Pen Vax Vaporizer

[nondarb]

On a whim (and need for a cost effective portable I wouldn't mind losing) I've decided to buy a couple Chinese vapes. I received my "Vax Vaporizer" yesterday, did the prerequisite overcharge and am preforming burn offs right now. So in going to do a first impressions review and update as I use it. Contrary to popular belief this is NOT a pax clone, knockoff, counterfeit ect. To the best of my knowledge this is an entirely original design.

Pros:
-Packaging is EXCELLENT, nice fitted foam for the vape as well as accessories, nice little drawer for the ACC's all held in place with a magnetic lid.
-"360 day warranty" Yes, 360. It may be tough to get then to honor it however, it IS listed in their nice 22 page (cut down on costs if they printed more than a sentence a page!) color printed manual. English was surprisingly good.
-Seems to be built solidly, no rattle, visual defects and everything seems to work as it should.
-Small, fairly discreet. 6 1/2" long 7/8" thick.
-Cool features, turns itself down to minimum heat after 15 seconds of inactivity/movement. Shake it to check battery life.
-Battery life seems impressive, first burn off was 43 minutes of constant oven time to discharge at full heat (allegedly 240c).
-Extra silicone MP covers were included as well as a bowl spacer (upon inspection the bowl is pretty big, I'd say .3-.4 would fit fairly easy do the SS spacer is a welcome sight).
-No "robot fart" smell. (However silicone may be worse?!)
-Apparently CE and ROHS compliant.

Cons

-Vapor path has a small ring of silicone in it, plastic MP.
-Air path is not isolated fully, can feel air escape USB port.
-That little bit of silicone is fucking stinky. Nearly an hour of burnoffs alleviated the smell some, but not enough for me to use it just yet.
- Goofy little green sticker that says "HOT" on it near the heater, the area with the sticker is sunk in so if I remove it the space where it was will be visible.
-Only 3 temperature presets, 200c 220c and 240c.
-Non user replacable batteries (at ~$30 that may be a little much to expect).

You can see the stinky culprit in this picture of the oven and MP.

Sorry in advance for formatting and picture size issues, this is my first review.

 

[davesmith]

Looks like the old version of the imag or xmax check those threads

 

[PPN]

No it's an original vaporizer, not a previous version of the Imag, although there is already a thread about the Vax!

 

[nondarb]

No it's an original vaporizer, not a previous version of the Imag, although there is already a thread about the Vax!

Yeah Mr. weed mentions it in a thread that's well over a year old from when it was unreleased, but he never got one and the other vape in the thread never materialized. That thread deviated to a small time clusterfuck so I figured a proper review was in order now that the vape is actually out, also a thread where there wasn't negativity from the start.

Just used it, first impressions are pretty positive. It definitely works, but I may do another burn in as it still tastes a little funny. I've come to the realization that what I was calling a spacer (Still may be one) may in fact be a concentrate cup! Considering I nearly combusted at level 2 (its certainly possible) I'd say level 3 may be useless unless you were using concentrates. It heats quick (visible vapor in less than 30 secs) and runs pretty hot.

At any rate I'll post later if I mess with it again today. There's too many methods and variables for me to judge its vapor quality fully at the moment. I threw .1 in there loose and shook it to stir without the spacer cooked very evenly. I'm thinking a domed screen is in order to cut down on size.

 

[nondarb]

Sticker mystery solved, there's a teeny tiny torx screw there, good to know.

Im not a fan of the plastic in the vapor path (or stinkiness) so I came up with a work around after coming to the realization that the "bowl" looks an awful lot like my solo's. I fashioned a stem out of an ANCIENT aluminum down stem, the fit was perfect. By doing this I would bypass the silicone ring and plastic MP altogether.

At any rate it failed, I didn't notice the air intake holes along the top of the rim, it didn't cook thoroughly and with the airholes flowing freely I essentially had a hot air machine. Damn shame, I thought I had rigged up an even smaller poor mans AA! I'd need to make a seal for the top of the unit for this to work, more tinkering down the line possibly.

With this failure I decided to go hung ho in de stankifying this guy, I soaked the MP in ISO overnight and cleaned the fixed silicone ring with soap and water with a q tip held upside down to not let it get into the heating element. The risky procedure paid off, both pieces smells are gone.

With the stink gone I can say this a great alternative to the titan and many other cheap PRC vapes. A domed screen on the bottom increased its efficiency by at least double, I'm able to load sub .1 bowls and get several pretty good sized puffs. The vapor is surprisingly cool being soon close to the MP.

All and all I'm not upset with my ~$30 purchase, however I feel with a little more effort and R&D it could have been great. The temperature range definitely favors the high temp user, which I can appreciate but walking the line of combustion on medium is very impractical. A little more range would of been great. My only other significant complaint would be the airpath not being sealed and that damned silicone ring.

I've got an herbstick ECO on the way to compete in this same category I'll compare it too should it ever arrive, allegedly it has a sealed air/vapor path so I'm fairly excited. As I stated in my OP, these are to suit a specific need for me: a vape I wouldn't mind "loosing" out and about. I feel for the time being this is a pretty good candidate.

 

[nondarb]

Used it a few more times and decided to give the concentrate cup a go. When I turned the unit back up to high (for herb med is PLENTY hot: combustible)the dreaded stink came back. I've decided to shelve the unit for now. It produces thick vapor but the lack of an isolated air path and the silicone in the vapor path kills it. Which is a shame considering its features were really handy. Another weak point is the power on, you hold the button for 2-3 seconds if you're an active fellow you may well end up with a hot pocket pretty quickly.

Anyways yes this vaporizer is heads a f shoulders better than a Titan 1&2 (and stinky as it may be far less stinky than these units) but that's not saying much. My herbstick eco was $5 less has an isolated air/vapor path and comes from a far more reputable company, unfortunately it doesn't produce as thick of vapor however but for $25 I suggest that unit over this or any other PRC vape I've seen even close to this price range.