Yocan Evolve Comprehensive Review
* Yocan Evolve provided gratis by Yocan (
http://www.yocantech.com/Yocan-Evolve/)
Who Are you?
I'm a guy that likes to shoot straight from the hip. It's who I am, it's how I've always been, and I probably always will be short of some form of cerebral rearrangement. I'm a legal medical user in BC, Canada. I live on a fixed income with my wife, and I don't have a lot of money to spend on equipment to vaporize my cannabis concentrates with. So when several companies put out the call for testers and reviewers to apply, I tossed my name in and was fortunate enough to be chosen.
And let it be clear from the start – just because someone sends me a free product doesn't mean I'm going to like it or pump their brand up. I like to buy what is best at the time and what I think will last – in any facet of my life. And that is how I will review and present vapes – from the perspective of someone who values hard earned cash, who recognizes that brands can change over time and grow in positive and negative ways just like the people that run them. My commitment to you is to present the truth from my experiences testing vaporizers, and to give you the long and the short of it.
What does that mean to me, the reader?
Well, the advantage of having a tester who is extremely money conscious means that I look at how well a device functions for the cost of the unit. Being a medical user means that I find issues with products relatively quickly, and my medical issues also lead me to being very abusive to products unintentionally. I drop things, forget they're in a pocket fighting it out with keys and a Leatherman. I sit on them, get them wet occasionally, and generally beat things up. I can put a months worth of normal abuse in 2 or 3 days when I'm shaky. I am... the torture tester.
With that said, when I received the confirmation from Yocan that I had been chosen to receive 2 of their Evolve units to test and review, I was ecstatic. Atomizers are a dollar a day affair for me generally. 30 bucks a month isn't much to some people, but to me, it is. I generally kill a standard dual coil atomizer in at most 7 to 10 days of service. I vape between .25g to .5g a day.
THE LONG (skip to the bottom for “THE SHORT”):
The package in the mail was small. Tiny even. 2 units were inside, each in their own plastic wrapped box. I called my buddy who had been inquiring about concentrates and made him choose a color before I cracked open an orange tester unit, leaving the sleek sky blue for the bud. I chose to use his unit for the photoshoot as I took these pictures last week, 3 weeks into testing.
Before Opening -
http://imgur.com/uujCZv7
After Opening -
http://imgur.com/WnxEoUk
Here you can see how everything lines up together -
http://imgur.com/5T5XWvJ
And assembled again -
http://imgur.com/3Y94Bui
Inside the box is a standard Ego to USB charger cable, a concentrate tool, and the pen with a second Dual Quartz Atomizer. The first thing I noticed was the atomizer cap, which isn't a feature I had come across in my concentrate pen research. It was very nicely arranged in the box, and I pulled it all out to display. Also, if you notice the box looks rough.. that's on me. I had a glass of ice water close by when I did my initial disassembly. Like I said – torture tester. Next time no ice ice, baby.
http://imgur.com/9CHiuwo
I put the assembled Evolve next to /r/waxpen/'s 2015 recommended buy – a v2 Source Orb on an iStick 30W that I purchased with my own money in summer of last year. The Evolve really is tiny. Loaded, it is around 50.5 grams. I threw the Orb and iStick combo on and found that it came to 166g loaded, . So if you are like me and normally pocket something that weight a third of a pound, well, the Evolve is like carrying around a feather in your pocket. And like a feather, this thing tickled my fancy. I threw it in my pocket, morning to night puffing on it, over 28 days of trying to kill it.
“It's 20 dollars”, I said to myself. “I spend more on that in atomizers a month, and could just buy one of these if the coils hold up.”
Coils Cold -
http://imgur.com/u6qt62B
Coils Hot -
http://imgur.com/uTROdZd
The Quartz Dual Coils tasted as they should., and the wrap on the coils was nice and even. I did long pulls, pulsed pulls, and overloaded the atomizer many times hoping to drown it, melt it or find something serious to complain about. When the coils were so covered in burnt on carbon that you couldn't see them glow in pitch black, I cleaned them. I threw them in 99% Isopropyl alcohol and even used a pipe cleaner to not so gently clean the coils. Usually, this kills the coil. But these kept on going, and no matter how gunked up they got I managed to get them clean again, and tasting great. This was not an experience I expected as my previous experience with ceramic and silica coils told me that the taste - - you know the one that persists after most cleanings and dry burns - - would continue and lead me into the cycle of having to buy atomizer after atomizer. So far I have not had a coil melt or blow out. I'm very impressed.
The atomizers themselves are deep. The coils are low to the bottom of the dish, making for little waste. Airflow through the coils is unsurpassed. It really does flow freely and unrestricted, thanks to a unique design. Instead of the standard silicon grommet in the bottom of the atomizer that pulls air top to bottom, Yocan went a different direction and added 2 horizontal air holes just below the atomizer threading, which allows for excellent airflow. I like to vaporize and walk, and found the Orb restrictive when pulling on it – trying walking hard and then pulling for 10 to 15 seconds straight and not breathe – it can get uncomfortable. The Evolve allowed me to take the same size hits as the v2 Orb, but more quickly due to the less restrictive airflow. Similarly, it's easy to cool the cart off by continuing to pull after letting off the heat, which helps keep your concentrates cool and tasty. I found that around .10g was the perfect load for the atomizer, although you can fit around .20g in if you tried hard.
I thought I would hate the atomizer cap. I actually think this is one of the best features of the Evolve, as overflow is usually an absolute pain to clean up. When I did get exuberant and heat my shatter up too much causing some to liquify and come out the top, it simply stayed on top of the lid making it easy to collect and put back into the atomizer housing. So much easier than trying to collect a thin film of residue from the outside of the atomizer.
The fit and finish of the Evolve was also fairly good. I say fairly because the threading on the mouthpiece can be difficult to line up. The atomizer and cap, as well as the threading to the battery do not suffer the same fate. However, on my buddy's unit the mouthpiece threads perfectly. It's not a deal breaker but as a medical user with shaky, arthritic hands it can be difficult to line it up. I had no leakage from the atomizer to the battery or any other inconveniences.
The stock battery is good for .25g over the course of a 12 hours, or at least that's how I used it for a month straight. I only ran into problems with the battery housing below the power button where the unit separates to expose the battery within. Unlike the rest of the unit, this was not threaded and looks like it uses friction to hold it together. I would like to see the battery casing widen a little bit to make room for threading to be machined to hold it together, or some type of glue to keep it from giving way. I had this happen at around 3 weeks of my use, and spent the last week of my torture test pushing the battery housing together.
THE SHORT:
Album -
http://imgur.com/a/e498s
Overall Purchase Rating: (4/5)
Weaknesses: (3/5) battery
- Battery fell apart from my torture testing in 3 weeks. Likely would expect 3 to 6 months for normal wear and tear for someone not of my ilk. (
http://imgur.com/BG3dJrc)
Strengths: (5/5) air flow, (5/5) atomizer and cap design, (5/5) light weight
- The unrestricted airflow really makes taking hits feel like less work
- The atomizer comfortably handles .10g loads, and the cap keeps things clean.
- This thing 50.5g loaded with the stock battery, very light and portable.
Medical:
- Small parts can be difficult to handle, but as you can load it and go you don't have to interact with the cap too often.
- The price makes the Evolve very thrifty. I was spending a dollar a day on atomizers, the cost of an Evolve a month would be 0.66 dollars a day. Very thrifty indeed in comparison.
A big thank you to Kevin from Yocan for the test units!
Upcoming Items for Review: