Discontinued The Venus Apollo

YungLeaner

Well-Known Member
I saw that they sell bulbs on their website for about $6 so I would assume they go out, but I haven't read much in the Herbalizer thread about bulbs going out, so I would imagine they can't go too frequently? I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in shortly...
If it's any help (not sure if it is), I've spilled water on my halogen Herbie bulb while in operation multiple occasions and it's still plugging along working perfectly...I think that halogen offers a very specific vape signature , but it is probably the best heating element available for pure convection and user replacement
 

Joel W.

Deplorable Basement Dweller
Accessory Maker
Other than the wood, what's the best thing about this unit that would make me want to buy this?

I'm wondering about the halogen bulbs. Can they burn out? I'm curious if this would be something that would require bouts of having to send it in for service? I guess time will tell how it withstands wear and tear. When buying a vaporizer I'm looking long term. I know it has user replaceable batteries.

I think it is very versatile and easy to vape the way you like, whether it's sessions or big rips. Mine came with an extra bulb. You can pop out the heater screen and use a wire hook to pull the bulb out of the socket. I have already dropped mine while on and the bulb survived just fine.

I think the best thing about this vape, besides its function, is @villekille2 and how he has delivered an amazing vape on time, as promised, in a very short time period. :rockon:
 

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
The maintenance of changing bulbs and worrying about dropping it, makes me nervous. How much are the bulbs?
 
CarolKing,

Mister G

Deceptively Old Fart
I think I would get the 30w bulb that was talked about a few pages back from the get go!! Can't go wrong with extra power imo.

The biggest tradeoff for more power in the bulb seems to be battery life.

It was mentioned on this thread that the bulbs are user replaceable, but the bigger your hands/fingers, the harder it is to replace.
 

GTAVaper

Well-Known Member
I've had a very fun weekend with my Apollo. This vape is basically one that you get up to temperature, start vaping and then decide where you want to stay with your temps......and then also with the available boost that can quickly take you to a higher vaping temperature - which you could also stay at by just increasing the standby power level upwards after the boost. So you could temperature step if you like......or you could tune it for maximum extraction speed and "cloudage" if that is your preference :)

The taste also really comes through with this vaporizer.......even through water.....which will be helpful in deciding when to quit vaping because if you push a load for too long, or extract almost everything from your herb, turn it off and try to vape a dried extracted load then you might push the temp too high for a previously vaped load and then combust - which is what happened the only time that this happened to me.

There are only three things that I think could be improved:

(1) Design of the herb chamber. It doesn't have to be insert-able in both directions - because I believe that would mean that you would need the same short distance to the seating rim on either side of the chamber for that to work - whereas right now it is only on the side that you seat on the halogen bulb mount.

But if there was also a shelf in the middle of the chamber then you could configure the chamber for a half load size and just have multiple herb chambers for different usage occasions because it is easiest to use this vape to extract everything possible in one session if you are vaping at high temperatures.

If you are by yourself, and do this with a full bowl, then you are going to be feeling very medicated when you are done. So when you want to top up your medicated state you have to pack a half bowl......which does work alright.....but I think that the vaporizer does perform a little better when the load is confined and slightly tamped (although not too tight) which forces the hot air through the herb at a little slower rate and I think helps with better extraction.

If you are a temperature stepper and can discipline yourself to only remove the bottom temperature extracts then it would be alright to use on multiple occasions - but greater familiarity with the device would be required. Not that it is difficult - but it is kind of a manual/taste feedback loop that will keep you vaping at the temperature spectrum that you enjoy and after a while you will figure out what kind of warmup, maintenance temperature and boost might be required to do that. If you want to cool down the unit you just lower the power level to 1-3 and then keep pulling on it until the vapor level drops and you are once again in the more green tasting temperatures.

