Product Review: The Vapir One 3.0 Vaporizer (Bonus Mini Trip Report!)

[jeffraider]

Vaporizer Basics

First of all, since not everyone knows about vaporizers, here are a few pertinent facts about vaporizers, especially in the weed application, which is all anyone gives a [censored] about. I mean, who is really vaporizing peppermint and the other various herbs that are listed as vapable??!?!

A Vaporizer is a device that heats your herb up to a temperature sufficient to release the THC but less than the temperature that the plant burns at. This means that you get high without actually inhaling smoke. Here are a few of the general benefits of vaporizing:

1) Efficiency. Vaporizing is, according to my own observations, roughly twice as efficent as smoking it out of a bong and probably around three times as efficient as a joint. That means you get the same high on half the weed or one-third of the weed that you would be using by other means. Well, not quite the same high. . . [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

2) Effects. This is purely anecdotal but you get high as [censored]! Basically, it kicks you really hard and when I vaporize one mesh basket's worth (maybe 1/3 of a joint's worth or so, maybe 1/2) by myself, I get high enough that getting the vaporizer put away is a concern. I find once you finish vaping you get about two minutes to get some stuff done before you lift off haha.

3) Health. Ever exhaled a lungful of weed smoke into a white sock, or a cloth, or a tissue? Try it sometime. You will get a disgusting, completely black stain on whatever you just exhaled into. That's all the tar and crap that is coating your lungs before you even exhale the remainder of the black sludge. This isn't from the THC, this is from the burning plant that you have to suck on to get high. When you exhale a lungful of vapor into a sock, it's completely clean. Basically vaporizing is a THC delivery system that cuts out the unhealthy middle man.

4) Stealth. If anyone needs to get high on the downlow, then a vaporizer is for you. Smoking a joint creates a very distinctive smell that gets into everything and lasts forever. When vaporizing, there is still a smell, but it doesn't smell anything like weed. It also is completely gone about as fast as any other smell, and won't hang around. When I vaporize in my bedroom there is a smell that doesn't leave the room and is completely undetectable within 20 minutes. Basically, if you've got 25 minutes before someone is coming into the room, you're good to go. Another benefit, aside from your bleary, stoned eyes, no one can tell you just got high. There is no weed smell on the hands or breath or mouth.

The Vapir One 3.0



Onto the specifics of this Vaporizer! The Vapir is a electric vaporizer that uses a "supercharged" heating element and a 3-speed fan to push the vapor out. It runs off of a cord that plugs into any electrical outlet. It has a digital temperature readout that is fully adjustable and switches between celsius and fahrenheit with a single button press. It has a seperate on/off switch, plus a nifty locking feature and two keys where you can lock the vaporizer so it can't be used. I don't know why anyone would ever really use that feature, but hey.

I purchased my Vapir off of eBay, from the Vaporizer.ca seller. It was about $5 cheaper off of eBay than from their site plus the eBay package came with a few accessories, including the all-important bags, more on those later. I paid $175 canadian for everything including taxes and shipping.



Review

First things first, this thing rocks. It's has already easily paid for itself in weed savings, it gets everyone who uses it incredibly ripped and has already provided lots of good times.

I really like the digital temperature readout, and I like being able to adjust it by one or two degrees here or there to get the right number. I like to vape at 200 celsius.

I don't like the fact that the Vapir One 3.0 doesn't come standard with the bag kit. Basically the bags are just like they sound like, clear plastic bags with the right size nozzle on the end to attach to the Vapir. The fan pushes the vapor into the bag, inflating it, and then when it's full of vapor you pull it off and inhale the contents of the bag. This is an excellent way to pass the hits around if in a group, and it's really nice being able to inhale the entire bag as fast as you can. The other option if you don't have a bag is just to inhale it from the hose (it does come with several comfortable mouth pieces, etc) but I really prefer the bag system for efficiency and taste. Sucking out of a hose attached to an electrical device with a high-speed fan is kind of wack. Also, the bags are great for several people using it because whoever is operating the Vapir can simply fill a standard bag, give it to someone, and be filling the next bag right away while the first person takes their time. The standard bags take about one minute to fill up with vapor, so it's a pretty smooth process serving up many hits to friends. You can buy the "balloon" kit seperately for about $30 for around 10 bags. All the bags can be reused a ton of times, I've been using the same two bags ever since I got it and they've seen a ton of use but are still in good shape. The package I got off eBay included two standard bags and one giant bag. The big bag is fun and a novelty but the standard bags are about the perfect size for an individual serving of vapor. For an example, after around all of my friends have a couple of bags each, they are incredibly ripped, so one bag is good to just get high without getting incapacitated hehe.

I really like the start up time. You plug it in, make sure the fan is set to high, turn it on, turn the fan down, turn the heater on and set your temperature. Then you leave it, prepare the weed into the mesh disk and by the time you've got that packed it's ready to go. It takes MAYBE 2 and a half minutes to get to my preferred vaping temp. Very fast, it's definitely quicker to use this vaporizer than to roll a joint, though slower than preparing a bong hit.

