The VB is one of the best desktops and many agree that it should be more popular. It's a relatively old vaporizer and it's an old design, but it's as perfect as a vaporizer can be. I would place the Silver Surfer alongside the VB; they're very similar but look different and hit slightly different. The Surfer is a little smoother, the VB a little more intense (subjectively speaking).
As far as rising heat cooking the material, my answer is probably a little. When I use the Viper whip i just leave it connected except to stir in between a few hits, and with the regular hands free whip when I remove it to stir I'll loosely reattach the whip and firm it up when I'm about to hit again.
Regarding blowing outward to stir, that's an interesting idea, it's not something that I've tried yet. Sometimes if the whip is dislodged I"ll shake the bowl with my thumb on top if it's not hot to touch. I would take practice and subtlety to master the blowing out but it's doable. In order to do that, I would make sure the back end of the unit is raised up a little. It's not bad that sometimes a little material falls into the unit; if I notice an occasional speck I just shake it out, and you can get long sized qtip type cotton swabs to give it the unit a nice deeper cleaning into the corners.
It is not necessary but using either a computer mouse pad with gel wrist support to raise the back end of the unit up a half inch will level out the unit and pretty much alleviate material falling into the unit. Or you can use a guitar foot rest, like this -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CD1R7K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This foot rest comes in handy with the Viper allowing the unit to rest almost directly alongside my face so hitting is completely hands free - no hands are used. Also with the Viper sometimes I'll lift the unit up to me and treat it as if it's a portable.
The most important advise I can give you is to keep it all clean. Give it a weekly cleaning, all the parts.
One easy way that i use is to disassemble the whip including the screen and place it all in a large pot or whatever - I use a plastic foot massage basin. Add hot water and dishwasher soap powder and just let it all soak for a few hours or overnight. Then wash out the soap and let it dry.
I rarely find it necessary to replace a screen.
Have fun with your new fantastic vaporizer. They seem to last forever. I bought mine used about 15 years ago.
I loved using the Verdamper in Amsterdam and having an all glass unit really appeals to me but it's pretty big and more prone to breaking than a box unit like the VB1, so that's also a consideration.
