Venty by Storz & Bickel

[MoltenTiger]

Am I the only one that thinks the Venty should get a firmware upgrade for another 20 degrees? I got the storz & bickel evaluation letter did the test on Friday. I have not gotten the results or compensation as promised. I agree the stiff plus and minus buttons are an issue.

It's not outside the realm of possibility that an existing unit could be running cooler than the setting. Given the mentions of Error 04, there is something seemingly electrically faulty. With some units reporting to not heat at all and a bit of a mixed bag result comparing ABV to the Mighty/+/Crafty... who knows

That said, 210°C is a cooler setting. Too cool for my preferred use. But there will always be a range of performance between each individual unit. Who knows how tight their tolerances are, but given they are near 15% away from combustion levels, they are leaving a wide margin for error.
If the Volcano can be set 20°C higher, it is <5% away from combustion levels.

I think they are relying on the power rail of a mains connection to tailor the Volcano into a more capable vape. It also has a larger chamber, I wonder what kind of wattage is included there?

With Venty, running two 18650s at 130W peak power draw, I think that is basically the limit? They are relying on plastic fins to keep the handling under control which probably means the internal insulation is lacking meaning much of the power is not going to the chamber.
I think this design is a bit backward for this day and age, pretty lacklustre material tech and it is stretching vulnerable components into new highs.

I hope they can resolve it, it still is a fine product evolution. I just wish it was an actual industry evolution, instead of this somewhat familiar fiasco.

With the new sensors, they should be able to ramp this thing up, but if it can't sustain a boosted setting for very long, I think they are flying quite close to the sun with this baked in power rail.

 

[Psyentist]

That’s an A.C. powered device……

I don’t see how that’s relevant?

I know the higher temp will never happen but I think it would be good if it could. I like to ride the edge of combustion with my vapes and too much heat is better than not enough. You can just turn it down to where you like it.

But anyway, I do agree with you about the boost feature.

 

[RustyOldNail]

I don’t see how that’s relevant?

In a discussion about how hot a bowl can get, part of the equation is, what is the power supply. Battery operated devices will have a far greater LIMIT than one that’s “main powered”.

I understand your PREFERENCE for a hotter temperature and darker roast, my preferences are satisfied in how I vape. But even minimal readings of the S&B “story”, or decent S&B device reviews always mention how they limit the temperature for their corporate reasons. And since they have been consistent about this on all their BATTERY operated devices, it’s up to the consumer to decide if the product meets their needs and preferences.

 

[Psyentist]

In a discussion about how hot a bowl can get, part of the equation is, what is the power supply. Battery operated devices will have a far greater LIMIT than one that’s “main powered”.

In my opinion if the mighty+ can reach 410f with a 45w heater then the venty should be able to reach 446f with its 130w heater. My splinterZ reaches those temps on 60w.

 

[MoltenTiger]

Yeah you can certainly heat up chambers beyond 240°C with the power of two 18650s. Plenty of devices do it with one. GH did it with a single average 570mAh 12630 at 35W.

It just requires specific dynamics to do it.

These devices aren't even remotely offering that. Even the Volcano is poorly suited for yours and my set up and expectations @Psyentist

However it would be a serious upgrade to the Mighty if Venty did close the temp gap to combustion by any amount. It impacts the potency too much.

Otherwise it seems more like a side step to something with better airflow. The slightly better ergonomics and heat up time are not very impressive comparing to other products.

It's a weird take. Think of a desktop computer vs laptop. You get a big size because of the power and inefficiencies of the dynamics at play. The Venty is big enough, they could have fit some next level stuff in there to really change the game. However, they aren't interested in change, just more of the same. The improvements they've opted for are meaningful, but the value is quite insane looking at the AUD and use case. But the only real alternative is a Mighty? So making something slightly better at the same cost and selling it for 50% more makes good business sense.

If you compare the Venty with Mighty or Ghost MV1, the Venty makes more sense. If you compare Venty with other existing options and emerging trends, it seems like a very expensive stepping stone. But a pretty nice one to hang out on. More so if it better fits a users preferred heat range.

 

[RustyOldNail]

In my opinion if the mighty+ can reach 410f with a 45w heater then the venty should be able to reach 446f with its 130w heater. My splinterZ reaches those temps on 60w.

There is a lot more that goes into the design. Getting to a temperature is just one factor. My Mighty takes far longer to get to it’s maximum temperature, and doesn’t maintain it as well the higher wattage heater in the Venty, as well as the draw sensor keeping it there. Battery runtime is yet another consideration running higher wattage, and on and on….

Regardless, as I mentioned, just look at the S&B history….

