My review of the Universal Baller.
I’m a relative newbie - just a year vaping. I’ve gone from the eNano XL to the Ruby Twist, and tried along the way stuff from Dynavap, Camouflet, TRWW, Tiodw (wired ceramic, haven’t really used much) and the Lobo (returned that after just a day.) Of those, I really only like and use the eNano, Ruby Twist, and the Megacicle, and will probably get a coil for that soon enough here. The others were just too light for the two of us, long, long time regulars who switched from mostly spoon bowls last year. It’s been fun learning, though. I like to think I’ve converted my habit to a hobby.
Terp Chasers Club shipped the Universal Baller via UPS. It arrived unmolested in a plain box. The interior packaging was nicely done - a little damage on the interior box from the top of the stand rubbing, but didn’t seem to harm anything. Everything was nicely packed and protected. The extra glass bowl I ordered was slipped in the box, too.
The instructions are a little sparse, and the website link is sufficient but also brief. The website is mostly videos, too, and I always prefer written instructions.
Our setup:
GooRoo HD3, y-splitter, one way valves, 3/8 ID whips, glass tip for one and a hookah blower for the other. Neither of us take particularly deep/big hits - the battery powered blower doesn’t move as much air as you might think. I usually pack .1 to .15 grams, a scoop from the crossing tech scoop.
First night:
540, wireless quartz. Great initial flavor, but faded away after a minute or so. The closest to the flavor I’ve tried is the Megacicle. None of the, in my opinion, nasty aftertaste that is most evident with the matrix bowl, and cleaner (that’s probably the right word) than the Ruby Twist with the glass bowl. Just herb taste, nothing else. AVB never got too dark - maybe a shade greener than our usual Ruby Twist at 555F, with their glass bowl. We usually take 2-3 minutes to leisurely finish a pretty full bowl, and the wireless lost steam towards the end. I did a bowl alone with the wireless, and got 4 or so good hits before it cooled noticeably. (Remember, these aren’t lung busters like I see people post.) I should check the temp afterwards. The PID dropped 10 degrees or so when I put it back, so I’m guessing the actual drop in the ball head must be larger.
Next day:
Switched to wired quartz. At 540F it quickly got very dark brown with strong effects, and quickly got to the burnt popcorn taste. Tried dropping to 500F, but still too dark. 440F was a little too low. Ended up around 470, 8-10 small tasty hits over a few minutes. This makes me wonder just how much the temp really drops when wireless, since I was getting darker AVB at 500F wired than 550F wireless, implying it must have dropped to <500F in two minutes. I will have to dig out the thermometer next week.
Next I’ll try it without the insert, but will probably first spend the next few days messing with the wired quartz, changing temperatures and trying different strains. I only used what seemed like half the rubies when filling it, so if it takes the rest without the insert, that might hold enough heat to get through my use case wirelessly. I already think I’ll miss all glass, though.
My biggest complaint is that the tiny handle on the glass bowls is inadequate. That little stubby handle barely holds my fingers, and gets hot, like hot hot. Consequently, I have to let it cool a little before I can hold it long enough to tip it and clean it, meaning my AVB cools some and doesn’t clean out as nicely as I’d like.
I searched for someone making a handle, and see this looks a lot like the cannabis hardware flowerpot glass bowl and some others. Did I say how hot it gets? Have all of you been using that short hot handle all this time? How?! Why? Am I doing something wrong? I definitely miss the injector bowl with the passthrough, plenty of cold glass on that one to hold. At least the preorder hybrid bowl has a decent handle, so I’m looking forward to that. Oh, and it’s hard to clean, too. The bowl bends outward below the glass screen, trapping material that you can’t get a q-tip on. A long soak is probably needed.
The dock is ok, though it doesn’t have a great place to hold the head when in wired mode. It gets a little warm, but doesn’t seem to heat up too hot on the bottom, so leaving it on top of the pid should be ok. Instead of the dock, I just used the crossing tech angled metal stand, and a cheap coil handle from AliExpress. The wireless handle just unscrews if you are using it wired. I stared at the video on the website forever before it got here, thinking “How do I deal with two handles when wired?” Ahem. Yeah, like I said, still new to this. That said, adding that step to the website video on converting to wired might help someone else.
So, I’ll write more after I experiment some more, but so far I really like this one. Seems like a step up from the Ruby Twist, in flavor and obviously functionality. If I can find a good glass bowl that fits, I think we’ll use this daily, happily. Until then, probably still daily and just a little less happily, as it’s still the best and easiest one I have.
