Weed pen vapes or dry herb vaporizers have been around for several years. They are different from extract vape pens you may be familiar with. They directly vape the herb, extracting all the beautiful compounds from it.
As the movement has evolved alongside the medical industry, herbal vaporizers have become more popular as legalization has grown.
Weed pens are popular among those who want to enjoy the benefits of cannabis but are worried about the health concerns or stigma of smoking.
They are also used as a healthier alternative to smoking herbal cigarettes, like those made with cocoa bean shells, lemongrass, or mint, by people wanting to quit nicotine.
A dry herb vape is a device that allows you to smoke dry herb, plant, or flower material without the combustible temperatures you'd require with a water pipe or cigarette.
These weed pens have an internal rechargeable battery and a heating chamber. Most weed vaporizers are handheld, often called vape pens or portable dry herb vaporizers.
Larger desktop herb vaporizers also exist. These larger herbal vaporizers are like electronic hookahs and can be shared in a group smoking session to consume different flavors of tobacco and herbs. The most well-known desktop vaporizer for weed is the Volcano.
Desktop vapes provide more power, have more refined heating elements, and have precision temperature control. They typically use more convection heating and have a higher vapor quality. They are less portable than weed pens. Many tabletop vapes allow more than one person to vape at any given time.
How do Herbal Vaporizers Work?
Rather than combusting the herb, a weed pen will bake the plant material in a chamber.
The loose leaf or flower is placed into the heating chamber of the dry herb vape. Using convection or conduction (often both), the dry herb is heated anywhere from 200 to 450F.
This heating releases all the flavonoids and terpenes without burning the plant. The released vapor is inhaled through a mouthpiece connected to the heating chamber.
Think of conduction vaping as cooking with a frying pan versus convection vaping or baking with an oven.
If you throw some bacon in a hot pan, it will start to sizzle. The heat from the pan is directly transferred to the bacon through conduction.
The same is true in a conduction vape. The herb is placed in a chamber, and as the chamber is heated, the heat is transferred to the herb through direct contact between the chamber's walls.
In these devices, the heated part touches your herb and heats it to produce vapor.
Convection vape devices are more like baking in an oven or smoker.
The hot air will swirl around surrounding the baked item and transfer heat to it. This principle also applies to dry herb convection vapes. The heat is generated in a separate compartment, and as it passes through the herb chamber, it heats the plant material. While many consider convection heating vapes superior, they come with the drawback of being much larger and more expensive than conduction vapes. If you can hold the weed vaporizer in one hand, it will likely be a conduction-heating vape. This makes conduction weed vapes more popular for those wanting a discreet portable vape pen for use on the go.
The main benefit of weed vaporizers, as opposed to smoking, is to your health. Each time you smoke traditionally, you burn the herbs, which causes combustion to occur. When smoking, you are inhaling the toxic chemicals released in combustion. No combustion occurs when using a dry herb atomizer, so you don't breathe in harmful chemicals.
Another main benefit of herb vaporizers is that they can release more of the herb's flavor by using a lower temperature than smoking. When combustion occurs, as in smoking, you immolate the herb and destroy many active compounds. At lower temperatures, these can be released.
Let's get all scientific for a moment.
Plants are made up of hundreds of different compounds. These will occur in varying concentrations depending on the type of herb. They are essentially the stuff like nicotine that gives a little head rush. Or the chemicals in plants like Hyssop, a holy herb that can help cleanse and purge.
Other plants like Korean Ginseng can restore balance in the body and reduce stress. They do this by interacting with different neutrons in your brain. So, the more you get from your herb, the better, right? These compounds are released at varying temperatures from around 220 to 450F. Above that, the heat scorches and destroys some beneficial compounds in a fiery blaze.
Session vapes are the most common types of weed vaporizers. They are simple and easy to use. Just load the chamber with your herb, power up the vape, and set the temperature or voltage, and the vape gets to work. It will heat up and maintain the set temperature for a session, similar to how smoking a traditional joint works. However, there is no combustion, and you get pure vapor. It requires minimal user input and is a very intuitive way to vape.
