Discontinued VapeXhale Cloud EVO

[Anonymouse]

On my unit the smell would continue to come out the middle seals even with an o-ring.

Hrm. Looking closer at the base there's a slight gap between the two casing half pieces that isn't present around the sides and top. Odd. Is that the "middles seal" you're referring to? I don't know if this gap is present on all units or just a product of tolerance variances in the way the way mine was moulded. You could seal it with a bit of sandwiched sheet silicone (or some DIY custom-cured artifice) if you took the halves apart, but that's fiddly and probably warranty-voiding. :/

 

[stonemonkey55]

So this morning I used the evo. Leaned in to actually actively try to smell it, rather than just smelling it from a foot or so away. WOW does it stink on the bottom. The top doesn't smell, but the bottom of the unit smells as bad as my old vapir one garbage.

Come on guys what is this? Is there going to be some looking into this, or is it time to sell my evo.

I loved my ticker. No smells, great performance. I had a cloud+ that sucked performance wise, but no smell. I had the ebay fakexhale, that was completely broken. Now I have the evo and it smells VERY toxic to me. I would not have even bought the vape had I ever smelled this or known about the smell. It really is a 100% unacceptable smell that I've only smelled in shitty or fried electronics.

I'm well over $800 invested into vapexhale products, over a grand if you count the "fakexhale" as well. It saddens me to be this brutally honest, but I feel like every new product has gotten worse compared to the previous one. The ticker was IMO flawless. Then the cloud+ came out and felt like it was totally lacking in power, and WAS lacking in reliability. Long long wait later the evo we all waited for came out, and IMO its as weak as the cloud+ but now it has smell issues, and a seemingly cheaper construction. Literally the only thing improved by the evo was the detachable power cord, thats how I see it anyway.

I have to be totally honest and say that I feel like you guys are slipping hard. The international units seemingly all/mostly fail, the evo has a foul stench that would be unacceptable on a $100 vaporizer, and the extraction just plain isn't nearly as good as the ticker was. Also, my friend has a cloud+ that he insisted "nah they will fix it trust me, I paid full price and they PROMISED they will fix it eventually...." and now the best offer he has is being able to trade that cloud+ that he was promised would be fixed....in for an evo COUPON so he can get a discount to buy the new vape after his old one failed and wasn't repairable even within the warranty period. He already bought an evo, because he trusted you guys blindly. He said yeah I'll get the evo now for $$$$ and they will make it right and fix my cloud+. Well now you turned his under warranty cloud+ into a chance to spend more money to get something similar to what he paid for. IMO that is bullshit and you really should have hooked the cloud+ people who got totally SCREWED up with free evos. Yeah its expensive, but so was the cloud+ that people like him bought and used for a couple months before it died and was converted into an invitation to spend more. Not a good sign from a company who wins best product multiple times that they can't afford to take care of a small portion of customers who got totally fucked with the cloud+ they bought.

I like vapexhale very much as people, and they have great customer support, but IMO you guys have gone from the top company in the industry to just another mediocre product, but at top end pricing. It kills me to say that, because I'd honestly hang out with anyone at vapexhale, and they have been super good PEOPLE to me, but the product just doesn't impress me at all and is a huge let down after owning an original cloud long ago.


Sorry SM....don't hate me. Your still a cool dude, but I had to be honest. I've been super bummed with basically everything from you guys since the tickers went away.

No hate at all. Only thing I would like to express is that I do not have the attitude of "it didn't happen to me, it isn't an issue" - as a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite. The engineers typically don't monitor the forums so if something comes up, I am usually the first guy that tests things to see if I can recreate the problem so that we can address it. On my unit, I am now getting a feint smell after 2 min and roughly 10 seconds. I will be tracking the smell throughout the day and will also try a few things to see if we can come up with a solution such as drilling a hole to act as an air vent to see if letting the hot air dissipate while inverted cures the odor issue.

On a side note - The OG Cloud and the EVO have identical internal components asides from a new heater, a new glass bamboo, and a bigger processor on the PCB so in theory, the smell (or lack there of) should be the same in both scenarios. Will report back later.