(2) The battery chamber knob really needs to be higher in profile and easier to grip. I think that this would be a difficult vaporizer for someone with arthritis to change out the batteries. Additional threading might be helpful but I think that if the battery knob were to be heightened in profile and also include cog-like protrusions on the edges (think like a gear cog with rounded teeth) then it would be a hell of a lot easier to switch out batteries. I understand why the current knob was chosen.....it really is a gorgeous looking design and the knob mirrors the mouthpiece pretty much exactly.

But if the knob were to be the exact height of the short mouthpiece when inserted and a chamber is loaded then I think that this exact height (along with cog-like edges) would provide for a better and easier grip on the battery housing knob for much easier battery changes. The thread depth could stay the same so that older Apollo's could be retrofitted with a new knob.

(3) The unit put out a lot of heat and gets very hot when it's up to temperature. I'm not sure if the answer would be to lengthen the back plates depth and add engraved channels to the back piece of aluminum - sort of like pseudo-fins that would provide more surface area cooling? Or, perhaps the high temperature and limited cooling surface on the bottom is preferable for performance?

Perhaps with a hotter bulb (35w/50w) the back air hole might need to remain? Perhaps a redesigned thicker back plate with more surface area and a sliding cover for the rear air hole might be the most versatile, and work with all bulb wattage?

Other than that then perhaps a short silicone sleeve accessory that the Apollo could sleeve the base into (but short enough that is doesn't block the touchpad controls - or have a cutout provided for this area) and perhaps as part of that sleeve - a portion of silicone that continues up the side edge of the vape to cover most of the chamber bowl area.

When I have a chance to pick up some silicone tubing, I am going to see if the 3/4" OD-1/2" ID tubing - when cut to a length that would reach up to the chamber cutout and then sliced lengthwise down the center - will sleeve around the outer edge of the Apollo and hold onto the edge by way of the natural compression of the silicone wanting to return to a round state and gripping onto the side of the wood. I am going to try to find the right diameter of tubing to make this work and if it works then I am thinking that the tubing circumference (Pi X D right?) will wrap around just enough to protect your hands from contacting the chamber but still not completely cover the cutout and thus leave a passage for airflow while vaping.

As to whether a hotter bulb might be useful, or drain batteries too quickly? I think that the one benefit would be the much faster heat up time ~ maybe 20-40 seconds?

But then you would definitely have to use the lower temperature 5% profile because the 10 percent increments from 10-100% are going to be too wide in related temperature increments and the upper end of the power level will combust your herb too easily if you hit the boost for too long.

However, I am sure that this could all be sorted out by just reducing the boost defaults, after all 50% power to a 50W bulb is probably going to be similar to 100/115 % with the original bulb.

I guess the trade off in battery life would need to be confirmed ......and it actually may be more efficient if you get up to temp quickly and then throttle back to regular vaping temperatures - which with a higher powered bulb would just mean running that bulb at a lower fraction of its rated power.

These are just my usage observations and some ideas for improvement but don't let me dissuade anyone from thinking that any of this is a real criticism. As it stands right now this is hands down my favourite vaporizer, even if the battery knob can be a pain to screw in sometimes - especially when well vaped :tinfoil:

Battery Usage
I think that you are going to want 3 sets of batteries if you are vaping with friends in a social situation and at least two sets for individual usage...... so that you always have a backup while the other set is on charge.

I would recommend a 10A continuous drain battery (minimum) and a higher drain battery is certainly not going to hurt either..... but maybe a little shorter in usage life but perhaps a little better performing through that usage lifespan? I think that the Sanyo/Panasonic NCR18650GA's, LG 18650 HG2, Samsung INR 1865030Q, and Sony VTC5's would all be great batteries for this vaporizer.

