Welcome to our vaporizer information site
IntroductionHerbal vaporizers have made advances as they have gained popularity over the past few years. Going from crude devices with simple heating elements, to microchip controlled units that allow you to "tune" the temperature precisely. While most units fall somewhere in the middle, the fact is that vaporizers are here to stay. So, the question is, what is an herbal vaporizer?
|
The Original Vapor Brothers vaporizer shown with the standard "whip" |
An herbal vaporizer is a device that will heat herb material to a temperature(well below the herb's combustion temperature) allowing it to release its essence without burning it. Obviously this will create little to no smoke keeping harmful carcinogens and by products of combustion out of your lungs.Why aren't more people using vaporizers? Well, the bottom line is that they are a newer technology that has not been "proven" in a laboratory or by the FDA. But, if you know someone that uses one, I am sure they will tell you that they do in fact work very well.
We bring you this site to help explain how vaporization works, what models are out there for you to try and buy. Plus, information on what you will need to start you on your journey into the aromatherapy world. We hope to have information on different herb blends as more and more become available on the market.
|
What is an herbal vaporizer?As we touched on in the last section, an herbal vaporizer is a device that will allow the essence of an herb to be inhaled as vapor (or a gas) rather than smoke. We have a couple of pictures below to show you two of the most popular units on the market, the Vapor Brothers Vaporizer (no longer for sale but, replaced by the Vapor Doc Vaporizer with more features and is less expensive) and the Air-2 Digital Vaporizer.
The unit on the left is the Vapor Brothers and the unit on the right is the Air-2 or Vapir unit. These two units are both very effective. One uses a very simple approach and one uses technology to enhance the vaporization process. Both achieve the same result. Both use the convection method to heat the herb material (we will talk about that in the next section), but do so with different heating elements. The Vapor Brothers unit uses a simple heating element with a pyrex surround (or condom) to which you hold a pyrex "whip" which holds the herb material to be vaporized when you are ready. You adjust the level of the heating element with a knob on the front of the unit. There is a very short learning curve to figure out what temperature corresponds to what level on the knob. On the other hand, the Air-2 unit uses a micro- chip to control the exact temperature of its advanced ceramic heating element and provides a digital display of the temperature. This is definitely the future of vaporization, but these units come with a higher price tag. If you can afford one, it is worth it.
|
How do vaporizers work?Now to learn a bit more about how vaporizers actually work. Most units use a convection method to heat the herb material until it vaporizes the essence of the herb. Convection is the process by which air is heated to a certain point and that heat is then transfered to another substance over a certain amount of time. So, these units heat the air that is then drawn over the herb material, heating it so that it will begin to vaporize. Some units use what we will call remote heating to heat the herb material. While this is effective we do not see this as being very practical, as the only remote heating elements we have seen are industrial heating guns.....a heavy duty blow dry gun for your hair. Both the VB and Air-2 units use convection to heat the herbs. This is an efficient and quick method to vaporize. The only downside is waiting 3-5 minutes for the unit to heat up. Once up to operating termperature you are good to go.
|
What are the benefits of using a vaporizer?The benefits should be pretty obvious. There is virtually no smoke due to the low temperatures used and the lack of a flame. The herbs will not give off any harmful carcinogens or other products of combustion. In other words no lung cancer buddy. End of story.
|
Which vaporizer is best?This is obviously a subjective question. We think that the best units on the market are the Vapor Brothers and the Air-2 (Vapir) Digital unit. Vaporwarehouse.com did a nice review of these two units and the BC Vaporizer (an older but popular unit) which you can read here. If you have the money and you want the most technologically advanced unit on the market, the Air-2 (vapir) unit is the one for you. It uses microchip technology and comes with a digital readout so you know exactly what the unit is doing. On the other hand, if you are looking for a great unit that is simple and effective, the Vapor Brothers unit is for you...and at half the price. The choice is yours, but we are pretty sure you will not be disappointed with either unit.
|
Where can I buy a vaporizer?
If you are still with us, you are probably wondering where you can buy an herbal vaporizer. There are 2 good sources for the units we like on the web. They are:
Vapor Brothers
Vapor Warehouse - Vapor Brothers, Vapir, accessories and more
|
|
|