On-demand vapes are different; these devices require the user to press a button to vape, which gives them the freedom to take a hit whenever they want. However, with dry herb vapes, the oven part where the herb is placed needs to heat up very quickly to release the compounds from the weed, which means they are less common. There will naturally be some lag between pressing the button and inhaling as the device heats up.
The on-demand advantage is that it allows you to take a hit whenever you want rather than consuming the weed in a single session.
Using a herb pen or herb vaporizer is super easy. This step-by-step guide will walk you through the process.
1) Before using, ensure the heating chamber or oven is clean. If this is your first time using a brand new device, cycle through the heating cycles at the highest temperature setting before loading your first lot of herb.
2) Grind your herb to a relatively fine consistency.
3) Pack the heating chamber lightly with your herb of choice. Be sure to pack it evenly.
4) Choose the best temperature for your herb, then wait for the device to heat up.
5) Once the desired temperature is reached, you can take gentle puffs from the mouthpiece.
6) you can adjust the temperature to release and consume the different compounds.
Here is a video showing the unboxing and how to use the Lookah Ice Cream portable marijuana vaporizer.
Studies have proved that compared to combustion, smoking vape is cleaner, more efficient, and more effective.
The vapor produced from vaping cannabis is less harmful than the smoke produced when smoking it in a joint, splif, or pipe. Additionally, the vapor is more potent than smoke. This is because combustion is needed to release the smoke, which also burns up many compounds.
The smell from a vaporizer dissipates faster than smoke and will not cling to clothing like smoke will. This means your room and clothes will not smell like they would if you were smoking. While we may be a little biased, compared to traditional methods of cannabis consumption, vaporization is the way to go.
Yes, if not more so. Vaporizers release more of the active compounds instead of destroying them with combustion. Each hit you take from a vape will be more potent than a puff of smoke, even if the vapor isn't as visible as the smoke you exhale when smoking.
Weed vaporizers are intended to be used with different herbal blends.
These blends are made from a wide range of cultivars called strains. Each strain contains a unique profile of compounds (called terpenes) that influence everything from taste to aroma to overall experience.
Weed vaporizers are not only healthier for you, but they are also more discrete. They don't produce smoke, which means they are less pungent than smoking cannabis or tobacco.
Yes, if not better. Vaporizers release more of the active compounds (instead of destroying) them. Therefore, each puff is fuller and more potent than a toke from a joint or blunt.
In our opinion, yes. Wax and oil vaping use higher temperatures and can be more scorching and irritating to the throat and lungs.
Some oils and waxes may contain harmful chemicals from the processing methods, which can mean you're inhaling unwanted chemicals. Vaping dry herbs can help avoid this hazard.
Vaporizers are not only better for you in the long run, but they are also more discrete. They produce less smoke, are less pungent, and are more accessible to the everyday user. With a good dry herb vaporizer, you don't have to worry about setting fire to anything or setting off any smoke alarms.
Yes, if not better. Because vaporizers release (instead of destroying) the active compounds, each hit is fuller and more potent than a puff of smoke.
The easiest way to clean the vaporizer parts is to soak the individual components in isopropyl alcohol. You can do this whenever you feel that the vaporizer needs to be cleaned properly (1-2 times a week should do).
In our opinion, yes. Oil vaping can be more taxing on the lungs and can contain more unwanted ingredients if you’re not careful, but we suggest you do your research!
Dry herb vaporizers promote better health and are gentler on the lungs. Vapes release the active ingredients instead of destroying them, which can release harmful byproducts into the air and into your lungs. Dry herb vaporizers also stand out for their convenience and discretion in comparison to alternative dry herb consumption methods. Vaping enables (almost) unrestricted usage at any location and time, ensuring minimal disturbance and disruption to others.
Many dry herb vaporizers are intended for use with herbal blends, which come in a wide range of cultivars commonly referred to as strains. Each strain has a different profile of compounds (called terpenes) which influence everything from taste, to aroma, to overall experience.
The dab pen is a portable vaporizer that can only be used with these refined concentrate products. The dry herb vaporizer can be filled with bowls of raw flowers and loose leaves.
