My T1 just came. Thank you UPS. Thank you Amazon. Boy, am I ripped. The T1 is definitely a winner. Reading the entire thread had me pretty well prepared, and I watched the full take-apart video, so the mechanics held no surprises. The T1 just became my new favorite carry around, and I've only had it an hour and a half! Have I mentioned that I'm really ripped? I'm going to continue testing while I write this, so it can only get worse...
/freeflow review
Nice enough packaging, sort of, but not a great first impression; the plastic is just too thin and flimsy. The contents, on the other hand, were just as expected. Pictures don't do the T1 justice. Fits in the hand nicely. Not as much tension in the slide switch as I expected from my readings here; it shouldn't be a problem for me. Have to investigate a nice carrying case; maybe a re-purposed flashlight pouch. OK, plug in the charger, drop the first two batteries in. 15 minutes later, they've both been green for five minutes, drop 'em back into the T1. Pop batteries three and four into the charger. Just topping off the 75% factory charge before using them the first time.
Crumble up a tiny bit of sourband (SourDiesel - Headband hybrid, tested at 19%, really really good stuff) with my fingers, 3/4 fill the bowl, close it up, hold the switch for a ten second count, then direct lung inhale for 30 seconds. Nice taste; not exactly the same as the first bag from my Volcano; not exactly the same as from the first hit from my MFLB. Maybe not quite as sweet, and there seems to be something else there, but still very nice. Then I remember that this is hit number one, and there may be a slight taste to the virgin T1 itself; file this thought away for later. Release switch, hold breath for 20 seconds, very small cloud, sort of, uhh almost. Shrug. OK, try again, hold switch for ten seconds, then direct lung suck for 30 seconds, realize too late I have taken way too much, and cough my brains out. Big cloud. Big rush. Big smile. Put the second check mark on the piece of paper to keep track of how many hits I get out of a set of batteries. No need to give up science just because I'm smiling.
Repeat, stopping this time after maybe 20 seconds of inhale rather than 30. Still almost too much, but manageable, another huge cloud. A big sweet misty cloud. Very big smile. Realize I am whacked out of my mind. Hit four is pretty much the same, but no sweet taste anymore. Open the top, notice I've only vaped the center core of the load, remember from reading here that I was supposed to stir the load. Stir the load. Decide to refine my breathing technique depending on whether I am on hit one or hit five of a load, and whether or not the T1 is already hot. More on that later. So I get nine really good hits out of the first load. Could have gotten another hit out of it, but the taste was pretty grungy, and the ABV was totally dark brown. The batteries had one more hit worth left in them, which I subsequently used for the first hit of load two. Dump the ABV, take a dry paper towel, clean the top and bottom of the bowl. Crumble in another tiny bit, fill the bowl 2/3 this time, do the first hit on the old batteries, which sort of give up the ghost after half an inhale. Load up two freshly charged new batteries, smile some more, do another hit, then wait for the two spent batteries to cool off, and for me to cool off, put the batteries in the charger, set the stopwatch. Decide to start writing this while doing more hits.
/end freeflow
OK, it's a couple of hours later, and I'm less stoned. Short form. The T1 works; it really, really works. One bowlful = one pair of batteries = about ten hits. Works for me, seems to work for everyone else, easy to remember, ymmv. You can probably milk the batteries a little, but why bother, one bowlful = one pair of batteries is just too easy to remember. Let them cool off before you recharge them. Can't really see using a grinder, unless your stuff is really moist. Finger crumpled bud gets fully vaped (remember to stir/shake once in a while), and isn't tiny enough to fly through the upper holes in the bowl (or fall through the same holes in the bottom).
What else. The taste got better after the first couple of loads; no foreign tastes or smells at all. Maybe slightly less sweet but more minty than I'm used to with this strain, but definitely very nice. The first set of used up batteries just flipped from red to green. One hour and 40 minutes to fully charge a pair of totally dead batteries. Not noticeably warm. Wonder if this charger "tops off" the batteries if you leave them in for a little while after the lights go green.
Ordered some very cool PowerPax battery caddies (one black, one orange, two glow). Ordered an assortment of optional tips from Thermoessence (one long black, one PTFE, one revolution). Wish I knew about the new stirring tool before I ordered, but no great loss, I can always order it by itself. Have four more batteries on order from a third party. Everyone is back-ordered on batteries for the next two weeks, but the six that came with the T1 kit should hold me. I've seen some outrageous prices on these batteries; you shouldn't pay more than about three bucks and change each for them.
More random notes: Half used batteries take more like 15 seconds to warm up a cold heat chamber. If you want to check things out for yourself, just take the top off, look through the holes in the bottom of an empty bowl and hold down the switch and see how long it takes for the chamber to glow fully orange. Check on a cold T1 and a hot T1. Check with a full battery and a half full battery. You can also tell a lot about battery state by feeling for the mouth tube getting hotter (or not) at the end of 20 second steady hit. The stream itself never seems to get really hot, but the (short, stock delrin) mouthpiece sure does after a bunch of consecutive hits.
I'm still refining my technique for best use of the T1, but I've already figured out that the breathing and powering technique is very different depending on how I'm using the T1. When I'm sitting at home, taking one hit every five minutes or so for an hour, I need a different technique from when I'm taking five or six rapid hits, one after another, during a ten minute break at work.
One of the key things I got out of this thread, particularly from OF's observations, was to always keep in mind that the T1 is a true convection vaporizer, and there are two parts to convection vaporizing. (1) Getting the heat source up to temp and keeping it there, and (2) getting the hot air to go through the load, heating it up and then leaching out the good stuff on its way into your lungs. (More of OF's wisdom, if not his exact words).
The count to ten part preheat takes care of getting the T1's heat chamber up to temp. But that's only half the equation. You gotta suck hot air through the T1 for a while to heat up the load before the hot air will carry off the good stuff. Once the chamber and bowl and load are warm/hot, it doesn't take much effort to get huge sweet clouds; after two or three hits, almost no pre-heat switch is necessary, and great vapor exists as soon as you start inhaling. From a cold start however, it's a different story. It can take another 15 or 30 seconds of sucking air before you start getting any good stuff, even after preheating by holding down the switch for ten seconds. Just holding the switch won't do it, even if you count to 30; you have to also move hot air through the load.
I really wanted to thank everyone for all the comments in this thread; it made the decision to buy easy, and the learning curve slight. OF: your insights and advice have been spot on; your breath advice in particular. Thanks! vapefiend: nice review of the T1 last week, thanks for all you do.
Haywood
Oh, and how cool is using the raw preform of a two liter soda bottle as the battery holder.
