How to Pack Your Dry Herb Vaporizer The Right Way

This is how you pack your dry herb vaporizer to get the most vapor and the best performance. These tips go for most vapes; see my notes below.

How to Pack Vape Loading your vape properly has the following advantages:

  • More vapor
  • Stronger vapor
  • Smoother vapor
  • More smiles ;-)

Check out the animation on the right, it’s me loading my PAX vaporizer. If you wanna get that amazing vapor you see in my videos, there are two super important things you gotta do with vapes like this one…

GRIND FINE – With most vaporizers, you get the best performance when you grind your herb pretty fine. If you can swing it, I recommend getting the Brilliant Cut grinder for the perfect consistency. If you’re using a typical 4-piece metal grinder then what you can do is pack your herb in the lid and hold the grinder upside-down when you grind. This will mimic the action of a 2-piece grinder and get it a little finer than usual.

It can sometimes also help to dry your herb out a bit before trying to grind it up, it’ll usually break up into smaller bits this way. The best herb consistency for each vape is usually found through trial and error.

Note: Not all vapes require a fine grind, but if you are having trouble getting good vapor this is the first thing I recommend you try.

PACK FAIRLY TIGHT – Equally as important, you need to pack the herb chamber full and fairly tight with most vapes. If your material is loose in the oven it won’t be thoroughly and evenly heated, resulting in sub-par vapor production and a harsh taste. This goes hand in hand with grinding fine though, because if you pack tight with coarse material you could restrict airflow.

If you look at my animation closely I want you to notice how firmly I pack it down. I like to call it a “fairly tight” packing – you don’t wanna press it down so hard that it blocks the air flow, but you don’t want it too loose either. You want your herb to stay firmly in place without you touching it.

Important: Now there are some portable vaporizers that actually do perform best with a looser pack, with a great example being the Ghost MV1. The VapeXhale EVO and the Volcano are also good examples of convection-heating desktop vapes that perform best with a loosely packed bowl. When I say loose I mean packed full and then very lightly tamped to make the herb even, don’t put any pressure on it.

Any vape considered “conduction” (like the PAX) will usually work best with a tight pack and fine grind, and vapes labeled “convection” (like the MV1) will usually work best with a looser pack and coarser grind. Be careful though, some companies like to throw the word convection around but aren’t always 100% accurate.

My Top Picks: Best Portable Vaporizer for Dry Herb

Check out these cool topics as well:

Stay up!
-Bud


The video below I made years ago and I talk about grinding fine and drying out your herb for best results, but it is not up anymore…. So here is the Video transcription:

Video Transcription Start”

Hey, what’s up? In this video I want to talk a little bit about how to get the best results from your vaporizer. It doesn’t matter what vaporizer you have. These few tips I’m going to talk about now will get you more vapor that is less irritating.One of the important things to know about vaporizing is that the material you put in needs to be drier than you probably think, and it needs to be ground up finer than you probably think.

You know, at first I didn’t really understand it. I didn’t understand why moisture in my herbs or material would make it not vaporize as well. If anything, I thought the opposite would be true. I thought it would help generate more vapor, but it’s actually not true. You will get much better results, and you will get more vapor and tastier vapor, if your herbs or material are really dry. Also, moisture in your material will cause the vapor to be harsher than it really should be.

Now you don’t need to buy any special products or anything to do this. This little method that I am going to show you here is a free, easy way to dry out your herbs more to get them ready for a good vaporizing session.

So what I do first is I take my Space Case grinder. All right, it doesn’t matter what kind of grinder you have. Anything will work. So first what I do is I grind up my material in here. Now one quick tip I want to throw in is that if you are having issues with your grinder building up a lot of residue quickly, or it gets stuck really fast and it’s a pain in the ass to grind it, it means that your herbs are too moist. Now vaporizers aside, basically every grinder that’s out will grind your material better if it’s drier.

So once I have my material ground up inside my grinder, this is what I do next. I take a piece of paper, and right now I’m just showing you a basic piece of printer paper because this is something that pretty much everybody will probably have in their house.

