Vape pen technology and designs are evolving and changing at dizzying speed. Today’s best dry herb vape pens are miles ahead of earlier models with features and accessories for every personality, vaping occasion, and budget. Vaporizing dry herbs has advantages over concentrates like wax and oil and a good vape pen makes enjoyment of your favorite herb healthful and odor free.
Why Vape with Dry Herb?
Vaping is taking over smoking for people who use medicinal cannabis, and this makes total sense. If you are using cannabis for medical reasons, smoking your herb is counter-productive. Vaporizing largely eliminates the dangers of smoking along with almost all odor.
Smoke from any burning plant matter, including marijuana and tobacco, contains lots of nasty chemicals well-known for being dangerous to your health. Things like hydrogen cyanide gas, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and benzene are all poisonous and enter your body if you inhale smoke.
Happily, the sought after substances in cannabis – THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids – are vaporized at lower temperatures than these other dangerous gases. Nicotine also volatilizes at a temperature similar to THC and can be consumed without the unhealthy byproducts and second-hand effects of tobacco smoke using specialized vape mods.
The Advantages of Dry Herb Vaping
Dry herb has several advantages over concentrates like wax, oil, and shatter. Dry herb for vaping is usually more available, and concentrates are not easy to make at home without special equipment, experience, and large amounts of plant matter. While concentrates are becoming popular and commercially available in states where recreational and medicinal cannabis is now legal, it can still be harder to obtain than dry herb.
Concentrates are also much more potent. While some people need and want that potency, for others it is not what they need, and using smaller doses becomes a challenge with a concentrate. Dry herb lets you titrate your dose at smaller levels, controlling the effects more precisely.
Part of the effects of cannabis are also in chemicals called terpenes. These are the phyto-molecules that give different strains of cannabis flavors and smells like mint, berry, cheese, pine, and skunk. When cannabis is concentrated, these flavors are often lost.
Terpenes are more than flavor. Some research concludes terpenes combine with and synergize the effects of THC and other cannabinoids. The total psychological and physical effect of cannabis appears to be enhanced by the presence of terpenes, and vaporizing the dry herb keeps terpenes in the vapor.
Vape Pens Designs and Styles
Vape pens are by definition small, discrete, and powered by a battery. Many styles resemble pens, and some even have pen-like caps for stealthy pocket transport. Others styles exhibit the endless creativity of innovative designers paving the way in a new industry.
Vape pens can be charged with a wall charger and many through a USB port. Virtually all models come with a charger. Battery types vary between vape pens, and many use lithium ion batteries. Batteries are not necessarily interchangeable between models. Correctly charging, handling, and maintaining the battery in your vape pen is important for keeping it working and for safety.
Many vape pens get large amounts of puffs from a single charge, with some claiming as many as 1,200. Other models deliver less draws between recharging but make up with other creative features, like indicator lights letting you know how much juice is left in the battery, or even how many more puffs are left in the herb chamber.
How long it takes for the atomizer to vaporize the herb so it is ready for you to draw is another feature differing between vaporizer pen models. Some models take as little as 10 seconds and others as long as 90 seconds. How and where you plan on using your vape pen is an important factor in deciding how fast you need the chamber to be ready.
Simpler, less expensive models often have only one temperature setting, usually around 340º F. Higher end models have multiple temperature settings ranging from about 240º F. to 440º F., letting you capture several of the cannabinoids at their optimal vaporization temperature. Cannabis combusts and starts smoking at 445º F.
Vape pens are made with a variety of materials. Stainless steel, ceramic, and hardened glass are the most common. The material effects the looks and also the durability of the vape pen. Vaporizers have to handle high temperatures in a small space next to electronic components. Higher quality materials have fewer problems with contamination from overheated electrical parts and solder and are likely to have a longer life.
Vape Pen Features
Today’s vape pens have a long list of possible features worth considering before buying, including:
- Amount of battery use per charge
- Temperature adjustment dial
- Length of time until vapor is ready to draw
- Battery and puff counter indicator lights
- Cleaning brush
- Packing tool
- USB charger
- Car charger
- Battery life and replacement cost
- Warranty
- Interchangeable cartridges for dry herb, wax, oil
- Maintenance requirements
- Filter screens
- Style and material
- Price
- Stealth
Dry herb vaporizers are the healthy alternative for smoking cannabis and other medicinal herb smoking mixtures. Vape pens are specially designed for transforming cannabis into THC vapor along with cannabis bud flavor and the benefits of other cannabinoid substances.