 

[Rainbow and Rasta]

It microdoses great without needing caps & pads to reduce the chamber, unless you specifically want the extra conduction roast

Thanks, have you tried with caps and pads ?

 

[Thunderbelch]

Thanks, have you tried with caps and pads ?

Nope, I'm happy with the extraction I get without those. That said my smallest doses are 0.05g, so not sure how it performs if your micros are much smaller than that. Also, I measure with a scoop and can see some people using the padded cap to measure their micro doses instead

 

[Dr. G]

I am reading thread after thread about this and that...my Venty fortunately is in excellent condition and symmetrically beautiful. Some comments were even made about gaps and uneven this and that. It happens I suppose. I have never been higher in my life, I have never had airflow like this from any unit EVER. So, in my simple humble opinion...I don't do numbers and calculations and this and that. The VENTY is WORTH IT! I am telling you that just the airflow alone...its worth it. I have literally STOPPED using what I thought were the best vapes around then...thousands of dollars to get to the Venty. So, please do not think about buying one...just get one when they are back on. I was one that thought that the Mighty Plus was the top for them...not now, the Venty has surpassed it.

 

[smith.street.band]

I am reading thread after thread about this and that...my Venty fortunately is in excellent condition and symmetrically beautiful. Some comments were even made about gaps and uneven this and that. It happens I suppose. I have never been higher in my life, I have never had airflow like this from any unit EVER. So, in my simple humble opinion...I don't do numbers and calculations and this and that. The VENTY is WORTH IT! I am telling you that just the airflow alone...its worth it. I have literally STOPPED using what I thought were the best vapes around then...thousands of dollars to get to the Venty. So, please do not think about buying one...just get one when they are back on. I was one that thought that the Mighty Plus was the top for them...not now, the Venty has surpassed it.

Which vapes have you stopped using since getting the Venty?

 

[Corvoed]

I don't care how much 410F works for me

I want my 420F temp option. Because it's 420, goddamnit

 

[im not a robot]

i was quite fond of the mighty i bought as my first vape, but i ended up selling it in order to fund this weird hobby of trying new and different stuff. i think i might have found a setup by now i am quite content with, but i am following this thread b/c this is what happens, and it is big news there is an all new s&b portable.
what i would like to know: with the ability to fully close the airflow, how does the venty perform as a mouth to lung sipper? i think i read somewhere (here?) it is more convection heavy when compared to the mighty (yes?), so imagine it would still need fairly long draws to produce vapour? or is this power heater powerful enough to extract sufficient vapour from cigarette like puffs? thankfully i quit smoking a while ago, but this is something that is still an issue with friends i try to convert to vaporising: they are used to taking short tokes on a joint, they dont like inhaling for seconds. is the venty the answer?
thanks! and much fun to everyone already having one of these to play with.

 

[Dr. G]

Which vapes have you stopped using since getting the Venty?

All of my vapes are listed in my signature…I have stopped using everything but my Vapman, Volcano and Venty.

 

[RustyOldNail]

Thanks, have you tried with caps and pads ?

I’ve never used the S&B SS mesh pads. I believe they were originally designed for adding concentrates. I know some have used them for a “spacer”, to reduce bowl size in a Mighty.
Personally, I never liked the idea of adding more metal to my bowl, other than when I’m using a capsule.

As I mentioned in this thread, I recently bought (10) titanium capsules from @VGOODIEZ

However, I also saw that Edstnt site sells what looks like the identical ones I bought. (a bit more expensive, and currently out of stock).
But what is interesting, is the note I’ll paste below, as it says you can set the height of the capsules.

“We find of course the same winning advantages as with the SSteelCaps concept. You can push out the bottom screen of the capsule, detach it and position this screen where it suits you on capsule height level so you can have any capsule filling volume you like.”

PASTED FROM:

Mighty Titanium Capsules

Titanium is one of the strongest, more solid material on Earth, you can bet that your TiCaps will last for a lifetime !

edstnt.com

You could write Vgoodiez, as he has stock, and he could tell you if the bottom is adjustable, for a cleaner MICRO-DOSE experience. I’m not going to push test mine, as I use them as is. There are also GLASS Mighty BOWL REDUCERS out there, another option.

 

[elmomuzz]

The volcano gets hotter because it’s a large device with spaced out components and a metal housing. The portables are compact and made of plastic. They physically can’t handle the increased heat.

 

[TheThriftDrifter]

device with spaced out components

I'm sure the volcano has spaced out quite a few people's components.

 

[Rainbow and Rasta]

I’ve never used the S&B SS mesh pads. I believe they were originally designed for adding concentrates. I know some have used them for a “spacer”, to reduce bowl size in a Mighty.
Personally, I never liked the idea of adding more metal to my bowl, other than when I’m using a capsule.

