Vaping - am I doing this right?

[LeChuck]

Hi everyone,
I am new to the forum and to vaping, and cannabis altogether...
I've looked around for answers to this question on here and not found any, please excuse me if I've missed something.

This may be an amateurish question, but...

When I vape should I be seeing any "vapor?" It seems like whenever there's something visible, it looks and tastes like smoke. If I back the whip off the vaporizer a bit and take a draw, I don't see any vapor or smoke, but I am able to taste the herb. However, I don't feel like I am getting the full effect of it when I do this. I am sure I'm doing something wrong.

I am using an easy vape with temperatures around 200 - 220 F.

Any ideas?

Thanks for any input!

 

[Stu]

First of all, welcome.

Second, you should use much higher temperatures. At least 350 fo higher to start.

Finally, your vaporizer is not the finest arrow in the quiver. You may want to peruse this site for some better alternatives.

 

[OhTheAgony]

Just a quick thought, but are you sure you don't mean 200 to 220 degrees Celsius..? Because that would be about right, though a little on the hot side.

Not that those readouts are very reliable on your vaporizer, but well, it's a ballpark figure I guess.

Otherwise it helps to stir the herbs in between hits & experiment with load-size. In my experience most vaporizers have an 'ideal load size' with which they perform best. My guess for your vape would be around 0,2gramm, slightly packed. Also play around with your draw speed a bit as it effects the vaping temp as well (the slower you breath, the hotter it'll get).

If all that fails you it might be time to look at another vape, like Stu already suggested

 

[momofthegoons]

Hi LeChuck and welcome to the forum. And congratulations on your change over to vapor. It was a great decision.

My advice would be, as stated above, to experiment with load size and temperature. The Easy Vape is a cheap knock off of other box vapes like the Hot Box or the Vapor Brothers, and will not give you accurate temperature readings. But, you should be able to get vapor from it.

Yes, vapor is visible. But it is not the "blue" smoke that you are used to. It looks more like condensed steam. It dissipates quicker and tastes better.

And one thing that hasn't been mentioned above is that there will be a significant difference in buzz, at least in the beginning of your change over to vaping. Since you are not burning the material, you are not getting some of the products in it that give you "couch lock." The buzz is much more energetic and "aware." But don't despair that you are wasting your herb! The leftover material (abv) can be used too. One example is to make butter for baking.

My advice to you is to load up a bowl and keep practicing. And while you are doing that, start reading up on technique. There is a wealth of knowledge and advice here on the forum. Of course, one thing to realize is that while you are reading, you will probably also acquire VAS (vaporizer acquisition syndrome) like the rest of us.

 

[max]

It seems like whenever there's something visible, it looks and tastes like smoke

Vapor has a similar appearance to smoke, but I'm surprised you say it tastes the same. Smoke is both hotter and more harsh than vapor and there should be a very noticeable difference. And anytime you're really getting smoke you'll also get ash, from combustion. I think it's highly unlikely, from what you're saying, that you're getting any combustion.

Not that those readouts are very reliable on your vaporizer

Always a good point to consider with these cheap digital boxes. The display numbers can be way off, as far as accuracy. It's best to just treat the display numbers as reference points.

 

[LeChuck]

Thanks for the informative replies!

OK, so there will be some visible vapor, but it shouldn't taste like smoke, correct? I'll keep experimenting with temperatures (I am in the states, so I am assuming the easy vape temp is in F not C). I am blackening the herb at 260 if I leave the whip attached to the unit for more than a few seconds, so it's plenty hot.

Yeah, I had a feeling the unit was going to have issues, given the price. I also have a vap-o-genie, which of the two do you think is better? I am planning on upgrading to something higher-end in the next few months, but for now, I am stuck with these two.
Thanks again for the input!

 

[weedemon]

you should see the herb gradually change colour from green to brown over time. it should look like this (more or less) when you are done with it.:

I like to stir between my hits on a whip vape. btw if you want a really great whip vape consider the ssv.

