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Auralis

Hey guys, I just got this thing in the mail Monday. I have a lot of things to say about it:

I got it off Ebay for the standard price of 250 - greatvape had it cheaper but without the VaporGenie, which I thought was a cool pipe that's worth a try. I haven't gotten much use out of it yet but it seems like a great pipe for those days on the road, river, or wherever.

My first impression was - Christ - this thing is small! I was expecting it to be quite a bit larger, but it comes in this absolutely tiny box. I thought they sent me the wrong thing at first until I opened it. It was really packed tight.

I took it out of the box. It comes with the unit, a little white teflon mouthpiece-screen thing that goes on top, the "crucible" (bowl), which is made out of really thin metal but cool nonetheless, it cools quickly and is of decent size, a few teflon straws that are washable, I guess, for hygiene's sake, two bags, and a pump.

So setup includes filling up the crucible, putting it in the main unit, turning on the heat (probably 2 minutes MAX, this thing is quick), throwing on the mouthpiece, hooking that to the straw and the straw to a bag.

I don't like the bags very much - they're crinkly and small, and one seems to have sprung a leak (I've been rolling them up after using them to save space in my bag, which was probably a bad idea). BUT - the leak only sprung up after quite a few uses and I'm just going to get some more bags.

Here's the deal with using this thing with bags - the stock pump is AWFUL. It's 1L/min, super quiet, but it fills a bag in probably 3 minutes or more and these bags aren't that great. If you're alone or with one friend it's cool, I guess, but I've noticed that my friends will light up while they're waiting. So I got this "AirPod", a fancy aquarium pump from the local store. It puts out 1900 cc/min per output, so twice as much as the stock pump and 4x as much if you get a Y-adapter from the two outputs to fit into the one input the HerbalAire has.

I haven't bought a Y-adapter yet but even doubling the stock air intake is great in terms of time-saving. It's probably about 2min/bag now.

The high:

Holy ! This is crazy. I've never been this messed up before, true story, and I was with 5 other guys. We loaded up the crucible thrice and it was enough for everyone. I've noticed that a fully-loaded crucible will produce about 6 bags or so, maybe more if we had more patience (a faster pump, too) but we just empty them after 6 or so. I've been keeping the ABV in a bottle because it's good for baking, but it is BROWN! I had a VaporBros for half a year and it never looked like this. It's not burnt, no black anywhere, but it's certainly toasted. And even though I didn't grind it, once you break it apart with your hands it's definitely toasted through and through.

The first two bags are really thick and it goes down from there, but there's a lot in these bags for sure. DEFINITELY the most efficient thing I've ever tried. Smooth, too. You just have to be careful - loading and unloading is not well streamlined - and the mouthpiece gets a little hot. After I unhook the bag from the unit I usually hold my finger over the end for a little and wait for the straw to cool down so it won't burn my lips. It's not a big deal though.




So, after a particularly crazy night (last night), I decided that I'm still not quite happy with the speed of this thing. I do believe it is superior to a Volcano in efficiency and size, but it's just not quite there as a party vape at the moment because it's so slow. It COULD be though. So, curious, I called up the company and asked them how big of a pump I could throw on this thing. I figured if I could push some 5-6L/min through it (2-3 times what I'm doing now) it would fill up bags at a really respectable pace.

So I called them up and I got some guy on the line that told me they've been looking into it and have found that even really big pumps (he mentioned one used for blood pressure testing, or something like that, a "rotary pump") could fill up a bag in 20 seconds and that the temperature control in the HA would still keep it vaping away. I was interested and immediately thought about going to the pet store, getting a Y-adapter and exchanging my pump for a bigger one.

Then, the guy mentioned that at the end of January there's going to be a kit coming out that includes bag material, a zip-tie gun for making bags, a new 10L/min pump (10x faster) and a branching straw to fill up 2 or 3 bags at once (I guess they haven't decided which to do yet, but there's a picture somewhere on the internet of them testing the 3 bag system). I asked him if there was any way to get one of these direct, and he said yes. He's sending me a "beta kit" soon, so I'll definitely post my findings on this as soon as I get it.


Overall a great vape - it's got HUGE potential once it has the right bag-fill system and the right pump. For the price I wouldn't buy anything else.

