VaporGenie
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I've been meaning to post a more high effort "review" of the Stainless Bat I've had since April. I bought it because there weren't many pictures or reviews or feedback on them really, and I'm too curious for my own good sometimes. So I took one for the team and bought one so I could share the detail I found lacking.
Fair warning, my opinion of the SS bat is extremely mixed. I'm a super fan of their other models, and feel they outperform a lot of the direct draw manual vape darlings on this forum, but this model is a bit of a miss and needs a redesign badly.
Experience Out of the Box
Fit and Finish
Extremely good. Parts fit together smoothly, machining is high quality, and the shape/weight feels nice in the hand. Fun side feature of this is that it will almost balance on the widest part in the middle so that you can spin it around on your desk.
One thing I really don't like is the heater placement. It's wrapped in (steel I hope but I'm checking) foil and pressed into the device. I find it tends to flop around out of the channel it's pressed into. If there are gaps on these devices, the heat can bypass the exchanger puck and degrade performance. I'd like to see this held in by a threaded collar or snap ring instead of the current design.
Cleaning
Full cleaning is easy as both pieces can be submerged in ISO. I'd recommend only submerging the heater puck side in fresh clean ISO to avoid clogging the porous puck with resin or residue.
I'm aware the recommended way to clean the puck is to remove it from the device and torch, which can't be done on this specific model, but it does not need a clean frequently. Personally I never get soot from yellow flame lighters and this side never needs a clean.
In regular use, replacing the load, or stirring, ground herb seems to get everywhere. It's in the threads, it's up in the heat channel threaded tube, it's spilling out when you stir (though slapping the device after use stirs the load well enough without opening). For a device used on it's side, there isn't much to keep the oven load in place.
Function and Technique
The shape and right angle flame hole lends itself to the "ripping a small bowl" technique and experience that I really enjoy. This design also allows use in mildly windy conditions (or a ceiling fan in summer) that other VG devices need shielding from. It's cool, I like it, and I only use yellow flames with VG so this is about the best design for that. I also feel it lets you bury the flame in the device like you want to, without letting the flame near the heater puck.
The trick to getting good results from the Steel Bat is a slow draw. No, even slower than that. Maybe a bit slower than that. With others you can rip it once vapor starts flowing, but that bat seems to deliver less vapor and more hot air if you do this. Maybe it's because air is flowing around the heat puck, maybe it's flowing through cracks in the unsecured oven load. Maybe something else.
Done right, you get a couple huge wonderful billowing clouds out of a load. Done wrong you get pain and frustration.
Vapor Quality and Effects
It's a VG, so vapor is full spectrum and a bit toasty tasting. It's a prime example of vapor that matches the effects of smoking. Clouds are huge off a tiny flame and this little device can slap.
Experience Modified (thinking Out of the Box)
Vapor Path Cooling Mod
Many people aren't bothered by the heat from the (non glass) VG models. The owner themselves seems baffled and expressed that nobody has asked for more cooling. Personally I find the heat on this bat, and the wood VG, to be excruciating. The company says that adding cooling removes the ability to know when you are at vapor temp, but that's obviously not the case with the glass devices they make.
I think the VG is cool and smooth to those used to smoking and used to small bowls/joints and those who have throats of steel. I also think that I'm on the more sensitive end of the spectrum with regards to hot vapor. When I think back to my first use of the VG, which was my first vaporizer experience, I found the vapor/heat to be invisibly smooth, likely due to being used to smoking.
In any case, I mod my devices for cooling, and tried to find a easily replicable cooling solution to share. Unfortunately, the thing that works best is the core and cooling spiral from a (clone) simrell dynavap stem. So great if you have one of those but sorry if you don't.
This restricts the flow which helps technique and provides the exact amount of cooling necessary. The core is the exact size of the vapor path, and I bent the wings of the spiral to allow me to insert it from the mouthpiece side. Holds everything in there nice. VG should make something like this.
[Image of parts used under Dosing Cap Mod]
Dosing Cap Mod
Newer versions of the bat have a smaller and better machined threaded collar to connect the two ends. This is exactly the size to perfectly fit a V3Pro/Roffu dosing cap into snugly! It's snug so I found you could push the cap too far in and not be able to get it back out easily, so be aware.
The heat bottleneck of a dosing cap both metered the airflow for best hit technique and ensured all hot air got through the load. Worth a try or worth someone improving on this mod. Given that I have a lot of dosing caps and a single load gives two large hits, I may revisit this mod in the future.
Double Screen Mod with VG parts (cheap and available)
Playing off the dosing cap idea, and the fact that in stock configuration nothing holds the oven load in place, I've modified the device to use the threaded connector collar as the oven.