The eFest and Keeppower are also safe batteries that will do the trick and perform well but I prefer the batteries of the big three, LG, Samsung and Sony since almost all other batteries are re-wraps of these battery manufacturers except with a slightly lower performance binning. I think from the tests I've seen that the eFest's are truly a 10A battery (I've seen tests calling them a true 7A cell) and I think that is why the wrapping has also changed from the previously advertised 20A on my older eFest cells that I use for flashlights (exactly the same capacity 3100mAh as the original Apollo batteries - but only stating 20A on wrapper) to a rating of 10A/20A on the new wrapper meaning that it is designed for 10A continuous current drain with a 20A pulse current drain. This will be meaningless for the current 2nd/3rd gen 20w bulb (not sure which gen it is :) since I've seen both numbers....lol).

But for any higher powered bulb such as a 35w or 50w bulb you will probably need the LG HG2's, Sony VTC4 or VTC5's or maybe even the LG HB4 or HB6.......however I am not sure sure exaxctly what would be the best choices for sure because I don't know what kind of current the higher powered bulbs might need; as both in a constant drain usage, or if there are any power pulses associated with halogen bulbs..... since I'm not too familiar with the operating characteristics of halogen bulbs.


My posting is continued below...... as I am not allowed to post that many characters at once :o
I've broken FC's posting limit for the first time......I knew that it would happen some day :D :lol:
 
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GTAVaper

Well-Known Member
........Continued from the above post........

So with all those observations, I would again repeat that the Apollo as it is currently configured is still the very best vaporizer that I've used ........and also most enjoyable to control while operating it. It is a more personal fine tuning experience that is quite enjoyable and that I find myself somewhat surprised to enjoy much more than just setting the dial to a certain temperature or static power level.....not that you can't find a stable heat at a certain temperature equilibrium on your own.....that is easy to achieve (after some practice and familiarity)......it is just that you become more aware of the vaping temperature through the taste and vapour production that seems to be a more dynamic collaborative fine tuning than what you would get through just setting the vape to a certain set temperature.

In one of my PM exchanges with Ville I mentioned the possibility of a temperature sensor control but after further use I kind of like the way it is controlled as it is.

I don't think that the controls should be changed from the current method as it is very intuitive and works very well. So if a temperature sensor is ever introduced then maybe this should not be a control mechanism......but rather a feedback mechanism that might be helpful in finding the place that you have enjoyed previously and assist with the feedback loop in returning to that happy spot :) .....although I don't know if there is any room on the current Apollo to fit such a display.....it would have to be very small.

Although this might be a nice feature in some future iteration of a desktop plug-in vape or next generation Venus vaporizer since with the larger square base where you could more easily fit a digital readout of the vape temperature on the face of such a unit. As I said before.....not to control the temperature but to be used for feedback in setting the temperature with the current controls.......which I really enjoy using.

One more idea that would be cool......and there also seems to be room on the control pad for it - is to change the boost LED to a RGBW LED and then add another button above the boost button that would let you select different colours for the boosting light.

Perhaps a short push to select, and long push while on the selected colour to cycle through and select the intensity of the boosting light. This would add absolutely no function to the vape whatsoever ......but it sure would look cool.

But perhaps it might be easier to add such an additional "bling" factor like this to a larger vape...... such as a future version of the Venus or Helios?

Anyways, sorry about the wall of text :rolleyes: :) ........but I wanted to get down all the thoughts that I had about the Apollo after using this incredible vaporizer and giving it a great workout this past long weekend :D ......after which I now consider this to definitely be my most favoured vaporizer to use.

This is one incredible addition to your vape family that you won't regret if you take the time to learn to use it properly, it will take you anywhere you want to go in a vaping experience.......it is extremely versatile and works incredibly well with awesome taste and powerful effects.

My last words of advice would be..........get your own Apollo :D
You won't ever regret it ......but you will regret not having one :o

I :love::love::love: my Apollo very much .....and so will you :D
 
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Reliable ShotZ

Active Member
im so close to ordering this right now, is there a FC Discount atm. things that are putting me off right now are size and rather complicated way of controlling temperature, seems like theres way too many options and could take a while to get used to. Other than that its looking like a very attractive vaporizer.
 