 

beezleb878

thanks for the review.

5drive

Yeah that's what my wife said on our wedding night. It's not just the herbalAire. I guess we expect something larger for something called a 'vaporizer'.

My comments are half response and half some fill in for anyone interested in this vape. I've been using it for about 18 months. My wife likes bag delivery so I'm cranking it up a lot.

You should have named your thread 'Review of the herbalAire as a party vape'. A "fully-loaded crucible"? 6 bags? I've never done that kind of volume off one load, but then I've got extra crucibles and rarely do more than a two person supply. You can also use this vape for a quick direct hit or two straight through the straw. Thin hits but it does the trick.

Better get used to the bags. They all use pretty much the same thing. They're basically oven bags. I use and would recommend Toppits bags if you can find them. Some people like Reynolds and they'd be easier to find. You can use Volcano bags too. The bags herbalAire is using now are thicker than Toppits and won't burst if you leave them on the pump too long. But they will leak from one end or the other if overfilled, so you have to watch it. They may be using these heavier bags now so they won't burst. The Toppits will burst if you've made/sealed them well and overfill, but with Toppits it's easy to tell just from the sound of the filling bag when it's full. It's cheap to make multiple bags for this vape so I make different sizes. They only leak if they're not sealed well when you make 'em or if you accidentally poke a hole.

The pump is not awful. It's adequate. It would nice to have a faster fill but I'd rather have slow and quiet than fast and noisy. Again, I'm not trying to get 6 people high at once. I find loading and unloading simple and easy. You just have to dump out the crucible. It cools fast. The mouthpiece does get a little warm, but it's not really a mouthpiece, just a screened connector. The straw is what you suck on. Careful with the crucible. They're easy to sqaush. You may want to buy extras. And I'd get a bag set just for the connectors, so you can make your own. You'll have to clean the heating chamber, mouthpiece and straws with iso. Pipe cleaners are perfect for the straw. Be careful with the iso on the heating chamber. I'd unplug and turn it upside down. Use a cotton swab and give it plenty of time to dry. Enjoy your herbie.

Auralis

Thanks 5Drive -

Now that I've had a little more experience with this, I can give a little more insight into how I feel about the HA. Once the excitement wears off a more objective review is possible, for sure.

The efficiency is still just amazing to me. I never got herb this brown under a with a VaporBrothers. A+ there.

My 4L/min pump right now is adequate for large-group smoking, but with just two, it can be even too much. It gets to a point where nobody's throat can take the vapor anymore. My friend, who apparently loves loading bowls as big as possible, completely filled the crucible to the brim and we got some 7 bags of *thick* vapor out of it (I couldn't believe it either) until we were both too high to handle it anymore. So we turned it off and finished it the next day, and still got really high. After pouring it out, all brown - the airflow is great.

Cleaning is easy, I've found. Alcohol through removable parts, swab in the heating chamber, done and done.

I'll make sure to post when HA sends the new parts. They claimed they were sending the 10L/min pump, bag material, mouthpieces, and a splitter for 2+ bags at once.


Also, and this is on an edit, I thought it worth mentioning that in a week and a half, the HA has TWICE taken me somewhere I've never been before. My friend and I both on the night we really filled the bowl (mentioned above) had minor hallucinations. I know people say that isn't possible - try again.

Auralis

I started using it more just direct draw - hit from the straw on the top. It's easier to not have to hook up the pump and deal with bags and switching and so forth. Much more chill. My impressions on this:

It seems to not vape at all, or very minimally, while you're not hitting from it. That's a plus for sure, you hit it at your own pace because the heating element is below the bowl. Of course, every whip vape does this, so it's not saying a whole lot.

The efficiency is still there. I think the 18(?) holes help a lot to really surround the herb. On the other hand, you're not getting the pulsating that the aquarium pump does when you just hit it directly, so I would probably recommend pulling it apart just a *little* more. Not too much though, tiny scraps will go through the screen.

Definitely hits hard, though. Off half a crucible, probably .3 grams or so, got me and two other guys really really done.

