Welcome to Mission Apollo everyone! The Eagles are landing!!!
That mod works very well Nssl - was wondering if you did anything to your back air intake as it looks like there some kind of blockage around the edges of the intake from when you put your Apollo down on its side. The wooden door is a great tweak too.....that chamber cutout is a burn source for sure if not careful......and its easy enough to get careless when medicated.
Another great source for pics and videos is "Pictures_of_Pot" Instagram and YouTube channel......you have to watch the one where he burns himself and after exhaling calmly comments about it very nonchalantly - absolutely hilarious!!!
Not the burn of course.....but his reaction is priceless
I have a few ideas to try my own fix.....this vape - with the oversize pathway available sure seems suited to personal modifications - I have EQ elbow screens as well that I want to try for smaller loads.
I used a silicone oven glove to block the hole in mine when I tried it the one time so far.......the one thing about this vape is that it sure runs hot......but it performs better than anything I've tried so far......and the taste is incredible.
I never knew what people were talking about when referring to great tasting vapour before - because I always go for full extraction without temperature stepping as I like to see lots of visible vapour and want immediate full extraction. So I start and finish my sessions at full power with my Mighty.
But with the Apollo.....you can produce clouds and also get crazy awesome taste while you are at it and the most intense smack in the face effects shortly afterwards.
I'm still feeling sick but am inviting a friend over for a few beers to try out tonight and will hopefully start feeling well enough to use it over the long weekend in the way I want to use it.
I think that there is still room for improvement in cooling the bottom area of the vape when it's fully up to temp......maybe a version 2 tweak? or an easy aftermarket mod?
But that is a small concern and no reason to hold back from grabbing this one before the line starts building because when word spreads - I am sure that Ville will become very busy and it might be a little while until he has enough help on his end to satisfy the demand - but that is just my guess of course.
I am also really looking forward to the Helios - even though not a portable - Ville has told me that he is very happy with how that one is progressing. I think the Apollo will fill the portable niche where it is easily transportable in a briefcase, or napsack......but I am guessing that the Helios will be the one that you will want to bring out at parties for a larger group of people since it is easier to pass around a cool whip (even with a water tool in between - my FC-UFO!) rather than a very hot Apollo and water tool.
I had some very nice clouds and an awesome experience with my initial short session that I was blown away by......but I am guessing that after Nssl made that video that produced even better clouds than what I experienced - even though I also milked my glass - that he was probably "on the moon"
One small step for man......one giant leap for vape-kind!
Tranquility Base Out!
P.S. Oh yeah.......highly recommend getting extra herb chambers.....knock one out halfway through and put a fresh one in. Then when the chamber has cooled - stir the herb - and switch out again - lather, rinse and repeat
EDIT: 3 1/2 hours later ........Yup! I have a new favourite!
My other vapes will still get love and attention on occasion..... and also provide great satisfaction when I decide to put them to use...... since they are certainly no slouches.
But for now, the vape honeymoon has started.......this Apollo works very well.
It isn't automatic as in setting a dial to get an exact temperature or anything......but it is very intuitive to use in a pretty well on-demand situation when it is warmed up. If you want to extract everything that a chamberful has to offer fast ......when it is up to temperature you can milk your glass and do back-to-back whitewall hits and kill a chamber very quickly.
It was helpful to have a second set of lungs over tonight to see how the Apollo could keep up in continuous extraction.
One full bowl put through a bubbler medicated (very well) a combined weight of about 470 lbs worth of human tonight in a fairly short..... but continuous session. We could have kept feeding it herb chambers, and it would have just kept hitting better, harder and faster I'm sure.
It seems that once this thing gets up to temperature and is heat soaked (also meaning.....be careful) the performance is basically "on-demand" milky hits through glass.
This is not a "tuck in the purse vape" ......for any ladies out there , (and not trying to be offensive - just honest) where you can pull it out, take a hit and then drop it back in the purse.....unless you have a heat resistant container. This feels like a true hardcore vape tool that is going to get very hot in a couple of locations and really needs to be treated with respect
.......and also some time to cool down before you can handle it without paying attention to where the hot parts are radiating heat. I guess if you want to cool it down between uses for quicker herb loading (if you only have one chamber) then placing it under a fan would help or just holding the unit in the hand to heat-sink the wooden body.
Otherwise, in about 5-10min you can handle it without fear.......and before that it actually feels nice and warm in the hands - just don't touch the herb chamber or the aluminum bottom for a few minutes after shutdown.