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Buzzby

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bc87

oohhh yeah. thats what i was thinking about the mini blue...looked like an older style one. i'll probably get the vapor bro's vaporizer..unless there are any better ones for a similar price.

Thanks 4 taking the time 2 reply

hauptmann

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pris

Okay, if you're anything like me, you want to buy a vaporizer. You have some cash to spend, and the fact is you can't make up your mind on which one to get. You're sure, though, that you want the best of the best.

On one hand, there's the Volcano -tried and tested and supported by many users - and on the other there's the Vapezilla - a new product with some heavy Internet marketing, but nevertheless an intriguing philosophy and a recent Silver win at the Cannibis Cup (2nd best invention of 2004).

To break it down:

Volcano

Pros:
- Easy to use
- Intuitive design
- Great warranty
- Very accessible and detailed info
- Friendly company that shares extensive technical, clinical, and personal info about company, employees, and product
- Balloon makes for easy sharing, good vapor taste.
- Recent study by NORML/MAPS used a Vaporizer and had extended positive results (showing vaporizers are by far healthier than bongs, joints, or pipes).

Cons:
- Expensive
- Mechanical service requires you to send the unit to Germany
- Cumbersome to clean (doesn't require extensive cleaning, but there are several parts when broken down)

Unresolved Controversy: Aluminum alloy heating element may cause toxic emissions.

Price: ~$500


Vapezilla

Pros:
-Wicked Roots, the manufacturer, states the Vapezilla and Super Vapezilla use a ceramic heating element as opposed to an aluminum one.
- The company describes their product as containing a seperate, sealed off chamber for electronics, and another for the ceramic heating element.
- The whip model (versus balloon) is also supposed to be the source of a much better, pungent taste.

Cons:
- Super Vapezilla is also expensive
- Not much is known about the company
- Product is not available until at least Late July, no technical specs or advanced information exist.
- Not much anecdotal evidence about success of product.

Unresolved Controversy:
-Vapezilla uses a borosilicate glass around their whip. (See below).
- Wicked Root's marketing strategy seems overbearing and strange (reminiscent of the Vapir, to be honest). Large claims and several mirror sites dominate the web - the company, Wicked Roots, owns several different URLs and stages "reviews" that all claim their product is number one. (This is explained in much more detail below.) They also spam message boards. You can tell who works for Wicked Roots because they have links to their company in every post. Is this a bad thing? Not per se, but it's all unsubstantiated, which makes it controversial.

Price: $300 for analog model, $500 for digital (with display).


Some Terms to Know:

borosilicate glass n. - General term referring to a range of glasses containing silica (typically over 60%) and boric oxide (5-20%). Two specific glasses cover most applications: low expansion Pyrex-type glass; and highly durable 'neutral' glass. Glass fibers, ceramic glazes, and vitreous enamels are also borosilicates.

Boric Acid n. - A flame-retardant compound used to treat wood and other materials. Boric oxide has remarkable and relevant glass-forming, fluxing, and viscosity lowering properties

http://www.chemicalland21.com/arokor...RIC%20ACID.htm

So why do I mention this?

Well, borosilicate glass is on the United States' EPA Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) inventory list. It is also considered hazardous under the criteria of the Federal OSHA Hazard Communication Standard 29 CFR 1910.1200.

Here is a link to a study which found that borosilicate glass is stable and generally safe, but poses a toxicity risk when exposed to heat and breakage (glass dust and fibers):

http://www.hummelcroton.com/msds/glsbr_m.html

I must admit, that made me wary. If it has a problem with heat, should it be part of a smoking device? Not sure.

On the other hand, is Pyrex made from borosilicate? If someone can clear this up, I'd appreciate it. I've always assumed Pyrex to be safe.

Wicked Roots claims their vaporizer is the safest and best. Perhaps it is? There's only one other thing keeping me from thinking that:

About Wicked Root's Marketing Model

It's a little shady to say the least. I'm reminded of the Vapir's constant, high-gloss spam about how affordable and great their product was...but anyone who knows anything knows the product was poorly fabricated and a general piece of ****. I'm not saying anything bad about the Vapezilla, I'm just raising a concern. The evidence? Okay, take a look--

First of all, there's just general spam:

http://www.marijuana.com/420/showpos...1&postcount=23

This is from a post on these forums, in a thread about vaporizers and aluminum risks. Okay, not a big deal...a little cheesy considering this guy's blatantly advertising in a thread...which is pretty much universally known as spamming...but whatever. I can live with that.

But then there's these:

bestvaporizer.com/vapezilla_vaporizer.html
vaporizers.biz/Vapezilla.html
marijuanavaporizerreview.com/Vapezilla.html
vicksvaporizer.com/Best-Vaporizer.html
marijuanavaporizer.org/marijuana-vaporizers.html
herbalvaporizer.biz/
bestvaporizers.com/best-vaporizer.html
medicalvaporizers.com/
herbalvaporizers.biz
vaporizer-vaporizers.com/2000/01/marijuana-vaporizer.html
herbal-vaporizers.net/
420vaporizers.com/

Notice anything?

...12 unique URLS, slightly different graphics/layout, all with the exact same links, info, etc. Okay, maybe this is no big deal, but I don't understand it. It seems like trickery and low-ball selling tactics. Why? To give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they just want to get the word out? Not sure...

In Defense of the Volcano

I recently spoke with the people at Storz-Bickel, the company that makes the Volcano. The focus of my communication was to find out their response to the charge that an aluminum heating element is dangerous. They wrote:

Conslusions???