I'm still waiting on HA to send me the new bag kit - I won't use bags until then. One of my old bags sprung a leak and I'm not really too keen on using them until I can make one right (with a zip-tie gun and some good material) and I'm pretty happy with the way it works now.


Also, to combat how hot the straw gets sometimes (pull slowly, or you'll burn yourself), I attached a tiny bit of food-grade tubing to the end of it as an extension. Get a size that takes some effort to slide on. You'll begin to see resin on the inside of it - it's depressing to know that that's res that could be in you, but considering it's only a 2-3" extension, it really can't be that much in the scheme of things.

 

Auralis

Just adding some more of my experiences, and a bump because I want to see some discussion on what I consider a kickass vape:

I got an email from the company, their demand is through the roof and because of it they keep delaying on what they were going to send me. That's okay, I can wait. One of the more promising things they've told me about is a longer straw - obviously, very cool, it'll keep it from getting too hot when you pull the bag off, or use it direct draw.

I used a Volcano for the first time last week and I was really impressed by how it worked compared to the HA in terms of bag fill time as well as how nice it is to have a valve. I'd like to try and fashion together some sort of valve that works like the Volcano does, but I'm not quite sure where to start. Does anyone have any ideas on that?

Still waiting on this pump, but when it comes I'm going to grab some Toppits bags and try to fashion a nice 5-foot bag.

ADIDAS

How would you compare the Volcano to the HerbalAire? I had an herbalaire, but it got stolen not too long ago. I hardly ever used it, but for the past month or so, Ive only been smoking Kind Bud, and now I really want to vape again. I HATED the bags on the Herbal, got leaks in them like crazy. Are the volcano bags similar, or a lot more pliable? How would you compare total times? The Herbal was a bit slow for my liking, Im impatient. Also, I never found it good to be used for more than two heads, three MAX.

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5drive

HerbalAire provides a stiffer bag than Toppits (or the Volcano bags I imagine). The stiffer bag doesn't pop if you forget to remove it, so you don't lose the bag. But it will leak (like a safety valve) if you forget to remove it when it's full. I've used both the supplied herbalAire bags and Toppits bags for almost two years and not a single one has leaked, other than due to poor bag assembly on my part or the previously mentioned 'safety valve' leak designed into the herbalAire bags.

Yeah the Volcano will fill a bag a lot faster and you get an additional year's warranty (on the Classic) and the Volcano 'name'. So it's a much better 'party vape' than the herbalAire for the extra $290.

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ADIDAS

Cool, thanks for the reply. Now if only I could find one at a discounted price. I read on one of these vape threads that Volcano (whatever the manufacturers name is) doesnt allow their product to be sold under $539ish, and still warrant the product. Anyone selling it under that price isnt authorized and will not give you the warranty. Any truth to that?

5drive

That's what I thought too. When vapedaddy.com started selling them for $395 I asked Storz & Bickel if they would honor a warranty claim for a unit purchased there and at that price. The reply I received basically said I could buy a Volcano from any dealer, including vapedaddy.com, and they would honor the warranty.

Unfortunately, two separate issues came up last year to affect 'cano prices. At some point (June of '07 is what I heard) something happened that stopped the import of the Volcano to the US. This was a customs issue probably caused by some bureaucrat trying to win the war on drugs. Volcanoes were seized at the port of entry and S&B stopped shipping. Some dealers decided to raise prices since they had units in stock and no one knew whether imports would resume or not. Finally, just this month, 'cano shipments are supposed to be coming into the US again. Meanwhile, quite a few dealers had run out of stock on either the Classic or Digit (mostly the Digit).

Around the same time, the value of the US dollar was declining to the point where the Canadian dollar is now equal to the US dollar. So S&B was forced (I'm sure ) to raise their wholesale price. Some dealers maintained the $539 price ($669 for the Digit), while others went up to $599. Vapedaddy, the bargain dealer, raised their price from $395 to $495. So the days of being able to save $144 on a 'cano are over (for now anyway). And since all dealers aren't yet resupplied, you can't even get the $495 price from vapedaddy, since they're apparently still out of stock. And the package deals on ebay, where you used to get all kinds of extras for the $539 price, are pretty much gone. So if you want a bargain price on a 'cano, better look on ebay for a used one.