. Then after a few hits unit dies, green light shuts off, no red lights.

Yeah you should see a red light on the FF itself when the battery is drained. My silver sometimes shows no light when the batt is dead, but it always shows a red light for at least a second before showing no light when the batt is drained.

Your FF sounds a little flaky. If you bought from FF direct, call them and describe both battery and FF behavior and see what they say. They will definitely take care of you...maybe they will conclude they should replace your FF. They may be in the office today so if I were you I'd give em a call.

Good luck and keep us informed. You've got me very intrigued now!

 

[hafalump]

I have one battery that "charges" in ten minutes. ie light turns blue indicating fully charged.
This battery has been very weak, I was thinking it was toast. Well I spaced and left it charging all night.
It cooks now, so lesson learned is to charge this battery by time, not the light. I put spots of nail polish on them like dominos so I can monitor them.

 

[fernand]

@rendar1970 People are so different. But for me anyway, I stopped getting any benefit or interest from the crap weed we used to get around Calif decades ago. For one thing I had interesting work to do and the lousy weed just scrambled my head. And it was totally unpredictable. Useless.

Now, with the immensely specialized and much more resin-rich strains, with detailed terpene and cannabinoid content analysis available, and sites like Leafly with excellent and accurate "reviews", we can sample and read to figure out what we need. I can find strains of flowers now that will push exactly the right buttons for me, and it only takes 2 or 3 hits -- of a light transparent vapor that's loaded with actives. I hope you live in a MMJ-tolerant state.

There are people who blossom on much larger amounts, and smaller, and the specific different strains are very very important, so you really gotta feel your way. And that's not cork-sniffing. It's not like some people guzzle rotgut and some select unblended scotches. Because aside from a little healthy blood pumping, and some unhealthy effects, alcohol just doesn't have the broad range of potential benefits that Cannabis has. It's like comparing a hammer and a workshop full of tools. Or a cabinet full of medications.

But it helps to define what exactly you want from it. In my case I need help with very painful sciatica, and I'd rather take less of the Rx stuff. I'm not keen on heavy sedation, but a little looser is better than stiffer. I also want more focus in my life, better ability to appreciate the here and now, my family, try to better use my talents. So those are my "intentions", what I look for, in the magnificent Cannabis plant.

This is about 0.050g or 1/20th of a gram.

It's a 20% THC strain, so it contains about 10mg of THC + other cannabinoids, which for most people is a noticeable dose. We can break the flower up more or not. But I'd rather vape up 0.050g at once than pack the bowl and come back to vape some half-used dregs. All the compounds I like are in the first lower temp fractions, the back end has more of the heavier and more sedating cannabinoids & terpenes.

I can see the point that a Crafty is more of an automatic delivery machine. But, how does it go?
Some say it's habitual,
But I think it's a ritual.

Oh, and it's like when they invented cigarettes which were so easy to use, so efficient, that people become really dependent on tobacco ;-)

 

[hafalump]

Some say it's habitual, But I think it's a ritual. Crikey Leonard Cohen couldve penned that.

 

[fernand]

Some say it's habitual, But I think it's a ritual. Crikey Leonard Cohen couldve penned that.

Some reggae master if I recall, but I can't find it at the moment ...
But in any case, there's something to it ...

 

[mitchgo61]

@rendar1970

It's a 20% THC strain, so it contains about 10mg of THC + other cannabinoids, which for most people is a noticeable dose. We can break the flower up more or not. But I'd rather vape up 0.050g at once than pack the bowl and come back to vape some half-used dregs. All the compounds I like are in the first lower temp fractions, the back end has more of the heavier and more sedating cannabinoids & terpenes.

I can see the point that a Crafty is more of an automatic delivery machine. But, how does it go?

I wish this kind of "small load" approach worked for me. But in the FF, I cannot extract very fully unless I fill the bowl pretty densely. I've noticed this on all 8 of the FF's I've been through. Full bowl=dark, 90% extraction. Less than full, I'm lucky if I can extract 50%. Every so often I try it again with a small load and the results still suck. Must be me, because others have much success with this method.

And hey, we almost went one full page without a reference to The Vape That Shall Not Be Mentioned.

 

[rendar1970]

Well I got my FF from vapeworld. Emailed the customer service department and got a very fast result. There sending me a new battery to see if this eliminates the problems I seem to seeing. If it doesnt they will have me send my back and mail me a replacement. Pretty good service results.

In the meantime using mine as is.

But it helps to define [U]what exactly you want[/U] from it. In my case I need help with very painful sciatica, and I'd rather take less of the Rx stuff. I'm not keen on heavy sedation, but a little looser is better than stiffer. I also want more focus in my life, better ability to appreciate the here and now, my family, try to better use my talents. So those are my "intentions", what I look for, in the magnificent Cannabis plant.

This is about 0.050g or 1/20th of a gram.

