My Review on Vaporizing After First 30 Days

Vapist · 02-09-2009, 06:12 AM

A little more than 30 days ago I finally made the jump from smoking to vaporizing. I had read a lot about its benefits online, and I wanted to get rid of the wheeze in my lungs that comes from smoking weed all day long (I don’t smoke cigarettes). I have conditions that I self-medicate for, and THC is my preferred method of treatment. However, I was getting sick and tired of the side effects of smoking. When I read that vaporizing marijuana offered a method of THC delivery without the other toxins and carcinogens that comes with combustion (smoking), I decided to give it a try.

I headed over to my local head shop and asked to see their line of vaporizers. They had an assortment ranging from $35 to over $500. The salesman said that most people start out with the $35 unit to see if they like vaporizing, so I took his advice and went home to try out my new vape. It was the type with what looks like a soldering iron (probably is) in a plastic base connected to a metal bowl and housed in a glass dome. You plug it in, put some herb in the bowl, and turn the switch on. No instructions came with the unit.

After a few hours of "vaping" I didn't feel much different than if I had smoked a bong for several hours. I started reading some more about vaporizing online, and I discovered that I was more than likely still "smoking" the weed since the "vapor" had a burnt taste to it and looked more like dense smoke than vapor. I learned that a vapor is translucent in look (not dense) and does not taste burnt. I also learned that the unit I purchased is classified as a "conduction" vape which means it heats the herb by touch as opposed to a "convection" vape that blows hot air through the herb to heat it. It seems that the convection method seemed to be preferred by most vaporizer connoisseurs (aka vapists).

Fortunately for me, the $35 "vaporizer" stopped working the same day I bought it and I took it back to the head shop for an exchange (I felt kind of weird since it had weed resins on it). I ended up going home with a Vapir VaporMatic Deluxe, which is a $300 convection vaporizer. When I read some online reviews about this unit, they seemed to be mixed - mainly because of an older Vapir unit that apparently had some problems, but so far it has worked flawlessly for me. The unit came with a "whip" (a hose to inhale the vapor directly from the unit) and two bags. The bags allow you to vaporize some herb without having to inhale it at the pace that it is coming out of the unit, which would result in loss of vapor when you are vaporizing by yourself. You can then inhale the vapor out of the bag at your own pace. I've heard varying opinions of how long the vapor in the bags will last anywhere from 30 minutes to eight hours.

My first few days of experimenting with the Vapormatic Deluxe ended in success, but not without a few bumps in the road. Since I didn't know what temperature to vaporize the weed at, it took some trial and error. I probably burned through about a quarter ounce until I found the *perfect* line between burning and vaporizing. The key is to heat the herb until it almost burns without combusting it. The result is a thick, fresh-tasting vapor filled with THC and not much else. If you go one degree too far, your weed gets burned. This happened to me at least 20 times before I found the perfect temperature setting. I'm sure this would be the case with any vaporizer. The vaporized herb should look dark brown (not black) and have a roasted smell to it. If there is any green left in your weed (if it had any to begin with), then you are not getting the herb hot enough.

One thing I did find with the Vapormatic Deluxe that needs to be addressed by the manufacturer IMO is the temperature setting. The ideal temperature to vaporize marijuana is between 370-380 F. However, if I turn this unit up passed 344 F, it burns the weed. This unit has a switch that will change the digital display from Fahrenheit to Celsius. It also has a fan speed setting (which I leave on high). The digital temperature display seems to bounce back and forth from 318 F to 380 F whenever the heating element is turned on, so my guess is that it hits the 365 F temperature that is required to vaporize the THC even though I set the unit to 344 F. Regardless, since I found the perfect temperature setting, the unit works great.

Okay, enough of the technical discussion and onto the conclusion of my review on my first month of vaporizing marijuana. I have to say that I believe switching over to vaporizing marijuana was one of the best decisions I have ever made. This is because I have been torn about smoking weed for many years due to the health concerns. I liked the THC high and it helps calm my ADHD mind so I can focus, but the smoke itself was beginning to affect my health negatively. Since the vaporizer doesn't require you to inhale all of the toxins and carcinogens, all you are left with is a clean, smooth THC high and no side effects.

With vaporizing, I discovered that part of the "high" from smoking weed is gone. Even if you didn't have THC in your weed, you would get an effect from smoking it. However, it is more of a brain fog type of high that comes from inhaling combusted toxins. Every high comes from a toxin, but some toxins are more damaging than others. Among the missing parts of the “high” are the headaches and brain fog that came from smoking weed. In my opinion the marijuana smoke itself (not THC) gives you somewhat of a crappy feeling that is not present when you vaporize marijuana. I learned this from the process of elimination... once I eliminated the other toxins that are in the weed, all that was left was the THC high.