This puts the load in one place, closer to the heat exchanger, at a bottleneck of heat, and is less affected by horizontal use. I'm in early stages of using the bat with this, but initially it works extremely well and delivers massive clouds with no stirring.
BONUS: the oven is now on the heater side, which means it stands upright on it's own for loading. This is a game changer and how it always should have been.
To mod, remove the threaded collar from the heat exchanger side of the device. You'll now see threads going most of the way down to the heater.
Take a VG screen support coil and thread it almost entirely down to the last thread closest to the heater. Then, place a VG screen on top of it, ensuring it's seated well. Rethread the connector collar back into the heater side of the device as it was before.
If there is a gap between the screen and the connector collar, reinstall the screen and screen support coil further away from the heater. You don't want a gap for herb to get into, and you want the connector collar to provide structure holding the screen in place against the support coil.
On the mouthpiece side of the bat, thread the screen and screen support coil closer to the opening. The goal is for this to be placed close enough to the threaded connector that it provides a gap free seal.
The end result gives you a secure oven for the herb, where herb stays put during use and transport.
Fair warning, my opinion of the SS bat is extremely mixed. I'm a super fan of their other models, and feel they outperform a lot of the direct draw manual vape darlings on this forum, but this model is a bit of a miss and needs a redesign badly.
Experience Out of the Box
Fit and Finish
Extremely good. Parts fit together smoothly, machining is high quality, and the shape/weight feels nice in the hand. Fun side feature of this is that it will almost balance on the widest part in the middle so that you can spin it around on your desk.
One thing I really don't like is the heater placement. It's wrapped in (steel I hope but I'm checking) foil and pressed into the device. I find it tends to flop around out of the channel it's pressed into. If there are gaps on these devices, the heat can bypass the exchanger puck and degrade performance. I'd like to see this held in by a threaded collar or snap ring instead of the current design.
Cleaning
Full cleaning is easy as both pieces can be submerged in ISO. I'd recommend only submerging the heater puck side in fresh clean ISO to avoid clogging the porous puck with resin or residue.
I'm aware the recommended way to clean the puck is to remove it from the device and torch, which can't be done on this specific model, but it does not need a clean frequently. Personally I never get soot from yellow flame lighters and this side never needs a clean.
In regular use, replacing the load, or stirring, ground herb seems to get everywhere. It's in the threads, it's up in the heat channel threaded tube, it's spilling out when you stir (though slapping the device after use stirs the load well enough without opening). For a device used on it's side, there isn't much to keep the oven load in place.
Function and Technique
The shape and right angle flame hole lends itself to the "ripping a small bowl" technique and experience that I really enjoy. This design also allows use in mildly windy conditions (or a ceiling fan in summer) that other VG devices need shielding from. It's cool, I like it, and I only use yellow flames with VG so this is about the best design for that. I also feel it lets you bury the flame in the device like you want to, without letting the flame near the heater puck.
The trick to getting good results from the Steel Bat is a slow draw. No, even slower than that. Maybe a bit slower than that. With others you can rip it once vapor starts flowing, but that bat seems to deliver less vapor and more hot air if you do this. Maybe it's because air is flowing around the heat puck, maybe it's flowing through cracks in the unsecured oven load. Maybe something else.
Done right, you get a couple huge wonderful billowing clouds out of a load. Done wrong you get pain and frustration.
Vapor Quality and Effects
It's a VG, so vapor is full spectrum and a bit toasty tasting. It's a prime example of vapor that matches the effects of smoking. Clouds are huge off a tiny flame and this little device can slap.
Experience Modified (thinking Out of the Box)
Vapor Path Cooling Mod
Many people aren't bothered by the heat from the (non glass) VG models. The owner themselves seems baffled and expressed that nobody has asked for more cooling. Personally I find the heat on this bat, and the wood VG, to be excruciating. The company says that adding cooling removes the ability to know when you are at vapor temp, but that's obviously not the case with the glass devices they make.
I think the VG is cool and smooth to those used to smoking and used to small bowls/joints and those who have throats of steel. I also think that I'm on the more sensitive end of the spectrum with regards to hot vapor. When I think back to my first use of the VG, which was my first vaporizer experience, I found the vapor/heat to be invisibly smooth, likely due to being used to smoking.
In any case, I mod my devices for cooling, and tried to find a easily replicable cooling solution to share. Unfortunately, the thing that works best is the core and cooling spiral from a (clone) simrell dynavap stem. So great if you have one of those but sorry if you don't.
