Hey, all! I’m starting a new thread for our new product, the NEO… we’re getting ready to launch a pre-order campaign in just a few days with a planned delivery date by Thanksgiving. So, I wanted to tell you a bit about it, and get your initial thoughts and questions.
The NEO acts more like a combustionless lighter, rather than a traditional vaporizer. It seals over the bowl of your pipe so that when you inhale, hot air is drawn through the NEO and into your bowl, vaporizing your weed. It uses pure convection plus radiant quartz heat to deliver clean and rich vapor from almost any pipe, bubbler, or bong.*
We have always been a bit bugged by the messy lids, apps, and chambers of many mass-market flower vaporizers out there. They’re a hassle and I hated always having to clean them in order to prevent that stale ABV/AVB taste. It also seemed that we were hiding our weed inside a black box. With those devices, we found ourselves spending more time futzing around with the device itself, rather than staying connected to our herb. So, we really wanted technology that would fade into the background once you learned to dial in the experience.
We loved the wood of our first product, the Ember, but we wanted something with even purer flavor, more durable, and more easily manufactured at scale. This led us to look into ceramics. We found that one of the toughest and thermally efficient technical ceramics is zirconia (zirconium dioxide, ZrO2, to be more precise). While it’s more expensive than other options and it’s a real bitch to manufacture, it is nearly indestructible, pure, and has great thermal performance. Moreover, it’s semi-translucent so the glow is pretty mesmerizing.
We chose to go with a vertical orientation for the NEO (as opposed to the horizontal Ember) because we found it was easier for less experienced folks to get a good seal around the bowl when they were first learning. We also liked the sleek lines that reminded us of a rocket, heat ray, or light saber—don’t hate on me for that, it was a high idea and the Force was with us!
As for the power mod, we partnered with Eleaf to reconfigure their firmware in the Rim-C. Not only did we love their form factor and how it complemented the size and shape of the Neo, but their features were also hard to beat. It has USB-C, fast charging capabilities and a swappable 18650 battery. We looked at units with larger batteries, but decided that the 18650 was so common and you can find a 3000mAh one for pretty cheap these days.
If you’re interested, we’re giving away three NEOs during our countdown to the pre-order campaign. You can find more info on Instagram @Prrl_Labs, or at our website, PrrlLabs.com.
We’d love to get your impressions and questions!
-Mark
*Some pipes, especially glass spoons, have uneven edges around the bowl. We include a clear, silicone “collar” to fit over the end of the Neo’s quartz chimney, that enables you to make a good seal with almost any pipe. The seal is important, because any air gaps act like a carb and let in cool air, rather than pulling the air through the Neo when you inhale.
The NEO acts more like a combustionless lighter, rather than a traditional vaporizer. It seals over the bowl of your pipe so that when you inhale, hot air is drawn through the NEO and into your bowl, vaporizing your weed. It uses pure convection plus radiant quartz heat to deliver clean and rich vapor from almost any pipe, bubbler, or bong.*
We have always been a bit bugged by the messy lids, apps, and chambers of many mass-market flower vaporizers out there. They’re a hassle and I hated always having to clean them in order to prevent that stale ABV/AVB taste. It also seemed that we were hiding our weed inside a black box. With those devices, we found ourselves spending more time futzing around with the device itself, rather than staying connected to our herb. So, we really wanted technology that would fade into the background once you learned to dial in the experience.
We loved the wood of our first product, the Ember, but we wanted something with even purer flavor, more durable, and more easily manufactured at scale. This led us to look into ceramics. We found that one of the toughest and thermally efficient technical ceramics is zirconia (zirconium dioxide, ZrO2, to be more precise). While it’s more expensive than other options and it’s a real bitch to manufacture, it is nearly indestructible, pure, and has great thermal performance. Moreover, it’s semi-translucent so the glow is pretty mesmerizing.
We chose to go with a vertical orientation for the NEO (as opposed to the horizontal Ember) because we found it was easier for less experienced folks to get a good seal around the bowl when they were first learning. We also liked the sleek lines that reminded us of a rocket, heat ray, or light saber—don’t hate on me for that, it was a high idea and the Force was with us!
As for the power mod, we partnered with Eleaf to reconfigure their firmware in the Rim-C. Not only did we love their form factor and how it complemented the size and shape of the Neo, but their features were also hard to beat. It has USB-C, fast charging capabilities and a swappable 18650 battery. We looked at units with larger batteries, but decided that the 18650 was so common and you can find a 3000mAh one for pretty cheap these days.
If you’re interested, we’re giving away three NEOs during our countdown to the pre-order campaign. You can find more info on Instagram @Prrl_Labs, or at our website, PrrlLabs.com.
We’d love to get your impressions and questions!
-Mark
*Some pipes, especially glass spoons, have uneven edges around the bowl. We include a clear, silicone “collar” to fit over the end of the Neo’s quartz chimney, that enables you to make a good seal with almost any pipe. The seal is important, because any air gaps act like a carb and let in cool air, rather than pulling the air through the Neo when you inhale.
But, we let it cool down for a few minutes or put it in a case before putting it into our pocket.
