I had trouble using a jet flame and in fact I burnt the hell out of the top-side of my VG with one before I decided a jet flame was not optimal. If it works for you, great, but as I recall the VG web site even recommends not using a jet flame, probably because it is a bit difficult for some to do it right with a jet flame.aura said:First... thanks to all of the posters here!!! This is by far the best forum for vape info. I think part of the reason is because it's hard to end up here on accident. This is a thriving and exciting community.
I've had a VB vape for about five years, but I figured I'd wait for the technology to advance before getting another one. Wow! There are so many options now; it's great to have all of these choices! I chose (thanks in large part to this forum) the VG to be my next one.
Anyways, here's my take so far. My first use was today, and I must say that it is perfect for me. I like to conserve, so efficiency is key. I wanted my first try to be with as little as possible. I loaded just enough dry grind to cover about 5/8th of the screen. Originally, I had the whole screen covered, but I decided to really test it.
Success! This thing works quite well. I'm sure I could have used less. The technique was pretty much as has been described in this thread, but here are some things I noticed:
1. I did barely touch the wood closest to the bowl, and now there's a little mark there. It doesn't look burnt, though; it looks like it has been lightly stained. Any more of that, and it would more burnt. I blame myself for this since I moved the jet flame around a bit too much.
Notice that this was the VG and not the dry grind! The grind was nowhere near burnt at the end of the session.
2. If you use a jet flame, then you really don't need to move it around all that much. I moved it around a bit too much, which led to the mark on the wood. Really, some minimal movement (if any at all) of the flame is necessary for even coverage.
3. For those who do want to use a jet flame, keeping the flame above the bowl is perfect. There is no need at all for the flame to even enter the bowl. I think this is where some people erroneously burn their loads. Just a series of two or three seconds on/ one second off of the torch (with a nice, slowly paced draw), and there will be no worry at all about burning. Even after reading and watching videos, I am pleasantly surprised with the results.
EDIT: just noticed FEAR420's post. Yes, absolutely use the lowest setting on a jet flame lighter. There's no need to turn it up at all. Good call, FEAR420.
I was able to get about four nice hits. It is very efficient. Form start to finish, it took about three minutes tops. I checked the grind two or three times during the session, and the top part was more warm than hot. Burning yourself from that shouldn't be an issue unless the sessions are quite long. If there are several people, I'd suggest waiting awhile in between people.
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I use about a 1" flame on a barbecue-lighter-style ignition lighter (the kind with a trigger, it's red and black, from the 99 cent store), and hold it above the VG and let the flame dip about 1/4" into the bowl with my inhale. Usually about 10 seconds of that is enough to start to get some vapor so I exhale at that point just to see if I've reached vaporization yet. If so, then I start the flame again and with my tongue curved up so I can feel and taste the vapor, I can tell how hot and tasty it's getting and once I feel/taste it a certain way that comes with experience, then I take a deeper faster draw and man! I get big vapor hits that turn the bud brown but don't burn it.
I also like to be very efficient and I notice that the VG seems more efficient than the LB, not in the ultimate sense of using less bud per stone, but in the sense that you can LOAD less bud into the VG than into the LB and still get great results. With the LB I have found that best results come - as the Magic Flight people recommend - with about 3/4 of a "trench" loaded. But with the VG I can load 1/3 that much and still get great results. "Why load less?", you may ask. Because sometimes I just want a hit of one strain, then later I want a hit of another strain, and only one or two hits each, which doesn't use much bud at all in either of these vapes. So it's just that you can LOAD less in the VG, in my experience, and still have it work great.
One other slight advantage that the VG has over the LB is that it can vaporize hash or other things and the bud does not need to be ground or dried real well for the VG. With the LB better results by far are obtained with grinding the bud very fine and let it dry, or use the LB itself to dry it then grind it more with your fingers once it's dry.
I think well ground and dried bud may also work better with the VG but it's not AS important with the VG as it is with the LB.