Now I want to throw in a side note again and say that if you’re really concerned with keeping everything organic or natural or whatever, or you’re concerned with something or some chemicals from the paper getting into your material; you could obviously use a craft type of paper, like the brown paper or the type of stuff they use in the brown paper shopping bags, stuff like that, because those aren’t bleached or whatever it is. I’m not sure exactly how they make paper. But regardless, for this video I’m just going to talk about using a plain piece of paper, which is what I usually use.

So if you take your ground up material right from your grinder and put it right in your vaporizer, it’ll work. But if you really want optimal results, take the grinds from your grinder and actually just lay them out on the piece of paper. Then pick a safe spot to put it where nobody’s going to disrupt it or anything, and just let it sit there for maybe 10 to 15 minutes. That’s really all the time you need, because since the material is already ground up and then you’re spreading it out over the paper, there’s a much larger surface area for it to dry faster, as opposed to just laying out clumps of herbs or something and just waiting for them to dry.

Sometimes you’ll have to do that if your material is really wet or moist, but usually this is all you’ll have to do. This dry, almost crispy material is what will work best inside your vaporizer. Now using this method I can get away with just using my four piece Space Case with just about every vape I have, meaning that the grind consistency for here is fine enough to work well with most vapes.

However, if you have a vape, like the Launch Box, for instance, that one’s a little more finicky and it requires really finely ground up herb to really work well. So if you try this method about drying out your material first and you’re still having issues, like if you still don’t feel like you’re getting the best results, you can try an even finer grind also. So if that’s the case, if I was going to use my Launch Box, I would do everything I just said. I would grind is in my Space Case. I would lay it out for a few minutes to dry even more.

Then I would take those grinds, and I would regrind them again in something like one of these. This is the Nano Grinder, made by Magic Flight. This is their new wooden grinder. These are both really tiny, and what these are designed to do, obviously, is to grind your material to basically the finest consistency you can get. I’m going to talk more about these and show you more about them in a separate video, but I just wanted to mention that they are a good option if you find that the grind consistency from your normal grinder is not fine enough.

So in conclusion, if you want to get the best results from your vape or you’re having issues getting good vapor now, dry it out and grind it up really fine, and you should be aces. I think Lloyd Banks said it best:

“You won’t believe what I’m swimming in. I smoke my Dro fresh outta the grinder, and it looks like a cinnamon.”

I get a lot of different comments from people, and anytime someone has a complaint about their vape not working very well, I’d say that 90% of the time if they dry out their material or they grind it to a finer consistency, they’ll get better results. Now don’t get me wrong, some vapes just aren’t good, but with the vast majority of them, these little tips will work really well.

To see all my reviews and ratings, check out my website, VapeCritic.com. and thanks for watching.

Video Transcription End”



132 comments

  • does anyone else keep destroying the heating elements of the atmos jr I can only get it to last through an oz meaning I need to buy one every damned week how can I avoid ruining them so quickly

  • I was just given a vap and I’m an 35+yrs joint smoker.. I was wondering about the lack of smoke. How do I know if I’m doing it right? Any help would be great

    • Hit on your vaporizer much differently than you ever did a joint hit. It is part of why gaping ain’t the year-old same-old. SIP gently from your favourite gizmo … much as you’d SIP version’s not tea or coffee. If you really *miss* that lung-filling habit just back off the mouthpiece and suck down room air. Inside you that may actually help to atomizer your dose further, possibly accelerating the absorption of the goody. But like only by perhaps a significant fraction of one second.

      Hope that helps.

  • I am very new to vaping dried herbs. I am still catching on and reading tips. How do I know when all the “herbs” have been used in the vap I think I packed it too lightly and how much would you put in. I have the Black Mamba and from what I had seems to be good not much smoke which I like it makes it much more discreet

    • When I grind my herb & pack a load firmly and fully I can satisfactorily guesstimate when a fresh reload is required to continue a sesh, by colour. New grind that’s still holding significant potency looks to be on the green side. Herbal grind that has been thoroughly baked and exhausted will be a dark brown. Cheap SOB that I am, I will use my Pad 3 multi-tool to break up & then repack a load that I think is holding out some smiles from me. If packed tight, I usually get more nice hits.