Reliable ShotZ,

GTAVaper

Well-Known Member
im so close to ordering this right now, is there a FC Discount atm. things that are putting me off right now are size and rather complicated way of controlling temperature, seems like theres way too many options and could take a while to get used to. Other than that its looking like a very attractive vaporizer.

"Options"...... or "variety" ......is the spice of life!

I like having options ......after using this I would say that a vaporizer with less options would definitely be less attractive.

However, I do understand how the KISS approach to something like extracting a full bowl at the highest temperature possible on the Mighty as it might come in handy when providing vapour for someone else in a party situation.....just set it and forget it and tell the person to keep pulling on the water tool and not worry about any further controls :2c:

But it really doesn't take very long to learn......one good long weekend will do the trick.....and it really isn't that difficult to coach a first time user through their first "Mission Apollo" to ensure their own "over-the-moon" experience :lol:

One more clarification for my past weekend experience with the Apollo would be that I have only used it through my water tools.

I have found that you don't need any further adapter than just an 18mm male ground glass joint to seat the Apollo on and the Apollo mouthpiece will provide a tight enough seal around the ground glass taper when it is seated up there. I also used some glass joint wax on the 18mm male end around where the Apollo mouthpiece would sit. This puts a waxy ring around the end of the mouthpiece but works very well. This way you could use the short mouthpiece with a water tool and use the longer one for direct draw......or perhaps even with a whip attachment coming off of the end of the mouthpiece.

I think that I will try the direct draw whip method after I have a chance to pickup some 3/4" OD - 1/2" ID silicone tube to use as a plug piece for the mouth piece before running a 1/2" OD tube from this for maybe a foot before it meets the glass mouthpiece inserted into the end of the whip.

This would probably be the best way to achieve the coolest vapour without using a water tool.......either that or an 18mm male ground glass tube sleeved into the longer original outer tube that can be both be retracted for use and then slid back into the larger outer tube for a more compact carry or for when sliding the 18mm male joint on the end into a water tool. This would allow for a dual purpose functionality.

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One more tweak that I've made was to insert a small piece of silicone under the back plate of the unit - on top of the two screens that at located there. But I think that if you do this that you would be just as well of removing at least the inner screen or even both - depending on how thick your silicone is. I just cut mine off of a short piece of 3/8" OD Med-X platinum cured silicone tubing and cut it to fit.

I happened to find the right PZ1 bit in my small ratcheting Mastercraft bit driver that I had already had......(Canadian Tire).....otherwise I wouldn't advise trying it with a Philips head as you could strip the screw heads. Philips heads and drivers were actually designed for the automotive industry and a designed to torque out of the head at a high enough torque whereas the Pozi-Drive bits and heads and designed not to strip.....but the drivers and heads are not really interchangeable for proper usage.


One more thing that I've done is sleeve two short pieces of tubing over some mini needle nose vice grip jaws and use this to help with removing the hot herb chamber if I want to switch out to another chamber mid-session. You don't need it ......but it does make life easier.

I also have bought some small silicone baking loaf pans (red silicone bakeware) that I eject the hot bowl into after using or just lay the Apollo in when its hot so that no one accidentally touches the hot areasa right after usage.
 
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virtualpurple

Well-Known Member
I think I've accidentally changed my default heat setting to 90%, having difficulty getting it set back where I want it (50-60% perhaps). But shit I am medicated...
 
virtualpurple,
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virtualpurple

Well-Known Member
Right, but I swipe down to set it down to 60%, and the appollo usually times out after four minutes. Upon restarting it heats way back up to 90%. I'd rather it just warmed up to the lower setting by default but I'm having difficulty figuring out how to do so.
 

GTAVaper

Well-Known Member
My Apollo remembers its last temperature that I stopped vaping at I believe......but it is so good at medicating that I can't be sure ......lol

No, I am sure when it fires up again and finishes it's warmup period it goes to whatever setting that I last finished vaping at......so if I finished at a 4 ......drawing hard on the unit to cool it down before putting it away..... as I might if I only vape half of a full bowl .....then when I startup it goes back to 4 again.