Like many of my fellow vapists, I will never go back to "smoking" weed unless I have to (on the road, at a concert, whatever). I am even going to splurge for a handheld vape so I can take it with me (my Vapormatic Deluxe is a tabletop unit). I cannot tell you how much better I feel since I replaced smoking with vaporizing! All of the brain fog is gone, along with the overall crappy feeling I was getting from inhaling all those combusted toxins (sorry smokers, but it is fact and not fiction - I smoked for 20+ years). I find that I am also less moody than I was when smoking, probably due to getting more oxygen and less carbon monoxide into my lungs and brain. I want to be able to keep getting high but also focus on my health (I'm 45) in my later years, and vaporizing weed seems to be a good choice to help me reach that goal. I want to still be vaporizing weed 25 years from now, not sucking on an oxygen hose!

I must admit that I do go through more weed when vaporizing. I've been through almost two ounces in the past month, when I would normally only go through one ounce during the same time. Part of the excessive usage was due to my initial trial-and-error experiments with the two vaporizers, but also because the high is much cleaner and more enjoyable so I do it more often. I usually vaporize about .3 gram in one session and I use the bag method. The bags that came with my unit are not that big (.3 grams would fill at least two of them), so I found a better solution. I bought some large oven bags at WalMart that are large enough for a turkey, and they work great! I inserted a hose into one of them and sealed it with tape, and it is large enough to hold all the vapor from the entire .3 gram session. That is enough for the perfect personal vape session – or even enough to pass the bag around at a party.

For me, vaporizing marijuana means that I walk away with a smooth, brilliant high without all the side effects of smoking. At the end of the day I feel much better without the haze and brain fog that I felt every night when smoking. The funny thing is, you don't even know the side effects are there until they are missing! Not to mention that my basement doesn’t smell like weed smoke anymore. I have already noticed a positive effect on my health (breathing much easier with no wheezing) and my mood seems to have improved over the past 30 days (probably due to more oxygen in my brain cells). I believe vaporizing is the future of marijuana.

Well, I've written enough for this review - and my Vapormatic Deluxe is warming up - so I am off to vaporheaven.

Keep on tokin!