As I mentioned in this thread, I recently bought (10) titanium capsules from @VGOODIEZ

However, I also saw that Edstnt site sells what looks like the identical ones I bought. (a bit more expensive, and currently out of stock).
But what is interesting, is the note I’ll paste below, as it says you can set the height of the capsules.

“We find of course the same winning advantages as with the SSteelCaps concept. You can push out the bottom screen of the capsule, detach it and position this screen where it suits you on capsule height level so you can have any capsule filling volume you like.”

PASTED FROM:

Mighty Titanium Capsules

Titanium is one of the strongest, more solid material on Earth, you can bet that your TiCaps will last for a lifetime !

edstnt.com

You could write Vgoodiez, as he has stock, and he could tell you if the bottom is adjustable, for a cleaner MICRO-DOSE experience. I’m not going to push test mine, as I use them as is. There are also GLASS Mighty BOWL REDUCERS out there, another option.

Thanks for the great info - I’m in EU so I’ll probably wait until they pop up in a EU shop
from reading the Venty seems to be convection tuned so I thought with the caps and pads it would give some conduction ..

 

[MoltenTiger]

The volcano gets hotter because it’s a large device with spaced out components and a metal housing. The portables are compact and made of plastic. They physically can’t handle the increased heat.

Is the Venty really compact though? It has a lot of space for state of the art tech.

I think the more difficult aspect is having the power to deal with the open airflow. At high temps it isn't so easy to keep up with this unit, it would burn the batteries like mad. Unless they changed the design specifically for it, which would in turn help all temp levels perform better. Maybe that's what they have done and so that's why users are generally happy with the temp. There will already be a cascading degradation to performance due to those cells being so tortured already pushing 130W! So asking for anything more, it's only because of their design that that's too much to ask. Other much smaller units do it just fine. But they don't have the airflow to match.

 

[philiegram]

Yesterday I squeezed another bit of information out of the support team at S&B:

I wrote them that 90sec. at the Booster Temps is too short. They SHould make it permanently, or at least configurable and add a vibration-notice when it switches back to base temp. This was their answer:

„Das Rückspringen der Boostertemperatur auf die Basistemperatur ist bei allen STORZ & BICKEL Handgeräten so und dient der Schonung des Akkus.

Sie haben sicherlich Recht, dass ein Hinweis via Vibration sinnvoll wäre. Daher wird in der Firmware version V01.03 dies implementiert werden.“

In English via deepL:
„All STORZ & BICKEL hand-held appliances reset the booster temperature to the base temperature to protect the battery.

You are certainly right that a notification via vibration would be useful. This will therefore be implemented in firmware version V01.03.“

Unfortunately they did not say if it will be configurable, at least there will be a vibration as notice. And they obviously have a FW Update in their pipeline, maybe that‘s also also related to the ERR04 Probloems? Let‘s see!

Overall happy with their support as the answers come fast and are somehow helpful. Still didn‘t receive the voucher for sending my analysis Info.

Have a good day everyone!

 

[Thunderbelch]

All STORZ & BICKEL hand-held appliances reset the booster temperature to the base temperature to protect the battery.

That's a silly argument because you could just set the temp to max permanently, what about the batteries then? Sounds like they'll use the same argument to not add extending the timer using the draw sensor, which is a shame.

Is the Venty really compact though? It has a lot of space for state of the art tech.

I think the more difficult aspect is having the power to deal with the open airflow. At high temps it isn't so easy to keep up with this unit, it would burn the batteries like mad. Unless they changed the design specifically for it, which would in turn help all temp levels perform better. Maybe that's what they have done and so that's why users are generally happy with the temp. There will already be a cascading degradation to performance due to those cells being so tortured already pushing 130W! So asking for anything more, it's only because of their design that that's too much to ask. Other much smaller units do it just fine. But they don't have the airflow to match.

Power isn't the reason they cap the temp at 210. 130W is just the max peak power (used to ramp up fast, not maintain temp), you will find that in practice it pushes a much lower average power. The 210C max was probably chosen because it's above that that you start getting harmful byproducts while barely extracting anything useful. It's the point they chose on the risk vs harm graph.

If you really want a more stoney vibe, just let the bud sit in the hot oven longer before hitting it so more of it breaks down into CBN.

 

[MoltenTiger]

That's a silly argument because you could just set the temp to max permanently, what about the batteries then? Sounds like they'll use the same argument to not add extending the timer using the draw sensor, which is a shame.