I don't like the ergonomics. Basically the way this thing is laid out is silly. For one thing, you've got to HOLD it while you use it. This makes no sense. Most other vaporizers sit on the table or counter, this one you've gotta hold, and it definitely works best when upright, so that's a pain. Also, the intake for the fan is at the very bottom of the device, so you can't even rest it on your leg. Now I'm not so lazy that I hate having to hold something upright for less than five minutes, but it just seems like a silly design choice. For a good looking design choice, check out the Vapir's big badass brother, the Volcano. The Volcano is the ultimate vaporizer in nearly every way, but it's also pricey, at around $650 canadian. Here's a pic, though, I would love to have one someday:



Also notice the Volcano's sexy bags! They have a valve so you don't even need to keep your finger on the bag, you just suck on it! The Vapir's bags are fine but you have to keep the nozzle plugged with a finger. Oh well, the Vapir's like a third of the price so you have to make some concessions.

The fan is really good, it's quite powerful and even at it's highest setting it's fairly quiet. It's probably about half as loud as your average hair blow dryer, or less. Basically when I play some music and use it it's undetectable. The heater is great too and warms up and works fast. The Vapir will shut itself off if it gets too hot, which it sometimes does after say two mesh disks worth in a row, which I don't do too often as people are normally moaning about how high they are after one mesh disk. I keep talking about mesh disks, but I haven't really explained them yet. It comes with a mesh disk that's like a thimble with a lid. You put the weed into the mesh disk, close the lid, and then put the disk into the tray for it, which then snaps into the unit right above the heater and fan.

The Vapir is a little more labor-intensive than it should be. You need to be careful to follow the proper startup and cool down procedures. For start up the fan must be in the high position when you flick it to on, but then you have to turn it right off again so it can heat up. Once you're done using it, you have to eject the disk immediately, turn off the heater but leave the unit and the fan on for a couple of minutes to cool it down.

It is a fairly solid unit with a couple of exceptions. Sometimes the hose at the top will come loose and a bunch of vapor will escape into my room, and sometimes the electrical cord will work it's way loose and fall out of the bottom, shutting the unit off suddenly and making it a real pain to get everything back on and working. These are both small issues, but I'm trying to really let this unit have it for everything I can think of so this review isn't a huge fluff piece with me praising it non-stop.

I think the Vapir One 3.0 is about the best bang-for-buck vaporizer around. There are cheaper vaporizers that totally suck (the useless BC Vaporizer), and more expensive ones that totally rock (the incredible Volcano) but the Vapir is the clear winner in it's price range, and is a clear bargain when compared to the Volcano. It does have one major competitor in its class, the Vapor Brothers Vaporizer seen here:



The Vapor Brothers seems like the answer to all of my problems with the ergonomics and what have you with the Vapir, but unfortunately the Vapor Brothers unit doesn't have a fan, so it can't be used to fill up bags. I don't really like the method of sucking straight from the vaporizer, so I've pretty much ruled the Vapor Bros unit out for myself. It does get good reviews though, so if you are okay with sucking and you won't be using it in party situations, you may want to have a look at it, as it's comparably priced.

Conclusion

If you smoke weed, you simply need a vaporizer. Vaping is better for your body and your wallet, and gives you a great, clean high. Highly recommended!!!


BONUS MINI TRIP REPORT!!!!!!!

Once you've vaporized your herb, it is a brown, tobaccoish color. It looks like what I imagine cheap Mexican weed would be like. A lot of stoners on some of the forums I go to say that vaped weed is still useable. It seemed ghetto to me to keep it, but I decided to in the interests of science and possibly to use it for cooking or making oil, I decided to keep all of the vaporized weed. Well yesterday, before I had smoked anything, I decided to experiment and smoke a joint of already-vaped weed.

Well, let me first say, I was somewhat surprised. The taste, while not great, was certainly not awful. It crackled and popped when it burned more than regular weed. If an identical joint of good weed scored a 10 in every category, here is what this joint scored:

Taste: 4
Smell: 4
Effect: 4

Not bad! For the real cheapskates out there you could probably get another use out of the weed you've already used more efficiently than you're used to! Still, not something I'm going to be doing again, considering that weed here in Canada is cheap and available. For some of you Americans paying $50 an eighth or whatever though, I won't blame you for reusing the vaped stuff. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[sightless]

awsome review, thank you very much, I just might purchase it in the next few days.

[Jules22]

i smoke blunts ;]

[.Alex.]

Cool review, thanks.

Anyone know anything about the VaporGenie ? A portable vaporizer sounds awesome, though I'm sure it wouldn't work as well as the above.

[graydot]

[ QUOTE ]
i smoke blunts ;]

[/ QUOTE ]

Seriously, i have tried vaporizers and other types of methods, but there is nothing to replace the good times when you roll a blunt, and pass it around.

[graydot]

btw if you have a vaporizer, thats a sign that you need to smoke less [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[jeffraider]

[ QUOTE ]
btw if you have a vaporizer, thats a sign that you need to smoke less [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Why?

[PITTM]

i bought a vaporbrothers vaporizer in 2004. i dug it, the heating element wore out so i bought a vapir. i sold the vapir after a few months and got a new element for my vaporbrothers and i prefer it to the vapir. the vapir was loud, big, and didnt get the job done that well. my biggest advice for the vapir is to not buy the bag kit because it is completely non functional in my experience. i dig box vaporizers, but im sure someone will have to mention a volcano before this thread is done.

rj

[canis582]

I did a volcano vape at the Hash Marihuiana Hemp Bong Blunt Pipe Joint Museum in Amsterdam. $500 is pretty steep, though, Im glad you brought the other alternative to my attention.

[The Don]

I am personally not a fan of the high provided by vaporizers (too much of a head high), and in my opinion your basic gravity bong is superior in terms of efficiency (I've only used the Vapir One 3.0... never volcanoed).

Still a nice change of pace but it will never be my go to method.