I recently had the good fortune to be on the beach in Jamaica for ten days with my Vivant Alternate. With 4 @ 2,000+ mAh batteries in rotation, an external charger and a plentiful supply and assortment of properly cared for herbs.
Oh wait, rewind to where this started on FuckCombustion.com in this thread where I found out about the Alternate. I purchased the Alternate back in March and unused took it to Jamaica where I used it intermittently alongside a DaBudha, a VapCap OG and a friends PAX III. Well let's just say the Vivant was lost in the mix.
Fast forward back to the Halloween JamRock trip! Ya mon! In addition to the Alternate I still had access to the DaBudha, a VapCap OG and a new VapCap 'M' (with a stash). The triple torch lighter I have there has flames organized in a triangle, whereas back in the States my triple torch is three in a row. This caused operator difficulties followed by foul combustion acts (FCAs). The DaBudha went to my neighbors room starting day one and with FCAs occurring and torch lighter flames difficult to see in breezy and bright sunny conditions with salt sprayed Tommy Bahamas, well the Alternate had it's opportunity!
First the included grinder, really not bad for a plastic freebie, but do yourself a favor and toss the little plug as it will get stuck! The grinder just works and stores about 3 full bowls of ground herb containing all contents neatly and is at home on a coffee table, on a beach table, bar top or in a pocket. 3 bowls seems about enough between stops back at the room midday and early evening not to mention getting through the night, yeah it was that bad, day and night.
Included batteries and charger, I just did not use them. Sorry.
Vivant Alternate, wow, but first the bad. It's chintzy feeling cheap plastic, although I did get real lucky with this. The display sucks. In bright sunlight with sunglasses on it's not legible, even worse so for this far sighted old guy. The top that detaches for accessing the chamber gets really hot! Over time with repeated use over days the heat of the vapor starts to take it's toll, a water rig would take away from the portability. It's just not in the same class as the FireFly 2 for vapor cooling.
Now the good. This thing can envelop you with wispy clouds of uplifting 360 F vapor or crush you with low restriction herculean 428 F storm clouds. The Rastas love this thing! It was quickly referred to as the chalice! The flavor is better than any conduction vape I've used and in the upper half of the convection vapes. With a freshly packed chamber from the grinder which screws right on avoiding spillage, the Alternate delivers. The flavor is colorful through the first half of the third pull on lower temps and comes in full for two pulls when maxed. The clouds keep coming. Once dusted a quick twist reveals the neon green (Read 'hard to lose') stirring tool which is all I used for ten days to clean the chamber. It works fine for that and for stirring, but who can be bothered stirring in Jamaica, why that would be akin to smoking roaches. The flat end however makes for a great tool to push product from the grinder into the chamber and ever so slightly tamp the material. A quick twist removes the grinder leaving one with a good opportunity to park the tool and replace the battery if needed before twisting the top cap back on. Holding the on button if already running kicks off the heating cycle signaled by beeps. The beeps were annoying when I did the dry runs in the states, but with the legibility issues of the display these tones proved to be very convenient. The initiation beeps are different from the ready and out of time beeps which negates the need to see a status. The red/green led is helpful too. After preset temp is reached you may take free flowing sips one after another or be bold and go for 2-3 full on rips in a 60 sec heat cycle. The beeps signaling end of the cycle kick in and you can keep pulling for a bit, I suspect this is combined convection and conduction.
The chintzy plastic held up. With a fresh lathering of sunscreen while swapping batteries I dropped the Alternate on a thin rug atop a tile floor, momentary panic set it. I was very lucky on this, the Alternate seemed unscathed and continued to operate well. Perhaps a bigger set of ridges for the battery slide would help, either that or wash your hands after applying SP4 bro tater chip.