So, what do you think? I present all this information not to raise a stink or take sides, but just to provide an intelligent conversation about both products. $500 dollars is a large investment, and I'm sure we all want our hard-earned money to go in the right direction. We all want to enjoy our grass, and do so safely. So please, chime in, let's hear your take or any stories you have with either product.

BTW, I know it seems like I'm biased toward the Volcano. I guess at the moment I am. But, I haven't made up my mind and think Wicked Roots may very well be misunderstood. The reason I haven't yet bought a Volcano is because I think they're probably a good company that means well. I will admit, the Vapezilla sounds like it could be cool. Waiting to hear more...

Buzzby

I think both units are way overpriced and don't do anything substantially better than other units selling for less than half the price.

Some people seem to think that the best product in any category is the most expensive. This has no practical validity. If you want to go to the corner store for a six-pack, does it matter if you drive your pickup truck or your Rolls-Royce? The utility of a product is determined by whether or not it performs its function. If you want to inhale the volatile elements from a bit of marijuana, do you need to spend $500 to do so?

Most people with experience will acknowledge that convection vaporizers are superior to conduction vaporizers. Both of these units are convection vaporizers. So are units in the $150 range.

Passing hot air through a wad of weed is not rocket science. It requires a heat source and a thermostat to keep that heat source at a more-or-less constant temperature. The user, through trial and error, discovers the optimum setting for the thermostat.

Lower temperatures produce a slower, less complete extraction. Higher temperatures produce a faster, more complete extraction but also vaporize additional components of the plant material. Low-temp vapor is almost tasteless. High-temp vapor tastes more like smoke.

The $500 units advertise that they have ultra-precise temperature control. The real question is whether or not ultra-precise temperature control is an important thing to have. Do a few degrees one way or the other make any difference in the experience for the user? Not that I've noticed. If you're worried about hot aluminum, some of the $150 units have ceramic heating elements.

If you think you need a Rolls-Royce to drive to the corner store, by all means plunk down the $500. If you've got the money, why not? It'll certainly impress your easily-impressed friends. If you just want to get the most out of your weed you don't need to spend that much.

 

pris

Well said. Believe me, I'm not exactly eager to drop $500 on a means to get high, I'm just looking for something safe, solid, and built to last. Coming from the medical side of things, safety is very important to me.

Do you recommend a certain model in the $150 range? It's hard to find reliable evidence about what works best. I live in LA - most shops around here want you to buy the most expensive thing. Information is scant. I've heard a few stories about Vapor Bros and Vapor Cannon units breaking (are those convection or conduction?). Granted, $150 is much less, but not if you have to spend that amount two or three times just to find a reliable unit. I also wouldn't mind a fan-equipped vape. I would assume those with constant air are less likely to burn your herb, perhaps I'm wrong.

Yeah, you don't need a Rolls Royce to drive to the liquor store, but if you gave me a choice between a Lexus and a beater with no AC for my daily commute through traffic, I know which one I'd take. Comfort and reliability can be worth a lot for some.

That being said, I'm still interested in finding out more about these two companies and their claims.

hauptmann

Threads Merged

Robot Jesus

Hi everyone,

I registered just to share my recent experiences with vaporizers. Last year I bought the 'herbaliser' for about 80 bucks. I was very disappointed e.g. I didn't get high. At this point I though vaporizing was either complete crap or too weak for such a heavy smoker. So back to smoking I went. Fast foward a year later and I bought the The Bubble Vaporizer. I thought "okay my lungs hurt and it's only twenty bucks. why not?" Holy crap it works! Holy crap I get even stoneder than bong rips! This all coming from a guy that took multiple bong rips a day every day for years. How can this 20 dollar product be so much better than the 80 dollar one? I was swindled. What I learned:

-Never buy a hot plate vaporizer. The hot plate method uses conduction of heat through a soldering iron with an herb bowl attached to it. The herb sits on the hot bowl until it starts to vaporize. I read that the method is inefficient and ineffective. It got me ZERO buzz.

-The hot air method: using hot air as a means to vaporize. This is the real deal. It got me incredibly stoned and now I ONLY vaporize. It gets me higher with less herb used than smoking. Of course these things can get expensive... look at price of the Volcano or Vapezilla Vaporizer.

-The Smoke bubble, The Bubble Vaporizer (what i got), vapor bat or Eagle bill are all very affordable (around 20 bucks). They all use the hot air method as well. They can be a bit of a pain in the ass to use but well worth it. DONT wasted your money on any HOT PLATE vaporizers... they are a complete rip.


Hope this info helps someone. I didn't have time to scour the 100 pages to see if someone else posted this info first. If so, consider this a lengthy bump.

The Smoke bubble
http://cannabisheaven.co.uk/vaporize...bubble-vap.htm

this site has info on the other effective cheap vaporizers i mention.
http://www.marijuanavaporizer.org/

hookid

I am looking for a good vaporizer. I have lowered my options to three vaporizers and i was wondering people who owned them if they could give me some imput on which one to choose.

This is my summary basing it on what i read about each one.

$170-VaporBrothers (get high the quickest, and lots of vapor)
$230-VaporBrothers Double (is it worth it for double?)
$200-Vapir (very good portabillity, while still a good amout of vapor but leaking problem, can u just cover the holes with ducttape?)
$150-Vapir One 3.0 (no more leaking of vapor like the vapir, tube or, baloon, but its a weird shape)

Any comments are greatly appreciated, thanks so much!

r2x

Get the VaporWarez, Hands free unit. I paid 140 on ebay shipped. Every review favors this one. I love mine. No smell, but highs of your life. You save so much bomb

Its comes with a 3 year warrenty. ( there site charges 170, but on ebay i've seen them for as low as 10)