Hello FC, this is my first post here after some time of lurking and reading up on vaporizing. I recently bought a vapman and I'm writing this review in case someone might be interested.
Background story:
I began smoking weed some 5 years ago, together with my friends. We live in Europe, we always smoke tabbaco-weed joints (spliffs?). I was interested in buying a vaporizer for several reasons:
- much healthier (all the docters I've ever met said never to smoke...),
- much more efficient than smoking,
- more stealthy (as in not so much smell).
I was doubting between the MFLB and the vapman, it was the vapman's closest competitor in it's price range. But after a while I choose the vapman because of:
- it's extreme build-quality (made in swiss with only high-grade materials)
- reportedly bigger hits and more efficient than mflb even though smaller trench
- no electronic parts which can short or die
- better quality trench than mflb. Apparantly the trench of the mflb is quite sensitive and needs very careful handling. This one is a nice copper gold plated plate, which is immediatly clean by blowing some air on it after vaping.
- no hassle with batteries/electricity = good for festivals and such
- I haven't read a single bad review of the vapman.
I live in Europe so I'd rather have a product that doesn't break than one (MFLB) with a lifetime warranty in the USA. There are too much posts on the mflb subreddit asking if their broken unit will be replaced by warranty. I don't see the bowl of the vapman breaking that easily.
Review:
First use:
So, I buy the vapman and I go to some friends to test it out together for the first time. We were blown away with the efficiency of this tiny thing. I only had a little bit of weed, less than a gram, enough for one or two joints, wouldn't be very effective for 3 people. At the end of the night we only used 4 bowls and maybe half the weed there was. It was so good my other 2 friends, without ever really considering buying a vaporizer, are going to buy one as soon as possible too.
Efficiency:
It always surprises me how high I get off one bowl, from so little weed. It does take a good bit of getting used to. After 5 years of combusting I started to like the taste of joints so it's a bit weird at first to have this smooth vapor. You see so little vapor en you feel it so little it's a bit hard to get consistent hits. But I'm learning it now, after about a week of use. At the end of every bowl though I'm high as balls and easily at an [8], as they say on reddit. The high also seems to take longer to fade than a smoke high. In our baddest dreams we never could've hoped there was so much 'higness' in so little weed.
Ease of use:
The vapman takes a little getting used to (maybe because it's my first vape) but there are a lot of factors which make up the vapor: Length of flame, duration of heating, how much you pull, the temperature around you, dryness of the herb and how fine it is grinded. Vaping outside is a bit different than inside. The bowl seems to cool off faster with wind and cold temperatures and need a bit more heating. The herbs have to be grinded as fine as possible, this is difficult without a decent grinder. (You can also use a pill bottle with a nickel inside, or a pill crusher).
I haven't vaped a single bowl which didn't get me high, it's pretty easy to use.
Parties:
My torchlighter only lasts me about 6 bowls before it needs a refill, but I can live with that. It's less of a hassle than batteries and because of this it's also more of a party piece. You do have to bring your can of butane. If you go to a party you have to explain really good how everything works to whoever uses it. None of my friends had a problem using it and getting as high as the rest. Because it's basically a one-man vape, it has such a small bowl. To get everyone high you need at least as much bowls as you have people, which can take quite some time. It basically means you'll have to constantly refill it and pass it around for an hour or more. I haven't tried out a third lung yet, but will do it as soon as I'm getting more consistent with it. I bought an mflb stem especially for that.
Combustion:
I combusted twice. The first time was the first night, and we didn't even notice. I only noticed afterwards when trying to clean my mouthpiece and bowl with Iso and some dirt not coming off. The second time was today, outside, I was almost at the end of my bowl and I heated a bit too long which caused me to inhale smoke. Now, however, I immediately noticed it was smoke I was getting, instead of vapor. I stopped inhaling and unscrewed the mouthpiece. No damage.
Cleaning:
After a bowl you can just empty it out in your ABV container, if something doens't come loose you can touch it with the little metal things of your mouthpiece. If some residue is still in the bowl, just blow on it and all comes off. If I didn't combust I wouldn't have needed any Iso yet.
The metal filter on the mouthpiece was pretty dirty by combusting one time. I couldn't get any of it off with Iso. I heated the metal part of the mouthpiece with my torchlighter and it cleaned out real well. The bowl has 2 darker spots on it I couldn't get off, no biggie.
Tip: if you heat the metal filter part of the mouthpiece, unscrew it. I didn't do it and my mouthpiece started smoking. It was a little blacker than normal, but nothing normal damage of use wouldn't have caused.
Stealth:
It's not incredibly stealthy as you have to use a torch lighter. The constant click of the torchlighter is a big give-away if somebody is in the room next to you. I still live with my parents who're very anti-weed and I have to be very careful if I'm vaping in my bedroom.
The vapman itself does have a very distinct smell, a bit sweet. When the vapman is in it's case, you don't smell a thing. I wonder if it's the normal smell of vapor or if there is some pear-wood smell also. When heating there is some vapor smell which may escape the unit, but a lot less than the vapor you exhale.
When I vape in my room I use a sploof and open my window for an hour or two afterwards. I pregrind all my herb and put it in a glass jar. This cuts down on the smell in my room when filling (and I think my not-completely dry weed cures a bit faster like that). I don't know about the smell at that moment, but the morning after everything is certainly gone.
Build quality:
Very nice, I got the Mica version, and after about 20 bowls I don't see any damage to the base of the unit. The mica starts to curl a bit, it'll probably flake off, but that should be normal. The mouth piece has the usual burn marks on the wood (and some extra because of my bad cleaning). The only thing I'm a bit afraid of is that the bowl is only supported by these 3 tiny hollow brass tubes. I fear that I'll accidently put too much pressure on the mouthpiece (which is supported by the bowl) when high and break it off.
Vaping other herbs:
I vaped some weed with thyme because I read that someone got higher of less weed if he added some thyme to the mix. It gives a nice clean taste in the mouth, but I didn't really notice much else of it.
I also vaped some dried lavender leaves from my garden, I think it relaxed me a bit but didn't feel very much.
Conclusion:
I'm very very happy with my first vape. I wish I had a more silent solution than the loud torchlighter to vape in my room, but that's the only negative.
It's so very tiny, everyone says it, but the pictures really don't give you an idea of how small it is. It's very easy to use, to get consistent hits you need practice, but it will get you high anyway. I'll be able to bring it to festivals this summer (which you can't possibly do with a battery-powered vape).
The efficiency is mind blowing, and to think about all the ABV I'll have makes me instantly happy.
This is the first review I've ever written, I hope it can be of some use to someone. It's nice to finally be part of the vaporizing community. I'll try to do a video review once to get some more vapman info out here on the web. During the wait for it's arrival I've scoured the internet read/watched everything vapman related I could find.
Here are some pictures of my vapman after some 20 bowls
Happy vaping!
Rubb