Dry Herb Vaping vs Bong hits
I have been looking into dry herb vaping as a reusable some what healthy way to consume trees but I have seen some mixed reviews. Some say that vaping is even more potent that combustion while others claim that most dry herb vapes suck and only giant ball vapes can compare to a bong hit. Is it purely subjective or are there ways to figure out what is a worth while rig before buying it?
I started smoking with massive bong hits and I'll never move away from that, so I needed to find a vaporizer that was able to provide what I was looking for. I've been through a long list, all with their own pros and cons and various "best" ways to use them.
I started with the FM V5.0s, then the Grasshopper, Arizer Air, Solo 2, VapeXhale Evo, then Mighty family with the Volcano and Plenty, Arizer V-Tower, then the Fury and the Tiny Might.
For bongs, most of these suck or have shortcomings. The Grasshopper (no longer available and should honestly be avoided) was incredible and served me very well, but the company was mishandled and effectively scammed people. However, it was the pinnacle of portable bong vaporizers - seriously unparalleled and its only shortcoming for me was you'd have to reload it if you wanted more than 2 or 3 very large dense hits (i.e. group sessions). It's too bad it's unavailable, because it really was the best ("when it worked", as the users memed).
The VapeXhale Evo, also no longer available sadly is the next best, only "second" to the Grasshopper for bong rips because it's a desktop vape and it has a heatup time. But the pros outweigh those "cons" that make it "second", easily reloadable baskets and the best convection bong rips on the market at the time. Alas, the company grew old and repurchased and rebranded until a new unit never released and they folded. The biggest loss aside is the ez-load bowls, since they are compatible with a number of devices. Anyway... it was nifty, it heated a glass element that heated the air and made it a full convection vape.
The Mighty is ok for bongs. I differentiate them via the actual glass and pressure of the bongs. Imagine a beaker bong or any bong that you hit and the smoke/vapor condenses in the glass before you carb it and get it all. The Mighty does not do that at all. The Mighty is a bubbler that you when you hit it you get some smoke/vapor - no condensing. It's not my preference, so I personally am not very satisfied with the Mighty as a bong ripper when compared to my other options.
The Volcano is just loud. It's fine, it's fun to have the bong percolate itself but, well meh. It's expensive and loud, it uses a lot of bud but it does put out a lot of vapor. The older V-Tower model is in a similar boat, it's quieter but a little less efficient than the Volcano. I use them for gatherings. The Plenty is fairly disappointing.
The Arizer portables (I have the Air 1 and Solo 2) are weaker than the Mighty through glass so not what you're looking for for bong rips.
Finally, for portables worth mentioning that leaves the Tiny Might. It's a great vaporizer, I find it fairly comparable to the Grasshopper and I'm pleased with it overall. My only shortcoming for it is that I'm constantly reloading bowls, but otherwise it's a strong consistent vaporizer.
But for you OP, I would suggest looking into Ball Vapes. I personally can't 100% recommend any particular one as I'm unfamiliar with the specifics of each and what they all entail, but as a brief overview; ball vapes are desktop vapes controlled by an e-nail PiD controller and are essentially e-nails for convection heating. It's actually just the exact concept of the VapeXhale Evo just inverted, since we are moving the heating elements to the top of the bowl (rather than it being confined).
You can build your own for about $100, but there are plenty of kits available from Cannabis Hardware or Vgoodiez (and I'm sure others, but you can't go wrong with these two.)
Aw, I've been using my evo for a while and didn't realize they'd gone out of business. They were always great to deal with for me. It's a nifty device, and I like the all glass air flow. That really only stayed true when using it with extracts in the glass nails though.
Have you found a reasonable clone for the baskets? I love those little things and used them in my portable as well.
I've yet to unfortunately, I bought the very last stock available and inquired a few sellers (like Vgoodiez) for any potential but no luck. Treat the ones you have with care :(
Actually, I should reach out to the company though. They may have the contact for the basket manufacturer. I was lucky enough to always have good experiences with them as well, near the end I bought some glass from them and one of their shipments was eternally delayed but I was talking with the owner and they sent me a more expensive piece for free, which I still use today (the "Halley"). Really a shame their other version didn't release, although, it didn't look particularly... well ahem, it was more unique.
For now if I ever run low my solution is going to be something along the lines of Tiny Might/Arizer "ELB" basket screens (the small lids that we use as the cap) with some metal mesh and figuring out how to fashion it to work lol. Not looking forward to that sad day.
There are vaporizers that you can connect into a bong and get the best of both. But for a single device, a Volcano is the vape equivalent of a bong rip. The sensation and flavor are different but, to me, it feels cleaner than smoking out of a bong.
As an owner of two Volcanos and an Arizer Extreme Q, I don't really think the cost justifies the marginal improvement in vapor quality over the Q.
That said, if money really is no object, the Volcano can't be beat in terms of quality and feature set. Replacement parts are wildly pricey too.
After decades of nearly exclusive use of a bong and very occasional disappointing experimentation with various vaporizers, I never really found a vape device that could replace a bong for me.
