When herb will not product vapour

[Gi'sGP]

Hi all,
Just getting started on my new hobby, and running into a few difficulties.

I am using an almost new Volcano Classic.
I have now bought my first stash (7g of Gorilla Glue) from a local dealer recommended by a friend.
This herb will not produce vapour at any setting on the Volcano. I did wait for it to reach temperature.
The warm air in the bag is colourless / clear, has a slight toasty taste- but nothing apart from that. No aromatic flavour, almost no feel-good sensations..
The herb in the chamber has changed colour to toasty brownish. I used about 20mg, ground but still fluffy-looking, and spread evenly across the mesh.
The Volcano has successfully vaporised some other herb (a differentr strain, Strawdog, I was told) that I snaffled from a mate to try it.
The dealer has ignored my requests for assistance.

I am trying to understand what is happening, so wanted to put a few questions out on the forum..:

1. Does it look like I am doing anything obviously wrong?
2. Based on what I've said above, does anybody think that the Volcano could be at fault (unfortnately I do not have access to a different vaporiser to test the Gorilla Glue on), and is there any way to check whether it is calibrated correctly?
3. What could be wrong with dried herb to cause it to not vapourise at all?
4. Is there any way to fix such an issue?
3. Other than buying small and carefully, are there any ways to avoid this issue, such as telltale signs to look out for when buying?

I posted last week on this issue, and received responses that were kind and helpful but did not enable me to move forward, probably because I have did not ask the right questions!
So here's Round II, and any help / advice would be much appreciated,
Thanks!
G

 

[Cherubi]

Wow. Good question and weird situation.

Let's go over some things.

Have you tried smoking the herb? I'm not advising you to do so if you don't normally smoke herb, I'm just trying to establish if the herb in question hasn't been altered (like, stripped from actives with an alcohol bath or some shit like that) and if it's potent enough herb. Because if barely any cannabinoids are present, then there won't be much to vaporize. This shouldn't be the problem though, but it could be if you live somewhere in the world where cannabis is hard to come by and where people get scammed in such ways. It's actually happened to me when I was a youngster (a friend that didn't know how weed looked accepted a bag of an unknown herb which wasn't weed and didn't get us high).

If you are confident the herb is potent herb, you should try putting in some more herb. 20mg of herb is a very small amount and vaporizing that will probably not give much vapor at any setting. You might be caught off guard with a higher dose on the highest setting so I'd go for a little under the highest setting to try it out first, then if it still doesn't produce vapor again crank up the heat.

 

[Cheebsy]

1. Does it look like I am doing anything obviously wrong?
2. Based on what I've said above, does anybody think that the Volcano could be at fault (unfortnately I do not have access to a different vaporiser to test the Gorilla Glue on), and is there any way to check whether it is calibrated correctly?
3. What could be wrong with dried herb to cause it to not vapourise at all?
4. Is there any way to fix such an issue?
3. Other than buying small and carefully, are there any ways to avoid this issue, such as telltale signs to look out for when buying?

1. I don't think so, you've priced the volcano works.
2. Ask in the volcano thread about calibration, but if the other herb was satisfactory it's probably fine.
3. Assuming it's black market supply it's probably just the quality of the herb. I have seen weed that looks like it's been used to make bho sold after being blasted though... You can inspect the trichomes with a strong magnifier. The more you see, the biggest chance for potency. They should look plump and bulbous. If the weed has been blasted already the trichomes will look shriveled up.
4. Not really. Accept the loss and find a better guy. Maybe use that for edibles and hope they work?
3. (3 again!? Hehe) The only sure fire way is to find a grower you trust and make sure you keep them sweet so they look after you!

Good luck! I'm sorry you got taken advantage of by the dealer... If your combustion friends rate his weed maybe they will take it off your hands but warn them if your experience first.

 

[EverythingsHazy]

When you say no vapor, do you literally mean NONE? Vapor isn't nearly as dense as smoke, and if you are used to seeing smoke, vapor will look wayyy less dense, comparatively.

Do you not get high inhaling the bag contents?

 

[Bologna]

It sounds like bunk weed to me, but I'm also curious, what temp are you running at?

 

[JustNux]

So quality will obviously play a big part but if you are outlining your dosage accurately I would resolve that first as the Volcano takes some consideration if you want to micro dose in it (IMHO)

You mentioned running with 20mg , this equates to 0.02 grams of weed and that's simply not feeding the monster enough herb I would suggest upping your dosage to 100mg (0.1 grams). Also I'd suggest just not using mg with flower , stick to grams as it's less confusing for people.

Do you have the reducer installed or are you trying to run a load that low with the 0.5 Gram insert ?

 

[JustNux]

Personally when I want to take it easy with my volcano , I pop about 0.05 - 0.1 grams of herb into the big chamber , run it through and remove the chamber from the unit.

When I'm ready I pop a bit more on top of the first dose already in, then run it all through , have a break , same process until the chamber is full.

