First off, it's not magic. A small load of low grade herb just doesn't have much to offer. Load top shelf bud at five or six times the concentration in and you'll get five or six times more out under the same conditions.
Secondly, the unit does work once guys figure it out, but it does take figuring it out and not expecting it to work the way you want it to. Start with very dry herb, you don't have a lot of excess heat to waste drying stuff off. Grind it fine, you need lots of surface area. Go 'too fine' at first, you can cut back later as you gain skills. Don't sweat battery life until you sort out, change them often until then and keep them charged so that's easy to do.
Think a bit about what you need to do. This is NOT like MFLB, so if you know that one, forget it for now. It's something like VGs, if you know them you're ahead.....maybe. Anyway, think about the heat. You need to let the heat build in the core until it's hotter than it needs to be for the job without pulling any air. This might take 8 or 10 seconds, don't rush it until you understand it. Let it cook some. Once it's hot, start a 'medium speed' draw. You need to move a lot of hot air from the heat core through the bowl to heat the herb. Cool air will enter the side and into the core for heating. You will taste and feel warming air, after several seconds (less when warm) the taste will shift as the good stuff starts, slow down but don't stop the draw looking to keep that level. If it drops off, pull harder (not slack off like MFLB). If it starts to get away, stop the draw (or slow it way down) keeping more heat in the core. Cutting power does no good, the heat is already stored in the core, stopping the air flow is the only handle you have.
As a starting point, I suggest ten seconds of preheat, 15 or 20 seconds of hitting, say 30 seconds of 'key down time' per toke. Expect say 10 or 12 such cycles per charge.
After each hit, mix things up. Otherwise the hot air 'tracks' up through the load every pull overcooking the walls of the track at the expense of the rest of the load. I like to start up by dumping the load in my left palm and crushing/mixing before returning it like I do with the LB. After it's very dry and no longer sticks together, if the bowl's not too full shaking it is enough. Some guys loosen the cap to provide more space, but be careful it can come off.
Remember to put fresh batteries in when you recharge the load.
Hang in there, guys with a lot less going for them than you are using these guys well right now.
OF
and now OF beat me to it 
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