[IMG]http://i448.photobucket.com/albums/qq206/peakdesign_photos/IMG_5652L_zpsdf693947.jpg[/IMG]
)

Thanks for the advice and sharing the image. I do live in a medical state and have a card, so yes, the options of what strains are available to me is great. I have only tried 2 strains so far, started with vaping right away, but still only 3 weeks ago. So I still have a lot of strains to try and see what works best for me. For all I know the only 2 strains I have tried so far are just no good for me, so my experience is already a little skewed.

You say that image is about .05g. So I guess im using right about .1g or a little more as I tend to just fill the firefly up to the rim but loosely.

Also great tip about the front and back end vaping. I have already noticed that the first 2-4 draws off a new bowl give me the straight to the head effects, but its the back end which tastes a lot heavier and taste more "cooked" so to speak do more for the pain and sedation effect.

I finally decided to try MJ after having 4 major surgeries on the neck in the c2-c4 region with no improvement. Was taking enough prescribed opiate meds they said the only thing next to try was Methadone, so yeah, quite all that. Now finding vaping is much better and I feel it already. A few draws in the morning and afternoon, then a session at night and my pain goes from a 9 to a 3, and I can actually sleep.

Thanks for all the help and advice. Great community here.

 

[theCerberus]

So, I'm about 3 months in with my FF and all 3 of my batteries are fucked. They only last one bowl and charge in about 15 minutes.

 

[fernand]

@rendar1970, we're in a similar boat. My training's in biomed, I see Cannabis as capable of a lot of different effects, which makes sense since our endocannabinoid system connects to both the immune system and the Central Nervous System.

FWIW, here's how I frame it. To someone who's aiming for a better appetite, the strains might divide very differently. In strain hunting it helps to group one's reactions, starting with the top division, Indica vs. Sativa. It's not as simple as two varieties, they've been crossed for centuries, but it works.

So-called Indicas start with body relax and happy sedation progressing with increasing dose to couch lock & stupor. Sativas start with energetic, creative, sensory sharpening, and progress to confusion and anxiety. Then there are all sorts of hybrids, and finally the "popular" high CBD strains that have almost no mental effects. A lot of Sativas are at most "entertainment grade". And a lot of Indicas are sleepy nothing.

But some Indicas have an energizing side, and some Sativas have an analgesic side. Primo. For me the Sour Diesel Sativa (mostly) family is a good energizer and specifically relieves lower lumbar pain and referred sciatica. Complex. I've had that analgesia get turned off by adding in a little of a different Sativa(!)

On the Indica (mostly) branch Master Kush has an atypical streak of energized focus along with the typical Indica widespread analgesia. Animal Cookies is less focused, then GrandDaddy Purple is cozy, all the way to very sedating ones like Purple Kush.

As to the FireFly it's easy to pick off the various fractions you want from flowers by temperature, pulsing the button or letting heat build up. Also having a second unit with precise temp like a Solo/Air is nice.

Some people use a piece of cotton, but if you unravel, cut and weave a little pad of stainless steel wire sold as Liquid Pads for competing vapes, that makes a durable little nest for all the oils, waxes - concentrates.

 

[EveryDayAmnesiac]

Seems clear as day that Firefly 2.0 must address battery issues. Amount of time they last, of course, but just as importantly, a gauge / readout that shows what charge they're at, and maybe even that they are in good standing or need replacing? At this point, we just pretty much have to guess, unless you have a battery that you know is a "good one." And even then, I guess it's a guess, just an easier one.

Based on the last few weeks of FC, it would seem that they had a big ol' load of bad batteries, or at least not perfect batteries.

I have been lucky with mine. My initial batteries from late last year or early this year still work well, but certainly not as long. My newer 2014 batts are doing just fine.

I do like how they at least make it obvious what year the batts are from in the battery serial number.

I think most would agree that battery reliability should be priority #1 in the 2.0.

After that would be a retractable mouthpiece... for me, at least.

I doubt we'll ever see a FF that can be used while charging, but we can always dream...

And more colors! Only 3 is not acceptable for something as cool as the FF.

Slimmer, lighter, sleeker, etc, yeah yeah yeah. But I still find the FF to be the sexiest portable vape on the market.

 

[BabyFacedFinster]

Just wondering,
Can you fit a Health stone in the chamber to vape waxes in the FF?

 

[mitchgo61]

And more colors! Only 3 is not acceptable for something as cool as the FF.

For some reason I thought they were rolling out a metallic gold FF when I first saw this picture but obviously it's just the reflection on a dark grey model. Still, it makes me think gold would look really cool.

 

[fernand]

Solid Platinum wouldn't be bad, either.

Just wondering,
Can you fit a Health stone in the chamber to vape waxes in the FF?

What is a Health Stone? Where can you see, or measure or examine one?

 

[Quetzalcoatl]

Solid Platinum wouldn't be bad, either.





What is a Health Stone? Where can you see, or measure or examine one?

http://healthstoneglass.com/

porous i think ceramic wafer setup used to vape concentrates by acting as the "nail"