  • New to vaping and just ordered the Max Stary
    What if you only pack enough herb to fill half way? Is there something you add to loading chamber ? Not a screen but a stopper of some sort ?

  • Question. New to the game. Ground the product. Packed the vape. Happy…and then…there was nothing left to pull. Thought I went through the entire amount in record time (horrified). Let the pen cool; removed the cap; and discovered the product was sucked up to the screen at the mouthpiece (and probably away from the bottom). Do I have to keep the pen solidly packed or…what am I doing wrong? (The Kind Pen Stylus model).

    • Yes try packing it tight my pax draws tight the dr Dabber i use with dry herb if not packed tight will clog the screen and get inside the bubbler. Always pack tight.

  • Personally, I find that any electric coffee bean grinder does the best job. ($15 – $20) I threw all my hand held grinders away. The electric grinders grind weed to “exactly” the level of course to fine that you need to vape with. And, it does it extremely fast. Lay out the grind on a sheet of paper for about 1/2 hour, depending on how wet/ dry it is. Then store it in any old glass jar, out of the light. I’ve been growing my own (autoflower) for years so I have a lot, so using a manual grinder is too much work and can’t get the grind as fine as needed for vaping. To be candid , I can’t think of why anyone would use a manual grinder, but that’s just me. :)

    • You may grow (like everyone else), but clearly minimal handling and trichomes staying intact is not a concern you have….

  • I recently bought a Puri5 magnum 2. I have tried temps ranging from 365-420 I’m new to vaping and have tried grinding it to a medium grind and also fine grind. No matter what I try I don’t produce much vapor and My flower is turning brown and tasting bad rather quickly. I’ve tried hitting it hard and soft like some people say to do but I’m still getting the same results. Does anyone have any advice in what I’m doing wrong. Or what I should do differently.

  • Got my 2nd brand new Davinci IQ. I thought the first one was defective. Now this new one is still not producing any vapor cloud. What am I doing wrong? I have fine ground herb. I tried packing it tightly, loosely, no results. I’m totally bummed. Please help me. Thank you!

    • I just got one as well but I can get plenty of vapor out of it above ~400 degrees. I dont get get much visible vapor below that but I can certainly taste it and feel it.

      • That’s because at over 400f u will start to burn the weed rather than heat it and that’s why you get smoke from the weed being overheated. If u research you will see that heating the weed much over 400f and u can start to destroy the chemicals in the weed. Vapour is supposed to be clear and all info suggest around 320 to 375f for best results. But that’s why no vapour because it’s not an e cigarette and with bongs and joints your burning the weed which is where the smoke cloud comes from and actually destroys a lot of the goodness in the weed.

    • Weep vaporizers do not work the same way as an e cigarette or vaporizer, which ever term you prefer to use. But with weed vaporizers you are not supposed to produce big clouds as your not actually setting the weed on fire, your only heating it to turn the cbd and thc chemicals into vapour so that you can breath it In. Vapour is virtually invisible just like heat hazr rising off hot tarmac on a summers day. Basically your not doing anything wrong. Hope this helps

  • When does one pack the black mamba chamber…before heating or after heating? Thank you

  • Thx for the great info! Would you recommend a coarse grind and looser packing for the Crafty Vape? Cheers!

  • Don’t listen to this “blog. Super fine grind and packing it tight is not for every vape. In fact it’s bad advice and I can’t believe it’s here. In fact I don’t know any vape that should be packed tightly (should be lightly pushed down and filled completely, not packed down tight).
    Use fine grinds for most conduction vapes, and a coarser grind for most convection vapes. Putting a super fine grind into a convection vape would be terrible, and anyone suggesting it doesn’t understand convection.

      • I’m pretty sure I clearly say it’s not for every vape, like this part here: “Now there are some vapes that actually do work better with a loose pack…”

        And maybe this part too: “I like to call it a “fairly tight” packing – you don’t wanna press it down so hard that it blocks the air flow, but you don’t want it too loose either”

        I’ll add a part now about the fine grind not being necessary with some vapes, I’ll give you that one, I had it on my to-do list anyway.