I know this company has had very public ups and downs but I don't want people to get the wrong idea of the company as a whole. We are a private company with investors so I cannot disclose actual numbers but the EVO has BY FAR been our most successful product, not just from a sales perspective but from a user satisfaction criteria. Owners of both units have been happier with their new unit (outside of the guys that had super hot running OGs and tickers) and we are very prideful about that. Just like we had a few hiccups with the initial EVO launch that we were able to address and find a solution very quickly, we are doing the same with the international units.

Lastly, I would like to say that although reading the constructive criticism doesn't always feel great, it does make the company better. While we may not have the resources to fix something in one day, we do continue to take your feedback seriously and are always appreciative when someone puts thought into expressing their displeasure.

 

[Anonymouse]

I will be tracking the smell throughout the day and will also try a few things to see if we can come up with a solution such as drilling a hole to act as an air vent to see if letting the hot air dissipate while inverted cures the odor issue.

If the electronics area was fully sealed on the bottom (and maybe around the power plug too), the hot air wouldn't be able to rise through it and warm up stuff that can release odours.

 

[Hexi]

Catching up . . .

Warranty is managed as an expense relative to revenue, expressed as a percentage. "Standards" are "set" through analysis of industry leaders (typically the largest companies). These essentially become "targets" aka performance standards.

In a consumer electronics analysis by a warranty trade journal comparing leadership warranty actuals to accruals, nearly all companies fell within the 2-3% range. The report cites 5% as the cut-off for a "manageable" level of warranty. Small immature manufacturers are very often above this mark.

Good stuff. Of course the reality is for any NEW product, the rate is much higher.

XBOX360 Red Ring of Death
PS3 YLOD
PS2 DRE
XBOX DDE

All of these electronics had much higher defect rates, and these were done by multibillion dollar companies with decades of experience. Early returns on XBOX360s were like 20% defect rate (msoft denies).

Sony quietly settled a lawsuit about faulty PS2s, almost no one even remembers that even happened. Early gen PS2s were trash and the DVD players routinely crapped out.
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There is variance in some units. Mine has the narrow dial deal, but I get full extractions and turbo mode so I don't need a recalibration for my purposes.

I use it inverted 95% of the time and leave it inverted way longer than I should. It does not give off any odors so it's not the placement of the board/chips.

There is another reason that some units give off an odor, and it sounds like right now we don't know the root cause, just the contributing cause (Heat)

 

[stickstones]

Another 90 minutes inverted burn on highest setting...no change. Slight smell that didn't get worse or better.

 

[pakalolo]

If the electronics area was fully sealed on the bottom (and maybe around the power plug too), the hot air wouldn't be able to rise through it and warm up stuff that can release odours.

Where do you think the heat would go?

 

[Anonymouse]

Where do you think the heat would go?

Into the environment around the unit, eventually. This is just about stopping the convective heating of the electronics caused by the hot air current that arises through the buoyancy of the heated air inside the unit. If there's no path out the top, the air won't flow (well, except the air running up the inverted bamboo, but if the electronics are sealed off, this air won't affect them). Heat will still move by conduction and radiation, but the heater output is thermostatically regulated so it's not like the unit's going to overheat (and even if it wasn't sealed, if something went wrong with the thermostat, that tiny amount of venting isn't going to make any difference anyway).

 

[stickstones]

I don't think there is any convective heat spread going on here...just conduction and radiation. So I just did a two hour inverted run on high heat and could only smell it with my nose right up to the bottom of the unit. While I don't think the smell should be there at all, it most certainly is not going to ever affect my usage. I'll never be able to smell it in use and will rarely use it on high, let alone inverted for prolonged periods. I just wanted to know that I could do it without incident. All systems go here!

 

[Anonymouse]

I don't think there is any convective heat spread going on here...just conduction and radiation. So I just did a two hour inverted run on high heat and could only smell it with my nose right up to the bottom of the unit.

If this phenomenon weren't related to convection currents, you could smell the same odour at the base hole even with the EVO right way up, but nobody has reported this happening. Perhaps conduction is more responsible for the heating of the electronics, but it's a convection current that's moving the air around those electronics to the outside of the unit. When the unit isn't inverted and thus the heat source is above the electronics, this current isn't flowing over them.

 

[Dr. Plutonious]

I generally only notice a smell too when my nose is right next to the EVO and it has been heat saturated for awhile.

