Finally grew the balls to buy an MFLB today at a local head shop and they were going for $129.. The Pax's were going for $250 so it wasn't like everything on the shelves was over priced. Even the guy behind the counter said if I can find them for a lower price it would be a good idea to go elsewhere. Just felt like ranting on GC, I don't want to shell out over $100 for a vape and finally got my hopes up only to be disappointed. Guess I'll wait until I'm back in college so I can have a vape shipped to my house without my parents intercepting it. Until then, I'll be using the trusty water bottle piece.
All the portables I like cost between $100 - $150. I tried to find something for under $100 and failed at it; rather I didn't find anything at that price point that was worth it. I look at it this way. You can spend 50$ over and over and over again buying cheap vapes that don't work well, or you can spend $150 once and have something that works great.
The portables scene is in bad shape. But then its just starting, hopefully someone will work the bugs out soon.Your options are the ~$100 rebranded ecigs that use a coil and just kinda burn (if they work at all), or some $200+ units that use a nice ceramic heating chamber but wrap it in plastic so every hit tastes like youre smoking out of a bic pen tube with an aluminum foil bowl. I cant tell you how disappointed I was but Ill try to convey it: a year ago I bought a davinci bc it had a nice steel heating chamber and temp control. Worked ok but design was way too complex (it was hard to load etc), and for some reason the heater is held in place with plastic. Not high temp plastic mind you, just plastic. So I abandoned it for a year until the ascent came out, thinking that itd be improved. It was advertised as an all glass vapor path and ceramic heater.... I again plopped down 250 bucks for what was hailed as the messiah of portable vapes, only to find the chamber was sunk into and surrounded by plastic, the housing was plastic, the air inlet was plastic, and the seals for the "all glass" vapor path were plastic, and surprise, surprise, a hundred bowls and several months later and every hit still tastes like hot plastic (which has begun to warp and chip), I only get a couple bowls life out of it, and according to my IR temp probe it doesnt even get up to 385f (advertised as 420f). I've had similar experiences with the firebox, and the new vaporblunt thing. They all use shitty low temp plastic to hold together everything.Youre best bet is to get a nice desktop like a volcano or arizer and just wait for the portable vape makers to realize we're sick of overpaying for ecig knockoffs that burn and vapes that taste like melting cancer.
Have you tried the arizer solo? At 160, it is a better portable vape that tastes good, hits well, and conserves weed. Glass stem with stainless steel or ceramic bowl depending on the model. Never had an issue with either of mine in past 2 years. Even got water into the heating chamber once because of a high error by a buddy. Thought he broke it but nope. Let it dry and all was good. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I've been wanting to try the solo, but after the fiasco of wasting a ton of cash on the ascent which also has a ceramic element and glass path but mysteriously wraps everything hot in low temp plastic, I've been wary of dropping that much cash again on something with similar claims, even if it is by a company I like. Does the solo taste the same as the tabletop model or does it also suffer from the burnt plastic taste?Iwien, youre right, and I wouldnt actually recommend the volcano bc its parts are substandard (plastic and metal everywhere) and it costs as much as a tijuana kidney (too damn much). Basically any tabletop with a ceramic heating element and a glass chamber etc is great. I've had wonderful results with cheap $40 ebay sourced whip vapes, and also terrible results with others bc some industrial oil was on the element and caused a nasty smell that couldnt be gotten rid of. I only mention the Arizer by name bc I like the features and its quite reliable.