Maybe you've been finishing at power setting 9 and then it just returns there to that power after your warm up period when you re-start it?

If that is the case, then I think that is normal operation to return to its last temperature setting when starting it up again. But it is easy enough to swipe down and watch/feel the number of light flashes/vibrations to count to what power level you have switched to.

Edit: I've had the touch pad unresponsive a couple of times, but I think that was because of battery contact issues because when I undid and then screwed on the battery cap back on again the system reset itself and worked normally. Perhaps there was a problem at the cap contacts that resolved itself after re-screwing the cap?

If you are talking about something different? ....then I'm not quite understanding the problem at this point in time.....but then again it's a long weekend and I've been enjoying the Apollo.....so it might just be me :)

Edit 2: You can always hit the boost for a second to reset the 4 minute timeout countdown if you want it on a heated standby that lasts for longer than 4 minutes
 
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AtomicPB

Well-Known Member
I Hope everybody had some nice days over the easter holidays. :)

Nice posts regarding the functions and usage of the Apollo. Thanks for taking all that time guys.

I have a brief question which is not solely Apollo related. As far as I understood @villekille2 is delivering a Xtar VP2 Charger with the Apollo.

Since I also have the MFLB which uses Ni-Mh Batteries I wanted to get myself a Xtar VC4 Charger, because it can charge the Ni-Mh for the MFLB and Li-Po 18650 for the Apollo. It is because I would like to keep just one charger on my desk.

Do you guys see any drawbacks using the Xtar VC4 over the Xtar VP2?
 
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vapen00b

Many vapes & accessories. Always happy to help
I Hope everybody had some nice days over the easter hollydays. :)

Nice posts regarding the functions and usage of the Apollo. Thanks for taking all that time guys.

I have a brief question which is not solely Apollo related. As far as I understood @villekille2 is delivering a Xtar VP2 Charger with the Apollo.

Since I also have the MFLB which uses Ni-Mh Batteries I wanted to get myself a Xtar VC4 Charger, because it can charge the Ni-Mh for the MFLB and Li-Po 18650 for the Apollo. It is because I would like to keep just one charger on my desk.

Do you guys see any drawbacks using the Xtar VC4 over the Xtar VP2?
Hey there!:)

Actually, it's the XTAR WP2s that comes with the Apollo. It charges Li-Ion and NiMH. So, if you don't need to charge 4 at once, you could go with this one.:)

Cheers, hope you had nice holidays, too! Thanks
 
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AtomicPB

Well-Known Member
Wow, that is cool ... thanks for the info, @vapen00b . :)

Then I will probably not order the VC4. The 4 slots would be nice to have but not really necessary if the WP2 is included with the Apollo.

Hope my pre-order Apollo is going to be send out soon, cant wait to try it myself after those great reviews. Just thinking about maybe adding another herb chamber to my pre-order.
 

wolfJflywheel

Well-Known Member
Hey, have you all been getting tracking numbers when your orders are marked as shipped?
If so, where are you seeing them?
 
wolfJflywheel,

GTAVaper

Well-Known Member
@AtomicPB

I just looked it up to confirm but the XTAR WP2s doesn't charge NiMH batteries.

I would suggest going with at least one extra herb chamber......and the second one is at such a discount that you might consider getting an additional 2 herb chambers. That way you could also use one exclusively for concentrates and still have an extra fresh chamber always ready to be swapped out for a hot spent chamber.

Or if you don't use concentrates (or don't care about mixed usage) then you also could have an extra two fresh chambers ready to go if you wanted to extract things very quickly for a larger group of 4-6 people - which the Apollo would have no problem with once it is up to temperature if you just kept feeding its loading breech with more goodies.