Also, @stonemonkey55, I had a question for you. Before when we were talking about heat ranges, you suggested not going above 3 for risk of combustion. But I've ran mine all the way to max with no combustion.

Do you still think that there is danger in combustion at those temps? Ad if there is, would that be in the norm or the unusual?

Seriously. Since the repair I've used all sorts of strains, salads, mixes, kief, different sized loads, different temps, etc. Haven't had a single instance of combustion.

 

[Enchantre]

I'm wondering if an ISO-dampened cotton swab, lightly swept around the inside of the bamboo (where the ELB sits), might not clear up some smell... after a week, I get a LOT of residue off there, and if you are using it upside-down, that smell COULD rise to the bottom of the bamboo.

and, I've not had much of a smell beyond "new plastic" when I first got it.

 

[darkrom]

I will say I'm pleased that SM is investigating and cares. That was all I wanted. I just want it to be taken very seriously, and it seems like he is going to do that.

Let's hope we can all find a happy fix.

 

[Pickz]

I don't use my EVO inverted anymore, but hopefully that issue is resolved quickly. I just wanted to update that USPS managed to get my package to VXL on their second delivery attempt. At least their tracking says so. Hopefully I'll have my EVO back in time for the 20th.

 

[darkrom]

I'm going to have to use it vertically only while SM and the team look into this issue.

My best guess is that when inverted,the intake becomes the exhaust And it is getting hotter in some place than it does otherwise.

 

[stickstones]

In the meantime I don't see why you can't use it inverted. Just don't leave it that way between hits.

 

[lazylathe]

No smell to my unit either.
I have to run it on MAX all the time to achieve dark brown ABV.
i run it inverted 50% of the time and have never noticed a smell.

One thing i do when inverted is i take a hit and remove the EVO and place base down on the table.
It is never left inverted for any length of time, less than a minute at a time usually.
To me it just seems too vulnerable sitting inverted on the glass joint...

And with the electronics in the bottom of the vape, invert it and heat rises to surround the electronics with no way of escaping. I think the hole that @stonemonkey55 mentioned is a great idea!
Maybe a mod so that there is a mesh screen on the bottom instead of a solid base, similar to the mesh screen on the top?

 

[darkrom]

If a simple vent is needed that would be great, but wouldn't it still be venting to the bottom of the unit, which while inverted is acting as the intake?

 

[stickstones]

The problem is the smell, which seems to be coming from heated electronics of some sort. A venting in the bottom would keep the heat from building up to the point of smelling.

 

[Dr. Plutonious]

Wow. The accessories page got a lot of new items today. The new storage jars do look cool.

But still...I longingly wait for info about the ratchet sidecar.

 

[Vapinghole]

No smell here, at all, after being on for hours. I have my nose right up to it, too.

 

[stickstones]

oh yeah, and all the supplied ELB's fit perfectly as well as all my older ones.

I just checked out the website. I dig the rating system they have for the HT's!

 

[Madcap79]

@darkrom

The intake will be the same place regardless of its position when being used.

 

[ChiefKeefe]

Im afraid my EVO may be acting up, and has been since I got it, I just didn't realize. Wanted to ask FC what they thought about this problem as there is little to no where else with discussion regarding the VXL EVO. I believe my circuit must be messed up and the UNIT isnt registering the temp and using the proper LED colors, making it overheat.

Im getting good hits, just concerned with it over heating.

So I turn my unit on, and turn the dial to 12. It warms up for like 1-2 minutes and is green at 12. I then turn it to 3:00 and the light turns RED, Which is suppose to happen. So I let it warm up at like 3 for probably around 3-5 minutes. My LED light now turns green, which is suppose to happen. Now I tune my EVO down to 1;30, and it turns to a RED LED again. When I turn it down, so it sees the red and starts to heat up.


Should I open a support ticket?

Thanks for the help and support so far FC!

 

[Sinclue]

Should I open a support ticket?

Yes

 

[darkrom]

@darkrom

The intake will be the same place regardless of its position when being used.

Well I mean if the "electronic smell" is escaping from the underside while it is inverted, won't it get sucked right back into the evo through the intake while you are breathing in air?