        And you said “In fact I don’t know any vape that should be packed tightly” so then you don’t have much vape experience

  • Hi –
    I have a Vaporfi and I do not always finish the chamber when I pack it tightly.
    Is it ok to vape part of it and finish it the next day?

  • Found this by accident, and I must say that I am happy I did. Thanks for the very helpful information, especially the video. Plus I had no idea about it needing to be extremely dry. And the reviews for you and your information was also impressive. Thanks, great job.

    Angie

  • Have a brand new plenty.tried everything no vapors? Flavor and buzz but I can’t see any vapor?what gives?

  • hello men, i got my pax 2 yesterday but no visibile vapor!
    I followed all the advices, but nothing!
    May be it because I have only tried it with the peppermint that I received in the package?
    thanks a lot

  • Hey Bed!

    Any suggestions for the S&B Mighty? Should it be packed tight? Im only getting 3 good clouds at 388F. Do you start low and work your way up?

    Thanks!

  • the new and improved storm vaporiser is a beast!! high quality and many videos showing this too. mine was £90 but you can get it for cheaper

      • I just bought a Grenco Science G Pro vaporizer for around 50 and it’s a solid piece for new to moderate vapers.

  • Hi, I recently bought the Firefly 2 and I was wondering what grinders you think would be better for a coarse grind. I’ve read that it’s much more efficient than with a fine grind. Thanks

  • Hi Bud,

    I’ve recently bought Flowermate V5.0s. This is my first vaping experience. I am so used to smoking that it isn’t easy for me to switch ;) However thank you man for this site and yours reviews, really appreciate it!

    To the point. I am trying to figure it out how to use adjustable air flow on the bottom? Should it be closed, barely open, half open, fully open? My obvious goal is to get as much essence from dry herbs as possible.

    Thanks!
    Thanks,

  • In one video you say to grind finally and in the other coarsely. Please confirm what grind value for Firefly 2

    • Firefly 2 is coarse. Just a little more ground than a good grind by hand. Because it is a convection vape, it needs airflow. Hope this helps.

  • Awesome tips on grinding and drying, I too had the misconception about moist nugs vers dry. Broken down it seams logical; I now use this tips. thanks

  • Hey Bud,

    I don’t seem to be getting the same efficiency from my Crafty these days. Grinding fine, nicely packed, good dry herb. The issue is I’m only getting 2-3 pulls from 1/2 bowl. You mentioned in your experience you get 12 pulls from a full bowl.. I tend to vape at standard temp by the way..

    Any ideas?

    all the best,

    Nick

  • Hi : I find a coffee bean grinder, works very Well ! You then can also put the product in capsules to take orally. It takes about two hours to come on, but a good high lasts for 8-10 hrs. Very good way if one does not want to smoke .
    Thxs
    Peace
    Don

  • Great Review. Ordered one right away. any tips or advice on cleaning in terms of how and how often.

  • i am using a davinci ascent vap watching your video suggest fine ground bud. would a coffee blender do the trick. unfortunatley your video does not show how to pack the ground bud in your vap my davinci acsent does not show much vapour could you plse adv
    thank you

  • I recently got the vaporfi stratus and feel like there’s an airflow problem. Even when it’s empty I can’t take a pull, because there’s no vents, it feels blocked. Any insight?

  • that’s some great tips there. I’ve been vaping for over a year now with a Volcano and was under the impression that fresher/stickier herb would produce more/better vapor but it isn’t so. I’d also discarded my old metal blade type grinder in favour of the plastic one that came with the volc, that was a mistake when sticker herb showed up. I even tried higher/lower temperatures but no dice. I will now try using drier and more finely ground material and hopefully optimize my vaping. love your site, many thnks :)

  • i bought a brand new Alfa portable vape and I have tried everything you have suggested. I ground it finely in a grinder and have let it dry and have packed it tight ,packed it loose and I have only gotten it to work once. I need to see clouds and I’ve had it on medium then high, I have taken longer shallow breaths and short strong inhales and I am at my wits end. I need it to perform like a home vaporizer which I have and was told this rips. What do I do?

