Well, the mahogany Misty beta unit arrived on Saturday. I've now had six days to give it a thorough trial run and am ready to share some results.
Before I start, I'd like to express my thanks to
@blokenoname . Not simply for choosing me to beta test but for providing us all with the wealth of information on how to build a log that's contained in the pages of this thread. Bloke has generously shared his encyclopedic knowledge of logs and that's of benefit to anyone with a true interest in what is, without doubt, the best type of vape you can get (OK, imo).
Straight out of the box this is a visually attractive vape. The natural wood ensures that it looks comfortably at home sitting on my desk and is an aesthetically beneficial addition to my personal living space.
Misty has been my daily driver since it arrived. I've had the unit switched on for 10 to 12 hours a day and it's been running fine with no problems whatsoever.
My general usage pattern is to aim for a good one-hit draw. So, it's just pack, hit, dump the ABV and repeat as required. Mostly, I use a water pipe but have used the Misty with dd stems too.
Setup includes an in-line dimmer. Cheap but it works. It has no 'volume' markings on it so figures here relate to % of max travel. I also use a 2 meter extension lead and both will slightly reduce voltage arriving at the unit. This, in turn, slightly affects the test results. So as our American friends like to say - your mileage may vary.
The testing itself settled down into three temperature settings.
At 30% there was little or no visible vapour. Flavour was there, though, and a mild but pleasant high.
50 - 70%. This, for me, is the ideal range for vaping herb. At 50% it produces good clouds of vapour with the flavour well expressed. The resulting ABV is light brown.
At 70% flavour is a little less noticable but vape clouds are bigger and thicker. ABV at this setting comes out dark brown, perhaps a little too dark for my preference.
So the sweet spot comes in at 60 - 65% for herb (the usual variables mean there's no exact figure).
Finally, concentrates. I make QWISO oil from ABV and/or trim and for this a setting of 80% works a treat. Misty converts the ugly brown goo into dense clouds of milky vapour in seconds.
It's worth noting at this point that throughout testing and general usage, at all operating temperatures, including max setting, the body of the unit remains comfortably warm and at no stage feels hot in the hand.
Just in closing: those of us who've followed this thread have watched the project grow from the cork prototype into Misty - a fully functional log vape that's been put out for beta testing. My hope is that the journey will continue into multiple production models with choices of wood and design. That's for the future, but from where we are now it's looking good, very good.
I'll continue with the testing
and post more on Misty soon.