This restricts the flow which helps technique and provides the exact amount of cooling necessary. The core is the exact size of the vapor path, and I bent the wings of the spiral to allow me to insert it from the mouthpiece side. Holds everything in there nice. VG should make something like this.
[Image of parts used under Dosing Cap Mod]
Dosing Cap Mod
Newer versions of the bat have a smaller and better machined threaded collar to connect the two ends. This is exactly the size to perfectly fit a V3Pro/Roffu dosing cap into snugly! It's snug so I found you could push the cap too far in and not be able to get it back out easily, so be aware.
The heat bottleneck of a dosing cap both metered the airflow for best hit technique and ensured all hot air got through the load. Worth a try or worth someone improving on this mod. Given that I have a lot of dosing caps and a single load gives two large hits, I may revisit this mod in the future.
Double Screen Mod with VG parts (cheap and available)
Playing off the dosing cap idea, and the fact that in stock configuration nothing holds the oven load in place, I've modified the device to use the threaded connector collar as the oven.
This puts the load in one place, closer to the heat exchanger, at a bottleneck of heat, and is less affected by horizontal use. I'm in early stages of using the bat with this, but initially it works extremely well and delivers massive clouds with no stirring.
BONUS: the oven is now on the heater side, which means it stands upright on it's own for loading. This is a game changer and how it always should have been.
To mod, remove the threaded collar from the heat exchanger side of the device. You'll now see threads going most of the way down to the heater.
Take a VG screen support coil and thread it almost entirely down to the last thread closest to the heater. Then, place a VG screen on top of it, ensuring it's seated well. Rethread the connector collar back into the heater side of the device as it was before.
If there is a gap between the screen and the connector collar, reinstall the screen and screen support coil further away from the heater. You don't want a gap for herb to get into, and you want the connector collar to provide structure holding the screen in place against the support coil.
On the mouthpiece side of the bat, thread the screen and screen support coil closer to the opening. The goal is for this to be placed close enough to the threaded connector that it provides a gap free seal.
The end result gives you a secure oven for the herb, where herb stays put during use and transport.
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After spending a week using the screen modded VG, I'm really impressed with it's performance. Above are three loads that I vaped as completely and high temp as possible. I didn't stir at all, just loaded and used, then dumped. Compared with the stock configuration, this provides a few more large clouds, even extraction through the load, and much easier technique. Ease of loading and lack of abv mess overall is an added bonus.
I can appreciate that sentiment. If the heat on the vapor puts you off, please note I feel the same way about the vapor on the og lotus longstem and VG handcarved/og.
I'd argue that the containment screen mod has changed my opinion of the original review immensely. An instant on demand, no fuss/stir, relatively windproof, butane device that delivers hits like this has made it pass the reach test often. It's great for it's form factor and vibe.
But VG needs to send it from the factory like this, and pop a titanium metal twist in the vapor path. That, and advertise at all and participate on the forums.
I'd argue that the containment screen mod has changed my opinion of the original review immensely. An instant on demand, no fuss/stir, relatively windproof, butane device that delivers hits like this has made it pass the reach test often. It's great for it's form factor and vibe.
But VG needs to send it from the factory like this, and pop a titanium metal twist in the vapor path. That, and advertise at all and participate on the forums.
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@simba idk about the aluminum versions but the SS bat didn't get hotter than 90F at the hottest point on the outside. This is after ripping a bowl as hard and fast as I could until it was done. After 30s it was down to 78F.
I mean, you do you. VAS made me buy the bat, since I was so happy with the glass VG. I just don't want my boy to be misunderstood.
I mean, you do you. VAS made me buy the bat, since I was so happy with the glass VG. I just don't want my boy to be misunderstood.
Rest In Pieces
Waist height to a wood floor while in the VG padded bag. I guess the seam of the bag isn't padded and that's where it hit. Expensive failure.
Vitolo
Vaporist
My favorite has always been the Glass Sherlock.
My favorite was my 2nd one because I liked the shape more.
The first:
and the second:
@KidFated. Donated a wooden VG once, that had lost it's mouthpiece, but a patient I worked with wanted it just as it was.
@DDave wrote a twist on Champions, about how we help other patients in their learning about vaporization.
And now a Saturday Night celebration, using the Very first VaporGenie I ever had. The wooden body
was given to a patient that I worked with when he lost his.
Down the road this aluminum body was gifted to me by a member here.
This sesh is done with all of you!
My favorite was my 2nd one because I liked the shape more.
The first:
@DDave wrote a twist on Champions, about how we help other patients in their learning about vaporization.
was given to a patient that I worked with when he lost his.
Down the road this aluminum body was gifted to me by a member here.
This sesh is done with all of you!