  • Hey bud,
    I am new to vaping and i wonder if its normal that it is really hard to draw on a vaporizer (iam using the flowermate v7 ) compared to a ecig or a spliff, do i have to draw extremly slow and cautius or what is the magic trick??

  • Hi Vape Critic,

    I highly enjoy your reviews and commend you for keeping this site well updated. Anyways, I have just recently purchased a G-Pen Pro from Grencoscience. I was wondering if you had any additional tips for higher quality vaping and more clouds with it – I usually grind my bud up fine then maybe let it sit then fill it to the top; while vaping on red or blue setting. I don’t see much clouds, is there something wrong with my vape? When you did it I saw lots of clouds…

  • Wow..great post/thread,will defo experiment with yr ethos.
    Tnx for sharing yr knowledge. keep up the good work
    Love n Peace to All

  • Hi there. I have thought about this and will definitively grind my buds more and wait for them to dry out. Sometimes I add some [pollen concentrate] to my chamber and it causes better effects. I will try your tips since even when I’m getting my effect (I think it could be even better), I’m not getting any actual vape (at least it can’t be seen). I only taste the material in my mouth and then after like 3 minutes of hitting the vape like 3 or 4 times the effect starts. I definitively will try this but also as a question, have you tried vaping [pollen concentrate] or adding some to your mix, or what do you think about that? Could it affect the vaporizer?

  • This bad boy will grind your herbs finer than anything else: [KRUPS Coffee Grinder]

    • Yes it does! be careful if using a coffee grinder though, if you pulse it for too long your stuff could be so fine it turns into powder lol

  • Hey new to this vape world.
    We have never used manual grinders for herbs but used electric coffee grinders, there is a ridiculously fine powder build up over time. This by far the finest I’ve ever seen my herbs. Is this the best stuff to use? Should I just dust most of my herb this way?
    Cheers

  • Hey Bud, Awesome video. I was wondering if you have any specific suggestions for the VapirRise? I have used the whip attachments and the bag and can never get my desired results. I was assured this piece was top of the line and paid a good price for it.

  • just bought a WulfMods Classic dry herb vaporizer,,read some of the post,,,,used a cheap plastic grinder,,,left out to dry about 15 mins,,,,and it worked great

  • We were about to return our pinnacle pro vape before reading this! Our stuff was sticky and not fine. We’re new to vaping so we didn’t realize this was an issue. Googled and found your post, thankfully! Followed your advice and all is well. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. Thanks much! P.S. we’ve been using setting 3 with good results. Should we be using it on 4 instead?

  • I just got the Atmos Boss. Can I ask a stupid question? There seems to be two chambers – a narrower one with a hole in the bottom and a metal screen on top, and another between that metal screen and the ceramic screen in the mouthpiece. Does the herb go in the bottom one or above the metal screen? I’m getting nothing putting it above the metal screen

  • What’s the best way to insure that your herbs are dryed out to get best vaporization??

  • sooo what’s the fastest way to dry your [herb] to put in a vape….i have an incognito and can’t seem to get a real [draw] out of it

    • Grind up your herb real fine and spread it out on a sheet of paper for about 15 minutes, should do the trick!

  • Just purchased a G Pen Pro. It’s not producing much visible vapor. Going to give this a try. It has 3 temp settings – which do you recommend?

    • Yes grind fine and make it’s dry and then FULLY pack the chamber, it won’t work well if it’s not filled all the way.

      You’ll also want to tamp it down a little to make it a little tight, you don’t want your stuff loose in there.

      Go with the low or medium heat!

  • I got the Atoms Boss vaperizor, total waste of money as of right now! No matter what tips or techniques I try I get nothing but cashed herbs. Very little vapors come out when you draw or exhale… a 1 cent rolling paper vs $100 plus dollar , I’ll stick to zig zags. To the people selling these products in your stores, please remember the city council already wishes your stores were not in business, keep ripping people and watch the doors close for good!

  • Hey man I have a g pen pro how do you know when the herbs are done And how many pulls should I get off of one filled chamber session

    • Hey you’ll know it’s spent when you stop getting vapor from it and taste gets rough. If you fill it completely and have it on the medium heat setting you should get roughly 10-15 good draws.

