Came back from vacation to a package from Foster City.
Here's my first-look review. I'm holding off on a more in-depth look for a week or two, as this vape obviously has a steeper learning curve than most and deserves pilot training.
First: the packaging. Came in a discreet box, wrapped in heavy padded brown paper. Looks packed well, I can't imagine it incurring any damage along the way. Inside was the VHW wand and two-piece bowl I ordered, along with a packing slip. What would have been nice is a small brochure, or a sticker (like my vapo came with), but I understand the business of keeping costs down. Still, a sticker would have been nice though.
Went to this thread and the vriptech site to read up on instructions. Placed a little vegetable oil on the o-ring seal for the bowl. The two bowl pieces are quite nice, feel thick. With a lubricated o-ring the mating acting was smooth.
The wand itself looks nice. The power cord coming from it looked especially robust (unlike my vapo cord). The glass half on the wand does wobble a bit, which at first raised an eyebrow. But I think it may actually be a positive, in that it discourages jamming the wand end into the bowl too hard. This is definitely a vape to hold gently. I found by holding the wand by the glass part that's furthest from the end, I had a steady grip on the unit and good control.
One minor nitpick is the heat dial. The sticker on mine was already coming off, and it wasn't immediately clear to me which way was hotter/cooler. Looking closely I could see a small bump on the wand that was to line up with the dial, but it would have been nice if that bump was colored red to make it easier to see. Nonetheless, it was easy to verify which was was hotter and cooler by noticing the red light that comes on when the unit is heating. Turning the dial towards the cooler direction turned the red heating light off, so again this isn't a big deal. I will probably take a very small brush and paint the hash mark for the dial with red or dayglo paint.
The next thing was the silicon sleeve, which is more of a silicon o-ring placed over the tip of the glass end of the wand. I asked earlier if the tip was easy-on and easy-off, so one could easily use the silicon for a good mate with the VCB, or remove it for a BM slide. The silicon ring came off quite-easily, but after doing a couple of dry runs with the VCB, I decided it would be better to leave the silicon ring on to prevent any possibility of glass collision between the wand an bowl. What seemed to work well was to push the silicon ring deeper onto the wand, so that more of the glass end was exposed, as a way to increase heat. The lower bowl does look a ways away from the wand end, almost an inch, but I assume that's by design. The silicon ring does help to prevent any jarring glass sound when putting the wand down, so I'll use it as a way to protect the glass wand end at the very least.
At this point I was reminded that my Ehle tube that was to be married to the 18mm VCB has still not arrived yet
, so testing the VHW would have to wait. But I did do simulations, plugging the wand into a surge protector, heating it up, inspecting the glass, etc. The dry run testing was such a tease!
One thing that did pop into my mind, is wanting a way to connect the wand to the bowl. That way the bowl could be packed, then latched onto the wand for pre-heating. Then the wand/bowl could be handled as a single unit, which would make carbing much easier than putting the wand down and pulling the slide as two separate motions. The MacGyver in me was pondering how to make one, but there doesn't seem to be a good place to attach something on the wand end, other than using the air intake holes somehow. Does anyone have any ideas about this?
At this point, I was dying with anticipation to try this vape for real, and an idea came to mind. I packed the lower bowl, set the temp to about 85%, and just put the end of the lower bowl to my mouth. Oh ye Vaping Gods forgive me for such a ghetto method, but in about twenty seconds I was drawing much vapor. The taste was divine, and the vapor was thick. OH YEAH.
BTW, the effect was quite strong, but I'll wait for a proper setup to review the performance later. For now I'm feeling good vibes.