All depends how you like to consume and probably the time of day lol , sometimes I love to just pop a big scoop into the chamber and blow through a few big bags.

If you are planning to lean towards micro dosing I'd consider supplementing with an additional device type (though the volcano can do small dosing )

 

[Gi'sGP]

Hi all,
THANK YOU for the various responses, which make for thought provoking reading.
To answer the questions that were raised..

• I have not tried smoking the suspect herb- I have never smoked anything, and do not want to! I will donate some to science (i.e. a friend who is used to smoking to see whether he thinks it is good or not..)
• My intention is not around microdosng, but rather to pass the occasional evening with a nice big bag. Or two.
• The question of dose is interesting. I tried 20mg, which more or less covers the screen of the herb chamber. My thinking was that for herb with 20% potency, 20mg will give 4mg of the good stuff ()which I know is a low dose). But I also used a fuller chamber with more than twice the amount, and did not get any visible or tasty vapour. There wqas a very m,iuld high from the 20mg, but it was the lack of flavour and clear vapour that made me think there is a problem somewhere.
• I have tried the herb at different settings, from 6 upwards, to full heat.
• EverythingsHazy asks if I am getting any vapour at all, and whther the output gets me high. The answer is that with the suspect herb, I get a trace of cloudy vapour, leading to a bag that is very slightly clouded, but with no flavour at all, other than the toasty / acrid taste. But I did get a very small high from it. I compare this to the small sample of Strawdog donated by a friend, which gave a denser cloud, and had some (although not much) flavour at setting 7.5 as well as well as producing nice effects. However I think that the point EverythingsHazy is making is about expectation-i.e. that there will always be much less visible vapour from a volcano than from smoking etc. This is really helpful, as I had not realised this.

TBH, this has all got me going round in circles as to whether the problem is the herb or that the Volcano may not be reaching temperature. I will follow Cheebsy's sughgestion to post on the Vaolcano fourm to see oif anybody knows how to measure / check temperatures- S&B will not do a warranty repair, and it seems daft to have to spend £90 (their catch-all price for repairs) to ask them whther the unit is heating up correctly! I have asked S&B about this (i.e. whether there is a DIY method of checking temperature) but they do not seem keen to discuss!

Anyway, I will press on- as I am really looking forward to learning my way through these teething issues.
Thanks again to all for the input and advice.

 

[JustNux]

There could very well be something wrong with the device, but you will never identify it by putting in 20mg, I would expect whisps of vapor from 20mg and that's what you are describing.

Doesn't mean cannabinoid consumption won't occur but sure won't produce clouds of vapor.

If you are nervous about the dosage simply don't consume the whole bag straight away, but give the machine a decent shot with a decent load before you write off the weed or the device imo

 

[Cdwhit]

At least to start out, use at least 0.12g of herb. 0.2g would be better. I don’t know that I would taste or feel anything from 0.02 g.

 

[EverythingsHazy]

EverythingsHazy asks if I am getting any vapour at all, and whther the output gets me high. The answer is that with the suspect herb, I get a trace of cloudy vapour, leading to a bag that is very slightly clouded, but with no flavour at all, other than the toasty / acrid taste. But I did get a very small high from it. I compare this to the small sample of Strawdog donated by a friend, which gave a denser cloud, and had some (although not much) flavour at setting 7.5 as well as well as producing nice effects. However I think that the point EverythingsHazy is making is about expectation-i.e. that there will always be much less visible vapour from a volcano than from smoking etc. This is really helpful, as I had not realised this.

Happy to help out.

1. I find that the volcano, with it's forced air system tends to dilute vapor a bit more than does something like the E-Nano, which allows very slow draws through a much more restricted air path, which in turn, can lead to very dense vapor. You can use a chamber reducer or even some pure hemp fiber to fill the chamber and then put the bud on top of it, to restrict the airflow a little bit, without catching the cannabinoids in the fiber itself, to help with pure air diluting the vapor in the bag.

2. Regardless of the vaporizer, the bud, or the draw speed, vapor will always be less dense than smoke. Sometimes, you can get vapor that makes a bag or bong opaque enough that you can't see your hand on the other side, but you won't get that completely solid cloud that you get with a bong rip of smoke. Concentrate can get a bit closer, but it's still lighter looking than smoke. That said, it can be very deceptive, because you aren't burning away any of the THC, so people who aren't used to how vapor looks can be taken by surprise with the potency.

 

[Cherubi]

Sounds to me like it's all down to dose of your herb. You're definitely going to get a bigger high with a bigger dose, and if you didn't consider vapor density, well, I remember my first vaping experiences and let's just say I was suprised too to find whispy clouds instead of whitewalling.

That being said, a powerful vaporizer can too whitewall your water filtration devices quite a bit. I just don't have enough experience with the Volcano (friend has one but I've rarely used it) to know if it's capable to that point. I imagine so though.