      • How would the herb look once its done?? Would it turn in to ashes or just really brown weed. ??

  • I’ve been using one of those CVS $3 pill grinders. It works well, but getting the sticky material out of it is a problem. A web search for a better solution led me here. Thanks for the great review and advice. Definitely gonna check out the grinders mentioned here and your other reviews. Cheers!

  • I have been dredging the internet to find info on these seemingly great devices, though I see that others are having the same problems I am. I somehow landed here, and found this site and all you guys actually discussing a topic, and keeping in line with it. Bud, you are a very knowledgeable and helpful dude! Keep it up, bro!

  • Bud,

    Wow this article was very informative. I never would have thought the dampness to be a factor. Cudos my man. Thank you for all you do to help.

    • The Puffit is the worse vape I’ve ever bought, complete waste of money! Battery lasts for 1 go, and then you have to charge up for an hour for your next go, and the vapour production is crap .. now and again you get a decent one’ most of the time you get nothing. The g-pen worked better than the Puffit in my eyes. Just got the Black Mamba, best small vape I’ve had so far .. ifyoy wana real serous vaping experience you need to get something decent like a volcano, and then you’ll get the real vapour from your bud .. but on a budget I’ve found the Black Mamba to be a good handheld portable device good enough to get you baked!

      • Never vaped it ground bud before, just recieved the mamba, what’s tips do you have on grinding packing heating and using thx

  • Hello
    I’ve bought 3 yes 3 vaporizers and they just don’t work. I’m using the yocan EXgo W2 vaporizer right now and it just doesn’t work for me. It worked for a few draws then it seems it clogs up. Also in the bulb there’s residue should there be? if I’m vaping?

    Can you recommend a stupid proof vaporizer?

    I have no idea what to put the temp at either.

    Somebody help me!!!

    • Hey Jaz,

      In my desktop Exteme Q, I run at the factory recommendation of 392F. In my portables The Pax, use the defalult (middle setting), in my DaVinci Ascent 375F seems to work fine. In my Pinnacle Pro I use the fourth or fifth bar. Try the dry out method of Bud The Vape Critic the moisture maybe the real problem. I just set some out to dry now. I’ll put the findings on the blog.
      Good Luck

  • I just bought my first vape pen, the Atmos Boss. I cannot get it to vape. The herbs are finely ground and dried out. I filled the chamber all the way (maybe ~.5) and only got one hit. I tried filling it half way and didn’t get even one. I know the battery is working because the herbs are cashed. I was taking long, slow hits and still got nothing. I don’t understand what could be going wrong. If you could help me out, I would appreciate it!

    • Just bought the Atmos Boss last night and tried using it three times. every time the herbs keep pulling up and clogging the screen. Anyone know a solution to this?

      • When I see this issue, it’s usually due to these 3 reasons:
        1. You’re drawing too hard. Inhale lightly for best results.
        2. You’re not packing it in well. Pack it in tightly, and don’t over-pack. Max it at about 50% of the chamber.
        3. You’ve gotten as much as you can out of your product. The material naturally breaks down with each session. Theres only so many times you can vape it before you have to discard.

  • You are a lifesaver! I just had surgery and received my first dry herb atomizer (I-vape dry herb atomizer with a glass bulb) and could only produce very little. So, I reground as finely as I could, let dry out on paper about 15 min and it works perfectly now! THANK YOU!!

  • Hey there, I bought a Pulsar 7 dry herb pen. It does vaporize a bit but I am not getting [effects] from it AT ALL. Has a great herb taste coming through but no results. The herb is fine, use it [any other way] and it’s great. Is the pen just bad news? Am I using it wrong?

  • Hi! Your site is so educational. I love it! Based on your recommendations I have a Pax and a Space Case 4 piece grinder. Now I’m looking to get a MF Finishing Grinder. I didn’t realize I should be making my VW purchases through clicking on your links to show my appreciation and give you credit. I’ll do so for the finishing grinder. When buying my accessories I was looking for a storage container that would keep my herb fresh since I don’t vape a lot. I found the C Vault at VW. I love it. The thing with the vault is you use these humidifier packs. However, after reading this information about the herbs performing best by leaving them out to dry for a bit I am wondering if I am defeating myself by keeping them in a humidified box. Would you please advise on this matter? Thank you again for your dedication to education in this area.