02-09-2009, 06:12 AM	#1
Vapist Banned Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 330 Grams: 2,459.85 Thanks: 33 Thanked 154 Times in 74 Posts Stock Portfolio Total Value: 0.000 Gain/Loss: 0.000%	My Review on Vaporizing After First 30 Days A little more than 30 days ago I finally made the jump from smoking to vaporizing. I had read a lot about its benefits online, and I wanted to get rid of the wheeze in my lungs that comes from smoking weed all day long (I don’t smoke cigarettes). I have conditions that I self-medicate for, and THC is my preferred method of treatment. However, I was getting sick and tired of the side effects of smoking. When I read that vaporizing marijuana offered a method of THC delivery without the other toxins and carcinogens that comes with combustion (smoking), I decided to give it a try. I headed over to my local head shop and asked to see their line of vaporizers. They had an assortment ranging from $35 to over $500. The salesman said that most people start out with the $35 unit to see if they like vaporizing, so I took his advice and went home to try out my new vape. It was the type with what looks like a soldering iron (probably is) in a plastic base connected to a metal bowl and housed in a glass dome. You plug it in, put some herb in the bowl, and turn the switch on. No instructions came with the unit. After a few hours of "vaping" I didn't feel much different than if I had smoked a bong for several hours. I started reading some more about vaporizing online, and I discovered that I was more than likely still "smoking" the weed since the "vapor" had a burnt taste to it and looked more like dense smoke than vapor. I learned that a vapor is translucent in look (not dense) and does not taste burnt. I also learned that the unit I purchased is classified as a "conduction" vape which means it heats the herb by touch as opposed to a "convection" vape that blows hot air through the herb to heat it. It seems that the convection method seemed to be preferred by most vaporizer connoisseurs (aka vapists). Fortunately for me, the $35 "vaporizer" stopped working the same day I bought it and I took it back to the head shop for an exchange (I felt kind of weird since it had weed resins on it). I ended up going home with a Vapir VaporMatic Deluxe, which is a $300 convection vaporizer. When I read some online reviews about this unit, they seemed to be mixed - mainly because of an older Vapir unit that apparently had some problems, but so far it has worked flawlessly for me. The unit came with a "whip" (a hose to inhale the vapor directly from the unit) and two bags. The bags allow you to vaporize some herb without having to inhale it at the pace that it is coming out of the unit, which would result in loss of vapor when you are vaporizing by yourself. You can then inhale the vapor out of the bag at your own pace. I've heard varying opinions of how long the vapor in the bags will last anywhere from 30 minutes to eight hours. My first few days of experimenting with the Vapormatic Deluxe ended in success, but not without a few bumps in the road. Since I didn't know what temperature to vaporize the weed at, it took some trial and error. I probably burned through about a quarter ounce until I found the perfect line between burning and vaporizing. The key is to heat the herb until it almost burns without combusting it. The result is a thick, fresh-tasting vapor filled with THC and not much else. If you go one degree too far, your weed gets burned. This happened to me at least 20 times before I found the perfect temperature setting. I'm sure this would be the case with any vaporizer. The vaporized herb should look dark brown (not black) and have a roasted smell to it. If there is any green left in your weed (if it had any to begin with), then you are not getting the herb hot enough. One thing I did find with the Vapormatic Deluxe that needs to be addressed by the manufacturer IMO is the temperature setting. The ideal temperature to vaporize marijuana is between 370-380 F. However, if I turn this unit up passed 344 F, it burns the weed. This unit has a switch that will change the digital display from Fahrenheit to Celsius. It also has a fan speed setting (which I leave on high). The digital temperature display seems to bounce back and forth from 318 F to 380 F whenever the heating element is turned on, so my guess is that it hits the 365 F temperature that is required to vaporize the THC even though I set the unit to 344 F. Regardless, since I found the perfect temperature setting, the unit works great. Okay, enough of the technical discussion and onto the conclusion of my review on my first month of vaporizing marijuana. I have to say that I believe switching over to vaporizing marijuana was one of the best decisions I have ever made. This is because I have been torn about smoking weed for many years due to the health concerns. I liked the THC high and it helps calm my ADHD mind so I can focus, but the smoke itself was beginning to affect my health negatively. Since the vaporizer doesn't require you to inhale all of the toxins and carcinogens, all you are left with is a clean, smooth THC high and no side effects. With vaporizing, I discovered that part of the "high" from smoking weed is gone. Even if you didn't have THC in your weed, you would get an effect from smoking it. However, it is more of a brain fog type of high that comes from inhaling combusted toxins. Every high comes from a toxin, but some toxins are more damaging than others. Among the missing parts of the “high” are the headaches and brain fog that came from smoking weed. In my opinion the marijuana smoke itself (not THC) gives you somewhat of a crappy feeling that is not present when you vaporize marijuana. I learned this from the process of elimination... once I eliminated the other toxins that are in the weed, all that was left was the THC high. Like many of my fellow vapists, I will never go back to "smoking" weed unless I have to (on the road, at a concert, whatever). I am even going to splurge for a handheld vape so I can take it with me (my Vapormatic Deluxe is a tabletop unit). I cannot tell you how much better I feel since I replaced smoking with vaporizing! All of the brain fog is gone, along with the overall crappy feeling I was getting from inhaling all those combusted toxins (sorry smokers, but it is fact and not fiction - I smoked for 20+ years). I find that I am also less moody than I was when smoking, probably due to getting more oxygen and less carbon monoxide into my lungs and brain. I want to be able to keep getting high but also focus on my health (I'm 45) in my later years, and vaporizing weed seems to be a good choice to help me reach that goal. I want to still be vaporizing weed 25 years from now, not sucking on an oxygen hose! I must admit that I do go through more weed when vaporizing. I've been through almost two ounces in the past month, when I would normally only go through one ounce during the same time. Part of the excessive usage was due to my initial trial-and-error experiments with the two vaporizers, but also because the high is much cleaner and more enjoyable so I do it more often. I usually vaporize about .3 gram in one session and I use the bag method. The bags that came with my unit are not that big (.3 grams would fill at least two of them), so I found a better solution. I bought some large oven bags at WalMart that are large enough for a turkey, and they work great! I inserted a hose into one of them and sealed it with tape, and it is large enough to hold all the vapor from the entire .3 gram session. That is enough for the perfect personal vape session – or even enough to pass the bag around at a party. For me, vaporizing marijuana means that I walk away with a smooth, brilliant high without all the side effects of smoking. At the end of the day I feel much better without the haze and brain fog that I felt every night when smoking. The funny thing is, you don't even know the side effects are there until they are missing! Not to mention that my basement doesn’t smell like weed smoke anymore. I have already noticed a positive effect on my health (breathing much easier with no wheezing) and my mood seems to have improved over the past 30 days (probably due to more oxygen in my brain cells). I believe vaporizing is the future of marijuana. Well, I've written enough for this review - and my Vapormatic Deluxe is warming up - so I am off to vaporheaven. Keep on tokin! Last edited by Vapist : 02-09-2009 at 07:06 AM.

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