If you want a portable one, I reccoment the Solo or Pax. Personally, i prefer the solo.

 

[Quetzalcoatl]

Howdy! In general, when it comes to vapes, the "box whip" isn't the best choice as there are just so many fakes. Vapor Bros is considered an "original" piece, but there are just so many low-quality knock-off's in the market that a lot of people end up with them. Don't let this dissuade you from vaporizers though, as there are a lot of products that deliver. Any thread here with more than a few pages' worth of posts will have a decent vaporizer. Everything from the Underdog to the Launch Box, people tell it like it is. If someone doesn't like it, they say it. If you're planning on upgrading, then this should only be to "hold you over" so to speak, so it might be best to find a working temperature and "settle" with it for now. Hopefully your transition is quick! Are you looking for a desktop piece or portable? Off the top of my mind, some good desktops to look at are the Herbal Aire, Extreme Q (both do bags as well as whip and bong) Da Buddha/Silver Surfer, with log vapes there's the HI/Wychwood/Underdog/Hot Pod, portables has the Puffit, Pax, Solo, Launch Box, ThermoVape/Persei/Omicron for oils (TV does flower too). Every one of those is worth checking out, and if you have the time to invest, you would do yourself a service to read all of the threads... or not, hehe. Maybe too much reading? The LB thread has over 700 pages!

Hang tight! You're doing yourself some good by switching to vaporizers. I've cut my intake down to 1/3 what I was smoking! Eighths last me two weeks on average now, at the consumption of about two grams a week. I used to be able to smoke a two gram blunt to the face! Now that eighth becomes a quarter a month... I might even be able to get a grow going since things turned out quite differently recently... A plant = ~3 ounces = year's worth of meds. Two plants = 6 ounces = a year's worth of meds and enough to make a ton of edibles to give to my collective. Vaporizers are an investment upfront with a rather quick return. Once you have a quality piece, you just know that this is the way to enjoy it. Some might even say it becomes an addiction... you'll notice some of our fellow members here have lists of owned vaporizers bigger than a bibliography for a research paper

And to give you a different take on ABV, this is how mine comes out of my MFLB. I get a bunch together, and then mix it in with some all natural peanut butter and let it sit for 3-7 days. Whenever I want to dose it, I just take out a tablespoon or two and eat it. My first batch came out to be ~1g per table spoon. 1 spoon had me feeling good, two tablespoons and a few trenches was too much for me. Woke up stoned the following day, didn't wear off till 2pm. That... was a good day.

 

[pakalolo]

Thanks for the informative replies!

OK, so there will be some visible vapor, but it shouldn't taste like smoke, correct? I'll keep experimenting with temperatures (I am in the states, so I am assuming the easy vape temp is in F not C). I am blackening the herb at 260 if I leave the whip attached to the unit for more than a few seconds, so it's plenty hot.

Yeah, I had a feeling the unit was going to have issues, given the price. I also have a vap-o-genie, which of the two do you think is better? I am planning on upgrading to something higher-end in the next few months, but for now, I am stuck with these two.
Thanks again for the input!

Black ABV at 260 means that temperature display is Celsius. 260 is too hot, turn it down. I prefer low temperature vapour so I'd go as low as 160, but I wouldn't go above 220. As max and others have said, the display on this device might not be that accurate, so you need to experiment.

This type of vapourizer usually works but not too well.

 

[Egzoset]

Salutations,

It seems an assuption has become common place here about the Easy Vape display: it's a temperature scale, right?...

Well, no. Not really. Not if i'm correct about this, euh... The fact is, if one finds the °F or °C labels anywhere near its front panel then lets simply assume that those numbers reflect a rheostatic mechanism where the user controls power instead of temperature, which explains why i've read a few complains from Easy Vape owners relatively to its display, i guess.

Actually, my bet is a clean set of just a few photographs of the heater element wires would prove this product pretends to measure temperature (and hence to have a thermostatic behaviour) while it doesn't.

Put into other terms, i suspect there's no temperature sensor in the Easy Vape at all...