    • Hi Robin thanks for posting!

      When using herbs the more traditional way it does make sense to keep a little moisture in them to keep them perfectly “ripe”, but with vaping that doesn’t necessarily apply, you’ll usually get better results with most vapes if you dry your material out first to remove (almost) all the moisture. However, results may vary between different vaporizers and different herbs so this is definitely something to experiment with on your own!

  • I was at a well known shop whose company owns six reputable shops since late 1980’s. They made a screen for my glass mouthpiece to stop the herbs from coming through the Too Big holes and streaming into my mouth whenever I use it and after it is cleaned well. Originally, the mouthpiece worked well. Then, probably what happened was they went to China to spend less for the glass and the holes were made much too big and since then, using it became a real bummer. I called to ask what was going on and nothing was mentioned about the large holes.Why doesn’t the company care enough about it’s customers to send them free mouthpieces with the smaller, originally sized holes. I won’t be using this vape in the future!!

  • I have been using the solo vape for awhile and the mouthpiece had a good fit in the opening. Since I have been using mouthpieces that have a very loose fit, after using it once or twice the glass gets so filled with herbs that with every hit the herbs get into my mouth. I will clean it very well and by the second use the mouthpiece gets filled and again comes out in my mouth.the only thing I am thinking about is to throw this vape away.

    • Hey Maggie I would experiment with placing a stainless steel screen inside the chamber to cover the holes in the mouthpiece, this is what I do to avoid the issue you describe.

    • Hi Maggie,
      Go to the smoke shop or buy the screens online. Cut it to oven shape( 3/4 of a circle, or whatever the shape may be). Wear glasses and use small sharp scissors to trim the screen.Don’t toss the piece, try a fix. if you still don’t like it, then pass it on. I’m on my fifth unit and of the five only three are compatible. The Pax, The Davinci Ascent, The Pinnacle Pro and probably counting.Try to stay with the silver screen over the gold color ( it’s a spray on from who knows where. Happy Vapor Trails!

  • I’ve got a handful of questions, but
    my main ones are as follows:
    I’ve been having trouble getting my atmos raw rx junior vape pen to vape. Why is that? I’ve tried mesh screens and glass screens, and I get nothing. I then let the herb touch the coil, and it combusts. What am I doing wrong?

    • Hey man you’re not doing anything wrong, unfortunately pen-style vapes just don’t truly vaporize very well at all, they’re more like portable combustion pens.

      I have a whole page on the original AtmosRAW here with a bunch of info on this, and as you said the screens that some people say they use to make it work really don’t do much good at all.

      For true vaporization of dried herbs check out any of the vapes I rate 80/100 higher on my homepage

  • I caught the vapors with the pax and all the talk about it from the smokers has helped me understand this wonderful way of freaking with my Mary jane. So thanks to all.

  • I have a Ploom Pax and am wondering how much residue should I expect to be left in the burner after a completed session? Is it reusable?

    • Hey any residue left over in the oven should be minimal, it’s only after about a dozen sessions or so that it builds up enough to require a cleaning, but I think it would be difficult to try and reclaim any to use again.

    • Hey,

      My Pax never shows heavy residue. It cleans up good with alcohol and a Q Tip. Huh, maybe I’m not smoking enough. Because of the moving parts I think a weekly cleaning works well.

  • Bud…I’ve always been a fan of ‘coated’ paper plates to do the drying technique. The small lip and ease of folding to slide your dried material into your travel/stash case makes it the perfect choice. My drying area is the mantle above my fireplace…I leave it up there over night and the results are perfect.

    Thanks for all your efforts and great advice…you have been the most reliable source of credible information on the net concerning vaping….hands down bro!

    Happy Holidays!

  • Hey, Just wondering, seeeing as dry is good, could I say, grind a bunch up and store it in my space case scout or a similaR pill jar. Would the stuff at the bottom, which will not get used for over a month still give the desired effect?