Power isn't the reason they cap the temp at 210. 130W is just the max peak power (used to ramp up fast, not maintain temp), you will find that in practice it pushes a much lower average power. The 210C max was probably chosen because it's above that that you start getting harmful byproducts while barely extracting anything useful. It's the point they chose on the risk vs harm graph.

If you really want a more stoney vibe, just let the bud sit in the hot oven longer before hitting it so more of it breaks down into CBN.

Well the heater has to balance energy exchange with the airflow. Madly increasing the airflow means a lot more power needs to be pushed to continue getting similar target temp curves wlth effectively the same assembly as their prior units. They have still got a very similar heater design despite the considered improvements. They would need something more exotic to get better efficiency to push higher temps, or more power. But 130W peak is already ridiculous from two 18650s (or are they 21700s?)

To get a higher temp means more periods of peak power draw compared with lower temps. You would flatten the device more quickly pushing it any further. It is likely already observable that setting max temp will shorten the run time compared with minimum, as well as with minimum plus boost plus super boost (hence the logic behind the 90s boost timer, forcing better average battery run time and health over the population). Power delivery is a huge limitation here, it's always the case with portables, that's why it has taken so long to get to where we're at, which is still incredibly archaic.

Another thing is how iterative this development seems. 7 years later there will be the new S&B high air flow + high heat unit. Don't think that isn't already discussed. A big corp isn't even remotely interested in delivering the be all end all device, which for a portable like this, high heat high airflow is pretty much end game until portability/form factor is considered.

 

[justcametomind]

I let the bud sit longer all the times I do "complete" temp stepping from 160 to 210C but what happens ime is that if I start at 160C, by the time I reach 200C and over there's not vapor anymore. If I step up from 180/195/210 I get a decent amount of vapor at each step. My weed is medical grade and cured to perfection so I wouldn't blame it for not having enough juice on it.
You may say it's silly to have such a limit since you can bypass it pointing directly to 210C, but I remember the OG Crafty with the preset temps 180C and 195C for the boost. Setting a Crafty (or a Venty) at 210C is possible but the wear of the battery was visibly higher on OG Crafties. I babysitted my latter Crafty without exceeding 195C and it still does 3 bowls on a charge after 7 years.
IIRC Stu made a graph with user data showing off that using higher temps on Crafties shortened battery life and extended the time needed to reach the selected temp. It has been discovered that using it all the time at max temp accelerates wear and tear of the battery big time.
Venty might surely be better than OG Crafty at everything but batteries are still batteries and even if to a minor degree the principle still applies.

 

[RustyOldNail]

In English via deepL:
„All STORZ & BICKEL hand-held appliances reset the booster temperature to the base temperature to protect the battery.

That's a silly argument because you could just set the temp to max permanently, what about the batteries then?

Indeed silly, as after BOOST goes to BASE TEMP, the Venty’s TWO MINUTE auto time out is reset, and while at a lower temp (your base temp might even be set HIGH), the device is STILL ON, running the batteries down….
while not as big a current draw as at BOOST, don’t see a huge battery saving with this excuse. Especially as you can customize both BASE & BOOST.

If battery runtime is the stated reason, then the device should SHUT OFF after the 90 second BOOST timeouts, not continue to run….

 

[dude_de]

But 130W peak is already ridiculous from two 18650s (or are they 21700s?)

It's 18650s. I Was wondering why the didn't use 21700s... until I checked and found that they don't have the Amp oomph required.

BTW, many ecig box mods do up to 200W with two 18650s. These batteries are beasts if you get the right ones.

 

[Bonesvapechi]

Yesterday I squeezed another bit of information out of the support team at S&B:

I wrote them that 90sec. at the Booster Temps is too short. They SHould make it permanently, or at least configurable and add a vibration-notice when it switches back to base temp. This was their answer:

„Das Rückspringen der Boostertemperatur auf die Basistemperatur ist bei allen STORZ & BICKEL Handgeräten so und dient der Schonung des Akkus.

Sie haben sicherlich Recht, dass ein Hinweis via Vibration sinnvoll wäre. Daher wird in der Firmware version V01.03 dies implementiert werden.“

In English via deepL:
„All STORZ & BICKEL hand-held appliances reset the booster temperature to the base temperature to protect the battery.

You are certainly right that a notification via vibration would be useful. This will therefore be implemented in firmware version V01.03.“

Unfortunately they did not say if it will be configurable, at least there will be a vibration as notice. And they obviously have a FW Update in their pipeline, maybe that‘s also also related to the ERR04 Probloems? Let‘s see!

Overall happy with their support as the answers come fast and are somehow helpful. Still didn‘t receive the voucher for sending my analysis Info.

Have a good day everyone!

Never got an email so my unit is prime!