Viva la IPuff Vape!

VAPE PENS

A lot of hype and focus has been centered on the increasing availability of small smoking devices which utilize low heat to vaporize the essential ingredients of either oil or herb. While we may have seen varying styles of larger table-top vaporizers much earlier in our smoking careers, we’ve successfully downsized the technology to our pockets. The birth of the vape pen! Considering the season and my location in Colorado, I may be even more biased to the topic because bringing your conventional bowl, one-hitter, or pipe can be a serious challenge on the slopes if the winds are up. Although I always wanted to see someone loading a 5 ft. bong at the mountain…

Some folks also err on the side of caution in public places which “frown” upon the open (and illegal) use of cannabis at their establishments. For these cases, the vape pen carries even more weight as an option to smoke up as it’s both discreet, and with oil especially, the smell is minimal. In order to get my finger on the pulse of this new trend, I recently purchased the iPuff Vapr 2.0 Pen Set from my local shop. I figured it was worth dropping in my two cents in case anyone is in the market. Aside from iPuff, you have plenty of options available, but this one stood out to me for as the best vape pen for three reasons: versatility, simplicity, and obviously price.

As for versatility, the Vapr 2.0 includes three primary smoking accessories (referred to as the three atomizers) which will attach separately to the larger battery section. The first atomizer uses e-liquid which is not something I’m familiar with, and from the folks that are, it doesn’t apply to this article. Moving on to the topics/atomizers of substance: herb and oil. Since the Vapr 2.0 offers atomizers for both, you can freely pick and change out the atomizer depending on your mood. For me, I typically load up the herb atomizer halfway and put it in my pocket detacfhed from the battery. We should cover two things about the herb chamber before moving on. First, it is almost completely contained aside from a small hole for allowing air flow; you unscrew a small cap to load the chamber, and when you’re done, you close the cap sealing your precious herb inside. This essential detail is what allows you to put it in your pocket without losing valuable product.

Second, you don’t want to overload the atomizer otherwise the air flow is reduced causing issues with heating the herb at the opposite side of the atomizer. No smoke is no bueno so heed the warning or rookie mistakes will ensue. Along with the loaded, freestanding herb atomizer, I insert the loaded oil attachment to the battery section. Since the oil attachment is not contained except by the mouthpiece, I load that atomizer as my primary so I don’t have valuable shatter/cheese/dabs/oil rolling around in my pocket. When I find myself a good ways into the tougher to reach spots of the mountain farther away from my car, I don’t have to worry about having a little pre-run smoke in the case that I’ve torched all the oil. Once I’ve burned out the oil, I change the insert, and I’m on to herb. Success! Closing note on versatility, beware not to pack too much oil either, or it’ll become tough to hit. More potential rookie pitfalls. It’s a fairly small piece of equipment, in fact smaller than a traditional bowl, so I don’t even notice it in my pocket.

Simplicity shakes out to two things in particular. The first is the actual operation of the Vapr 2.0 pen. Charging is completed with a micro-USB so it’s a piece of cake to charge at home, on the go, etc. To turn it on, you push the only button five times, and it will flash a blue backlight. Now, anytime you hold the button down, the blue light stays on to let you know it’s heating up the oil or herb in whichever atomizer you’ve attached. I like to hold the button for a couple seconds before I start pulling to get the chamber good and full with smoke. Once you let go of the button, the light turns off to indicate heating is no longer ongoing. The same way you turned the pen on, you turn it off. After pushing the button the fifth time, the light flashes several times again which indicates the pen is off. If you push the button at this point, nothing will happen thus confirming shutdown. It also saves you the worry of mistakenly putting pressure on the button and building up a pocket of smoke. Simple, right? Exactly! The other perk of this design is simplicity in the sense of interchangeable parts (i.e. as you increase cycling of the heating coil, it’s bound to break down).

As simple as you interchange between different atomizers (oil, herb, or e-liquid), any individual unit can be replaced. Essentially each of the units you change out is self-contained. I bought a couple replacement oil extensions for a couple bucks each and now when one burns out, I toss it (no oil included!), put the new one on, and it’s ready to go.

Different products can range in cost from as low as $20 to as high as $200 (don’t quote me exactly, I’m using a basic internet search to back that up). The real point I’m driving towards is the fact that the Vapr 2.0 Pen Set maintains an MSRP of approximately $70 which includes the battery, atomizers, charging equipment, and a few other useful tools to get you on your way. For ease-of-use, light weight, and functionality, I stand by this product as much as I can in terms of third-party endorsement. Great option to keep your stash safe, your head high, and your options open.