That changed about a year ago. I bought a Tiny Might 2 and don't use anything else now.
The device is expensive but is a great piece of hardware that works very well. Most importantly it can deliver massive hits. With a good cooling stem you can use it anywhere and it will allow you to do a hit that will rival a good bong hit and it tastes so much better.
But the best is that it comes with a glass water pipe attachment (WPA) that allows you to use it with a bong or water pipe. When I'm at home I use it exclusively with a bong. It uses less herb than combustion for the same or better effect with dramatically better flavor. It will produce very thick vapor and will give you a very satisfying bong hit - at higher temperatures it will produce very thick clouds. In fact you can turn the temperature up enough to combust whatever is in the chamber if you are so inclined. Another benefit is that your bong stays cleaner too.
I use the dosing capsules which keeps the device clean and helps a bit with efficiency. Specifically I use .10 grams in a dosing capsule and am often unable to finish in one hit. (I am a runner and can do huge hits) On the same bong with the same herb I would use a little bit more - maybe .13 grams if I were combusting it.
For me it is pretty close to the ideal device. It absolutely improved every aspect of my herbal experience. Of course YMMV but I'm a convert.
I used to exclusively use a bong, now I exclusively use a Volcano. It took a couple weeks for me to get accustomed to it, they’re different, but I haven’t gone back to the bong in over two years.
I will say, the Volcano is the only vaporizer I’ve tried that comes close to having the same in-your-face “fuck I’m high” feeling of a bong hit. I’ve tried a lot of different hardware, but the Volcano is unique imo.
It was hard to justify the absurd cost of the Volcano, but I slowly saved up for it, caught a Black Friday sale to save like $200 and it’s now one of my most prized possessions. Solid investment. Fucking love this thing.
Dry herb vape through a bubbler/bong >>>>>
Absolutely. I use the might+ dry herb vape and an adapter to use it with a bong cost me around $15AUD delivered. The mighty+ is smooth and amazing anyway, but the bong and adapter get rid of any coughing at all after huge rpis.
in my experience they don't compare really. Bong hits are high temp with percolation while a dry vape is low temp. I never had good luck substituting one for the other but I do love both. obviously a vape has the benefit of more discretion
They do hit a little different. But if you get a Volcano style vaporizer and take the whole bag, it will probably be a bit stronger than a single bowl would do you
I have an airizer Vtower with the whip attachment, then a bowl piece for my bong that the whip connects too. I fill by bong with vapor and its nice and cloudy usually, and pull it like any other. I get 4 to 5 of them from the same amount of weed as burning one.
pax 2 not as good as bong. but good
I tried vaping a few times when a friend of mine got the original Volcano vape. I never liked the taste, but the high from the initial vapage was pretty good and even. Smoking the vaped material afterward, tho, didn't seem to really do much. It never caught on with me; I'd prefer to smoke normally or vape some concentrate in a dab rig.
I have tried a whole selection of dry herb vapes (desktop and portable), sadly I have some weird allergy, using any of them causes mouth sores for me. Totally fine when I burn, use a pen, tincture or edibles, but something about heating the terps to that temperature and the slow inhale, fucks my mouth up. I loved the Volcano, although it’s loud and expensive. I’ve also used a Pax3 with a rubber adapter and air pass through lid, this worked well in a bong. I like the supposedly healthier consumption, but I can’t seem to not have the mouth issues.
I've got a firefly 2 I don't use anymore because it needs maintenance, a firewood 5 and a firewood 7. I love them all. I hardly do any consumption besides dry herb vape anymore.
There's a mouthpiece you can hook up the FW7 to a bong/perc but I haven't gotten it. When I upgrade to the FW9 (or whatever they're at when I have the money) I'm going to get that.
My mighty kicks like a mult
You don’t need a giant ball vape to have a good bong rip. Sure I’m biased as a Qaromashop distributor but you can get medicated just like bong rips from our stuff even the small setups. The only differences are the tar and how much better it tastes.
The Herborizer XL is an amazing Bong dry Herb vape.. and lots of em have attachments for bongs to get that nice rip. Thou Herborizer is by far a better hit than portables with attachments.. expensive as fuck thou and all glass so can break
Do you mean combustion vs. vaporisation? Because you can run a dry herb vape through a bong no problem.
Sure.
Ok, well combustion and vaporisation are 2 very different things.
If you want a big cloud hit off a vaporizer, you look at vapes like the cloud evo, volcano, the tiny might 2, ball vapes, log vapes. You can either attach or not attach any of these to a bong.
Ball vapes are top of the line for fast extraction of vapour, but you can get large cloud hits off the other style of vapes i mentioned.
But i wouldn't expect to get massive clouds off sipper vapes like a mighty, crafty, mflb, vmax, potv one, etc.
You'll likely get higher off a dry herb vape, because you can control the temperature while extracting the active compounds, instead of just buring them up into carbon like with combustion.
How does. The dry herb vape through a bong compared to the regular combustion bong ?