  • I found that the best grinder for fine herds is sold at Walmart’s. It’s in the pharmacy dept. It’s a grinder used for grind pills. It sells for about $3.

  • i got a puffitt vaper so do you say if i grind it fine then try i should get vapers? its not doning any thing i say very little vapers turned it up still noughing.a little con fuse help pleases..

    • The Puffit isn’t known to produce a lot of visible vapor but if you try grinding your material very fine it may help the performance a bit.

  • Hi Bud!

    Thanks for another great video. The fineness of the grind is something I’ve been particularly interested in lately. I recall one session with my Pax where I noticed my herb was particularly finely ground, and the results were noticeably better. I considered getting the Magic Flight Finishing Grinder, but the $40 price tag deterred me. I hadn’t seen the Nano Grinder until now.

    My question is: which of these two super fine grinders would you recommend/are there any others you’d advocate for? The Nano I believe is about $17 = under half the cost of the Finishing Grinder. Do you think this is reflected in quality? Also, sometimes I think it would be nice to be able to take an extra oven’s worth of herb on the go, along with my Pax. Do you think if you filled up either one of these grinders and put it in your pocket, it would transport without spilling open? It looks like the Finishing Grinder comes with a case, which I suspect would give it a bit of an advantage there.

    Finally…would you at all recommend a $5 Mortar and Pestle? I’ve read that crushing up herb like that can actually damage some of the trichomes, and make the herb less potent. What are your thoughts? When you do a regular Volcano session, do you typically just use the Space Case and dry it out, or do you regularly use an extra fine grinder?

    Thanks for the help! As always, much appreciated.

    PS – I don’t know how specific you like to get, so feel free to ignore this, but I often find that medicinal herb (coming from LA, in my case) tends to be very well cured and therefore already very dry, compared to other herb I’ve seen which can be extremely sticky. Do you still dry out herb that is already well cured, or do you just do that with sticky herb? Thanks!

    • Hey sup,

      How fine you grind definitely makes a difference with vaping, sometimes a significant difference depending on which vape you’re using.

      The Nano and the Finishing grinder are both cool, but the wooden one gets your material the finest, almost like a powder. It works very differently than other grinders, it’s basically like a tiny cheese grater.

      I do think the $40 price tag is a little steep for what it is, but I haven’t been able to find another grinder yet that does as good of a job.

      I like the Nano one and it def grinds finer than a normal grinder does, but not to a powder, and it does have some issues with build up making it a pain to use sometimes.

      Neither one of these can really hold any material during transportation, but you can use something like a tic tac case to hold the grinds.

      I’ve never personally tried using a mortar and pestle but it’s probably not the most efficient way to go about it. I’ve found that those simple acrylic grinders that a lot of sellers offer are actually pretty good at grinding fine, and they’re very inexpensive.

      Most of the time when I use my Volcano I just grind up in my Space Case and dry it out a little bit if necessary. When packing smaller amounts of material in the chamber I usually try using one of the extra fine grinders because it helps cover the bottom screen better.

      What I usually end up doing is grinding up a bunch of herbs in my 4-piece Space Case and then I just leave them in there, picking from it when I need it. Since I’m leaving the ground up material in there it tends to dry out by itself after a few hours. Sometimes though if I don’t have any herbs already ground up I’ll grind it and then leave it out on sheet of paper for a little bit to dry out more.

      You don’t always have to dry your herbs out more, it really just depends on how your vape is performing. If you’re not getting good results – dense, tasty vapor – then drying it out and grinding finer will usually take it up a notch.

      Vape it up man!

      • I just started storing my “ready to vape” herb in one of those small, plastic black camera film roll cases. Works great for me.

        • I ground up a month or two worth and store them in the tiny mason jars. They store up to 14 grams of material(give or take). And it works perfectly for me. I use a spoon to retrieve the material and load into my Pax. Then tamp down with the side of the lid(works really well and nothing extra to carry around).

  • I never took into account the dryness of my herbs. Thanks for the great tip, looking forward to testing out your idea.