July Screwball Update
Hey y’all! Cal here, founder of Vapvana. Things have been busy in the Vapvana kitchen cookin’ up new products for Screwball owners, and I’m excited to show you what we’ve been working on.
There is a lot to get into - so let’s jump right in:
The Journey To A ‘Retail Ready’ Product
From the beginning, my goal has been to get the Screwball to a retail ready product you can find on the shelf at your local smoke shop or dispensary.
Before getting into the latest updates, I’d like to highlight some of our big milestones over the last year of the Screwball being available.
The Idea That Started It All
Back in ~November 2021 I had an idea for a dynavap cooling stem:
After reaching out to 10+ manufacturers to bring this idea to life, I realized most companies wanted to make a sale, and not be a partner. Luckily there was one manufacturer that stood out, and we started to talk about dry herb vapes, which led to the talk of making a ball vape.
Getting To The Early Adopters Round
In ~February 2022 the first prototype for the Screwball was sent to me. The biggest issue in the beginning was the heater seizing to the bowl when hot.
After ~10 iterations to create a seamless heater + bowl experience, I was finally happy enough with the product where I was confident enough to launch a presale for the early adopters round.
Naming the Screwball
With the creation of this thread, I wanted to do a naming contest for this community since a majority of my ideas came from the research I did on this forum before the prototyping began.
The original name I came up with was the E-Vap (short for E-Vaporator).
After doing a
naming contest, we decided on the name ‘Screwball’
Screwball One Year Anniversary
On July 19th, 2023 we shipped the first round of early adopter orders. After the first round of early adopters received their kits, we planned on taking everyones’ feedback and making any changes necessary.
Early Adopter Update
After we reviewed the feedback we decided to update the bowl from one screen setting (full size) to have a second option (half size).
Unexpected Improvements
With more Screwballs getting into the wild after the early adopters round, we began receiving more and more feedback.
Some of the top issues were:
- The metal bowl joint sticks to the glass joint / can crack the joint
- Metal joint leaves a ‘metal dust ring’ in glass joints
- 18mm isn’t a common joint size - 14mm was highly requested
- “The bowl holds too much herb for me - is there a smaller option?”
- “[insert random object] burnt into my coil - how do I clean it?”
This feedback brought us back to the drawing board, and the latest round of updates tackles the issues listed above.
New Lid Design
Although it wasn’t a complaint, I wanted to come up with a new lid design that kept dust out of the rubies. The unexpected results of this change is how it improved performance on the heater, and led to lower operating on the PID for users.
Heady Friendly Bowls
Our new hybrid bowl design uses o-rings to hold in glass joints. This allows you to use any size rig (18mm, 14mm, or 10mm) that fits the bowl.
We also made a ‘microdose’ bowl (
sold separately that uses a smaller diameter mesh screen (15mm instead of 20mm) that is compatible with the Screwball.
(The micro bowl comes with our new smaller heater - the
Pinch Hitter)
Branded Coil Guards
The final accessory added into the Screwball kit is a branded coil guard. This should help prevent issues with random objects burning into the coils by mistake.
These are being sent to me this week. After I approve the sample, there will be extra made and available on our website at a discounted price for current Screwball owners.
Plug & Play Ready
Our manufacturer had an idea to help reduce issues - they will be doing a heat clean on all heaters before shipping us the kits. This will allow people to skip the burnoff stage, and be able to get into vaping their first bowl even quicker
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
With these final accessories being added*, the final step is to get the packaging ready for the shelf. This will include a branded box, barcodes, and a unique unboxing experience.
After the packaging is updated, no final changes will be made to the Screwball and we will be focused on ramping up production & wholesale.
*NOTE: The retail price of the Screwball has slightly increased due to the new added accessories.
Other Updates
Beyond the Screwball updates mentioned above, we have some more news for y’all
Troy & Jerry Show Appearance
This past Friday I had the opportunity to be a guest on Troy & Jerry’s Think Dank, you can view the episode by here:
Big League Bubbler
After testing a variety of popular glass options for flower / ball vapes (made in the US & China), I came up with what I believe is the ideal design to maximize clouds, flavor, and performance
Features:
- 18mm Female Joint
- 50mm x 5mm Glass Can
- 5mm Thick & 5.5in Wide Base
- ~11in from Mouthpiece to Surface
- 48 Hole Perc
It is now available for
pre-order on our website here
Glass Diffuser Bowl
I had an idea to adapt the glass pass through adapter to a diffuser bowl instead of an injector bowl. These will be available on our website when we have them on hand ready to ship (~3-4 weeks from now).
Going Wireless
If you haven’t already heard, the Screwball is going wireless, and we are in the process of testing the first prototype.
If testing goes well, we hope to launch a pre-order within the next 6 months.
BONUS:
Here’s a little demo video of the wireless Screwball on the new Big League Bubbler
Closing Thoughts:
Things have really been picking up momentum, and we have a lot of exciting things in the works. This wouldn’t be possible without the support of this community, so I am grateful for the opportunity to give back.
There will be some new contests launching soon, I just need to finalize some details.
I hope you all have a great 4th of July, and I look forward to bringing more updates your way soon.
If you need any help with customer service, please send an email to
hi@vapvana.com
Happy Vaping,
Cal