After writing my last post last night and then firing the Apollo up again I was sitting there with it in hand and enjoying the organic feel of the unit in my hands. The wood is very nicely contoured and it just fits there very well and it would be a shame to cover its whole edge up with a silicone sleeve.

So I am going to try to fashion a silicone plug/door that just plugs the open breech area without being raised up over the edges - so that the plug is not "proud" of the sides of the unit. That would maintain the current in hand feeling of holding the Apollo - which is very nice - and makes a nice hand warmer as well :)

I don't know if thickening up the bottom plate and adding more surface area by machining "fins" into it would help with the high temperature at that location.....or just transfer it all that much more quickly and still stay as hot. The heat on the bottom plate is too hot to comfortably touch.....but it is easily avoidable too. I was just feeling it more previously because of having to hold a piece of cut up silicone tubing over the bottom air hole.

I think that of everything that I discussed in my prior postings that the two key improvements that could be made is to make the battery door hatch thicker and also something is needed to cover the hot herb chamber area while the unit is in use.

The battery cover dial should be sitting at least double its current height above the top plate and also have edges that are easier to grip (softened cog edges?) when switching out batteries.

This operation can be a serious pain some times when there just doesn't seem to be enough of an edge to get a grip on when trying to twist the round dial......at the same time that you also have to push down on it a little to remove some of the spring force while twisting.

The open breech where the hot herb chamber sits is the second area that needs some kind of improvement. I think that the easiest fix would be to create some kind of heat resistant plug that fits over it and friction fits into place with the wood cutout edges.

But as I said previously.......whatever suggestions for improvement that could be made......it is still the best vaporizer that I have used.

It is kind of funny, but after a weekend of usage, I can see a golden haze from deposited vapour on the glassware adapter that I really haven't had build up this fast when using other vaporizers.

I think this is because the vapour that I can pull of with the Apollo when extracting quickly is just richer/denser than the vapour provided by my other vaporizers and so more gets deposited as vapour flows through the adapter glass joint fitting.

@wolfJflywheel

I just got the email confirming shipping - I don't believe that there was a tracking number included but it got here so quickly that I wasn't getting worried about where it might be.

I am sure that if it takes too long to get to where it is being shipped .....that DHL could track it. Or perhaps, tracking numbers are available but just haven't been included in shipping notifications so far?
 
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vapen00b

Many vapes & accessories. Always happy to help
@AtomicPB

I just looked it up to confirm but the XTAR WP2s doesn't charge NiMH batteries.

Oh gosh, you're right. I must have seen it wrong... There's only a DIScharge function for NiMH... :o:uhoh::(
Thanks for your research and clarification...!!!!
Too bad, I can't edit it anymore. So listen to this man everyone!!!:D:):tup:

Peace :peace:
 

AtomicPB

Well-Known Member
@AtomicPB

I just looked it up to confirm but the XTAR WP2s doesn't charge NiMH batteries.

I would suggest going with at least one extra herb chamber......and the second one is at such a discount that you might consider getting an additional 2 herb chambers. That way you could also use one exclusively for concentrates and still have an extra fresh chamber always ready to be swapped out for a hot spent chamber.

Oh gosh, you're right. I must have seen it wrong... There's only a DIScharge function for NiMH... :o:uhoh::(
Thanks for your research and clarification...!!!!
Too bad, I can't edit it anymore. So listen to this man everyone!!!:D:):tup:

Peace :peace:



@GTAVaper and @vapen00b , thanks for the warning, guys. Then it is going to be the VC4 ... :)

I have to admit, that I checked on the WP2 myself on amazon and must have overread that it is only Ni-Mh discharge. :lol:

Also, your advice on the herb-chamber with possible usage scenarios is highly appreciated, @GTAVaper . You really put a lot of effort in your reports and it has been very enjoyable to read and learn from them.
 

Milkytime

Well-Known Member
No i was not provided a tracking number, just got an email and my account on venus vaporizer got changed to ship, it has yet to arrive.
 
Milkytime,
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