A Sub surfaced here yesterday.
Big thanks to PlanetVape for getting it here super fast and well packed. First impressions:
I took a few pics before doing anything. Next up was cleaning. PlanetVape recommends doing this to get rid of the machining oils, and as has been said, it is a good idea. I gave the lower sections a scrub in hot soapy water, ISO, and then more soapy water until cotton swabs were coming out white. I carefully cleaned the upper Apollo section with a paper towl and swabs dipped in ISO, being mindful not to get any liquid into the device. The craters were the dirtiest. Then I turned it on for 30 minutes on max, let it cool for a few minutes and blew it out with an
electric duster. I wouldn't recommend canned air as it tends to blow out really cold air and might cause some sort of thermal shock.
Cleaning new vape equipment before use is something I always do, but I know that most people aren't as cautious or patient as me when they get their new toy, and it doesn't say anything about cleaning on the included instructions here. Nothing out of the ordinary, but some sort of ultrasonic cleaning before the units were put together would be a nice touch. I always appreciated the fact that Tom and Pammy from PurpleDays scrubbed their metal parts in hot soapy water before they went in the units. A positive side effect of cleaning the vape is that it builds anticipation even higher.
As has been said, the power dial has no markings. It's a bit confusing at first since only a portion of the dial is visible at any time. I drew on some numbers with a fine tip sharpie so there's no thinking required. You can erase permanent marker with a q-tip dipped in ISO if you screw up like me.
Yes the Apollo and bowl get really hot. My thermometer only goes up to 150C and it maxed out quickly. It's certainly not the vape for everyone and can burn you if you're not careful. With that said, if you dab with a torch you should have no problem with this. Just treat it like a powerful tool that requires respect. It's not the first vape that gets hot.
Supreme , anyone?
It might seem like I have a lot of complaints so far. Honestly none of those things were a big deal to me, I'm just posting them so they might help new users. Personally I would not change a single thing if it diminished the performance, because the performance is
outstanding!
There's been a lot of discussion about sublimation and atomization. What I see is an highly effective heat exchanger design that makes excellent use of radiant heat in the herb chamber. The Apollo is a big mass of metal so it holds a lot of heat. The 6 intake holes or "craters" send the air through that mass (I'd like to see more detail on the inner geometry) and out the 6 smaller holes on the bottom. The output holes are facing the sides of the funnel shaped bowl chamber which I assume creates some sort of very even convection effect before it hits the herb. Combine that with the fact that the interior surfaces
and air inside the bowl chamber are at vaporization temperatures themselves, and you've got a true weapon of mass extraction.
Log vapes like the PD work really well because their bowls get hot and provide effective conductive heat which pre-heats the herb and gets the resin nice and melty. When the user draws hot air through the herb it vaporizes much faster than it would with convection alone.
With the Sublimator you've got a powerful trifecta of convection, radiation, and conduction (my completely uneducated guess would be 60/30/10). I believe this is one of the reasons that the unit works so well and vaporizes so quickly. As you can see in the many Sublimator videos that have been posted here, when the user starts inhaling, the bong milks up instantly. You're really able to extract the majority of the goodies quickly in one potent blast with no pre-milking. It hits like a mutant log vape on steroids.
There may be other things going on, but I think that the Sublimator mainly owes its superior extraction to its triple threat heat transfer design. It's really effective. So far I've also found that the spent material appears to be lighter in color that I would expect based on other vaporizers. Maybe this is due in part to the radiant heat factor. I've found browning to be very uniform even without stirring, and the vape works well with even the tiniest loads. Impressive.
I've only had the vape for 2 days and it's already become my favorite big hitter right beside the Cloud. I find the Cloud to have the edge on purity of taste -- it's got an all glass heat exchanger and is primarily convection which I think is the reason for that. While not quite on par purity wise, the Sub delivers exquisitely sharp and concentrated flavor in its one-shot extractions which are further amplified when taken dry. I need to do a lot more testing, but I've also found dry hits to be surprisingly smooth with the Sub. I've also been able to get good low-temp blue vapor. In short the flavor is kick ass!
I can see some potential complaints about the price based on the somewhat minimal appearance of the unit/build. Just keep in mind that it's not fair to compare this to a walmart product. You need to consider the amount of time, money, effort, and risk that were required to get this from an idea to a product on your desk. Do I think that $500 is a fair price based on the performance this provides in relation to what else is out there?
Yes.
It's a powerful tool for the serious vaporist's toolbox. It requires respect, but it extracts potent vapor in spades. And I haven't even gotten into how good it is at vaping concentrates. The ability to do it along with your herb is fucking amazing.
Two big thumbs up to Enrico and the Sublimator team for creating a unique and powerful extraction machine. This thing is the real deal.
If you are hacking and wheezing like you have asthma, then you are probably sensitive to the plant particles, and water is a good idea no matter the vape you use. If it's a case of taking too much in the lungs, or dryness of vapor, the sublimator takes care of alot of that through the atomizer. You can tell by the quality of the vapor, that it is more of a mist...and that makes it more air like and natural to the lungs.
because wearing 'gear' to harvest 'just ain't right' 
